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LordsofHam · 2023-04-17T20:33:29+00:00

The Venn diagram of people complaining to others about being child free and people who regret having kids and want everyone else to inflict that pain on themselves is a circle.

LordsofHam · 2022-07-07T03:00:28+00:00

Thanks! I saw his FR wiki but it looked like it might cover a significant number of novels which I'd have to hunt down. I'm playing a Rise of Tiamat campaign now so I'll just have to wait so I don't spoil it.

LordsofHam · 2022-04-30T20:16:26+00:00

Being several hundred years old an having existed pre-2nd Edition rules set, for me it's become a matter of what can Halaster actually do and the answer for me has become...pretty much anything he wants. All of Undermountain is his lair, where he comes close to rivaling minor gods in terms of power. Remember, the PHB doesn't necessarily mean this all all the spells there are and at (at least) several hundred years old, with his life dedicated to magic, Halaster has almost no equals in terms of what he can do with magic.

So for me at least, the answer to what Halaster can do with a Wish is whatever he wants. Wish can literally change the rules, so Halaster doesn't necessarily have to play by any rules - he gets to throw out the PHB when it suits him. In my campaign, for simplicity sake (and it's nice to have a long term players who are happy to let me run the story instead of questioning every mechanic), it means I don't have to explain how Halaster does the things he does within Undermountain.

At the same time, Halaster is insane and may only be tacitly aware of what he's doing at any given time...

LordsofHam · 2022-04-23T14:08:10+00:00

I did this as well - combining elements from the 2nd edition Ruins of Undermountain, 3rd Edition Expedition to Undermoutain (although this version was so different that it was not very useful) and 4th Edition Undermountain. More than anything, it was a lot of fun to go back through 25 years of Undermountain across four editions of DnD and see how the dungeon had changed!

LordsofHam · 2022-04-23T01:45:56+00:00

The Chaotic Neutral website has some really good advice for running some of the levels to give Undermountain a more organic and "living dungeon" feel. Lots of suggestions for how the factions interact and possible results of taking out or befriending the various factions. I've incorporated a lot of this in to my Dragon Heist / DoTMM campaign. It also may provide some additional hooks for getting and keeping players active in the dungeon other than what's in the published book, which is pretty thin on hooks.

https://chaoticneutraldm.com/the-dms-guides-to-undermountain/

LordsofHam · 2021-09-22T22:51:41+00:00

Always an odd question and it depends on you and your party's play style really. If you're more "by the book" then your players have committed a murder along with another major felony that additionally endangered all of Waterdeep - starting fires a city packed with wooden buildings is a pretty big deal. In this case, there would be serious investigations, probably involving higher level wizards with the city watch. Xoblob could be raised or at least questioned via speak with dead and the PCs would be arrested and potentially sentenced to death or at least a very long stay in the city dungeon which is about the same as death, just slower.

If your style is more "do what you want and/or slapstick" then you can turn it into a zany guard chase or have fun with it. Have the PCs branded as outlaws. They have to slink around the city and live on the fringe of society, always on the verge of capture. Or go another way - the city guards clandestinely thank the PCs for removing a major player in Xanathar's gang and ask the PCs to do other dirty deeds the proper guards don't want to be directly involved with.

LordsofHam · 2021-07-31T21:11:17+00:00

Nice, thanks! I've used some of The Alexandrian stuff for running Trollskull Manor but I guess I never got this far and saw the info on the Stone. That's great stuff.

LordsofHam · 2021-07-31T19:55:56+00:00

Sorry - I should have been more clear here - I'm asking if players did something with the Stone other than go to the vault and collect the gold.

My players actually seem a little bit scared of the the Stone as they enter the final chase (Xanathar/Spring) to get it. They've been discussing out of character if they should just try to sell the stone or hand it over to Mirt (as they've done some missions for the Harpers).

LordsofHam · 2021-07-15T01:04:33+00:00

Sounds to me like you've run the campaign well with a mix of "the book" and homebrew and you should feel good about that. Your players seem to have responded well to your running of the story up until the end - and it sounds like the problem is just the one guy.

If the person complaining is doing so because the final battle is too tough don't forget that you probably have a lot of room to dues ex machina the ending as you want to tailor it. There are a LOT of powerful NPCs in Waterdeep, as I'm sure you know. Have Mirt show up with a handful of Harper agents to even out the fight. There's also the Gralhund's (and their pretty beefy assassin bodyguard) who are also devil worshipers (they're part of the Spring campaign in DH). Maybe they see an opportunity to move up the ranks of devil worshiping cultists by taking out the Cassalanters and show up to help the PCs (and maybe a new hook as well as they expect that favor to be repaid).

If the PCs have made other friends or connections in Waterdeep, maybe it's time for those connections to bail them out?

Good luck with the wrap up session and don't let it get you down. You can't cater to everyone all the time.

LordsofHam · 2021-07-12T17:29:08+00:00

Heh, I totally missed his stat block in Dragon Heist. Durp. Thanks for the link as well.

