Dungeons & Dragons Announces Arcana Unleashed: Deadfall, New Adventure Book Featuring Red Wizards of Thay

[Henadic Theologian]

The nefelsheen is an appropriate boss for 11th level characters (I just used one recently) so my guess is the adventure tops out there abouts.

Or starts there & goes to 20.

 

[Reynard]

Or starts there & goes to 20.

Possible but, again, we just had one of those. It would feel weird if the first two adventures for 5.5 were high level when we essentially had one (DoMM) for 5.0.

 

[bergec]

I'm holding to my prediction that it will be a Tier 3/4 modules designed to be played after the ones in Adventures in Faerun. Tier 3 is when players are meant to start venturing out of their home region, so it would be a perfect continuation for a campaign regardless of which region they started in.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

If I was writing this adventure, I would make the PCs Thayan themselves. You can do a much deeper dive into culture and society that way. And it’s supposed to tie into a book that adds a lot of player options for wizards, so it seems like there will be an expectation of a wizard-dominated party.

The alt cover has the symbol of the Covenant of the Grave faction. This is not a traditional Thayan faction - the emergence of a new faction suggests some kind of civil war.

The title suggests to me that someone who is (un)dead will fall. And there is a pretty obvious candidate.

Rather than referring to an individual demon, the image may represent a conflict between necromancers and conjurers, or wizards and warlocks.

 

[Parmandur]

And it’s supposed to tie into a book that adds a lot of player options for wizards, so it seems like there will be an expectation of a wizard-dominated party

Well, the UA provided options for Fighters, Paladins, Rogues, Monks, etc. too, so Wizard dominated parties re not necessarily expected.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Liches are a lot stronger now than they were in original 5e. And Szass Tam is stronger than a standard Lich.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

If I was writing this adventure, I would make the PCs Thayan themselves. You can do a much deeper dive into culture and society that way. And it’s supposed to tie into a book that adds a lot of player options for wizards, so it seems like there will be an expectation of a wizard-dominated party.

The alt cover has the symbol of the Covenant of the Grave faction. This is not a traditional Thayan faction - the emergence of a new faction suggests some kind of civil war.

The title suggests to me that someone who is (un)dead will fall. And there is a pretty obvious candidate.

Rather than referring to an individual demon, the image may represent a conflict between necromancers and conjurers, or wizards and warlocks.

What is the covenant of the grave and how do you know what symbol they have? How do you know this, I looked up covenant of the grave & found nothing for D&D?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

What is the covenant of the grave and how do you know what symbol they have? How do you know this, I looked up covenant of the grave & found nothing for D&D?

It’s a background faction visible in the text on the preview photograph of Arcana Unleashed. It comes with the Arcane Undertaker origin feet.

The Cosmic Dawn is also visible, with the Transmuted Anatomy feet. The others have their names obscured, but there appears to be one for each of the eight symbols on the art cover of Arcana Unleashed.

Speculation: there is one for each school of magic, allowing PC casters to greater specialise. The feats work something like the Dragonmarked feats, providing a list of spells always prepared corresponding to each school.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Well, the UA provided options for Fighters, Paladins, Rogues, Monks, etc. too, so Wizard dominated parties re not necessarily expected.

They were very much “magic” versions of those classes, especially the ones in the Mystic UA. Consider the paladin, that was very much the sort of wizard police you might find in Thay.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Liches are a lot stronger now than they were in original 5e. And Szass Tam is stronger than a standard Lich.

Which may suggest that it isn’t the PCs who bring about his fall.