D&D 5E Neverwinter 5e

[aramis erak]

Well, right off the bat there is something that confuses me about the stat blocks. The use of terms like "brute," "lurker", "controller", "skirmisher" and such. What do these mean, and is knowing what they mean important in converting them?

They are "roles" for various monsters. The monster roles list (specialty) is artillery (Ranged Attacks), brute (Melee), controller (magic, buff/debuff), lurker (avoiding attacks), skirmisher (engage-melee-disengage), and soldier (high defenses). An additional role, "Minion", can be added to the others - minions specialize in being killed - a minion has only 1 HP, and is worth reduced XP, but is otherwise normal for the monster type,

The Roles for PC's were divided into controller (Wizard), defender (Fighter, Paladin), leader (Cleric, Warlord), and striker (Ranger, Rogue, Warlock).

Knowing them isn't vital for ones that are in both editions. Knowing them for the ones that aren't is useful for replacing them with either custom conversions or near-equivalents.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Well, right off the bat there is something that confuses me about the stat blocks. The use of terms like "brute," "lurker", "controller", "skirmisher" and such. What do these mean, and is knowing what they mean important in converting them?

Adding to what [MENTION=6779310]aramis erak[/MENTION] said, think of them this way:

Artillery = archer or a wizard that focusses on damage-dealing spells. They don't want to get caught in melee.

Brute = ogre. It packs a punch and can take a lot of punishment but is really easy to hit.

Controller = wizard with condition-creating spells, walls, and/or zones. This could also be an aboleth. Basically, they win without causing hit point damage.

Lurker = thief with sneak attack who needs to pull off the right combination of circumstances to hit you with massive damage. They don't want to get caught in melee.

Skirmisher = standard monster. Normally in 4E they're the more manoeuvrable monsters but I haven't worked out what that means in 5E yet.

Soldier = king of melee combat because of high AC and some battlefield control. This is, of course, the fighter.

With those rough guidelines in mind, you could probably just re-skin any of the Neverwinter stat blocks with something from the Monster Manual or one of the published adventures. For example, one of those devolved aboleth could easily become an ogre that deals psychic damage. I don't think there's a big need to do a lot of work re-statting a lot of these beasties.

 

[tomservo999]

Thanks guys. That will definitely be helpful in retconning some of these beasties for my 5E game.

Now I come to the plaguescarred monsters. According to all I read. The spellplague is over in the Realms, the spellplagued have been fixed, and all the plaguelands are gone. In light of this does it make sense to use plaguescarred critters? I guess I can still use them, assuming that the Abolethic Sovereignty has found a way to create spellplagued monsters. Not sure how to make those work 5e. Or the Symphony of Madness. I guess I could just assume, now that the spellplague is over, the Sovereignty has had to shift its goals and tactics....sorry, just thinking out loud...lol.

Also, her are the first 3 of my converted character themes. Just the crunchy bits.

BREGAN D'AERTHE Spy

Skill Proficiencies: Deception, Stealth.
Tool Proficiencies: Disguise kit
Languages: Deep Speech, and Undercommon.
Equipment: A disguise kit, a set of dark common clothes including a hood, a belt pouch containing 15 gp.

FEATURE: Spy Sight

Your duty as a spy is to watch, listen, and learn, and you have honed your senses to the limit. When you enter a state of total waking concentration, little can escape your notice. For 1 minute, you have advantage on Investigation and Perception checks. You must complete a short or long rest to use this ability again.

DEAD RAT DESERTER

Skill Proficiencies: Intimidate, Stealth
Tool Proficiencies: Disguise kit, thieves’ tools.
Equipment: A set of dark common clothes, a disguise kit, a small knife, a belt pouch containing 15 gp

FEATURE: Safe Houses
While you can no longer expect succor in the pirate city of Luskan, you have a couple of safehouses among the cities of the area, including Neverwinter, and Leilon. These houses are small, but secure (only you have the keys). To avoid arousing suspicion, you can only stay in each once per tenday. You also know local messengers who can deliver messages for you.

DEVIL'S PAWN

Skill Proficiencies: Deception, Religion
Languages: Supernal and one other of your choice.
Equipment: A set of fine clothes, 2 bottles of fine wine, and a belt pouch containing 25 gp.

