D&D 5E Tomb of Annihilation for high level PCs

CapnZapp said:

Secondly, I'm using the Volo NPC stat blocks to make them true specialist Wizards rather than some generic Mage. That is, with a focus on a particular school of magic.

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Oh my gosh. At first I thought you literally meant to use the stat block FOR Volo. I just looked and was very confused. I forgot about the NPCs in VGTM.

Warmaster Horus said:

Skip right to Omu and the Yuan-Ti Temple. Boost the threats at the Yuan-Ti Temple (make Ras Nsi a Necromancer, max HP all the Malisons and add some, etc). Have Ras Nsi's treasure trove have all the puzzle cubes and go right to the Tomb. Then you'll need to up the tomb encounters substantially to make a decent challenge, though the traps should still be pretty darn tough. Good luck!

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This is probably what will happen in practice but I want to let them figure out how to skip ahead using all the resources they have available so that they can trigger the attention of all the NPCs that are around.

Tonight they finished futzing around Port Nyanzaru. They spent a total of 3 days there gathering supplies and information. They got the "collect a debt" side quest to collect a gambling debt from a gladiator...instead they offered to cover the debt of the Gladiator for him to join their party and he agreed. They then went back to the bookie and told him they wanted to go double or nothing on the Gladiator's debt on a dinosaur race and then cheated to ensure their dinosaur won so they got the gladiator to join their party for free (actually they bet on a dinosaur that had 1:3 odds so they turned a profit too).

Once out of town and heading into the jungle they cornered Salida to confront her about what she knew about Omu. In the two days that passed since they originally hired her, she had communicated with Ras Nsi and told him about these wealthy and seemingly powerful strangers that showed up seeking out what was clearly Omu and I decided that he would have instructed her to bring them to him but continue to watch them and learn about their intentions and capabilities. When they interrogated her they cast Detect Thoughts and Zone of Truth and she failed both saves so she just gave up the goods, told them where the city is, offered to take them to it and that her "boss" Ras Nsi will want to meet them. They know that Ras Nsi is a multi-headed snake thing (because I'm making him a yuan ti anathema/spell caster) or at least that is what Salida thinks about when she was talking to them. He will need the Soul Monger to power his own ritual and will need the atropal destroyed. He'll also want the Red Wizards and the PCs to weaken each other. The Red Wizards probably withdraw from any direct fighting but will probably try to scry on the PCs as they move through the tomb and maybe show up after any final battle to claim the prize at the end. The PCs would be best served to destroy Ras Nsi and the Red Wizards before going into the temple.

The party wizard has Teleport. I assume they will work themselves closer to Omu to reduce the chances of accidentally teleporting out to sea or into a volcano so I think they will go at least to Camp Vengence. But eventually they will just teleport there, I bet. Their best course of action would be to find a ship captain that is sick of the Dragon Turtle and tell him that in exchange for them killing it, he will sail them closer to Omu so they can teleport safely at least near it. I'm not going to tell them that, though. They know about the Dragon turtle and the Paladin spotted it from his griffon mount harassing some merchant ships as they moved toward Camp Vengence on their first day of travel. I was hoping they would go fight it. The warlock can cast water breathing on all of them and they have done a good deal of fighting in the water (and killed a young dragon turtle in PotA) so they aren't all that intimidated at the idea of fighting in the water.

I doubt the Paladin will agree to work with Ras Nsi. So I'm expecting a full on battle to break out once they meet. But who knows? Might be epic.

Maybe I'll drop a hint to the Warlock that Salida has a sending stone and get the Warlock and Ras Nsi talking separately from the rest of the party or introduce a disguised Red Wizard...some betrayal is always fun.

I am thinking that rather than make Ras Nsi a yuan ti anathema I'm going to change the hydra to be an anathema. It will be the vessel intended to hold Dendar the Night Serpent and when Ras Nsi learns of the Soulmonger, he will see that as a way to channel Dendar into his creation. He will want to replace the atropal with the anathema.

The guidance given for what happens when "the gong is struck" seems to be to deliberately to keep things from getting too deadly for the PCs. Ras Nsi goes and hides and his underlings go investigate. Instead, I'll have Ras Nsi, Sekelok and the anathema stay together with the ghouls and the broodguards. Just Nsi, Sekelok and the Anathema count as a 32,600 xp encounter which would be deadly for 13th level characters. Add in ghouls, broodguards, purebloods and such and a straight up fight in the Fane will probably be one the party can't win outright.

Sacrosanct said:

Boost the hazards of the jungle. Make DCs tougher and more frequent for things like exhaustion, and add additional penalties for dehydration and overall exposure to jungle rot (penalties like CON penalties, disadvantage, diseases, etc). A high level party will most likely have access to spells to mitigate all of this, but it still forces the players to choose to spend valuable slots to constantly keep up with the jungle.

