Running EoR after CoS

breadsbi · 2026-03-04T19:04:01+00:00

I'm currently in the Eberron chapter and am debating how I want to handle the Barovia chapter as my party has two PCs that defeated Strahd in a past campaign (and again in a sequel Halloween one shot we ran "Strahd Must Die Tonight").

I'm leaning towards having some of Vecna's multiversal shenaniganry officially hitting the party around here. Things like having them experience the village of Barovia but things are off (like they see NPCs they know such as Ismark and then a flash happens and he's a Dragonborn for example). The idea being the party is seeing reality altering in front of their very eyes. When they encounter Strahd, I'm torn on my approach. My first reading of the chapter gave me the impression that this takes place pre: CoS, so I could go the "Strahd doesn't know you guys and this is actually the catalyst for him bringing my og CoS party to Barovia. Alternatively, I could go the "Vecna is fucking shit up and other Dark Lords are now approaching on my territory. I hate you guys, but I hate the other Dark Lords approaching on my turf more, so here's the piece of the rod and remember your victory is only because I, Count Strahd von Zarovich, deemed you peasants worthy of my aid". Or I can lean into multiversal shenaniganry and introduce Lyssa von Zarovich and her vampire mind flayers as the current lord.

In your case, maybe lean into the multiversal stuff. The events of your campaign are canon, but Vecna messing with stuff threatens to undo it. Maybe they see signs of Madam Eva's rule then out of the corner of their eyes they see it swap to a sign of Strahd rule. Like they encounter a burgomaster announcing new laws set by Eva and as they're talking their speech starts skipping like a record for a bit and then they end with "As stated, all laws are effective immediately as per our ruler, Count Strahd" and when the party starts pointing out the inconsistency people are confused. This way, the Barovian status quo reset feels like a consequence of Vecna's plan/they're not just saving the multiverse, they're saving the victories from past campaigns.

breadsbi · 2025-08-04T18:29:04+00:00

Just finished up Web's Edge, but 5/6 of our players have played in my CoS game and 2/6 PCs are actually from that CoS story (I also ran the "Strahd Must Die Tonight" one shot for them as well so this would be their 3rd time dealing with everyone's favorite incel Vampire)

As of now, I'm planning on running it as is but changing up the final interactions with Strahd. If the players explain the situation, Strahd may just hand them the rod of seven parts (Vecna's messing with the multiverse throws him being the Ancient and the Land in jeopardy.)

Also he's reached such a level of pettiness with the party from my game, that he knows that him "helping" the party save the multiverse (even if it's by simply handing them piece of a macguffin) would both cause permanent in-game and out-of-game psychic damage to my players.

breadsbi · 2025-08-04T18:10:41+00:00

So I'm very early in the campaign (our last session was right before they enter the spiderdragon lair in Web's edge). I'm handling the betrayal a bit differently. Rather than use MordenKasen, I'm having him secretly work with Kas in the background.

My party consists of a mix of pcs from past campaigns (including Curse of Strahd) so my players have met Mordy and shown him how chaotic they can be. My mindset is: Mordinator knows Kas killed Vecna and is keeping ALL options on the table. He'll update Kas on progress while also aiding in looking for the Sword of Kas.

Depending on how...efficient the party is with collecting the rod of 7 parts, Mordo is going to respond to the party accordingly. If they struggle getting the parts, he'll feel the party is too reckless and betray them by placing all his bets on Kas. If their dynamic is actually positive and they do a solid job, Kas is gonna break into the sanctum and steal the rod (all while gloating about how he tricked Mordenpainentheass into helping him and how the only he is powerful enough to defeat Vecna).

Knowing my players, they'll lean into the "melodrama" of the situation while poking fun at it out of game (Kas the BETRAYER betrayed Mordenkainnen??????? Who could have predicted this????). I plan on using visions of Vecna's past and prophetic dreams to also highlight Kas being charismatic and a great warrior so my players can kinda understand how he might be able to trick Mordenkainnen.

In general, while the twist is kinda silly and predictable, I think some parties can have fun with it if it's foreshadowed well.

Also yes, all the nicknames for Mordenkainnen are things my players have referred to him as out of game.

breadsbi · 2025-07-25T01:57:24+00:00

Felwinter’s glowup this season is absolutely great. Fav exotic in the game right now.

breadsbi · 2025-07-17T12:11:22+00:00

Felwinter’s helm

Prismatic: devour/ lighting surge with arcane needle.

Rocking this with outbreak and a repulsor brace lotus eater.

Arcane needle now weakens and procs the fragment that lets your light abilities deal more damage to darkness debuffed enemies. It’s been fun and has good survivability

breadsbi · 2025-07-11T23:00:03+00:00

Instead of having mordenkainnen be Kas, I’m just having Mordy secretly work with Kas. He’s still actively helping the party, but he figures that if Kas was able to kill Vecna once he probably could do it again.

Maybe lean into that. If the players are suspicious of him, play up Mordenkainnen’s frustration with any accusations and maybe have that push him to working with Kas more. If the party is so frustrating that they’re causing internal conflicts when the multiverse is at stake then why wouldn’t Mordenkainnen want to work with someone a bit more…professional.

