u/walkc66

So, I am DMing a group through Tyranny (using 5.5e), and I am adding in side quests and such to flesh out sections and just make my own. We started with 4 players initially, but one dropped out due to out of game responsibilities. I have repurposed an area/quest that was intended for where he would have gotten his custom leveling item (Using Ancestral Weapons form DMsGuild to let them have something that grows with them, 2 players have theirs and 3rd getting theirs in Elturel, just common adding a cantrip so far). It is a temple that they got a side quest sending them to from a town they stop at between Greenest and Elturel.

When they attacked the Hatchery, they ran into Cyanwrath first, and playing off the adventure saying he is more loyal to Frulam than to the Order, had him yell in draconic when near death for Frulam to escape, the cave is lost (set up later that Rezmir had okayed abandoning the eggs to prevent capture, as having Rezmir believe the adventures are part of a more organized resistance and so doesn't want information spilling out). So Frulam and her guards bug out.

The Side quest is that the PCs were hired by the innkeeper of small town (if you're in the US, think those small towns that spring up by Highways that are just a hotel or two, and a couple fast food restaurants, and not much else), under pretense that a pack of wolves being led by an owlbear have become more bloodthirsty, having attacked the town and killed a resident and cows, and even attacked a trade caravan. In reality, Frulam arrived, killed the resident for resisting, kidnapped the towns kids (innkeeper just said they were being kept inside when PC asked) and told the town to send any adventurers that come through town to the temple on the "quest".

I decided to set up that maybe Frulam is a Death Cleric (to me seems logical that a Cleric of Tiamat could be Death Domain, given Cults old methods) and that while she is on board with the new plans, used to help with the old undead approach so has some spells and spell scrolls. For narrative reasons custom to our campaign and pulling from our previous campaign, there was fighting at this temple and a dead young green dragon.

PCs are all lvl 5, with an Assassin Rogue, Life Cleric, and 4 Genie Paladin/1 Warlock. Cleric this is their 2nd campaign (other than some back in the 80s, rogue was back in 80s some as well, and paladin was 3.5). This is my 2nd campaign as a DM (recently started playing in another one for first time) so still getting a hang of balancing, and trying to account for how party comp effects how reliable CR is.

On arriving to the temple, they had a first encounter of 6 zombies and 3 ghouls. The Cleric did use Turn Undead (only used 1 Channel Divinity Charge, so still has rest) and that trivialized the fight with 2 ghouls and 3 zombies failing their checks. Rogue got beat up a bit, used a health potion so is still down a few HP. P/W used 1 spell slot, not sure if pact or regular, but not time for rest anyway. Frulam called them into temple, tried to interrogate them, realized they were lying, and so decided to just "question them when dead". She then raised the dead dragon (using a Young Zombie Dragon stat block I found on SRD website) and 4 more zombies, to back Frulam (using the Tyranny statblock, but had planned to up her health till started worrying about if I made this fight unfair) and 2 guards (Had planned Dragonclaw statblock, but wondering if needing downgrade).

A Moderate encounter has an xp budget of 2250, and deadly 3300, this falls inbetween at 2600 if use Dragonclaws, 2500 if guards. But I am wondering if I have failed to account for something. Obviously the Cleric can use Turn Undead again, and potentially trivialize the Dragon, but if it passes its save, I am wondering if I have failed to account for this group. As a just in case I have set up a narrative note that the cleric could tell whoever the diety associated with this temple was (Selune) was still paying attention to it in a small way, and can give them the ability a few turns in to pull a few things from them (thinking a heal, couple spiritual weapons, that sort of thing). But just keep second guessing myself.

Thanks for any insights!

TLDR: Using 5.5e rules, is a Zombie Dragon, Frulam Mondath, 4 zombies, and 2 Dragonclaws a balanced difficult encounter for 3 PCs at lvl 5: Assassin Rogue, Life Cleric, 4 Genie Paladin/Warlock

So my group is currently running our 2nd campaign as Tyranny of Dragons, as a follow up to Dragon of Icespire Peak that was played with different characters. So I decided to have the world be continuous, with each campaign we do in the Forgotten Realms being in the same world. So my players characters from DoIP are now NPCs in Tyranny, etc.

Since the module sends them through Elturel, and I have placed atleast one of my players backstory quests there (partially to control them skipping to randomly haha, but have wtf preps ready too), I am wanting to make one of the side quests the do to get the Paladin Leader to like them be defending a wedding of a Leaders/Religious Leaders daughter that has been looking into and trying to root out the corruption in Elturel. My plan is to have a group of devils attack the wedding intent on killing the leader and his family. The PCs will be contracted to protect the bride and groom and any other children give the leader primary, and the leader, spouse, grooms parents second. Thought have them trying to figure out who is the main target etc during combat and trying to fight and or escape with their charges.

