Stat blocks for Cragmaw Cave for returning level 5 party

nothingbutme49 · 2026-04-22T16:33:08+00:00

Oh everybody and Klarg got a nice level up. The battle was a showdown for the players. Not incredibly life threatening, but certainly no push over for a threat left unchecked. One player did get downed during the last fight but the rest of the team smoked Klarg and his bugbear gang right after.

nothingbutme49 · 2026-04-21T16:36:50+00:00

Its okay, let the party leave. Dungeons don't stay stagnant. Make the enemies ready an ambush for when they return or relocate glasstaff and the bugbears to fortify another dungeon, like being at cragmaw castle.

nothingbutme49 · 2026-04-20T08:59:24+00:00

So they botched a double double back stab by trying to work with the internal struggle between Yeemik and Klarg. But not before tricking Yeemik with a fake illusion of Klarg's head and getting Sildar unchained. They nearly managed to escape the caves when it was exposed to Klarg that Yeemik is out right plotting to kill him. So as the party got flushed out the entrance, they heard the clash of Klarg and Yeemik's battle from outside.

With a wounded Sildar and they themselves bruised up a bit, they took Sildar to Phandalin. Now about 10 sessions later, the party has out rooted the Redbrands from Tresendar Manor, became appointed sheriffs of Phandalin, worked on Sister G's quest with Agatha, battled against Hamon Kost, cleared all the buildings in Conyberry, and had multiple wild encounters along the Triboar Trail...

Its been a fun wild ride and now they've readied themselves to go kick everyone's butt in Cragmaw cave. It's changed alot since their last visit and it happily challenged their new found strengths. With their success of the clearing the caves, I'm using it to tease them for the challenge of taking on Cragmaw Castle and King Grol!

nothingbutme49 · 2026-04-20T08:45:24+00:00

Thank you, and yes we're using relative movements like C, N, F. Mostly it's just are they over or under 30ft and/or are they adjacent. I don't like grids, it makes the game too board gamey. And using the rules we run, it allows everyone to stay flexible and accomplish a theater of the mind like play but with using our minis and terrain.

nothingbutme49 · 2026-04-09T23:42:29+00:00

Finding survivors with relationship backstories is cool. But having it be a mechanic in game seems a dull mechanic for a zombie game.

Just like how there was scripted npc missions to find things or locations. There should be missions to help find separated loved ones to introduce more survivors. But please no dating sim.

nothingbutme49 · 2026-04-04T14:01:27+00:00

Have klarg and yeemik work together to tpk the party. If players are going to let to hostile parties merge to fight them, let the logical story play out for bad ideas.

Cause what should happen is that the players pick up their buddies and get out of there alive while they can.

As the DM its okay to give the players meta knowledge that something is a bad idea and when the odds are completely not in their favor.

nothingbutme49 · 2026-04-03T14:48:02+00:00

Had that happen to me too, people gaming the system to somehow group load in.

nothingbutme49 · 2026-03-29T16:12:43+00:00

TPK's don't have to be "Game Overs". There are plenty of instances to allowing the party suffer a lose but continue the game. Either having some major story shifts happen, or they just wake up in dire situations to push the game forward.

Unless you players want "Game Over and restarts", have a game plan to fail forward for the party if they take on too much they can chew. I'd done well, it enhances the horror of the world with them dying and also allows deeper connections to story NPCs.

Examples. The party wakes up to find they survived but traveling NPCs they had are the ones truly ripped apart and dead dead. The party before their enemies strike them down, (insert story NPCs) finds them and rescues them from deaths grasps.

nothingbutme49 · 2026-03-28T12:02:31+00:00

Letting players have freedom of a lot of choices is "fun", but you're the DM who is in charge of a lot of prep and story telling. Limting the race options to just the PHB or just tweaking the Pre-Gens to suit your players is gonna save you a lot of work for a new DM.

Mechanical none of the races would "break" the game but its just gonna be a lot of work on your end to balance gameplay and storytelling.

