The 3.5 Red Hand Of Doom Handbook for DMs [Major spoilers!] - WIP, PEACH!

[Saintheart]

hello everybody! My party is in the Fane, they will soon meet Azarr Kal. Any suggestion to how to make the five dragon heads of the room effective and useful? The handbook suggests to give, i.e., fire immunity... but any more specific suggestions?
The party is really optimized (10th level), they killed Tyrgarun in 2 rounds with few damages:
1 cleric of Tempus with a custom prestige class (he's a tank)
1 druid with a lot of strong evocations
1 rogue/swashbuckler/swordsage
1 archer ranger with a custom prestige class
1 wizard well optimized

Moreover, the description of area 17 says that it's covered by Silence (given by unhallow). How can the PC listen to the noise at the top of the dome?
Further suggestions/hint about the room, to how to play/buff Azzarr, and the Aspect of tiamat will be good!

Thank you very much

Seeing as nobody's biting, and bear in mind my system mastery is not the greatest: to make this last more than a round or so, it's going to take a mix of optimising, bending the rules, and outright screwjobs. You're dealing with three Tier Ones, and worse still the wizard is optimised. If they're at level 10, they have fifth level magic, which I have always found starts to hit the gamebreaking point for RHOD. It's just too good a set of spells to meaningfully control.

So, some suggestions:

- Action economy is the biggest first problem. Kul is outnumbered, which means he blows one Dispel Magic on countering one spell and it's all over. So equalise the number of opponents in the room, and make them solid, either able to dispel magic or take a punch like that. Maybe have an inner circle of higher level hobgoblin priests on the balconies around the chamber whose job is basically just to hit the casters with Dispel Magic effects.

- The dragon heads could be used as the source of certain immunities or other useful stuff like DR, Fast Healing, Miss Chances, Increased CL beyond the norm, etc., which apply to Kul and/or all the opposition in the room. As the characters destroy or disable one dragon head, the capabilities attached to that dragonhead disappear. This might divide the party's focus at least.

- Make the dragon heads Huge Animated Object constructs with no movement but a greater reach than normal, so they're big, swinging heads that slam or bite people. Alternatively, if you want to lolnope the magic at these levels, make the dragon heads all Clay Golems that start moving when they're first hit or the characters move in attack range. If they're that good, Stone Golem: slow effect on the enemy cuts down what they can do in a round as well.

- Kul could swill a Super Potion at the start of the fight which gets most of his major buffs on in one round rather than doing the Antilife Shell dance. Kul is dragon-based, he should have at least one Wings of Cover spell or some sort of custom item which gives it to him a few times in the combat.

- The Aspect you tone up or tone down depending on how many resources they consume taking down Azarr Kul. It has the same problem as Kul, i.e. crippling action economy imbalance, so you may have to throw a few devils in that get through the gateway along with the aspect.

[Eldariel]

Seeing as nobody's biting, and bear in mind my system mastery is not the greatest: to make this last more than a round or so, it's going to take a mix of optimising, bending the rules, and outright screwjobs. You're dealing with three Tier Ones, and worse still the wizard is optimised. If they're at level 10, they have fifth level magic, which I have always found starts to hit the gamebreaking point for RHOD. It's just too good a set of spells to meaningfully control.

So, some suggestions:

- Action economy is the biggest first problem. Kul is outnumbered, which means he blows one Dispel Magic on countering one spell and it's all over. So equalise the number of opponents in the room, and make them solid, either able to dispel magic or take a punch like that. Maybe have an inner circle of higher level hobgoblin priests on the balconies around the chamber whose job is basically just to hit the casters with Dispel Magic effects.

- The dragon heads could be used as the source of certain immunities or other useful stuff like DR, Fast Healing, Miss Chances, Increased CL beyond the norm, etc., which apply to Kul and/or all the opposition in the room. As the characters destroy or disable one dragon head, the capabilities attached to that dragonhead disappear. This might divide the party's focus at least.

- Make the dragon heads Huge Animated Object constructs with no movement but a greater reach than normal, so they're big, swinging heads that slam or bite people. Alternatively, if you want to lolnope the magic at these levels, make the dragon heads all Clay Golems that start moving when they're first hit or the characters move in attack range. If they're that good, Stone Golem: slow effect on the enemy cuts down what they can do in a round as well.

- Kul could swill a Super Potion at the start of the fight which gets most of his major buffs on in one round rather than doing the Antilife Shell dance. Kul is dragon-based, he should have at least one Wings of Cover spell or some sort of custom item which gives it to him a few times in the combat.

