D&D 5E [SPOILERS] Enhancing Tomb of Annihilation

[Nebulous]

On a different note, Eye of the Deep, the "sea witch" aboard the Dragonfang, is meant to use the default druid statblock. But given that she spends most of her time at sea, I don't think the default druid's spell selection makes much sense for her. I'm going to give her the following default spell selection instead:

Cantrips: druidcraft, magic stone,* shape water
1st level: faerie fire, fog cloud, ice knife,* thunderwave
2nd level: barkskin, hold person


*Elemental Evil Player's Companion

Those will work, but this is one place in 5e I wish they would really inject new spells or spell like abilities for monsters, instead of just sampling the core spells we see all the time.

 

[Guest 6801328]

On the other hand, Create Food and Water handwaves the exhaustion, Leomund's Tiny Hut the resting, Lay on Hands the disease.... The list goes on...

If you really want to play up the environmental horror of Chult, you definitely can't use the base game without tweaks.

Playing without a Cleric (or Druid?) is a good start, to make water an issue.

Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

Last I checked, spell slots were a finite resource.

 

[Nebulous]

Last I checked, spell slots were a finite resource.

Every day you cross a hex, 24 hours pass, all your spell slots reset. So not really finite in that respect. You would have to prevent the party from long resting to make spells finite in the exploration phase. And ToA might touch on that, I'm not sure. Can you actually long rest in Zombie zones? I don't think you can during monsoon weather either or heavy storms.

 

[extralead]

Every day you cross a hex, 24 hours pass, all your spell slots reset. So not really finite in that respect. You would have to prevent the party from long resting to make spells finite in the exploration phase. And ToA might touch on that, I'm not sure. Can you actually long rest in Zombie zones? I don't think you can during monsoon weather either or heavy storms.

Yes, the party can rest in undead zones. The random encounters section is relatively-clear on what happens if the specific encounter occurs while the party is camped.

As for water, the party will likely acquire the alchemy jug early-on in the adventure due to its location at the shine above Camp Righteous. There is at least one guide with Druid spells, and 3 side questers with Cleric spells. The party can and should likely consist of Cleric(s) and/or Druid(s) with water purification and creation spells (Paladins as well, but not as a ritual), in addition to Wizard(s) with Rope Trick and/or Leomund's Tiny Hut. Elf characters only need to meditate 4 hours per day to be equivalent to a long rest. Rainwater collectors, ruins, shrines, marked locations, and Emerald Enclave outposts can make for excellent sources of both water and shelter -- and note that the party can stock up on water to bring with them into further excursions into the jungle. Occasionally, characters with outstanding (or just more-difficult) Survival checks will locate purified water or excellent sources for shelter. These rolls can even be augmented by the Owl's Wisdom effect from the spell Enhance Ability. If the party isn't smart enough to think these options through, then I say hit them with exhaustion and throat leeches every chance you get. That's what the adventure is about.

The weather isn't that bad. From this very thread I learned that heavy rain only occurs 3-9 days per month (most-likely 7 days every 30) with monsoon rain days occurring only once per month. There are plenty of sources for shelter, as describe above -- but another I thought of is the folding boat on the dead wizard's body in Nangalore. You don't have to be on water in order to use the folding boat as a shelter, especially with the bigger option that includes a deck cabin.

 

[Onslaught]

Well,

I didn't see it in another post, so here are a few awesome links do enhance Tomb of Annihilation (or just simplify your DM's life):

PoweScore Step-by-Step Guide: http://thecampaign20xx.blogspot.com.br/2017/09/dungeons-dragons-guide-to-tomb-of.html (this guy always do some amazing work at each new 5e adventure)
PoweScore "How to Run": http://thecampaign20xx.blogspot.com.br/2017/10/dungeons-dragons-how-to-run-tomb-of.html
Skaldforge Hex Crawl Guide: https://skaldforge.wordpress.com/2017/10/02/tomb-of-annihilation-hex-crawl-procedure/

The last one deals with some of the frequent questions that I've seen in this thread. If OP can, could edit first post to include these kinds of gems.

