D&D 5E ToA: What was your group's experience with Camp Righteous?

[Uller]

I'm running ToA for 13th level PCs. I'm beefing interesting things up to be more of a challenge and handwaving less interesting things. We only had 3 of our 5 players last night so I had them arrive at Camp Righteous...with some changes...

I replaced the fledgling axe beak with a baby T-rex and the adults with two T-rex adults and one zombie T-rex (lingering by...like the zombies in Dawn of the dead they continue their old habits)

I replaced the skeletons and zombies with zombie girallons and to the goblins I added bugbears and a bug bear chief mounted on allosauruses.

The traps I beefed up so spot and save DCs were 18 rather than 13 and boosted the damage a little but not much.

I tried to make a big deal of the Man and Crocodile story...but my players really didn't catch on...

First they fed the baby dino and when they tried to leave it started squaking for more. So the warlock tried to kill it but after three shots from eldritch blast it still had 2 HP. So it started screaming loudly...

The two T-rexes showed up and everyone ran into the entrance to the statue...so the warlock fell into the pit (oh...and I figured some undead would have fallen in there at some point so I put 3 ghouls in it). He used fly (and shield after taking an OA) to get out and cast it on the wizard and an NPC gladiator they hired to join them. The paladin also can fly (griffin mount) so killing the T-rexes was easy from there (the challenge was more in preventing them from eating their NPC guides and helpers)

Then they went into the statue...and set off every trap except the blades. The thunderwave and fire traps they set off multiple times...very amusing for me.

Eventually I took pity on them and had an NPC explain the importance of the Man/Crocodile myth to them...whoever created this place found it to be very important...

So that got them through the door. I pointed out the carvings on the pillar thinking it would remind them to repeat it for the steps...nope. They spotted three of the four glyphes on the stepps but still set off one, killing the wizard's familiar...then they plucked the magic item from the top with mage hand anyway (I replaced the alchemy jug with a demonic version of a lantern of revealing because they already have an alchemy jug...the lantern requires blood of the user to function instead of oil...enough to take away one HD).

Then the girallon zombies attacked...that was a good fight. We wrapped up as the goblins finally started to attack...

It really struck me how my players threw all caution to the wind...they have a griffin mounted paladin, a hawk familiar.. arcane eye....but they did almost no scouting (they could have spotted the T-rexes and the girallon zombies).

They laughed abouth the man/crocodile statue but didn't wonder about its significance at all so I had an NPC guide just spontaneously explain it. They still ignored it.

Like I said, I eventually had an NPC help them figure it out after they started comtenplating more brute force ways of getting through the door.

Everyone had fun and I think it was a good learning experience for them before they get to the tomb...the lore around the traps and puzzles matter...hopefully they will remember that or their first foray into the tomb will be their last.

What were your experiences?

 

[Gwarok]

Yea I gotta say something about Paladins in the group really make everyone want to just go smashing things apart without thinking much. I think it's the super awesome auras with Save bonsuses, and fear/charm doesn't work on them or those close to them that just makes people figure they all got it covered. And that is usually correct, but not always. Traps need to be more awful to get players attention. If it isn't bad enough to kill one of them outright they can always rest up and move forward. I've got a houserule that traps that deal damage deal a die of it for every HD of the target, within reason. Minor traps deal 1D4, they aren't meant to be lethal, and usually inflict some side effect like a limp. Deadly traps deal 1D12 per HD of the character setting it off, and so on. Helps get PC's out of meta thinking when it comes to traps, and to be wary, which is why we have them. Obviously there are modifiers for size, a spear trap meant for a human is a pinprick for a Huge creature, so size decreases the damage dice one level per. I realize I haven't answered your question because I haven't run that campaign, but trap based ones are like that all around. Gotta make them impactful otherwise the PC's will just hat up, send in the toughest one, and heal them afterwards, which is both meta and game breaking.

 

[Uller]

Yea I gotta say something about Paladins in the group really make everyone want to just go smashing things apart without thinking much. I think it's the super awesome auras with Save bonsuses, and fear/charm doesn't work on them or those close to them that just makes people figure they all got it covered. And that is usually correct, but not always. Traps need to be more awful to get players attention. If it isn't bad enough to kill one of them outright they can always rest up and move forward. I've got a houserule that traps that deal damage deal a die of it for every HD of the target, within reason. Minor traps deal 1D4, they aren't meant to be lethal, and usually inflict some side effect like a limp. Deadly traps deal 1D12 per HD of the character setting it off, and so on. Helps get PC's out of meta thinking when it comes to traps, and to be wary, which is why we have them. Obviously there are modifiers for size, a spear trap meant for a human is a pinprick for a Huge creature, so size decreases the damage dice one level per. I realize I haven't answered your question because I haven't run that campaign, but trap based ones are like that all around. Gotta make them impactful otherwise the PC's will just hat up, send in the toughest one, and heal them afterwards, which is both meta and game breaking.

