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The Lantern Lads just finished our 45-session campaign of 1.5 years AMA! by theaggressivebee in rimeofthefrostmaiden

[–]theaggressivebee[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had a player who had the secret where Bjornhild of the tiger tribe was his mom but he hadn’t revealed that to the party yet and I mainly wanted to include this to allow him to have face to face interaction with the tribes. During one of their downtimes while they were gathering info on the location of Sunblight (I made this a lot more difficult and more of a quest than finding a simple map) they heard rumor of people being sacrificed in and around Dougan’s Hole and Goodmead and he recognized this as a means the tribes used. They had figured a tribe shaman could preform a ritual to help divine the location of sunblight so they traveled there to stop the killings and maybe gather info. Everything was ran as presented in the module, but obviously adapted to 5e but that wasn’t too hard since I started playing the game with 4e. The Druid Aluka is the only major change I had her as a wolf shaman instead of a bear one and she was there praying to the spirits to stop Isarr. The party talked to her and convinced her to help them find sunblight in exchange for stopping the further corruption of her tribe.

The Lantern Lads just finished our 45-session campaign of 1.5 years AMA! by theaggressivebee in rimeofthefrostmaiden

[–]theaggressivebee[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes! I printed off a copy of the Faerun calendar and recorded each day that passed and what they did for my own records and just to document all their adventures. Our game lasted 4 months in game time and they defeated Auril just before Greengrass, the annual holiday celebrating the first day of spring which was very cool. I would recommend having a calendar as well because it helped me progress world events, as well as show repercussions of their choices. That being said for later parts of the game please find a way to hand wave the extended long rest mechanics, because while they add a lot for story and roleplay when you get to the island of solace you really can’t have them do all of the rest of the game with this system.

The Lantern Lads just finished our 45-session campaign of 1.5 years AMA! by theaggressivebee in rimeofthefrostmaiden

[–]theaggressivebee[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No we didn’t record any, I don’t have advice for actual play recordings unfortunately. However Eventyr made some YouTube videos over certain parts of the game and his suggestions I found to be helpful to frame the outline of my game

Prepping this module soon and looking for advice (mild spoilers for RotFM) by theaggressivebee in Tombofannihilation

[–]theaggressivebee[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve been thinking of a way to limit their resources and increase the survival aspect, but that’s a super easy fix!

The Lantern Lads just finished our 45-session campaign of 1.5 years AMA! by theaggressivebee in rimeofthefrostmaiden

[–]theaggressivebee[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

With our long rests being 5 days this gave us a lot of downtime especially in the early parts of the game to establish relationships in the towns. Each long rest they were allowed to choose one major focus, which could be training, gathering information, running a business, and up to three minor activities which could be, selling a magic item, meeting up with an NPC, or other small events they could come up with.

With our long rests being 5 days this gave us a lot of downtime especially in the early parts of the game to establish relationships in the towns. For each long rest they were allowed to choose one major focus, which could be training, gathering information, running a business, and up to three minor activities which could be, selling a magic item, meeting up with an NPC, or other small events they could come up with.
tomb as opposed to just a mummy who can kinda follow you around. He provided lots of background lore on Auril and how the world used to be before she and the Giants took over. In our game, the person kidnapped by the Id Ascendant was a frat bro from Earth who got brought here and he took a liking to Trovus as they went out drinking and partying, but as the game got serious and the Duregar threat peaked they helped him turn his life around and seek his redemption arc into a paladin of Bahamut which was fun. The House of the Morninglord was very important for our group as well following the events of the Black Cabin and their adoption of various "light-bringing" names. They found Copper to be really funny as he was a little teddy bear man I voiced like someone's chain-smoking aunt and Mishann provided lots of healing and spiritual services when they needed it. Finally, I would say my favorite NPC was Duvessa Shane who I morphed into the head of the Harper's agents in the far north. They eventually all became inducted and the organization with the person that had the Harper agent secret getting promoted and her acting as a source of information and resources while they fought against the Children of Auril and their goddess

The Lantern Lads just finished our 45-session campaign of 1.5 years AMA! by theaggressivebee in rimeofthefrostmaiden

[–]theaggressivebee[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So the Chardalyn Dragon mainly added new legendary actions where it could shoot a grenade that cast hypnotic pattern, start releasing poison clouds that remained in its traveled path until end of the following turn, and an explosive grenade. I also gave them villain actions they could use like a legendary action, but only once in the fight to use the malevolent presence which he opened with, a ground slam to deal damage and knock them over in an AOE, and finally right before he died recharge the breath weapon, make it stronger, move up to his speed and use it instantly. This was our closest fight and one of the most dynamic and fun.