Anyway... I do have some doubts myself:

1) Does the sparse encounter rate make things too easy? Basically, everyone is 100% full for each and every fight. Did anyone use any kind of house rule to overcome that?
2) In practice and without game theory, does use of class abilities and magic just bypass all difficulty of the Exploration part of the game? It's too bad to ask players to don't play classes that would just "skip" great portions of the difficulty?
3) Did anyone make calculations on how many encounters are needed between Port Nyanzaru and Omu for the characters reach the expected level?
4) I'm probably DMing for a party composed of 6 players, how hard is to amp up the difficulty for those? Any tricks on adjusting monster quantity on the fly?
5) It's just me or the book states in Chapter 3 that "the Red Wizards have 2 cubes" but they don't actually tell which ones? We're supposed to choose which shrines players will "skip"?
6) Did anyone do a nice miniatures list needed to play this?
7) Did you guys let players have multiple guides? How did they get enough gold to fund this?
8) Guide-wise, Eku seems a bit "unfun" as she has too many support tools. What difficulties (as DM) did you find using any of the guides?
9) What's the real (practical) chance the players choose the "lame" guides, like Gondolo or the Yuan-Ti?



Shameless plug: I'm adapting ToA to Eberron and writing my thoughts on it here on EnWorld.

Btw, english is my second language and is very-very rusty, so please don't mind writing mistakes

 

[extralead]

... here are a few awesome links do enhance Tomb of Annihilation (or just simplify your DM's life) ...

Thank you for these links, I am definitely finding these useful as I read through them. Here is another that may prove useful -- https://newbiedm.com/2017/09/30/newbiedm-review-tomb-of-annihilation/

Anyway... I do have some doubts myself ... Does the sparse encounter rate make things too easy? Basically, everyone is 100% full for each and every fight. Did anyone use any kind of house rule to overcome that?

Was thinking to roll encounters for a few sessions at a time and then sort them by Total Challenge Rating. After a few attempts, except for a Zombie Trex and a Red Wizards roll a hex or two off from Port Nyanzaru, most of the other rolls made sense and fit well. In particular, I like the encounters like the Triceratops which gives a party the chance to both avoid a fight and gain some treasure.

If there can be a few undead, eblis, or insects (e.g., giant wasps) that can hit the party with everything they've got the same day that the party meets their destination -- usually a marked location -- then I think that's the best a DM can do to raise the difficulty.

In practice and without game theory, does use of class abilities and magic just bypass all difficulty of the Exploration part of the game? It's too bad to ask players to don't play classes that would just "skip" great portions of the difficulty?

People on those blogs you linked to agree that some Ranger powers are a bit too-useful, but I wouldn't worry about it too-much. The surrogates content provided by WotC includes a tabaxi Ranger who starts with Swamp and later adds Forest, as well as a Tortle Circle of Land Druid who starts with Coast.

Flying races should probably not be allowed. I think the way the Adventurer's League explains to players that they can pick one book besides the Players Handbook to flush out their characters makes sense for this adventure. My thought was to allow the same rule, but to disallow the Elemental Evil Player's Companion, or to only allow the spells and not the races from that book. Unsure how Xanathar's Guide To Everything will affect this, but it probably won't and the good news is that most players are going to want to choose it as their second source.

By mid-level Druids and Wizards are the most-difficult to control as they will get out-of hand, but this is true in every campaign and every adventure. DMs should already be equipped to handle these situations.

Did anyone make calculations on how many encounters are needed between Port Nyanzaru and Omu for the characters reach the expected level?

If you follow the guidance on page 84 of the Dungeon Master's Guide, then I would like to see a party average around Level 3 upon completion of Mbala (with the variety of random encounters and the smaller awards from the marked locations around the two rivers sprouting from Port Nyanzaru leading up to that Level 3). The party must travel to Shilku Bay (and complete both dwarven quests) to attain Level 4 and to Jahaka Bay after taking out 3 pirate ships and their crews, bringing their total to 4400 experience. The only single-day marked locations that will bring a full party to Level 5 before Omu would be to take down both the Hvalspyd and Nangalore. Even if the party has another 400 or so experience to get to Level 5, the gargoyle attack at Kir Sabal and the trek to Omu should get them there. It looks to work out rather nicely -- it was certainly well-designed.

