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

[thorr-kan]

Has anyone ever placed (and played) RHoD in an Ancient Mythic Greece?

<SNIP!>

That...scans remarkably well. It would take a lot of conversion, but you're right. It could be flavored to fit.

[Saintheart]

This! Is! ELSIR!!!!

Seriously, you could reflavour the mountain dwarf clans into Spartan warrior types, and then send only 300 of them to assist in the defence of Athens Brindol!

[Antariuk]

That...scans remarkably well. It would take a lot of conversion, but you're right. It could be flavored to fit.

I believe (and I may be wrong, haven't my books with me) that necessary conversion applies largely to names and fluff, a lot of monsters should be usable as-is from any one of the 5E conversions floating around. Also, a lot of beasts from classic Greek myths already are standard D&D monsters, so that's a plus. The most amount of work I see lies with the Red Hand soldiers, sergeants and bosses.

This! Is! ELSIR!!!!

Seriously, you could reflavour the mountain dwarf clans into Spartan warrior types, and then send only 300 of them to assist in the defence of Athens Brindol!

I wouldn't mind using that

But what to do with the Tiri Kitor? My first idea was to make them centaurs, but then you lose the giant owls and that'd be a damn shame.

[Saintheart]

But what to do with the Tiri Kitor? My first idea was to make them centaurs, but then you lose the giant owls and that'd be a damn shame.

Semi-legendary tribe of Amazons, baby!

[danielxcutter]

Semi-legendary tribe of Amazons, baby!

Semi-legendary tribe of quasi-Amazon elves.

I like this idea.

[Saintheart]

semi-legendary tribe of quasi-amazon elves.

i like this idea.

death!

By snoo-snoo!

[aReallyGreatAxe]

Does anyone have advice on connecting the disparate parts of RHoD together, beyond "getting the players to move from part to part?"

For example, I'm dropping a few letters to make things seem less.... random

The player is still level 3, so I have some time to connect the sections.

1.) A note from Azar Kull with the boss of the level 3 prior area, mentioning that Saarvith is making great progress, and the prior boss needs to step things up or be replaced.

2.) A letter from Ulwai on the mithral breastplate corpse by the hydra- it's her husband. Breaking the news of his demise could give a diplomatic edge.... or make things way more tense. And then the player knows of Ulwai and the Ghostlord at least a little.

3.) Probably will be something with Saarvith mentioning the level 3 boss, and the Ghostlord.

[Saintheart]

Does anyone have advice on connecting the disparate parts of RHoD together, beyond "getting the players to move from part to part?"

For example, I'm dropping a few letters to make things seem less.... random

The player is still level 3, so I have some time to connect the sections.

1.) A note from Azar Kull with the boss of the level 3 prior area, mentioning that Saarvith is making great progress, and the prior boss needs to step things up or be replaced.

2.) A letter from Ulwai on the mithral breastplate corpse by the hydra- it's her husband. Breaking the news of his demise could give a diplomatic edge.... or make things way more tense. And then the player knows of Ulwai and the Ghostlord at least a little.

3.) Probably will be something with Saarvith mentioning the level 3 boss, and the Ghostlord.

There are two or three bits of 'connective tissue' already in the adventure:

(1) The map of Elsir Vale that Koth leaves behind at Vraath Keep should give the players hooks for other sections of the adventure, for a start. It (and the notes he leaves behind) is meant to clue the players onto the fact they're dealing with a full-blown army, not a bunch of raiders. Another possibility is to try and leave it open to the players to capture Koth, who should offer some precise directions on interrogation.

(2) It is true that the link from Vraath Keep to Rhest isn't too solid, but the handbook offers a couple of suggestions at the front of the thread. As well as that, the adventure itself sets out an encounter with a Lion of Brindol who asks the party to go and check out the area near Rhest, which leads the party to the greenspawn razorfiend encounter, and then on to the Tiri Kitor and then Rhest itself.

(3) There's a note accompanying the Ghostlord's phylactery at Rhest that should clue the party onto the Ghostlord's existence.

[danielxcutter]

Oh, a few things regarding restatting.

-In general: If a) you're running this in Eberron, and b) you're considering either the Fiend in the Flame and or/Tiamat herself close enough for an "evil power"(usually Elder Evils, but the Fortress of the Yuan-ti module does something similar without even using the term itself), then maybe slapping a few bonus Vile feats could actually work, assuming you actually consider which feat would work in which build instead of throwing them on at random.