Make speed a priority. Make random encounters frequent. These two things will prevent the party from taking rests whenever they want, recharging their spells. Combined with the above, and the decision on when and how to use spells to overcome the jungle become more important.

As far as monsters, I’d use lots of swarming monsters. Swarms of insects, snakes, undead, and large packs of dinosaurs. With bounded accuracy, swarms can still make life tough on higher level PCs. I’d also make sure all important monsters had legendary actions and minions at the ready. Have a few monsters with access to counter spell. That always ruins a PCs day

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Sorry but no. A spell such as Wind Walk essentially means that any time spent on jungle details is wasted.

This particular spell means a party covers ten times as much distance a day than if they were on foot. And not trekking in a jungle, but walking across the plains of the Sword Coast at that.

Regular travel speed is three hexes a day (and not one as in the jungle). This means a high-level party covers thirty hexes each day, and that's before considering to make a forced march.

Given their resources, they will likely use magic (or money) to find out where Omu is.

All in all, expect them to reach Omu in two or three days bypassing every single encounter in the random tables.

TL;DR: don't spend too much time on the jungle details. In fact, if you spend any time, that's too much. A jungle trek simply is not an appropriate challenge for a level 13 party, and should be skipped entirely.

I would think about having a Certain Powerful Dragon sending the Party an airship (See also Storm King's Thunder) so they can just get from here to there.
Also opens up the chance to do one scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in the dirigible. Any Archeologists in your party?

I found a cool idea in a D&D sourcebook a while back, but you can't use it near civilization: a galley (ship) with skeleton rowers. The control amulet is permanently attached to the Captain's Chair.
Something similar might be hidden away in the jungle, on one of the rivers that does NOT lead to town.

When the players reach the end of the Tomb, forget the whole "The Nine Gods grant you power" thing. Run the encounter as it is.

CapnZapp said:

All in all, expect them to reach Omu in two or three days bypassing every single encounter in the random tables.

TL;DR: don't spend too much time on the jungle details. In fact, if you spend any time, that's too much. A jungle trek simply is not an appropriate challenge for a level 13 party, and should be skipped entirely.

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So far they travelled up the river via keel boats, stopped at camp righteous and explored the man and Crocodile shrine (and set off every trap), arrived at camp righteous, fought off waves of undead, attempted to arrest breakbone but killed him instead and are now heading off to find the shield guardian.

They don't have windwalk. They have teleport but their info on Omu is not accurate enough for them to feel confident in using it yet. They intend to try after they get the shield guardian.

They do have with them ( but dont k owbit yet) what the need to scry Ras Nsi. That would greatly improve their chances (you can teleport to a place you can see as if it is vey familiar). There is an encounter with some hags coming up. Hags can scry. They will want to make a deal of some sort.

For wilderness encounters I role on the ToA tables and the level appropriate Xanthars tables and take the one that seems more interesting.

Give them a few "atmosphere of Chult" encounters, but don't bury them in the jungle.

I think letting them stay the night in a clearing, wake up next morning and "a Brontosaurus is eating its way through the forest ... it does not see your camp (or doesn't care) and just keeps coming" (along with a suitable-size mini or cutout) should provide the sense that "we are in a different place here".

CapnZapp said:

Sorry but no. A spell such as Wind Walk essentially means that any time spent on jungle details is wasted.

This particular spell means a party covers ten times as much distance a day than if they were on foot. And not trekking in a jungle, but walking across the plains of the Sword Coast at that.

Regular travel speed is three hexes a day (and not one as in the jungle). This means a high-level party covers thirty hexes each day, and that's before considering to make a forced march.

Given their resources, they will likely use magic (or money) to find out where Omu is.

All in all, expect them to reach Omu in two or three days bypassing every single encounter in the random tables.

TL;DR: don't spend too much time on the jungle details. In fact, if you spend any time, that's too much. A jungle trek simply is not an appropriate challenge for a level 13 party, and should be skipped entirely.

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Yay! you quoted me from 2 months ago, and I'll tell you the same thing I've told you between then and now in other threads.

Your primary flaw you keep doing is assuming that PCs have whatever the most effective spell is for situation learned, prepped, and slots available. You do it all. the. time. It's white room speculation that rarely actually plays out like that. Not to mention, if a PC did decide to devote slots and use spells for all these super easy bypasses you bring up, they wouldn't have any spells for combat encounters. You can't have it both ways. Especially when you consider what I wrote in what you quoted regarding throwing challenges at parties that keep them from resting often (and regaining spell slots and switching which ones are prepared).

A lot of good tips here, I think.

https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/185-how-to-play-a-lich-like-a-dark-overlord