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<blockquote data-quote="J-H" data-source="post: 8009932" data-attributes="member: 7020951"><p><strong>6/11/2020</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Everyone was able to make it! We ran for about 3.5 hours.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I reminded them that they are not due for another long rest for a long time, and they decided not to pursue shutting down the last power source for the shadow generator. They went back up the clock tower, and then started crossing a 200’ long bridge. 8 ballistas opened fire with disadvantage, averaging about 1 hit (for 3d10) per round across 6 party members. The monk got to use his Deflect Arrows ability on a ballista bolt. Our spider-armor wearer crossed along the underside of the bridge. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>As they got close, we went into initiative and they moved up to engage four Dullahan fencers backed up by a Dullahan caster. These are undead with a rapier, pack tactics, and a d12 superiority dice (once per round on offence, once per round reaction). The caster opened with Confusion, but everyone (3 in AOE) saved. The cleric lagged way behind on the bridge, and the paladin and ranger were also farther behind… one because he’s slower than the barbarian, monk, and rogue, and the other by choice.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The rogue (arcane trickster) popped up from beside the bridge, grappled one of the dullahans, won, pulled it into his space, and then dropped it. 60’ down to the bottom of the tower…. 5d6, 12 damage, ridiculous roll. Anyway, it was out of the fight. The next one he tried that on made the roll and was not grappled, and then almost made him drop his weapon while he was still over a 60’ drop.</p><p></p><p>Looking down, the trickster spotted a LOT of skeletons coming out of trap doors on the top of the castle and rushing towards the tower. I started running a ticker each round to keep track of when they would reach the party. This gave them a hard deadline.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The monk and barbarian did their thing (damage), and the caster dropped Stinking Cloud on the entire area. Everyone made their saves, and the Arcane Trickster used his Storm Shield to blow part of the Stinking Cloud away. Everyone made their saves against the Gust of Wind blowing them off the ledge, which would have been really bad and also fun. As casters do, the caster didn’t last very long, although an upcast magic missile did drain more party HP/resources. The cleric & ranger finally made it off the bridge and out of the line of fire, only taking a couple of ballista bolts in the meantime (when there are only 2 targets…). The ranger temporarily disabled two of the ballistas by shooting at their skeletal crew, reducing their rate of fire from once per round to once per two rounds…. At 250’ range.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>With the skeletons getting closer, they run on up some stairs and to the room overhead. The monk stays behind to block the skeletal horde, using the 5’ wide stairway as a choke point. The ranger notices that there’s nothing architecturally holding the roof up, and decides to point that out to the party…. Just in time for the wooden roof to collapse, as three Dullahan fencers cut the ropes holding it up, and drop into the room, along with three Bone Golems. I kid you not, the barbarian one-shotted a 135hp bone golem and did damage to another, and averaged >100 damage/round for most of this fight. Reckless GWM action surge and bonus attack on kill with a magic maul = 5 attacks with advantage for something like 2d6b+16b+4r+1d6r+1d8t.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Anyway, they mopped the room up in a few rounds, but took some hits in the process, and almost nobody had been healed yet. The monk took a crit for about 10 points of damage from one skeleton, and otherwise, just bottlenecked them. The group then ran upstairs into the next room, calling the monk up and slamming the door.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Suddenly, from nothing – something – a slightly translucent figure floats in the air before you, with glowing purple eyes under a tattered grey cloak, and bearing a massive scythe. The avatar of Death needs no introduction. <em>“My friend is doing a great work, and even now directs the storming of the walls of Vienna from his throneroom. You shall not disturb him. It’s time for you to shuffle off this mortal coil.” </em></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>He has advantage on initiative rolls and goes second. “Dmitri [barbarian], what’s your HP?” “Uh, less than 100.” “DIE”. I wish I had logged what happened round by round, but I didn’t. I had the shade of the killed sorcerer show up, using the sorcerer’s signature spells. He jobbed it a bit by using the Wand of Lightning once and Scorching Ray once instead of just spamming Fireball for 8d6+3 AOE. Death’s flying sickles were unexpectedly potent, and his “start your turn next to him AOE” will be toned down. I skipped a couple of the legendary action options.