D&D 5E Enhancing "Waterdeep: Dragon Heist"

robus · Oct 24, 2018

Updated my list of DMs Guild (and other) related content. Added some new entries and refreshed the star ratings for the existing ones.

pukunui · Oct 24, 2018

André Soares said:
Maybe Mirt's rate is based on the renown of the characters with the Harpers... the higher your renown, lower is the interest rate. I think it would be interesting to make the Cassalanters the most tempting offer, paint them in a nice tone and low rates, make the characters like them. Then, even if they're not your main villains, they can affect the story latter.

Good ideas. Thanks.

Any ideas on specific interest rates?

collin · Oct 24, 2018

pukunui said:
Good ideas. Thanks.

Any ideas on specific interest rates?

Whatever the market will bear.

Seriously, if you want the moneylenders to be more on the generous side, I think 10% would be reasonable. If you want them to be more greedy, I would shoot for 25%.

Guest 6801328 · Oct 25, 2018

collin said:
Whatever the market will bear.

Seriously, if you want the moneylenders to be more on the generous side, I think 10% would be reasonable. If you want them to be more greedy, I would shoot for 25%.

???

Per what?

Makes all the difference.

pukunui · Oct 25, 2018

Elfcrusher said:
???

Per what?

Makes all the difference.

Good point.

On a different note, I feel like chapter 2 has some issues, particularly in terms of the faction missions.

The biggest issue is one of timing. I suppose they can tackle their 3rd level missions while they're following up on the fireball clues but before they go to Gralhund Villa, but once they get there, it's pretty much straight on the plot train through to the big finale in the Vault of Dragons. When are they supposed to have a chance to do their 4th and 5th level faction missions?

Another issue with the timing relates specifically to the Zhent missions. After the PCs complete the first two, Tashlyn takes over from Davil, who's been arrested. So their first mission from her would be the 4th level mission. If they are curious about their new handler and seek to meet her, the book says she's able to reveal quite a bit about Urstul Floxin ... but by 4th level, the PCs should have already dealt with him at Gralhund Villa!

Lastly, not all of the missions are level appropriate. Take the second Harpers mission, for instance: A single gazer is holed up in some lady's shop. My party wasted the gazer in the sewer. It never even got to fire off a single eye ray. They were 1st level then. This sidequest is aimed at 3rd level PCs. What a joke!

As a result, I am thinking I will ignore the whole "one per level" faction mission limit and just let them complete several missions before the fireball goes off.

EDIT: As an aside, I just noticed that it's "Force Grey" and the "Gray Hands". What's up with that?!

collin · Oct 25, 2018

Elfcrusher said:
???

Per what?

Makes all the difference.

5000 gp. Pick a number.

"I'm a role-player, not a realtor, Spock!"

And if you want the moneylenders to be real jerks about it, you could have the interest compounded on a weekly or daily basis.

collin · Oct 25, 2018

As an added fun bonus, you could have the group hire a contractor who practically lives at the place, having to make constant repairs and never finishes or leaves (the ghost, perhaps?). Sort of like the Eldin Bernecky character from the original Murphy Brown TV series.

robus · Oct 25, 2018

pukunui said:
Lastly, not all of the missions are level appropriate. Take the second Harpers mission, for instance: A single gazer is holed up in some lady's shop. My party wasted the gazer in the sewer. It never even got to fire off a single eye ray. They were 1st level then. This sidequest is aimed at 3rd level PCs. What a joke!

This is starting to really bug me about WotC's adventures. They never reveal what an encounter was actually designed for (making one start to think that there was little to no consideration made, just went for what seemed cool... it can't really be that, but the fact that they're not willing to document the challenge, i.e. Easy, Medium, Hard, Deadly for 4 PCs at Level X, makes it appear that way).

Of course this encounter doesn't even fit into that range! So swap it out for a Spectator for a more appropriate challenge. But really what were they thinking?

lluewhyn · Oct 25, 2018

robus said:
This is starting to really bug me about WotC's adventures. They never reveal what an encounter was actually designed for (making one start to think that there was little to no consideration made, just went for what seemed cool... it can't really be that, but the fact that they're not willing to document the challenge, i.e. Easy, Medium, Hard, Deadly for 4 PCs at Level X, makes it appear that way).

This is a big issue with me. I think a simple fix (one that would at least give a head's up to the DM) would be to include the CR of the NPCs after their type. "Inside the room are six thieves (treat as Bandits, CR 1/2, led by a Half-Orc mob enforcer named Grunk (treat as Veteran, CR 2. (I'm writing from work so don't know the actual CRs)

I ran into this several times with Curse of Strahd, where there never is any acknowledgement about the general intent of the encounter, such as the infamous Hag fight that would mop the floor with the players if played correctly, or the encounter with two Iron Golems in a sealed room. I guess the assumption is that you're going through the adventure with the Monster Manual in one hand, your PC character sheets in the other, double-checking the math the whole time and making copious notes on sticky notes and pasting them all around the adventure, and know exactly what the writer was going for.

My issue isn't with the deadliness (or lack thereof) as much as lack of disclosure. If it was marked that said encounter was supposed to be easy/difficult/lethal/etc., it would serve as a head's up for me to take a second look and make my own determination if I wanted to leave that way or make any further preparations.

I ran into this with the Dragon Heist session before last where the PCs tackled the sewer hideout at the end of Chapter One. The Gazer is such an obviously pathetic fight, but I left him in (PCs deserve some easy wins sometimes), but I didn't realize the full lethality of the Intellect Devourer until after the session where the Fighter was stunned by Devour Intellect and asked "How is this cured?".

Would have been nice for the adventure to note that any PCs afflicted with the Devour Intellect ability can only be restored with a Greater Restoration spell. Said spell could be found at X temple for the cost of Y, Renaer Neverember can pull some strings to get someone to cast it once Floon is rescued, etc. Obviously, anyone afflicted by Body Thief is toast.

Instead, the adventure omits discussing the entire tactical strategy of the creature and the DM (in this case, me) has to come up with something on the fly if they've never used these monsters before. Of course, this is exasperated by the fact that the MM description is somewhat coy about how difficult it is to cure the condition.

This is a longer rant than originally intended and I know I'll just have to be more careful about reviewing all fights ahead of time, but dang, it wouldn't kill the designers to add a line or two discussing the intended difficulty and concerns for some fights.