- The Aspect you tone up or tone down depending on how many resources they consume taking down Azarr Kul. It has the same problem as Kul, i.e. crippling action economy imbalance, so you may have to throw a few devils in that get through the gateway along with the aspect.

I've been pretty happy with Thaumaturgist Azarr Kul (Cleric 5/Divine Oracle 2/Thaumaturgist 5/Contemplative 1 with Spell-domain as Spontaneous Domain Casting [PHBII]; the second and third ones weren't that important but I gave him Dragon for Intimidate, Greater Magic Fang for his underlings and company, and Pride to avoid stupid rolls of 1). Give him Fearsome [Drow of the Underdark] armor enhancement and Imperious Command [Drow of the Underdark] for useful Move Actions and a Zombie Dragon Steed because why not (make the summoning chamber higher). Thus I pumped him up to ECL13 (more than fair given PCs are likely to be level 10+ by the time they get there), tie Summon Monster VII for a Bone Devil to the Contingent Summons ability. Then I further used Limited Wish from Spell domain to setup a Contingency for a Celerity (from Greater Anyspell - tied to speaking a word so usable out of turn order) and then Craft Contingent Spell for Revivify + Heal (chained), Energy Immunity (appropriate one upon receiving elemental damage), Alter Fortune (upon rolling a 1-3), etc. Yeah, I didn't feel the "pick only Celerities" would ultimately be that engaging, though it's of course the most powerful option.

Then just some more Summons, an array of offensive and control spells, some death magic, some Dispels (and Greater Rod of Chain Spell to go with Greater Dispel Magic), Quicken Spell, the usual Dark Way/Ice Slick/Nauseating Breath/etc. on it. I also made the whole area under Unhallow with Blacklight tied to it (from Greater Anyspell - Baatezu can see in darkness, it doesn't affect the caster, and it doesn't affect the worshippers of Tiamat in any case), Azarr obviously has Antilife Shell 'cause he's riding an undead Zombie Dragon (in my case, an animated Adult Silver Dragon whose body the Horde had secured from the mountains) and has no need for any living company. Additionally, the whole area is under Forbiddance with a password (he needs to receive underlings at times; every Dragon and Wyrmlord knows it as does Miha Serani, Skather and few others; if the PCs can properly interrogate one of those, they can learn it). Finally, he has rocks with Silence tied to them in a Bag of Holding that he can drop as a move action for his allies to throw. But that's just one level of his defenses. As stated, there are also Animated Objects in the room. Because, honestly, when you have access to Permanency and Animate Object, you have little reason not to. Of course, they don't look that way unless hostile intent is shown.

The Bone Devil is mostly on Wall of Ice duty, readying actions to disrupt enemies' actions by casting Wall of Ice. It's also used to section off the party for personal slaughtering. The Blue Abishai are maintaining constant Desecrate and some Major Images of additional Devils in the room. The 4 Blue Abishai are also given some Ice Slicks, Commands, Dark Ways, Silences & Darkbolts by Azarr Kul. Imbue with Spell Ability is cast 4 times, once for each. Azarr has better things to do than to cast 1st-2nd level slots so they've all been outsourced.


Feel free to implement some of the ideas.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and Planar Cohort is literal dog**** so I generally just have a Planar Allied Erinyes instead. Level 5 of Thaumaturgist is totally useless but meh, there wasn't much else to take and I like finishing classes. Divine Disciple would be nice but you need 3 levels for the Imbue ability and meh, that just isn't so exciting.

If you feel like it, going up to 14 levels would get you:
Cleric 4/Church Inquisitor 1/Divine Oracle 2/Thaumaturgist 4/Divine Disciple 3/Contemplative 1

Inquisition-domain is pretty nice since Dispelling will be a big ticket item on the menu anyways. You need to adapt it for Evil though, but it isn't very far-off. Contemplative isn't strictly necessary either, but domains are always nice. Then again, you already have 3 bonus domains from Church Inquisitor, Divine Oracle and Divine Disciple.

EDIT: One option: make the five dragon heads actual Zombie Dragons' heads that can breathe. Because why not.

[ZeroSpace9000]

So my run of this module is progressing quite oddly. I figure I should post what all is happening right now, for the sake of posterity.

