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

[pukunui]

Here's something interesting: In the old AD&D 2e Cult of the Dragon sourcebook, there's a small section on the Church of Tiamat. It starts off by saying that the church (and Tiamat herself) are little known outside of the Old Empires, but that since the Time of Troubles, Tiamat has felt the need to spread her faith beyond Unther. One way in which she has begun doing that (this is circa 1370 DR) is to infiltrate and co-opt individual Cult of the Dragon cells. Her hope is that the more cultists she wins over, the stronger she'll get and the better she'll be able to take over the bigger cells.

I guess, given the status of things in Tyranny of Dragons, that over the ensuing century, the followers of Tiamat succeeded in taking over the Cult of the Dragon from within.

As an aside, the book also has a little bit of background info on Naergoth Bladelord while he is still alive.

 

[DongMaster]

What I like about ToD is the epic story and flexibility available to the DM.

What I do not like is the lack of an updated Sword Coast (or Realms) due to lots of travelling.

That's why my ToD will be collectiong dust until more fresh background meat is available. Will run PotA before with one party, and because of our less than weekly gaming, and then start with ToD when more Forgotten Realms have been published (in whatever format).

 

[JediSoth]

I've been using multiple blogs and message board threads to spice up my HotDQ, then blogging about it myself over at DoctorStrangeRoll. I haven't incorporated everything, of course, because not everything is suitable for my group, but the changes I've made have generally been well-received, especially Hack'N'Slash blog's suggestion to introduce elements of the Council of Waterdeep as early as Chapter 4 after the caravan arrives in Waterdeep. I already had an NPC start hanging out with the PCs (which I'm convinced the website I used to create him was trolling me by giving the halfling the name of Tom Haverford... I don't watch Parks & Recreation, so I didn't realize it at the time), so it was a simple matter to have him actually be an agent of the Radiant Shield spying on the PCs to see if they were trustworthy (the blog used the Council Quiet as the precursor to the Council of Waterdeep, I took the concept and renamed it the Radiant Shield).

It had the great benefit of making it appear as though Ontharr Frume and Master Leonsin were actually doing something while the PCs were stuck in that caravan from Baldur's Gate for several months.

One thing I didn't do, was alter the encounter on the road at the inn with the assassins. I was curious, so mentally, I made a note to have their poison be single-use, but it never actually came up because I only got in a couple of hits, then my dice went cold. The PCs fought hard and smart and actually defeated the assassins (the PCs were no higher than level 4... maybe level 3). It helped that two NPCs from the caravan came in, but they were more of a distraction than anything. It was well-played and the players deserve the XP & treasure I gave them for the encounter (I gave almost full XP for the assassins, rather than the 300 XP per caravan section encounter the book recommends and I rolled for the treasure-- they got an immovable rod and monies).

Since they didn't hire onto the caravan as guards, I had to alter a bit of the adventure once they were in Waterdeep anyway. The dwarven priest of Sune has skill as a brewer (yeah, he's confused, I think), so they actually joined the caravan as merchants. It didn't make any sense for them to then join another caravan hauling road-repair stuff (and cultist booty) as guards and after the whole murder thing with Jamna Gleamsilver, the cultists were getting wise to the PCs anyway. So, I let Master Leosin be the one to tell them that the treasure was being taken at least as far as Karnath Roadhouse. They were then able to beat the cultists there and find the secret door with just a bit of light recon and no confrontations.

It certainly made that part of the adventure short, but that's fine with me. I want to get this thing moving!

 

[pukunui]

I'm debating whether or not to start with the PCs already in town. One of the sites I looked at had this neat idea of having the PCs accompanying the brother of Governor Nighthill, who throws the PCs a sack of healing potions before rushing off to distract the dragon with a glowing mace (and undoubtedly sacrificing his life in the process). On the other hand, though, having them start in town already would enable me to describe the dragon's initial attack - the sound of it thundering overhead, followed by a crackling explosion, screams, etc. Maybe that family the PCs are supposed to rescue in "Seek the Keep" could come stumbling into the tavern, followed by kobolds, instead of out in the street.