-Koth: Bugbear Sorcerer does make sense considering that this is, y'know, a dragon-based campaign, but for an added draconic flavor, I think there's an ACF that trades familiars for a bonus Draconic Heritage feat? Combining that with Wings of Cover could serve as a replacement for Spell Shield(assuming you also swap out one of his 2nds, of course) and add some nice oh-draconic-based-enemies-sensing-a-theme here to the campaign. There are some other dragonblood spells, and for that matter other spells with a draconic flavor, buuuuuuuut I don't really know much about them so yeah.

Oh yeah, and if you can fit the feat in, Versatile Spellcaster is a good feat for any spontaneous caster. Turns those cantrips into Nerveskitters and Nerveskitters into Wings of Cover.

-Saarvith: This guy is a bit... eh. Archery builds do need a bit of investing to do lots of damage, and honestly he's way too low level for that.

That being said, there are a couple of things you can do even without changing his class levels. The Hunter's Mercy spell causes one arrow attack to be an auto-crit, so if you can crank up the to-hit bonuses on a Manyshot that might deal a fair amount of damage. At the very least it's probably better than Longstrider.

If using items, you could give him, say, a partially charged wand of Curse of Impeding Blades, which doesn't allow a save, only SR, lasts for 1 minute/CL(so 3 minutes even on a wand) and causes a -2 penalty to AC. There's a similar spell that inflicts a -5 penalty on ranged attacks only, but I forget what it was called so yeah.

The Swift Hunter option is also interesting - I don't think there's anything preventing you from using Skirmish while mounted? If so, maybe just keep him on dragonback and he and his dragon pal hit-and-run the PCs until they catch up with him, or the PCs' lack of hit points catch up with them. Granted, Scout/Ranger probably causes multiclassing penalties, but eh, it's not like he's a PC.

Oh, and finally... is it just me, or would swapping his Cha and Int scores work better? I mean for the love of Gygax, it's not like he's a face.

If you want to revamp him completely, I dunno maybe make him a Blue(the goblinoid race) with levels in I dunno, Psychic Warrior? They actually do make pretty great archers for several reasons; I think it might be the best class that doesn't get 9th-level... somethings. You get what I mean. Actually, you could just keep him as a normal goblin with PsyWar levels, I dunno. Just note that in Eberron, dragons and psionics... don't exactly mix well. Seriously, if you've got Dragons of Eberron, look at the Sarlona chapter. Oof.

-Ulwai: ...I dunno, your choices probably work okay. This guide might help immensely, though.

-Kharn: If his casting is going to be based on Blackguard, Cleric, or Favored Soul, then whichever you consider Investiture of the Steel Devil is a very nice spell. It's a short-term buff, yes, but a +3 bonus to attack rolls and AC, which increases if other casters use it too in a certain range is nice, and said bonus is of the PROFANE type, so it stacks with basically everything. Actually, that goes for a lot of the other casters too.

And speaking of divine casters, considering throwing a few Greenspawn Zealots(MMV), maybe one or two with levels in Cleric or Favored Soul, could spice the campaign up more in general (same with other Spawns of Tiamat not used in the base RHoD, to be honest), but considering that Kharn is the first divine spellcaster Wyrmlord(and no, Saarvith doesn't count; he's a Ranger) they might fit slightly better with him.

...Oh yeah, I think there's a Favored Soul ACF that lets you learn Sorcerer spells if you worship Bahamut or Tiamat? If nothing it fits the flavor I guess.

-Azarr Kul: First off, do Clerics get proficiency with their deity's favored weapon by default? Pretty sure they don't, and he doesn't have Martial Weapon Proficiency(heavy pick) either.

Second, while I honestly don't have a lot that isn't covered, the Investiture of the Steel Devil spell can sure help a bit both in terms of melee and in defense. In fact, if you're going that route and he has some warning, layering a bunch of Investiture spells might not be that bad of an idea, since they last 1 minute/CL and the fire resistance each grants specifically stack with each other. Kharn probably won't have enough time to prepare IotSD as any more as one of his big guns, but Azarr just might.

The Spontaneous Domain ACF is also an interesting addition, since to be honest it's probably a strict upgrade from converting spells into Inflict X Wounds. Since Tiamat is a goddess of dragons, and dragons are highly related to arcane magic, the Divine Magician ACF could make sense too.

[Saintheart]

If using items, you could give him, say, a partially charged wand of Curse of Impeding Blades, which doesn't allow a save, only SR, lasts for 1 minute/CL(so 3 minutes even on a wand) and causes a -2 penalty to AC. There's a similar spell that inflicts a -5 penalty on ranged attacks only, but I forget what it was called so yeah.

That's probably Curse of Arrow Attraction, which nerfs the target's AC against ranged attacks by -5.