Not long after getting a certain necklace, that belongs to a certain druid, the party took one look at the intended order of things and promptly said 'Screw that!'. After having completed some sidequest stuff southwest of Brindol, they dropped off said necklace at the Hammerfist Holds. Just left it in a 'secure' vault, then ran off to perform some guerilla warfare against the main body of the horde. The most annoying thing, is that this was after I broke down and OOC explained that they needed to pay the Ghostlord a visit.

With all that, and the fact that I had reversed the 4th and 5th acts, means that the next wyrmlord they are likely to run into is Azarr Kul himself, deep in the Fane of Tiamat! I had already scaled things to a group at 8/9th level, now I'll need to scale down further. Doubly so, since they're down a man; one of my players needed to take some time off from the game for personal reasons.

Other observations, for the sake of the handbook:
-I had already whipped up an 'alternate' act 3, involving a Red Hand force in the forest between Dauth and Prosser, acquiring lumber for siege engines. I had reservations about 5e Hill Giants being a bit much for the big siege battle

-With ZERO prompting on my part, the group looked at Koth's map and assumed the horde would take side roads off the Dawn Way and go AROUND Nimon Gap, on the belief that the 'Not worth burning' comment meant the horde wouldn't bother.

-The party sorcerer was vehemently against returning the lich's phylactery on Moral grounds, even though he himself is Chaotic Neutral.

-The group was so impressed on the threat of the horde, they never even eyeballed the horde west of Skull Gorge. They've only seen it now, half a day's travel east of Terrelton.

I can give more feedback on my game on request. There is a certain bit of not knowing what's significant with this run-through. It's been a touch weird, what with the group all acting Real Adventurer-y.

[Saintheart]

The most annoying thing, is that this was after I broke down and OOC explained that they needed to pay the Ghostlord a visit.

Fact is they really don't have to take out the Ghostlord in VP terms - it might render the fights at Brindol a bit harder, but there's lots of available VP since Ulwai is going to turn up at Brindol regardless, and though it isn't explicitly stated, Varanthian should show up as well since she indicates if she escapes death at the PCs' hands she rejoins the Red Hand. This is part of the mix the game tries to achieve between sandbox and railroad. If they don't get over to the Ghostlord's lair and you feel they miss out on treasure they'd otherwise acquire - bearing in mind the Ghostlord's lair isn't that rich anyway - then just compensate by giving them a bit more stuff when they're settling in for the Battle of Brindol.

The question I had was this: how do the PCs plan on getting inside the Fane, considering Ulwai's about the only person who knows the password into the mountain? The way the module is structured, at least as I understood it, none of the Wyrmlords bar Ulwai seems to have access into the mountain.

[ZeroSpace9000]

I'm not too worried about the Fane at the moment. Having read the end of Act 4, it's revealed that the leadership at Brindol only learns of the Fane by capturing and questioning 'soldiers'. If any random grunt who fought at the siege would be able to spill the beans, then it clearly isn't too big a secret. As for the password, I have a few ideas there. A returning patrol speaking it could work.

As for my issues with the Ghostlord, the big thing there is I'm running this in 5th edition. Liches... were bumped up to CR 21, with 18th level Wizard casting. My concern is that if the party fights him at Brindol, he'll walk all over them no matter how miserly they've been with their resources. I had toyed with the idea of down-grading him earlier, but decided not to since you're not Supposed to fight the Ghostlord. And it doesn't help that the sorcerer, knowing he was watching 'the fools that have my phylactery', openly discussed destroying the phylactery.

And looking back on my previous post, I got a little rant-y over my sorcerer. I guess I needed to vent. To make up for it, I do have another useful observation. The transition into act 2 went quite smoothly for me. The players grabbed the map from Koth's room at Vraath Keep. When they returned to Drellin's Ferry, and met up with Teyani Sura, the bunch of them traded notes. Sura, knowing about the blockades, took a look at the 'Saarvith is here' thing at Rhest and said, "They're up to something. Go check it out." And they were off.

[Oberron]

I'm part of a party that has a player(let's call him jeff) that is insisting to have the major battle at drellans ferry instead of brindle. We are about to leave to head to the ghostlord and try to bargain with him to turn on the red hand in the middle of the battle (also jeff's plan). I'm a player but I've been working with the dm in secret to try to keep Jeff in check (Jeff has a habit of trying to recruit everything). Is there any advice for trying to change jeff's mind and show him it's a bad idea? Also if we can't change his mind is it doable for the final fight at drellans ferry?

