Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crust" data-source="post: 4484206" data-attributes="member: 22330">Holy crap, people.  This is awesome.  Thanks for the help!  I knew I could count on EnWorld's community...Akbearfoot,Points taken.  I'm not going to force a TPK, but my players are brash and a bit reckless, and their builds often spell doom for my baddies.  If they don't respect the advice of their mentors, they'll either flee or die.  They'll certainly experience Hell, and I'd expect that most mortals who experience Hell end up dead, so it'll make sense to them.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Concerning the linnorm, I wanted to use a dragon type that is uncommon and bizarre, something that's not in the MM, and something that is capable of using 9th level arcane spells.  Its mid-level intellect will allow it some curiosity, but not enough brains to realize that a team of mortals flying through Hell should be left alone.  The disjunction will also make things that much more difficult for the PCs, giving me the opportunity to implement some arch-devil scenarios as a previous poster suggested.Washout,I'm not going to force an all-out battle.  I'm anticipating that the PCs immediately try to butt heads with Hell.  If they do, the above scenario will play out.  I'm hoping the marraenaloth (a daemon) will be their guide as you suggest, taking them to Stygia and informing them when it's time to jump ship and head for Geryon's stronghold of Coldsteel.Concerning Tiamat, of course they're not going to be attacked by Tiamat "the god."  Her stats in the Manual of the Planes are realistic.  She has no divine rank, she misses on natty 1s, etc.  It most-certainly won't be the god Tiamat, though the players are welcome to assume that.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Dragonwriter,OK, I'm buying Fiendish Codex 2.  [Edit: I just ordered it on Amazon.]  Happy now?  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />I also see your point about "arousing Hell" on the PCs.  Like I said, if the PCs unleash massive amounts of damage, drop a wish or two, or go about in any flashy manner, they're going to get mobbed.  Period.  I might wait a bit longer to do that, or I might lower my reaction time, but the longer they spend fooling around in Avernus, the sooner they'll get either mobbed by least and lesser devils (primarily spinagons and abishai) or accosted by opportunistic arch-devils.Again, concerning the linnorm, I wanted to use a "hellish" dragon type.  That might not be the linnorm as it's portrayed in MMII, but it's a dragon type the PCs haven't fought before, it can use 9th level sorcerer spells, and it can still fly using the fly spell as a spell-like ability at will.  And my players won't understand that, technically, Tiamat wouldn't care about a linnorm.  It's a rare dragon type, and I think it's cool.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />And why couldn't it be Tiamat's realm that the PCs wind up in when they enter Avernus?  How will the PCs ever know or care?  And why couldn't the wholesale slaughter of mobs of abishai not catch Tiamat's attention?  Tiamat the aspect as per Manual of the Planes, mind you, not Tiamat the divine ranking god.Concerning the paeliryon, I'm so glad you informed me of their connection to Malbolge.  That makes this whole scenario that much more meaningful, as my 27HD paeliryon is actually a remade NPC foe from Dungeon's Age of Worms campaign named Lashonna.  In the modules, she's a vampiric silver dragon, but I didn't quite like that, so I switched her to a paeliryon.  The idea that those devils primarily function in Malbolge makes the imprisonment of the cleric near there all the more relevant, so thank you!  The PCs are now assaulting one of Lashonna's strongholds, so using A Paladin in Hell makes even more sense, allowing me to string along the Age of Worms past the destruction of Kyuss.  You da man!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f60e.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":cool:" title="Cool    :cool:"  data-smilie="6"data-shortname=":cool:" />Lastly, Elminster in Hell is my favorite Forgotten Realms novel.  It's true literature, and it's eye-popping.  The scene with Mystra is cool, but scenes where The Simbul is rampaging through Hell as a comet of spellpower, blowing through arch-devils, summoning beholders and archwizards and a dragon to her side, annihilating pit fiends...  It's also much more than combat, but this isn't the place for all of that.  You should read the book, though it helps to have read other Greenwood (and other author's) FR novels so you can make sense of everything.You people are awesome!  Thanks for helping me corral this foray into Hell into something that makes more sense to me and my players.</blockquote>

Verification