D&D 5E PotA - Feathergale Spire or Dellmon Ranch

[pukunui]

Hi all,

I'm scrambling to organize a somewhat last-minute session for my homebrew campaign. I'll have three players, playing a half-orc champion, a human arcane trickster, and a human lore bard, all 5th level.

I'm thinking of running either Feathergale Spire or Dellmon Ranch from PotA as a standalone scenario. Based on the above group of PCs, which do you think would be more manageable? Feathergale Spire seems good in that it can potentially provide each of the PCs with a chance to shine (the bard can show off his social skills, the rogue can sneak around, and the fighter can spar with the knights and fight the manticore and such). Dellmon Ranch, on the other hand, provides different opportunities. The fighter will shine the most during the fighting, while the bard will be more about rallying the troops and healing the wounded and such. The rogue can do some scouting (he has a bat familiar) and sniping.

Also, anyone got any tips on running either of those scenarios (I might end up running both, after all)?

Feathergale Spire seems fairly straightforward, except for the fact that the PCs might end up with a lot of time to kill before the feast. Even if the cultists let them wander freely around the spire, that's not going to take very long. Maybe I could have them go explore the Sighing Valley while they wait or something.

As for Dellmon Ranch, I like the sound of it, but I'm unsure of how to handle all the NPCs. I know I could just handwave/narrate what happens in areas where there aren't any PCs, but what if the PCs split up? I guess I could give each player control of any of the NPCs they put in the same spots as their PCs and just narrate the rest ... but I'm not really sure what the best way to narrate it would be. Have the areas where there aren't any PCs just suffer some attrition each fight (eg. 1d4 defenders killed each wave or something)? Again, anyone got any tips? How did you run this scenario?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
Jonathan

 

[Charles Rampant]

The Spire is a lot of fun. My group were really tempted to just join them! If you are pulling it out into your own game, I'd probably make their elemental master appear as a final boss, or perhaps have it lead into a (remastered) Air Temple complex. I'm thinking of that Sun God (Lathander?) temple from Baldur's Gate 2, where it was a lengthy excursion with multiple different levels.

My comments about the Spire:
1) My players loved the hunt, and you can easily have a whole session just on them chatting to the Knights and riding griffons.
2) The feast is a fun roleplaying encounter, with lots of opportunity for the players and knights to say the wrong thing and start a messy fight.
3) The way the tower is laid out, you can expect the players to end up fighting their way up/down the tower's central staircase.
4) Sneaking into the tower is possible, but requires some engagingly dangerous ropework or magic to pull it off. All good stuff.
5) Adding character to the Griffons and Giant Vultures is recommended, and don't be surprised if the players make an attempt to capture some for mounts. Your call as to whether you want to stop that.

The Dellmon ranch is a fun looking adventure, basically Zulu! for D&D, but I think that I would want to have discreet models or pictures for every NPC in the farm. There is no chance of the players successfully distinguishing between that swarm of halflings otherwise. But with visual aids to differentiate them, I think that it could be a good thing: run as a siege over the course of one night, supplies running low, lots of wounded NPCs on 1hp struggling to man barricades, etc...

 

[Rhenny]

We had fun with the spire as well. Interestingly, with the down time before the feast one of the pcs in the party insulted a few Knights and the ended up having a non-lethal duel. The PC was winning, but when the knight offered to give in, the PC decked him. After the feast, late at night, the Knights with a cleric (I added him so I could try hold person on the party) came to bring the party up to the pinacle to face a tribunal. I had planned to have the pcs speak in defense of their comrade to try and sway Thurl Merresko to their side. If they couldn't sway him, the Knights would toss the PC who fought off the spire. Well..the party didn't acquiesce to this plan. Instead they fought their way out of the spire and ran into the valley to seek refuge.

 

[pukunui]

Thanks guys. I have to admit, I was starting to lean toward the spire myself, but the guy playing the bard says he's in the mood for "an orc bloodbath". Go figure. Still waiting to see what the other two say (I gave them the choice between defending a homestead against waves of rampaging orcs vs visiting a tower inhabited by knights who ride flying mounts).

 

[Pinwheel]

The Ranch is incredibly fun but quite difficult for a new DM to handle that amount of crunch. I'm sure there's different ways to run it, but we did it as a an actual battlemap and it was intense. I think we ended up killing some 40 or 50 orcs, and lost the majority of the fighting commoners while sparing the civilians.

However, was easily one of the most fun sessions we've ever had.

 

[pukunui]

[MENTION=6804815]Pinwheel[/MENTION]: Cool. I think I could manage a big battle like that. It would just take the whole session, most likely. Is that how it went for you guys? If I do go with the ranch, I think I'll just wait and see how the players deploy the troops. If they put their PCs all in the same place, I'll just focus on that area and narrate what happens elsewhere, but if they mix their PCs in with the NPCs, then I'll let them control the NPCs that are stationed with their PC and then narrate events in the areas where there are no PCs. Hope that makes sense.

BTW, Philly is my hometown!

 

[pukunui]

OK. The guys voted 2-1 in favor of the orcs. I'm thinking I'll mix things up a bit and have some custom orc varieties - maybe some orc scouts, an orc berserker, and so on.

 

[Rhenny]

OK. The guys voted 2-1 in favor of the orcs. I'm thinking I'll mix things up a bit and have some custom orc varieties - maybe some orc scouts, an orc berserker, and so on.

I'm sure it will be fun. it has the potential to be very cinematic. Happy gaming.

 

[pukunui]

I'm sure it will be fun. it has the potential to be very cinematic. Happy gaming.

Thanks. I hope so too. As I said above, I think I'll just wait and see how the players set up the defences before deciding whether to play out every battle or just narrate the fights in which the PCs aren't involved. I've statted up all the NPCs anyway, just in case, and I'm coming up with some customized orcs too.