Hoard of the Dragon Queen; Some personal flavoring?

[Gnomes2169]

So I'm running the Hoard of the Dragon Queen adventure to get myself a bit of experience with DMing the system, and I had one question while I was going through the first few levels... What on sheogh were the designers thinking when they designed the first few chapters?

Currently my campaign includes two players who are rather new to D&D itself (or rather, the tabletop version, they've played plenty of video games...), and to help them out a bit I'm giving them the following nice things:

A secondary character each. Because fantasy vietnam the adventure path needs at least 4 players to be survived.

Free Resistance (yes, the feat) at level 1, and a second free feat at level 2. I'm wondering if this would give them too much power, or if it would help make the first "real" game more fun for them?

A free DM PC Sun cleric (level 3) that basically just gets everyone together, is the early game heal bot and is secretly a harper. The cleric dies horribly at the end of chapter 2, and near the end of chapter 3 (or whenever the players get to his chamber) Cyanwrath is revealed to be a harper infiltrator as well (I will be rebuilding him properly into a DM PC, likely an eldrich knight, and will drop his statistics/ effective level to that of the party). With everything else, does this seem like it would make things too easy/ does this seem to be an interesting plot line?

One of my players took the "was part of the old cult of the dragon" optional bond in the back of the book. I plan to give him nice things. Favoritism, or...? :smalltongue:

[hymer]

Free Resistance (yes, the feat) at level 1, and a second free feat at level 2. I'm wondering if this would give them too much power, or if it would help make the first "real" game more fun for them?

You mean the feat Resilient?
I don't think you're in danger of making their PCs too powerful. Beginning players need to be hooked, letting them do awesome things helps accomplish that.

I wouldn't include DMPCs/NPCs hanging around who have more levels than the party. Quite the contrary. Any hint that the PCs aren't the big heroes is something I'd avoid at this point. I'm not entirely sure what I'd do with a published adventure when I just don't have enough players for it, and having them play more than one PC is probably putting too much into their hands too early.

[Ramshack]

I like the secret harper idea, but I feel it conflicts if you have him kill innocent people during the challenge encounter at the end chapter 1. Resolve that another way and it's a good hook. A free healbot, 2 free feats seems a bit strong, don't give so many perks the first few chapters are trivialized.

My group ran the first 2 chapters with a barbarian, ranger, paladin and cleric just fine, besides the 1v1 duel at the end of chapter 1 the whole thing was pretty easy to our group. And that's with us fighting about 10+ encounters. We didn't even have to take a short rest till the finale.

We had no problems with 1 less character and 2 less feats lol.

I don't want to tell anyone how to DM their game but maybe give your players an opportunity to shine before you coddle them. If they are getting beat up in chapter 1 have one of the citizens they rescue be your cleric that offers to assist and heal them.

[Gnomes2169]

You mean the feat Resilient?
I don't think you're in danger of making their PCs too powerful. Beginning players need to be hooked, letting them do awesome things helps accomplish that.

Yes... Resilient. That's the feat. XD


I wouldn't include DMPCs/NPCs hanging around who have more levels than the party. Quite the contrary. Any hint that the PCs aren't the big heroes is something I'd avoid at this point. I'm not entirely sure what I'd do with a published adventure when I just don't have enough players for it, and having them play more than one PC is probably putting too much into their hands too early.

Honestly, I'm probably going to drop the cleric to level 1 (maybe even switch the domain to healing), but Cyanwrath is going to be equivalent-to-party level in the third chapter (and implied to be at that same level in the duel). Even in the normal path, Cyan is implied to be far and beyond the skill of a single party member, and he's one of the lower-ranking officers.

That said, he's only going to be level 3-4 when he's "scheduled" to join the party, and he will only be statted for level 2 in the duel (it will not be a to-the-death ordeal. He's just heard about the heroes, is curious, and wants to know who they are/ what they are capable of.

