D&D 5E (2014) Enhancing "Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus"

[sim-h]

We played our first session last night, it went well! Party of four: Tiefling Paladin (noble), Half-elven Warlock of the Celestial (noble), halfling monk (urchin) and high elf rogue (criminal).

I'd read a lot of concerns about the Elfsong pirate encounter and TPK possibility, so I was careful to have Tarina sneer at the party's prowess: "what, Zodge sent...you three. Oh, and a half. Where's the rest?!" This worked very well, since the party asked her how many to expect, and she told them maybe half a ships crew! They were therefore prompted to have a solid plan in place, involving renting the room above the door to keep lookout, paying Whaul the half-orc to help out, and bribing another patron to start a random brawl as a distraction once the pirates arrived.

This allowed them to botteneck the pirates up the stairs, the AC 18 Paladin holding them off. Two pirates were picked off easily before Deadeye shoved his way to the front and tried to push the paladin out of the way. He failed, and Whaul critted Deadeye with a heavy crossbow shot for 19 damage!
Despite this, the paladin was taken down by multiattacks, and two of the party reduced to very low HPs before the Celestial's healing dice revived the paladin and they finished off Deadeye. The last pirate fled and took his two mates, who as described in the text were covering the door downstairs, with him.
This was a very satisfying outcome since the party's tactical planning really paid off! We don't usually use milestone levelling so they were pleasantly surprised to reach level 2.

We only do 2.5 hour sessions, so the bathhouse will have to wait until next week...

 

[sim-h]

I actually liked the initial dungeon in the bath house...was quite flavorful, and I loved the cult of the dead three. They ran into the witch down there, and it would have been a TPK from the witch's fireball if it wasn't for the Red Dragonborn Paladin

Ha - you've gone soft!

"Grave Magic. When the master of souls cast a spell that deals damage, it can change the spell’s damage type to necrotic. "

My guys have a sneaky rogue - I'm kind of praying he hasn't got bored of scouting ahead by the time they hit this encounter.

 

[Raunalyn]

Ha - you've gone soft!

"Grave Magic. When the master of souls cast a spell that deals damage, it can change the spell’s damage type to necrotic. "

My guys have a sneaky rogue - I'm kind of praying he hasn't got bored of scouting ahead by the time they hit this encounter.

Did I miss that? Crap!!!

 

[Reynard]

The party made the transition to Avernus tonight. I was uncertain what I was going to do about Lulu up until this point, but in the end I decided to ditch her entirely. One of the PCs has bonded hard with the Shield, so the pit fiend will be their guide through Avernus with the goal of freeing itself and taking Zauriel's place. It will dole out information as needed to help the party achieve its goals. What could go wrong?

 

[Anthony Winter]

The party made the transition to Avernus tonight. I was uncertain what I was going to do about Lulu up until this point, but in the end I decided to ditch her entirely. One of the PCs has bonded hard with the Shield, so the pit fiend will be their guide through Avernus with the goal of freeing itself and taking Zauriel's place. It will dole out information as needed to help the party achieve its goals. What could go wrong?

the cuteness pretty quickly wears off so no issues with her absence if the shield is around.

 

[Anthony Winter]

My group left a demon grinder and returned to find it covered in madcaps scavenging for parts.
The mapcaps poured ichor on their swords and engaged.
Now the party tortle has:

• emaciated to 1/3 weight
• elongated legs
• covered in weeping scabs
• a head three sizes too big.

Now the party kenku has:

• long Ibis legs
• eyes on stalks like a slug
• a whiptail

I think it is time to break out the identikit.
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[Anthony Winter]

Some of player PCs are so addicted to demon ichor we are getting too many repeats, I started to just go down the list and grab the next one but its getting to the point of the Players having a higher chance of getting the mod they are fishing for so I am extending the list - compiled from my own and online suggestions:

Roll	Effect
1​	The color of the target's hair, eyes, and skin becomes blue, red, yellow, or patterned.
2​	The target's eyes push out of its head on the end of stalks.
3​	The target's hands grow claws, which can be used as daggers.
4​	One of the target's legs grows longer than the other, reducing its walking speed by 10 feet.
5​	The target's eyes become beacons, filling a 15-foot cone with dim light when they are open.
6​	A pair of wings, either feathered or leathery, sprout from the target's back, granting it a flying speed of 30 feet.
7​	The target's ears tear free from its head and scurry away; the target is deafened.
8​	Two of the target's teeth turn into tusks.
9​	The target's skin becomes scabby, granting it a +1 bonus to AC but reducing its Charisma by 2 (to a minimum of 1).
10​	The target's arms and legs switch places, preventing the target from moving unless it crawls.
11​	The target's arms become tentacles with fingers on the ends, increasing its reach by 5 feet.
12​	The target's legs grow incredibly long and springy, increasing its walking speed by 10 feet.
13​	The target grows a whiplike tail, which it can use as a whip.
14​	The target's eyes turn black, and it gains darkvision out to a range of 120 feet.
15​	The target swells, tripling its weight.
16​	The target becomes thin and skeletal, halving its weight.
17​	The target's head doubles in size.
18​	The target's ears become wings, giving it a flying speed of 5 feet.
19​	The target's body becomes unusually brittle, causing the target to gain vulnerability to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.
20​	The target grows another head, causing it to have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, frightened, or stunned.
21​	1. Your body begins to produce poisonous spores. Any creature within 10 feet of you must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or take poison damage equal to your level. Recharge (6)
22​	4. Your hair turns to flesh
23​	5. Your body becomes covered with eyes. Advantage on all Wisdom (Perception) checks that involve sight.
24​	6. Your ribs extend out through the flesh of your torso
25​	7. Your feet become cloven hooves
26​	8. A second face grows from the back of your head.
27​	13. Nails extend into thin foot-long claws /u/Canid_red
28​	14. A second row of teeth - an independently controlled jaw within the jaw /u/Canid_red
29​	15. Arms or legs become long, bony points /u/Canid_red
30​	16. Another set of arms grows /u/Canid_red
31​	18. Spikes. Everywhere. /u/Canid_red
32​	19. Skin dissolves leaving bare muscle beneath. /u/Canid_red
33​	20. Throat becomes loose and frog-like /u/Canid_red
34​	22. The skin is covered in chitinous plates /u/Canid_red
35​	26. Your spine bursts out from your back and forms jagged spikes /u/KeenanAXQuinn
36​	27. Bark covers your body and your blood becomes amber sap /u/KeenanAXQuinn
37​	29. The lower jaw disappears leaving your tongue hanging beneath /u/Keibaberries
38​	30. The orifices of your body become lined with teeth /u/Keibaberries
39​	33. Your lungs and stomach fuse together; every breath you take spits out a small amount of bile. /u/Keibaberries
40​	34. Your body becomes a hive for extraplanar abyssal insects. (Poison spray recharge 6)
41​	35. Your hair falls out and your scalp and skull become translucent. /u/KeenanAXQuinn
42​	37. Your teeth constantly fall out and replace themselves. /u/KeenanAXQuinn
43​	39. Your cheek bones crack and two new eyes grow into place on your face. /u/KeenanAXQuinn
44​	40. Wings, much too small to lift your frame extend from your shoulderblades
45​	44. You gain a new bile spitting gland. As an action you can spit acidic bile up to 120 feet. Make a ranged weapon attack dealing 10 (3d6) acid damage on a hit. (Recharge 6)
46​	45. Your feet and hands switch
47​	47. Your entire vascular system becomes visible and far thicker than it had been. No longer blue, but instead a purplish colour, ever pumping black ichor through your blood /u/ChaosMorning
48​	48. Two of your teeth become tusks
49​	49. The color of your hair, eyes, and skin become blue, red, yellow, or patterned.
50​	50. Your eyes push out of your head at the end of stalks.
51​	51. Your hands grow claws which can be used as daggers
52​	You grow functional mouths on the palms of your hands.
53​	Roll a d4, loosing a hand or foot depending on the result. It becomes a crawling claw and serves you with stats as an abyssal chicken.
54​	You grow a set of cow like udders from your stomach. Once a day they can be milked.
55​	A small spiny plant grows out of your head. If it is not watered and given sunlight it will die, killing you. Once every 2 weeks it produces a bitter fruit that has the same benefit as a healing potion.
56​	Your eyes grow into large compound structures. Darkvision 120ft
57​	Your jaw splits and mouth twists. It now opens vertically instead of horizontally.
58​	Every so often it looks like your skin has something wiggling underneath it. (A rot grub swarm now lives inside the player, and is friendly towards them)
59​	A large growth starts to form on your back. It grows for 2d6 days until bursting, revealing an exact copy of you. It claims to be the real one.
60​	Your skin now glows in the dark.
61​	Your fingers are now tongues. You taste everything you touch.
62​	You grow a set of antlers. They drop off every spring to regrow.
63​	Your mouth disappears, but you grow two more inside your armpits.
64​	An extra elbow forms in your forearm.
65​	Your knees reverse direction
66​	A sticky mucus forms all over your skin.
67​	Instead of hair you now grow flaccid tentacles
68​	Your ears become like those of a bat and you can now echo-locate by yelling.
69​	Your skin becomes rock hard, gain unarmored defense +3. The rock is magnesium and you take fire damage when in contact with water. Submerging in water creates a massive explosion dealing 15d10 damage in a 30ft sphere, including you.
70​	Your entire vascular system becomes visible and far thicker than it had been. No longer blue, but instead a purplish colour, ever pumping black ichor through your blood
71​	You no longer perspire through your pores and instead vomit all of your sweat once every hour
72​	You gain a tail. It is spiney and can be used as a whip
73​	Your jaw becomes permanently unhingable, but allows you to consume larger volumes of food at once
74​	Your teeth retract into your gums and only ever extend when you have food in your mouth
75​	You salivate uncontrollably
76​	Injuries now no longer scar your skin, but break it, leaving behind cracks as though you were made of glass or porcelain
77​	In times of stress your bones sometimes glow with a sickening radiance give out dim light in 10 feet. You cannot be invisible and stealth with disadvantage.
78​	You develop hypersensitive nose and tongue giving you the scent ability but must perform constitution checks in particularly horrendous areas or spend your action vomiting.
79​	Your legs change more animalistic giving you a benefit such as increased movement speed or the greater ability to leap as per your DM however you have difficulty going up stairs which becomes difficult terrain
80​	Your ears become incredibly sensitive giving blind-sense to10 feet. You make any spell save such as suggestion or command with disadvantage and have vulnerability to thunder damage.
81​	Nails extend into thin foot-long claws
82​	A second row of teeth - an independently-controlled jaw within the jaw
83​	Arms or legs become long, bony points climb speed of 30, d8 damage (longsword)
84​	Another set of functional arms grows out
85​	Parts of the skin become chitin-like plates +1AC -5 movement
86​	A pair of wings, either feathered or leathery, sprout from the target's back, granting it a flying speed of 30 feet.
87​	Another set of functional arms grows out
88​	Your ears become like those of a bat and you can now echo-locate by yelling.
89​	Nothing happens.
90​	Nothing happens.
91​	Nothing happens.
92​	Nothing happens.
93​	Nothing happens.
94​	Nothing happens.
95​	Roll for two effects instead.
96​	Roll for two effects instead.
97​	Roll for two effects instead.
98​	Roll for two effects instead.
99​	Roll for two effects instead.
100​	Roll for two effects instead.