... especially Hack'N'Slash blog's suggestion to introduce elements of the Council of Waterdeep as early as Chapter 4 ...

Too late for you, I realize, but for others: one could start by introducing Ulder Ravengard in Baldur's Gate before the caravan trip.

 

[pukunui]

I'm debating whether or not to start with the PCs already in town. One of the sites I looked at had this neat idea of having the PCs accompanying the brother of Governor Nighthill, who throws the PCs a sack of healing potions before rushing off to distract the dragon with a glowing mace (and undoubtedly sacrificing his life in the process). On the other hand, though, having them start in town already would enable me to describe the dragon's initial attack - the sound of it thundering overhead, followed by a crackling explosion, screams, etc. Maybe that family the PCs are supposed to rescue in "Seek the Keep" could come stumbling into the tavern, followed by kobolds, instead of out in the street.

What if I were to combine the two?

Here's what I'm thinking ...

"Patchy" is the town innkeeper/bartender. The PCs have arrived in Greenest as the sun sets, so they're in the inn getting a bit of a late meal (bread and cheese and ale?). There are only a handful of others in the inn at this time of day, so the PCs are pretty much a captive audience as Patchy regales them with tales of his adventuring days and asks them questions about their own adventures and such.

At one point, he starts telling them a story about fighting a dragon, and just as he's describing how it swooped overhead, Lennithon does just that. Once it's established that the town is under attack, Patchy grabs a mace and shield from behind the bar. He tells the PCs he's going to grab his horse and distract the dragon with his magic mace - which lights up like a beacon when he strikes it on his shield - as he rides out of town. He then tosses the PCs what turns out to be a bag of holding (my wife's been wanting one for a while) filled with potions.

Shortly after, a family bursts into the common room with kobolds in hot pursuit. The mother, wielding a spear, turns to block the door, as the father and the children head for the back of the inn.

As Patchy rides off on his horse, he yells at them to send his regards to his brother.


It could do with a bit of a moral dilemma (forcing the PCs to choose between helping Patchy or helping the family), I think, but it's a good start. Perhaps Patchy tries to encourage the PCs to help him drive off the dragon, but when the family bursts in, the father pleads with the PCs to help them. If the PCs choose to help the family rather than Patchy, he then tosses them the bag before leaving.

I'm thinking the bag of holding will have a random collection of minor potions and such in it. I might come up with a table for the PCs to roll on whenever they want to draw something out of it.

 

[pukunui]

To determine what time of year to start my ToD campaign, I used the following facts:

- The default year for the ToD storyline is 1489 DR.
- There is a half moon on the night of the Greenest raid.
- On the night of the raid, sunset is ~9pm, while sunrise is ~6am.
- Waterdeep is close to the 45th parallel.
- Greenest is roughly 500 miles south of Waterdeep.


Waterdeep is at roughly the same latitude as Portland, OR. That puts Greenest at roughly the same latitude as San Francisco, CA. The sun sets around 8:30pm and rises around 6:00am in the middle of July in San Fran. Flamerule is FR's equivalent to July.

According to the FR Calendar Tool, there is a half moon on the night of 8 Flamerule 1489, so that is when I am beginning my campaign.

 

[cmad1977]

Ok. So after trying to stay this post three times... Here goes!

So we just completed what looks to be the 1st half of chapter 4. I made an index card for each wagon with the wagoners cargo and personality. There are 9 wagons with 3 of them bearing the cults loot. My intention was to have the party in kind of a Hell on Wheels type scenario where the wagon train is almost a mobile village.

Whenever an event comes up I randomly take a card from the pile and that wagoner and guards are part of the scene. According to my players they enjoyed this and one of them said it was the best RP section of the adventure so far.

We left off with the party in potentially hot water after bushwhacking the 'heroes' who are actually just actors because the party mistakenly assumed that they were cult agents.

