D&D 5E Higher Level Dragon Heist

[jayoungr]

The Alexandrian has a wonderful remix of WDH.

Here's a link to the masterpost, for anyone whose Google-fu may have failed:

Dragon Heist Remix – Part 1: The Villains

Recently I reviewed Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, the most recent campaign supplement for Dungeons & Dragons from Wizards of the Coast. That review highlighted a number of places where, unfortunately

thealexandrian.net

 

[Fenris-77]

Adding class levels is always an interesting way to power up prewritten stuff. It should work really well for DH since there are so many intelligent humanoid foes compared to some other APs. It might be a lot of work to do too much of that, but it'll be useful in spots.

 

[LordEntrails]

My party was level 4-6 as I ran them through. First, the Alexandrian Remix is close to a necessity, IMO.

I had to make few changes for level. I did add a lot of additional encounters and quests for them, and some of the early faction quests we did very quickly since they weren't very challenging as written. A few of the middle encounters I added a few NPCs to them or just maximized their hit points. I also played the NPCs more aggressively once combat started. For example, once they entered Manshoon's Sanctum, everyone except Manshoon in the Sanctum responded to the alarm and attacked the party in the foyer. In short, once they broke into combat, everyone responded to shouted alarms, wherever they were.

 

[MostlyHarmless42]

One thing to keep in mind is that the primary challenge of the module is not necessarily combat difficulty. One could run the module without a single change and just let them breeze through a few of the early fights. What they will have to deal with is the aftermath of the laws of waterdeep. The city watch doesn't care that "you thought they were stronger than that!" They care that you dropped a fireball in a crowded city street filled with commoners to kill a handful of CR 1/2 thugs. Part of the challenge and fun of the module is learning when NOT to unsheathe their weapons. And as stated, the bosses as stated will be more than enough for a party in the level 6-9 range.

Spoiler: Spoiler

The only one you might have to buff a bit is Amalia Cassalanter, which could just be given a bit more hit points, or would have severe legal repercussions for the party beating easily that would linger far after her death anyway. One does not just kill a noble so easily, especially one whose public facade might as well be Thomas and Martha Wayne of Gotham.