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>He spent two rounds flying and casting, and then went to the ground next to the monk, who’d taunted and shot him. When the rogue came over and sneak attacked with a magical chain whip, his response was to Finger of Death the rogue for using <em>that kind of weapon here…</em> how dare he! Anyway, one round on the ground was enough to take him from about 150hp of damage to about 320, and he decided to fly off at the end of his turn, which led to about 40 points of AOO damage (a crit and a sneak attack), which finished off his 350hp. The whole fight was either 4 or 5 rounds. Death cast only 3 spells – Power Work Kill, Circle of Death, and Finger of Death… plus he had AOE damage, the sickles, and a fairly dangerous scythe attack that still missed more than it landed despite advantage.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The barbarian went to 0hp 3 times, the monk once or twice, the ranger once or twice, the arcane trickster barely survived a Finger of Death, and the Paladin spent most of his time playing healbot with Revivify and Lay on Hands – I think his only offensive contribution was throwing a Javelin of Lightning. The cleric used an upcast 5th level Cure Wounds and a Heal. Discord chat was flying with memes about “How you feel when the DM asks for your exact HP,” “How many HP? Make a death save. No wait, don’t bother,” and the like. Two of the players were discussing what kind of character they’d make next.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>With my on-the-fly modifications, which I’ll balance into the final module, I’d say the Death fight went very well…they really felt like their characters were going to die and that it could be a TPK – but that they managed to heroically and BARELY pull through. This is one of the battles I’ve been wanting to run since conceiving of the campaign, and using the “Room of Close Associates” soundtrack fit it very well. I’m overall very happy with it.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Loot: Death’s cloak, a legendary-grade item, plus a Ring of Protection +1 and Wand of Lightning from the sorcerer’s body.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>After this they hear wheezing, and discover the last Belmont chained near a door to the outside. He’d been tortured and magically kept barely alive. They carry his body outside, and he thanks them and dies in the sunlight. They all get a supernatural blessing of an instant short rest and ½ their expended daily resources (spell slots, Lay on Hands, rage, etc.) restored. This was a nice short non-combat interlude, and gave me a chance to recap all that they’ve done to slow and stop Dracula already, although my Internet decided to drop out for 5 minutes right around this time, so it got cut a bit short.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Dracula is next!</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I am getting frustrated by how many “minor” items (like boots of levitation, or Resist 1 thing armors) require attunement. I think I may try to increase attunement slots or say “no attunement required” for some items in my next game. Or maybe class items as Minor or Major, where minor items take half a slot? Not sure, but some of the fun utility items never saw use due to attunement issues.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="J-H, post: 8009932, member: 7020951"] [B]6/11/2020[/B] Everyone was able to make it! We ran for about 3.5 hours. I reminded them that they are not due for another long rest for a long time, and they decided not to pursue shutting down the last power source for the shadow generator. They went back up the clock tower, and then started crossing a 200’ long bridge. 8 ballistas opened fire with disadvantage, averaging about 1 hit (for 3d10) per round across 6 party members. The monk got to use his Deflect Arrows ability on a ballista bolt. Our spider-armor wearer crossed along the underside of the bridge. As they got close, we went into initiative and they moved up to engage four Dullahan fencers backed up by a Dullahan caster. These are undead with a rapier, pack tactics, and a d12 superiority dice (once per round on offence, once per round reaction). The caster opened with Confusion, but everyone (3 in AOE) saved. The cleric lagged way behind on the bridge, and the paladin and ranger were also farther behind… one because he’s slower than the barbarian, monk, and rogue, and the other by choice. The rogue (arcane trickster) popped up from beside the bridge, grappled one of the dullahans, won, pulled it into his space, and then dropped it. 60’ down to the bottom of the tower…. 5d6, 12 damage, ridiculous roll. Anyway, it was out of the fight. The next one he tried that on made the roll and was not grappled, and then almost made him drop his weapon while he was still over a 60’ drop. Looking down, the trickster spotted a LOT of skeletons coming out of trap doors on the top of the castle and rushing towards the tower. I started running a ticker each round to keep track of when they would reach the party. This gave them a hard deadline. The monk and barbarian did their thing (damage), and the caster dropped Stinking Cloud on the entire area. Everyone made their saves, and the Arcane Trickster used his Storm Shield to blow part of the Stinking Cloud away. Everyone made their saves against the Gust of Wind blowing them off the ledge, which would have been really bad and also fun. As casters do, the caster didn’t last very long, although an upcast magic missile did drain more party HP/resources. The cleric & ranger finally made it off the bridge and out of the line of fire, only taking a couple of ballista bolts in the meantime (when there are only 2 targets…). The ranger temporarily disabled two of the ballistas by shooting at their skeletal crew, reducing their rate of fire from once per round to once per two rounds…. At 250’ range. With the skeletons getting closer, they run on up some stairs and to the room overhead. The monk stays behind to block the skeletal horde, using the 5’ wide stairway as a choke point. The ranger notices that there’s nothing architecturally holding the roof up, and decides to point that out to the party…. Just in time for the wooden roof to collapse, as three Dullahan fencers cut the ropes holding it up, and drop into the room, along with three Bone Golems. I kid you not, the barbarian one-shotted a 135hp bone golem and did damage to another, and averaged >100 damage/round for most of this fight. Reckless GWM action surge and bonus attack on kill with a magic maul = 5 attacks with advantage for something like 2d6b+16b+4r+1d6r+1d8t. Anyway, they mopped the room up in a few rounds, but took some hits in the process, and almost nobody had been healed yet. The monk took a crit for about 10 points of damage from one skeleton, and otherwise, just bottlenecked them. The group then ran upstairs into the next room, calling the monk up and slamming the door. Suddenly, from nothing – something – a slightly translucent figure floats in the air before you, with glowing purple eyes under a tattered grey cloak, and bearing a massive scythe. The avatar of Death needs no introduction. [I]“My friend is doing a great work, and even now directs the storming of the walls of Vienna from his throneroom. You shall not disturb him. It’s time for you to shuffle off this mortal coil.” [/I] He has advantage on initiative rolls and goes second. “Dmitri [barbarian], what’s your HP?” “Uh, less than 100.” “DIE”. I wish I had logged what happened round by round, but I didn’t. I had the shade of the killed sorcerer show up, using the sorcerer’s signature spells. He jobbed it a bit by using the Wand of Lightning once and Scorching Ray once instead of just spamming Fireball for 8d6+3 AOE. Death’s flying sickles were unexpectedly potent, and his “start your turn next to him AOE” will be toned down. I skipped a couple of the legendary action options. He spent two rounds flying and casting, and then went to the ground next to the monk, who’d taunted and shot him. When the rogue came over and sneak attacked with a magical chain whip, his response was to Finger of Death the rogue for using [I]that kind of weapon here…[/I] how dare he! Anyway, one round on the ground was enough to take him from about 150hp of damage to about 320, and he decided to fly off at the end of his turn, which led to about 40 points of AOO damage (a crit and a sneak attack), which finished off his 350hp. The whole fight was either 4 or 5 rounds. Death cast only 3 spells – Power Work Kill, Circle of Death, and Finger of Death… plus he had AOE damage, the sickles, and a fairly dangerous scythe attack that still missed more than it landed despite advantage. The barbarian went to 0hp 3 times, the monk once or twice, the ranger once or twice, the arcane trickster barely survived a Finger of Death, and the Paladin spent most of his time playing healbot with Revivify and Lay on Hands – I think his only offensive contribution was throwing a Javelin of Lightning. The cleric used an upcast 5th level Cure Wounds and a Heal. Discord chat was flying with memes about “How you feel when the DM asks for your exact HP,” “How many HP? Make a death save. No wait, don’t bother,” and the like. Two of the players were discussing what kind of character they’d make next. With my on-the-fly modifications, which I’ll balance into the final module, I’d say the Death fight went very well…they really felt like their characters were going to die and that it could be a TPK – but that they managed to heroically and BARELY pull through. This is one of the battles I’ve been wanting to run since conceiving of the campaign, and using the “Room of Close Associates” soundtrack fit it very well. I’m overall very happy with it. Loot: Death’s cloak, a legendary-grade item, plus a Ring of Protection +1 and Wand of Lightning from the sorcerer’s body. After this they hear wheezing, and discover the last Belmont chained near a door to the outside. He’d been tortured and magically kept barely alive. They carry his body outside, and he thanks them and dies in the sunlight. They all get a supernatural blessing of an instant short rest and ½ their expended daily resources (spell slots, Lay on Hands, rage, etc.) restored. This was a nice short non-combat interlude, and gave me a chance to recap all that they’ve done to slow and stop Dracula already, although my Internet decided to drop out for 5 minutes right around this time, so it got cut a bit short. Dracula is next! I am getting frustrated by how many “minor” items (like boots of levitation, or Resist 1 thing armors) require attunement. I think I may try to increase attunement slots or say “no attunement required” for some items in my next game. Or maybe class items as Minor or Major, where minor items take half a slot? Not sure, but some of the fun utility items never saw use due to attunement issues. [/QUOTE]
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