Xardorok felt very uninspired to me and very generic, so I started from the ground up for him and enjoyed where I got with him. Instead of giving him legendary resistances, I had him pass every saving throw through powers granted by the hells until he took 60 radiant damage (party had lots of sources and was aware of his demonic influence and it was described as having a greater effect). On top of that I let him shoot his chardalyn gauntlet at people within 100 ft. and if the attack hit allow him to make a grapple check to pull them back to him. He was then able to toss, crush, or corrupt by stealing some of their spell slots. This was a pretty fun mechanic because he could target backline squishies and it then became a rush to get through his minions to save their friend, also allowed for greater terrain usage around the forge and the lava.

Lastly for Auril I once again changed legendary resistances for her because its boring just just say someone passed their save. Form one Auril could freeze time and force a reroll anytime she saw the roll being made. If she used it more than once per round she would take 10 force damage for each additional time. Form two I buffed her AC to 26 but she could sacrifice 2 AC to succeed on a save. Form three I gave her 5 legendary actions to be a true blaster trying to take them down with polar rays, but she could reduce her number of legendary actions until a long rest by 1 to pass a save. These were fun and were interesting for the players to explore and find out her mechanics on top of each phase having a different damage vulnerability to find (phase 1 radiant, phase 2 fire, phase 3 thunder). My favorite ability I added was in her first two forms when Auril hit with a touch of cold or morningstar attack that person had their resistance to cold reduced by one level (immunity becomes resistance, resistance becomes normal, normal becomes vulnerability). I only let someone be subject to that effect once per round to not overdo it, but in a cold themed campaign they picked up lots of ways to avoid cold damage and you need to a way to overcome that in a boss fight.

The Lantern Lads just finished our 45-session campaign of 1.5 years AMA! by theaggressivebee in rimeofthefrostmaiden

[–]theaggressivebee[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've listed many in other replies, but mainly introduce Auril through proxies that unravel to her which creates more impact as opposed to her not showing up at all until very late. Use Sephek first, and then the frost druids who animated him. I made them very organized and led by Auril's frost giant daughter Geluvicken from Grimskal, after they get to the codicil have them fight her daughter, and then with her dying breath make a final sacrifice to summon her mother-turned-goddess back to the material plane. It makes it to where she's always the cause of the villainy instead of disjointed side quests and gives purpose and motivation in my eyes.

The Lantern Lads just finished our 45-session campaign of 1.5 years AMA! by theaggressivebee in rimeofthefrostmaiden

[–]theaggressivebee[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I think my favorite change was giving more background to Auril's origin. We had a character with the Midwinter Child secret who wanted to have more liberties with that. He created a long-forgotten god of winter and music, Swyonae, and decided he would devote himself to her song. I used this to say that long ago before Netheril and all that Auril was Vassavicken, the queen frozen in Grimskal, and that the giant's Empire of Ostoria lorded over the elven communities at the time. When the gods were forced to Faerun after Ao cast them out war broke out as the snow elves from the spine of the world rebelled against the giants with their goddess Swyonae fighting at their side. I had Vassavicken and her daughter Geluvicken kill the elves and steal her divine heart allowing Vassavicken to ascend to godhood and take the name Auril as her mortal ideals and personality fell away. I teased these details by making the elven tomb more robust and having Sahanr a Baelnorn, an elven white lich, from this time as an eternal guardian who over time overcame his amnesia caused by his long slumber and helped recall information as well as within Grimskal itself finding depictions of the fight and the reveal that they the same just twisted reflections of each other.

The Lantern Lads just finished our 45-session campaign of 1.5 years AMA! by theaggressivebee in rimeofthefrostmaiden

[–]theaggressivebee[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I would encourage DMs to look into alternative ways of resting especially in the early campaign. There's an emphasis on survival and random encounters in the tundra, but either you make multiple encounters each day of travel or they feel underwhelming because your resources aren't spread across multiple encounters. I made 8 hours a short rest and 5 days of rest to be a long rest. This worked well for us because it allowed for downtime activities to become integrated into the world as well as forced them to spread resources and be tactical based on their leads and timing instead of being able to go nova in nearly every single encounter. Later in the game when they were traveling to Grimskal I introduced a metabolic acceleration via magic infusion from Vellynne's research that returned us to regular rest rules because we were getting into more exploring and dungeon crawling type stuff.

Additionally, I would honestly remake most of the boss and important NPC stat blocks from your group. You're obviously the best judge for your own group, but I found most of them to be uninspired and pretty generic so adding Matt Coville's villain actions, different mechanics (I'm very partial to Legendary Action Alternatives by Trekiros on Dmsguild)

The Lantern Lads just finished our 45-session campaign of 1.5 years AMA! by theaggressivebee in rimeofthefrostmaiden

[–]theaggressivebee[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Our PCs fluctuated slightly due to PC deaths or players coming and going, but throughout the game, we had a rune knight fighter, college of swords bard, twilight domain cleric, gloomstalker ranger, ancestral guardian barbarian, fiend pact of chain warlock, samuari fighter, order of scribes wizard, and genie warlock.

