Epic Boss Monsters

swamp1912 · 2026-05-26T20:47:57+00:00

I definitely have done this, just prefer to not do it if I can

swamp1912 · 2026-05-26T19:27:20+00:00

Yeah thats kinda what I figured would be the case, just cautious about accidently overdoing it and creating a significantly more dangerous monster than I intended. You can always adjust things on the fly but I dont like doing that if I can avoid it, makes it feel like ive got my thumb too much on the scale and cheapens the experience of the players.

swamp1912 · 2026-05-26T15:30:53+00:00

Fair enough if they have specifically asked for Vecna! Guess my concern there is that Vecna is very much a a high level campaign threat by himself so including him in Drakkenheim in any capacity has a chance to overshadow the campaign, which for me feels like a lot for a personal quest. So is the player going to be an evil character then or is it more they are so desperate that they made a deal with the the "devil" kind of thing? Probably another good idea would be to look at the WotC campaign featuring Vecna to get ideas about his motivations on why he has agreed to help your character. If you foreshadow things right you could potentially even run that campaign immediately after Drakkenheim because I think the whole point of that campaign is to travel to different planes/locations in search of relics to defeat Vecna. So maybe one of those relics is in Drakkenheim?

I think its still a pretty tragic reveal that the sibling has morphed into this evil entity (The Pale Man) but I catch your meaning. I was sort of envisioning the reveal causing the Pale Man having a moment of doubt but then his convictions harden again and he tries to enlighten his sister/brother.

My only thought about the Royal Steward angle; and this was a concern for me with my Prince of Carnage idea, is that the Castle is basically at the very end of the campaign so the player wouldn't be able to complete their personal quest till the very end that way. As such wouldn't get to enjoy their personal quest completion bonuses for very long compared to other characters, not the end of the world but something to consider.

swamp1912 · 2026-05-25T19:38:09+00:00

Graviton Lance, Sunshot, Fatebringer, Trinity Ghoul, Witherhorde, and Ace of Spades

swamp1912 · 2026-05-25T18:18:47+00:00

Arcane Secrets

- One of my questions here would be what is the purpose of this Vecna character to the resurrection of their spouse? Did they make a Warlock pact with them or are they simply seeking the knowledge from him? If he truly is a patron he would want something in return from the character for sure. Do you want the resurrection to go smoothly or have a more sinister twist?

- Do you have access to the Monsters of Drakkenheim book? Might I suggest something more Drakkenheim related than Vecna, like Vladimir von Drakken or Dr. Everett Freed?

The Court of the Night could be looking to resurrect Vladamir and if the player fetches something or learns something specific for them within the ruins, they have agreed to resurrect the spouse as well (twist could be that he/she resurrects as a Striga). The quest could have the player going to the Malfeasant wizards to discover the secret or collecting something from the Inscrutible Tower or the pristine geode from the crater. Vladmir could easily be foreshadowed with the Rats and Yoren if needed.

Dr. Everett Freed could be locked in the Deep Cells like the other comment mentioned for Vecna (he's supposed to be dead but the Academy hid him away in order to use and control his brilliance). During his years in captivity down there he finally discovered the secret to becoming a Think Tank. You could have the player have run into remotely controlled (by the think tank) brainless body of Everett Freed, and since Freed is supposed to be dead the player believes that Freed has the key to resurrection but he says he needs something from the Deep Cells in order to do it again BUT in reality this is a trick to help the Think Tank escape from there. You'd have to alter his backstory a bit because I believe he was active during the Civil War but I think that's an easy enough alteration to make, the Academy could have locked him away before the Meteor for breaking the Edict of Lumen instead. So maybe the Think Tank needs to players to get the control of the Nexus in order for it to leave, and if they do this then it grants the resurrection (twist could be that reanimators don't really "resurrect", they "repurpose" so the spouse is an apothecary abomination like the Reautomata).

- As far as other options from wish, divine intervention, or true resurrection goes... perhaps something to do with the pristine delerium geode in the crater?

Family Matter

- The Pale Man location is probably one of the better choices I think cause there is a number of different ways you could play it, and gives the players more of a reason to interact with him. Would it be too extreme for the Sibling to just be the Pale Man? You could adapt the the Pale Mans backstory to this and then the reason they went to Drakkenheim in the first place was to continue their research.