All of that being said, my players saw the leveling system and made characters that are basically just out of training in their backgrounds without encouragement from me. They know that they aren't the biggest or the best heroes around, and even if they were, I think that there are better ways than just level to show that (the free feats being massive one. None of the NPC's with character levels will get them, making it uniquely a PC thing). On top of that, they will be getting the spot light and making the decisions in the party, with any NPC only making requests or suggestions, hopefully giving the sense of being large and in charge.

As for the second characters... Well, the reason I'm asking them to make some is that they literally only have a human paladin (no variant human) and a dragonborn barbarian. They aren't what one would call exactly "high op", and they could really use a rogue at the least (and the other player is debating between a ranger and a wizard). Even if I started them at level 2, I feel like I would want at least one more PC to start this adventure path, and I don't have a player for that extra PC. Also, when I suggested the idea of a second character, my players had a psuedo-nerdgasm of the kind that only a Neverwinter Nights or Baldur's Gate veteran could have at the thought of controlling two very, very powerful characters. :smalltongue:

All of that said, I'm debating making the second characters basically just player controlled NPC's that work for/ with the "Main characters", partially to make it easier on my players RPG/ book keeping wise, and partially so I don't have to deal with one of my players spending 5 more hours on backstory (:smalltongue:). They will not get the free feats, either, so the chance of them stealing the spotlight should be lessened a bit. Does that sound like a decent compromise...?


I like the secret harper idea, but I feel it conflicts if you have him kill innocent people during the challenge encounter at the end chapter 1. Resolve that another way and it's a good hook. A free healbot, 2 free feats seems a bit strong, don't give so many perks the first few chapters are trivialized.

Heal bot is level 1 now, despite not exactly fitting fluff-wise (the cleric is a fully-fleged harper, typically those guys are in the level 7-16 area... But level 3 is stretching my suspension of disbelief as much as level 1, so I guess I can deal. :smalltongue:). As for the feats, look above. Only the player characters get them, and only so they can feel more like legitimate badasses (even at lower levels).

Cyanwrath is an infiltrator who is good at his job precisely because he is willing to put asside his morals to get the job done and fit in. That said, the threat against the civilians is peculiar, and here is what I am going to tell my ex-cultist player (the Barbarian):

"Standing below the walls is a blue half dragon in scale armor, a very familiar sight to you. This is Landragose Cyanwrath, one of the older members of the cell you were part of, and a well liked among the cultists there. Notable for his loyalty and devotion, many cultists were surprised when he joined Rezmier and the rest of Tiamat's sect, and it caused enough of a shift in power within your cell that the true followers of the old ways (you and your family) became outcasts and targets. He became one of Rezmier's lieutenants quickly, proving himself to be a worthy advisor and soldier... But he was not elevated any higher because he refused to take up arms against the "heretical" cell he had left behind. This last show of honor us probably the reason you are still alive.

Because of this, the display before you strikes you as off. Cyanwrath always refused to use such dishonorable methods in the past, and from how he walks and the tone of his voice, you know that he does not enjoy using them now. Something is wrong here..."


My group ran the first 2 chapters with a barbarian, ranger, paladin and cleric just fine, besides the 1v1 duel at the end of chapter 1 the whole thing was pretty easy to our group. And that's with us fighting about 10+ encounters. We didn't even have to take a short rest till the finale.

We had no problems with 1 less character and 2 less feats lol.

I don't want to tell anyone how to DM their game but maybe give your players an opportunity to shine before you coddle them. If they are getting beat up in chapter 1 have one of the citizens they rescue be your cleric that offers to assist and heal them.

I'm guessing your guys also have at least a little bit of table top experience. Also, you had a paladin and a cleric for healing. My noobs forgot that step. :smalltongue: The cleric is just around to get them to the point where they (hopefully) won't need as much magical healing, and to provide the initial plot hook (remember, the cleric is a harper as well, investigating the cult's current activities. The PC's are basically going to be hired help). I hope that doesn't seem like I'm being too nice to them, or like I'm trying to make things too easy either. (This is the group that I plan to unleash the Musician on, after all, easy is definitely not something that I am going for.)