Hooray!
We began Hoard of the Dragon Queen on 23rd August, 2014, and finished The Rise of Tiamat on 11th April, 2015. It took us 30 two-hour sessions.
Due to the limitations of running it through the D&D Adventurers League, I was unable to use my (and the adventures) preferred system of milestones, so the party were 11th level going into the final encounter. Tiamat was never summoned, as the party were able to kill the Red Wizards before the summoning was completed.
The players had done a really good job of gaining allies over the campaign, so I ruled that most of the cult's forces were fighting the armies of the Alliance. Of particular interest was that the players chose to assign the metallic dragons to the attack on the Temple of Tiamat (while the Giants on Skyreach Castle dealt with the chromatic dragons supporting the armies) and the druids and wizards of the Emerald Enclave to opposing the Mask of the Chromatic Dragon.
This led to a lot of description of how the temple was rocked by attacks (fire, lightning, etc.) of the good dragons during the fight, but also to a couple of foes being greatly hampered.
The first was the five dragons sacrificing prisoners outside the temple. The players witnessed them being forced to abandon the sacrifice to stop the attacks of the metallic dragons, which allowed the party enough time to slay the devils guarding the entrance and guide the prisoners to safety. Thus, the prisoner sacrifice was ended.
The second was that Severin was greatly reduced in power - I ruled that the Mask of the Chromatic Dragon had no effect at all due to the magical might being aimed at it to disrupt it. So, Severin was lacking in Legendary actions and resistances.
It was still a hard fight. I was really worried that the Red Wizards would be too far apart for the party to get them in the ten rounds allotted for the completion of the ritual. I was wrong. There were a few really nice moments:
* The two tiefling PCs being caught in a fireball, only to emerge with only the loss of about 7-8 hit points each. Resistances and making spell saves is great!
* The warlock using Eldritch Blast to take down the flying Red Wizards from a long, long way away - out of counterspell range!
* The bard using Dispel Magic to cause the levitating Red Wizards to crash to the ground. Why wasn't this counterspelled? The Red Wizard had already used his reaction to cast Shield against the ranged attacks!
* The monk dashing 120 feet in one round, speeding to attack the Red Wizards the rest of the group couldn't reach.
* Ice, our halfling sorcerer, running up to the downed Severin and pulling apart the Mask of the Chromatic Dragon (thus destroying it), because she just wanted the White Dragon mask as a souvenir!
We did the combat primarily as Theatre of the Mind, with the aid of a sketch map. Before the fight, I was very, very worried about the distances. The actual distances involved ended up being:
* 60 feet to reach the first pair of Red Wizards
* 230 feet to reach Severin
* 230 feet to reach the second pair of Red Wizards
* 260 feet to reach the third pair of Red Wizards
* 350 feet to reach the fourth pair of Red Wizards
* 350 feet to reach the fifth pair of Red Wizards
It looks like a lot, but it proved not to be anywhere as much as I thought it would be - even without the group using any magical means of increasing their speed (save the Monk's class abilities + Mobility feat), they were well able to reach the important foes. Yes, there were turns they weren't attacking but just dashing towards their foes, but that was enough - especially with the ranged support from the warlock and sorcerer disrupting the Red Wizards from afar.
Could I have made the final battle tougher? Absolutely... but this was the culmination of months of good play. The battle was hard enough, and everyone contributed to defeating the Cult. At the end, I had the final three Red Wizards teleport away (with their plans in ruins) rather than extend it further when it was already won. In total, the final battle took about an hour (8-9 rounds of combat) of the two-hour final session.
I know that some of you would have preferred Tiamat to appear, but - for me - that was always the sign of the players not actually succeeding. They'd done so much right over the campaign, and their reward was the utter devastation of the Cult's plans to summon Tiamat to the Realms.
Cheers!
We began Hoard of the Dragon Queen on 23rd August, 2014, and finished The Rise of Tiamat on 11th April, 2015. It took us 30 two-hour sessions.
Due to the limitations of running it through the D&D Adventurers League, I was unable to use my (and the adventures) preferred system of milestones, so the party were 11th level going into the final encounter. Tiamat was never summoned, as the party were able to kill the Red Wizards before the summoning was completed.
The players had done a really good job of gaining allies over the campaign, so I ruled that most of the cult's forces were fighting the armies of the Alliance. Of particular interest was that the players chose to assign the metallic dragons to the attack on the Temple of Tiamat (while the Giants on Skyreach Castle dealt with the chromatic dragons supporting the armies) and the druids and wizards of the Emerald Enclave to opposing the Mask of the Chromatic Dragon.
This led to a lot of description of how the temple was rocked by attacks (fire, lightning, etc.) of the good dragons during the fight, but also to a couple of foes being greatly hampered.
The first was the five dragons sacrificing prisoners outside the temple. The players witnessed them being forced to abandon the sacrifice to stop the attacks of the metallic dragons, which allowed the party enough time to slay the devils guarding the entrance and guide the prisoners to safety. Thus, the prisoner sacrifice was ended.
The second was that Severin was greatly reduced in power - I ruled that the Mask of the Chromatic Dragon had no effect at all due to the magical might being aimed at it to disrupt it. So, Severin was lacking in Legendary actions and resistances.
It was still a hard fight. I was really worried that the Red Wizards would be too far apart for the party to get them in the ten rounds allotted for the completion of the ritual. I was wrong. There were a few really nice moments:
* The two tiefling PCs being caught in a fireball, only to emerge with only the loss of about 7-8 hit points each. Resistances and making spell saves is great!
* The warlock using Eldritch Blast to take down the flying Red Wizards from a long, long way away - out of counterspell range!
* The bard using Dispel Magic to cause the levitating Red Wizards to crash to the ground. Why wasn't this counterspelled? The Red Wizard had already used his reaction to cast Shield against the ranged attacks!
* The monk dashing 120 feet in one round, speeding to attack the Red Wizards the rest of the group couldn't reach.
* Ice, our halfling sorcerer, running up to the downed Severin and pulling apart the Mask of the Chromatic Dragon (thus destroying it), because she just wanted the White Dragon mask as a souvenir!
We did the combat primarily as Theatre of the Mind, with the aid of a sketch map. Before the fight, I was very, very worried about the distances. The actual distances involved ended up being:
* 60 feet to reach the first pair of Red Wizards
* 230 feet to reach Severin
* 230 feet to reach the second pair of Red Wizards
* 260 feet to reach the third pair of Red Wizards
* 350 feet to reach the fourth pair of Red Wizards
* 350 feet to reach the fifth pair of Red Wizards
It looks like a lot, but it proved not to be anywhere as much as I thought it would be - even without the group using any magical means of increasing their speed (save the Monk's class abilities + Mobility feat), they were well able to reach the important foes. Yes, there were turns they weren't attacking but just dashing towards their foes, but that was enough - especially with the ranged support from the warlock and sorcerer disrupting the Red Wizards from afar.
Could I have made the final battle tougher? Absolutely... but this was the culmination of months of good play. The battle was hard enough, and everyone contributed to defeating the Cult. At the end, I had the final three Red Wizards teleport away (with their plans in ruins) rather than extend it further when it was already won. In total, the final battle took about an hour (8-9 rounds of combat) of the two-hour final session.
I know that some of you would have preferred Tiamat to appear, but - for me - that was always the sign of the players not actually succeeding. They'd done so much right over the campaign, and their reward was the utter devastation of the Cult's plans to summon Tiamat to the Realms.
Cheers!
