Natael
2012-02-03, 10:51 PM
This post is a combination of giving people ideas as well as seeing if anyone has further plot insight.
I've undertaken the task over the next year (as I probably wont have a group to run it for until then) to string together Sunless Citadel, Forge of Fury, and The Red Hand of Doom, as well as try to expand the campaign beyond that (maybe other premades if reasonable). Of course I need to convert Sunless and Forge to 3.5, and advance Red Hand out of core.
As a preamble, I by default convert:
Warrior --> Fighter
Fighter --> Warbalde
Monk --> UA Swordsage
Sunless Citadel:
I have not run this adventure before
Starters is that I'm not in Forgotten Realms, I think priming the group for Tiamat's influence would be good, and will edit the citadel to have symbols/statues of Tiamat, maybe play up the evil in it a bit, though not introduce anything Red Hand specific.
The Goblins should be a bit easier to join/help than the adventure influences the party to do, it would be fun to see them try to take out the Kobolds, especially if they don't like the Tiamat worship that would follow. The Kobold queen, while not dragonwrought, will get dragon heritage stuff (mostly due to a modification to Sorcs I use that gives a bonus heritage feat).
The hook to lead to the Forge will be a combination of the Goblins receiving a letter signed from Ghared (dark dwarf from Forge of Fury) that they got a better offer elsewhere, and cannot produce them the ordered weapons. As well as a messenger from Blasingdell saying that there have been attacks from an unknown source killing/making farmers disappear (probably making the players suspect twig blights).
I am somewhat concerned about the final fight in this adventure, a 4th level druid mixed with a lot of backup seems to be a very tough, if not near impossible encounter for 4-5 2nd level characters, though 3rd level could probably do it with some difficulty. Especially if I plan on playing Belak more intelligently (and getting him augment summoning instead of his base feats).
Luckily most of the monster can be straight up taken from the 3.5 srd, rather than having to be converted.
Forge of Fury:
I have ran this a couple of times in 3.5 before
This is at least not unfamiliar for me.
Anything that is stated as a warrior becomes a fighter (such as orcs and duergar), which mostly just gives them an extra feat or two to work with.
Casters get a better spell choice, though also have to keep some spells for flavour and situation of not expecting to be attacked.
Making Nimara a tiger claw focused warblade really beefs up her lethality, especially being able to use conc for all saving throws.
Plot wise, it is pretty straight forward, kill some orcs, don't attack the roper (or feed the annoying PC to it), and enjoy a preliminary dragon fight.
The duergar have been producing more than the adventure suggests, and are readying a third shipment of well made weapons to the Wyrmsmoke Mountains, which can be found out either through diplomacy or reading letters sent between the groups.
Best thing that happened last time I ran it was the bard getting eaten by an animated rug.
The Red Hand of Doom:
I've ran in and played in it once each
There is far too much to say about this adventure than I'm willing to put here, and don't have much to add to everything others have contributed. Basically I'm working on converting things to tome of battle and making the weaker "bosses" to have better builds, as well as giving the dragons better feats. I don't have anything concrete on how I am making builds (I still need to dig up my old conversions and compared them to other builds on this forum for everyone).
At this point, I hope I've maybe helped a few prospective DMs get some ideas on stringing things together.
All I really would like to know is how people have fared with the final Sunless Citadel fight, and what would be a good adventure to start stringing beyond Red Hand.
I've undertaken the task over the next year (as I probably wont have a group to run it for until then) to string together Sunless Citadel, Forge of Fury, and The Red Hand of Doom, as well as try to expand the campaign beyond that (maybe other premades if reasonable). Of course I need to convert Sunless and Forge to 3.5, and advance Red Hand out of core.
As a preamble, I by default convert:
Warrior --> Fighter
Fighter --> Warbalde
Monk --> UA Swordsage
Sunless Citadel:
I have not run this adventure before
Starters is that I'm not in Forgotten Realms, I think priming the group for Tiamat's influence would be good, and will edit the citadel to have symbols/statues of Tiamat, maybe play up the evil in it a bit, though not introduce anything Red Hand specific.
The Goblins should be a bit easier to join/help than the adventure influences the party to do, it would be fun to see them try to take out the Kobolds, especially if they don't like the Tiamat worship that would follow. The Kobold queen, while not dragonwrought, will get dragon heritage stuff (mostly due to a modification to Sorcs I use that gives a bonus heritage feat).
The hook to lead to the Forge will be a combination of the Goblins receiving a letter signed from Ghared (dark dwarf from Forge of Fury) that they got a better offer elsewhere, and cannot produce them the ordered weapons. As well as a messenger from Blasingdell saying that there have been attacks from an unknown source killing/making farmers disappear (probably making the players suspect twig blights).
I am somewhat concerned about the final fight in this adventure, a 4th level druid mixed with a lot of backup seems to be a very tough, if not near impossible encounter for 4-5 2nd level characters, though 3rd level could probably do it with some difficulty. Especially if I plan on playing Belak more intelligently (and getting him augment summoning instead of his base feats).
Luckily most of the monster can be straight up taken from the 3.5 srd, rather than having to be converted.
Forge of Fury:
I have ran this a couple of times in 3.5 before
This is at least not unfamiliar for me.
Anything that is stated as a warrior becomes a fighter (such as orcs and duergar), which mostly just gives them an extra feat or two to work with.
Casters get a better spell choice, though also have to keep some spells for flavour and situation of not expecting to be attacked.
Making Nimara a tiger claw focused warblade really beefs up her lethality, especially being able to use conc for all saving throws.
Plot wise, it is pretty straight forward, kill some orcs, don't attack the roper (or feed the annoying PC to it), and enjoy a preliminary dragon fight.
The duergar have been producing more than the adventure suggests, and are readying a third shipment of well made weapons to the Wyrmsmoke Mountains, which can be found out either through diplomacy or reading letters sent between the groups.
Best thing that happened last time I ran it was the bard getting eaten by an animated rug.
The Red Hand of Doom:
I've ran in and played in it once each
There is far too much to say about this adventure than I'm willing to put here, and don't have much to add to everything others have contributed. Basically I'm working on converting things to tome of battle and making the weaker "bosses" to have better builds, as well as giving the dragons better feats. I don't have anything concrete on how I am making builds (I still need to dig up my old conversions and compared them to other builds on this forum for everyone).
At this point, I hope I've maybe helped a few prospective DMs get some ideas on stringing things together.
All I really would like to know is how people have fared with the final Sunless Citadel fight, and what would be a good adventure to start stringing beyond Red Hand.