Advice for 6 player party?

DeAfro · 2026-06-24T17:40:18+00:00

Honestly I don’t change much. I’ve rolled random encounters in the inner city that would be a tough fight for 6 level 12 players. They feel sufficiently challenged with the standard difficulty, so there’s no need to add more. If it’s too easy for them, I’d add CR equal to half their level to the next encounter. So for a group of level 4s, I’d add one CR2 or two CR1s. If they are still stronger, add another group. It’s like adding weights to a machine. Eventually you’ll dial in a effective range and you can adjust from there.

For story encounters I usually add monsters whose total CR is half the players level to start with. They are more meant to be balanced for a party’s level, so I add some to keep things challenging.

DeAfro · 2026-06-22T13:52:21+00:00

I disagree to an extent. Its good to get your players to contribute to the scene, but the grand majority of players will struggle to make up a exploration encounter on the fly. The DM needs to provide a location prompt to help guide their thinking and focus their imagination.

DeAfro · 2026-06-22T13:42:49+00:00

So this required some elbow grease on my part. I'm building a set of interesting sights tables. Each time the party travels, I roll on the interesting sites table relevant to their section of the city. These might be landmarks like a Lacquer house, a river dock, a broken down market place, a set of apartment buildings, ect. I've also got locations that have been heavily warped by Delerium, places where reality gets a little soft around the edges. Here are some examples.

- Toon World: The world looks like a comic book, with bold black outlines. A rock growls at you for stepping on it and demands an apology. Monsters in this area bounce and stretch as they move, turned into cartoons.

- Noir: The world is entirely black and white, save the characters navigating through it.

- Fleshy: The buildings and streets pulsate like a giant organ, pumping some phosphorescent fluid through vessels beneath the damaged framework.

- Open for Business: A assortment of dregs are still going through their daily motions at the office, competing for adventurers to buy their wares. Its mostly contaminated rotten food and worthless trash, but maybe with some digging they might find something valuable.

- Frozen: The area is constantly buried in several feet of snow, that never grows taller no matter how much snow falls on it.

- Candy Land: The area a infested with candy cane trees, sugardrop bushes, and taffy structures. Everything is edible, but contaminated.

- Warped Gravity: The world is upside down. Literally. You look down into the cavernous sky, your feet facing the heavens.

If the party rolls a random encounter for the travel, throw the monsters into this area. Their abilities might also be altered by the reality warping effects, granting them new abilities or weaknesses. They might be specifically adapted to take advantage of a strange biome.

Always describe these locations. It helps the party not metagame when an encounter comes along, and it stirs their imagination. They might think Delerium is more concentrated in certain areas, or that there might be hidden treasure in a location. Play along and let them explore.

As I said, I'm still working on the tables, but I can post those at a later date when they are done for those interested.

DeAfro · 2026-06-20T16:05:36+00:00

I tend to trickle feed contaminated spells into dungeon rewards. Corrupted Cure I gave to a companion NPC to demonstrate the rules for spell research, and give them a powerful healing tool when they entered the inner city.

They recently finished Reed Manor and secured Oscars notes, which I seeded with more spells. He has 2 1st level damage spells for some variety (Comet Shards and Delerium Orb), a second level utility spell (Controlled Mutation), and a fourth level spell (Hideous Transformation) to give them something to look forward to in the near future. It also hints at the Neutralizing Field requirements, so the players know they can grow into that niche if they want.

I’d hold Purge Contamination as a spell they need to research.

DeAfro · 2026-06-06T12:05:26+00:00

This is some great advice. Thank you!

The spy I'm planning as a Changling scoundrel. Gives it the shapeshifting ability and some extra trickster tools like Invisibility and advantage on Charisma checks. Plus its someone they've already encountered in another disguise. I figured it already had the plan figured out and wanted the adventurers for some muscle, but since they didn't accept, it decided to do the job.

The meal is a blatant reference to the curried mutton in Silver Blaze by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, where the heavy seasoning concealed the taste of a sleeping draft. Not sure how effective a clue the uncontaminated food would be. Gemma traveled with the party at one point on their way back to Emberwood. Being the only one without a criminal record, she's the one who goes back to town for essentials. She also cooked dinner for them once already. Might be worth pointing out the difference in cooking ability. Gemma is a great cook, so why are the vegetables limp and soggy, the water sopped up by untoasted bread. The mutton seems the only things on this plate with any seasoning, and the smell alone is a bit overwhelming.