[danielxcutter]

That's probably Curse of Arrow Attraction, which nerfs the target's AC against ranged attacks by -5.

Oh yeah that. Fits pretty well in general with his combat style.

Speaking of which - wands can be used even if you can't actually cast them yet; I believe the example used is a 3rd-level Ranger. Therefore, even a Swift Hunter version would still have access to Ranger wands.

[Arkain]

It seems as if I might get together a new group for PF1 and being in the GM position for the time being I thought why not revisit this and thoughts I've had about running it in a PF context? This is all very rudimentary, mostly memories of ideas I've had quite a while ago, but knowing the feedback one can get here, maybe it'll turn out great. Or I realize it's all horrible

Onwards to some things I've thought about, put into spoilers to reduce the wall of text:

Spoiler: Plot and Setting

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If Golarion is used at all I was thinking of setting this in Isger. As far as I know, that's also what has been recommended by James Jacobs himself? Anyhow, my thinking was to loosely connect it to Rise of the Runelords. Mostly, because some players I'm recruiting are vaguely familiar with that (or the very beginning anyway, also has been run by me). Originally, I wanted to use the first act of RotRL to teach the system, establish a couple things and such and then send the group off to Isger, but if I'm honest with myself that group (a different one, mind you) is dead. Technically I'm thus no longer bound to it, though I could try it again, I suppose. The idea was that the sheriff's visit to Magnimar creates some worries and one way or another word of more problems from Isger may reach there and the PCs are sent/go there on their own to investigate. If the connection with RotRL is to be kept, one could try to return to Sandpoint and try continuing on with the second half of that story with the PCs now in the double digit levels. How neat... or is it, as geographically speaking there's quite a bit of distance between Varisia and Isger, but I'm not sure if that is really all that relevant.
In that light, it might ultimately be worth asking if the precise location of Elsir Vale is really all that important. Anyway, put Elsir Vale as a maybe particularly secluded, part of Isger. Or somewhere close. The horde consists of "monstrous" survivors of the Goblinblood Wars who are, let's say, bitter about said wars and all too eagerly joined Azarr Kul's clan/tribe and their ambitions. One may thus explain why there are so many varied creatures all too eager to fight. Though I do like a bit more complexity than "objectively evil", so I was considering that the greater plan (or at least what was promised) may be a place to call home, free from "heroic" humanoid persecution. Whether it'll be easier to establish such a place with the already evil aligned Cheliax close is up to debate, as Cheliax may either strike an interesting deal or be quite nettled about losing (parts of) a vassal state.
Now to different problems. There is no Tiamat, for starters. And Dahak is chaotic evil. I mean, I don't care much about alignments to be honest, but I'm still a bit uncomfortable. My idea however was this: Tiamat is indeed part of the plan, as Paizo framed the story in such a way that Tiamat is a thing, but was left behind and thus Apsu's and Dahak's battle takes place somewhere else. So what if ostensibly this might be either some unknown cult (of Tiamat. In Golarion. "Excuse me kind GM, what's a Tiamat?") or indeed Dahak - except for Azarr Kul and maybe his innermost circle. What he wants isn't to bring Dahak and burninate all the things, he wants to bring his mother to Golarion, which may be all kinds of bad news. Interesting may be that both share the domain of trickery, with Dahak even explicitly having deception as part of his portfolio, so it would be completely in character for a priest of such an entity to lie to everybody (hence why I said "what was promised" to the horde). The tricky part may be to have the infernal aspect (as I do think that devils and other lawful evil outsiders make interesting subordinates) and also literally have priests of a chaotic evil dragon deity within a lawful evil society and army. Tricky mostly because if there are proper Dahak priests, how are they not noticing anything? Is the deception one where Dahak himself joins in implicitly? Or I could just make it so that they worship something that may be identified as an "aspect" of his, which then turns out to be not Dahak at all. Maybe still using his symbol, anyway, except, again, for a few select initiates and Azarr Kul. Now, with literally reaching beyond the stars and opening not simply a portal to Avernus or some other "reachable" plane, maybe a bigger connection to the transitive planes may have had an effect on the hobgoblins. One may use occult classes here, though I was particularly thinking about Kineticist to be honest. More on that later.
I wondered also if it might be worthwhile to use some of the other evil outsiders, rather than just devils. Nevermind that abishai technically don't exist in PF, what about rakshasa or asura? Asura might certainly be convinced to join in an attempt to either severely weaken or outright destroy Apsu, given their god-hating tendencies. Likewise, good old kytons instead of mere devils. Oni might be interesting in higher positions to secretly spy on the army itself.
There's still the problem of the battle of Brindol, as touched upon in the OP. My idea here would be to give every horde member a tattoo of the Red Hand that absorbs their life force once said member dies, maybe with a slight, eerie glow, or maybe precisely not, because that could be too conspicuous. In this way, it doesn't matter who wins, it only matters how much blood is spilled, which feeds nicely into the betrayal.

