Red Hand of Doom reloaded

[vulcan_idic]

If you were to hold on a few months, there's another goblinoid invasion module coming from WotC, but for lower levels. It looks like quite a good lead-in to RHoD, although it makes me wonder why two such superficially similar products were released so close together (to say nothing of Sons of Gruumsh).

Didn't you hear? As a follow up to the "Year of the Dragon" they decided to do a "Year of the Goblin"

 

[EricNoah]

I'm 90% sure now that I'm going to direct the PCs toward the Fane of Tiamat before the battle of Brindol. My PCs are really ahead of the curve, timeline wise -- they made some good choices, pushed their mounts to the extreme, and are already done with Part II and Drelin's Ferry hasn't even been attacked yet.

So this means I will need to de-claw the Fane a smidge to make it survivable. The PCs should be around 9th level when they get there.

In addition, as I now have MM IV, I am thinking about using more dragonspawn and fewer devils/outsiders, just for flavor purposes. So I'll go through and change almost all outsiders to slightly lower CR dragonspawn.

Some thoughts:

1) Keep the blue abishai -- a good combination of devil and dragon-like style.

2) De-claw the blue dragon a smidge -- remove his magic items, remove a feat (ability focus on his breath weapon), and maybe drop his STR by 2.

3) Inner sanctum -- remove the unhallow effect, reduce number of blue abishai to 2. Azarr Kul, in the final stages of summoning the aspect of Tiamat, needs to spend 2-3 rounds finishing the ritual (spending standard actions each round to do so), but should be able to finish the ritual and then engage the heroes in combat, fighting to the death.

The thing I still need to figure out is what happens when the aspect of Tiamat appears -- should it ignore the heroes and fly through an open portal that leads to Brindol? Should the heroes be able to go through this same portal? I'll have to think about what would be most dramatic -- I like the idea of the aspect being the last thing the heroes fight in Brindol, maybe alongside an enraged/distraught Wyrmlord Kharn, who is present to tally the ways the heroes have thwarted the Red Hand's plans in a monologue before a final showdown.

 

[GwydapLlew]

The thing I still need to figure out is what happens when the aspect of Tiamat appears -- should it ignore the heroes and fly through an open portal that leads to Brindol? Should the heroes be able to go through this same portal? I'll have to think about what would be most dramatic -- I like the idea of the aspect being the last thing the heroes fight in Brindol, maybe alongside an enraged/distraught Wyrmlord Kharn, who is present to tally the ways the heroes have thwarted the Red Hand's plans in a monologue before a final showdown.

Hrm. Well, the Battle of Brindol shapes up to be pretty lethal for the PCs and their allies. I would suggest allowing a few shots at the Aspect before it enters the portal leading to Brindol.

The entire adventure is structured around PC choices making it easier or more difficult to fight off the Horde. I'd say something like this:

1. De-power the Aspect to an appropriate level.
2. Allow the PCs a chance to defeat the Aspect in the Fane itself.
3. Give them a few rounds to do this - after that, the Aspect emerges in Brindol.
4. The Aspect's appearance signals the final attack on Brindol, and the Horde surges forth.

The only problem I can see is that this places the PCs squarely on the outside of Brindol when the battles begin. The encounters at the siege could be reworked to allow the PCs entrance to the city proper - the giant encounter, for example, could be altered to the PCs coming upon them while trying to climb the walls.

This has the added 'cool' effect of having the Aspect looming over the city, watching the goddess' army begin the sack. When the PC's defeat the Horde, then the Aspect flies into a rage and attacks the city.

If the PC's successfully destroy the Aspect in the Fane, then the Horde is demoralized and makes it easier to drive them off. If they don't, then they fight the full-powered Aspect over the city itself.

 

[EricNoah]

I solved my problem by purchasing PHB II. I'm going to use the stats from the 9th level beguiler in place of the bard Wyrmlord. She might be a smidge overpowered but I might not be able to play her with the best strategies so it should work out ok.

Some other changes I'm going to make to the Ghostlord's Lair encounters...

1) Since that half-fiend behir has a desecration ability, I decided to add some undead to that encounter. A pair of level 4 warrior hobgoblins have been turned into Ju-Ju zombies and will fire arrows at the party from the stone lion's "mouth" (area 7 is it) up above.

2) I will make sure the heroes have an encounter with some ghost brue lions before they arrive at the lair. They need to know what they are up against and it's just good flavor and a good mystery to solve (what is causing these monstrosities to appear?).

3) I am going to redraw the map of areas 4 and 10-12 to give a bit more room for the battles to take place in. There's hardly room for the hobgoblins much less the PCs.

4) I need to come up with a few replacements for treasures in area 18 -- I want to get rid of the amulet of health +4 and the +1 keen kukri. Probably replace with something psi-flavored. Let's see, that's like 20,000 gp worth ... Let's see, I have a telepath so how about a psionatrix of telepathy (8000 gp). And then maybe a normal magic item ... how about a ring of electricity resistance 10 (12,000 gp). Will come in handy at the High Wyrmlord's hideout, and the Ghostlord is already immune to electricity and so wouldn't need it, and thus might store it here.