[Eldariel]

I'm part of a party that has a player(let's call him jeff) that is insisting to have the major battle at drellans ferry instead of brindle. We are about to leave to head to the ghostlord and try to bargain with him to turn on the red hand in the middle of the battle (also jeff's plan). I'm a player but I've been working with the dm in secret to try to keep Jeff in check (Jeff has a habit of trying to recruit everything). Is there any advice for trying to change jeff's mind and show him it's a bad idea? Also if we can't change his mind is it doable for the final fight at drellans ferry?

Just go scout the Horde and see how feasible the plan seems.

[thorr-kan]

I'm part of a party that has a player(let's call him jeff) that is insisting to have the major battle at drellans ferry instead of brindle. We are about to leave to head to the ghostlord and try to bargain with him to turn on the red hand in the middle of the battle (also jeff's plan). I'm a player but I've been working with the dm in secret to try to keep Jeff in check (Jeff has a habit of trying to recruit everything). Is there any advice for trying to change jeff's mind and show him it's a bad idea? Also if we can't change his mind is it doable for the final fight at drellans ferry?

Somebody make a Knowledge (tactics) roll:
1. It is (almost) *ALWAYS* better to defend fortifications than defend open terrain. Brindol has walls. Drellin's Ferry does not. When the Red Hand crosses, where are you going to fall back to?
2. The Red Hand has air support. This is how the Red Hand crosses and gets behind you. And it's what keeps you from being able to fall back.
3. Where do you put the civilians? Brindol can support them.
4. Heavy NPC support in Brindol.

The picture on p40 and the Designers' Notes on p41 set the tone pretty well for a defense of Drellin's Ferry.

[Oberron]

Just go scout the Horde and see how feasible the plan seems.

We've scouted twice but the dm's descriptions haven't really swayed jeff...

Somebody make a Knowledge (tactics) roll:
1. It is (almost) *ALWAYS* better to defend fortifications than defend open terrain. Brindol has walls. Drellin's Ferry does not. When the Red Hand crosses, where are you going to fall back to?
2. The Red Hand has air support. This is how the Red Hand crosses and gets behind you. And it's what keeps you from being able to fall back.
3. Where do you put the civilians? Brindol can support them.
4. Heavy NPC support in Brindol.

The picture on p40 and the Designers' Notes on p41 set the tone pretty well for a defense of Drellin's Ferry.

Jeff thinks that because the majority of the forces won't be able to cross the river we can take the air support down first and use catapults (jeff is a wizard who has focused on crafting made blueprints for the people are drellans ferry to follow to build some) and make a trench+short wall to take out or heavily damage them crossing the river. He also thinks we will be able to barging with the ghostly rd to turn sides during battle to cause more chaos and split the armies attention on two fronts.. he has also rerouted all the forces we have gathered so far to head there including forces from Brindol.

He really wants mass open combat it feels like

[Saintheart]

Jeff thinks that because the majority of the forces won't be able to cross the river we can take the air support down first and use catapults (jeff is a wizard who has focused on crafting made blueprints for the people are drellans ferry to follow to build some) and make a trench+short wall to take out or heavily damage them crossing the river. He also thinks we will be able to barging with the ghostly rd to turn sides during battle to cause more chaos and split the armies attention on two fronts.. he has also rerouted all the forces we have gathered so far to head there including forces from Brindol.

He really wants mass open combat it feels like

Mass open combat usually implies you have "mass" on both sides. Even at Brindol the Valesmen are outnumbered a good five or ten to one. This should be an absolute slaughter ... of the Vale troops.

[Eldariel]

We've scouted twice but the dm's descriptions haven't really swayed jeff...



Jeff thinks that because the majority of the forces won't be able to cross the river we can take the air support down first and use catapults (jeff is a wizard who has focused on crafting made blueprints for the people are drellans ferry to follow to build some) and make a trench+short wall to take out or heavily damage them crossing the river. He also thinks we will be able to barging with the ghostly rd to turn sides during battle to cause more chaos and split the armies attention on two fronts.. he has also rerouted all the forces we have gathered so far to head there including forces from Brindol.