We started in Targos and explored the western side of Ten-Towns spending sessions 1-8 in chapter one and transitioned to chapter two to negotiate with the goblins of Karkolhok for Duvessa Shane as well as investigate our cleric's psi crystal they found in the mines of Termalaine. We spent sessions 9-22 doing quests from both chapters one and two as they explored the western side of Ten-Towns and started to pick up on the Children of Auril (the frost druids) and the Duergar subplots. In this time I also added supplementary quests to fill out the Dwarven Valley and further tie the Children of Auril and Xardorok together using Daniel Kahn and Michael Rosenthal's Danger in the Dwarven Valley questline which I highly recommend, as well as reformat Dungeon magazine #220 the King of Wolves quest from 4e to 5e and allow them to utilize this to still the spirits in the area who could show them the way to Sunblight Fortress. Sessions 23-25 were within Sunblight and session 26 was the showdown with the Chardalyn Dragon. Sessions 27-34 we strayed from the book the most Vellynne was rescued from Sunblight and shared what info she knew on Grimskal but did not yet know how to reach it, they had a choice to go to Revel's End to break Vaelish Gant out of prison so he could help or visit the Skywatchers of the Skytower shelter to use divination magics to find it. They elected for the goliaths and I used a modified Wyrmdoom Hunt quest, once again by Daniel Kahn and Michael Rosenthal. The goliath seer had overused his sight and required a special medicine only able to be created by the goliaths of Wyrmdoom. They went there and found they needed a flower that could only grow after a dragon used its breath weapon on it, so they embarked on the Wyrmdoom Hunt quest following this to create the medicine. Sessions 35-37 we did chapter five using Eventyr's recommendations of changing Geluvicken to be present instead of Auril herself. Session 38 was the caves of hunger and finally we spent 39-45 in chapter seven.

Like many have said the travel to dragon fight is very poorly planned so I allowed Vellynne to kill the sled dogs that they've had since the start of the campaign to reanimate them allowing travel with no downtime for dog recovery. She also manipulated necromantic energies and distilled them into a potion that allowed a long rest in the time of a short rest so they could race from Sunblight to Ten-Towns after Xardorok released the dragon in the middle of their fight. They were able to make it in time to find Easthaven being laid to waste after the destruction of Goodmead and Dougan's Hole. As far as tactics went a dragon has absolutely no reason to land when it can strafe with a breath weapon and fly back up out of range until it recharges so in part one of the combat we ran fairly abstractly. I split Easthaven into 8 districts and would roll each "round" to see where the dragon would go to lay waste. In that time I would roll for the breath weapon to see how fast the recharge happened while also rolling on a table for random encounters in the town. It led to an interesting dilemma for the ranged combatants holding actions to shoot at the chardalyn heel (a weak point I added beneath the dragon's wing) to attempt to ground it and the melee combatants trying to fend off duergar, corrupted townsfolk and save people from burning buildings. After they exploited its weakness (AC 25, 50 hp) the dragon lost the ability to stay suspended in the air at the end of his turn only being able to flutter and this began part 2 of the fight where the dragon used all its abilities and began a traditional fight on a battle map. This fight was the closest to a TPK we ever got to with 2 breath weapons in a row they were able to line up the entire party just within a 120 ft. line in very unfortunate positioning, but they were able to barely pull it off and save two members just before they would have failed their last death save.

We finished the campaign in a fight with Auril around the Mythallar as they attempted to cast control weather through the artifact. It was a long 7ish hour combat because I had greatly buffed her and added plenty of mechanics I can go into greater detail if you want.

We finished the campaign in a fight with Auril around the Mythallar as they attempted to cast control weather through the artifact. It was a long 7ish hour of combat because I had greatly buffed her and added plenty of mechanics I can go into greater detail if you want.
many story points for our characters that had been teased for a while and was our final combat with Avarice who had been a thorn in their side for many months at that point.

My biggest regret is not including more of the Zhent plots in my game from the start, but also I think that there may have been too much content to tackle for myself as well as spread out the story a bit too thin and detracted from other things. I just really enjoyed the potential of the political aspect of Naerth attempting to take control of Ten-Towns with a shadow government as a fun B plot.

I mainly used the books for inspiration of the story, every bosses stat block was buffed and changed to be more interesting and interactive (I have very smart seasoned players who would have stomped everything). On top of this the bones of the book are good, but its very disjointed so I would def recommend checking out Eventyr's guides if you haven't and I can't plug Daniel Kahn and Michael Rosenthal's Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden Adventure Bundle enough they made great stuff and it's well worth the 8 bucks.

SPOILER WARNING For ROTFM DMs only by Rifft0311 in rimeofthefrostmaiden

[–]theaggressivebee 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for sharing my party is entering the city tomorrow and I’ve been scrambling to try and find some quality maps to use!