D&D 5E Enhancing "Rise of Tiamat" (Practical stuff to try at your table!)

[discosoc]

I'd actually suggest keeping the vampire but making it more of a non-combat encounter. Sandesyl could be a good source of cult lore. One thing that isn't really played up enough in the campaign is the fact that not everyone in the cult is happy about the new focus on Tiamat (which has, believe it or not, been in the works since the 2e days - the old Cult of the Dragon sourcebook talks about how the church of Tiamat in Chessenta has been trying to infiltrate and take over the Cult of the Dragon almost since its inception.)

I ended up using her in a weird counter-alliance between her and Tharchion Eseldra Yeth. Basically, I decided Yeth was looking to curry favor and/or sent to hunt down the renegade Thayans like the book mentions, but formed an alliance with Sandesyl and Naergoth Bladelord as the means to do that. Essentially, the PC's have wrecked havoc on Severin's plans due to crashing the castle, having the black dragonmask in their posession (I wasn't too keen on the whole "mask is teleported away if Rezmir dies" thing), having the white dragon mask currently 'lost.'

When first formulating this idea, the second book wasn't out yet, and I didn't really know about Yeth either, but she ended up fitting the bill for what I was doing. What I did know is -- at least for the way our group was rolling -- a vampire encounter (even an RP one) was going to be too much happening at once. So I took Sandesyl out with the intention of using her somewhere else down the road (same with the white dragon). Of course, I also ended up changing up the nature of that castle a bit anyway. The PC's basically found dead cloud giant bodies stuffed in rooms and pieced together what happened (cult took it over by force, and was piloting it the good old fashion magical way -- red wizards). Where was a much bigger red wizard threat on board anyway, so between them, cultists, ogres, and 2 boss characters (Rath and Rezmir), it was still fun.

I just wouldn't really recommend going my route for that as a baseline. It's just how mine worked out.

 

[jayoungr]

Hi, @discosoc, and welcome to the thread! (You may also be interested in the companion thread dedicated to HotDQ.) Thanks for your input!

Two points about the vampire encounter at Skyreach Castle. Number one: the biggest reason I kept it is because I have a cleric in my group, and so far there have been exactly zero* undead encounters in the module as written. (I did throw some ogre zombies into the Mere of Dead Men, but that was my addition.) Number two: the encounter is much, much easier if the players took the spear that casts daylight from the hunting lodge.

My group found the vampire's daytime resting place, defeated the guardian spawn in 2-3 rounds with the help of the daylight spear, and then (with the spear still burning) destroyed the vampire while it slept. It never had a chance to fight back. They felt awesome for outsmarting it.

The only thing I didn't like was the Arcane Brotherhood being introduced as yet another faction in an AP that's already overflowing with factions.

I felt just the opposite; it just makes sense to have a magic users' faction, and I am surprised it's not a playable faction in the Adventurer's League. Besides, the council of Waterdeep is all about uniting large numbers of groups with conflicting goals, and this is one group that can be won over fairly early and easily.


*EDIT: I forgot about the specters in Castle Naerytar. They're optional, though, and will only be found if a group explores the place thoroughly. And it's still only one undead encounter for the whole module up to that point.

 

[GuardianLurker]

More additional thoughts:

1) Your players may want to bring the Giants into the Alliance; it's mentioned as a throw-away at the beginning of the module, and the finale assumes the giants are involved, but it isn't detailed. If you're sticking to Faerun canon, a Jotunmoot to match the Dragon's Council (in RoT:Ep6) would include Ettins, Hill Giants, Stone Giants, Fire Giants, Frost Giants, and Storm Giants. If you chose to include this, make sure to include some concession-enabling events/things in HotDQ.

2) Speaking of Ep. 6 - as written its a little easy. Or more accurately, written on the assumption that the PCs won't ever do anything to annoy the dragons and harm the negotiations. They will - that's what PCs do. So make sure to include notes on what you think would worsen the dragons attitude *during* negotiations, not just at the start.

2a) Also, as written, the adventure assumes the encounters will be *entirely* RP. This isn't entirely unfair, but it is a little unwise for a general-purpose audience. If you want to include mechanical backup, I'd suggest adding an additional attitude between Neutral and Friendly (I used "Receptive"). And set Persuasion DCs for transitioning between states. I used: Unfriendly -> DC 25 -> Cautious -> DC 20 -> Neutral -> DC 20 Receptive -> DC 25 -> Friendly, with a backslide option of "when the characters fail a check by 15 or more."

3) One of the major complaints is that outcomes are locked in. This is usually justified as a time-related issue ("You were to late to prevent..."). So fix this by rewarding quick resolutions. And contrariwise, (slightly) penalizing laggards. (I say slightly because most of the obvious penalties are those baked-in outcomes you'd be working to correct.) Which of course means you need a standard to compare against. As a rough-order-of-magnitude, I suggest 2 weeks per episode, and allow for breaks in-between, but calculating actual time required isn't difficult.