He really wants mass open combat it feels like

Well, if Jeff is delusional, I think the party would be well-advised to vote him down. Unless he's the de facto leader. Honestly, if he sees the numbers and knows how few valesmen there are to fight at Drellin's Ferry...it's like 50 to 1 and no matter how good equipment and siege engines and whatever they have (he might've noticed the Hobgoblins are actually better armed than most valesmen with actual Masterwork equipment if he's killed any), just the fact that there are bows means that no valesman can ever show their face in the fight. Like, the horde is an endless mass of soldiers, which against the militia of Drellin's Ferry is just a wash. Impress upon Jeff that Drellin's Ferry has:
2xFighter 4
2xFighter 3
5xWarrior 3
9xWarrior 2
14xWarrior 1

for a total of 32 trained warriors. The Horde literally has thousands. Even counting the militia:
6xCommoner 3
15xCommoner 2
55xCommoner 1
4xWarrior 3
8xWarrior 2
14xWarrior 1

for a total of 58 Warriors/Fighters (28 of which level 1) and 76 Commoners (of which 55 first level) for a total of 134 combatants. The Horde has thousands (literally) of Goblins and close to a hundred monsters. The horde could almost pit one powerful monster of CR5+ against every single combatant of the vale. We're talking worse than Zion vs. Machines in the Matrix that Never Happened here: in addition to one monster for every combatant there's dozens of enemy warriors for every warrior in the town on top of that.

Have the DM just impress these numbers on Jeff. Tell him that based on their scouting, if every town commoner kills 20 Goblins alone while the PCs take 100 each, they'll still be overrun. The river is a mighty obstacle but the Horde is more than able to build ways to cross it and there are giants, flying monsters and such that can either ford the river or just fly over it while being supported by hundreds of archers and giants throwing stones. Defending the other side you'd still be in the 300 scenario of enemy arrows blotting out the sun. And if you're in total cover you aren't firing back very efficiently, meaning you'll never do enough damage to meaningfully hamper the Horde. If you show your face, you die.


Tell him to pick the combat he can win. There's no way to win in Drellin's Ferry (aside from going full Pun-Pun), but if the Vale mobilizes and joins forces, they can potentially put together enough forces to at least put up a fight.

[danielxcutter]

I have a feeling Jeff is mostly thinking of "big fight" and not about "big curbstomp", or he doesn't really care.

[Oberron]

Thank you for all of the responses I will talk to the DM and hopefully find a way to talk Jeff out of it

[kroysemaj]

Hi all,

How neat to find this thread. Still active, even!

I'm running RHoD for my 5e group and we've just finished the battle at Skull Gorge Bridge. I have a pic of the action but can't share it as yet, maybe in 9 more posts.


We've been having a great time and I'm looking very forward to getting into the next part of the story with them. Speaking of...

Spoiler: not sure if I need to hide spoilers but erring on the side of caution

Show

Which brings me to a question, I've been reading ahead and see several encounters with Greenspawn Razorfiends. My question is this. I can't find any images or even a good description of what a razorfiend is supposed to look like. Just that it's some kind of spawn of Tiamat and some kind of infernal dragonspawn. I've looked online and also found nothing. It's clearly a new monster for the module. Does anyone know of anything to help with my description? My players and I enjoy playing tactical games on the battle mat and I'd like to get a figure to paint for it ahead of their encounter with it. Any suggestions? My best guess at this point is to use some thing like a Guard Drake from Volo's or maybe take some dinosaur minis and paint them in the various colors. Am I missing anything?

Thanks in advance!

[thorr-kan]

Thank you for all of the responses I will talk to the DM and hopefully find a way to talk Jeff out of it

Let us know how it goes.

[thorr-kan]

<SNIP!>

Needs an image of a greenspawn razorfiend

Have a lot of fun running it!

There was a miniature of the razorfiend for 3.5. Image search of Google shows several versions of it. This is the link I got:
https://www.google.com/search?q=gree...h=486&dpr=1.25

Weren't any NSFW images when I generated the link.

[Eldariel]

Thank you for all of the responses I will talk to the DM and hopefully find a way to talk Jeff out of it

Though Massacre at Drellin's Ferry can be fun too; you might even have a chance to evacuate before you all die horribly in a fire

[Elkad]

I'd stop trying to change Jeff's mind.
Leave Jeff to fight the horde by himself. (or with the few henchmen he can keep on his own).

Continue without him (or with his reroll)

[Elves]

Have a lot of fun running it!

There was a miniature of the razorfiend for 3.5. Image search of Google shows several versions of it. This is the link I got:
https://www.google.com/search?q=gree...h=486&dpr=1.25

Weren't any NSFW images when I generated the link.

What exactly are those wingblades supposed to be?

