kjones
2009-11-24, 05:27 PM
From time to time, threads will pop up asking, "I'm planning on running Red Hand of Doom. What should I change?" The answer is, "A lot of things, probably", but in my opinion, the part of the module most in need of modification is the treasure placement. Having run this module and struggled with appropriate allocation of treasure, I'm putting together this guide to help others who want to run this module get a better sense of how to change treasure placement to best serve their campaigns.*
There are several problems with the types and amounts of treasure to be found in Red Hand of Doom. Most of the treasures are clearly intended for the standard fighter-wizard-cleric-rogue party - many of us have PCs whose roles are not so clear-cut. Some of the treasures are not level-appropriate for their place within the campaign. (For example, there's a +2-equivalent bastard sword in an encounter for 5th-level characters.) Finally, the treasures as written are simply not very imaginative - if treasure placement is run as written, your entire party will end up with gauntlets of ogre power +2. Partially, this is deliberate. The module is written to be mostly core-only, and there's not that much variety in core. However, for those who have access to the Magic Item Compendium (among other books), there are a lot more opportunities to be creative with treasure placement.
So, this guide will be written for those who have access to non-core books and are looking to make the Red Hand of Doom module more interesting for their players. I will point out that the best treasures are ones that you cherry-pick for your players, and ones that will become useful in interesting ways throughout the rest of the module. So what I'll do here is list MIC-equivalent levels, suggest ways to distribute them, and note specific items that might be useful (and in some cases, that I used.)
Note that this guide is not intended to rework the equipment of NPCs in the module. It's kind of boring that your party will probably end up with a bunch of useless sets of +1 armor and weapons, since they're standard issue for some types of NPCs, but tweaking all that treasure would also mean re-working many major NPCs, which is beyond the scope of this guide. So I might mention specific pieces of gear held by specific NPCs, but by and large I'm going to leave that stuff alone - you should modify it if you modify the NPCs themselves. (And I certainly recommend doing so.)
One note about WBL: RHoD is somewhat front-loaded as far as treasure goes. There's a lot of it in chapters 1 and 2, and not much in chapters 3 and 4. WBL is, and always has been, a guideline, and nothing more. So I'm going to try to hew fairly closely to the values of the treasures as presented in the module - I think the front-loading is deliberate and a good decision.
Chapter 0
Regardless of whether your party developed organically or started at 5th level, there's a decent chance that they will have +1 weapons and/or armor at this point. If they do, focus more on minor, miscellaneous items; if they don't, they probably should by the time they hit 6th or 7th level. As you will see, there will be ample opportunities to do so.
Chapter 1
Marauder Attack: There's some gold in a burned-out farmhouse nearby. The party may be in need of hard coin to spend in town, so I'd leave this as is.
If your party knows what's what, they'll loot the bodies - this will be the first of many times in which they will end up with what is commonly referred to as "vendor trash". Sigh.
Blackwater Causeway: The infamous hydra. In the mud, there's a +1 mithral breastplate. 9th level (!) This is a really good item for a bard, along with a barbarian or any other front-liner who values movement or can't wear heavy armor - but it's a lot of treasure to give to one character this early on. You can swap it out for 2 7th-level items - consider an adamantine weapon (useful for destroying the bridge) or a lesser metamagic rod (useful for pretty much everything).
Vraath Keep: This is a biggie. The manticore has some gold and trade goods - leave it, it's what a manticore would have.
Koth has a bag of holding. You want the players to get this, if at all possible. Bags of holding enable all sorts of creative possibilities.
In the vault:
Staff of Life
Huge Spiked Gauntlet +1
Gauntlets of Ogre Power 8th level
+1 frost bastard sword 11th level
and the equivalent of 3,550 gp.
I would recommend leaving in the staff of life, as your players will not have access to resurrections for most of the campaign - this allows them the chance to make a mistake. Once.
Similarly, the spiked gauntlet is important for plot reasons.
The problem with the sword is that it's a type of weapon that most characters can't use, and it's too powerful. You'll be giving the fighter-type a massive boost and leaving everyone else in the lurch. My suggestion is to break it down into two 7th-level items (approximately +1 weapons or +2 armor) and a 9th-level item (an immovable rod is great for this). To keep the +1 weapons from being boring, throw in some weapon crystals - least truedeath will come in very useful, a sort of Chekov's Gun if you will.
Alternately, if you're interested in using legacy weapon rules (I know - but there are some real masochists out there) this is an excellent place to introduce such a weapon.
Turn the 8th-level item into a wand with 10 charges of some 3rd-level spell that your party lacks, and put the rest of the treasure towards whoever still doesn't have anything.
When choosing treasure here, try to figure out items that will make the battle for Skull Gorge Bridge more interesting. I gave out a ring of feather falling, with excellent results.
Skull Gorge Bridge: All the notable treasure here is equipment of either Ozyrrandion or the hobgoblins. Leave it as it is, but if you feel like you sold the players short in the vault at Vraath's Keep, you can put a "mini-horde" on the far side of the bridge. If they take out the bridge before searching the tower, they'll have fun finding this stash...
