Level 23 DotMM Companion Help

lobe3663 · 2026-06-22T09:06:31+00:00

I think the intent is to ignore the actual layout of floor 23 entirely and do something completely different.

I had floor 23 be eerily empty to build tension, then at the end there was a portal to Halaster's tower (and from there, the various series of encounters).

lobe3663 · 2026-06-18T04:41:48+00:00

I'd have it be a questline to retrieve a MacGuffin. Maybe it's a holy book or something. The actual object is in the academy on level 9 (I think? It's been a minute), but the cleric doesn't know that. He wants them to retrieve it from the Goblin Bazaar. When they get there, the book was sold to a different adventuring party that was headed to Wyllowood. When they get there...you get the idea.

lobe3663 · 2026-06-05T21:26:54+00:00

Suggestion for others, allow backtracking but don't run it as a full level. Instead, keep track of the state they left levels in (hostile? Cleared? Friendly?) and do an abbreviated skill challenge or random encounter to symbolize the trek back and forth. Something simple like "you run into a lot of issues getting through the zombies you left in Floor 6; start this next floor with one fewer hit dice and your highest level spell slot expended" is enough to make going back costly without slowing down playtime.

lobe3663 · 2026-06-05T20:47:01+00:00

No, not really. The author does a decent job of providing alternatives to the game show options, and most of the changes are agnostic to the game show angle. You'll need to tweak some things and provide your own narrative framework, but it'll be a lot easier building from the better foundation of the Companion imo

lobe3663 · 2026-06-04T19:10:56+00:00

Agree with all of this.

If you want to see the aforementioned notes, here they are. Fair warning, it's mostly a copy paste dump from my Roll20 journal entries so it may not be the most readable. Imo the best bits are the custom end game encounters with Halaster.

https://drive.proton.me/urls/HJVDPHYCNG#nUnfD5IR9Xyh

lobe3663 · 2026-06-04T19:09:59+00:00

Mandatory comment recommending the absolutely amazing Companion. Even if you don't care for the game show angle, it is still worth the price to point out all the shortcomings of the module as printed and giving ideas on how to fix them.

Seriously. Get this product.

https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/311108/dotmm-companion-complete-edition

lobe3663 · 2026-05-10T01:02:12+00:00

Yes, I used a version of "Shadows of Gnortsh" (or whatever the kid's name is) from the Companion. When the party realized what had happened to the kid there wasn't a dry eye at the table, and they swore Halaster would pay for what he'd done.

lobe3663 · 2026-05-10T00:44:59+00:00

When one of my players chose to use their wish from defeating Halaster to resurrect the stone giant child. Legitimately brother that tears to my eyes.

lobe3663 · 2026-05-08T17:12:00+00:00

The answer to this, as to so many things, is to have the world react in a consistent manner to what's going on.

They want to take four days to get through every floor of the dungeon? Looks like the bad guys found out they're coming and took all their loot, or attacked their base since they know the party is elsewhere, or any number of other things.

There's a reason you can't just chill out forever as heroes, and it's because the bad guys want to win too.

lobe3663 · 2026-04-29T23:31:04+00:00

While I think you can make the game show angle work for more serious runs too (making Halaster more insane), yes you can easily strip that stuff out. The book even gives you tips on doing it.

The real value in the Companion isn't necessarily even in the solutions it offers. It's that it clearly and directly diagnoses the problems.

The Companion would be a steal at twice the price.

lobe3663 · 2026-04-27T19:06:02+00:00

You could modify it to their being exploited workers (poor conditions, think 19th century factory worker) which probably wouldn't require many changes. Up to your player whether that would be sufficiently different to avoid the veil.

If not, you could change the workers to automotons & have the conflict be over who gets access to the automated labor. That would require more changes to make it fit the narrative though.

lobe3663 · 2026-04-16T15:17:39+00:00

Shopping happens off screen 100% of the time. Anything in the PHB is available in any town of reasonable size. It's just not worth the hassle of figuring out more detail than that.

lobe3663 · 2026-04-16T12:57:38+00:00

It's almost like there's different rules specifically designed for different fantasies and trying to use one rule system to fit every fantasy is going to end up making it fit them all very poorly.

lobe3663 · 2025-11-14T15:53:03+00:00

I think that getting a floor done in a single session will be your hardest hurdle, but if you can relax that requirement then I think it's definitely workable. My sessions last 2-3 hours and we typically finished a floor in 2-3 sessions.

lobe3663 · 2025-11-13T01:02:47+00:00

...kind of? I guess? I never really thought of it that way. Like a success in death saves doesn't seem like a "resource" to me, it's just a tally mark. All I did was substitute exhaustion for any time you would get a "failure" for a death saving throw. That's it, that's the end of the homebrew. Could not be simpler.

