D&D 5E 7 Legitimate Beefs with Hoard of the Dragon Queen

[Wrathamon]

Cause he is a Giant and Giants dont think like us people, so we think he is nuts or doesnt make any sense. Who can say why Cloud Giants think the way they do?

 

[mcbobbo]

Cause he is a Giant and Giants dont think like us people, so we think he is nuts or doesnt make any sense. Who can say why Cloud Giants think the way they do?

I get that, and have considered it. But Occam points me towards 'because someone thought a flying castle was a cool way to complete the superfluous treasure loop'.

Imagine the genesis here. Did the Cult approach him? If so, why? Or did he show up with his castle, all like "so I see you need to move a lot of treasure..."

And why don't the cultists know he hates dragons?

And why is there a ruin on the castle with a vampire in it that predates the New Plan?

The whole thing just feels tacked on to me, so I am less willing to suspend disbelief.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I get that, and have considered it. But Occam points me towards 'because someone thought a flying castle was a cool way to complete the superfluous treasure loop'.

Imagine the genesis here. Did the Cult approach him? If so, why? Or did he show up with his castle, all like "so I see you need to move a lot of treasure..."

And why don't the cultists know he hates dragons?

And why is there a ruin on the castle with a vampire in it that predates the New Plan?

The whole thing just feels tacked on to me, so I am less willing to suspend disbelief.

We don't know the first point. But it does not matter. He is helping them it does not matter who made the offer first.

Because he does not hate them. He just thinks they as the Giants greatest rivals they would be a great opponent for them. He also has no reason to bring it up to the cultists.

Because there is not one. The Vampire is a member of the cult that was sent to the castle to serve as protector for the treasure. She moved her coffin to the castle.

Why does it feel tacked on there are no problems with the thing and it serves as a good climax. Even the issue with the treasure being taken in a circle can be answered with them wanting to take a roundabout way in case they get followed.

You also missed my post.

Because he is selfish and cares more about himself and his castle being stolen then Giantkind as a whole. He's not 100% sure about the Tiamat plan and he wants to rule a giant empire. Getting betrayed by the cult or being killed ruin this for him. If a guy you are helping betrays you, you don't want to help them anymore.

 

[mcbobbo]

Why does it feel tacked on there are no problems with the thing and it serves as a good climax.

I'm glad you like it.

You also missed my post

I didn't miss your post, I just found someone else to reply to who said basically the same thing.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I'm glad you like it.



I didn't miss your post, I just found someone else to reply to who said basically the same thing.

Well mine explained him in more human ways. It's not a very hard thing to understand.

 

[Daern]

I agree the cloud giant thing is lame. It doesn't make any kind of sense that a player group will ever pick up. So much better if it was a King of Rohhirrim thing like in LOTR where he has been ensorcelled by the vampire or succubus, or drugged or something into agreeing to a stupid plan. That at least gives the crazed possibililty of releasing him from his curse with much chaos ensuing.

 

[MerricB]

Janma is odd. I think it's moderately common for adventure writers to forget about NPCs once they finish their major tasks in the adventure and then leave it up to the DM to work out what happens next.

Because I'm running this as part of the Adventurers League, I came across the situation where some of the PCs actually belong to the Zhentarim. What does she do then?

Yeah, lots of DM invention necessary.

Despite all that, I'm enjoying running the adventure... and, honestly, I didn't even notice that the raider's camp didn't have a key. Shows you a bit about how I ran that section!

Cheers!

 

[KarinsDad]

We've completed only the first 4 episodes so far, and I really only have one beef from a design standpoint, and this one is from a balance one.

The chamber with Cyan and the beserkers. It says to add one beserker for every party member above four. Each beserker has 67 hit points--almost triple that of most 3rd level PCs at this point. So to add one berserker for each additional PC seems a bit much IMO.

Of course, when we encountered them, we didn't do ourselves any favors. The cleric lady escaped down the ladder, which of course we followed. So not only did we have to face Cyanwrath and a bunch of beserkers, we had her too, and we were not nearly at full strength since we had just killed all her guards above and used resources for that.

Consider yourself lucky.

When we were at this point of the adventure, we were split up into 3 groups of 2 PCs each (that's what happens when the party is disguised as the bad guys and NPCs start ordering the PCs to do things).

The fighter was disguised as a cult guard and the halfling bard was his "prisoner". Like your situation, they ended up fighting both Cyanwrath and the cleric lady at the same time (she and the PC fighter were taking the PC bard to Cyanwrath for questioning), but there was only two PCs instead of an entire party (no beserkers). If it were not for the fact that the monk ended up breaking out of his bonds on round four and helping them on round five, they would have been toast (and as is, they used up every single resource they had).

 

[evan]

I can only speak as a player, but it's definitely an odd adventure. Conceptually, I like it. The story kernel is interesting. I had fun with the first part. Our fighter was insanely lucky in dealing with the dragon making that part easier than I expected. The encounters are a little fast and furious. We felt pressed at times, though we handled it with relative ease using good tactics involving the minor image cantrip.

I despised the caravan sequence. As a player it seemed like you had no real impact on the events in the caravan. They all seemed scripted to provide you the information you needed whether you successfully reconnoitered or not. I spent a great deal of time attempting to scout the caravan for useful information. What did I receive for my efforts? A few scripted events with an NPC that pretty much gave us the information we needed. I felt disempowered in the module as a player with too much direction from NPCs. I don't find heavy handed scripting enjoyable. I hope I don't have to deal with more NPCs providing information that directs me where to go and what to do. I like to figure these things out on my own and feel as though my actions are driving the story rather than being a pawn of other masters.

The one thing I'm highly skeptical of is WotC's ability to produce adventures that in anyway equal what I have become accustomed to from Paizo. Paizo's Adventure Paths were far superior to anything I have seen from WotC since the good old days of D&D. Much more open to DM and player caveat with more interesting stories that you can do with or without the recommended NPCs. I hope future modules are far more interesting than Hoard appears to be. Heck, I'd be happy if WotC updated a bunch of 1st edition modules rather than producing new modules. Those 1E modules are still great. Love to see 5E Against the Giants or Assault on the Slavelords.

What Pathfinder Adventure Path would you recommend to someone who has barely played Pathfinder. I would love to do a contrast-and-compare.

 

[evan]

Janma is odd. I think it's moderately common for adventure writers to forget about NPCs once they finish their major tasks in the adventure and then leave it up to the DM to work out what happens next.

Because I'm running this as part of the Adventurers League, I came across the situation where some of the PCs actually belong to the Zhentarim. What does she do then?

Yeah, lots of DM invention necessary.

Despite all that, I'm enjoying running the adventure... and, honestly, I didn't even notice that the raider's camp didn't have a key. Shows you a bit about how I ran that section!

Cheers!

Ontharr Frume is a member of the Order of the Gauntlet if I recall correctly. Yeah, guidelines on that would have been great to have. I've just started Episode 4 with my group. I made the mistake of asking them what they'd like to do when they got to Baldurs Gate. I'm thinking they might spend the time I intended them to be on the road participating in a varied amount of shenanigans and taxing my knowledge of the city.