[Oberron]

Though Massacre at Drellin's Ferry can be fun too; you might even have a chance to evacuate before you all die horribly in a fire

While it could be fun I don't want to lose my undead I've raised because of him but it will be several weeks before then as we only play weekly and are about to head to the ghosted this week.

[thorr-kan]

What exactly are those wingblades supposed to be?

Wing membranes, I think.

[thorr-kan]

While it could be fun I don't want to lose my undead I've raised because of him but it will be several weeks before then as we only play weekly and are about to head to the ghosted this week.

Wait.

Is this opposing the initial Red Hand crossing at Drellin's Ferry, or is this a plan to go back and try to stop subsequent troops.

Because if it's the initial crossing, really, how many allies could you have gathered so far?

[kroysemaj]

Have a lot of fun running it!

There was a miniature of the razorfiend for 3.5. Image search of Google shows several versions of it. This is the link I got:
[no links for me :( ]

Weren't any NSFW images when I generated the link.

(I've been on the internet since the mid-90s and I can scarcely imagine what kind of NSFW content "Greenback Razorfiend" might render. One never knows)

Oh wow, this is perfect. No idea why this never came up in any of my searches but I never saw any of these. Huge thanks! Looks like they're not too hard to come by either. I see some ebay and Troll and Toad.

Maybe in another post I'll give a quick rundown of how I'm working this module into my setting and campaign and what my party has done up to this point. It's been quite a ride so far.

Thanks again!

Kroy

[Oberron]

Wait.

Is this opposing the initial Red Hand crossing at Drellin's Ferry, or is this a plan to go back and try to stop subsequent troops.

Because if it's the initial crossing, really, how many allies could you have gathered so far?

We haven't had any encounter at drellin's ferry yet so im going to say initial crossing?

We had our session the other night. Here is a quick summery to hopefully shine some light on where we are in the adventure.

We headed out from drellin's ferry after reporting the information we got from Rhest and talking with the leaders going to try to recruit the ghostlord into betraying the red hand. We got word of some dwarven mercs that had their payment stolen from them to help out in the battles to come so made a side track to met up with them and "loan" some of the party's funds as a replacement and just replace our own funds with the payment after we found some worg raiders and the destroyed caravan that most likely had the payment.

After three days travel including the dwarf diversion we made it to the ghostlord's giant lion home and made our way in. The party quickly took apart varanthian (which i plan to turn into a zombie soon), alterted the wyrmlord and the hobgoblins there and just got past some ghost lions through a secret passage we found.

After dealing with the ghostlord here we plan to go back to drellin's ferry to check on the "progress" that jeff thinks should be done by the time we get back. (pretty sure that the dm plans to have the fight when we get back or drellin's ferry is already lost when we return and force the fight to be at brindel.

[Saintheart]

We haven't had any encounter at drellin's ferry yet so im going to say initial crossing?

We had our session the other night. Here is a quick summery to hopefully shine some light on where we are in the adventure.

We headed out from drellin's ferry after reporting the information we got from Rhest and talking with the leaders going to try to recruit the ghostlord into betraying the red hand. We got word of some dwarven mercs that had their payment stolen from them to help out in the battles to come so made a side track to met up with them and "loan" some of the party's funds as a replacement and just replace our own funds with the payment after we found some worg raiders and the destroyed caravan that most likely had the payment.

After three days travel including the dwarf diversion we made it to the ghostlord's giant lion home and made our way in. The party quickly took apart varanthian (which i plan to turn into a zombie soon), alterted the wyrmlord and the hobgoblins there and just got past some ghost lions through a secret passage we found.

After dealing with the ghostlord here we plan to go back to drellin's ferry to check on the "progress" that jeff thinks should be done by the time we get back. (pretty sure that the dm plans to have the fight when we get back or drellin's ferry is already lost when we return and force the fight to be at brindel.

Because your DM isn't here and thus can't defend himself I'm going to preface this in that we don't know the whole story, but this sounds a lot like he's running it on a slightly different timeline to what the 'book' RHOD supplies. By the time a party is headed off to find the Ghostlord, the Red Hand should already have smashed Drellin's Ferry and be on its way to Brindol - unless you guys have managed to pick up some very fast means of travel. My guess is that the DM thought destroying Skull Gorge Bridge holds the Red Hand up a lot longer than it's meant to - it's only meant to delay the army by a few days. But as said, it sounds like you guys are moving pretty fast across Elsir Vale if you're getting from Rhest to the Ghostlord area and doing the dwarf diversion in three days. Elsir Vale is a good hundred miles from Drellin's Ferry to Brindol, and from Rhest to the Hammerfist Holds is roughly that distance again, let alone however long it takes you to get to the Ghostlord. Back in my own campaign with the party flying giant owls around from Rhest onward and pulling more than 50 miles a day due to longer summer days, Drellin's Ferry was burning the day they entered the Ghostlord's lair.

