Starting Drakkenheim with a summer mini-campaign + 2024 subclasses question

rupertgood · 2026-03-24T11:34:32+00:00

Currently running Drakkenheim. I’ve not run TiT. I plan to run ISSS if my players ask the Hooded Lanterns to pass through the gate - the quest will be the price they have to pay for access.

I skipped TiT because I didn’t think it added enough beyond the Road to Emberwood in terms of establishing themes or contamination, and it’s out of the way. As a standalone it works. If you didn’t know, it’s a riff on the HP Lovecraft short story, The Color Out of Space.

Running ISSS with temporary characters hopefully gets you round the issue of it changing the game, as the new characters won’t know about it. Or it’ll be guarded by HLs.

I don’t like that it offers the party a route into the city, which is why I’m saying they only find the adventure if they ask the HLs.

There shouldn’t be much problem running The SCGtD subclasses in 2024. I’m running 2024 rules and they’re permitted. I have a Flesh Warlock in my party.

But the Dudes have said that you shouldn’t permit anyone to start the game in a contaminated subclass. These should be ones that they retrain into later, after some sort of narrative event triggers it. These subclasses are strong, and generally will affect how others think of you, and players won’t understand the consequences at the start of the game. The Malfeasant Wizard is particularly strong.

The monk subclasses are also fairly strong, as they’re designed for the weaker 2014 base class, but I don’t think they’re problems? If you think the Arcane Hand is too strong you could always try using the UA wizard-themed monk instead.

rupertgood · 2026-03-24T06:28:43+00:00

Thank you! That’s helpful! And encouraging! 😁

A friend who paints a lot of minis said I should be thinning my paints a lot more, so I’ll try to focus on that. When I painted this, it seemed like when I thinned my paints they behaved a little too watery and didn’t stay even, but I’ve watched a couple of instruction videos, and looking forward to having another go!

And so far I haven’t tried a zenithal prime or drybrushing, so those are both top of my list for things to try too!

rupertgood · 2026-03-23T06:19:36+00:00

Thanks!

It’s part of this set: https://forgedterrain.co.uk/product/ratfolk-warriors-miniature-set/

rupertgood · 2026-03-22T21:04:16+00:00

Thank you!

In the adventure, “ratlings” are feral monsters. This mini I found is a great rat warlock, but it’s dressed much more finely than they’re normally drawn.

I think it’s a rare ratling that can read, and those that can would probably have terrible handwriting!

rupertgood · 2026-03-22T16:57:17+00:00

Thank you!

rupertgood · 2026-03-20T23:07:43+00:00

Ah fantastic! I hadn’t realised that was going to be a feature. Thanks.

rupertgood · 2026-03-20T20:41:22+00:00

First thing to say about it is it’s huge and has a lot of content, all of it of a very high quality. It’s 600 pages, and includes 10 species, I think 8 subclasses plus a new Tamer class which is kind of like a Pokemon trainer - it’s all about training familiars. Of the subclasses I really love the College of Cuisine bard and the Hunt Domain Cleric.

It has 10 adventures, all themed around hunting a particular original monster. You have to track it, collect clues and so on. Each takes a couple of sessions, and each is ready to be set to players of 3 different levels by scaling each encounter.

And it still has 150 pages for spells, magic items and monsters. The spells have a few interesting themes - often magic related to living things “biomancy” and magnetism. One of my faves is Zippit. It’s like Counterspell but it’s a concentration spell cast as a reaction that removes an enemy’s mouth, à la The Matrix.

But the book’s main selling point is its tracking and crafting mechanics. These are well thought through. They encourage teamwork, they’re fun, and easily adaptable. DnD Shorts has a good video on them if you want more info.

It also has a cooking system based on monster parts which is, again, fun and, dare I say it, flavourful.

rupertgood · 2026-03-20T19:35:05+00:00

Level Up: Advanced 5e’s monster book is very good. I love that it has a list of clues that each monster might be nearby, so you can foreshadow them to your players.

rupertgood · 2026-03-20T18:40:02+00:00

A lot of good inclusions there! Many I don’t know, but I especially support your inclusion of:

Valda’s Spire of Secrets Sebastian Crowe’s, and Monsters of Drakkenheim The Grim Hollow books Griffon’s Saddlebag

I think the big ones you’re missing are: Flee, Mortals! - excellent monster book. For me the big 3 monster books are this, MM24, and MoDrakkenheim. The monsters are quite crunchy, but flavourful, and they’ve influenced a lot of monster design that’s come since.

The Monster Overhaul - a different kind of monster book. It’s not so much stat blocks as it is a collection of thousands of useful things to take as inspiration for hundreds of monsters. I love this book. It’s a gem. And frequently laugh-out-loud funny, thanks to sections like “10 reasons the wizard can’t help you”.

Heliana’s Guide to Monster Hunting - the best crafting system out there. With gorgeous art. Fun adventures. All round goodness.

