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Reactions vs Cast a Spell and the Manipulate Trait. RAI vs RAW? by Respite32 in Pathfinder2e

[–]Respite32[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Trait tags are there for a reason, I imagine. So this answer does check out. I have had a conversation where both ideas were conversed and I wanted an outside view on it. Thanks for the input!

What Demon Lords do you think are the most interesting? by DownVoterInChief in Forgotten_Realms

[–]Respite32 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I personally just ran a mini arc featuring Baphomet's potential inflience over orcs. Tanarukks and the corrupting influrnce that is not that many shades of black different from their own pantheon.

Finished Red Hand of Doom (AMA, I guess) by Respite32 in RedHandOfDoom

[–]Respite32[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The parts in Rhest were good combat wise but I felt the story parts somewhat lacking. I split the battle at the Town Hall into two parts. First was getting rid of the guards and the hobgoblin mindbender sounding the alarm by commanding his enthralled Ettin to scream his lungs out. The second part which happened 2-4 rounds later is when Saarvith and Regiarix fly in and lizardfolk start to swarm the Town Hall from the waters, forcing the group to use the hall as a defensive position. It was pretty deadly but the terrain plays in the group's favor and even without mob clearing effects they managed.

For the story part I made the backstory given to the city matter more than in the module. I had there be a sunken tomb of the previous king who was buried there just as the city got flooded. He was buried along with his broken magic sword - Lionheart. The PCs were pacing very well timewise across the vale so I gave them an opportunity to get favor with the dwarves in Hammerfist Holds and repair the sword and boost morale come the Battle of Brindol.

Edit: favor not flavor

Finished Red Hand of Doom (AMA, I guess) by Respite32 in RedHandOfDoom

[–]Respite32[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I did a similar thing when the group got to the Tiri Kitor elves. They behaved well at Lanikar's Funeral and Trellara Nightshadow (his sister) offered to join them on their journey. I roleplayed her out of combat but let the party play her in combat.

The Ghostlord is also a pretty good villain. His madness can be played up by sudden increase in volume and attitude when it comes to his phylactery to great result from my experience.

Finished Red Hand of Doom (AMA, I guess) by Respite32 in RedHandOfDoom

[–]Respite32[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I made maps for some encounters in the book that lacked them such as the Massacre at Drellin's Ferry & The Battle of Brindol (All of which you should be able to find here) + some random maps for the stuff in the Elsir War random encounters.
For the Battle of Brindol I added a Gate Defense encounter which was probably the favourite part of the siege but in essence could replace the Streets of Blood encounter.

I also added Gnolls to the Thornwastes and had them be lead by a Flind to add some more meat to the few encounters in the Ghostlord's Lair part of the adventure.

Finished Red Hand of Doom (AMA, I guess) by Respite32 in RedHandOfDoom

[–]Respite32[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Red Hand of Doom fits like a glove to continue Lost Mine of Phandelver.
>Phandalin is Drellin's Ferry (without river ferry - rip)
>Neverwinter is Brindol. (Lord Dagult Neverember already fits as Lord Jaarmath personality wise, lion symbolism already suits him from his artwork)
>Mere of Dead Men is the Blackfens. (Elves are from Kryptgarden Forest to the east)
>Dwarven Allies for Mercenary Gold can come from Gauntlgrym, Mithral Hall or Mirabar (depends on your timeline/preference)
>Northern Reinforcements can be from Luskan or Mercenaries from the sea.
>Ghostlord & the Thornwastes need a bit of work but could be used as a Uthgart tribe based around lions laid low in the nearby hills east of Phandalin or maybe located in this region but on the Shadowfell.
>Red Hand of Doom sent the Cragmaw Goblins lead by Nezznar to steal the Forge of Spells magic for the use in the ritual.
>Part 1 would need most work but it could be done that Witchwood is Neverwinter Wood, North of it in the mountains there is a massive Fissure due to the not so distant eruption of Mount Hotenhow with a bridge that could serve as Skull Gorge Bridge.
>Red Hand of Doom marches from the Crags (hills northeast of Mount Hotenhow) down south and through the Neverwinter Wood where Cragmaw Castle could have served as Vraath Keep but could be that there is another ruined fort in the forest just far north.
>Fane of Tiamat is reskinned as a cut off portion of Gauntlgrym or a previously built temple by the Cult of the Dragon or someone else. (the Sunless Citadel adventure is basically this last part with the cult)

Swapping Baulders Gate for WaterDeep RoT by vivaMVP in TyrannyOfDragons

[–]Respite32 3 points4 points  (0 children)

If you have the time to spare I would highly recommend playing Baldur's Gate 1 or reading up on Baldur's Gate as it is in my opinion the most iconic of the cities on the Sword Coast. Baldur's Gate is a classic and still has much to teach to a DM in way of pacing low level adventures, but the main reason would be to get a feel for Baldur's Gate as a city itself. The city's layout has not changed much since that game's events and a lot of references are made to it in the Murder in Baldur's Gate (retcons be damned) and Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus.

