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  1. vandaexpress

    D&D 5E (2014) 4Xing the D&D

    Interesting thread. I'd like to see this discussion continue as I enjoy giving the players the ability to shape the world around them and in 5e they get tons of gold and there's not a lot they can do with it. With the right rules set up for something like this, you could run a great political...
  2. vandaexpress

    D&D 5E (2014) Enhancing "Hoard of the Dragon Queen" (Practical stuff to try at your table!)

    Agreed with cmad, I think avoiding a potentially deadly encounter is an appropriate reward for spotting the ambush, screwing them over because of it would seem punitive. You'll have plenty of opportunities to spring deadly ambushes on the party down the road ;)
  3. vandaexpress

    D&D 5E (2014) Enhancing "Hoard of the Dragon Queen" (Practical stuff to try at your table!)

    Also, I'm about to run the dragon fight at skyreach and I have to say I am extremely confused about how the ice tunnels map connects with the rest of the castle. I *think* the east "porch" matches with the bottom-right exit on the side view of the castle, and I think the stairs are supposed to...
  4. vandaexpress

    D&D 5E (2014) Enhancing "Hoard of the Dragon Queen" (Practical stuff to try at your table!)

    Enhancing the Red Wizards... Thayan Knights I put two Thayan Knights with Rath Modar and Azbara Jos in skyreach. There's a brief writeup/picture of one here. Stat-wise, they're reskins of the knight, except with shields and longswords, brute attribute for an extra die of damage, and the...
  5. vandaexpress

    D&D 5E (2014) Would you buy a D&D deluxe goodies box like this one to improve D&D storylines?

    I'm big on bringing the best possible production value to the table and my players, I buy the GF9 minis for each adventure path I run and have them professionally painted. I print out magic item cards on glossy photo paper, I scour the internet for pictures of the major NPCs and locations from...
  6. vandaexpress

    D&D 5E (2014) House Rules That Make The Game Better

    I use the cleave and ranged attacks hit cover variants from the DMG. I award inspiration and a single use "charm" (casts a level appropriate spell, once) as a reward for writing an adventure log for each session. It used to be 50xp x Lvl for the log, but then I switched to milestone and stopped...
  7. vandaexpress

    D&D 5E (2014) bards and instruments

    Maraca bards are so OP.
  8. vandaexpress

    D&D 5E (2014) In your opinion, what is the most underrated spell in the PHB and why?

    Seconded for the same reasons. Last session, our Paladin of the ancients threw this down on a chokepoint the bullywugs were rushing and... let's just say a lot of bullywugs died trying to cross that. To say nothing of the (admittedly highly situational) use against shapechangers. Absolutely...
  9. vandaexpress

    D&D 5E (2014) In your opinion, what is the most underrated spell in the PHB and why?

    Yeah, heat metal is pretty dang powerful. The only way I've found to counter it is to basically throw multiple armored enemies at the party at once. But if I ever throw a miniboss at the party that wears metal... yeah he becomes a pushover because of that spell.
  10. vandaexpress

    D&D 5E (2014) In your opinion, what is the most underrated spell in the PHB and why?

    Chokepoints. It doesn't even have to be a true chokepoint. In my case, I threw it down in a 20' wide section of a courtyard, so basically it blocked off vision of everything on the other side of the courtyard.
  11. vandaexpress

    D&D 5E (2014) In your opinion, what is the most underrated spell in the PHB and why?

    Post title says it all. What spell or spells do you think are commonly overlooked that shouldn't be? Spells that you don't see or hear about very often that you think are better than most people probably give them credit for. I'll go first (and probably prove my ignorance), in running some...
  12. vandaexpress

    OUT OF THE ABYSS Cover Art!

    Finally gives me an excuse to buy the GF9 Caverns of the Underdark terrain.
  13. vandaexpress

    [UPDATED] RAGE OF DEMONS! New D&D Storyline Features Drizzt, Underdark, & Demon Lords!

    This drawing is so full of win. From the magnificent hair on the human, who appears to be totally chill, to the overly defensive halfling male wearing pants that are a bastardized cross between bell bottoms and capris (are those canon? please tell me those are canon), to the fact that the...
  14. vandaexpress

    D&D 5E (2014) Enhancing "Hoard of the Dragon Queen" (Practical stuff to try at your table!)

    True, I didn't have the adventure in front of me to reference. I can definitely understand your concern. It didn't really come up at my table and honestly I hadn't thought about it until you mentioned it here. I just assumed the town was big enough for the cult to take a while to loot. The...
  15. vandaexpress

    OUT OF THE ABYSS Cover Art!

    I think my perception of Demogorgon is going to be forever skewed from when I fought him in Baldur's Gate II and he didn't seem all that large. Maybe he was and my memory is off. Either way, awesome cover. Sent it to my players today and everyone is pumped.
  16. vandaexpress

    [UPDATED] RAGE OF DEMONS! New D&D Storyline Features Drizzt, Underdark, & Demon Lords!

    Maybe, but I haven't seen a lot of misdirection in their other products so far. Hoard had Glazhael on the cover, Rise had Tiamat (who, admittedly, you might not fight if you disrupt the ritual), LMoP had Venomfang, and PotA had Aerisi. You might not be required to fight the cover enemies, but in...
  17. vandaexpress

    [UPDATED] RAGE OF DEMONS! New D&D Storyline Features Drizzt, Underdark, & Demon Lords!

    Cool idea. Play through a CRPG and have a button to print off the character sheet of your protagonist/party members. Or a really unlikely and implausible idea would be allowing you to import your AL character into a CRPG, plug in your #, WotC pulls a record for the character and their magic...
  18. vandaexpress

    D&D 5E (2014) Enhancing "Hoard of the Dragon Queen" (Practical stuff to try at your table!)

    I really think the key delay is their inability to take the keep. They invest resources into trying to get into it (sally port), kill people in it (dragon attack), surrounding it, etc. throughout the course of the night. Why would they do that if they didn't want to get into it? Again, remember...
  19. vandaexpress

    D&D 5E (2014) Enhancing "Hoard of the Dragon Queen" (Practical stuff to try at your table!)

    1. Have them take captives, spend time running down captives, etc 2. They surround the keep at one point, even sending in a force against the Sally port. One could argue that Cyanwrath and Mondath spent some time debating whether or not to make a serious play for the keep and the riches it no...
  20. vandaexpress

    D&D 5E (2014) What should a Sorcerer do?

    Agree with this 100%. I'm not convinced that "arcane caster" is a role that needs to be filled anymore in 5e. The party I'm running has neither a cleric or a wizard; instead I've got a bard, sorc, ranger, barb, and paladin. They're closing in on 7th level in Tyranny of Dragons and thus far...
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