 

[Anthony Winter]

my group will likely be returning to Eltural without the sword and prior to visiting the bleeding citadel.
They will have the keys to the campanion and presumably the adventure will go along the lines of flying and trying to get to the companion and unlock is while flying devils are trying to stop them. Any ideas to flesh this out would be appreciated. (the next step beyond this is the Planetar will set them on the path to the bleeding citadel). The planetar will stay in Eltural to begin assembling a defensive celestial host.

 

[JValeur]

One of the questions asked most about this campaign seems to be: how to make Chapter 3: Avernus into a sandbox?

Thus, we have decided to try to tackle that question. Over the last week or so, we've been pushing out a hefty trilogy of blog posts about running Chapter 3: Avernus as a sandbox. These posts feature a completely reshuffled structure (flowchart included!), details about changing encounters, and more general thoughts about running an open adventure in Avernus.

You can find all the posts here:

• Part 1 – Building a Sandbox
• Part 2 – Adding the Details
• Part 3 – Advice & Troubleshooting

In the weeks ahead, we intend to clean the posts up and publish them together in a neat document. If you want to make sure you get this, you can sign up to our mailing list (or it'll be added to your download, if you've purchased our DM's resources for BGiA at the DM's Guild!)

We hope as many people as possible can get something – even if its just an idea or the inspiration for a single encounter – out of these posts. And, if there's anything you'd like us to cover in the future – related to BGiA or not – please let me know here or at jvaleur@eventyrgames.com!

Have fun in Hell!

J. A. Valeur

Eventyr Games – Mailing List – Facebook – Twitter

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

One of the questions asked most about this campaign seems to be: how to make Chapter 3: Avernus into a sandbox?

I've had this same thought myself and I had planned to sandbox up chapter 3. The blog posts really got the gears turning in my head so thanks for the links.

I'm also currently planning on adding a decision point in chapter 1 to break up the railroad there. My group chose to have a dark secret so once they leave the dungeon of the Dead Three instead of the Tiamat's cultists, they will be presented with blackmail. They are currently wanted for a failed heist but their identities remain hidden for now. When they emerge from the dungeon detailed notes about their identity will be scattered around the bathhouse along with a note instructing them to leave the treasure or else their secret will be revealed. From there the party will be free to continue looking into the Vanthampur family through the normal means or start looking into who their blackmailers are.