D&D 5E Night Below 5E Conversion

[tomservo999]

Hi all, I am in the process of converting Night Below to 5E for my upcoming Realms game and am curious about what others have done with this adventure. I converted it to 3.5 many years ago and it was a blast to run. I am tentatively setting it Damara, specifically in the Barony of Bloodstone. I ran the Bloodstone modules over 30 years ago…(Wow!) and they are some of the best D&D memories I have. In my realms games the old PCs from those adventures are now the NPC movers and shakers there, and I thought maybe it’s time to revisit that area with a new group of PCs. Obviously, if a better area of the realms presents itself I will move it there, but right now, Damara is on the top of the list.

My question is this; how many of you have run Night Below in the Forgotten Realms? Where in Faerun did you set it and how did you tie it in to the existing storylines there? So far the only real change I have come up with is replacing the Rockseer Elves with the Deep Imaskari. I’m really interested to see what others have done.

Also, insofar as converting this adventure to 5E goes are there any suggestions? Obviously there are some races and monsters that will need converting. The derro, aboleth savants, ixzan, etc…I have already converted the Deep Imaskari to use and will post their racial traits here to get some feedback as well. Thanks in advance!

 

[Daern]

I ran it years ago for D&DIII. I'm sure you can use most monsters straight. I don't think I set it anywhere. Once the campaign got going it was all underground.
I suggest opening up the structure of the dungeon and the underdark in the second book. Make it less of one long tunnel. Either shorten it or make it more of a "hexcrawl" with opportunities to go around most things.
I remember the journey down ended up getting really long and we sort of ran out of steam for the investigation of the cities and the sunless seas parts.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I have run that module in both 3.0/3.5 and 4e and have begun playing it with DnD next
Both worked very well in the first book, and well enough in the second.

[sblock=Some tips] (just from looking at the finalized monster manual)
- Careful with the Death Dog encounter. They are a lot tougher than they were in 2nd edition. The characters should be at level 3 with the expected xp values. 4 of them should be enough.
- Careful with the magic items. There are a lot. Make sure, that players notice, that this is a plot element. Was a bit hard to convey that message in 3e and 4e. In 5e it should be a lot easier.
- I also suggest changing the layout of the caves in book 2. There are teleportation circles, but on places where they are useless. Maybe just devide all distances by at least 2.

Once my group can continue with that module with the finalized rules, I expect it to run very very smoothly in 5e. As it did in 3e and 4e. Especially the first book is really great with only a few flaws. Only my last group (in dnd next) had some problems, but it most probably came from only playing short irregular sessions. Hard to tell a story then.

Book 2 is long. Very long, but especially the torn diary of an old adventure group is really fun. Nice combat encounters, and a really fun assault on a city.[/sblock]

 

[National Acrobat]

We just finished playing it in the FR (ended with a TPK though) and it was set up near the Lake of Steam, with the Thornwood being the woods used, and Millbourne and Thurmaster on the northern side of the Thornwood. Mintar was the closest city of decent size.

We ended up being TPK'd in the Second Book however.

 

[Tormyr]

I would recommend rebuilding the encounters with the same creatures from the 5e MM, but recalculate the numbers. If the encounter level is 7 and you have a 5th level party of 5 PCs, figure out how many creatures would be a medium encounter for 5 7th level PCs. This would then translate into a hard encounter for the 5th level party.

 

[Daern]

Do most people agree that the campaign should just have a shorter middle section? Can anyone link to another in depth discussion of this module. I've suddenly thought maybe I should dust this off for 5e

 

[tomservo999]

As promised, here is my conversion of the Deep Imaskari....just the basic racial traits. A pretty much straight conversion from the FR Underdark 3.5 supplement. I plan on using them instead of the Rockseers. I worry that they might be a bit too week.

Deep Imaskari Traits

Ability Score Increase: Your Intelligence score increases by 2.
Age: Deep Imaskari reach adulthood around age 40 and live up to three centuries.
Alignment: Given the Deep Imaskari tendency to be detached and remote, most lean towards neutral alignments.
Size: Deep Imaskari vary in height and weight in a manner similar to humans. Like humans their size is Medium.
Speed: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Languages: You can speak, read, and write Undercommon, Roushoum, and one additional language. This bonus language is usually of other peoples they deal with.
Darkvision: Accustomed to life underground, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Spell Clutch: Because the Deep Imaskari have studied magic for ages on end, a certain facility with magic has seeped into their blood. You may cast one of prepared 1st level spells without expending a spell slot. You must make a short or long rest before you can use this ability again.
Naturally Stealthy: You gain proficiency in the Stealth skill, and have and have an advantage when making Stealth checks in an underground setting.

 

[tomservo999]

We just finished playing it in the FR (ended with a TPK though) and it was set up near the Lake of Steam, with the Thornwood being the woods used, and Millbourne and Thurmaster on the northern side of the Thornwood. Mintar was the closest city of decent size.

We ended up being TPK'd in the Second Book however.

Wow a TPK. The only one of those I was ever involved with was when I ran the old 1E Tomb of Horrors many years ago. Had a near TPK in Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits.

 

[National Acrobat]

Unfortunately the dice were not kind to the party when will saves were needed against a mind blast. Four pcs rolled natural 1's , the rest not much better. It was pretty bad.

 

[tomservo999]

Do most people agree that the campaign should just have a shorter middle section? Can anyone link to another in depth discussion of this module. I've suddenly thought maybe I should dust this off for 5e

This would be nice. I just ordered Night Below from Amazon, and should have it in a couple days.