Roombueno
Villager
Hi, i'm new here in the forum I started dming dnd 5e again in the quarentene and we played Lost Mine of phandelver and started Princes of the Apocalypse last month. I was reading in advance the rest of adventure to think about how the cults works and how to make the sandbox work ,but I got quite confused about the game design of the elemental nodes: the dungeons sounds too short or even trivial in difficult with no challenge at all. I also get confused about the progression system:
First the progression: they say to gain one level after each dungeon, but it sounds they forgot to account the scarlet hall and all second and third portions of the adventure should be one level above. Did I miss something or it is an error? It one not that hard to fix I guess but quite annoying
The nodes are a bigger problem: The air node and the water node looks what I would expect in size and complexity but almost all encounters are too easy to that level, I madesome calculation and almost any encounter is easy or trivial in difficult beyond the boss. The fire node has a more balanced challenge but is too short. The earth one is a mix of both, bigger than the last one but not as big the last two, has more challenge than the air and water at some points but still feeling too soft.
To be sincere they almost are not worth the milestone +1 level they give in my opinion and I’m worried the players get disappointed there, the nodes sound quite underwhelming and anticlimactic to be the finals dungeons, even if I get they are full of exploration obstacles and probably are designed not to allow long rest ( maybe not even short est) when he players get inside one.
As am I quite new to dming 5e and never dmed beyond 5th level I’m not sure what I need to change to fix it, I fear making then too hard but I also don’t anna my players to get bored or disappointed.
I would love hearing from someone that played or dmed the adventure how the elemental nodes went and how did you approached that problems.
Thank you
First the progression: they say to gain one level after each dungeon, but it sounds they forgot to account the scarlet hall and all second and third portions of the adventure should be one level above. Did I miss something or it is an error? It one not that hard to fix I guess but quite annoying
The nodes are a bigger problem: The air node and the water node looks what I would expect in size and complexity but almost all encounters are too easy to that level, I madesome calculation and almost any encounter is easy or trivial in difficult beyond the boss. The fire node has a more balanced challenge but is too short. The earth one is a mix of both, bigger than the last one but not as big the last two, has more challenge than the air and water at some points but still feeling too soft.
To be sincere they almost are not worth the milestone +1 level they give in my opinion and I’m worried the players get disappointed there, the nodes sound quite underwhelming and anticlimactic to be the finals dungeons, even if I get they are full of exploration obstacles and probably are designed not to allow long rest ( maybe not even short est) when he players get inside one.
As am I quite new to dming 5e and never dmed beyond 5th level I’m not sure what I need to change to fix it, I fear making then too hard but I also don’t anna my players to get bored or disappointed.
I would love hearing from someone that played or dmed the adventure how the elemental nodes went and how did you approached that problems.
Thank you