I am wanting to make it challenging enough that just trying to escape is a valid, and arguably best, choice, but not impossible if they decide to try and fight. My plan is to have the attack happen either before the ceremony, or between the ceremony and reception so that can have a couple smaller waves, before they possibly fight the Commander leading the attack. My problem is I can’t decide on what devil type to have the leader. Considered just a Tiefling from Blood War (think Karlach BG3 but likes Hell), a cambion, a white abashi (but that feels wrong as they are with Tiamat not Zariel), and some others that aren devils, but can’t decide what would be best. The plan is the commander will have some help too, maybe demon hounds or something.

As I know it matters I have 3 players who I expect to be lvl 5 at this point: a 3/1 genie paladin/warlock (not sure if will do 4/1 or 3/2, guessing 4/1 as he is the frontliner), an assassin rogue, and a life cleric (who is a bit squishy as still in medium armor and dumped Dex).

Seperate side note: have another side quest planned that is then getting contracted along road to kill a necromancer who has taken over a temple, but tha is a lie the town is forced to tell. The temple had been taken over by a rogue group of cult of dragon that opposed the main, an was wiped out by one of the PCs from DoIP who was secretly with the Cult. Trap then set using that story to try and catch renegade stragglers and and any adventurers coming from the south. What do you think sounds more fun: a Gauth played as a young weaker Beholder with some type of associates, a Mind Flayer backed by controlled bandits and maybe an intellect devourer, or a vampire leading some ghouls?

(Ezeer, Finrich, or Pyrrhos don't read this).

So new DM running Tyranny of Dragons, and been having so far. 2nd campaign I've DMed. 6 sessions in, and PCs have cleared Chapter 2 and are now in the in-between time reporting back to town, escorting Leonsin back, etc. But during the Greenest section, my PCs became convinced that there must be a Spy in Greenest somewhere, thats how the guard was caught so off guard and how the attackers become aware of the adventurers to then set up the Mill ambush. Went what the heck, lets run with it.

So some background to set up the situation. Two of the 3 PCs are associated with certain...grey?....organizations. One is an assassin with the Fire Knives, the other an enforcer/guard/operative for the the Zhentarim. I set it up so that they each have a ranking member of their organization that was present at the start of the siege of Greenest, and hadn't gotten involved to avoid revealing themselves instead posing as just traveling merchants (the Fire Knives guy was looking to set up a safe house/expansion following the purge in Cormyr and in my mind is about the equivalent of a lvl 10-12 arcane trickster, and the Zhent is a about 12-14 wizard who reports directly to the Waterdeep Manshoon (only one in my version, as didn't know about others when started building my take on the story) who was there to meet a caravan carrying some of Manshoon's own goods and investigate what happened to some of their caravans). So the 2 PCs told their current "managers" about the spy, and the managers already knowing about each other officially revealed and were working together to investigate the spy. Set some distractions by having a Kobold that surrendered try and attack the Guard Medic saying the cult would find out he betrayed them (going to have the real spy reveal he used Suggestion on the Kobold to try and distract). But the two managers eventually figure out the spy is meeting their handlers, and when and where. They come to the PCs to ask if they would like to help "hunt a rat?"

This brings me to my question. The Spy is going to be Guard who was passing messages during the siege by attaching notes to crossbow bolts. His handler though, my plan is to have it be a Simluacrum of Rath Modar. Basically since he is involved more in managing the whole Rebel Thay movement and its interactions with the Cult, that he creates a few Simulacrums to aid in other places. This lets me introduce Rath a bit earlier since he plays a big role in the campaign overall, and lets me have powerful foil to the 2 powerful managers (PCs by comparison are lvl 4). So my plan is to have the Zhent Wizard and Fire Knife assassin focussed on fighting the simulacrum while they tell the PCs to wipe out the guards, which will be a group of DragonClaws i think (still doing the encounter math). But that leads to my questions below:

1. What stat block should I use for the Simulacrum? Rath Modar's since its supposed to be him? A lower level Mage or Archmage? Something else?

2. Going to have the managers capture the Simulacrum not knowing its a simulacrum to question. Going to have it have Otilluke's Frozen Sphere "poison pill" that it pops when they start questioning it. What happens to a Simulacrum when it dies? does it crumble? Turn back to reagents? Dissolve?

