D&D 5E Enhancing "Rise of Tiamat" (Practical stuff to try at your table!)

[Anthony Winter]

I am approaching the Neronvain chapter of rise of tiamat and am troubled by his stats.
he looks to have 18 hit dice but as what? An 18th level what. I presume he doesnt wear armout given his AC is only 17: 2 from dex and 4 from the mask gives a 16 base alone. My 10th level party will eviscerate him. Any ideas on how to flesh him out (arcane archers etc...?).

NB: instead of hostage elves I am using allied "beastmen of Malar" who are natural enemies of the elves in both the high and misty forests.

 

[akr71]

Nerovain has Eldritch Arrow and like higher ranking Dragon Cult members (Dragonfang & Dragonsoul) have a warlock feel to them. Not Warlock abilities, but just a feel. I would say that the 18 HD is fudged to give Nerovain enough HP to last long enough in battle to make it interesting. Given the shortsword and multiattack, I would have thought a fighter as a base would be better.

Certainly some allies or minions to soak up damage will help. I upgraded one of the Dragonfang to a Dragonsoul. The Dragonsoul ran from the party to warn Nerovain. They both ran to Chuth's Lair - I had a counter start at that point and Chuth showed up mid battle. The Dragonsoul was already injured and went down quickly. My party was intent on taking Nerovain alive, so he lasted longer than expected. He even dove into the pool and tried to swim away.

 

[Eltab]

My group figured out the Wyrmspeakers were all human and therefore were good targets for Hold Person. Think about how to defuse that plan.
Our Wizard and Barbarian planned ahead and set up an Alpha Strike on Neronvain.

When he gave them arrogant backtalk during an interrogation session (including my OOC comment "I'm not prepared for this yet; how about next week?"), they cut off his head.

The campaign went on permanent hiatus the next session (my job hours changed) but I was thinking about a scene back at the Council where they would report their doings, the Elven King would put two and two together, break out lamenting "Neronvain, Neronvain, my son, my son!" and collapse.

 

[Anthony Winter]

Ok I’ve settled on neronvain being a classed arcane archer 15.
i didn’t like the captive elves so changed them to evil wild elf barbarians - natural enemies of the wood elves of the misty forest.
the females all have scout stats and the males have ogre stats (due to psychotropic Druid creatin juice provided b6 the shamans(Druid worshippers of malar).

if the party lose I will have any survivors added to the hostage numbers and ferreted by the cult to the well of dragons for eventual sacrifice.

this gives an easy means of introducing any new pcs.
it lets the party be active in the location of the well of dragons.
they can then be provided with chances to escape by freeing the each chromatic dragon held for sacrifice nearby.

this essentiall6 skips the good dragons rise chapter and lets them ride dragons across faerun to warn and alert the council of the location and how close to the summoning the cult are. Thereby escalating to heroic levels of play and the sense of ungency.

 

[jayoungr]

Now that Dragon Heist is out, it's a great resource for local color in Waterdeep. If you're running this as a DM, it's worth looking through that book for inspiration on how to handle the Waterdeep scenes in both this adventure and Hoard of the Dragon Queen.

If you don't have Dragon Heist, there are a couple of free excerpts on the Wizards site. The Waterdeep Code Legal lays out the punishments for various crimes that PCs might commit while there. And if you're planning a side trip to the Yawning Portal, or just need some NPCs, "Friendly Faces" has portraits and sample quotes to suggest personality.

 

[pukunui]

To add to what [MENTION=6702445]jayoungr[/MENTION] said, you can actually purchase Volo’s Waterdeep Enchiridion (the fluff piece at the end of Dragon Heist) separately on the DMs Guild. It’s worth noting, however, that it assumes the Tyranny of Dragons storyline has already taken place as Laeral Silverhand is Open Lord of Waterdeep.

 

[jayoungr]

To add to what [MENTION=6702445]jayoungr[/MENTION] said, you can actually purchase Volo’s Waterdeep Enchiridion (the fluff piece at the end of Dragon Heist) separately on the DMs Guild. It’s worth noting, however, that it assumes the Tyranny of Dragons storyline has already taken place as Laeral Silverhand is Open Lord of Waterdeep.

Thanks for the tip about that! Here's a link:

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/25...dion-5e?term=Volo's+Waterdeep+En&test_epoch=0

Proceeds from this product go toward Extra Life, also, so it's for a good cause.