Spoiler: Classes, NPCs and Stuff

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May as well fit into the other segment, but let's get going about some of the NPCs and mechanics. And yes, I know it isn't always required to explain all the things, but I kinda like it when mechanics and narrative go hand in hand.
I considered making at least some of the wyrmlords family, thus hopefully creating a greater bond which might also imply some fanatical devotion. Azarr Kul serves as a leader, sure and Kharn is a general, but what about Ulwai and Koth? Koth I reimagine as Azarr Kul's son. And in his father's eye a failure, too. He's this desperate guy, who wants to please daddy, but can't ever satisfy him or gramps, what with one being a duplicitous, overambitious half-dragon cult leader and the other being a proper dragon. I would put him as a Bloodrager/Dragon Disciple, possibly with the Crossblooded Rager archetype (to add the destined or arcane bloodline, say). He has hints of his grandfather's blood, but he's far off from his father's power. Having been forever spurned, he's the type to get angry, i.e. rage, terribly, which is precisely why he disappoints his calculating, cunning forebears. Probably put a focus on intimidation, have him fight with natural weapons and all that. It would also allow some minor magic in the form of the odd scroll or wand, but nothing too hardcore. Yet it's probably a very serious fight.
Ulwai might either be another child, a mate/wife (and thus mother to Koth), whose feelings about the other parts of the family one may design in many ways, either complete apathy, loyalty or whatever else, really. Fortunately, we don't even have to give up her storm bard schtick, as one may easily put her as a Thundercaller Bard and call it a day, at least in that regard. Another thought that occured to me is to just make her a Mesmerist. Might also explain some of the double-think the Red Hand has to do. Or to go in a very different direction what about a rather peculiar Druid (Storm Druid, to keep the theme going) come to bargain with the Ghostlord? Undecided on this one, particularly the mother/wife/sister/aunt/whatever part. Also tricky, because she's supposed to be in the know.
Khorn. I'm not sure about keeping him as a priest. If so, Warpriest would be my best guess, or maybe an appropriately themed Oracle (battle mystery, for instance). I actually imagine him as this grand general though, which screams PoW Warlord to me, which might also make for a more interesting fight, actually. Maybe this one is simply wyrmlord due to his ability and accomplishments, and no blood connection at all. Otherwise I was thinking maybe a brother of Azarr Kul's (different father, obviously) or Ulwai's. I think for the sake of the big fight with Khorn in Brindol it might be a bad idea if he actually knows nothing he does matters to Azarr Kul as long as there's bloodshed on either side.
For Azarr Kul himself I'm honestly not sure. Thematically, I'd think a dragon Oracle would fit perfectly (alternatively: dark tapestry because of the whole Tiamat thing, see above), though Cleric is of course a bit stronger. I'd put him in the level 13-15 range too, to be honest, so he's much more dangerous even if encountered alone, but the trick is as usual to balance it in a way that it isn't a 1-2 round TPK in the waiting. Or indeed the reverse.
Lastly, Saarvith. My thinking here is Alchemist, possibly Beastmorph and/or Vivisectionist, with maybe a hint of Master Chymist. Because screw Ranger. More seriously, he's supposed to be behind the spawn of Tiamat. Since Tiamat isn't a thing on Golarion, I thought why not have this guy experiment with all kinds of things on draconic eggs, with the spawn as a result. He'd also be part of the reason the Red Hand has such a ludicrous amount of potions. And his successes are the reason he's a wyrmlord at all, not because he's got a dragon buddy or whatever. Master Chymist might allow for a more interesting take on the mad doctor trope, where he's literally got two sides to himself, though it's not as if the prestige class is required for that. It might also make for a much more interesting fight if there's a laboratory full of things (say, why not some minor alchemical golems?) and an Alchemist rather than a bow wielding goblin Ranger on a medium dragon.
Right, dragons. Boost them, at least by a size category, because age categories are much more tricky. The elephant in the room is Varanthian, I'm not sure what to do with her. Keeping her as is seems lame, but just adding a white dragon also kinda is, at least to me. If a proper dragon, maybe something different might be better here, like an umbral dragon. I'm not sure, open for suggestions, really.
Okay, Ghostlord. Oh boy. Mechanically speaking, there's a couple options. The Blight Druid or Ossuarite archetypes as a basis, say, besides just adopting the Blighter to PF or whatever. But what intrigues me more would be PF's own undead druid, the siabrae. The problem for the plot is of course that siabrae don't really have phylacteries, so that goes right out the window. Hence why I wondered earlier if Ulwai could be a druidic emissary sent to convince the Ghostlord to join the effort. The Ghostlord himself might be somebody who used to fight against the demons in the Worldwound, as so many others of their ilk, yet for some reason found himself drawn back "home", to protect it against whatever there. Cheliax' sudden interest in diabolical rites and magic all those years ago, say (no idea if this even makes any sense in terms of Golarion's timeline to be honest). I'm really mostly worried about how to work him into the plot here if there's no phylactery to blackmail him.
Miha Serani I would keep as either an aranea or another shapechanger, e.g. an oni or whatever if I went with some other outsiders as mentioned earlier. I've enjoyed aranea before, so this might work out nicely. I'd probably either give her levels in Sorcerer or Arcanist and just have it stack with her native spellcasting ability. Mesmerist may also be an option here. Personally, I really like what AslanCross did with her in his Eberron campaign, maybe I can find some more inspiration there. I was also considering creating a subplot about spreading illnesses, probably in Brindol, which she might have had a hand in, with some alchemical help by Saarvith. Such machinations might make Miha into a threat even she isn't there, whilst also adding some complexity to the setting, e.g. by creating unrest and infighting, hopefully blurring more lines between "monstrous" characters and "monsters".
Skather exists, I guess. Fortunately, the PF Ninja can be quite dangerous, so maybe that'd be enough. Or maybe just make him an Eldritch Scoundrel.
I don't think we talk about the Aspect of Tiamat in polite society. Okay honestly, if we ever get this far, I'd probably either power through, making it a point that this is merely the result of what the entity trying to reach through from way across the Great Beyond could muster in that half second of portal goodness, to drive home just what the PCs have accomplished, skip it or make it something to be encountered later in an obvious "RUN!" moment while it manifests. But the highlights are definitely Brindol with the Fane as an epilogue, I'm not sure this thing is needed at all. Alternatively, I wondered if maybe the PCs could be drawn into some kind of dreamscape (i.e. more transitive plane fun) after defeating Azarr Kul where again they're encountering some kind of half-remembered, half-manifested version of Tiamat as she might be if she got across. Except of course severely weakened, again, because it's just a dream version. If I powered her up in this scenario it'd be no problem, as I could also pull the "All a dream" joker if the PCs fail - but honestly, that's just lame.