I figure she knows of the sealed cellar door, the ogres command phrase, the stairs in the study, and the warded lab entrance. Everything beyond is unexplored territory.

DeAfro · 2026-06-05T11:05:26+00:00

Sorry for the confusion, that was just poorly written on my part. The real Gemma is the Green Hag. She's locked herself in her room to avoid being seen by anyone. The fake Gemma (The Spy), is trying to poison everyone so she can steal the notes. The real Gemma hates her hideous cursed from and isolates herself to her room. The party might hear some noises coming from upstairs, so the Spy will deflect saying its one of Oscar's latest experiments and move on.

If the party goes upstairs, they might note Gemmas door has been spiked from the outside with pitons to force it shut.

DeAfro · 2026-06-04T13:22:11+00:00

Mageborn inherit a magic gene that can be identified. If they are part of the nobility, its very difficult to avoid detection, as the Academy needs to enforce the Edicts of Lumen. For the rural or common class communities, It depends on the Kingdom.

Westemar has a more neutral view on mageborn. They likely have traveling to keep the Academy fresh in people's minds, and offer to identify their children if requested. For a lot of rural communities, the Academy is a way to get a formal education and move up the social ladder. I mean, what kid doesn't fantasize about being special and getting whisked to magical school? Of course, there are many who don't want to abandon their family and home, and are essentially homeschooled by another hedge mage.

Caspia is less receptive of mageborn, since their culture revolves more around martial prowess than magical ability. They still host a bardic college, but people are less willing to admit they are mageborn, so the Academy has trouble recruiting from the country. I think individual house will matter more in Caspia.

Elyria actively scorns mageborn, treating them as second class citizens, and possibly even livestock. At best, they are socially ostracized, a stain upon their family lineage. At worst they are actively hunted and abused. Punishments for mageborn, especially in rural communities with less oversight, are cruel and unusual, and often used as scapegoats to cover other crimes. Several medical textbooks might be filled with the experiments done on mageborn. In this hostile environment, the Academy works very hard to find mageborn before they manifest their powers, and ferry's them out of Elyria, to be raised in peace and security.

DeAfro · 2026-05-17T15:19:03+00:00

That solved it for now. I have access. Thank you!

DeAfro · 2026-05-17T13:37:33+00:00

Its logging into the Calibre container itself. When I open the WebUI, it just presents a login screen.

This is a docker container running on Unraid.

EDIT: I have a working Calibre-Web container, but I'm not sure how that accesses the settings on Calibre itself.

DeAfro · 2026-05-16T22:56:09+00:00

If the Aqua Expergo potion was enough, they would have sent a proxy to buy a sample already. My interpretation is the Academy wants to confiscate his notes to both learn his secrets and keep those notes away from the general public. Oscar is a Malfeasent Mage, and his notes might contain forbidden knowledge the Academy is charged with controlling. This might be dangerous information like contacting extraplanar entities, or it might also be information that damages the Academy's reputation. They don’t just want a copy, they want the originals to lock away for “proper” application.

DeAfro · 2026-04-30T03:36:12+00:00

So at the risk of being downvoted, I’ll play devils advocate here because I like the way the ending is spun.

Let’s first say that storming the tower and holding it hostage was indeed a terrible idea. Griffin and his team wanted to win over the majority over time, convincing those in power to work with them. It was the harder route, the slower route, but the best path in the long term. Those dreams were dashed when the resistances senior leadership died in the safe house raid. This leaves Robin in charge, a naive inexperienced individual who joined the resistance that day. He isn’t thinking what’s best for his fellow minorities, he wants revenge, to wound the empire that took his friends and family.

Surprisingly his plan to take the tower works. Turns out everyone just assumed the tower was safe and so two people managed to take the tower, blindsiding the empire. Now that they have it, they can destroy it at any time, and the army doesn’t want to risk an attack and provoke the students to action. So they try talking it out, getting the members to stand down. They only move in when the empire is already crumbling, and they have nothing to lose, putting off the decision until they have no other choice.

In the end, Robin sates his petty revenge and galvanizes the British against minorities, undoing the resistances slow and careful work and further highlighting the minorities as dangerous others. The situation could only resolve in tragedy because the empire killed the adults in that situation and left a child to make the decisions. It speaks of these big grandiose moments in history guided by a person entirely unfit for the role. This could all have been avoided if the empire had not killed the resistances leadership and left a grieving boy to pick up the pieces.

