D&D 5E Retrospectives on the Yawning Portal adventures

[DEFCON 1]

Just a thought, but how much easier will tomb of horrors be now that we have access to at-will cantrips (mainly Mage hand so we don't have to stand next to the door to set it off?)

Probably! But the one thing that were I to run this for my players I'd have to remember and force myself to do... is to go against all my better instincts for how I like to run my games and never ask for Perception checks or coax players to tell me what they would like to do.

As I'm usually a "story-first" DM... I help my players by reminding them of things that have happened previously, or abilities they have but might have forgotten. Which would make Tomb of Horrors less deadly, if I'm constantly giving little bits of info off of ability checks that either I've prompted them to take or they just do for grand overviews of what they are experiencing.

Only if I play it completely blank and only speak when spoken to and give completely neutral information will I be able to run the game the way it was originally meant to be played and not like my typical 5E style game would go.

 

[flametitan]

Probably! But the one thing that were I to run this for my players I'd have to remember and force myself to do... is to go against all my better instincts for how I like to run my games and never ask for Perception checks or coax players to tell me what they would like to do.

As I'm usually a "story-first" DM... I help my players by reminding them of things that have happened previously, or abilities they have but might have forgotten. Which would make Tomb of Horrors less deadly, if I'm constantly giving little bits of info off of ability checks that either I've prompted them to take or they just do for grand overviews of what they are experiencing.

Oh I wouldn't remind them if they forgot abilities, that's their job to read their character sheets. I'm more saying (assuming a smart player making use of their abilities), 5e PCs have a few more tricks up their sleeves than AD&D characters did.

It's definitely moot if they don't use them.

I'm also not a fan of rolling to find traps. If I was better at dropping hints, I'd prefer to save perception for stealth (and I'm not sure how I'd ideally use investigation)

 

[Charles Rampant]

I now just roll the Traps 'Hide' against the players' passive perception. I couldn't see any other way of keeping it possible for a trap to work against a Cleric with passive perception 19, nor did I find it fun to constantly ask for/be asked for active checks. So now I roll the dice myself, and sometimes the trap rolls high and beats passive, but other times it rolls low and they spot it. Simples.

Mage Hand is indeed basically a hard-counter to many traps. You can get evil with traps that activate from a distance, like gas or whatever, but I think it is hard to justify many of those in a 'normal' campaign. Tomb of Horrors is the obvious exception to that issue...

 

[RulesJD]

*snip*

Mage Hand is indeed basically a hard-counter to many traps. You can get evil with traps that activate from a distance, like gas or whatever, but I think it is hard to justify many of those in a 'normal' campaign. Tomb of Horrors is the obvious exception to that issue...

Every door/trap requires 11 pounds of pressure to trigger. Tada, problem solved.

For doors that can be opened with less, just have Glyphs of Warding for when a Mage Hand gets within 5ft, throw Fireball at the obvious hiding/cover point within 30ft.

 

[MerricB]

I've been running some old-school adventures recently where pits have a 4-in-6 chance of triggering. Which meant that it was the second rank that triggered the trap, not the first rank...

Cheers!

 

[Parmandur]

Every door/trap requires 11 pounds of pressure to trigger. Tada, problem solved.

For doors that can be opened with less, just have Glyphs of Warding for when a Mage Hand gets within 5ft, throw Fireball at the obvious hiding/cover point within 30ft.

If anybody would ensure their doors/traps needed 11 pounds of force to trigger, it's Ackerack in a world with at-will Mage Hand...

 

[darjr]

I think it'll take more force than can be achieved with mage hand, just a guess.

 

[pemerton]

Just a thought, but how much easier will tomb of horrors be now that we have access to at-will cantrips (mainly Mage hand so we don't have to stand next to the door to set it off?)

5e PCs have a few more tricks up their sleeves than AD&D characters did.

I haven't looked through ToH with Mage Hand in particular in mind; but even back in the day ToH involved effectively at-will magic, because there is no reason no to rest and recover spells as often as you need to.

 

[aco175]

I remember playing through many of these and hope that the 5e changes to them will both- be fun to play and not just a clone of the original. I hope there are enough surprises to make if fresh while keeping the coolness of the original. This is the first of these 5e releases that I'm looking forward to buying.

 

[JediSoth]

I'm really interested to see how they update these adventures for 5th edition. I assume they're doing more than swapping out monster stats, 'cause I've done that with AD&D adventures and they run just fine and it's very little work.

White Plume Mountain is one of my favorite AD&D adventures (I always gravitated towards the more wacky ones, like WPM and The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror); I liked it so much I made several references/homages to it in my first novel.