D&D 5E [SPOILERS] Enhancing Tomb of Annihilation

[dropbear8mybaby]

I'm not sure what the official year is for Faerun currently but I worked out that if you set ToA in 1492: The Year of Three Ships sailing, you could do something pretty neat with the calendar. This is a leap year where there's a Shieldmeet in-between Flamerule and Eleasias, just after Midsummer's Day. If you start the adventure on the 11th of Mirtul, then Midsummer's Day is the 80th day since the adventure started, and the day when Syndra will die. The very next day is Shieldmeet, which you could then also say is the day that the atropal finally ascends to god-hood, marking the beginning of a new age in Faerun.

Oh, and you can use this calendar to input moon phases and pre-rolled weather events: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?532892-Simple-Faerun-Calendar

Reading through the book, I think that the rule about exhaustion is only for days that have a full blown tropical storm.

That's literally what I said in my very first sentence.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Edit* I had it backwards lol. I view the exhaustion rules as replacing. I.e., if there is a monsoon and you decide to travel, you don't have to roll for normal exhaustion as per the DMG under those conditions. Rather, you get it automatically. Then have to roll again specifically for the monsoon to see if you get more.

that was my interpretation.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I'm not sure what the official year is for Faerun currently but I worked out that if you set ToA in 1492: The Year of Three Ships sailing, you could do something pretty neat with the calendar. This is a leap year where there's a Shieldmeet in-between Flamerule and Eleasias, just after Midsummer's Day. If you start the adventure on the 11th of Mirtul, then Midsummer's Day is the 80th day since the adventure started, and the day when Syndra will die. The very next day is Shieldmeet, which you could then also say is the day that the atropal finally ascends to god-hood, marking the beginning of a new age in Faerun.

Oh, and you can use this calendar to input moon phases and pre-rolled weather events: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?532892-Simple-Faerun-Calendar



That's literally what I said in my very first sentence.

Sorry about that....there are a few threads that touched on this topic, and I didn't realize you had mentioned it so clearly. In the other threads there seems to be some doubt.

My bad.

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

There's another issue with the weather

If you use the DMG random weather tables, and try to balance that with the stated temperature ranges in ToA, then you get... weirdness.

70˚F is the nighttime usual minimum temperature and 95˚F is the daytime usual maximum. Extreme events should therefore fall lower and higher than these numbers. The average temperature during the day should probably sit somewhere around 86˚F since daytime is hotter than night but 95 is considered a maximum not average. The DMG has variances of up to +/- 40˚F. That is... problematic. That could mean a 126˚F day or a 46˚F day. That just seems completely out of whack no matter the environment or setting.

So I can't really do random weather. Any suggestions on how to do this randomly? I mean, I guess I could just tweak the variances to 1d4x5 instead of 1d4x10, but that seems clunky as well.

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

I made a calendar from this with random weather using this generator. Every day not marked (between the 11th of Mirtul and Shieldmeet) is either light or moderate rain.

Feel free to use if you like: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8pDKyfGnLm0ZVBtbkxsSmR3ckE

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

Going through the various rules for extreme heat and water requirements as well as trying to reconcile them with the ToA version has me very confused. So I've made up my own version and completely ignored the tropical storm rule from ToA (having lived through a few tropical storms, honestly, they're a relief if anything). Let me know what you think:

If the character drinks two gallons of drinkable water per day, three if wearing armour, then they need not make any saving throws to avoid exhaustion for that day.

If the character does not drink this amount of water per day but still drinks some water, they must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw at the end of the day to avoid a level of exhaustion.

If the character has no drinkable water for the day, then they automatically fail the above saving throw and must make a second saving throw to avoid gaining a further level of exhaustion. In addition, at the end of every hour that they actively travel without water, they must make an additional saving throw to avoid gaining a level of exhaustion.

All saving throws made to avoid these levels of exhaustion are made with disadvantage if wearing armour.

I think that simplifies things a bit while still being incredibly deadly if you end up getting lost and have no way to find clean water. It also makes wearing armour a really, really bad idea. Which, while it could be considered unfair to players who have built around armour, I think as long as the players understand before they make characters that some characters are going to be at a disadvantage (whether you tell them you're running ToA or not, or whether you specify armour is the detrimental factor or not), then it shouldn't create too much of a problem and enterprising players will find a way to mitigate it or work around it.

 

[JesterOC]

I like the simplified rules. I will kick that around in my head for a while. While I have not lived through tropical rainstorms you would think it makes everything tougher. The ground gets muddy, water gets into everything, fabrics get heavier, and food could get spoiled. While sitting at a campsite during a rain does sound refreshing. Hiking with gear seems like the opposite. But like I said... No direct experience in my part.

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[dropbear8mybaby]

I like the simplified rules. I will kick that around in my head for a while. While I have not lived through tropical rainstorms you would think it makes everything tougher. The ground gets muddy, water gets into everything, fabrics get heavier, and food could get spoiled. While sitting at a campsite during a rain does sound refreshing. Hiking with gear seems like the opposite. But like I said... No direct experience in my part.

True, that is a good point. I've not hiked in a tropical storm, just it's more a relief from the heat. I'll think on it.

 

[Dark_T_Zeratul]

So I've got a bit of a story question regarding the specifics of the Death Curse.

The two main effects of the curse are that no one who dies can be raised, and people who have previously been raised are wasting away.

The cause of the first part is easy: their souls are getting trapped in the Soulmonger and devoured by the atropal. But I've yet to find anywhere where it explains the cause of the second part - why would a soul raised years before the soulmonger even existed be affected by it? Have I just not found the explanation for this, or does it actually go unexplained in the book?

 

[JesterOC]

So I've got a bit of a story question regarding the specifics of the Death Curse.

The two main effects of the curse are that no one who dies can be raised, and people who have previously been raised are wasting away.

The cause of the first part is easy: their souls are getting trapped in the Soulmonger and devoured by the atropal. But I've yet to find anywhere where it explains the cause of the second part - why would a soul raised years before the soulmonger even existed be affected by it? Have I just not found the explanation for this, or does it actually go unexplained in the book?

I don't recall seeing the explanation but I assumed it was because the resurrected spirit has already left the body once and was stitches back using magic. But the soulmonger is pulling at those spirits and the magical binding is unraveling.

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