Either way, if your DM massages events such that Drellin's Ferry is already sacked and destroyed, consider yourselves lucky. That encounter is not a Kobayashi Maru mainly because it's unwinnable and you stand a good chance of getting yourselves completely slaughtered. The analyses above about troop numbers don't even take into account the fact the Red Hand is sporting dozens of clerics and spellcasters as well, there is just no way an adventuring party outside Terry Pratchett's Silver Horde that's standing up to that mob.

[Oberron]

Because your DM isn't here and thus can't defend himself I'm going to preface this in that we don't know the whole story, but this sounds a lot like he's running it on a slightly different timeline to what the 'book' RHOD supplies. By the time a party is headed off to find the Ghostlord, the Red Hand should already have smashed Drellin's Ferry and be on its way to Brindol - unless you guys have managed to pick up some very fast means of travel. My guess is that the DM thought destroying Skull Gorge Bridge holds the Red Hand up a lot longer than it's meant to - it's only meant to delay the army by a few days. But as said, it sounds like you guys are moving pretty fast across Elsir Vale if you're getting from Rhest to the Ghostlord area and doing the dwarf diversion in three days. Elsir Vale is a good hundred miles from Drellin's Ferry to Brindol, and from Rhest to the Hammerfist Holds is roughly that distance again, let alone however long it takes you to get to the Ghostlord. Back in my own campaign with the party flying giant owls around from Rhest onward and pulling more than 50 miles a day due to longer summer days, Drellin's Ferry was burning the day they entered the Ghostlord's lair.

Either way, if your DM massages events such that Drellin's Ferry is already sacked and destroyed, consider yourselves lucky. That encounter is not a Kobayashi Maru mainly because it's unwinnable and you stand a good chance of getting yourselves completely slaughtered. The analyses above about troop numbers don't even take into account the fact the Red Hand is sporting dozens of clerics and spellcasters as well, there is just no way an adventuring party outside Terry Pratchett's Silver Horde that's standing up to that mob.

I'll show this to my DM in private and talk with him about it. Thank you for the insight. Unless my DM has already thought about this I'll suggest that Drellin's ferry is sacked when we get back but the forces that where routed there left it to defend Brindol once they saw to horde.

[thorr-kan]

(I've been on the internet since the mid-90s and I can scarcely imagine what kind of NSFW content "Greenback Razorfiend" might render. One never knows)

One doesn't, so gotta be cautious. I've been burned by others' links, though I've never burned anybody that I'm aware of.

Thanks again!

Glad I could help.

[thorr-kan]

I'll show this to my DM in private and talk with him about it. Thank you for the insight. Unless my DM has already thought about this I'll suggest that Drellin's ferry is sacked when we get back but the forces that where routed there left it to defend Brindol once they saw to horde.

Note that we're not trying to dictate how he DMs his campaign. Like Saintheart said, we can only offer advice based on how the module's written and how we've run it/had it run for us.

[pianista]

I've been pretty happy with Thaumaturgist Azarr Kul (Cleric 5/Divine Oracle 2/Thaumaturgist 5/Contemplative 1 with Spell-domain as Spontaneous Domain Casting [PHBII]; the second and third ones weren't that important but I gave him Dragon for Intimidate, Greater Magic Fang for his underlings and company, and Pride to avoid stupid rolls of 1). Give him Fearsome [Drow of the Underdark] armor enhancement and Imperious Command [Drow of the Underdark] for useful Move Actions and a Zombie Dragon Steed because why not (make the summoning chamber higher). Thus I pumped him up to ECL13 (more than fair given PCs are likely to be level 10+ by the time they get there), tie Summon Monster VII for a Bone Devil to the Contingent Summons ability. Then I further used Limited Wish from Spell domain to setup a Contingency for a Celerity (from Greater Anyspell - tied to speaking a word so usable out of turn order) and then Craft Contingent Spell for Revivify + Heal (chained), Energy Immunity (appropriate one upon receiving elemental damage), Alter Fortune (upon rolling a 1-3), etc. Yeah, I didn't feel the "pick only Celerities" would ultimately be that engaging, though it's of course the most powerful option.