3. Any other suggestions thoughts? Have you done something similar?

Hello! While my group is currently running our 2nd module (Ezeer, Finrich, and Pyrrhos if you’re reading this stop haha), I am slowly building a world in the background, and looking for some help on a couple ideas, basic background first.

It is intended to be a Forgotten Realms style realm, blended with real world. My plan is to create a massive world that can place different campaigns all around without PCs always tripping over themselves and be a world if any of players want to DM they can use this world too. So multiple continents, islands, an under dark (the hollow), a hell, a celestial space, a fey space, etc. Knights/Castles/tc stylings, but with other influences in places so this world feels realistic with multiple cultures.

The world is formed by 3 all powerful entities (power scale is like Ao in Forgoteen realms) each representing a guiding theme. While still working on names the plan is essentially Order, Chaos, and Balance/Freedom something like that. Wanting to capture that theme, but not wanting to lean on Eastern ideology as I prefer more European and gothic stylings, nothing against any others.

Essentially, the world is created, and has happened multiple times before the 3 entities start arguing over how to shape and grow as life develops. And as many times before, the 3 start fighting, dragging different “followers” of th species into the fight. And the war between these entities is threatening to rip the world apart. Balance (just for quick typing) decides enough is enough and he is ending the war. He gathers most of the living beings on the world together, and teaches them a ritual that will tear Order and Chaos, and their own separate planes, from the world. And to power this ritual without destroying the world, Balance breaks himself apart imbuing fragments of power into some of the living beings, creating the Gods, Archfey, Devils etc, turning mortals into immortals. The plan works, and suddenly there are now two new “moons” in the sky, though with their position it takes awhile for people to realize there are two.

Later, species thrive, and large kingdoms and empires grow, gods/devils/archfey forget, and the empires get greedy. Several wizards/Artificers/Clerics figure out that fragments of power created the gods/devils/archfey, and figure out a way to extract those fragments. So begins an arms race for each nation too kill the opposing gods/devils/archfey and gather their power. However they unknowingly are weakening the prisons, and corruption seeps back in and the world is almost destroyed again. Eventually the process is stopped, fragments scattered, hidden, or used to empower new gdf, but a cataclysm is set off that leaves the world devastated, and almost all records of the past eliminated. The lands are ripped apart, and corruption now flows and covers chunks of the world that once held too many fragments. Out of this rises 1 (maybe more) empire whos gods will not let this happen again, outlawing all magic other than that used by their clerics and paladins, and that used by Artificers or men and women of science. This lead to magical knowledge shrinking and being lost. The empire then starts conquering the world. This all sets up the world as lowish-medium magic wise, figuring strongest magic user at point PCs start playing being 10ish outside the PCs. From here PCs actions and campaigns would effect the future, though have possibilities in mind.

All that to setup some questions I could use help with.

So TLDR:

1. What would Order corruption look like? Media and novels are full of samples of chaos, but having a hard time deciding what Order corruption would do to the land and people living there.

2. With lower magic levels, and Artificers and DnD item creation rules in particular, how would you balance this to fit the lore? Because for Artificers especially, it is very easy for them to create so many items that would grow magic power way way quick. And since plan to have Artificers play a big role in a major power (essentially they find a way to turn a crystal found in chaos corrupted spaces into a magic battery/firearm tool. So are able to create musket style guns firing magical energy, cannons, very limited airships, and eventually use it to power Warforged. Plan to make this all very expensive due to hard to mine the crystal, part of the empires desire to rule the world), don’t want to nerf too much, but also not as strong at creation as they are.

Those are two I have right now, and I know tons of gaps and potential issues here, still very early days. All comments, suggestions, criticisms welcome!

Hopefully this type of post is ok. Currently running a tyranny of dragons campaign, still early as group just rescued Leonsin from raiders, but starting to plan bones for and organize potential side quests down the road. I am slowing down parts of Tyranny to allow for more side quests and character quests.

Once the party gets to Elturel, my plan is for them to do 2-3 side quests. One of those while be for character backstory and personal weapon. But I want a selection of others the PCs can choose from. One idea I have is for them to be protecting a wedding.

My thought was to have a character form Elturel who is investigating or campaigning against the corruption that leads to it being pulled to Avernus. Thinking politician or religious figure. Their child is getting married, and given what they’ve been doing they decide to hire more security.

Of course the attack happens, demons and cultist, and hopefully the PCs save the bride groom and families, but play out and see.

I like building world continuities and having old PCs and NPCs show up in campaigns in same world. We did Dragon of Icespire Peak prior, and those PCs are making appearances and including lore established in that campaign for our group

Is there an existing character in Descent already that would fit this or would be easily modifiable? Or would it be better to create and then just remeber and use them if we end up doing descent next?