And Laeral Silverhand becomes Open Lord during Rise of Tiamat, so if that's the only problem, it could still be contemporaneous. (Haven't finished reading it yet myself.)

 

[robus]

And Laeral Silverhand becomes Open Lord during Rise of Tiamat, so if that's the only problem, it could still be contemporaneous. (Haven't finished reading it yet myself.)

Yeah - that's pretty trivial especially if the table has little interest in the political side of things (like my table).

 

[cmad1977]

My table is approaching the final battle at the Temple of Tiamat. As written the fight within the temple is going to be ‘deadly’. I’m trying to build the session ahead of the fight in the temple and touch on some of the victories that the heroes have accumulated up to this point.
I think this will include
A: And brush your hair OKa battle on Skyreach Castle where victory means the castle does damage to the temple itself
B: an attack by bullete riding dwarf warriors. This one might be mostly flavor as the heroes brought the dwarves of the north into the battle.(which reminds me about the improved armaments the dwarfs promised the alliance... gotta put that somewhere.
C:saving the sacrifices. If they beeline for the captured people I’ll need to build an encounter there... which, now that I’m thinking on it, could include a bit of revenge against an ancient green dragon that’s been a thorn in their side.
D: Minotaurs. The heroes aided the Minos on Mintarn. Maybe an escort or ‘tip of the spear’ type scene.

Maybe other stuff if I can think on it. Humorously I’m confident that despite any and all planning on my part the heroes will plan something else

 

[Anthony Winter]

Practical homebrew as a precursor to the dragon council.
( I hope to flesh this out and get it up on DMs guild at some point)

We had a great last few sessions I wanted to share.
The party had just finished defeating Chuth and driving off Neronvain.
I had provided a mechanism for how Neronvain and Chuth were getting captives to the well for eventual sacrifice while also swapping out the subservient elf silliness.

A group of feral elf worshippers of Malar were always subservient to Chuth as the greatest forest hunter. with the rise of the cult and the arrival of Neronvain they continued to assist with hunting, but also capturing and returning captive wood elves and other fey humanoids. There were evil aligned druids/shamans in the group who had the ability to cast a druid form of teleportation circle. This is a sect of Druids very different and antithetical to the Emerald Enclave. Druidic organisation is a loose web of alliances and relationships rather than a traditional top down hierarchy.

Teleportation circles (Ley nodes):
The druid stone circles found in wild places across the world are on Ley lines of natural power. Druids with sufficient power, knowledge and resources can craft a rune stone which they can activate the stone circle, teleporting all within to another stone circle they also know and hold the rune for. These particular Malarite druids had been transporting captives from a stone circle near Chuth's lair to a stone circle in a rocky outcropping near the well of dragons. Each stone circle can onlybe activated once per day. The stone circle near the well is at the centre of the campground of the evil Uthgardt barbarians that had turned to the Cults cause and were destined to be the skirmishers and shock troops of Tiamat's army.

Neronvain's journal also revealed that he had captured adn returned a good young brass dragon to the well. Five good dragons were planned to be the crowning point of hostage sacrifice in the tiamat summoning ritual.


So... upon defeating the druids and finding the stone amulets the party could transport themselves to the middle of the gathering encamped army and

So the party could choose right away (or return to the council and be directed) to get a seeming spell to look like either hobgoblins, cultists, barbarians or mercenaries. Then:
- teleport into the gathering army.
- bluff, persuade or intimidate their way out of the encamped barbarian horde.
- make their way through the camped army between the mercenary force and the humanoid/hobgoblin force
- avoid or masquerade as cultist or devil commanders
- gain entrance to the slave/sacrifice camp
- locate the cave half way up the skull gorge and enter the area reserved for high profile/important hostages/sacrifices
- fight their way past devils and guards
- release/rescue the five dragons
- ride them to freedom with a flight of black dragons in pursuit.

NB: If the party got in a protracted fight in the middle of the enemy army it was a guaranteed TPK. any PCs that give up or were left on 0HP were quickly restrained and stabilised for eventual sacrifice. Treasure/items were temporarily placed with jailors and the PCs imprisoned in the same complex as the metallic dragons. This turns the adventure into a breakout rather than a rescue - to the same effect. Any dead PCs could easily be replaced from other similarly captured prisoners.