Then just some more Summons, an array of offensive and control spells, some death magic, some Dispels (and Greater Rod of Chain Spell to go with Greater Dispel Magic), Quicken Spell, the usual Dark Way/Ice Slick/Nauseating Breath/etc. on it. I also made the whole area under Unhallow with Blacklight tied to it (from Greater Anyspell - Baatezu can see in darkness, it doesn't affect the caster, and it doesn't affect the worshippers of Tiamat in any case), Azarr obviously has Antilife Shell 'cause he's riding an undead Zombie Dragon (in my case, an animated Adult Silver Dragon whose body the Horde had secured from the mountains) and has no need for any living company. Additionally, the whole area is under Forbiddance with a password (he needs to receive underlings at times; every Dragon and Wyrmlord knows it as does Miha Serani, Skather and few others; if the PCs can properly interrogate one of those, they can learn it). Finally, he has rocks with Silence tied to them in a Bag of Holding that he can drop as a move action for his allies to throw. But that's just one level of his defenses. As stated, there are also Animated Objects in the room. Because, honestly, when you have access to Permanency and Animate Object, you have little reason not to. Of course, they don't look that way unless hostile intent is shown.

The Bone Devil is mostly on Wall of Ice duty, readying actions to disrupt enemies' actions by casting Wall of Ice. It's also used to section off the party for personal slaughtering. The Blue Abishai are maintaining constant Desecrate and some Major Images of additional Devils in the room. The 4 Blue Abishai are also given some Ice Slicks, Commands, Dark Ways, Silences & Darkbolts by Azarr Kul. Imbue with Spell Ability is cast 4 times, once for each. Azarr has better things to do than to cast 1st-2nd level slots so they've all been outsourced.


Feel free to implement some of the ideas.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and Planar Cohort is literal dog**** so I generally just have a Planar Allied Erinyes instead. Level 5 of Thaumaturgist is totally useless but meh, there wasn't much else to take and I like finishing classes. Divine Disciple would be nice but you need 3 levels for the Imbue ability and meh, that just isn't so exciting.

If you feel like it, going up to 14 levels would get you:
Cleric 4/Church Inquisitor 1/Divine Oracle 2/Thaumaturgist 4/Divine Disciple 3/Contemplative 1

Inquisition-domain is pretty nice since Dispelling will be a big ticket item on the menu anyways. You need to adapt it for Evil though, but it isn't very far-off. Contemplative isn't strictly necessary either, but domains are always nice. Then again, you already have 3 bonus domains from Church Inquisitor, Divine Oracle and Divine Disciple.

EDIT: One option: make the five dragon heads actual Zombie Dragons' heads that can breathe. Because why not.

Thanks, and thanks also to Saintheart for your suggestions. We've been in summer stop so we just started again the campaign, but sadly I read your answers partially too late for major modifications to the bad guys, I just introduced the heads as "boost" for Azarr.
The party is currently fighting agains Azarr, they've already killed all the minions (included the two succubes). Currently Azarr is the sole survivor, thanks to the silence area, but I "respawned" Miha Serani since the party didn't recognize her as a threat and she escaped. She had an affaire with the cleric so it was a fun seeing them meeting again, with Miha pregnant of him!! She's already alive and she'll be more efficient than the described version.
At the moment, we had to stop the session after 3 hours, we'll meet again next week.
I've made the heads:
red: wings of cover
blu: heal (the only one already used)
white: word of recall
black: revivify+heal
green: energy immunity

last suggestion: since the heads are just providing boosts, how many HP should they have? What about hardness?
Thank you so far!!!

[Antariuk]

Has anyone ever placed (and played) RHoD in an Ancient Mythic Greece? The other day I was thinking about some non-standard settings to play D&D in, and I believe that RHoD makes for a pretty cool heroic adventure that hits many themes present in the classic myths. A fertile valley with somewhat isolated settlements and a city that is struggling to project it's power into the area? Seems like a good fit. Depending on what you replace the goblinoids of the Red Hand with, you can easily re-flavor the entire threat - if Hades is behind it all, you can have an awesome army of undeads and corporeal ghosts, or you chose one of the titans and amass bizarre monsters. Then you have characters running around in togas and breastplates and stylish Corinthian helmets... I'd run that in a heartbeat.

Already thinking about what a Elsir Vale map for this type of setting version would like...