FEATURE: Hells’s Secrets
Your brand has given you insight into the machinations of Hell’s denizens. You have an advantage on all Persuasion checks made to interact with devils, duergar, devil cultists, and other creatures devoted to devils. In addition, medium-sized or smaller devils must make a morale check to attack you directly.

 

[Nebulous]

A quick warning: Keep on the Shadowfell is an epic bucket of suck. It sucks as hard as a Gygaxian bag of holding placed inside a Gygaxian portable hole: basically it creates a rift that sucks. And I really do wish I was indulging in hyperbole....

I was about to post to the OP , "You're going to get a LOT of flak for mentioning Keep on the Shadowfell!" But then i saw this and thought i'd start here.

I ran Shadowfell. I really don't think it was that bad, but then again, i added stuff to it considerably so i guess it wasn't quite by-the-book. A lot of the perceived problems with KotS were just inherent 4e issues: basically back to back set piece encounters. That was the nature of the whole game, and the adventure simply catered to the rules. Now adding a few twists, such as introducing Kalarel earlier to the PCs and giving him wider motivations (and reasons to hate him) would go a very long ways.

So yes, i absolutely think you could run KotS in 5th edition and enjoy it. Plus it comes with some cool battlemaps. If you use those in 5e. In fact it might make a better adventure for 5th edition than it did for 4th. Story based and less combat centric.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Those backgrounds look great! I may just offer them to my players....

Yeah, personally, I took a very minimalist approach to the Spellplague in my game and also ditched the whole Symphony of Madness and the devil cult. My players ended the Spellplague threat to Neverwinter by dealing with the source in the Chasm - no Symphony and my version of Helm's Hold is a more like Madness at Gardmore Abbey - and I replaced the whole devil crap with a cult of Graz'zt hidden within the church of Waukeen (this is something that dates back to the Time of Troubles). My players will eventually be unravelling that as Neverember is part of it... but first they need to deal with the Red Wizards of the Dread Ring.

Also, 4E's take on the duergar was that they were diabolic creatures - basically what durzagon were in 3E's Fiend Folio - rather than the more psionic creatures of every other edition. I'm pretty sure that 5E has gone back to the original version so you might want to take note of that in your devil's pawn background which mentions duergar.

Back to the Abolethic Sovereignty, you could still choose to simply have an independent city beneath Neverwinter and stick to the traditional aboleth monsters like the skum. That also throws up the possibility of a flying aboleth city belonging to the Sovereignty later appearing over Neverwinter in order to persuade the non-Sovereignty aboleth to join them.

TL;DR: Unless you're really wedded to the whole idea of the Spellplague, personally I would just drop the whole plaguechanged business.

 

[CM]

Thanks guys. That will definitely be helpful in retconning some of these beasties for my 5E game.

Now I come to the plaguescarred monsters. According to all I read. The spellplague is over in the Realms, the spellplagued have been fixed, and all the plaguelands are gone. In light of this does it make sense to use plaguescarred critters? I guess I can still use them, assuming that the Abolethic Sovereignty has found a way to create spellplagued monsters. Not sure how to make those work 5e. Or the Symphony of Madness. I guess I could just assume, now that the spellplague is over, the Sovereignty has had to shift its goals and tactics....sorry, just thinking out loud...lol.

I guess it depends on how much work you want to put into converting. If it were me, I'd leave the pocket of spellplague in Neverwinter so I could continue to run the campaign as-is, perhaps culminating in the elimination of the plague at the end of the campaign. Dead and wild magic zones remained behind after the Time of Troubles, so I don't see why the Sundering has to be any different with regards to the spellplague.

 

[tomservo999]

Those backgrounds look great! I may just offer them to my players....

Yeah, personally, I took a very minimalist approach to the Spellplague in my game and also ditched the whole Symphony of Madness and the devil cult. My players ended the Spellplague threat to Neverwinter by dealing with the source in the Chasm - no Symphony and my version of Helm's Hold is a more like Madness at Gardmore Abbey - and I replaced the whole devil crap with a cult of Graz'zt hidden within the church of Waukeen (this is something that dates back to the Time of Troubles). My players will eventually be unravelling that as Neverember is part of it... but first they need to deal with the Red Wizards of the Dread Ring.