The troops of the Red Hand need to be buffed and that's where my thoughts earlier about transitive planes and the Kineticist class comes into the picture. I figured why isn't it possible that there have been quite a few hobgoblins touched by the planes now, manifesting kinetic abilities? This needn't even be a named NPC, though one could try making Ulwai and aerokineticist, I suppose. What I was thinking about is adding some low level Kineticist hobgoblins to squads, in lieu of archers. Give them Extended Range, maybe also Extreme Range, done. The trick here is of course that the whole "All day long" schtick is usually much more interesting to an army that may besiege an enemy city than a group of PCs. More importantly, ranged touch attacks. Suddenly even the low level enemies become a menace over time, because there is a good chance they'll hit you. Other than that I'm all for keeping some of the hobgoblins (the regulars, I guess) as weak as they are in the original module - if only because I hate it when every goddamn enemy is half a boss fight, but more importantly because it instills into the players a sense of heroics. Yes, at some point these guys are going to be steamrolled by the PCs and that's good, because they're at the bottom anyway and can't hope to win against the much stronger adventurers. I'd give them some teamwork feats anyway, to compensate for weakness with numbers and tactics, as this is what hobgoblins do in my mind. Makes sense?
Bladebearers and sergeants need to be buffed, probably some PoW goodness can do a lot here. Or maybe put them as Slayers, for some sneak attack and ambush fun. The doom bunch I'd mostly keep as it is, though the monks need a serious upgrade and it isn't the racial archetype. Probably again the PoW variant or at least UC Monk level 5-6 for some flying kicks and multiple attacks, possibly even ones that hit... The warpriests I'd restat as exactly that, Warpriest. The Khulkor Zuls present another problem, though one could simply take the war adepts and make them into Kineticists, as mentioned above. Or just let them stay Sorcerer, but probably not with the draconic bloodline, that'd get weird by implication, I think The mindbenders... eh, maybe Mesmerist, but I'm actually not too worried about those, I guess.