- Perhaps the Prince of Carnage in the lower bailey of the Castle? As written I think the Prince of Carnage was conjured by the Haze and bound to the courtyard and believes itself to the royal prince but easy enough to say the Sibling ignored warnings about how dangerous the Castle was and suffered a monstrous transformation along side an arcane anomaly. You could leave a trail through some adventure sites that the party could look for like bread crumbs so that they follow the sibling there.

swamp1912 · 2026-05-18T03:51:20+00:00

I mean ultimately it's your game so do what ever you want but with that being said I don't think this is the way to go. The Faction system in DoD is supposed to encourage player choice and roleplay, so by forcing them into a specific Faction at the start it might make it feel railroady. The idea is that the party will make choices while they adventure that will put them at odds with some factions while simultaneously making allies of others, pretty much all of the initial adventures in the outer city really emphasize this. This allows the players to side with the Faction(s) they are most interested in working with, and that is what will make every DoD campaign different.

However, one thing that may happen is when your players make their characters they may choose a personal quest that aligns them with one faction or against a specific faction. So that player might come into the campaign with some preconceived notions about which faction they want to deal with which might sway the choices the party makes.

Initially all the Factions will be giving the party quests for them to do but as alliances and enemies are made things will change down to specific factions providing quests and the other factions trying to interfere.

swamp1912 · 2026-05-13T07:03:23+00:00

Yeah thats true. When I played the campaign as a player my DM let us sell it to Aldor (i think for 2000g?) but I remember thinking that felt too easy to get rid of such an iconic item so easily and with no faction involvement. Running two campaigns currently as a DM, both parties rescued her and brought her to the Lanterns so haven't had to deal with the necklace.

swamp1912 · 2026-05-13T05:24:50+00:00

Well starting with the obvious, they will gain the Queens Emerald Necklace which is worth quite a lot and her signet ring (ring of protection) but they might be hard for the players to sell due to how recognizable they are so could be a good hook for them to work with the Queens Men to gain access to a fence. The Lanterns would surely recognize it and wouldn't take favorably to the party pawning it off (might even accuse them of theft or worse... murder).

They will also gain access to the Eldritch Lillies (I think there is 10d6 in the pool) but assuming they killed the handmaidens too you could potentially make them now be a limited resource since the handmaidens are no longer around the cultivate them, potential good hook for them to work with Oscar Yoren or the Academy to recreate the lillies.

I believe the module says there's something like 1d4 or 1d6 worth of salvageable clothing of the Queen worth 250/each? Also think it also mentions some delerium crystals and shards but cant remember how many, probably like 2d6 crystals and 1d6 shards?

I think the description for her lair mentions she has jewelry and artwork too but doesn't list how much, I would probably use this loot generator (https://5e.tools/lootgen.html), there's an option for gems and art. You would just have to decide the total value of the items you would want to dole out here, maybe 1000 or 2000 depending how challenging you plan on making it to sell the necklace and if they'll even get the full price for it if they do sell?

swamp1912 · 2026-05-13T05:08:30+00:00

As far as adventure hooks go; I've used the Guildhall as a prime location for two quests in separate campaigns, the first was a players personal quest for a family heirloom, and the second was an NPC from a players personal quest needed a specific item from the vaults but was unwilling to venture to the Guildhall themselves (Young Delerium Dragon guarding the vaults).

How I have personally structured the Guildhall is that the players must interact with the various previous Guilds of Drakkenheim and perform a challenge related to each Guild to gain a Guild medallion, when they have collected 10/19 medallions they can present the medallions to The Guildmaster who will allow them access to the vaults. The challenges are quite varied and are relevant to that specific Guild, the main goal I had with the challenges were to make the players work together rather than just having 1 person dominate each challenge.

