I'm a DM and my group is nearing the end of Rise of Tiamat. Which, I suspect they'll quite easily defeat Tiamat, I do have plans for them to explore some high level content - The Thayan Doom Vaults. That leads to the kingpin or orchestrator of Tiamat's return. Rath Modar.... Who's actually successfully become a power Lich king that orchestrated everything to weaken the Thayan resources so he could launch his own coup and/or not just become a leader, but a God of the Red Wizards. .... The Doom Vaults, full of powerful items and twisted uses of arcane energy, not to mention dangerous uses of Arcane Energy, is a place not suited for the living. ...
I don't want to spend a lot of time here, but, their exploration of this large dungeon will ultimately lead them to the Lich Lord and powerful wizardry! I would need to build him to be very powerful.. For a group of five well magically equipped, powerful level 18-20 players. Near Gods themselves in D&D terms.
So, they'll discover some machinations in the Doom vaults of living and undead being usurped to provide power to machines and a twisted much more crude form of The Matrix.... Where they get glimpses of experiments of undead beings with weird contraptions and in tubes and strange devices running everywhere. crude floating mine carts, imbued with the dead.
Along with Tiamat's death, and the strange exposure in the Doomvaults, there will be a rise of Undead throughout the lands. The bridge between the living and dead is weakened with all the tampering of bringing a God to Faerun... The world will be irrevokably changed to be much more populated with undead.....
Once Rath Modar is killed (if he is), this leaves the Red Wizards in even more outrage and corruption, and with the dead being more prevalent across the lands, the landscape becomes way more Thay like, and Thay friendly. Allowing the red wizards to be more accepted to help governments gain control of the dead....
So.. That said, now for the new campaign setting... I was thinking of having characters start around level 2-4 in an inland quaint Gnome country. Between 50 and 100 years post Tiamat appocalypse.... The cult has wayned and is still an area of conflict, but, they're riling from their defeat. The sword coast is in shambles, the armies suffered heavy losses against the Cult and Tiamat, they've squandered the dragon hoards they may have gained on squabbling and in fighting. Meanwhile, the dead are a routine thing, clerics are stretched thin, weakened. Druids and clerics are sought after everywhere to protect towns from excessive undead.. Think almost Walking dead style setting. Society hasn't collapsed completely but random undead encounters are common.
This has provided sufficient time for the Red Wizards to become economic powerhouses... (almost literally).. though, it's not common knowledge, but the dead become immortal powerhouses... The gnomes, have found ways to mutate this new abundant energy to power cheaper air ships. Instead of steam based, it's dead based. The plumes of smoke are necrotic clouds. That if one were to breathe too much, they would start to take necrotic damage. This has given over to the age of industrial necropolis. It's not steam, it's death....
What does this mean for characters... Since the dead are so combustable... It's not gun powder, it's undead necrotic power that powers guns and other weapons.... The dead are ground into elements that power engines for Air ships, and maybe a land vehicle here and there... There's an arcane element to it and a spell component of ground dead. People don't know what the powder is other than maybe some well protected Thayan alchemists. And at the moment the PCs enter, there's only rumors of small caches of weapons that can kill a person at range. The reality is that there may only be a few of these powerful weapons in existence. Creatures may be mutated or "enhanced" by the pollution of these necrotic industrial clouds. Possibly even a rare machine powered by electricity that's powered by "coal generators..." But actually "ground undead with arcane battery generators."
The gnomes ate up the new power sources and began major imports, so much so, that it's society has become dependent on this powder from Thay. All transports of the new energy are well protected. They've invented all kinds of new contraptions to be powered by this new energy source. Which is becoming a major export of theirs.
So, the question I have is. I can't be putting a lot of time into creating new setting appropriate items. Would it make sense to not really expand beyond the items in the PHB or DMG except may be where scenario appropriate. Maybe modify a creature here and there, or they stumble upon a crashed heap of metal, occasionally to introduce those elements in the actual adventures, vs. Here's a list of items you can choose from and here's new classes and to pick from.... for a "Dead" punk Setting.. Maybe more character customization... Patches of arcane tattoos with the tissue grafts of the dead provide "cybernetic" enhancements to basic stats, or add on natural armor, to invoking a spell shield, etc?