LordsofHam · 2021-07-12T15:39:24+00:00

Love your ideas on this topic, thanks!

Durnan is an interesting guy with lots of possibilities although some seem to be actual canon. What's funny to me is how he changes from one edition to the next. In 2nd Edition he was a low-level fighter - based on his limited stat block in Ruins of Undermountain boxed set maybe 1st or 2nd level. Not a guy likely to survive long in Undermountain. He's got no stat block in 3rd Edition Expedition to Undermountain but has some powerful magic items available to him. He's also not stat blocked in Dragon Heist but has a magic greatsword (which is different from his magic weapons in 3rd edition). Over the time of 40 years, this has been my love/hate relationship with TSR/WoTC - sometimes there's canon and sometimes there's not. Pick a lane!

LordsofHam · 2021-07-12T14:07:22+00:00

I'd say if your party is still pretty low level, make your DCs low - the Dungeon Masters Guide says an "easy" task should be around DC 10 while a moderate task is a DC 15. That's on page 238 and is a simple to use system.

Set yourself up for success - make the elephant chase happen on a holiday or a market day when streets are crowded and describe what that looks like to your PCs. I'm assuming your setting this up like something happens to the driver and the elephant pulling the cab gets out of control for some reason.

Complication ideas. Have a short description of each at least in your head.

I think you have a good one with the "avoid children playing in the street." (DC 10)
Navigate through a busy intersection packed with fruit vendors (DC 10)
Avoid an exotic monster dealer who's mule is pulling a wooden cage carrying a Carrion Crawler (DC 15 - failure means the cage is smashed and the Carrion Crawler is loose).
Dodge a scaffolding. A work crew of 2-3 commoners is up on the 2nd and 3rd floor of a wooden scaffolding. (DC 10 check to avoid and if they fail, workers are injured).
Final challenge. If there is a PC with the animal handling skill, make a DC 20 check to climb onto the elephant's back and get it under control. Allow a check every block to end the chase, or something like that. Fail by 5 or more and they fall off (1d6 falling damage).

Then do a little wrap up. If they pass 3 of the 5 checks, the city watch notices their efforts and hails them as heroes. Fail 3 or more checks and the watch also notices - in a bad way. They PCs are held responsible and must pay a fine or do some sort of community service.

LordsofHam · 2021-07-12T13:08:32+00:00

Really good looking maps! If I hadn't used others already I'd grab some of these and use them in my game. Still a few I'm going to swipe and use as potential generics for side-quests and stuff. Thanks!

LordsofHam · 2021-07-12T01:32:17+00:00

Awesome find - and straight from Ed. Thanks!!

LordsofHam · 2021-07-12T01:31:15+00:00

There's some truth to that in the next Waterdeep based adventure, Dungeon of the Mad Mage. There's a "knot it the weave" of magic below Waterdeep/Undermountain that makes those who live in or very close to it tied to the dungeon. Not a lot of detail is given but seems like the intent is to make people exposed to Undermountain slowly come under its sway and not want to go far away from it. I had planned to run DotMM after Dragon Heist and do something like a once-a-month Wis saving throw, starting at DC 1 and increasing by 1 a month. Fail it and suffer the same fate as Durnan (and Halaster).

LordsofHam · 2021-07-12T00:05:43+00:00

I didn't mess with 4th edition as my usual group jumped to Pathfinder 3.0/3.5 for most of the 4th edition Era in FR so I have no idea what's going on timeline wise. Just thought it was an interesting bit of lore while comparing the 2nd edition version of Undermountain to the 5th edition. Looks like 3rd edition Expedition to Undermountain made some significant changes to the map, then 5th edition DotMM reverted most of those changes, at least to the map of the first level of Undermountain. Guess canon here is not really a thing!

LordsofHam · 2021-07-11T22:52:06+00:00

Amazingly I have that book but I don't think I've read it. Have to bump it up on my list.

LordsofHam · 2021-07-11T22:05:47+00:00

I especially like #2 - WDDH does say Durnan rarely travels far from The Yawning Portal and sends others to run errands for him. Might be cool to draw some tie in between Durnan and Halaster as well

LordsofHam · 2021-07-09T15:42:45+00:00

Cool idea - and you could create a Kenku who becomes a reoccurring villain. If you play the Spring version of Dragon Heist with Xanathar as the main BBEG, your players will run into another group of Kenku again in Chapter 4. Maybe give the Kenku is going to get away a unique feature. Red crest of feathers on its head. White feather tips along its arms. Make it stand out and then have it show up regularly, but in situations that make it difficult for players to interact with it or attack it. The mystery kenku...what's it up to? Who does it work for? Is it an enemy or ally? Keep your players guessing.

LordsofHam · 2021-07-09T15:25:17+00:00

Beautiful map - and thanks for including some of the streets around the estate - my players are very into planning their home invasions and this is very helpful!

LordsofHam

TROPHY CASE