D&D 5E Dreams of the Red Wizards: Dead in Thay (spoilers allowed)

[Argyle King]

Actually, there are no warforged in the Dead in Thay packet.

So they're not allowed?


I suppose that's where some confusion comes in because some of the characters were characters that players kept from last season and just leveled up. Thus far, Warforged have been in the Encounters (and playtest) packets. Was the intent for all of those players to remake characters? I was of the impression that Dead In Thay was supposed to continue some of the story from earlier seasons...? The warforged characters I mention were created during the previous season.

 

[jodyjohnson]

From the DM-perspective the whole thing doesn't sound like the scenario as written.

Granting Warforged immunity to Cloudkill seems like DM generosity or rules lawyering. And the fact that a lich tried to kill you with it as ruled seems ridiculous.

But if you had fun, not a big deal.

I changed up a bunch of stuff for the event so I'm not complaining. (We also only had a single group).

 

[MerricB]

So they're not allowed?


I suppose that's where some confusion comes in because some of the characters were characters that players kept from last season and just leveled up. Thus far, Warforged have been in the Encounters (and playtest) packets.

They're not in the Scourge of the Sword Coast interim rules documents either.

Look, Wizards are pretty fine with people playing whatever they like for Encounters. There's no "banned" list. The Warforged and Kender appeared in the last of the playtest packets as examples of races you can use to customise worlds. They're both entirely inappropriate for the Forgotten Realms, but if you want to use them and your DM agrees? That's fine. Go ahead!

Personally, I find Warforged problematic. I think the immunity to breathing thing (and [MENTION=5590]jodyjohnson[/MENTION], the notes for cloudkill say that constructs are not affected) causes problems which the playtest version doesn't adequately balance. That said, the lich should realise that you're immune and use another spell... like an 8d6 fireball!

This encounters season is particularly challenging to run for multiple groups, though. I'll write my description of what happened at my store soon. (17 players, 3 DMs and me as co-ordinator). Lots of judgement needed so the players are challenged but not overwhelmed. Occasionally, you'll get a group of players who waltz through encounters, but I can say that at our store we had 6 PCs unconscious and dying at some point during the evening...

Cheers!

 

[jodyjohnson]

The warforged race description calls them out as constructed humanoids.

Living Construct: Even though you were constructed, you are a humanoid. You are immune to disease. You do not need to eat or breathe, but you can ingest food and drink if you wish.

I think either case could be argued but in 3e or 4e terms being humanoid puts them in the 'subject to all kinds of nasty stuff' category.

Only immunity to disease is called out. But they seem open to rules lawyering either from the 'they are still constructs and humanoids' angle or a flavor use of 'cloudkill' that only effects things that breath, which would be reading into the rules, and might introduce the 'hold my breath' defense.

But ultimately, I think we agree. It was a poor choice by the lich. A lich that used to full potential could have wiped the room (free auto-saves, multiple spells per round, and immunity to magic probably including channel divinity ("you gain the ability to channel divine energy directly from your deity, using that energy to fuel magical effects.")

Within the context of the launch adventure the lich was a plot device, but a tempting target nonetheless.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

(snip) The Warforged and Kender appeared in the last of the playtest packets as examples of races you can use to customise worlds. They're both entirely inappropriate for the Forgotten Realms, but if you want to use them and your DM agrees? (snip)

Warforged make perfect sense in the Realms. They could be free-willed constructs created by the priesthood of Gond or legacies of ancient Raumathaur... or both.

Kender? I wouldn't allow them even in Dragonlance. They're designed to disrupt play and thus are better suited to crappy novels.

 

[Argyle King]

They're not in the Scourge of the Sword Coast interim rules documents either.

Look, Wizards are pretty fine with people playing whatever they like for Encounters. There's no "banned" list. The Warforged and Kender appeared in the last of the playtest packets as examples of races you can use to customise worlds. They're both entirely inappropriate for the Forgotten Realms, but if you want to use them and your DM agrees? That's fine. Go ahead!

Personally, I find Warforged problematic. I think the immunity to breathing thing (and @jodyjohnson , the notes for cloudkill say that constructs are not affected) causes problems which the playtest version doesn't adequately balance. That said, the lich should realise that you're immune and use another spell... like an 8d6 fireball!

This encounters season is particularly challenging to run for multiple groups, though. I'll write my description of what happened at my store soon. (17 players, 3 DMs and me as co-ordinator). Lots of judgement needed so the players are challenged but not overwhelmed. Occasionally, you'll get a group of players who waltz through encounters, but I can say that at our store we had 6 PCs unconscious and dying at some point during the evening...

Cheers!

I think part of what may be making it easy for the groups here is that a lot of characters seem to be a combination of fighter and something; taking advantage of having multiple actions.

I suppose I'm guilty of that too; my character falls both into the category of Warforged and someone with multiple actions. Warforged - Fighter/War Cleric.

I'm using the warforged mechanics, but don't view the character as a warforged exactly. The brief background is that my character was once a living cleric of a god which no longer exists. When he died, his soul was unable to move on because it had no place to go, and now his spirit is bound to the armor he wore in life. I went with a mix of fighter and cleric because that fit the theme I was going for.

 

[mykesfree]

My group just finished this adventure. We played it with the full D&D 5E Rules Set. It was a lot of fun. I changed somethings slightly and most of it was just modifying it for one player group instead of the group play suggested. Lots of fun encounters that runs almost the entire monster manual. Plenty of role-playing opportunities in each of the encounters. The adventure could be mined for plenty of single session games for your own adventures.

If you have any questions about the adventure feel free to ask.

Myke

 

[Yazgan]

How did you handle with the glyph keys? Did you let your players to explore all rooms?

 

[jasper]

Its expected you do all the rooms?

yes as an agent of Nodwick and Henchmen of Thay (hot); you are require to explore each room. And bring back everything. Currently we HOTs are suiting Posers. Posters Of Enworld. Various posers have not room broom Rooms 8 , 42, 71 HIkE!. Plus those posers have not bought any "DiT" (Dead in Thay) t-shirts. Come on they only 20 gp for a small.

 

[jasper]

No they don't have to explore every room. And it says if you're running it for a group at home, feel free to adjust the rate at which the player's gain levels. 25 rooms per level is a suggestion.

Do you have a page quote there? Sonny.
Grr. just saw the time stamp never mind. What I doing is giving out xp per session. And leveling after a long rest.