drizzet demons and dungeons OH MY!

[CyberThread]

http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/news/rageofdemons


New realms stuff

[Yorrin]

You notice that they had to use his name at least once per paragraph? That's discouraging. As much as I love killing demons, WotC's creepy posterchild is going to be watching over my shoulders the whole time...

[Easy_Lee]

I've been a fan of Drizzt ever since Crystal Shard. That said, from the way this is written, it strikes me as an escort campaign more than anything. Much like Diablo 3, I suspect that the player will be doing the heavy lifting while everyone else makes the decisions and takes the credit. Feels like a built-in DMPC just from that short article mentioning him so many times.

In before this comes out and players everywhere come up with excuses to kill Drizzt. I expect some threads about how to solo him in due time.

Edit to add: I agree with Yorrin.

[DireSickFish]

I hope it's not terrible.

[DanyBallon]

The stopping a demon invasion through the underdark sounds interesting. Having Drizz't tagging alone, not so much. I hope that their won't be the need for a DMPC and Drizz't could be replaced to fit in any setting.

[Easy_Lee]

Pretty sure we can all build a Drizzt anyway just by sticking the ranger's Hunter archetype on a fighter with mobile and defensive duelist. But I'm betting that WotC is going to make him OP.

[Envyus]

Drizzt? WotC's Chris Perkins says: "Drizzt's role in the RoD story varies depending on the platform. In the TRPG adventure, the PCs are the stars."

This was posted.

[Rfkannen]

Guh I like the campaign idea but I don't want to have to run drizzt. I hope they have some ideas in the book about how to replace him, or maybe ill just kill him off.

[Easy_Lee]

@Envyus I'm glad to see that. Reading through it again, I have to wonder who it was who "sent" Drizzt to investigate. It's not like he's a hired sword.

[Envyus]

@Envyus I'm glad to see that. Reading through it again, I have to wonder who it was who "sent" Drizzt to investigate. It's not like he's a hired sword.

He is a bit of one. Generally he will do what he thinks is the right thing. If someone he respected asked he probably would.

[Yagyujubei]

it was jarlaxl obviously. hype

[Gnomes2169]

it was jarlaxl obviously. hype

And where Jarlaxl goes, Artemis is close behind... :smalltongue:

[silveralen]

And where Jarlaxl goes, Artemis is close behind... :smalltongue:

I think you might be a few novels behind. No spoilers but... not exactly true anymore.

Or maybe I'm wrong I think I'm one behind currently everything could go back to default.

[Yagyujubei]

I think you might be a few novels behind. No spoilers but... not exactly true anymore.

Or maybe I'm wrong I think I'm one behind currently everything could go back to default.

yeah ive only read up to charons claw in the neverwinter books but they aint together at that point at least

[PhantomRenegade]

Pretty sure we can all build a Drizzt anyway just by sticking the ranger's Hunter archetype on a fighter with mobile and defensive duelist. But I'm betting that WotC is going to make him OP.Wouldn't he be missing the panther?

[Rfkannen]

Wouldn't he be missing the panther?

Isnt the panther a magical artifact not a thing he learned?

[Yagyujubei]

Isnt the panther a magical artifact not a thing he learned?

yeah, just give him a wondrous figurine that summons a panther. donezo, although he also has a unicorn figurine now as well, and boots of speed, and his two swords...but those are really his only big magic items i think...it's been a while.

[PhantomRenegade]

Oh ok then it works out perfectly, i had no idea the panther was a magical item, haven't really read any DnD literature. That sure dashes my hopes for them fixing the beastmaster now.


But yeah never been to the underdark, it'll be fun to have some adventures there

[Yagyujubei]

Oh ok then it works out perfectly, i had no idea the panther was a magical item, haven't really read any DnD literature. That sure dashes my hopes for them fixing the beastmaster now.


But yeah never been to the underdark, it'll be fun to have some adventures there

be ready for poisons and sneakiness and truesight/tremorsense. there's a bunch of that

[PhantomRenegade]

Poisons you say, does that mean poison is cheaper in the underdark? Because that stuff if redonc on the surface.

[Baptor]

Seriously how popular is this character?

I'm a huge fan of the Realms, and I always thought he was a cool character, but never did I ever want to "buddy" up with a novel character for an adventurer, nor run a game as such as a DM.

No thanks.

[Person_Man]

If I ever introduced Drizzt as an NPC in one of my games, I'm fairly certain that all of the PCs, regardless of alignment and character choices, would try to kill him. The only question would be whether to attempt to kill him directly, or passive aggressively by luring him into a dangerous situation and then helping whatever monsters attacked him.

Now that I think of it, it would probably be a great story. "Remember that time we were escorting Drizzt and we helped a red dragon kill him, and then we burned his corpse and used Divine Intervention to make sure he could never be Resurrected? Sure, half the party was killed in the process, but it was totally worth it so that I could wear his panther's skin as a cloak." Good times.

