D&D 5E (2024) Hardcore Mode Thoughts?

[Zardnaar]

So new campaign is using dead magic and wild magic. So far they've encountered 2 "shadow storms" which are essentially mobile wild magic zones of shadow. Theyre lvl 3.

Big bads are Shar aligned. Im wanting to focus on less combat so im thinking of hitting the PCs where it hurts. Bringing back needed drain on monsters such as Wraiths,Shadows and spectrum.

Instead of life drain they inflict levels of exhaustion.

Variants of them instead drain the weave. Basically they absorb magic and eat the highest level spell slot.

I usually do 3-5 encounters but RAW at level 11+ it was creeping up to around 8-10 some days. Took 3 sessions to play that out.

So thoughts on these variant undead with Shar shadow weave users as other villains?

 

[Lanefan]

So new campaign is using dead magic and wild magic. So far they've encountered 2 "shadow storms" which are essentially mobile wild magic zones of shadow. Theyre lvl 3.

Big bads are Shar aligned. Im wanting to focus on less combat so im thinking of hitting the PCs where it hurts. Bringing back needed drain on monsters such as Wraiths,Shadows and spectrum.

Instead of life drain they inflict levels of exhaustion.

Variants of them instead drain the weave. Basically they absorb magic and eat the highest level spell slot.

I usually do 3-5 encounters but RAW at level 11+ it was creeping up to around 8-10 some days. Took 3 sessions to play that out.

So thoughts on these variant undead with Shar shadow weave users as other villains?

I really like the spell-draining idea. Yoink!

 

[Chaltab]

A thought, instead of Spell Draining what about a spell corrupting effect. Like these creatures don't drain the magic but corrupt it and tie a random prepared spell to the Dark Weave, making its effects unpredictable and dangerous. Maybe your Burning Hands will work, or maybe the fire will become a bunch of hostile mephits. Maybe you can Speak With Dead, but maybe you just make a talking Flame Skull that wants to eat your face.

 

[aco175]

Are you trying to nerf the casters? Placing encounters in the dead/wilds zones takes away most of their thing and the players are left hanging. It sounds cool once in a while, but every fight might make them mutiny.

 

[J-H]

I don't know about exhaustion in 5.24, but what I did for my Baldur's Gate 2 campaign was sub in Proficiency Bonus drain. If the PB hits -1, the effect is -1 to all rolls.

They were pretty good about staying away from vampires. It's a lot harder to land bites since they always require setup.

 

[Zardnaar]

Are you trying to nerf the casters? Placing encounters in the dead/wilds zones takes away most of their thing and the players are left hanging. It sounds cool once in a while, but every fight might make them mutiny.

Sort of. Its more the threat of a dead magic zone existing. Ive planned 2 encounters in dead magic, theres the threat of shadow storms and the remaining Shades have one the PCs will know about.

I'll place some rewards in the dead magic zones.

Theres also various ways to cast in the zones. The have a magic item that can access the shadow weave. Ive added custom feats for shadow weave. Shadow touched feat gives you the option of thr shadow weave

 

[Distracted DM]

The spell slot idea is indeed a fine one! I've toyed with the idea of bringing back energy drain in the form of draining feature uses, be it spell slots or martial abilities... the concern I had was short rest features weren't too affected.

Then I realized that clay golems' max hp damage doesn't heal on a long rest, it ONLY heals with greater restoration etc. magic (I'd been doing it wrong in previous games, allowing it to recover from a LR, whoops!)... that realization seems to really have put some fear into the players. So perhaps one big factor in making this stuff dangerous, "hardcore," is to make it more difficult to recover from.

@J-H that proficiency bonus drain idea is a nice one as well, I hadn't considered that. It's simple but effective.

 

[Sorinth]

Draining spell slots is certainly a cool twist.

I would maybe make is a die roll and lose that level of spell slot. If no spell slots of that level are available it takes the highest available spell slot of a lower level, and if none of those are available it takes the lowest spell slot available. The die being rolled can then be different for different creatures, ie a Shadow might use a d4 whereas a Wraith might roll a d8. And allow Heroic Inspiration to re-roll the die so there's that option of trying to save a spell slot.

Always taking high level slots first means the players should be encouraged to nova and use their high level slots quickly, which isn't bad if they have to keep pushing through those 3-5 encounters per day but that can get old if overdone so make sure it's not too frequent and it gets telegraphed in advance. Draining lower level spell slots brings a different style of resource husbandry which can also be interesting, so having that variety of approaches is probably best.

I'm kind of assuming these Shar villains are actually the ones creating these dead/wild magic zones as part of an grand attack on the weave that Shar has planned. In this case I would also suggest areas where the weave is weakened but not fully dead, these would probably be the "attacks" by the Sharans and if not stopped the area will eventually become a dead zone, if stopped it can slowly recover. Lots of different ways of handling these weakened areas, it could limit spells to a certain level or lower which would force players into using lower level slots. It could be spell chance failure where you make a spellcast skill check vs a DC set by the spell level every time you cast a spell. I'm sure there's plenty of ideas for what a weakened weave could look like, the wild magic zones could themselves be what a weakened weave looks like.

 

[Zardnaar]

Draining spell slots is certainly a cool twist.

I would maybe make is a die roll and lose that level of spell slot. If no spell slots of that level are available it takes the highest available spell slot of a lower level, and if none of those are available it takes the lowest spell slot available. The die being rolled can then be different for different creatures, ie a Shadow might use a d4 whereas a Wraith might roll a d8. And allow Heroic Inspiration to re-roll the die so there's that option of trying to save a spell slot.

Always taking high level slots first means the players should be encouraged to nova and use their high level slots quickly, which isn't bad if they have to keep pushing through those 3-5 encounters per day but that can get old if overdone so make sure it's not too frequent and it gets telegraphed in advance. Draining lower level spell slots brings a different style of resource husbandry which can also be interesting, so having that variety of approaches is probably best.

I'm kind of assuming these Shar villains are actually the ones creating these dead/wild magic zones as part of an grand attack on the weave that Shar has planned. In this case I would also suggest areas where the weave is weakened but not fully dead, these would probably be the "attacks" by the Sharans and if not stopped the area will eventually become a dead zone, if stopped it can slowly recover. Lots of different ways of handling these weakened areas, it could limit spells to a certain level or lower which would force players into using lower level slots. It could be spell chance failure where you make a spellcast skill check vs a DC set by the spell level every time you cast a spell. I'm sure there's plenty of ideas for what a weakened weave could look like, the wild magic zones could themselves be what a weakened weave looks like.

Wwll its wild magic.

Theres a left over mythallar I found in a 3E book. Its been infused with the shadow weave.

I've decided to use that and the shadow storms are a side effect.