Where this will make the biggest difference is in the finale - Did the characters move fast enough to prevent the start of the ritual? The summoning the Temple? Were they too late to prevent the summoning of Tiamat? etc.

4) Those "side-adventures" mentioned early in the book are what you need to use to bring out the flavor and background details, to convert the AP from a series of disjointed missions/dungeoncrawls. Do NOT neglect them. Detail them, insert them into the plot. I'd argue they are actually more important than the "Cult Attacks" to the success of the AP.

Edit:
5) The Arcane Brotherhood isn't a bad substitute for the Red Wizards of Thay, if your players would be uncomfortable with that alliance (and deservedly so). Develop a replacement for Ep. 8 if you do. Based on the AB's goals/interests, it would probably be some kind of "fetch" quest.

 

[GuardianLurker]

As written, that's the only way to include a red dragon in the campaign. Personally, I'm thinking about swapping out the white dragon in the flying castle for a red one (who acts as a sort of furnace and central heating system for the castle).

Except, of course, that none of the suggested cult forces include a Red.

 

[discosoc]

Except, of course, that none of the suggested cult forces include a Red.

The third attack does.

 

[GuardianLurker]

The third attack does.

Ah well, I stand corrected then.

However, wasting a Red Dragon on Cult Attack is kind of a cheap blow, not using the Red to its full effect. Also, the changeover from Blacks (young adult and adult in the previous two) to Red is a little sudden.

Oh, and that brings to mind a different point - the Cult Attack scenes are great places to insert a callback to a previously defeated cultist - maybe Fulram Mondath or Talis is in charge of one (or more) of the attacks. Maybe Varram's dragon friend (all the Wyrmspeakers have one), or Rezmir's gets involved.

 

[jayoungr]

However, wasting a Red Dragon on Cult Attack is kind of a cheap blow, not using the Red to its full effect. Also, the changeover from Blacks (young adult and adult in the previous two) to Red is a little sudden.

I agree that it would be nice to have a named Red Dragon with some buildup in the module; as it is, we get two whites, a green, and the same blue twice, but no reds or blacks in the fleshed-out sections of the adventure. The changeover probably won't feel sudden in play, though, since the encounters will be separated by a couple of levels for the players.

I've been toying with the idea of substituting a red dragon for the blue in Xonthal's Tower. I don't think my party are really hankering for revenge on Lennithon (I think they've forgotten him, actually), and it would be a fitting cap to one of the last full adventures before the final showdown. But maybe it would be thematically too weird for them to face a red dragon after an adventure that's all about getting the blue dragon mask.

 

[jayoungr]

Some Links

There don't seem to be as many online resources for The Rise of Tiamat as there are for Hoard of the Dragon Queen. I suppose that's partly because not everyone goes on to RoT after HotDQ and partly because it's generally agreed to need less work to run. I've found a few links, though:

• Steve Winter has two relevant articles on the Kobold Press blog: "So You're Running Tyranny of Dragons" and "The Rise of Tiamat: A DM's and Player's Overview."
• This blog post has links to resources for both HotDQ and RoT. Definitely make sure you get the online supplement linked there; it will save you having to flip through the Monster Manual.
• The above blogger also has an extensive review post on RoT, which is a general overview of things to think about when running it.
• Actual play podcast: Jason Hibdon's group starts here.
• Actual play podcast: the crowd at WotC plays through chapter 2 (the Sea of Moving Ice episode).
• Actual play podcast: Starwalker Studios.

 

[GuardianLurker]

I'm not sure I'd agree that RoT requires less work to run than HotDQ. The adventure itself is solid, but there are so many side quests embedded in the narrative that you could easily spend 2 or 3 times the amount of prep work.

 

[Eltab]

When I took over as DM for our group, we were trying to finish HotDQ before the end of the school year (and our DM moving back home). We failed, so I got to take over with the PCs in the flying castle but nothing had been accomplished.
I decided to use the vampire as an opportunity to deliver a soliloquy on the history of the Cult of the Dragon, as seen by somebody who was actually there. I presented her as a companion of Samwise First-Speaker, and described Sevarin as a would-be High Priest of Tiamat; not a true disciple of the Scaly Way. (I also got to use my Dracula voice, and went home with a sore throat.)

When the group was in Waterdeep the first time, I pulled out the 3e Waterdeep: City of Splendors book and had the PCs unearth the Belabranta Griffontack. This is an elaborate foreshadowing: I don't know where the Tower of Xonthal is, so I don't know how long it would take to walk/ride, so I'm going to have Young Master Belabranta offer the services of his unit - the renovated Griffon Cavalry of Waterdeep - to FLY the PCs in and out.

Using more 3e material on the Cult of the Dragon, I'm trying to tie the Rider of the Green Dragon (who is raiding the Elven villages) to the Cult's criminal cells. I'm not sure the group is getting it, though. But they lit up when I described him as wearing his Purple as "a royal robe". (Then they beat the stuffing out of him; group Standard Tactics for potential Wyrmspeakers is to kick in the door and cast _Hold Person_ on him/her/it.)