Chapter 2
Impending
Chapter 3
Impending
Chapter 4
Impending
Chapter 5
Impending
Suggestions are, as always, appreciated.
*There was an excellent thread on the WotC boards that did something similar, but as far as I can tell, it disappeared in the Great Upheaval.
There are several problems with the types and amounts of treasure to be found in Red Hand of Doom. Most of the treasures are clearly intended for the standard fighter-wizard-cleric-rogue party - many of us have PCs whose roles are not so clear-cut. Some of the treasures are not level-appropriate for their place within the campaign. (For example, there's a +2-equivalent bastard sword in an encounter for 5th-level characters.) Finally, the treasures as written are simply not very imaginative - if treasure placement is run as written, your entire party will end up with gauntlets of ogre power +2. Partially, this is deliberate. The module is written to be mostly core-only, and there's not that much variety in core. However, for those who have access to the Magic Item Compendium (among other books), there are a lot more opportunities to be creative with treasure placement.
So, this guide will be written for those who have access to non-core books and are looking to make the Red Hand of Doom module more interesting for their players. I will point out that the best treasures are ones that you cherry-pick for your players, and ones that will become useful in interesting ways throughout the rest of the module. So what I'll do here is list MIC-equivalent levels, suggest ways to distribute them, and note specific items that might be useful (and in some cases, that I used.)
Note that this guide is not intended to rework the equipment of NPCs in the module. It's kind of boring that your party will probably end up with a bunch of useless sets of +1 armor and weapons, since they're standard issue for some types of NPCs, but tweaking all that treasure would also mean re-working many major NPCs, which is beyond the scope of this guide. So I might mention specific pieces of gear held by specific NPCs, but by and large I'm going to leave that stuff alone - you should modify it if you modify the NPCs themselves. (And I certainly recommend doing so.)
One note about WBL: RHoD is somewhat front-loaded as far as treasure goes. There's a lot of it in chapters 1 and 2, and not much in chapters 3 and 4. WBL is, and always has been, a guideline, and nothing more. So I'm going to try to hew fairly closely to the values of the treasures as presented in the module - I think the front-loading is deliberate and a good decision.
Chapter 0
Regardless of whether your party developed organically or started at 5th level, there's a decent chance that they will have +1 weapons and/or armor at this point. If they do, focus more on minor, miscellaneous items; if they don't, they probably should by the time they hit 6th or 7th level. As you will see, there will be ample opportunities to do so.
Chapter 1
Marauder Attack: There's some gold in a burned-out farmhouse nearby. The party may be in need of hard coin to spend in town, so I'd leave this as is.
If your party knows what's what, they'll loot the bodies - this will be the first of many times in which they will end up with what is commonly referred to as "vendor trash". Sigh.
Blackwater Causeway: The infamous hydra. In the mud, there's a +1 mithral breastplate. 9th level (!) This is a really good item for a bard, along with a barbarian or any other front-liner who values movement or can't wear heavy armor - but it's a lot of treasure to give to one character this early on. You can swap it out for 2 7th-level items - consider an adamantine weapon (useful for destroying the bridge) or a lesser metamagic rod (useful for pretty much everything).
Vraath Keep: This is a biggie. The manticore has some gold and trade goods - leave it, it's what a manticore would have.
Koth has a bag of holding. You want the players to get this, if at all possible. Bags of holding enable all sorts of creative possibilities.
In the vault:
Staff of Life
Huge Spiked Gauntlet +1
Gauntlets of Ogre Power 8th level
+1 frost bastard sword 11th level
and the equivalent of 3,550 gp.
I would recommend leaving in the staff of life, as your players will not have access to resurrections for most of the campaign - this allows them the chance to make a mistake. Once.
Similarly, the spiked gauntlet is important for plot reasons.
The problem with the sword is that it's a type of weapon that most characters can't use, and it's too powerful. You'll be giving the fighter-type a massive boost and leaving everyone else in the lurch. My suggestion is to break it down into two 7th-level items (approximately +1 weapons or +2 armor) and a 9th-level item (an immovable rod is great for this). To keep the +1 weapons from being boring, throw in some weapon crystals - least truedeath will come in very useful, a sort of Chekov's Gun if you will.
Alternately, if you're interested in using legacy weapon rules (I know - but there are some real masochists out there) this is an excellent place to introduce such a weapon.
Turn the 8th-level item into a wand with 10 charges of some 3rd-level spell that your party lacks, and put the rest of the treasure towards whoever still doesn't have anything.
When choosing treasure here, try to figure out items that will make the battle for Skull Gorge Bridge more interesting. I gave out a ring of feather falling, with excellent results.
Skull Gorge Bridge: All the notable treasure here is equipment of either Ozyrrandion or the hobgoblins. Leave it as it is, but if you feel like you sold the players short in the vault at Vraath's Keep, you can put a "mini-horde" on the far side of the bridge. If they take out the bridge before searching the tower, they'll have fun finding this stash...
Chapter 2
Impending
Chapter 3
Impending
Chapter 4
Impending
Chapter 5
Impending
Suggestions are, as always, appreciated.
*There was an excellent thread on the WotC boards that did something similar, but as far as I can tell, it disappeared in the Great Upheaval.