r/TyrannyOfDragons

So I did a ton of research on all the official 5e adventure modules and my personal collection is almost complete. However, now that I've almost got everything I've been told is worth having, I'm starting to turn my attention to Tyranny of Dragons.

What confused me about ToD is that the grand majority of reviews say it sucks. However, I did find 2-3 people who hail ToD to be one of, if not, the best module out there. I find myself scratching my head on what to believe. I figured this was the best place to come for some insight as to whether or not I should add ToD to my collection or not.

Side note: I did my review research on Youtube (primarily).

In the extended lore some of Tiamat's brood have multiple heads of different colors. On Monday I am having my party (5 L10 characters with high damage output and little healing) fight one.

What I know so far: This dragon will be a red and green dragon but the green head's poison lingers and the red head can ignite the poison. Before this the party will be going through a couple encounters designed to drain resources.

What I don't know: The specifics. Have any of you run something similar? Would it be better to run as two heads which take separate initiatives? Would an Adult Red Dragon base be too weak of a starting point?

So I love Tyranny of Dragons in concept. It was the first module I ever played and I love the idea of it. But something always felt missing. Like it's supposed to be this huge adventure about a diety brought out of imprisonment and the party needing to stop that. But it's just stuck in the Sword Coast and in all honesty I feel like with everything now available in 5e that a lot more could be done.

I'm very much in the early stages of writing but here's the basic concept. Have an edited version of HotDQ to start out, leading up to a big twist at what would be the end of chapter 8 of this rewrite. The Cult isn't just in the Sword Coast. They're widespread through the multiverse and they've got their eyes set on the masks that are all over the Planescape after the Cult was disbanded all those years ago.

After certain events the party goes out on their newly acquired Spelljammer to not only stop the Cult from finding their Chromatic dragon masks (although this would likely prove mostly futile. Doing nothing much but slowing them down) but also get their secret weapon. The Metallic dragon masks. This takes them all over the multiverse and would take up most of the back half of the campaign. (I do have the locations of the masks. Some specific, some vague. If anyone is interested)

The final fight boils down to, can the party stop Severin (or whatever NPC I make to replace him as I have thought of making new NPCs for The Wearers of Purple) before Tiamat is released. If it's not possible then I imagine someone uses the Mask of the Platinum Dragon to summon Bahamut. The party goes to finish off Severin and after that is done Tiamat binds Bahamut in Avernus, since I'd be using her statblock from Fizban's, and in a semi-weakened state faces the party for the final showdown.

Any thoughts on this? I know it's a bit crazy but I do have a lot of resources for the Planescape setting to potentially make this interesting enough to work

(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?

I have a party of 6 players who are just finishing up Lost Mine of Phandelver and I really want to run Tyranny of Dragons while including Hoard of the Dragon Queen. LMoP ends at level 5 and I was wondering if there are any suggestions on how to buff Langdedrosa Cyanwrath, Frulam Mondath, Rezmir and Azbara Jos on top of all the other encounters.

I am DMing for a group of friends. It is my first time DMing, and we have been going at it for about 1.5 years.

For a bit of context, the party has been hot on the trail of the cult since they first encountered them in Greenest. At Raiders’ Camp, they battled and killed Cyanwrath, but when they faced Frulam, she turned invisible and escaped.

Fast forward two months, and the party has tracked the cult’s activities to Castle Naerytar and decided to infiltrate the castle under the guise of new joiners. They were invited into the castle without any hitches – the plan went very smoothly – suspiciously smoothly.

The party was instructed to keep their weapons and armor in their lodgings in the castle because new acolytes are not allowed to meet Rezmir with visible armor or weapons. After a small conversation with Rezmir, the party decides to explore the castle in the places they are allowed to see.

While exploring, the party’s barbarian went into the north-west tower, subsequently getting grappled by the Otyugh hiding in there, causing an alarm, making the other party members rush in to help, while some guards and cultists also joined to help. In the chaos of the fight, the party’s cleric (trickery) turned invisible to snoop around Rezmir’s office, hoping that she would leave to sort out the situation with the Otyugh – which she did! The cleric found a letter addressed to Rezmir by Frulam with a detailed description of the party’s appearance. In the meantime, the rest of the party is fighting the Otyugh and the additional Specters that joined from the third floor of the tower. Rezmir and Borngray come to join the fight and finish stuff up quickly. After the fight, Rezmir “grounds” the party to stay in just their lodgings, as they have made too much of a mess for their first day already. When the party regrouped in their lodgings and realized they were in for a trap, they tried to retrieve their belongings, only to find they were missing.

Not willing to wait around to be murdered in the room, the party sneaked out and discovered the subterranean entrance. While exploring the caves below, they found the crane in Area 9 and left behind one party member (whose player was missing for the session) so he could pull the other members up when they needed to backtrack. After exploring Frog Lake and the Tadpole Hatchery, they return to the crane to find their friend missing.

Now the party must save their friend and retrieve all their equipment! Stakes are very high, while resources are at a low! Lots of fun!

I feel like I could squeeze in a few more sessions and add the fun of the politics from the books. If you haven't read it, it includes a minor class crisis, an elite upper city, and a more complex flying mechanism that I feel like could utilize Dracolich magic or something similar. In the book, it is a corner of the plane it is from that is twisted and broken off into the material plane. I'd have it be similar, but a part of Tiamat's plane in the hells.

Anything I might miss out on? Was Skyreach cool as is? I could still keep the same NPC's and add a few homebrew. I honestly try not to over homebrew a story, but this feels like it needs it in places. Anyway let me know your thoughts.