Also, 4E's take on the duergar was that they were diabolic creatures - basically what durzagon were in 3E's Fiend Folio - rather than the more psionic creatures of every other edition. I'm pretty sure that 5E has gone back to the original version so you might want to take note of that in your devil's pawn background which mentions duergar.

Back to the Abolethic Sovereignty, you could still choose to simply have an independent city beneath Neverwinter and stick to the traditional aboleth monsters like the skum. That also throws up the possibility of a flying aboleth city belonging to the Sovereignty later appearing over Neverwinter in order to persuade the non-Sovereignty aboleth to join them.

TL;DR: Unless you're really wedded to the whole idea of the Spellplague, personally I would just drop the whole plaguechanged business.

I did not realize that 4E had changed the duergar. I will edit my Devil's Pawn to take that into account. As far as Helm's Hold goes, I think I might take a page from the 3.5 adventure Cormyr: Tearing of the Weave. In that adventure some priests of Shar had built a false temple of Mystra in Suzail. I might keep the whole devil cult thing....just have it masquerading as a temple of Helm. And since Helm just got back from death....he's not really in a position to deal with it. I will probably remove the tie in to the Aboloethic Sovereignty. I do like the idea of Galt being a hopeless thrall of the aboleths and will definitely be keeping that. Now Neverember...hmmmm....

I like the idea of a separate aboleth city underneath Neverwinter too. With the whole Evernight thing too. I go back and forth on the spellplague thing. If it isn't too hard to convert spellplague critters to 5E, I may keep it...though I am more inclined to just drop it.

Here are my next 3 character theme conversions.

HARPER AGENT

Skill Proficiencies: Deception, Perception
Languages: Two of your choice.
Equipment: 2 scrolls cases for maps and scrolls; one containing a map of Neverwinter, the other 10 sheets of blank parchment, a set of traveler’s clothes, a waterskin, and a pouch containing 15 gp.

FEATURE: Harper Pin
You own a Harper pin. A slightly tarnished brooch, the pin resembles nothing so much as a cheap bauble. However, it is an object of great power and even greater significance. While wearing this pin, you may immediately reroll any die roll. You must abide by the second roll. You may not use this power again until you have engaged in a short or long rest.

HEIR OF DELZOUN

Skill Proficiencies: History, Investigation
Tool Proficiency: Mason’s tools, or Smith’s tools.
Languages: One of your choice.
Equipment: A set of artisans tools (smith’s or mason’s), a signet ring, a scroll of pedigree, and a pouch containing 25 gp.

FEATURE: Dwarven Nobility
Your connection to Delzoun’s storied past clings to you like a mantle. Other dwarves can’t help but notice your regal bearing. You have advantage on all Persuasion and Intimidate checks made to interact with dwarves.

ILIYANBRUEN GUARDIAN

Skill Proficiencies: Arcana, Nature.
Languages: Sylvan and one other language of your choice.
Equipment: A dungeoneer’s pack (backpack, crowbar, hammer, 10 pitons, 10 torches, a tinderbox, 10 days of rations, waterskin, 50 feet of hempen rope.

FEATURE: Feywild Knowledge
Your time in the demesnes of the fey has allowed you to learn a bit of their strange ways, even if you still can’t quite understand them fully. You can immediately identify if a hidden pathway leads to a fey realm, or if a certain area or event harbors the traces of fey activity. Additionally, you can easily find shelter and gather a day’s worth of sustenance for yourself (and yourself alone) when you travel in the wilderness where mortal civilization is nearly nonexistent.

Feywild Knowledge was stolen from the Wildling background here at EN World by @Morrus. Wanted to give credit where credit is due

 

[tomservo999]

I guess it depends on how much work you want to put into converting. If it were me, I'd leave the pocket of spellplague in Neverwinter so I could continue to run the campaign as-is, perhaps culminating in the elimination of the plague at the end of the campaign. Dead and wild magic zones remained behind after the Time of Troubles, so I don't see why the Sundering has to be any different with regards to the spellplague.