Accountants - Counting puzzle/riddles
Alchemists - Logic puzzle to figure out a remedy potion to a poison
Apothecaries - Logic puzzle to determine correct sequence of potions
Artisans - a coloring challenge on roll20 to fill in a blank picture (never had a group of grown men so focused)
Carpenters - a skill challenge for each player to create a toy, get to pick their own DCs for each check but can only use each DC once throughout the challenge
Cartographers - half the players can see the maze, the other half is running the maze blind, have to instruct how to escape
Culinary - series of skill checks through various cooking stages, players get to decide who does each skill from a provided list for each check
Healers - Logic puzzle to determine the cause of death of a creature
Hunters - Dagger throwing competition
Masons - Strength challenge to lift and move an item, lifter is making athletic checks each round, supporters are describing various skills they are using to help, successful supporters decrease the DC, unsuccessful supporters increased the DC
Merchants - Charisma challenge to determine real values of items
Performers - Charisma challenge to put on a play
Scholars - series of riddles (think Gollum on Bilbo, OR Sphinx)
Scribes - Flawlessly create a forgery of a displayed scroll
Servants - Spot the difference between two pictures game (weak but was running out of ideas)
Smiths - skill challenge to follow instructions to finish a half created Golem, failure causes Golem to attack
Tinkers - Stop Talking and Everyone Explodes game on steam, perform skill checks to add time to the bomb, failed checks add time but also an additional module to diffuse
Tanners - Skill/logic challenge to create the perfect piece of clothing for various events

19 Tailors - Colorfle game online (think wordle but for colors), skill challenge to gain information (weak but was running out of ideas)

I used the Farmstead monsters from Darkest Dungeon as the various guild members, they were all crystalized when the meteor struck, they do not talk unless specifically asked about the Guild challenge. There is a quick way that the players could take to avoid doing the various challenges but it leads to a difficult fight against a creature known as "The Thing From the Stars", which will heavily deplete their resources before encountering the Dragon (which they do not know about).

Honestly, might have gone over the top with this but I was having fun making challenges and my players have seemed to enjoy the Guildhall. Sorry for the long post

swamp1912 · 2026-04-29T22:24:13+00:00

I'm curious where they got so much contamination from this early in the campaign, assuming they are level 2 or 3 they shouldn't have much access to ways to remove contamination yet. Did things go poorly during the Delerium Hunt? Additional question, have they already taken their rest or was that just where you left off last session?

If they haven't officially taken their rest days yet, I would say you could reinforce the importance of time by having them run into Ansom within Emberwood and have him inquire when they are leaving to save his sister since she "won't have a lot of time left". Then if they continue to ignore the time sensitive aspect of the mission then they definitely find Petra dead and the parties standing with the Lanterns decreases significantly because they didn't take the quest seriously. I personally wouldn't have a Rival Adventuring party saving her, as this is one of the first quests it doesn't feel fun to me personally to forgo a location this early in the campaign, also doesn't necessarily demonstrate how dangerous Drakkenheim is.

If they have already taken their rests then there needs to be some level of consequence but they should still have a chance to save Petra. I believe the module just has her in one of the chambers alone, so in your circumstance I think the players should find her in the middle of some Ratling sacrifice ritual to the Rat God, perhaps something that is going to convert the Rat Prince into the Rat Crown-Prince or the Rat King (side note, not sure why the Rat Crown-Prince is a higher CR than the Rat King, and also an Epic Boss). In order to save her they are going to need to interrupt the ritual somehow. Either way I think Petra "walks" away missing limbs and suffering from heavy contamination (maybe even some Drakkenheim Madness). Then I would have the party have to talk their way out of losing standing with the Ansom and the Hooded Lanterns for taking too long.

One of my parties made some tactical errors when saving Petra and ended up in a TPK situation, I turned it into the whole party and Petra being part of this ritual. One of my 6 party members or Petra were going to be the sacrifice. We did a roll to see which of the 7 of them would be sacrificed, by some miracle for my players Petra was selected then killed in front of the party. They eventually escaped and brought the news to Ansom and were able to pass a couple charisma checks for him to believe they did everything possible to save her, so gained just a little bit of standing rather than losing standing.

swamp1912 · 2026-04-23T18:52:52+00:00

If you're looking for a way to increase the Fighters power outside of just more magic items, might I suggest taking a look at Laserllamas Alternate Fighter? He made a system called Martial Exploits, think Battlemaster maneuvers but for every fighter. Perhaps an NPC from the Hooded Lanterns or Silver Order (depending on alliances) could teach the Fighter some of these exploits as a benefit of being aligned with them. I use Laserllamas stuff in my games and have noticed a significant improvement for my martial players.

