D&D 5E More Golden Vault Info!

From a recent press release sent out by WotC.

• “A secret organization called the Golden Vault sends mission briefings to its operatives—the adventurers!—in the form of magical, golden keys that are inserted into what looks like a mundane music box. Instead of a pretty tune, though, the music box then provides a recording with all the information needed for the adventurers to hunt a particular item of interest,” said Amanda Hamon, senior game designer on the D&D Team and co-lead designer of Keys from the Golden Vault. “It’s up to the adventurers to do the reconnaissance necessary to circumvent any defenses and pull off a legendary heist. Teamwork is paramount, because as so often happens in these capers, something will go wrong, and creative thinking could save the day!”
• The Golden Vaiult is linked to metallic dragons, and is good-aligned. It has a motto: "“Do good, no matter the cost.”
• The 13 adventures each have two full-page maps (one player map and one for the DM). The player map is often unreliable or incomplete.

Channel Your Inner Rogue with 13 Heist Adventures in Keys from the Golden Vault

Get the Mission, Plan the Caper, and Make Sure Everyone Gets Out Alive with the Prize

Renton, Wash., D&D players are not strangers to impossible missions. A perilous heist requires careful strategizing followed by daredevil antics when something unexpected happens and the players’ plan goes sideways. Dungeons & Dragons invites players to experience the thrill, drama, strategy, and intrigue of the heist genre in Keys from the Golden Vault, the latest Dungeons & Dragons book of adventures. Keys from the Golden Vault will be released in North America on February 21, 2023 and on March 24, 2023 in the UK/EMEA.

“A secret organization called the Golden Vault sends mission briefings to its operatives—the adventurers!—in the form of magical, golden keys that are inserted into what looks like a mundane music box. Instead of a pretty tune, though, the music box then provides a recording with all the information needed for the adventurers to hunt a particular item of interest,” said Amanda Hamon, senior game designer on the D&D Team and co-lead designer of Keys from the Golden Vault. “It’s up to the adventurers to do the reconnaissance necessary to circumvent any defenses and pull off a legendary heist. Teamwork is paramount, because as so often happens in these capers, something will go wrong, and creative thinking could save the day!”

The Golden Vault is rumored to be associated with metallic dragons and based on one of the good-aligned Outer Planes. Its operatives help the downtrodden and innocent when the law can’t. The organization’s motto is: “Do good, no matter the cost.”

D&D players can live out their fantasies of running a caper like one they might have seen on the silver screen in movies such as Mission: Impossible; Ocean’s 11; or even The Great Muppet Caper. The thirteen adventures in Keys from the Golden Vault range from levels 1 to 11. They can be played as one-offs dropped into ongoing campaigns, or run as a campaign of heists perpetrated by the same crew.
“Each adventure includes two full-page maps: one that players can use to plan their heist, and another the Dungeon Master uses to run the adventure,” said Chris Perkins, Story Architect of the D&D Team and co-lead of Keys from the Golden Vault. “The players’ map, however, is often unreliable or incomplete.”

Keys from the Golden Vault has an alternate cover by Simen Meyer, available only through game stores, and an evergreen cover by Anna Podedworna, available in North America on February 21, 2023. Fans who pre-order the digital/physical bundle at dndstore.wizards.com will be able to access the digital release on February 7, 2023.

 

[MNblockhead]

I used to want as many levels as I could get for the game, but when Epic came out for 3E, I realized I'd never play to those levels. I think it'd be really beneficial if the PHB only covered up to, say level 15 and the DMG had info on levels 16-20 for NPCs and enemies.

Or just sell a seperate book (that's actually been playtested, not just theorycrafted) that covers higher than 15th or so for those that want to take their games to those levels.

I have a feeling (from personal experience and old poll data) a lot of people talk about wanting to play high level games, but few people actually stick with a campaign long enough to actually get to high-level play. I know my own mind rebels against trying to stuff after about 12th level play.

I think that is only true with traditional XP-based leveling. With milestone leveling it is much easier to move through all levels. I find it works best with more experience players as less-experienced players need more time to get used to their characters and their abilities as they level up.