Actually, when the fit hit the shan, the Paladin mounted his griffin and flew to the top of the statue and started buzzing the dinosaurs. He had little to no interest in exploring the dungeon and mostly sat back laughing at the warlock and wizard as they bumbled through it.

Part of the issue is the shadow monk player was not present. She is the defacto rogue and she tends to pick up on details and clues.

But...then again...the Barbarian player was also not there...he makes a point of touching everything that looks like it might do something interesting...good or bad...

I don't expect these characters to live through this.

 

[Valmarius]

My party (Roll20) did some research before leaving Port and so I read them the story of Man and Crocodile there.
Later, once they arrived, I had one of their hired guards repeat the story as a reminder. But like your group they didn't pick up on the hints.

They spotted the pit trap and blades easily enough, but some members of the party fell into the pit while skirting it. The blades were disarmed one by one.

They had a bit of trouble with the flame and thunder traps, as they simply used a warlock's familiar to see what glyphs to step on next. This avoided them having to do any piggy-backing.
THEN, they spent an inordinate amount of time trying to open the trapped door. They hadn't figured out the piggy-backing thing, which is required to open the door, so it looked like they were heading for a dead end.

Eventually, they had four party members stand on the safe floor glyphs while the fifth tried to pry open the door. I adjudicated that it would take two successful strength checks to crowbar it open with the trap triggering on each attempt.
There was one small scare where the door-opener got knocked back off the ledge, but the other PCs standing below managed to catch him before he set off the fire and torched everyone.

In the final room, the description of the frescos (depicting a man carrying a crocodile on his back, ascending the stairs) finally hit something in the players' heads and they piggy-backed up the stairs to get the jug.
Afterwards I commented on how long it took them to figure it out and they revealed that the piggy-backing at the end was more for laughs than an actual attempt to solve the place.

Either way, the group of 5x 3rd lvl PCs made it through with no loss of life, and emerged with some low hp into the goblin fight. That definitely made that encounter interesting, as the party was spread throughout the traps and had to filter out into the fight one-by-one.

 

[iserith]

But like your group they didn't pick up on the hints.

In my defense, I'm frequently drunk.

 

[Uller]

My party (Roll20) did some research before leaving Port and so I read them the story of Man and Crocodile there.
Later, once they arrived, I had one of their hired guards repeat the story as a reminder. But like your group they didn't pick up on the hints.

We play on Roll20 as well...I wonder if that has an effect...People not in the same room and not really able to collaborate as well as face to face.

 

[Herosmith14]

Yea I gotta say something about Paladins in the group really make everyone want to just go smashing things apart without thinking much. I think it's the super awesome auras with Save bonsuses, and fear/charm doesn't work on them or those close to them that just makes people figure they all got it covered. And that is usually correct, but not always. Traps need to be more awful to get players attention. If it isn't bad enough to kill one of them outright they can always rest up and move forward. I've got a houserule that traps that deal damage deal a die of it for every HD of the target, within reason. Minor traps deal 1D4, they aren't meant to be lethal, and usually inflict some side effect like a limp. Deadly traps deal 1D12 per HD of the character setting it off, and so on. Helps get PC's out of meta thinking when it comes to traps, and to be wary, which is why we have them. Obviously there are modifiers for size, a spear trap meant for a human is a pinprick for a Huge creature, so size decreases the damage dice one level per. I realize I haven't answered your question because I haven't run that campaign, but trap based ones are like that all around. Gotta make them impactful otherwise the PC's will just hat up, send in the toughest one, and heal them afterwards, which is both meta and game breaking.

Huh, our groups experience was actually pretty similar to OPs, and we had a Paladin. 5th level, I was a player, they really needed to make the myth thing a bit clearer, cause we didn't catch that either.

We got past the pit easy enough, and I thought I had a clever plan for the blades, wack while extended. My maul is still dented, grumble grumble. Eventually Sorcerer had the idea to acid splash the blades. I don't remember anything about rexes, were those in the jug romp? If they were that would explain things, I snatched the hug from outside with a well placed lasso.

We asked Musharib(who doesn't like a cost wave in exchange for a dungeon delve) once we were out, and he explained things. I am now very disappointed in just how uncommon the mending cantrip is, poor maul.

 

[Uller]

... I don't remember anything about rexes, were those in the jug romp?

My party is 13th level. Trivial encounters either get hand waved or "enhanced". The original encounter is axe beaks. If I used axe beaks, no one would have run into the dungeon and fallen into the pit...[emoji6]

 

[jasper]

I had the two surrogate players roll for knowledge. And then had the two tabaxi hunters act out and tell the story. I had a 7 person table so I allowed some take backs due to crowd noise. But one poor frog was not listening. So the group send him to guard the front of the shrine. Which he felled. 7 PCs and 4 npcs were interesting. No real changes.
The group did split up to explore the tents, pen, etc. I kicked off combat all at the same time. So some of the players lost a round or two due not being in the correct location.
When the group left the shrine, they were met with 19 goblins. The frog had missed them sneaking up on the group.