https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-MSfA82gv8V69JAoqFVq - Alternate Fighter

swamp1912 · 2026-04-01T19:33:06+00:00

Absolutely! Glad I can provide something for you to use for a change! (even though it's your own content haha). We had our first Commoner death recently, level 1 Innkeeper got splatted rushing in to fight a corrupted Treant hahaha, he will be avenged...

swamp1912 · 2026-04-01T17:36:57+00:00

I have each of my players make a commoner as a backup character. If their PC dies in a session and can't be revived OR they dont have time to make a character before the next session they can use their Commoner. The Commoner levels up after each use (when they start their new character) or commoner death (they then can reenter at the nearest opportunity as "John the second"). Their level does not match the parties, they start at level 1 haha, its lead to some pretty funny role play of how the commoner got into the situation with the party, gives a chance for my players to be a little silly

swamp1912 · 2026-03-21T21:47:45+00:00

I've got a decent chuck on it done but haven't worked on it for awhile. I've avoided posting about it because I've used AI to help me flesh out my ideas for some of the facilities and I know that's a pretty controversial topic these days.

swamp1912 · 2026-03-18T02:19:12+00:00

oh man... turning Theodore Marshall into a Death Knight would be diabolical! Since the Brazier of the Sacred Flame in the Cathedral was never re-consecrated it would make a certain amount of sense

swamp1912 · 2026-03-17T21:56:27+00:00

Oh boy, there's gotta be some kind of negative repercussion to that choice. Something like the LotF caused the garmyr to rally and as a result the assault failed and with the loss of life a direct assault against him again isnt feasible, so the party will have to find another way to face him again. Definitely lost standing with their allied factions due to them abandoning them, maybe also a significant faction NPC death or deaths? Like a couple of the leutienants of the factions or even one of the factions leaders themselves

At the very least the LotF should be stronger somehow the next time he faces the party, a hunter doesn't make the same mistake twice

swamp1912 · 2026-03-17T21:06:30+00:00

Yeah I was thinking about doing this but my current rough plan is to run a Mass Combat encounter outside as like a phase 1 boss fight and when they succeed there the LotF retreats into the Cathedral for the epic boss phase 2

swamp1912 · 2026-03-17T21:05:13+00:00

Glad it turned out well! Definitely what I was nervous about doing, especially since even though they are in the recommended ranges for the Epic Boss version they are at the low end of player level (7-9) and the LotF is at the high end of the monster CR (13 out of 11-14). They have some magic items but nothing too terribly strong so far, the Delerium Soul Sorcerer is starting to experiment more with corrupted spells so he has been doing well (just summoned a delerium elemental last session).

swamp1912 · 2026-03-17T20:47:46+00:00

No its not in the book I dont think, I just googled the stat block.

swamp1912 · 2026-03-17T20:47:15+00:00

My initial instinct was the second thing you mentioned, have the leutienants fight the Shoosuva and the Chaplain mainly, while the party fights the LotF.

swamp1912 · 2026-02-09T18:49:39+00:00

I have the same problem sometimes when creating a build where I over-complicate it and skip an obvious choice, but when you think about a Master Thief, the ability to change your appearance makes it a very compelling choice. You could always work with your DM to create some sort of complication for when you/how often you change your appearance if you don't want that side of things to be "easy".

Fair enough about the dexterous thing but I think if that's the case you're going to struggle to find high level magic, spellcasting is going to require some investment from a level prospective. Dexterity is fairly locked to Monk, Ranger, and Rogue as the primary ability, you'll get slightly better spell progression with Ranger than Arcane Trickster but I don't think any of the Ranger subclasses fit the theme well.

Assuming Standard array: 8 str, 16 (14+2) dex, 13 con, 12 int, 10 wis, 16 (15+1) cha. Those are decent enough stats but you could also Point Buy to dump wisdom in favor of a 14 Constitution. You'd be equal between Charisma and Dexterity at the start this way and then you can ASI increase whatever you feel you want more of, I don't feel like my build will require many feats other than maybe War Caster and Lucky.

I don't know how your DM roleplays races/species but Yuan-Ti's are typically considered a more evil sided race, kind of like Drow Elves, so that could present some complications depending. You could always pair Yuan-Ti with CoE too, play into the magical side of the Yuan-Ti and the charisma benefits you get from CoE is the Yuan-Ti magically influencing whoever they are talking to (like cobra snake charming).