On towards less hostile NPCs. Old Warklegnaw I don't really know what to do with. I like once again what AslanCross did, but that's peculiar to Eberron mostly, I think.
As for other friendlies, there's a couple options here. The dwarves can be easily brought in due to the Five Kingdoms close to Isger. Elves can likewise be added easily, I think. Druma allows for mercenaries and trade relations, so that should be fine as well. If the group is particularly daring, they might even try to enlist Hellknights, particularly the Order of the Godclaw.

As I said, there's no fully formed group yet, and once it's a thing, it will consist of entirely new players, some with marginal experience in 3.5 and PF1, but really, I don't expect any optimization. It's not much of a problem as I help designing characters, so that's where everything will be a bit of a wildcard. So now I'm also kinda interested in thoughts by those who've already experienced the module (ideally in PF1), such as where I might have to scale things back, particularly early on. I've had it happen that I overestimated players' understanding of their characters' options before, hence why I originally wanted to use another campaigns first act as a big tutorial. What I'm thinking right now is for instance to intentionally keep everything very low key early on and only get serious roughly around Vraath keep, when Koth is encountered. From then on, the gloves are halfway off.

Thanks to those who've read it all. Thoughts?

[Antariuk]

As I'm done with Pathfinder, never really played in Golarion and haven't looked at the system in years I can't add anything insightful to your ideas Arkain, but I found an unfinished draft of my own Pathfinder conversion a while ago. I never released more than the first chapter due to real-life issues and a crashed hard drive, but there are some Red Hand bosses in there, also dragons in different variants (I used the Giant template to avoid having all PF dragons be smaller in size) and Azarr Kul as either a cleric or as a warlord (both CR 13). It's likely that some of the stats have errors in them and a few details are missing but I believe most of it should be good as-is. Some NPCs bend the rules slightly (e.g. when it comes to animal companions), but nothing that goes against the spirit of Pathfinder (I also believe I added comments whenever I did deviate from RAW). Since this is from 2015 it's probably also missing a lot of popular option from recent years, but it might give you at least an idea or two about your own approach to things

Links: PDF or ODT

[Arkain]

Incidentally, here's a statblock for Wyrmlord Kharn using a RKV build. It includes some maneuvers from the homebrew dragon-themed martial discipline "Wyrm's Might", which you can look up.

If nothing else, I really like "Knight of Five Sorrows" as a name. That does remind me though that there's a PoW prestige class called Dragon Fury, though it's more about using Thrashing Dragon than some kind of DD-style apotheosis. There's also the Battle Templar, come to think of it. Food for thought.

As I'm done with Pathfinder, never really played in Golarion and haven't looked at the system in years I can't add anything insightful to your ideas Arkain, but I found an unfinished draft of my own Pathfinder conversion a while ago. I never released more than the first chapter due to real-life issues and a crashed hard drive, but there are some Red Hand bosses in there, also dragons in different variants (I used the Giant template to avoid having all PF dragons be smaller in size) and Azarr Kul as either a cleric or as a warlord (both CR 13). It's likely that some of the stats have errors in them and a few details are missing but I believe most of it should be good as-is. Some NPCs bend the rules slightly (e.g. when it comes to animal companions), but nothing that goes against the spirit of Pathfinder (I also believe I added comments whenever I did deviate from RAW). Since this is from 2015 it's probably also missing a lot of popular option from recent years, but it might give you at least an idea or two about your own approach to things

Links: PDF or ODT

Thanks, it's at the very least a marvelous starting point, particularly with the helpful comments. I also found your blog quite nice, and not just the RHoD stuff
Personally, I'm also not too hot about Golarion per se, actually, but I've also grown fond of established settings lately, as "two farms and a bear cave" homebrew (if you know what I mean) has gotten really old. And I don't think I've got the energy to create something substantial from scratch. Admittedly, a lot of that would be irrelvant if you concentrate only on Elsir Vale before you branch out. Maybe I'll float the idea of Eberron as an alternative setting to the group, once we get to the point of, you know, being a complete group capable of discussing this.

[Antariuk]

Personally, I'm also not too hot about Golarion per se, actually, but I've also grown fond of established settings lately, as "two farms and a bear cave" homebrew (if you know what I mean) has gotten really old. And I don't think I've got the energy to create something substantial from scratch. Admittedly, a lot of that would be irrelvant if you concentrate only on Elsir Vale before you branch out. Maybe I'll float the idea of Eberron as an alternative setting to the group, once we get to the point of, you know, being a complete group capable of discussing this.