 

[jayoungr]

I considered starting HotDQ in Greenest, or even in someplace like Baldur's Gate, but in the end, I went with the basic opening scenario as written, for two reasons. The first was because I just couldn't resist the dramatic image of the group reaching the top of the hill and seeing the siege spread out below. The second was because I wanted to use Patchy (from the Begging for XP podcast) to bring the group together so they could bond a little before getting into combat, and having them travel together seemed like the best way to do that. If they'd been in town, some of them would have wanted to start on the tasks suggested by their background bonds--one PC had the "investigate dragon activity" assignment from Ontharr Frume, for example--and others wouldn't have had anything to do.

I did borrow Patchy, and he worked very well for getting the group together. They met at the crossroads to the east of Greenest, where two PCs were coming in from the south and the other two (with Patchy) were coming down from the north. I played up the family drama a bit by having Patchy reminisce about how he'd skipped town forty years earlier to become an adventurer, leaving his brother to take over the family business, and how he felt a little guilty about that but proud of his brother's accomplishments at the same time. He wanted to give his brother the family crest medallion as a sort of symbolic gesture. (I also described the medallion as showing an owl flying over a mountain under a crescent moon--"Night Hill.") My intent was just to make the PCs feel that it was important to get the amulet to the governor so that they would be encouraged to go into the town, but I think I created an expectation that the amulet would then be magical and help in the town's defense somehow. I think I might have it magically save Tarbaw from dragon breath or something during the later siege, just so that pays off. Using the "Patchy" opening definitely helped get one of the PCs into town, as we have a fighter with the "secret coward" flaw.

EDIT: Also, I told my group it was the equivalent of August. This was for two reasons--first, I wanted it to be late enough in the year that threatening the mill would be a really big deal, and second, I'm thinking ahead to the journey north; I want them to reach Carnath Roadhouse when it's cold, but not so late in the year that they'll wonder why crews are still going there at all. And I'll be able to describe the cold, driving autumn rains on the way too.

 

[pukunui]

I went with my version last night, after everyone had finished up their characters. I described how they'd all come into Greenest towards the end of the day and were congregated at the inn (which I'd randomly determined was named The Lonely Demon using the tavern name generator in the DMG; I described the inn's sign as being an imp with its chin in its hand), where they were warmly greeted by the innkeeper, Darvin "Folks round here call me 'Patchy'" Nighthill.

I went around the table and got the players to introduce their characters, and I had Patchy relate some anecdote for each one. So like when the elf arcane trickster explained that he was a bit of a bard and was looking to make a name for himself, Patchy said he'd spent some time among the elves of the Misty Forest and liked a good elven ballad. He asked the elf to sing one, and the elf willingly obliged, rolling quite high on his Performance check and impressing Patchy enough that it brought a tear to his eye. Later, when the human noble told him she was quite fond of her greataxe, he showed her the trusty shield and mace he'd hung up behind the bar, and I described them as looking like they'd seen a lot of use.

After the introductions, one of the PCs conveniently asked him if he was a retired adventurer, so he readily launched into some of his tales while they ate their fill of a late dinner. At one point, he stopped and asked if any of them had ever fought a dragon. None of them had, though the dwarf wizard said he knew of dragons (my wife picked the "dragon scholar" background feature; she also decided that her character has a silver dragon as a friend).

Patchy started telling a story about fighting a dragon, and as he was describing the dragon's approach, I explained that a low rumble shook the inn as something big flew directly overhead. This was followed by a loud crackle of electricity, followed by an explosion from somewhere else in town. Patchy deadpanned, "Yeah, just like that." and proceeded to get his shield and mace.

He informed the group that it seemed a dragon was attacking the village. They asked if that happened a lot. He encouraged them to accompany him in driving off the dragon, at which point he struck his mace on his shield and it lit up brightly like a beacon. Before they could respond, though, I explained that there was a commotion outside the inn and, looking out the windows, they could see a family with young children fleeing from a pack of kobolds, with the mother of the family bravely trying to fend them off with a shield and a broken spear.

The PCs opted to help the family, leaving the crazy old man with a death wish to handle the dragon by himself. Before he departed, he reached behind the bar and tossed them an old bag, telling them they might need what was inside. The dwarf wizard (and my wife) was overjoyed to discover it was bag of holding, although she hasn't had a proper chance to examine its contents in any detail (the goliath druid had a quick look but found it all a bit confusing and handed the bag over to the wizard).

