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Enhancing "Hoard of the Dragon Queen" (Practical stuff to try at your table!)
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<blockquote data-quote="jayoungr" data-source="post: 6741725" data-attributes="member: 6702445"><p><strong>Skyreach Castle</strong></p><p></p><p>This whole area is pretty sandboxy, so I'll just give an overview of how my group handled it and how we dealt with some of the issues/questions raised. </p><p></p><p>My group befriended the cloud giant early on, getting his permission to command the ogres as well. The PCs also managed to tame the wyverns by feeding them, so now they have wyvern mounts.</p><p></p><p>I cut the other giants who are living in the castle. They seemed extraneous to the story of Blagothkus and the cult, and my group never opened the door to their room anyway.</p><p></p><p>There's been <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?394129-Enhancing-quot-Rise-of-Tiamat-quot-%28Practical-stuff-to-try-at-your-table!%29&p=6737382&viewfull=1#post6737382" target="_blank">some discussion</a> on the "Rise of Tiamat" sister thread about whether to keep the vampire encounter. I kept it in largely because I wanted my cleric to have more opportunity to use his undead-smiting abilities; these modules as a whole are not large on undead. Besides, I was pretty sure my party could handle a vampire even in a toe-to-toe fight.</p><p></p><p>Next, they tackled the Red Wizards. I upped the number of gargoyles in the room to four, and they still had no trouble taking them out, along with Azbara Jos (Rath Modar got away). The party chatted with the wizards for a bit before the fight started. They wanted to know about their motivation and why they thought Tiamat wouldn't just eat them when she was summoned. I think I fielded the questions reasonably well, but there's a passage in <em>Rise of Tiamat</em> that lays out Rath Modar's intentions more clearly; I wish I had read it before running this scene. It would have been nice to name-drop the Thayan Resurrection, since that comes up in the next module. Here it is:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>EDIT to add: Oh yes, and by the way, in my game Rath Modar didn't cast two concentration spells at once. Instead of <em>fly,</em> he cast <em>feather fall</em> to get away from the castle! <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite8" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":D" /></p><p></p><p>Next, the PCs took down Rezmir. I had her wear the mask during the fight, and I let the party keep it after they killed her. I'm curious about one thing, though: <em>The Rise of Tiamat</em> suggests having Rezmir resurrected by the cult so she can face the party again later. But the fight description says that her body turns to ash when she is killed. Wouldn't that prevent her being resurrected?</p><p></p><p>For the final phase, the party made good use of the pots of hallucinogenic powder which they'd taken from Castle Naerytar. They slipped some into the cultists' dinner, causing all of them to get high and making it easy for the ogres to herd them into a room and lock them up. Then the party also dusted Glazhael's meat with the powder and got him high as well. I ruled that they got a surprise round and also that the dragon blew his breath weapon at the ceiling. In defeating the dragon, they had the help of five or six ogres throwing javelins. The book doesn't say how many javelins the ogres carry, so I said they had two each.</p><p></p><p>The module ended with Skyreach Castle appearing over Waterdeep and the PCs dramatically flying down on their wyverns before the castle drifted off northward.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="jayoungr, post: 6741725, member: 6702445"] [B]Skyreach Castle[/B] This whole area is pretty sandboxy, so I'll just give an overview of how my group handled it and how we dealt with some of the issues/questions raised. My group befriended the cloud giant early on, getting his permission to command the ogres as well. The PCs also managed to tame the wyverns by feeding them, so now they have wyvern mounts. I cut the other giants who are living in the castle. They seemed extraneous to the story of Blagothkus and the cult, and my group never opened the door to their room anyway. There's been [URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?394129-Enhancing-quot-Rise-of-Tiamat-quot-%28Practical-stuff-to-try-at-your-table!%29&p=6737382&viewfull=1#post6737382"]some discussion[/URL] on the "Rise of Tiamat" sister thread about whether to keep the vampire encounter. I kept it in largely because I wanted my cleric to have more opportunity to use his undead-smiting abilities; these modules as a whole are not large on undead. Besides, I was pretty sure my party could handle a vampire even in a toe-to-toe fight. Next, they tackled the Red Wizards. I upped the number of gargoyles in the room to four, and they still had no trouble taking them out, along with Azbara Jos (Rath Modar got away). The party chatted with the wizards for a bit before the fight started. They wanted to know about their motivation and why they thought Tiamat wouldn't just eat them when she was summoned. I think I fielded the questions reasonably well, but there's a passage in [I]Rise of Tiamat[/I] that lays out Rath Modar's intentions more clearly; I wish I had read it before running this scene. It would have been nice to name-drop the Thayan Resurrection, since that comes up in the next module. Here it is: EDIT to add: Oh yes, and by the way, in my game Rath Modar didn't cast two concentration spells at once. Instead of [i]fly,[/i] he cast [i]feather fall[/i] to get away from the castle! :D Next, the PCs took down Rezmir. I had her wear the mask during the fight, and I let the party keep it after they killed her. I'm curious about one thing, though: [I]The Rise of Tiamat[/I] suggests having Rezmir resurrected by the cult so she can face the party again later. But the fight description says that her body turns to ash when she is killed. Wouldn't that prevent her being resurrected? For the final phase, the party made good use of the pots of hallucinogenic powder which they'd taken from Castle Naerytar. They slipped some into the cultists' dinner, causing all of them to get high and making it easy for the ogres to herd them into a room and lock them up. Then the party also dusted Glazhael's meat with the powder and got him high as well. I ruled that they got a surprise round and also that the dragon blew his breath weapon at the ceiling. In defeating the dragon, they had the help of five or six ogres throwing javelins. The book doesn't say how many javelins the ogres carry, so I said they had two each. The module ended with Skyreach Castle appearing over Waterdeep and the PCs dramatically flying down on their wyverns before the castle drifted off northward. [/QUOTE]
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