Have you considered playing in the Forgotten Realms? The official Elsir Vale map is a (slightly modified) cutout of the official 3rd edition map, south of the Shaar and east of Lapaliiya. That region isn't nearly covered by official lore as much as the Swordcoast is and also makes for a good regional sandbox for introductionary adventures in case you wanna start at 1st level, as the city of Ormpur in Lapaliiya is one of the few with an official Tiamat cult. Start the campaign with a bunch of hobgoblins who, with the help of a merchant or vizier, infiltrate Ormpur to steal draconic artifacts OR have the cult of Tiamat be unusually aggressive or strange all of a sudden. Let the party foil a heist or prevent an assault and earn a patron in the process.

Then follow up with the adventure Sunless Citadel placed southeast of Ormpur somewhere in the Bandit Waste. That module is perfect because it has hobgoblins that are easily retooled as a Red Hand scouting party. You also have an undead 'fallen' druid who can be a disciple of the Ghostlord so you can foreshadow that encounter without it feeling too weird. And last but not least Ashardalon can easily become an aspect of Tiamat or maybe a predecessor of Azarr Kul (I thought that Kul eventually wants to be a dragon himself and there might have been other Tiamat warlords before who wanted the same, so...). All this nicely ties into the start of RHoD and will paint a much larger and more threatening picture of the Red Hand since it'll appear as not a purely local threat but a regional one.

Just my 2 cents

[Skeet103]

I've started a wildemount campaign and I feel like the the conflict between the empire and Kryn would be a perfect place for this....please have at it! I have 3 levels to go

[FeatherQuill]

Hey all, I'm running RHoD in the Forgotten Realms and am getting towards the end - my players are about to complete the siege of Brindol and move into the Fane. I've started to look into what the next steps are, and the post mentions back-converting the Scales of War path from 4e. For anyone who's done this or has any opinions, what is the best way to break into the path from the end of RHoD? Does it make sense to make some narrative connections and then jump straight to the level-appropriate adventure? (I believe it would be Haven of the Bitter Glass.)

[sudonym]

I've recently been running this module and one of the things that has been bugging me about the Ghostlord section is, like, where is the undead army he is supposed to be providing to Ulwai? My players immediately wanted him to not just stand aside and remain neutral, but get him to help their side! They had his phylactery hidden away with the Tiri Kitor elves, and it seemed reasonable that he would make the same deal with the players as he did with Ulwai. One way I had tried to counter this was to be like, sure, if you provide the Ghostlord with souls or living creatures, then he can turn them into undead servants using his Pool of Rebirth. This, of course, begged the question of where were all the creatures Ulwai was providing for the army?

I thought a good solution to this would be to use the Shining Axe Company of Dwarves from the Hammerfist Holds -- the Mercenary Gold sidequest being just a random encounter always seemed a bit lame to me, so I've decided that the mercenary troupe was captured by the Red Hand during the invasion of the Vale and is being marched by caravan -- along with any of the refugees the Hand has captured -- to be turned into their undead army by Ghostlord (or they might already be there, held captive waiting to be turned).

To me, this makes the payoff for going down to deal with Ghostlord a bit better, since the players now have the chance to gain and ally, in addition to stopping a potential threat.

[Zombimode]

I've recently been running this module and one of the things that has been bugging me about the Ghostlord section is, like, where is the undead army he is supposed to be providing to Ulwai? My players immediately wanted him to not just stand aside and remain neutral, but get him to help their side! They had his phylactery hidden away with the Tiri Kitor elves, and it seemed reasonable that he would make the same deal with the players as he did with Ulwai. One way I had tried to counter this was to be like, sure, if you provide the Ghostlord with souls or living creatures, then he can turn them into undead servants using his Pool of Rebirth. This, of course, begged the question of where were all the creatures Ulwai was providing for the army?

1. What is Ghostlord providing to the Kulkor Zhul?
By the Ghostlord section in the campaign he has agreed to provide 6 Lesser Bonedrinkers. 6 of them are alerady finished (and are likely to be encountered by the party exploring the Ghostlord's Lair), the other 6 are "in progress": they are the 6 corpses at the Shrine of Blight.

12 Lesser Bonedrinkers might not seem much, but they are individually tougher then most other forces of the the Red Hand. They would make greate shocktroops.

That's not the whole story, though. If the party does not deal with the Ghostlord, one way or the other, the Streets of Blood will get an additional wave that not only includes Bonedrinker but also Ghost Lions. With that we know that the Ghostlord provides at least 4 Ghost Brute Lions and 2 Ghost Dire Lions. And those are a very big deal in the siege situation! Ghost Brutes by themselves may only be annoying but there a still incoporeal and almost inviceble against any non-champion opposition. And the Ghost Dire Lions are absolutely devestating on a battlefield/siege: there gaze attack will obliterate anything in the near vicinity of the Ghost in a matter of rounds: nothing can withstand Cha damage round after round for very long. And again, Incorporeal.