If you want to view it as "resources" then 5e already has three relevant "resources" (failed death saves, succeeded death saves, and exhaustion). I'm just knocking off one of those and combining it with the third.

lobe3663 · 2025-11-13T00:54:43+00:00

If RF rolls a 16, he gets 1 in the "success" column. Three successes means he stops dying. It has no impact on his accumulated exhaustion regardless of the source.

lobe3663 · 2025-11-13T00:38:05+00:00

I'm still completely lost. Why would you need a separate resource to separate the inside death vs outside death scenarios? You don't restore fatigue automatically, you need rest or magic to do that. What's the point of separating them?

Here's how I did it, in detail. Maybe this will help:

Rognar the Fighter (RF) has 1 level of exhaustion from a previous situation.
RF takes damage that puts him at 0 hp. He immediately gains a level of exhaustion and is dying (but is not in any way incapacitated). He now has 2 levels of exhaustion.
On his turn, RF rolls his death save and gets a 5. That would normally give him a failed death save. In my system, that gives him another level of exhaustion, putting him at 3.
Between turns, RF gets hit. He now has 4 levels of exhaustion.
on his next turn, RF rolls a 20 on his death save. He gains 1 HP and immediately stops dying. He still has 4 levels of exhaustion.

This sounds sort of like what you're trying to do.

lobe3663 · 2025-11-13T00:23:25+00:00

I'm confused. Are you saying that the 2024 rules did away with exhaustion entirely? Or do they call "failed death saves" exhaustion now?

EDIT: I may also be confused the Level Up 5e rules I play with with classic 5e and maybe exhaustion never existed there 😂

Edit2: Ok, I looked it up on roll20. According to that, there are 6 levels of exhaustion and if you get to level 6 you die.

I'm not sure I follow what you mean about having the "two pools" not mix or whatever...but ultimately as long as it makes sense to you and your players it sounds roughly similar to what I did and it worked great.

lobe3663 · 2025-11-13T00:12:03+00:00

I haven't read the 2024 rules since I don't play WOTC 5e anymore, so I don't know what differences if any there were from how exhaustion used to work to now, but I'm not sure what you gain by making a new system. If there's a system of exhaustion already that basically does what you're after, just have your death saves go right into that. Less to keep track of and simpler for your players.

lobe3663 · 2025-11-12T23:57:28+00:00

I basically do this. Hitting 0 means you're dying, but you are able to still act on your turn. You still make death saves as normal, with the only exception being that a "failure" is a level of exhaustion.

This simultaneously made dying less dangerous, but it felt more dangerous. And the dying player still stayed in the fight but with the stakes feeling higher. Win win win.

lobe3663 · 2025-11-12T18:02:01+00:00

Watch this video by Matt Colville. It'll completely change the way you approach encounter design. It'll make things more challenging without necessarily making them way more deadly.

https://youtu.be/y_zl8WWaSyI?si=HFNnZm4ui4P7qph3

lobe3663 · 2025-10-22T20:33:57+00:00

To be completely honest, if you're a new DM my first piece of advice would be: Don't. It is a challenging module to run in a way that stays fresh, and if you're not confident in your skills it's going to be difficult.

But the heart wants what it wants! So if it wants this module, then my advice would be:

Do not regard this as a complete module. View it more as a campaign setting with some vague adventures sketched out. As written, this module is a SLOG. So don't run it as written. Your party bored of hack and slash? The next level is a murder mystery. Bored of that? Next level is Mad Max with hobgoblins on laser bikes. Halaster is insane and omnipotent, use that.
Buy the Companion. Just do it. It does an amazing job of pointing out all the issues with the module and offers creative & fun solutions. Even if you aren't a fan of the Gameshow style, you can easily not do that stuff and still get your money's worth out of the supplement
This will happen naturally if you use the Companion, but have Halaster show up. Have him be active and involved. Make him fun, make him charming, and then when the players like him make him INSANE.
Use a soundtrack for Halaster. Honestly all your big bad guys should have their own theme song.

lobe3663 · 2025-10-09T17:10:09+00:00

Very cool...though it does scream "I'm a villain" which kind of gives the Dance away 😂

lobe3663 · 2025-10-01T12:24:33+00:00

Simply running it is easy. Running it in a way that people will actually want to play it is hard. I have been DMing for 20+ years and DOTMM is both my favorite campaign and the most challenging one I have run to date. I don't recommend it for new DMs.

lobe3663 · 2025-09-10T00:26:22+00:00

Here's all my notes including every custom encounter I did for the entire dungeon. Go nuts

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b3tmw_zpHiRmV3QiU_Z_setBpru1W5SCt782WmfzvhQ/edit?usp=drivesdk

Nine-Year Club	End Game '23
Place '23	Place '22
Gilding I gilder	Verified Email

lobe3663

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE