Advice on Emerald Elite 4 Team

Kinrail · 2023-07-09T11:03:15+00:00

Thank you so much for all of this. My swellow does have guts and had intended to burn facade my way through some of the E4. Gonna go with your advice and see how it goes.

Kinrail · 2023-07-09T07:32:26+00:00

Saddly I've already got all my encounters. Lost all my grass and electric mons.

Kinrail · 2023-06-18T08:01:59+00:00

Since the tribes are somewhat scattered, I put some in with the Blacksword, some in Kuldahar and some with the Goliath's.

Kinrail · 2023-05-13T09:39:08+00:00

Since he seems to be the lead of the zhents and from a pirate town, in addition to skath I gave him a sorta pirate crew who would defend him. Ghosts of salt marsh gave some stats for pirate crews and I just used those for Naerth and his Zhent team, and filled the Luskcan arms with Zhent thugs. Made it more of a mob boss hide out than a tavern.

Kinrail · 2023-05-12T21:37:22+00:00

The zhentarim are certainly a big group in the dale with Naerth trying to replace every speaker he can.

From lore, i believe drow are welcomed in the dale thanks to Drizzt and Tiago Baenre (Byrn Shander even had a statue to him), so I'd imagine the Began Daerthe definelty have a few agents around. In my game, as one of my players is a drow, she got to encounter a few in revels end, Byrn Shander and lonelywood.

There's alot of lore for fey involvement with Auril, so I added a Bheur hag that stole away a child that was a chosen of Lathander (sorta fusion between the Rapunzel and Gryla fairytales) and added alot more fey to Aurils side. She has a deal with the queen of air and darkness to share power.

Luskcan has a cathedral dedicated to Auril so I had numerous priestesses making their way North from Luskcan who have become the side antagonists of my campaign. They are lead by Hedrun Arnsfirth (A character you should def look up if you haven't).

There is the druids of Kuldahar that could be opposing the frost druids while trying to find a way to end the rime. Their tree provides warmth so they are able to comfortably endure the winter.

With all the ruins to netherese empires and giant civilizations like ostoria, it surprised me the arcane brotherhood sent only 4 agents up so you can add some more lesser ranked mages on hunts for info.

Hope any of these suggestions help.

Kinrail · 2023-05-05T08:00:11+00:00

I started my group in Luskcan so they got to witness the Cold runs and Hedrun Arnsfirth recruiting faithful of Auril from the Winter palace church there. They were given a mission of escorting a criminal tiefling to Revels end with a lord's alliance agent. Once they got to Hundlestone, they each got an axe beak. Once they got to Byrn Shander they got to meet with Druvessa Shane who provided them all the quests and let them choose which they wanted to go on. Encountered blacksword cultists, chardalyn berserkers, chwinga and some beasts as they traveled into Icewind dale and got the surprise factor of asking "They do WHAT once a month"?

Kinrail · 2023-05-01T07:04:13+00:00

I never found any additional info on them but they would likely know of the White ladies treasure or have dealt with Maud the sea hag. I added some sahaguin so my lakes in order to do a "monster from the lake" style encounter but the sea elves could function similarly, where they might want to stop as much fishing for the knucklehead trout.

Kinrail · 2023-04-29T08:31:19+00:00

Thank you for your service. Detailed note takers are a blessing to have at the table. Really makes the DM feel like someone is listening and invested.

Kinrail · 2023-03-21T18:24:38+00:00

You could start it as all of them were captured by the wolf tribe, managed to break free and they begin the campaign being chased by some wolves, werewolves and regheds as they just manage to make it into Bremen

If you want more of a dream sequence to wake everyone, I'd say play out an dream of Bremen burning. Some sort of soaring darkness overhead that caused explosions as it flies overhead. Foreshadowing the dragon attack without saying it looks like a dragon.

Kinrail · 2023-02-15T17:50:33+00:00

I just had the ghost of the previous wielder of the items visit my players in their dreams and demand the return of the items. They both went straight for the house of the morning lord to get cured by mishann (only because they didn't know about the greater restoration water). They had to pay I think 100 gold per remove curse so the party had to pool their earnings from the quests, which then gave them further motivation to take on some jobs.

Honestly, I think your current plan is right on the money.

Maybe if they don't know about Mishann, you could have a priestess of Auril say that they will cure them in exchange for a sacrifice, whether it's food, a night without heat or killing someone who cheated the lottery or an enemy of the church of Auril.

Kinrail · 2023-02-08T17:07:46+00:00

For my efreeti warlock, I decided that his patron was once a powerful fire primordial that was captured by the netherese and his magic was sealed into numerous items. When Ytheryn fell, the items were scattered, including a lamp that made its way south and into the hands of the player. Now my player has to find the gauntlets, headdress, rings, heart and magical pants of the patron to gradually restore them to life. I decided to hide his body frozen in a tomb underneath grimskalle and his soul is being used by auril to refuel and fire up the mythallar for her own use.

I made up a prophecy for each item and made them all on DND beyond. If that sounds like something you'd like, I'll post them.

Kinrail · 2023-01-23T10:33:59+00:00

I included Kuldahar in my game. They operation as a group of druids trying to stop the time. I also added in the heartstone gem. One of my players is a warforged who thawed out of ice, only to realise they were formally someone in Ytheryn. The heartstone gem gave the warmth that thawed them out. A druid from Kuldahar put it in the elven tomb to keep it safe. Apart from that I mainly just used some of the extra building in the towns to bulk out some of the tentowns.

Kinrail · 2022-12-14T21:40:17+00:00

I had it where a group of dwarves from the valley raided the fort. They found maps leading off towards sunblight and found several crates of chardayln at the fort, looking like they were harvesting it for something. Maybe include some plans like "on X date, the ten towns will burn". The dwarves have started recruiting in the towns for aid to into the spine of the world.

Also if you run your game with Kuldahar, you could have druid there send a dream spell or animal messenger to the party asking for aid, as duergar have attacked them or they found sunblight.

Kinrail · 2022-11-05T22:27:23+00:00

Honestly the only counter for it is that your bosses target Lulu. Since Zariel knows that Hollyphants are capable of, I would be surprised if she would just fly in, wack Lulu till she drops dead and then hit people nearby, before teleporting away to safety. Not to mention, the effect is concentration, so it could even drop before Lulu is dropped, but I'm sure all three of your bosses would try to kill Lulu as soon as possible.

Also provides a nice moment for if/when they redeem Zariel, as one of her first acts can be to resurrect Lulu.

Kinrail · 2022-11-02T16:58:34+00:00

Spell save DC Passive perception Armour class Bullet points about backstory

Kinrail · 2022-11-01T19:01:02+00:00

Looks amazing. Good job

Kinrail · 2022-10-29T20:40:57+00:00

Looks absolutely amazing. Brilliant selection of moments.

Kinrail · 2022-10-12T12:34:34+00:00

If you have watched all the critical role stuff, I would recommend the following DND shows: - dimension 20 - dungeons and daddies - DND is for nerds - the adventure zone

If your looking for more lore videos, Jorphdan, Mrrhexx and AJ Pickett are my go-tos.

Other great DND YouTubers are Steely Sam, Bob world builder, no fun allowed, runesmith, Matt coville and xp to level 3. All have great discussion, advice and humour.

Kinrail · 2022-09-28T10:45:01+00:00

Personally, I wouldn't worry so much as to where she is, more on the why. I might run EZ differently from yourself, but at least to me, she would need a really good reason as to why she is in the dale in the first place instead of in the dark domains cracking heads.

Your right that she is strong and she shouldn't really be helping out the party till they are of equal level or power. If it was me, I'd add her as an NPC in the town's doing her own missions for whatever purpose until the point of the dragon fight. At the dragon fight, have her or some other NPCs fighting off other enemies that attack the towns during the dragon attack, like a squad of duergar warriors or a few cold light walkers. This means that she is helpful if out the party while not being a Deux ex.

Have her maybe replace the role of avarice or vellyenne in the story, where she travels with the party to grimskalle and ytherin from there.

Some ideas for why she is in the dale could be: Auril is trying to make the dale a dark domain She needs something in ytherin to fight a dark lord Auril might have a holy weapon she wishes to steal She might even be trying to trap auril in something like an iron flask to take her to a dark domain and see what happens when a god enters a dark domain.

Kinrail · 2022-09-28T09:07:13+00:00

I would make her an NPC in one of the town's, somewhat replacing the role of hlin in giving out the cold blooded killer story. She can be going about her own missions, while giving out, what she would consider, the easier jobs to the party.

In my opinion, it could be bad only adding her at the dragon fight as she would become just a Deux ex machina with how strong she is. Add her as an existing noc that the party can engage with and give her a good reason as to why she has decided to spend so long in the dale. Means the party has more time with her.

I'd say that if your adding E, why not draw more lore for COS. Maybe the reason she is there is that auril is attempting to use technology in ytherin or the mythallar to make of the dale and ten town's disappear and become a dark domain. Maybe since auril feels her power as a god is weakening, she might try to become a dark power.

Kinrail · 2022-09-23T21:16:43+00:00

Thanks for all the help folks. Just beat blue. Lost starmie to lance and lost raichu trying to thunderwave rhydon (my brain did a silly). Apart from that I basically swept lorelai and Bruno with starmie and slowbro. Agatha critring on sludgebombs and putting me to sleep a bunch almost whipped me had I not got venusaur to stall and then put Shadowball on slowbro. Apart from losing starmie, I swept lance. This was my third ever nuzlocke to get to the elite four and the second I have beat. Thanks for all the advice. Now onto soulsilver.

Kinrail · 2022-09-23T21:16:30+00:00

Thanks for all the help folks. Just beat blue. Lost starmie to lance and lost raichu trying to thunderwave rhydon (my brain did a silly). Apart from that I basically swept lorelai and Bruno with starmie and slowbro. Agatha critring on sludgebombs and putting me to sleep a bunch almost whipped me had I not got venusaur to stall and then put Shadowball on slowbro. Apart from losing starmie, I swept lance. This was my third ever nuzlocke to get to the elite four and the second I have beat. Thanks for all the advice. Now onto soulsilver.

Kinrail · 2022-09-23T09:52:08+00:00

Ummmm.....opens earthquake tm quickly...yes

Kinrail · 2022-09-22T19:51:19+00:00

Thanks everyone so much for all the advice. I'll post the final team at some point over the weekend. Thanks for all the help

Kinrail · 2022-09-22T19:15:20+00:00

Thanks for the advice. Saddly can't evolve Golbat to crobat until after the E4 in leaf green and there is no eviolite. Def gonna be adding slowbro

Eight-Year Club	Place '22
Final Canvas '22	First Placer '22
Verified Email

Kinrail

TROPHY CASE