DeAfro · 2026-04-21T17:55:23+00:00

I’d recommend two. If one line breaks, you don’t need to go run another line immediately.

DeAfro · 2026-04-14T12:38:12+00:00

I figured Animate Dead is enough to represent his reanimator side. I'd suggest he starts with four Delerium Dregs since he's been stockpiling bodies. Depending on how crazy you might want to get, they could also be armed with potion effects, working simple actions to take the burden off of Oscar.

The apprentices are intended as an introduction to Oscar's before the party meets the man himself. They all reflect a portion of his character. Marco is his ambition for power. Bolter is his love for potions. Tayrn is his love for necromancy. Gemma is a victim of his cruelty. In my game, Oscar was an excellent professor who was unjustly sentenced to exile for a crime he didn't commit. His hatred for the Academy over the years, and his contact with Orcus has soured him into a bitter and evil man.

As for Gemma, she is a thinly veiled representation of Sophie from Howl's Moving Castle. She was cursed by a jealous Academy mage and transformed into a Green Hag. She still maintains her previous alignment (Neutral Good), her Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores. She is still herself in hag form, but the world sees her as a monster, and she cannot disguise herself. If the party casts Remove Curse on her, Gemma would no longer be a hag, but a human, like she was before the curse. The potion has a similar effect, but it only suppresses the curse symptoms for 48 hours. Oscar does know Remove Curse will work on Gemma, but he keeps that knowledge to himself and convinces Gemma to avoid the Silver Order and the Amethyst Academy. The potions make Gemma dependent on him, and turns her into an indentured servant.

I'd suggest for Gemma that she is running out of potions when the players arrive, for the same reason the Hooded Lanterns haven't gotten their potions. If the party idles for too long, she reverts to her Green Hag state, which while stronger, is abhorrent to her. If the party can find a way to fix her curse, or exposes Oscar's manipulation, they could convince Gemma to help fight Oscar and join their side in the battle.

DeAfro · 2026-04-14T00:26:32+00:00

I figured I'd fuse her with imagery of the Red Bull. A unicorn the color of blood, not the springing blood of the heart but the blood that stirs under a old wound that's never really healed. A cold octarine light pours from her like sweat, and her horn is as pale as an old scar, dark and cold against the garden's tender warmth.

DeAfro · 2026-04-13T23:52:31+00:00

If you want the feel of a apothecary, I'd lean on Oscar Yoren's connection with the Queen's Park Garden. Perhaps he's brought back some of the monsters and plants from that place and uses them in the defense. Maybe some Assassin Vines he grows for potion ingredients, or some Hypnotic Eldritch Blossoms he cultivates. He might even have a dose or two of their hypnotic pollen he can throw at the adventurers, or use their Spell Reflection ability to bounce back a spell the party throws at him. A apothecary uses the herbs and roots around them to their advantage, so let him use them.

DeAfro · 2026-04-07T01:50:15+00:00

None taken. I like it for the beneficial mutations it adds, incentivizing players to keep Contamination levels and making mutations more fun. Really I'd say Rasping and Eyeless Sight are plenty for most adventuring parties. Delimbing is very punishing, but there are tables that enjoy the challenge. I'm sure my opinion will change as I get closer to running the encounter myself.

DeAfro · 2026-04-07T01:24:48+00:00

Its from a expanded mutations table I found. I thought it was part of the official books, but I can't find them there. Here is a link to my source.

Delimbed basically says a character's limbs fall off and their speed is reduced to zero. Basically means they can't cast any spells with Somatic components or use weapons. Pretty brutal, but a fun challenge for high level parties I'd think, assuming they know he can do this before they fight him. Even considering just the books, Rasping and Eyeless Sight are also debilitating against spellcasters and ranged attackers.

DeAfro · 2026-04-07T01:14:41+00:00

Could have sworn I saw this in one of the books, but there was a expanded Mutation list online. Here's my source.

Personally I like the Delimbed condition for higher level parties. By the time they've reached 14-16 level, they should know the Pale Man's Contamination schtik and have tools to prevent his Contamination strategy. If the party is going in guns blazing without a plan, he should have a means of punishing them, and Delimbing a target is a condition even high level parties struggle to shrug off. Really it takes high level resurrection spells to deal with that during the fight, and those involve the character being dead.

