Adapting Red Hand of Doom to be about the Lord of Blades [Archive]

n00b17

2015-06-29, 12:37 PM

Venger

2015-06-29, 12:48 PM

I'm planning on running Red Hand of Doom in Eberron for an upcoming campaign, but a couple things about it rubbed me the wrong way. These might not be issues for everyone, but they were a problem for me. First, the goblins' attitude is best described as "lol stabs" (See the doodles Koth's map on page 29, and you'll know what I mean.) Second, the presence of dragons is hard to explain given how they normally keep their distance and act as manipulators, not combatants. Lastly, my players have wanted to do a game in Eberron for a long time, and hordes of goblins really just doesn't feel very Eberron.

Eventually I figured out a way to solve all these issues in one step. By switching out Azarr Kul for the Lord of Blades and the portal for a creation forge, the enemies go from chaotic evil to lawful evil, the dragons become warforged mechadragons(!), and the campaign gets a unique Eberron flavor.

However, this change introduced some problems as well

One of the main features of RHoD is that it happens on a strict clock. Making the enemy a group of robots that don't need to stop to eat or sleep changes this clock. What could I do to give the PC's enough time to act? Would giving the LoB's army artillery to move be enough, or do I need something more?

The other issue is the sheer variety of monsters the red hand uses. Ettins, manticores, chimeras, an aranea all appear in the ranks. Would it be stretching suspension of disbelief to make these all constructs? Or should the LoB enlist these creatures the same way Azarr Kul did, despite their fleshy nature?

Any feedback is appreciated. If there's any fluff/balance issues I've missed, please let me know.

Sounds like a good adjustment. The Lord of Blades is awesome, and warforged are far more interesting than goblins any day. Much more iconic when it comes to an eberron campaign.

You don't need to turn every monster into robots. The Lord of Blades understands that sometimes you need to work with other monsters too, and would be happy to do so if it furthered his own goals either through manipulation or just bribing them with some money or something. more importantly, making everything your players ever fight a construct/living construct will mess up game balance, making enemies immune to a lot of effects that players might like to employ, reducing overall variety.

You are wrong about some basic facts about warforged: they are in no way immune to nonlethal damage, so they do need to stop periodically, even if they don't sleep. They do not heal naturally either, so can't just walk it off. They need to stop periodically and oil up their gears and such. It was an important part of the war. Check out "five nations" for a good overview of the war and warforgeds' role in it and history of racial persecution. it's really important to understand the lord of blades's motivation and the mindset of people who want to join him, forged or not.

so his army still needs to rest. this isn't a problem, so you can keep the beat the clock aspect.

if you're playing an eberron game, look into getting the soundtrack, "shards of eberron" it's got a lot of good music for mood, including "meeting the lord of blades." it's all classical, so is good atmosphere .

(Un)Inspired

2015-06-29, 01:16 PM

I came to this thread to specifically suggest making the dragons into dragon-constructs but it looks like you've already got this well in hand. Your campaign is gonna be awesome. It would be the perfect game to play a dragon PC in.

As others have said, not every monster needs to be a construct. A warforged army would definitely empress a bunch of other monsters into its service.

You should turn Koth into a Psiforged Psion, Saarvith into a Warforged Scout, Ulwai into a sexy Reforged, and Karn as a Warforged Juggernaut.

ComaVision

2015-06-29, 01:30 PM

Any chance of you keeping a campaign journal on the boards when you run this? I think it would be an interesting read.

n00b17

2015-06-29, 02:25 PM

Wow, much more positive response than I was expecting. I thought I was gonna get a list of all the reasons this wouldn't work. Thanks everybody

@Venger I had totally forgotten that forced marches inflict nonlethal damage, I thought they just caused fatigue. Thanks for pointing that out.

@ComaVision I wasn't planning on it, but if there's interest I totally could

@(Un)Inspired Those are all really good ideas and I'll probably wind up using all of them except Ulwai. I run Warforged as genderless by default, and as is all too common, Ulwai is a female character defined almost exclusively by her gender and sex appeal. But I don't really want to get into that right now, so I'll just say that I'm taking some recommendations from Saintheart's RHoD guide (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?171284-The-3-5-Red-Hand-Of-Doom-Handbook-for-DMs-Major-spoilers!-WIP-PEACH!) and rebuilding her into a powermad living tornado.

I also had the idea to replace the Battle of Brindol with a battle over Argonth, the floating fortress. In this case, the PC's would be fighting to slow down the Red Hand until Argonth arrived to fight of the horde, only to realize that hijacking the ship was part of the Lord of Blades plan. However, I'm not sure how I justify all the efforts to reduce the army's numbers by destroying the razorfiend hachery factory and returning the ghostlord's phylactery. Maybe the razorfiend and bonedrinkers have acid attacks that could easily eat through the hull? idk, it's probably stretching it.

ksbsnowowl

2015-06-29, 02:32 PM

Interesting concept; I really like it on its face.

What is the Lord of Blades' motivation, other than domination/extermination of the fleshlings?
Though, I don't recall off hand what Azarr Kul's motives were beyond conquering land for Tiamat, so you might not need to define the LoB's motives; from the PC's perspective it is happening, and they had better stop it, no matter the reasons.

On the non-construct monster front, I'd say model most of the threats after the creatures that currently reside in the Mournland. Carcass crabs and other mutated beasties. It makes sense that the LoB's would press those into service. Adding something like the Spellwarped template to the stock monster horde might be a decent way to "easily" set them apart like that.

One big question: Will the construct dragons be Living Constructs or just Constructs? How were they made? In the LoB's creation forge? Or are they the result of something else? The Elder Eidolon template (Lords of Madness) might be good method of approach for stating them out, though they would lose their breath weapons :smallannoyed:. The Effigy Creature template from Comp Arc does the same... Of course, it wouldn't be hard to just apply the Living Construct subtype to the dragons and just call it done.