In my first campaign, I used milestone leveling. We would player 8-16 hours, one or two sessions, per level. They would do an adventure and, at least at lower levels, might go through several levels by the time the adventure ended. Then there would be some period of downtime. The players would explain what their PCs have been up to between adventures, until they we called upon again to achieve some objective. It allowed us to play through all 20 levels in our first campaign and it worked well. But it was all homebrew.

 

[MNblockhead]

Having the aspirational uber powerful 18th-20th level characters is fun to imagine; but even at 13th level hooboy the options to choose from and the length of combats made a session sort of a slog...

Yeah and how enjoyable that is depends on the players.

In my last session, with four 17th level characters and one 15th level character we had a 4 hour combat. Half of our 8-hour session. By the end I was exhausted running it and was feeling that is was a slog. But my players enjoyed it. I find that the best combats at high levels are with opponents that hit REALLY hard but can also be taken out fairly quickly when you figure out their weakness. If you are going to have big bads that are really beefy with defenses, tons of HP, and minions, you need to find ways to make their abilities interesting and the battle area tactically interesting.

Another setup that works well for high level combats are a group of fairly high big bads, usually casters, with a large number of squishy minions. It starts out as a bit of a slog, but the players can enjoy their PCs taking out swathes of minions while also being fearful of the mob attacks and ranged spell casters. But after a few rounds of slog, suddenly everything moves quickly after they have broken through the ranks of minions. I find these combats to be fun and not last too long, but I do use custom mob rules and not the mob rules in the DMG. I also use custom horde/swarm statblocks. Also, using a VTT or some other digital combat tracker like Hero Lab, helps a lot.

 

[MNblockhead]

And I think WotC has any intention of doing that, even if they also have nonintention of putting out mu h high Level pre-built material.

They used to have a program where they would have guest "star" designers from the community develop adventures for DMs guild, forgot what it was called.

WotC doesn't need to invest a lot of money into a high-level hardbound book. They could invite a number of respected designers from the community, or run a contest, to design tier four adventures and give them the full DnD Beyond treatment. Given them free in DDB and offer the PDFs for a modest amount in the DMs Guild.

 

[MNblockhead]

And that has been killing me. My campaigns end at anywhere from 15th to 20th level. I've been struggling since 8th or 9th level because the vast majority of things are below those levels.

Do you homebrew all of your high-level stuff or use third-party content?

I use third-party content, but find that I have to adjust a lot of the encounters and areas based on my players party.

My players are very experienced and things just get gonzo with tier 4 spell casters. When I look at what little high-level adventures I can find from third-party publishers, I find myself thinking that my players will steamroll through them. I am by no means saying that I am a better designer than those third-party publishers, but it is very difficult to design high-level challenges that will work for most groups. And adventure that would really challenge my players might be frustrating for other groups. What would be great would be adventures that would give a base, decent challenge for high-level groups with advice on increasing the difficulty and advice for how the enemy would deal with different abilities or tactics the PCs may employ.

Instead I find myself finding a great monster from one creator, an interesting location from another, cool advice from another, some third-party spells or magic items from another, and then I cobble together something that will work (meaning challenge and entertain them). But it still requires a lot of prep time.

 

[MNblockhead]

Anyone purchased the book on DDB via the early release scheme? I’m not doing that again myself after being burned with Dragonlance (I’m still waiting for my hard copy).

I did, have only had a chance to skim so far. Too busy reading and responding to posts about high-level play.

 

[MNblockhead]

I did, have only had a chance to skim so far. Too busy reading and responding to posts about high-level play.

And by skim, I mean looked at the TOC...just realized that the full content is still not accessible until the 21st.

 

[Parmandur]

They used to have a program where they would have guest "star" designers from the community develop adventures for DMs guild, forgot what it was called.

WotC doesn't need to invest a lot of money into a high-level hardbound book. They could invite a number of respected designers from the community, or run a contest, to design tier four adventures and give them the full DnD Beyond treatment. Given them free in DDB and offer the PDFs for a modest amount in the DMs Guild.

They wound that down as people started publishing to the dMsGuild without being prompted. But it's true, there are other avenues.