So yes, I would very much take the risk of dealing with the Ghostlord for a couple of Ghost Lions if I'm about to siege a walled city.

But that's not all! We also know that the Ghostlord himself shows up at the Battle of Brindol if not dealt with. The fear aura alone makes that a strong proposition!

In short: the Ghostlord does not need an "army" in the same sense as the Red Hand is an army: 6 Bonedrinkes, a handfull of Ghost Lions plus a 13th level lich IS a formidable force, especially as support to an already large and mostly convential army like the Red Hand.


2. Coercing the Ghostlord to switch sides: well, sure you can try that. It might work. But remember: the Ghostlord is "allied" with the Red Hand because they are forcing him, by having the Phylactery hostage, not because he wants to. If some other fleshbags actually managed to find the damn thing but then have the audacity to try to pull the same stunt of (again!)? That might be too much, that might be what is tipping the scales of the Ghostlord to go "To hell with that! I don't need the Phylactery that bad. I will search it myself and if it takes 500 years! But those insolent mortals? I'll snuff out their smug faces!"

[thorr-kan]

Good analysis of the Ghostlord's effects.

[Arkain]

I'm currently pondering consumables. The group will face Koth in tomorrow's session (short notice, eh?) and has found an as yet undefined amount of potions and scrolls in the wagon after the hydra battle. The reason for the goodies is that they will soon lose two characters who are still tagging along for narrative purposes, as their players have left the group, so the consumables are meant as a bit of a band-aid, as they will be down to three characters and two animal companions.
Now, the question is, are there any things I should be particularly careful about or that might not be obvious but are surprisingly good and/or cool options here, maybe also to keep in mind for future loot? Rules are PF1 and the group is already equipped with potions and a couple scrolls, mostly things like healing, Remove Fear, Protection from Evil, as well as the odd Invisibility or Resist Energy here and there so that is actually covered. As the group will soon only consist of an Inquisitor, a Magus and a Ranger the options are actually surprisingly varied in terms of scrolls, but I am a bit wary of just handing out say Haste or Fireball and calling it a day.

[Voldine]

So, I'm glad I found this thread. My group has been playing once a week for just over a year, starting at level 2 in a homebrew world, and the last two sessions have been the first two sessions of a long-planned modified version of this module.

Broad strokes, the module is much the same except throwing in kobolds alongside the hobs&gobs as the more trained soldiers due to a key change in leadership: a half-black-dragon kobold dread necromancer being the leader with a hobgoblin cleric of tiamat at her side. This is to tie in with the backstory of one of my PC's.

Another of my PC's has the last name 'Lyonheart' and I'm considering tying that to the Lion's Heart in the ghostlord's area...maybe being a fossilized Elder Brain to go with that character's family history.

Most of my group have little experience with 3.5, and I'm not expecting them to become uber-optimized anytime soon.

Aasimar Duskblade 6 (custom rules dropping the +1 LA)
Human Warblade 6
Gnoll Fighter1/Cleric 5 (Thor) [traded racial hit dice for class levels]
Kobold Bard 6
Kobold Rogue 1/Spellthief 1/Psirogue 4 (I use the fractional BAB for multiclassing rules)
Faerie Dragon Dragon 5/Sorc 1 (special rules along the lines of Savage Species limiting racial bonuses and such for the next few levels, until they reach 8 HD. Altered SLA list to reflect them not being an 'adult' faerie dragon)

And finally, a former-PC-turned-henchman Kobold Ranger 5 with the ranged hits flank ACF.

So far they just beat the hydra after being ambushed by a group of eleven stirges, and everyone lost 4 points of con. They're about half a day's walk from Vraath Keep, have just finished setting up camp for the night only to have a shambling mound roll up on them.

I'm reworking Koth as a white dragon shaman 4/sorc 2 with a number of wands to give the group a glimpse into the level of strategy the army uses. One of these wands is basically an ice-variant of Grease so Koth can make use of the White Shaman 'no slip on ice' class ability.

[Peelee]

The Mod on the Silver Mountain: Thread necromancy, but also about to hit the page limit anyway, so a new thread would be warranted soon regardless.

[jdizzlean]

The Mod Life Crisis: Thread temporarily reopened by request.

[jdizzlean]

THE MOD LIFE CRISIS:caps lock, and this thread, off again.