Level Up (A5E) Scarlet Citadel for A5E

[Reynard]

I was wondering if anyone with more experience with either/both Kobold Press' Scarlet Citadel and LevelUp can let me know if there is anything that might make the two a bad combo. I am in the mood to both try LevelUp AND runa dungeon crawl, and I can not wait until November when Abomination Vaults 5E comes out, and there's no indication of when we can expect the LU Dungeon Delve book.

Thanks.

 

[WarDriveWorley]

I have Scarlet Citadel, but haven't run it yet. That's a good question. I may run through the book tonight and see if anything jumps out at me

 

[GuyBoy]

Following with interest; I have Scarlet Citadel and am planning to run it when my current Saltmarsh game ends.

 

[GKEnialb]

I'm running LevelUp with Scarlet Citadel and haven't run into any issues so far (though we're still on the first level). I've just substituted LevelUp versions of the monsters without any other changes yet. Note that it's a pretty intense module - almost just had a TPK with 6 2nd level characters on the level meant for 1st level PCs (nothing to do with LevelUp).

 

[Reynard]

I'm running LevelUp with Scarlet Citadel and haven't run into any issues so far (though we're still on the first level). I've just substituted LevelUp versions of the monsters without any other changes yet. Note that it's a pretty intense module - almost just had a TPK with 6 2nd level characters on the level meant for 1st level PCs (nothing to do with LevelUp).

Cool. Thanks. Out of curiosity are you planning on doing side quests as the module suggests, and if so do you have any in mind?

 

[GKEnialb]

Cool. Thanks. Out of curiosity are you planning on doing side quests as the module suggests, and if so do you have any in mind?

I am doing side quests. In fact, I started with a quest ahead of time to bring them to second level before they started, which worked out well, as the suggested owlbear or harpy battles would have killed them right off the bat. At second level, the battle with the owlbear worked out really well with the LevelUp rules, as it got two critical hits against the party. Both times, a player sacrificed a point of fatigue to prevent the crit, which is good, as each one of have been an insta-kill (as it was, even though the crit was prevented, it was enough damage to knock them out). And that was with 6 characters instead of the assumed 4. So my plan is to give them reasons to go to each level, interspersed with side quests to keep them about a level higher than the module suggests (the first mission is just to investigate the disappearances, so the first real level - after the near TPK, they may go off on another side quest and come back with a bit more experience...)

 

[GKEnialb]

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention. LevelUp's zombies are awesome with their grappling ability. Makes the threat of someone getting thrown into the pit real, which makes what would be a normal battle really intense.

 

[GKEnialb]

After the near TPK in the animated torture chamber at 2nd level, the party did some other quests and returned at 3rd level and fought the gaolor and crimson ogre in the same battle. I put the ogre at full health since their were 6 people in the party at 3rd level instead of 4 at first level - it ended with one of the PCs dead (granted, it was because he was infected with the ogre's blood frenzy and attacked their herald, who didn't take kindly to that and retaliated). I'm surprised the gaoler didn't kill anyone - one of the PC failed each round against being frightened, but saved each round on his ability to bring her down to 0hp.

The party, with a replacement for the dead PC, so was now made up of a herald, 2 clerics, a rogue, an adept, and a wizard, made it to the room with Holzanger's sarcophagus. They defeated the spectre and 6 shadows, but not before 2 of them were cursed by the shadows and another was knocked down enough to have 4 levels of fatigue and 2 of strife (one from rolling a nat 1 on the death save and one for a shadow choosing to cause strife when hitting her when she was unconscious). I like the LU shadow's curse better than O5E's strength drain, but I'm ruling that the disadvantage on attacks only applies to strength-based attacks and not all attacks, since the other disadvantages are only for Strength saves and Strength checks (not sure if that's the intent, but it makes sense to me).

Now to see if they continue into the catacombs or retreat and try to come back at yet another higher level. So, yeah, it's still proving to be a deadly module.

 

[Morrus]

and there's no indication of when we can expect the LU Dungeon Delve book.

I know this is an old post, but if by that you mean the Dungeon Delver's Guide, the PDF goes out to all backers as soon as the Kickstarter ends on Monday, with the hardcover following in March 2023.

 

[GKEnialb]

Well, they continued into the catacombs and instantly regretted it, after running into two shadows and two wights. The grappling then Life Drain of LevelUp Wights work really well - one PC was a saving throw away from having his max HP being reduced to 1 (ended the battle with 8 max HP as it was). After having not had a strife reduction until last session, they occurred plenty in this session, which was fun. Luckily for the players, they brought up their unconscious cleric in time for him to turn undead and all 4 monsters failed. They brought down one wight and booked out of there, likely not to return until they're 4th level.