I just ran the "front half" of the Ghostlord's Lair. Yikes. My players wiped the frickin' floor with Varanthian (they got in some lucky shots with sneak attacks and a mind thrust, and she missed on her only chances to attack when she needed it most). They wiped the floor with the Beguiler version of Ulwai and her monks, as well. It was almost silly how easy it was. If I hadn't been rolling in the open I would have fudged at least one more round out of her. Ah well. That's what published adventures are for.

So. I will need to beef up the back half of the lair (add another ghost lion encounter, and maybe come up with something better than the bonedrinkers). And I should be ready in case the PCs decide that killing the Ghostlord is indeed within their powers. Plus I should add a nasty magical trap or two, something with an undead flare to it.

And then forget what I said about de-clawing the Fane. I think it will be fine as written.

 

[Klaus]

I´m reading this adventure now and boy, am I impressed!

In your opinions, what are the best class/PrClass mixes to run this adventure to (3 and 4 PCs)?

PrClasses that strike me as desirable include Dragonstalker (Draconomicon), Order of the Bow Initiate (CW), Tempest (CAdv), Dread Commando (HoB), War Weaver (HoB), Revenant Blade (Player´s Guide to Eberron).

And a question: if a character has an ability that affects Dragons, does it work on creatures with the Dragonblooded subtype (like the way Elf and Elf Blood works)?

 

[EricNoah]

Unfortunately I am not familiar with any of the classes mentioned, Claudio!

In my game we have...

a psion (telepath) -- doing surprisingly well as this adventure doesn't have a lot of undead and constructs. Mind Thrust and Death Urge have seen a lot of successful use.

a "generic class" warrior ala Unearthed Arcana. He kind of mixed some features of different classes to get what he calls an "infiltrator" who has a high AC, dual weilds hand axes, and has a good sneak attack.

a ranger/trick archer (a homegrown class that can fire arrows to cause different conditions). She can use spellfire, and I have allowed some house rules to turn the spellfire levels into a spell point system. She has a limited "spell list" and can basically use spellfire to power those spells. Her ranger favored enemy is goblinoid, which has turned out to be handy.

and an NPC cleric. I gave him a more limited spell list, and made him a spontaneous caster for ease of play.

I don't know the answer to your question but I think I would allow anything that affects dragons to affect dragonblooded.

 

[Toric_Arthendain]

So this means I will need to de-claw the Fane a smidge to make it survivable. The PCs should be around 9th level when they get there.

I've been running Red Hand since February, two sessions a month. My PCs just got to the Fane two sessions ago. I have four level 9 PCs, two level 8 PCs and one level 7 cohort in the party. I didn't de-claw the Fane at all yet and they have done okay. The blue dragon killed one PC before they went inside. So far, they have cleared most of the upper level and have just progressed down into the temple of Tiamat. The Fane is brutal and I'm a bit concerned about the survivability if I don't alter it a bit, although it is harder to judge given that I have six PCs and a cohort in the group (59 total levels).

I ran the events of the module in order so the Battle of Brindol is over. The PCs were victorious there.

Eric, its funny that you were looking to replace the female hobgoblin bard with something different. That Wyrmlord has proven to be extremely difficult for my PCs to deal with. She has escaped them on two occassions, once in the Ghostlord's lair and again during the Battle of Brindol. I plan to have her interfere with them again in the future but not in the Fane. I think she probably figures that the horde is broken and would rather hide and gather her own strength for now.

 

[DM_Jeff]

My Players' just finished part 1. Their PCs are as follows:

Half-Celestial Marshal
Killoren Ranger/Scout
Drow Cleric
Helf-elf Duskblade
Halfling Knight

Interestingly, this group chose these classes even knowign the large-scale combats, I guess they needed more of a challenge or something. Looking back at the last few sessions, and the battle at the Skull Gorge Bridge in particular, they stick at large-scale combats and have to play and think extra hard to suceed. Smaller combats they are lean and mean.

-DM Jeff

 

[Klaus]

(my party will be all pregens, and aimed at speeding up play, so little-to-no preparing of spells)

Here´s how they´re looking so far (in my head):

Human Paladin of Bahamut. His special mount will be a bronze dragonsteed (stats of a half-bronze dragon heavy warhorse), summoned at 6th level (will slowly gain the half-dragon abilities until 8th level).

Human Sidhe Archer. This is just a fey-flavored CG warlock focusing on the eldritch blasts (renamed sidhe arrows). I may make her elf.

Human Scout. This one will take the skirmisher route with two-weapon fighting.

Human Favored Soul of Bahamut.

 

[mikebr99]

I love this module... and am getting ready to DM my group through it shortly. The party should consist of:

Goliath Ranger, with a two handed fighting style (FE - dragons and goblins)
Human Wizard/Ftr (EK eventually)... archer type
Human Favoured soul of the Red Knight
Human Alt.Sorcerer PHBII (Incantatrix eventually)
Tiefling Rogue, TWF
Aasimar Paladin, S&B

We should be starting this next month... I can't wait.

Anyone remember back to the old FR boxed set... dragons were always effectively hasted? The Evil DM in me... is wanting to relive the good old days...

Mike