[Yagyujubei]

Poisons you say, does that mean poison is cheaper in the underdark? Because that stuff if redonc on the surface.

mechanically i dont know...but canon wise drow society is lousy with poison, everyone and their sister has the drow poison in the book, and the underdark in general is filled with flora and fauna that can be harvested (or should be able to be if you have an open minded GM)

[Envyus]

Seriously how popular is this character?

I'm a huge fan of the Realms, and I always thought he was a cool character, but never did I ever want to "buddy" up with a novel character for an adventurer, nor run a game as such as a DM.

No thanks.

It's pointed out he may not have a role in the adventure. Why do people keep ignoring that.


mechanically i dont know...but canon wise drow society is lousy with poison, everyone and their sister has the drow poison in the book, and the underdark in general is filled with flora and fauna that can be harvested (or should be able to be if you have an open minded GM)

Drow poisoned each other so much that they almost stopped poisoning each other funny enough. Poison was such a common rival killing tactic that almost no Drow use it anymore because they always check for it.

[archaeo]

Guh I like the campaign idea but I don't want to have to run drizzt. I hope they have some ideas in the book about how to replace him, or maybe ill just kill him off.

No matter who's in the book, WotC has been pretty good so far about including a fair amount of material on adapting campaigns to different settings.


Seriously how popular is this character?

I'm a huge fan of the Realms, and I always thought he was a cool character, but never did I ever want to "buddy" up with a novel character for an adventurer, nor run a game as such as a DM.

No thanks.

Book sale numbers don't lie, Baptor, nor does what I imagine is a fair bit of market research over at WotC. I don't really care for that flavor of fantasy either, but as Wikipedia tells me, "All of the novels featuring Drizzt have made the New York Times Best Seller list."

Lots of people like the Big Bang Theory, too, and however you feel about their tastes, their money is just as valuable as yours. :smallbiggrin:

[Giant2005]

Is this standard operating procedure for Wizards?
I ask because I only jumped onto the DnD bandwagon with 5e and kind of expected some sort of setting book to at least be on the horizon by now yet they keep pumping out adventure books like there is no tomorrow with no setting to play them in.
I have been okay simply homebrewing everything up until this point and I do like the system but without a setting, 5e is seeming to be little more than a less diverse version of Gurps.

[murph04]

Hopefully a new storyline means new unearthed arcana, and the Underdark is one of my favorite D&D settings. Kobold, Troglodyte, and maybe even myconid races may be on the horizon. Even the prospect of stats for the demon lords excites me as my party has a longstanding feud with Demogorgon.
Drizzt is interesting to see and if handled well I'm sure it will be a cool quest, but that's not to say I don't have my reservations. He's just not the selling point for me in this new storyline

[DireSickFish]

Is this standard operating procedure for Wizards?
I ask because I only jumped onto the DnD bandwagon with 5e and kind of expected some sort of setting book to at least be on the horizon by now yet they keep pumping out adventure books like there is no tomorrow with no setting to play them in.
I have been okay simply homebrewing everything up until this point and I do like the system but without a setting, 5e is seeming to be little more than a less diverse version of Gurps.

They seem to have a whole new design philosophy this edition compared to previous ones. In 3rd edition they would shovel out books, splat, setting, whatever so you had a lot of just -stuff- over time. I never recall adventure modals being this important or big releases, but I payed less attention back then. I know they didn't do things like bundle new mechanics in with them, that was for the splatbooks.

I'm not sure when/if we will be getting a setting specific book.

[archaeo]

Is this standard operating procedure for Wizards?
I ask because I only jumped onto the DnD bandwagon with 5e and kind of expected some sort of setting book to at least be on the horizon by now yet they keep pumping out adventure books like there is no tomorrow with no setting to play them in.
I have been okay simply homebrewing everything up until this point and I do like the system but without a setting, 5e is seeming to be little more than a less diverse version of Gurps.

Technically, WotC sells a lot of their old campaign sourcebooks as pdfs (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/44/Wizards-of-the-Coast), and the vast majority of the content therein is edition neutral. A healthy part of the edition-specific stuff can also be pretty easily flipped about to work in 5e, too. The company should do a better job of pointing them out.

We also have plenty of evidence from Chris Perkins that a bunch of story-related stuff is being worked on continually, so who knows, man. WotC didn't tell anybody about Dragon+ until it suddenly appeared. I think they're kind of the Steve-Jobs-era Apple of TRPGs right now; no leaks, no years of promises, just a bunch of work until they can tell you about a finished product.

[Baptor]

Book sale numbers don't lie, Baptor, nor does what I imagine is a fair bit of market research over at WotC. I don't really care for that flavor of fantasy either, but as Wikipedia tells me, "All of the novels featuring Drizzt have made the New York Times Best Seller list."

Lots of people like the Big Bang Theory, too, and however you feel about their tastes, their money is just as valuable as yours. :smallbiggrin:

I'm not debating his popularity, nor is that evident in my post. I never said my opinions were more valuable than others.