This is a possibility...again, it just depends on how much work converting spellplague critters turns out to be. You are right though, just because the spellplague is over doesn't mean that there aren't little pockets of it here and there.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

(snip) I might keep the whole devil cult thing....just have it masquerading as a temple of Helm. And since Helm just got back from death....he's not really in a position to deal with it. I will probably remove the tie in to the Aboloethic Sovereignty. I do like the idea of Galt being a hopeless thrall of the aboleths and will definitely be keeping that. Now Neverember...hmmmm.... (snip)

I really like that.

I have a diabolic cult, too, but it's focussed on Malkizid, the Branded King, rather than Asmodeus. It's also located in the Starmetal Hills on the eastern edge of the Neverwinter Wood rather than in Neverwinter itself (at least for the moment).

Good job on the other three themes.

This is a possibility...again, it just depends on how much work converting spellplague critters turns out to be. You are right though, just because the spellplague is over doesn't mean that there aren't little pockets of it here and there.

The other thing to consider is what the Spellplague means to your game. IMC, the blue flame bits are the remnants of Mystra and the Weave but, after Mystra and the Weave get "rebuilt", they won't be around any more, at least not in the quantities they are now.

(Also, stolen from the Rise of the Underdark storyline, I have drow experimenting on areas of Spellplague, including under Neverwinter, as part of Lolth's plan to create a Demon Weave. But that's my game.)

So, adding on some fire damage and fire resistance is easy enough but you may wish to think about the story impact of such creatures existing in your version of the Realms. Or not. Not everything has to be explained, of course.

 

[tomservo999]

I really like that.

I have a diabolic cult, too, but it's focussed on Malkizid, the Branded King, rather than Asmodeus. It's also located in the Starmetal Hills on the eastern edge of the Neverwinter Wood rather than in Neverwinter itself (at least for the moment).

Good job on the other three themes.



The other thing to consider is what the Spellplague means to your game. IMC, the blue flame bits are the remnants of Mystra and the Weave but, after Mystra and the Weave get "rebuilt", they won't be around any more, at least not in the quantities they are now.

(Also, stolen from the Rise of the Underdark storyline, I have drow experimenting on areas of Spellplague, including under Neverwinter, as part of Lolth's plan to create a Demon Weave. But that's my game.)

So, adding on some fire damage and fire resistance is easy enough but you may wish to think about the story impact of such creatures existing in your version of the Realms. Or not. Not everything has to be explained, of course.

I am going to use the temple of mystra/shar from Cormyr: Tearing of the Weave, just inserting the Prophet Rohini as the leader. I am not sure yet if it's a devil cult per se....Bane/theZhentarim...maybe Cyric.

The Demon Weave sounds interesting.

Here are the next three backgrounds.

NEVERWINTER NOBLE

Skill Proficiencies: History, Persuasion
Tool Proficiencies: One type of gaming set.
Languages: Two languages of your choice.
Equipment: A set of fine clothes, a signet ring, and a purse containing 50 gp.

FEATURE: Overwhelming Optimism
Descended from great rulers who acquired their throne by strength and force of will, you are a natural leader. Your overwhelming optimism can turn the darkest of battles into victory. You gain an advantage on all Persuasion rolls made to interact with the citizens of Neverwinter and on Intimidate checks made against any who oppose your rule in Neverwinter.

OGHMA'S FAITHFUL

Skill Proficiencies: History, Religion
Tool Proficiencies: Cartographer’s tools.
Languages: Two of your choice.
Equipment: A holy symbol of Oghma, a bottle of black ink, a quill, a scroll case stuffed with blank paper for your notes, Cartographer’s tools, and a purse with 15gp.

FEATURE: Understand Language

Oghma’s guidance provides understanding, and the secrets of language are revealed to you for a short time. Choose a language you have heard of seen within the past 24 hours. Until the end of the encounter, you can read and understand that language.

PACK OUTCAST

Skill Proficiencies: Nature, Survival
Tool Proficiency: Herbalism kit
Equipment: A staff, a hunting trap, traveler’s clothes and a pouch containing 10 gp.

FEATURE: Friend of the Wolf
Wolves will never attack you; indeed, you can rely upon them for assistance and aid. In addition, you gain advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks made in plains environments, enabling you to easily follow tracks, hunt, guide and more in that environment.

This last feature is a direct conversion, and may need a little more clarity.