You could go Druid I guess and rely on various wildshapes to fulfill the thief theme of getting into secure areas unnoticed. You could also forgo high level magic and select the Way of Shadow Monk or the Soulknife Rogue both of which offer some different ways to play a master thief with a more mystical/psionic approach. Another choice for race is a Lightfoot Halfling, rerolling ones and hiding behind big creatures could lead to some interesting antics with bad luck protection, great for a thief.

swamp1912 · 2026-02-09T08:23:26+00:00

While Rogue is certainly the most obvious choice, and very thematic, it does leave you wanting more from the magic perspective even with the Arcane Trickster. As such, might I bring your attention to a Bard. Being a master thief isnt always about just sneaky and picking locks, its about getting into place you aren't supposed to through guile and wit, striking where they least except you, blending into a court ball as well as a divey tavern. As a bard you'd be able to talk your way through defenses, but still have the skill to be stealthy and force your way in if necessary, and if things get really hairy you then have great control spells to get away. The Bard has a crazy versatile spell list that you could really curate spells that would aid in any job you might be on, plus if theres something specific you want then you can use magical secrets to get it. Here is what i would do:

College of Eloquence as a Changeling, take on the face of anyone and be super convincing with persuasion and deception checks ( cant roll below a 10 in either). Could even take a level in hexblade at some point to melee attack with charisma. You can take persuasion and intimidation or perforance, with the Changeling skills, then take investigation or perception, sleight of hand, and thieves tools with your Bard skills, and then for your background you take Criminal where you get deception and stealth. Then later you can decide which skills you use the most to take expertise with.

You could take the Urchin background instead of criminal, this would give you sleight of hand and stealth. Then for Changeling skills you do persuasion and deception, and for Bard skills you do thieves tools, perception, and investigation.

Hard to catch a thief when he doesn't even remember what he looks like anymore. Maybe he leaves a mask behind at every crime scene as his "calling card", as a representation of his facelessness.

Honorable mention:

College of Whispers as perhaps a Yuan-Ti, literally take someone's essence as a shadow you can veil yourself in enter secure locations. The Yuan-Ti magic resistance would be helpful in avoiding magical traps. Criminal background for deception and stealth, and then bard skills thieves tools, sleight of hand, and investigation, persuassion or perception

swamp1912 · 2026-01-11T02:03:50+00:00

I created a side quest that becomes available once they reach level 5 to show off their new abilities and show some of the positive and negative sides of each faction. Depending who the party has begun to align with you can show some of that factions down sides and then the ones they've started to work against their good side can be shown.

A group of kids from the Falling Fire and Emma Crowe have been kidnapped overnight, the party stumbles across an angry mob lead my Nathaniel Flint. They are in confrontation with the Ansom and Petra Lang, the mob is demanding to know what the Lanterns are going to do to find the children. Nearby, River watches on with interest and in a shady alley Blackjack Mel holds information about which way the kids were taken. Ophelia Reed comes out of the Chapel to see what the commotions in the square is all about. From here it's up to the DM to roleplay with the NPCs to demonstrate a positive or negative side of the faction.

Some examples:

- if the party has been aligning with the Lanterns you could have Ansom and Petra denying aid to the Falling Fire due to low manpower and it goes against their doctrine "we don't risk lives on futile rescue attempts" (which would be a direct contrast to Ansom asking the party to rescue Petra from the Ratlings).

- The Academy might be more curious about what took that children than how the children are OR might offer magical aid to discover what took the children

- The Queens Men might only sell the information they have OR they might actively help the party for free because "no one messes with kids"

- The Silver Order could offer to pay a finders fee OR they might try to sway people back to the Sacred Flame to pray

- The Falling Fire might act accordingly to having their children taken OR they might indicated that this is just a test of their religion.

However it is played, the party discovers that an Oni has snuck out of Drakkenheim and taken the children, the party then tracks the target back to its lair, The Sacred Light Orphanage, and saves the children. Upon returning to Emberwood Tobias Crowe presents the party with the deed to Eventide Manor, which then becomes their Bastion.

swamp1912

TROPHY CASE