And I get that he's a popular novel character, and I have enjoyed some of those novels myself.

I'm not even denying there must be some absurd fan base that would actually like to play characters babysat by their favorite novel character, I'm just shocked by it.

[archaeo]

I'm not even denying there must be some absurd fan base that would actually like to play characters babysat by their favorite novel character, I'm just shocked by it.

Well, hopefully WotC isn't so daft as to have a blatant and boring DMPC Drizzt or some other awful way for him to be included in the narrative, but I guess we'll find out.

[eastmabl]

Technically, WotC sells a lot of their old campaign sourcebooks as pdfs (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/44/Wizards-of-the-Coast), and the vast majority of the content therein is edition neutral. A healthy part of the edition-specific stuff can also be pretty easily flipped about to work in 5e, too. The company should do a better job of pointing them out.

We also have plenty of evidence from Chris Perkins that a bunch of story-related stuff is being worked on continually, so who knows, man. WotC didn't tell anybody about Dragon+ until it suddenly appeared. I think they're kind of the Steve-Jobs-era Apple of TRPGs right now; no leaks, no years of promises, just a bunch of work until they can tell you about a finished product.

Most interestingly, it seems like there was a slight leak about the feel of parts of this adventure - see the predicted schedule of releases through 2018 where this adventure path was supposed to be Alice in Wonderland themed (http://www.nerdsonearth.com/2014/12/dungeons-dragons-5e-release-schedule-2018/), and then the theme of the story art which seems to match Alice in Wonderland (http://tribality.com/2015/05/06/rage-of-demons-storyline-art/).

Alternatively, I think we should focus less on Drizzt OMG and more on the fact that this adventure might have a completely different flair to it.

[silveralen]

Given that it deals with the underdark and has the Alice theme, maybe the guess about psionics coming in the new player handbook could be accurate? It would be nice to get a more substantial crunch introduction and a lot of people speculated psionics would be the first big splat this edition.

[ChubbyRain]

Ehhh....

I love the idea of the under dark and abyss but that's about the end of it.

No thank you on the Alice and Salvatore crap. I've played American McGee's Alice (and the remake) I'll stick with those... And if Salvatore never wrote another word I wouldn't exactly be sad.

[ondonaflash]

Of Note is that this announcement is not pertaining to just the Tabletop adventure. It is also referring to the Neverwinter MMO expansion pack, in which a named character running around actually driving the story and leading all the nameless PCs into raids is a bit more common. While I imagine Drizzt will have a presence in the Tabletop Module it has been made abundantly clear that he need not dominate the story.

[Envyus]

It was stated by Green Ronin that Drizzt can be encountered in the Adventure but is not important or necessary to the storyline. The PC's are the stars.

[Ralanr]

So mind screwy Alice in wonderland with the under dark and an impending demon invasion. That may or may not bring out an official 5e psion class?

I know a friend that wil like the psion stuff. We both will since it would be viewable by everyone and not him and the DM alone.

Hopefully balanced, but I'll settle for "not game breaking"

Yeah I'm going off a hypothesis. I could also make mad hatter demon jokes...now I want to see that.

[SharkForce]

psionics seems unlikely to me. would fit much more with a dark sun release.

on the other hand, everything seems to be sticking with realms, and i suppose underdark is more psionic than most places in FR... so if they are going to stick with FR, the underdark release would admittedly be the place i'd expect to see psionics.

[T.G. Oskar]

Ugh, if there was a character that I could equally despise as much as Mama's Boy*, that'd be Drizzt. Almost killed the "always CE" Drow race, and yet they're still shoving stuff about him. Cool that he's a unique character, but just mentioning his possible appearance in an Adventure Module... I mean, I'm not into the Adventure Modules just because they're in the Realms - if I were to be forced to buy an Adventure Module for my table, this most definitely wouldn't, since I know very well at least one of my players will try to kill him directly just because of being him, metagame be darned. Same thing with FR Drow in Eberron - at least that way there's something interesting to work with (have a follower of Vulkoor "enter" the fold, figure out how they watch over their backstabbing while watching myself, then calmly lead a tribe of Drow to kill them and say "never trust a scorpion". Bonus points if it's done Scorpion-clan style ;)

Still - kind of a shame, since the Rogues' Gallery seems...amusing, if anything. More colorful than heroic. WotC is really taking cues from Paizo and ramping up modules, though focusing more on an episodic, multiplatform content (arguably, why this is the most successful D&D release so far - they're not just aiming at the tabletop game, they're aiming at the whole brand and that includes MMO and PC/console games, board games and even comics).

I'm kinda more excited that Green Ronin is handling this module. I'd have suspected that, with Fantasy AGE being released and having their own unique settings (Dragon Age roleplaying game, the source of the Fantasy AGE Engine, and Wil Wheaton's upcoming setting), they wouldn't do a collaboration...but they still do. Interesting if, as a sign of cordiality (a la Marvel/DC), Paizo ends up running one of WotC's modules much as they'd do an Adventure Path.