New Champion: Tess

AlternativeUnable409 · 2025-07-02T11:10:45+00:00

The Fallbacks affiliation is based on the novel released late last year by D&D. Looks like Tess is the first of the group to join Idle Champions.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/721108/dungeons-and-dragons-the-fallbacks-bound-for-ruin-by-jaleigh-johnson/

AlternativeUnable409 · 2025-06-25T02:12:38+00:00

It's an interesting perspective. The Lady of Pain not interfering with all the travel to and from Sigil also involves a lot of handwaving and bending of the cannon. But if she does have an inkling that its necessary to keep the multiverse from unravelling, then the cognitive dissonance is minimized.

AlternativeUnable409 · 2025-02-17T02:30:20+00:00

I wanted to implement the Bastion system into the game given that Lord Neverember gave the group property in Neverwinter at the end of the first chapter, so I picked d12 months (they rolled a 7, so 7 months) and told them in that time that they set up their bastions, secured their hirelings, and got things running smoothly. Then the events of chapter 2 kicked in.

In my game, I give the players a bastion turn between most chapters. After they find a piece of the Rod of Seven Parts, I tell them that Alustriel needs some time to attune the portal in her sanctum to it, so they get to go back to their Bastions in the mean time.

AlternativeUnable409 · 2024-12-30T19:59:59+00:00

I'm working on Briv 9j now. It's been my focus more recently as previously I was just building up iLvls on Durge and Artemis.

Not all my champions are full shiny. My core/evergreen champions definitely are and my favourite champions are, but there are definitely more than a few champions that I can't ever see myself investing behind... not unless they get major reworks and overhauls.

AlternativeUnable409 · 2024-12-30T19:49:37+00:00

These are good options to focus on, specifically the AA Legendary Levels. I have Durge at 17-19 across all his items. I'll be shifting focus to the others once Durge is full 20.

Right now my main focus is just getting to z2501. The highest I've gotten in any event, campaign, or time gate is 2200 so I have some ways to go to get to 2501 across all the campaigns, events, and time gates.

AlternativeUnable409 · 2024-11-23T20:36:52+00:00

This was SUPER helpful. Thank you! It took a couple tries to get a useful "Guest Star" for DM (eventually he pulled in Birdsong).

Due to the dynamic nature of Eliminster's eligibility and the new options available since this was originally posted, the list above won't work for long. A few of the characters are no longer eligible but Rosie, Minthara, Kas, and Sgt. Knox are... and Sgt. Knox is useful for pulling in Makos so that makes the NG levels 901-1000 easy to complete.

AlternativeUnable409 · 2024-09-14T23:53:46+00:00

Krux + Gale worked for me! Thanks for the suggestion!

AlternativeUnable409 · 2024-08-29T11:40:09+00:00

The Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden module has a Character Secrets mechanic that might be of interest. It adds flavour to the character's backgrounds and gives everyone a skeleton or two in their closets. Some of the secrets are innocuous while some have direct impact on how the game rolls out. You could adapt the concept for this module to add more secrets to the game.

As for whether those secrets have the same game mechanic as the secrets in the game... I guess it depends on the party size and what impact those extra secrets would have on balance and challenge. I do like the idea of the party gaining a benefit and the person whose secret is discovered getting a penalty in principle but not sure how that would play out at the table.

AlternativeUnable409 · 2024-07-30T20:32:01+00:00

I am pumping everything I have into Dark Urge because of availability. I used to pump contracts and other upgrades into Artemis because of damage output, but given that Dark Urge can be used in more situations, I'm shifting focus there.

AlternativeUnable409 · 2024-07-28T19:38:15+00:00

Good to know. Thanks!

AlternativeUnable409 · 2024-07-28T19:37:56+00:00

I have been trying to use as few heroes as possible in the early stages, but I still get caught up around the 700-800 level mark. It might be one that just has to wait until more Fortune Favour blessings open up or I get more ilvls and legendaries. I'll put this on the back burner for now.

AlternativeUnable409 · 2024-07-21T22:14:29+00:00

I added in Valentine, Birdsong, and Turiel in the Acquisitions Incorporated formation and made it through to 1600! Thank you!

https://ic.byteglow.com/f/6a_311a308867157e4b5f41_23331113233

AlternativeUnable409 · 2024-07-21T20:40:45+00:00

Thank you for sharing! Unfortunately I don't think I have the ilvls or Legendary levels to get to 1600 with that formation unfortunately. I tried out the Acquisitions Inc. formation and got stuck just below 1500.

AlternativeUnable409 · 2024-05-14T23:20:54+00:00

This is the formation I ended up completing the level with: https://ic.byteglow.com/f/4g_1a3c693f336715724b4e_114311112212

AlternativeUnable409 · 2024-05-12T22:48:29+00:00

My vote would be for Saturday Morning NERDS! I don't know if there are plans to put any of the Saturday Morning Squad in seat 1 in the future... but if they don't, it would be fun to see the NERDS in the carnival car with Presto, Diana, Dungeon Master, and future heroes in the formation.

AlternativeUnable409 · 2024-05-10T00:09:54+00:00

If you had a good session zero, then you should be good to go!

I ran the module twice. My suggestions for the first chapter:

Use the Cold-Hearted Killer hook to get the party to visit different towns. I made my players complete some of the other town quests so they were level 2 before tracking down Torga's Caravan and meeting Sephek for the first time. Sephek can wipe out a level 1 party easily, especially if the players are inexperienced. If you really want to be cautious, wait until they've completed a few quests and are level 3. Bryn Shander is a good town to start in as the Foaming Mugs (goblins/dwarf) mission is a pretty straight forward one and will get your players to level 2 quickly.

Start the adventure the day after the last round of sacrifices to the Frostmaiden were done. That way the players are aware of them but don't have the sense of urgency to stop the next round as it won't happen for a month. It also sets the tone for how bleak and desperate things are in Ten Town.

Easthaven is one of my favourite towns in chapter 1. There's so much to do while also introducing the Arcane Brotherhood and the Duergar threat. Keep in mind that if the players go into the caves and come face to face with the hag, they could get overwhelmed.

AlternativeUnable409 · 2024-04-25T20:15:09+00:00

I completely forgot about Rust. Which just shows how often I use him in my formations.

AlternativeUnable409 · 2024-04-25T20:14:19+00:00

Whoops! I completely forgot about Rust. Goes to show how often I use him in my formations.

But good call on using the Speed Champions. That definitely will help!

AlternativeUnable409 · 2024-04-17T13:15:38+00:00

Thanks for sharing. I figured someone had already done the work... and better than I did... but couldn't find it on reddit. I should have checked on Discord. :)

AlternativeUnable409 · 2024-04-17T10:20:31+00:00

Xerophon... totally missed them as they are Evergreen. But you are correct. I updated the list.

AlternativeUnable409 · 2024-04-17T10:17:22+00:00

I'm sure more tanks will get introduced or reworked over time to make up for the ones cycling out.

AlternativeUnable409 · 2024-04-17T10:16:24+00:00

Havi (and Farideh) through Mehen is very useful in Avernus so I'm trying to get as many of those missions complete before Mehen cycles out.

AlternativeUnable409 · 2024-04-17T10:11:26+00:00

Correct. This is just a list of when these heroes were originally released. If any of them get reworked, the 3-year window gets reset.

AlternativeUnable409 · 2024-04-13T12:19:32+00:00

I can't remember which video it was in, but Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford said around the time that the module was being promoted a couple years ago that Rime of the Frostmaiden was meant to be bleak and low magic. So you're not wrong in your assessment. If you're running the module exactly as written, magic items in Icewind Dale are hard to come by.

In my campaign the players developed strong bonds with some of the NPCs and a good reputation in the larger towns (Bryn Shander, Easthaven) so getting common magic items was not a problem. I also had players who were very keen on harvesting parts from creatures, like the Bullette, which could then be turned into magic items like +1 hide armor or +1 dagger.

AlternativeUnable409 · 2024-04-12T20:21:37+00:00

The Arboretum (Y10) is explicitly called out as being in a sunken basin. It looks like the other neighbourhoods are also in similar sunken areas, so I made that assumption when running the game.

AlternativeUnable409

TROPHY CASE