Is there any preexisting sites or content that could be used for new monsters, adventures, weapons, enhancements that could be quickly and easily adapted in a "dead" "punkish" world?
again, the biggest issue is not the overarching time and setting... But, more of the details to add the flare...
I don't want to spend a lot of time here, but, their exploration of this large dungeon will ultimately lead them to the Lich Lord and powerful wizardry! I would need to build him to be very powerful.. For a group of five well magically equipped, powerful level 18-20 players. Near Gods themselves in D&D terms.
So, they'll discover some machinations in the Doom vaults of living and undead being usurped to provide power to machines and a twisted much more crude form of The Matrix.... Where they get glimpses of experiments of undead beings with weird contraptions and in tubes and strange devices running everywhere. crude floating mine carts, imbued with the dead.
Along with Tiamat's death, and the strange exposure in the Doomvaults, there will be a rise of Undead throughout the lands. The bridge between the living and dead is weakened with all the tampering of bringing a God to Faerun... The world will be irrevokably changed to be much more populated with undead.....
Once Rath Modar is killed (if he is), this leaves the Red Wizards in even more outrage and corruption, and with the dead being more prevalent across the lands, the landscape becomes way more Thay like, and Thay friendly. Allowing the red wizards to be more accepted to help governments gain control of the dead....
So.. That said, now for the new campaign setting... I was thinking of having characters start around level 2-4 in an inland quaint Gnome country. Between 50 and 100 years post Tiamat appocalypse.... The cult has wayned and is still an area of conflict, but, they're riling from their defeat. The sword coast is in shambles, the armies suffered heavy losses against the Cult and Tiamat, they've squandered the dragon hoards they may have gained on squabbling and in fighting. Meanwhile, the dead are a routine thing, clerics are stretched thin, weakened. Druids and clerics are sought after everywhere to protect towns from excessive undead.. Think almost Walking dead style setting. Society hasn't collapsed completely but random undead encounters are common.
This has provided sufficient time for the Red Wizards to become economic powerhouses... (almost literally).. though, it's not common knowledge, but the dead become immortal powerhouses... The gnomes, have found ways to mutate this new abundant energy to power cheaper air ships. Instead of steam based, it's dead based. The plumes of smoke are necrotic clouds. That if one were to breathe too much, they would start to take necrotic damage. This has given over to the age of industrial necropolis. It's not steam, it's death....
What does this mean for characters... Since the dead are so combustable... It's not gun powder, it's undead necrotic power that powers guns and other weapons.... The dead are ground into elements that power engines for Air ships, and maybe a land vehicle here and there... There's an arcane element to it and a spell component of ground dead. People don't know what the powder is other than maybe some well protected Thayan alchemists. And at the moment the PCs enter, there's only rumors of small caches of weapons that can kill a person at range. The reality is that there may only be a few of these powerful weapons in existence. Creatures may be mutated or "enhanced" by the pollution of these necrotic industrial clouds. Possibly even a rare machine powered by electricity that's powered by "coal generators..." But actually "ground undead with arcane battery generators."
The gnomes ate up the new power sources and began major imports, so much so, that it's society has become dependent on this powder from Thay. All transports of the new energy are well protected. They've invented all kinds of new contraptions to be powered by this new energy source. Which is becoming a major export of theirs.
So, the question I have is. I can't be putting a lot of time into creating new setting appropriate items. Would it make sense to not really expand beyond the items in the PHB or DMG except may be where scenario appropriate. Maybe modify a creature here and there, or they stumble upon a crashed heap of metal, occasionally to introduce those elements in the actual adventures, vs. Here's a list of items you can choose from and here's new classes and to pick from.... for a "Dead" punk Setting.. Maybe more character customization... Patches of arcane tattoos with the tissue grafts of the dead provide "cybernetic" enhancements to basic stats, or add on natural armor, to invoking a spell shield, etc?
Is there any preexisting sites or content that could be used for new monsters, adventures, weapons, enhancements that could be quickly and easily adapted in a "dead" "punkish" world?
again, the biggest issue is not the overarching time and setting... But, more of the details to add the flare...
