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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 7417001" data-attributes="member: 20323">The main dungeons account for this: Fane of the Night Serpent with a stealth mission & overwhelming opposition, the Tomb with sheer size & lots of traps (which the Ring's powers rarely do much to bypass/resolve). However, everywhere else (jungles, Omu, Nangalore, etc.) you'll need to come up with more complex/challenging/multi-layered battles if you wish to maintain a higher degree of challenge. Yes, the ring provides a little utility with ice creature "advance scouts" & temperature lowering & wall of ice, but it's other powers are really combat-focused (Bigby's hand, cone of cold, flesh to ice, ice storm, Otiluke's freezing sphere, sleet storm, spike growth). Honestly, I see ice creatures as being the most disruptive & would use those sparingly.Also, Artus has to make a Charisma save vs. being controlled by the ring as per sentient magic item rules in the DMG. So he's a tentative ally at best. I play Dragonbait as his "moral compass", warning when Artus is close to losing control & reminding him of who he is when he's coming out of being ring-controlled. If Artus ends up in conflict with PCs, *that's* when I'd use the ice creatures.Finally, the ring may have nondetection on it, but neither Dragonbait nor the PCs do. Frost giants, Zhentarim, Harpers, Xandala, and Red Wizards are all scheming to get the ring & could show up at in opportune moments.</blockquote>