I'm probably DMing for a party composed of 6 players, how hard is to amp up the difficulty for those? Any tricks on adjusting monster quantity on the fly?

The adventure adjusts to this size of a party without any modifications. There are a few scenarios such as Camp Righteous and Firefinger that allocate 2 goblins or 2 pterafolk per character. The tricks will mostly involve managing the Druids, Wizards, and other module-breaking character builds.

It's just me or the book states in Chapter 3 that "the Red Wizards have 2 cubes" but they don't actually tell which ones? We're supposed to choose which shrines players will "skip"?

The DM can decide which shines the Red Wizards visit. The first shrine where the party successfully takes a cube, another shrine (probably on the other side of the city) has its cube taken by the Red Wizards. If the party encounters the Red Wizards, they can take that cube, but that's unlikely. It's more-likely that the party will waste at least one day on two or three shrines --- maybe only successfully taking one or two cubes. Each day that goes by, the Red Wizards have a 25 percent chance of taking another cube. RAW says to determine which shrine this is taken from randomly, but I might suggest pitting the party on one side of the city and the Red Wizards on the other side until they work their way towards each other.

Did anyone do a nice miniatures list needed to play this?

Haven't really seen a list per se, but I did find -- http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/miniatures/icons-realms-tomb-annihilation -- and --- http://www.beholderthebargains.com/d-d-minis-tomb-of-annihilation/

Did you guys let players have multiple guides? How did they get enough gold to fund this?

Yes, with the usual quirks of handling multiple NPCs including competing guides and side questers. The party can easily get gold early-on by betting on races, by capturing animals to sell to Merchant-Prince Ifan, or by the normal methods of acquiring treasure and selling off unneeded goods. A Level 1 party shouldn't be able to steal from the merchants, and especially not the Merchant Prince Villas, but a Level 3 party, with the aid of one or two helpful Merchant Prince(s), might be able to sneak quickly into and out of one other Merchant Prince's Villa with some goods.

In the method I laid out a few pages back in this thread, the party might start off with River/Flask for free to Fort Beluarian, lose them, but pick up Qawasha/Kupalue there and head back to Port Nyanzaru to get Eku. Then the party could adventure for awhile with Qawasha and Eku at the same time. Eku is a bit too-powerful to keep too-long, so I would leave her to her wiles after Mbala and Orolunga are complete, but she can make an appearance later if you'd like. The dwarves are needed for the Shilku Bay locations, which require even more gold to get out of the Bay of Chult in the first place (travel by ship and paying off the dragon turtle). I would save Azaka and Faroul/Gondolo for the adventures on the east side of Chult. I would pair Salida up with Xandala in order to team them up against the party, preferably hitting them when Artus Cimber and Dragonbait are around. In other words, the party can pay for multiple guides in stages -- increasing them over time and occasionally shedding a few here and there.

Guide-wise, Eku seems a bit "unfun" as she has too many support tools. What difficulties (as DM) did you find using any of the guides? ... What's the real (practical) chance the players choose the "lame" guides, like Gondolo or the Yuan-Ti?

I like to make it difficult for any character to get a Charisma of 20 by limiting starting characters to a maximum score of 15 at campaign start. In other words, restrict potential Loyalty to 8 at Levels 1-3 and Loyalty 9 at Level 4 unless a guide's personal quest is completed or the party somehow saves a guide's life.

Eku will have a Strength and Dexterity of 10 with a proficiency in quarterstaff. For some reason, if she does join the party into a marked location or special area with a lot of combat (Mbala counts), then it may be difficult to explain why she can take so many hits. For Mbala, I rolled a random encounter with another party of explorers (and rolled that they were in good health and headed there). Their tribal warriors were used as fodder in the battle, and Eku stayed to the sidelines.

Introducing Azaka, Hew, Salida, or Shago early-on is also something I wanted to avoid. In a more-natural manner, I introduced them subtly in the background -- only bringing them into the foreground after the two main rivers leading from Port Nyanzaru are completed (possibly with the exception of Firefinger). I introduced Azaka, Faroul/Gondolo, and Shago after the Jahaka and Shilku Bay areas were completed. I also reintroduced Eku at that time. I think it may make sense to swap the locations of Firefinger and Ataaz Muhahah on the map, putting Muhahah over the River Tiryki and Firefinger just west of Muhahah's original location.