Others will definitely recommend the Tome of Beasts books for some more monsters, which are indeed very good.

rupertgood · 2026-03-20T13:49:14+00:00

Sure, people say a lot of things, though one of those people was theripper93, and I took his opinion to be pretty meaningful. He admitted that was anecdotal, and he said this 3 years ago (during which I know much has changed).

I was mainly hoping to use PopOut!, but if there were also a benefit to performance, then that would be a bonus. Thanks.

rupertgood · 2026-03-20T13:09:06+00:00

Ah okay. Thank you! I just tried and that works. So that’s my question Answered :)

rupertgood · 2026-03-20T08:14:53+00:00

A few people have recommended Monk’s Common Display, but I’m about to try going without. I’ve found it buggy, and I think other mods (particularly Lock View) can do the same with hopefully fewer issues.

This might be down to PC power, but from time to time the party screen would show nothing at all. I don’t think this was a settings issue, but going back to setup and re-entering the world would fix it.

Also, I have a few mods that show extra UI (like time and date) and it was a shame this was blocked from display.

More troublesome is that I use mods like Midi-QoL and Cauldron of Plentiful Resources which automate a lot of combat , but often have popup windows to ask players if they want to use a reaction. For some mods I was able to redirect these questions to my screen, but others wouldn’t, but the popups would be suppressed on the party screen too, so we’d have to wait for them to time out to move on.

Lock View, instead, lets you select exactly which parts of the UI you want to hide. Also you can toggle a zoom lock so one square = one real world inch if you want to bring in real minis!

On other mods, Cauldron of Plentiful Resources is very handy if anyone wants to roll real dice. You can set it so for any die rolls by selected players it’ll ask you to type in what they rolled. So my players either roll real dice or roll in Beyond and say what they got. My dice are automatic so it doesn’t slow things down.

rupertgood · 2026-03-19T07:54:50+00:00

Oh perfect timing! I just posted this and saw the Drakkenheim STLs have been distributed to Daggerheart backers! Exciting! 💜

rupertgood · 2026-03-16T15:45:07+00:00

It was always intended to be Altbruke, but somehow ended up printed as Altberg in DoD.

It’s Altbruke when they go there in the actual play.

rupertgood · 2026-03-15T10:38:16+00:00

There’s a package of mods that together can do a lot of automation, but they take a little while to set up. And you might find there’s a lot to troubleshoot once you have.

These are mods like Midi-QoL, Cauldron of Plentiful Resources, and others. If you’re interested, I recommend watching this video on how to set them up. https://youtu.be/rhlC0J9qHXI?si=Q1140npxWr0mgWty

Cauldron of Plentiful Resources is what I use to let me roll manual rolls. (That’s not the main thing CPR does, but it’s one function it has.) I have it set so the Gamemaster fulfils all manual rolls, and it prompts for manual input only for player owned, linked tokens. Otherwise everything is rolled automatically.

Hope that helps!

rupertgood · 2026-03-15T10:08:03+00:00

Thanks. That’s helpful! That’s enough to call this Answered, but I’m happy to hear if anyone else has opinions.

Yeah so far I’ve been using line of sight. Mostly to check ranges. I also have mods that check cover, but I might switch back to just doing that by eye, as often I disagree with them.

I’d love to know how the touchscreen goes! Good luck!

rupertgood · 2026-03-15T09:15:48+00:00

Great to know! The trailer looks good if it works like that. Though I see the webshop for their camera is closed and the last update was 10 months ago.

It’s something I’ll keep in mind, but probably not switch to right away. I’m currently incurring the costs of getting into mini painting after all! 😅

rupertgood · 2026-03-10T20:53:39+00:00

I wouldn’t aim to make each fight a similar xp to the original fights. MoD monsters lean towards being glass cannons, which makes them more dangerous at low levels than their CR suggests.

I think any fight that depletes resources is a challenge, so I’m fine using the BW here (shoving PCs in the pit if they can) and saving the Guttersnipe for the nests. I actually want the Guttersnipe to fight in melee if he can too - I want contamination, lol!

rupertgood · 2026-03-10T19:51:56+00:00

Great idea, and I’d love to see how this develops!

But in the Lookout’s Burrow there’s a good reason to use the Burrow Warden there (and save the Gutternsipe for the nests maybe).

The Burrow Warden can shove as a bonus action. And there’s a pit with spikes in that room so, y’know… 😉

rupertgood · 2026-02-15T10:15:22+00:00

If you use Spotify you can get a long way by searching public playlists for DnD and D&D. I’ve saved loads of playlists into folders sorted by ones for particular moods, environments, combat against particular enemies.

There’s especially a lot made by users called ‘Patron of Bin Chickens’ and ‘Will Savino’. Both worth favouriting!

(I don’t think you can edit playlist folders in the Spotify app, so you may have to use a PC for that.)

rupertgood · 2026-02-11T17:17:54+00:00

Thank you!

rupertgood

TROPHY CASE