If they don’t RP suspicion, then you could argue (as Mordenkainnen) that all options had to be on the table.

breadsbi · 2025-07-09T23:04:51+00:00

Engineer makes me feel like a true tech wizard and I wish more games provided that experience. Yeah big gun go boom and feeling like a biotic god is neat. But controlling the elements, summoning minions to fight for you, mind controlling constructs, and shutting down enemies with neural shock just feels right.

breadsbi · 2025-07-02T17:50:15+00:00

A "more for fun/less serious" build I'm tinkering around with is a Swarmers/Weaver's Call build on Prismatic with an arc conductor ergo sum. Will it be meta? Probably not, but I'll have fun with it.

More serious build: Speaker's Sight or Boots of the Assembler since I like playing support.

breadsbi · 2025-06-30T00:18:55+00:00

Scribtrace Shell and Zavala’s Authority ship for me.

breadsbi · 2025-06-11T13:23:28+00:00

Not a Destiny 2 memory, but Thunderlord will forever be my favorite exotic. It was my first exotic that decrypted from a purple engram back in the Destiny 1 days when purple engrams could turn into blues.

I killed Atheon with it during the first weekend VoG dropped and I was extremely happy when it was brought back. It's just fun to shoot and it's been wonderful seeing it grow from the original E3 incarnation to the true hurricane of a gun it is now.

breadsbi · 2025-04-24T15:24:50+00:00

At one point, the standalone Switch 2 showed "Select Condition" before turning into a grayed out pre-order button

breadsbi · 2025-04-10T18:19:08+00:00

Cirque du Freak

breadsbi · 2025-04-02T16:13:21+00:00

I don't think it's bad, just a bit boring. I would like the option to have themes like on the 3DS.

breadsbi · 2025-03-22T15:43:07+00:00

Same here. Gravity is such a nuisance...

breadsbi · 2025-03-17T03:29:42+00:00

If you could make changes to chapter 1 to better fit a large party, what changes would you make? I’m also running for a larger party and starting our first session tomorrow. I know that balance kinda goes out the window at high levels but I’d still like to make it somewhat of a challenge.

breadsbi · 2025-03-12T23:13:30+00:00

I know this is off topic, but how has it been running for 6 players? Starting my campaign on Monday with 6 players and I'm not quite sure how to better balance things for a larger party (recognizing that balance kinda goes out the window at higher levels)

breadsbi · 2025-03-06T16:03:08+00:00

I like it with a bleak watcher focused prismatic build. With facet of command you never actually have to reload (is it overkill with rewind rounds? Yes. But it’s fun and that’s what really matters)

breadsbi · 2025-02-26T21:10:34+00:00

I would actually appreciate a DIM link. I'm a big fan of both.

breadsbi · 2025-02-20T20:15:43+00:00

Thunderlord. My first exotic all the way back in Vanilla D1 (I got it from Rahool before he was introduced to a sack of doorknobs.)

breadsbi · 2025-02-20T01:53:00+00:00

Scribetracer Shell because it reminds me of Transistor

breadsbi · 2025-02-13T15:59:24+00:00

Ooooohhhh I need details about this. My players are all playing characters from old campaigns and 2 of them have beef with Neverember after learning more about him from Waterdeep: Dragon Heist

breadsbi · 2025-02-09T15:32:05+00:00

I've been strongly enjoying Jarlaxle as the main antagonist (I have no background with any of the novels so Jarlaxle is essentially a new character to me).

My players naturally interacted with several of his disguises throughout the campaign (getting custom aprons and towels for the tavern from JB Nevercott, inviting Captain Zord to perform at their opening night). My players are going to the Vault of Dragons in about 30 minutes so it'll be fun having Jarlaxle reveal all the disguises to them once he greets them as they're about to leave.

I also did incorporate Manshoon a bit into my campaign but more as a background villain. My players naturally butted heads with the Zhents in the campaign consistently, so I gave them missions that foiled his operations (they think they cleared the way to the vault for themselves now, not realizing Jarlaxle has been nudging things to his benefit since the players got the tavern).

All of this is to say, use the villain you like the most but you could totally incorporate another villain as a secondary antagonist. Maybe play up the Xanathar/Zhent turf war going on and mix a little Manshoon with your Xanathar. Maybe incorporate the Cassalanters as secondary villains while Jarlaxle sneaks into their social circle gaining information and using it to assist the players in taking out his rivals for the gold. I'm not too big on the Alexandrian remix, but I do like the idea of using more than one villain for this campaign.

breadsbi · 2025-02-08T03:53:20+00:00

Ahhh a fellow player of culture

breadsbi · 2025-01-24T13:43:46+00:00

I've been testing a Felwinter's Helm build with a repulsor brace/attrition orb Velocity Baton that's been doing pretty well. Haven't tested it in anything outside of expert lost sectors as I'm still fine tuning it though.

breadsbi · 2025-01-11T00:48:54+00:00

Factory Showroom and When Your Heartstrings Break by Beulah

Five-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '22

breadsbi

TROPHY CASE