 

[CapnZapp]

Yes, the party can rest in undead zones. The random encounters section is relatively-clear on what happens if the specific encounter occurs while the party is camped.

As for water, the party will likely acquire the alchemy jug early-on in the adventure due to its location at the shine above Camp Righteous. There is at least one guide with Druid spells, and 3 side questers with Cleric spells. The party can and should likely consist of Cleric(s) and/or Druid(s) with water purification and creation spells (Paladins as well, but not as a ritual), in addition to Wizard(s) with Rope Trick and/or Leomund's Tiny Hut. Elf characters only need to meditate 4 hours per day to be equivalent to a long rest. Rainwater collectors, ruins, shrines, marked locations, and Emerald Enclave outposts can make for excellent sources of both water and shelter -- and note that the party can stock up on water to bring with them into further excursions into the jungle. Occasionally, characters with outstanding (or just more-difficult) Survival checks will locate purified water or excellent sources for shelter. These rolls can even be augmented by the Owl's Wisdom effect from the spell Enhance Ability. If the party isn't smart enough to think these options through, then I say hit them with exhaustion and throat leeches every chance you get. That's what the adventure is about.

The weather isn't that bad. From this very thread I learned that heavy rain only occurs 3-9 days per month (most-likely 7 days every 30) with monsoon rain days occurring only once per month. There are plenty of sources for shelter, as describe above -- but another I thought of is the folding boat on the dead wizard's body in Nangalore. You don't have to be on water in order to use the folding boat as a shelter, especially with the bigger option that includes a deck cabin.

Yes of course.

While a select number of posters will argue the challenges as given are enough, I get the feeling they're not really playing Dungeons & Dragons, but some other, decidedly lower-magicked game.

Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

 

[CapnZapp]

Well,

I didn't see it in another post, so here are a few awesome links do enhance Tomb of Annihilation (or just simplify your DM's life):

PoweScore Step-by-Step Guide: http://thecampaign20xx.blogspot.com.br/2017/09/dungeons-dragons-guide-to-tomb-of.html (this guy always do some amazing work at each new 5e adventure)
PoweScore "How to Run": http://thecampaign20xx.blogspot.com.br/2017/10/dungeons-dragons-how-to-run-tomb-of.html
Skaldforge Hex Crawl Guide: https://skaldforge.wordpress.com/2017/10/02/tomb-of-annihilation-hex-crawl-procedure/

The last one deals with some of the frequent questions that I've seen in this thread. If OP can, could edit first post to include these kinds of gems.

Anyway... I do have some doubts myself:

1) Does the sparse encounter rate make things too easy? Basically, everyone is 100% full for each and every fight. Did anyone use any kind of house rule to overcome that?
2) In practice and without game theory, does use of class abilities and magic just bypass all difficulty of the Exploration part of the game? It's too bad to ask players to don't play classes that would just "skip" great portions of the difficulty?
3) Did anyone make calculations on how many encounters are needed between Port Nyanzaru and Omu for the characters reach the expected level?
4) I'm probably DMing for a party composed of 6 players, how hard is to amp up the difficulty for those? Any tricks on adjusting monster quantity on the fly?
5) It's just me or the book states in Chapter 3 that "the Red Wizards have 2 cubes" but they don't actually tell which ones? We're supposed to choose which shrines players will "skip"?
6) Did anyone do a nice miniatures list needed to play this?
7) Did you guys let players have multiple guides? How did they get enough gold to fund this?
8) Guide-wise, Eku seems a bit "unfun" as she has too many support tools. What difficulties (as DM) did you find using any of the guides?
9) What's the real (practical) chance the players choose the "lame" guides, like Gondolo or the Yuan-Ti?



Shameless plug: I'm adapting ToA to Eberron and writing my thoughts on it here on EnWorld.

Btw, english is my second language and is very-very rusty, so please don't mind writing mistakes

As written most challenges are trivial to circumvent or defeat, given players who know how to use Dungeons & Dragons, and to assemble a diverse and powerful party.

Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

While a select number of posters will argue the challenges as given are enough, I get the feeling they're not really playing Dungeons & Dragons, but some other, decidedly lower-magicked game.

Have you ever considered not insulting everyone who disagrees with you?

 

[Onslaught]

By mid-level Druids and Wizards are the most-difficult to control as they will get out-of hand, but this is true in every campaign and every adventure. DMs should already be equipped to handle these situations.

In theory, that should only happen by 5th level, and by then the PCs should have already reached Omu (or be near there) so that's not entirely a problem.

If you follow the guidance on page 84 of the Dungeon Master's Guide, then I would like to see a party average around Level 3 upon completion of Mbala (with the variety of random encounters and the smaller awards from the marked locations around the two rivers sprouting from Port Nyanzaru leading up to that Level 3). The party must travel to Shilku Bay (and complete both dwarven quests) to attain Level 4 and to Jahaka Bay after taking out 3 pirate ships and their crews, bringing their total to 4400 experience. The only single-day marked locations that will bring a full party to Level 5 before Omu would be to take down both the Hvalspyd and Nangalore. Even if the party has another 400 or so experience to get to Level 5, the gargoyle attack at Kir Sabal and the trek to Omu should get them there. It looks to work out rather nicely -- it was certainly well-designed.

Good to know!

But by your description it seems players must do almost every sidequest in order to reach 5th Level before Omu (and then some Random Encounters), right? I seems a good pace, especially because I want to change a few things while porting ToA to Xen'drik.

Yes, with the usual quirks of handling multiple NPCs including competing guides and side questers.

As a new DM, I'm a bit afraid of handling that many NPCs... however, it seems like a lot of potential scenes.

The party can easily get gold early-on by betting on races, by capturing animals to sell to Merchant-Prince Ifan, or by the normal methods of acquiring treasure and selling off unneeded goods. A Level 1 party shouldn't be able to steal from the merchants, and especially not the Merchant Prince Villas, but a Level 3 party, with the aid of one or two helpful Merchant Prince(s), might be able to sneak quickly into and out of one other Merchant Prince's Villa with some goods.

So you're implying they'll go back to Port Nyanzaru a few times? Well, they do have some 30-spare days if they know where they're heading.

Introducing Azaka, Hew, Salida, or Shago early-on is also something I wanted to avoid. In a more-natural manner, I introduced them subtly in the background -- only bringing them into the foreground after the two main rivers leading from Port Nyanzaru are completed (possibly with the exception of Firefinger). I introduced Azaka, Faroul/Gondolo, and Shago after the Jahaka and Shilku Bay areas were completed. I also reintroduced Eku at that time. I think it may make sense to swap the locations of Firefinger and Ataaz Muhahah on the map, putting Muhahah over the River Tiryki and Firefinger just west of Muhahah's original location

This is a good idea if you know players will go back to Port Nyanzaru... but it may delay the characters a bit...

As written most challenges are trivial to circumvent or defeat, given players who know how to use Dungeons & Dragons, and to assemble a diverse and powerful party.

Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

So I hope I don't kill my player's characters in the first few encounters as I'll try to make things hard hahahaha


Regarding the great link shared by [MENTION=6899775]extralead[/MENTION]:

Final DM TIP: Speaking of baggage… sometimes in our games we skip over the tedious parts of the game, like encumbrance and ammo. I do it, you likely do it to. But in this particular adventure, given the nature of the story and how it makes it a point to make the jungle really challenging, it may be worth revisiting that stance. An exploration into the jungle is supposed to be really draining. Make it so. Make it a challenge. Make your players be resourceful and think about their situation.

Which brings us to another batch of questions:
1) What do you think about this statement? I dislike encumbrance, but it does make things more demanding
2) Does more Guides and a bigger expedition (beasts of burden) makes it harder because it's more mouths to feed? What if the DM foil the NPC's ability to forraje as they're just pointing the way?
3) Also for the experienced ones... how many 4h sessions to finish the hexcrawl part ?
4) Does Gritty Rules from DMG for extended rest periods help with difficulty?

This last topic have some interesting alternatives and discussions: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...ust-to-quot-frequently-resting-quot-campaigns but seems to be hitting a dead end, sadly.