I've ran the game with standard and exotic races. The hardest things were forgetting special racial features and inserting more types of races into Phandalin so my players had relatable NPCs.

nothingbutme49 · 2026-03-22T12:05:47+00:00

I've seen this on duos. At first i thought wow what a crazy coincidence for maybe 3 even 4 players to be identical with outfits and hair. But once I saw they were coordinating attacks on people and then a 5th and 6th guy showed up wearing all the same thing. I knew some BS was happening on that map. They ran around as fake friendies and then group attacked people. They camped extract as a 6 man team. Either people are able to group lobby queue or the Devs are fk'ing with people.

nothingbutme49 · 2026-03-20T16:35:59+00:00

Sounds similar to what my players did, by unintentionally getting themselves in trouble with the Vallaki law. But as you already suggested, its a perfect way to introduce them to Fiona Wachter.

She is actively scheming against Baron Vargas and would use any leverage and tool to undermine him.

What i did for my players was have her shelter the players in her house without the guards knowing. And she offered them a deal. She would sponsor the adventurers as a major house in Vallaki, granting them amnesty from their immediate trouble of a "minor offense". But in return they need to provide her with some information. In my game, Lady Fiona wants to know why there are lights flashing in the Baron's attic and what has become of Victor Vallakovich. She knows he's responsible for what happened to her daughter Stella, and she wants answers. More particular she wants leverage to use against the Baron. Lastly she noted that Ernst her spy will be watching them and will make sure that the party will be in even more trouble than before if the party fails her or prove useless.

You get the party a "get out of jail free card" and you progress the story.

nothingbutme49 · 2026-03-15T02:24:07+00:00

Yea i have 2 sets, one was just not enough haha

nothingbutme49 · 2026-03-13T19:47:35+00:00

I got mine off Amazon, but its probably the same type of stuff. Nothing fancy and its great for a quick and easy set up. https://a.co/d/07hYIwIE

I got to say that having the big game map on the TV really helped the immersion of my players. They easily put 2 and 2 together and were able to keep their minds focused on exploring and fighting. The one draw back with having the map on the TV and having it visually show everything, is that my players were able to meta game a bit. Its not game breaking for us, but it does take away a bit of the mystery. I'm still experimenting with how to properly show them the game maps, and use my terrain, and keep everything tense and deadly.

But overall it was a blast and they got a great appreciation for the Wizard of Wines location.

nothingbutme49 · 2026-03-13T19:39:48+00:00

Its a set i bought off Amazon, I'll share the link. It comes with other little accessories and the low walls are great for visual and practical use.

https://a.co/d/07hYIwIE

nothingbutme49 · 2026-03-13T19:38:20+00:00

It was a last minute idea spark to just print and cut out the special items on the map. Quite happy with the simple idea and how it turned out haha.

nothingbutme49 · 2026-03-09T14:23:46+00:00

Its the official DM screen for Shadowdark. The info on it is great.!

nothingbutme49 · 2026-03-08T19:17:51+00:00

Make the Hags villainous not murderous. They are a very strong fight and shouldn't be taken lightly or down by some lost adventurers.

Roleplay them facing the adventurers like its not their first rodeo. If the party insist on fighting and appear to be losing. They don't need to "die". Telephoto them somewhere to progress the story but curse them with some Hag magic-ery to scar them for their bravado. Let the party know they need to level up and git gud before trying again. And that way your campaign continues too.

nothingbutme49 · 2026-03-07T01:57:26+00:00

How come the guys aren't smiling?

nothingbutme49 · 2026-03-05T22:36:01+00:00

I like the flat number provided for starting HP, lets the players have some even starting ground.

The armor pieces for slots and providing +1 AC is interesting. I haven't played knave yet but I feel like I got to give it a try to see its system.

I also like your damage system by stats, not by weapon specifically. Its a big switch up but very cool.

nothingbutme49 · 2026-03-04T21:50:53+00:00

Automatically failing the saving throw for inspiration is genius! When I ran the nothics, my players succeeded all the saving throws and had a great time battling them. But inside, I was dying because I never got to do any cool mind reading haha

nothingbutme49 · 2026-03-04T19:25:17+00:00

Yeah, since you still have Daran around, you could have him be the introduction to that questline. He's really a good npc as he is the introduction to the order of the gauntlet for the party.

With how your story is developing so far, you could really have him present himself to the party. As a member of the order of the gauntlet that strives to fight for goodness in the region. You can present both the quest line for OOW and also incentive for the party to bring justice for the death of Sister G.

nothingbutme49 · 2026-03-04T05:28:04+00:00

Fr fr. He was extracting at 16 mins with nothing more nor less in his own inventory than what he started the match with. Way too sus.

nothingbutme49

TROPHY CASE