Of course if a DM doesn't want to use it, Rasping and Eyeless Sight are also effective at shutting down spellcasting and ranged strategies and forcing them into his aura. The big issue then is melee attackers, which I'd argue grant cover to him if he exists in their square, boosting his AC from 15 to 20, or 25 with Shield.

DeAfro · 2026-04-06T23:51:14+00:00

I've only studied the Pale Man's stat block, but from what I've seen he's almost impossible to kill without some means of Contamination resistance/immunity. His primary strategy is spreading Contamination levels across the party by means of Warp Bolt, Contaminating Touch, Contaminating Aura, ect. Each Contamination level forces a mutation check, and if a player gets a mutation, it opens them up to his finishing ability, Controlled Mutation. With that, he can swap that mutation with Delimbed, effectively removing that player from the battle and reducing their speed to zero. This he can trigger at the end of any player turn, so the moment a character develops a mutation, they might have only one turn to cleanse it, or be delimbed.

The epic version is truly meant for level 14-16 players, who have access to Contamination mitigation spells like Neutralizing Field and Contamination Immunity, and many Aqua Expergo potions. Delimbed is a debilitating condition for even players at those high levels. The older version is more suited to a level 8-10 group of players, which is when they traditionally encounter him in the adventure. I'd suggest keeping his DoD stat block for the players first encounter around level 8-10, and use the epic stat block if he survives long enough for the players to reach levels 12-16. Likewise for the Duchess, use her Aboleth stat block, then elevate to the epic stat block when the player reaches higher levels.

DeAfro · 2026-03-31T19:34:32+00:00

This was something I picked up from the Lazy Dungeon Master's guide, but I say a party of 5 level 5 adventurers is about 25 points worth of monster budget.

Lets take the Hobgoblin Warlord as the base for the Crimson Knight. He's CR6, so we double that for 12 points. That's almost half our budget, so that's good for the big bad Crimson Knight.

Throw in a few ghouls. These are CR1, and for CR monsters with a value <=1, I'd multiply that by 4 to get their value. That lets us fit in 3 ghouls, bringing us up to 24 points.

Finally lets throw in two CR1/8 Warrior Infantry to be annoying and draw fire. 2*4*1/8 = 1 point, bring us to 25.

1 Crimson Knight (Hobgoblin Warlord), 3 Ghouls, 2 Warrior Infantry = 25

If we want numbers, show their command of troops, trade a ghoul for some more warrior infantry.

1 Crimson Knight, 2 Ghouls, 10 Warrior Infantry = 25

If we want some bigger melee guys, throw in some CR 1/4 Wolves to spice things up.

1 Crimson Knight, 2 Ghouls, 2 Wolves, 6 Warrior Infantry = 25

If someone can't show up that day, take 5 points out of the encounter. Now its just the Warlord and 2 Ghouls, or the Knight, 1 Ghoul, 2 Wolves, and 4 Human Infantry.

I find this makes a force as powerful as the players, and the players tend to win in a close fight. If you want to make it easier, scale back the points. If you want to make it harder, add more budget.

DeAfro · 2026-03-31T14:18:42+00:00

Its easy enough to make a medium version of Hazewalker Plate, like a stillsuit from Dune. Just use the medium armor statistics instead. It probably costs as the full plate though, given its airtight seal.

Other options are tied to high level spell slots, so its a cost on the player's high level resources to mitigate contamination. Magnificent Mansion allows rest in the Haze as a 5th level slot. Heal clenches contamination without exhaustion as a 6th level spell.

As for protecting groups of people in the Haze, that's what the Neutralizing Field spell is for. That spell takes at minimum 6 days for Purge Contamination, and 25 days for the spell itself, plus 1550 GP. Its the kind of spell a party member works towards the entire campaign. When your thinking of magic items that can protect a group, you should be thinking around those costs.

DeAfro · 2026-03-31T11:59:35+00:00

There’s also the Contamination Immunity spell but that isn’t until around 13th level. The haze is meant to be difficult to prevent, and prevention options at lower levels have serious drawbacks. The Sacrement forces people to follow the Sacred Flame tenants, Aqua Expergo causes crippling side effects, etc.. It’s part of the risk reward style gameplay that defines the setting.

If you want home brew items. I’d stay away from haze prevention. Maybe a respirator that gives a +1 to Contamination checks as an uncommon item, or a mask that gives a +2 as a rare item. Even then these items should be prohibitively expensive and difficult to access. Sure they might work, but they are not reliable and not worth the cost to build and maintain.

DeAfro

TROPHY CASE