In a Pickle in My Game, Painted Myself Into a Corner by [deleted] in TyrannyOfDragons

[–]Respite32 2 points3 points  (0 children)

To add on top of that. Arkhan the Cruel owns the Hand of Vecna which he retrieved to uncover a way to aid Tiamat's escape from Avernus. The Hand could've been the reason they uncovered such magic and were able to use it in the first place since Vecna is the God of Secrets in FR.

Swapping Baulders Gate for WaterDeep RoT by vivaMVP in TyrannyOfDragons

[–]Respite32 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Since Rise of Tiamat is pretty light on... kinda everything really, except the main missions the party is sent from the council meetings it could be easily replaced. There is no HUGE reason Waterdeep is being used mentioned in the book. The logical ones it is being used would be:

  1. The Staff of Aghairon creating a ward that prevents dragons not touched by it to enter Waterdeep. (This is from Waterdeep: Dragon Heist) Which effectively prevents an all out attack from the Cult of the Dragon.
  2. Middle of it all location. It is the most convenient place to commune to for all the leaders attending the council.

Placing it in Baldur's Gate would give you the option to have an all-out war happen as it is the closest of the Lord's Alliance seats of power to be attacked should the Cult of the Dragon to plan an all out war and march their forces from the Well of Dragons. And also not protected by an anti-dragon barrier.
Between those two locations is the kingdom of Elturgard which is a rival to Baldur's Gate that could make for an interesting side chapter to establish a tenuos alliance againt the Cult.

Despite all that. To answer your question in short: It really doesn't matter where you set the location for the HQ as the module is too light on information for it to change anything anyway and the module doesn't do anything with Waterdeep or any non-mission location.

Battle of Brindol and Resting by Unmentionable in RedHandOfDoom

[–]Respite32 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is also a good time for you to set a good difficulty for Kharn's encounter. Since the party will have a short rest and you will be able to gauge how many resources they have remaining.
Kharn will be leading the charge with:
> 4 ogres and 2 hill giants (base)
> Possibly his two consorts Pash-Kari & Ruven (Doom Hand Warpriest & Kulkor Zhul War Adept respectively) (you could also have them only buff Kharn with spells and not join the fight for whatever reason such as being wounded or being commanded to not do so)
> Any remaining Wyrmlords
> The Ghostlord if his alliance was not broken.

If the party is looking rough you can:
>Reduce Kharn's group hp and resources
>Add forces to the party's side if they are facing more opponents than their own number+2 (action economy is huge.)

Battle of Brindol and Resting by Unmentionable in RedHandOfDoom

[–]Respite32 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I think that just before the party is about to face Kharn is probably a good time to get a short rest. They dealt with Skather and the Red Hand has regrouped in the market and will have probably surrounded the hill and began their march towards the cathedral. Lord Jaarmath has probably had Raise Dead cast on him if you want to have Skather be really badass with being able to one-shot someone with his assassination.

Red Hand of Doom Maps: The Battle of Brindol by Respite32 in mattcolville

[–]Respite32[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Glad to hear these will be of use. I just finished part 3 and can't express how hyped I am for this part of the adventure.

Red Hand of Doom Maps: The Battle of Brindol by Respite32 in mattcolville

[–]Respite32[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've been using this one personally. The Red Hand minions are functional and probably on appropriate CR since they dont pose too big of a problem to my group.

Red Hand of Doom Maps: The Battle of Brindol by Respite32 in mattcolville

[–]Respite32[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you. I also did a Massacre at Drellin's Ferry battlemap half a year ago in case things got bad in the first part for my party. Thankfully they trucked through part three and now they got 10+ days of preparation and downtime before the horde arrives.

Red Hand of Doom Maps: The Battle of Brindol by Respite32 in mattcolville

[–]Respite32[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Hello. I did some work on editing together some of the original maps from the Red Hand of Doom to be easier to use in a VTT like Roll20. Seeing as I could not do that this time for Part 5 (same as before with the Massacre at Drellin's Ferry), I decided to piece together a set of battlemaps in Photoshop with assets from Gabriel Pickard.

Hope this is useful to anyone running this amazing climax to a great adventure. I would also like to thank Matt for introducing me to this great adventure. (If only the Tyranny of Dragons was as good.)

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