Then it was off into the night to fight kobolds and cultists and rescue villagers. They snuck past most of the raiding groups and ended up with a group of 13 villagers, including the Swifts, who they'd successfully rescued from the kobolds.

 

[vandaexpress]

Finished up running Castle Naerytar last week. Here's some stuff I implemented and how it turned out:

- Undead ambushed the party as they entered the Mere of Dead men. Ogre Zombies, ghouls, and ghasts. It makes sense, given the location's history.

- I remixed the top of the barbican by having the drum be gigantic (like 25'x25') and the bullywugs sounded the drum by jumping on it in synchronized patterns. Flavorful and fun. The party timed the lizardfolk revolt with their attack on the top of the barbican, they cast silence on the drum and killed the bullywugs. I handwaved that the rest of the bullywugs above ground were slaughtered by lizardfolk, after which the lizardfolk fled from the castle into the swamp. This had the net effect of eliminating most potential encounters above ground except the cultists.

- When the party found a room to attempt a short rest, I triggered a random encounter with Pharblex and 4 of his elite bodyguards, they were also looking for a place to hide from the murderous lizardfolk. Pharblex is a pushover and his spell selection is pretty awful. I didn't have a problem with this; he's a bullywug. But if you want him to be challenging, you'll need to seriously retool his spell list as a first step, I think. I gave him the voice of Boss Nass from Star Wars Episode 1

- I strongly recommend reading up on and familiarizing yourself with Borngrey and Azbara Jos's spell lists and potential battle tactics. The challenge of the battles against them depends in large measure on how intelligently you utilize their spell slots and actions. I found that fog cloud was a great spell for Jos to use to control the battlefield and limit party visibility. Remember to use shield, misty step, and Azbara's counterspell to maximize survivability. Otherwise, fireball away. If you want these battles to be challenging, it is essential that you give the NPCs a lot of backup. I had the party face Jos, Borngrey, Mondath, 6 guard drakes, and two berserkers. Even with amped up HP, Borngrey still went down pretty fast.

- Consider putting in consequences for taking rests after they attack the castle - this is Rezmir's personal stronghold, she's not just going to abandon it without planning to retake it. If the party takes a long rest, have Rezmir send reinforcements through the portal. In my case, I had her send a bunch of heavy hitters, her personal "cleaners" that she sends in to take care of any mess. I used a veteran, a half-dragon veteran, a mage, and a gladiator (along with drakes). These guys were all named NPCs with scary portraits. When the PCs watched them from a distance, I had the cleaners straight up kill Dragonwings for their incompetence, throwing them off of towers, etc. This helped put their power into perspective. Then I had them organize room-by-room searches with lots of cultists. The party fought one or two of these search parties (deadly encounters) and quickly realized that they were in over their heads. It was a great feeling when, instead of the standard "let's rest after this tough battle" mentality, the players said "We need to get out of here now. If we rest, they're just going to keep sending more reinforcements and they'll find us. I don't want to mess with these guys." As a DM, when I manage to successfully instill urgency into the party, it's a real win for me personally.

- I had the entire bullywug population of the underground cave attack the party at the same time, along with their giant frogs. Yes. All of them. The PCs took a choke point and deployed their spells intelligently, wound up killing 27 bullywugs/giant frogs after taking only one hit the entire battle. I'll be honest, I don't understand why they have bullywugs at this location, they just feel like a waste of time and have no hope of dealing anything close to meaningful damage against a level 5 party. If I were doing it all over again, I would have had the lizardfolk wipe out the bullywugs underground as well. Unlike Kobolds and Dragonclaws, they don't have pack tactics, or any other sort of 'horde' mechanic like martial advantage, etc so they don't even fight that well in large groups. They're weak, stupid enemies. Now that I think about it, if I were to redo everything, I would probably replace the bullywugs with undead. I don't know, maybe I just didn't really give them a chance.

Currently prepping the Lodge and Skyreach. Will let you know how it turns out.