As was pointed out, warforged are not immune to nonlethal damage, so without healing of some sort, they can't march forever. The same would be true of any Living Construct. Errata for the ECS states* that warforged don't heal LETHAL damage on their own, so they will still heal nonlethal damage naturally, if you use said errata (if you don't use the errata, then they won't even heal that naturally). Still, a typical Warforged Fighter 1 will only have 12 HP (if you max their first HD, which you probably shouldn't), so after 12 hours of walking, half the army falls over from nonlethal damage, and it takes them time to heal it back without magic, just like a goblin horde would have to do. The only advantage the warforged have is a racial Con bonus. Heck, a lot of them are slow like a goblin on foot anyway (20 ft speed with Adamantine Body).

I'm eager to see what comes of this.

*
Page 23: Warforged Racial Traits One of the warforged’s racial traits is written as follows:
—A warforged cannot heal damage naturally. This racial trait should be clarified as follows:
—A warforged cannot heal lethal damage naturally.

n00b17

2015-06-29, 02:53 PM

@ksbsnowowl Oh wow I can't even begin to say how fantastic an idea that is. I can't wait to throw a living cloudkill into the masses of Brelish troops. Thank you so much, my players may hate me now.

Dragons were gonna be Living Constructs. Dragons are above all, intelligent foes. That's what sets them apart. So I want them to be sentient.

The motivation I was gonna use is that the warforged were created for use in war, and the Last war gave them a purpose in life. When the war ended, everything they had ever known, and their entire reason for existence disappeared in an instant. In a sense they're like the Cyreans. On the Day of Mourning, they lost their home, not because it was destroyed, but because people stopped wanting to fight. Now of course plenty of warforged were happy to be free and found new purpose, but the LoBster didn't care about freedom, he just wanted a reason to exist, some purpose to fight for. He wants to not to kill, but to fight the fleshlings so he and the other warforged will have purpose again. It's almost like a sport to him, where each team does their best and then at the end you shake hands and if you die, you die. So what? You fought well.

ksbsnowowl

2015-06-29, 03:01 PM

I also had the idea to replace the Battle of Brindol with a battle over Argonth, the floating fortress. In this case, the PC's would be fighting to slow down the Red Hand until Argonth arrived to fight of the horde, only to realize that hijacking the ship was part of the Lord of Blades plan. Awesome, just all sorts of awesome.

However, I'm not sure how I justify all the efforts to reduce the army's numbers by destroying the razorfiend hachery factory and returning the ghostlord's phylactery. Maybe the razorfiend and bonedrinkers have acid attacks that could easily eat through the hull? idk, it's probably stretching it.

If you want to maintain the concepts of the hatchery and the ghost lord, but don't like how they'd fit in, just change them. I ran Red Hand of Doom in a viking-themed campaign, changing every single monster out for trolls, etc. The campaign model is extremely flexible. I had the troll army holding the wife of the Ghost Lord (who wasn't a lich in my campaign) captive in a Trap the Soul gem. He had no idea where they had hidden her, and didn't dare betray them lest they do something to destroy her. My ghost lord was creating Hel-spawn (half-dead Dolghasts from Magic of Eberron) for the troll army. You can change them to whatever you want. Alter the razorfiends to something with a fly speed or a climb speed, and those city walls will be easy to overcome for the elite troops.

Edit: Maybe the LoBster kidnapped the spouse of someone in House Cannith, and is thus blackmailing said individual into making the needed constructs (or someone from Karrnath is making some specific undead for him for the same reason; incorporeal undead could just float right through Argonth's walls.)

Maintaining the water-logged city concept of Rhest could easily be done as a devastated city within the Mournland, but you could also put it just off the Mournland coast in Lake Cyre.

Any plans to have the LoB's commanding from an airship? A captured airship (beat to hell, but still functional) would be a great method of dropping some elite troops (the Razorfiends?) onto the floating city of Argonth.

@ksbsnowowl Oh wow I can't even begin to say how fantastic an idea that is. I can't wait to throw a living cloudkill into the masses of Brelish troops. Thank you so much, my players may hate me now.Corralling and controlling a Living Spell would probably be difficult.* Another (more logical) way to get a similar result would be for the Lord of Blades to have pressed a Mistling fey into service (Mistling is a template from Forge of War), since Mistlings can CREATE Living Spells from any spell or SLA they can normally cast. A Mistling Pixie Wizard 9 can create such a Living Cloudkill, and I think it can control it, which would make it a much better battle tool.

*Of course, something like a Warforged Juggernaught with a Cube of Force could pull it off for a limited amount of time. Certainly long enough for some other means of caging the beast could be brought to bear.

jok

2015-06-29, 04:40 PM

I just finished running it, there is plenty of time for the players to goof around. I pretty much cheated and made the army move faster. So if the warforged move faster, then less need to cheat..

On a site note, I don't see the Hobgoblins as chaotic. I imagined them as highly organised. Something like the roman legions. I even made consruct a wooden fort every night, just like the real romans.

Saintheart

2015-06-29, 08:04 PM

The Red Hand is indeed lawful and organised. The module itself says the Red Hand builds a light fortification every night on encampment, so that's entirely in keeping with the module.

Tagging this thread into the Handbook on adapting RHOD for Eberron, because it makes for a really interesting idea!

n00b17

2015-06-30, 01:43 AM

Tagging this thread into the Handbook on adapting RHOD for Eberron, because it makes for a really interesting idea!

Woah, thanks.

The Red Hand is indeed lawful and organised. The module itself says the Red Hand builds a light fortification every night on encampment, so that's entirely in keeping with the module.
I see what you mean, but the characterization of major NPCs always struck me as chaotic. Koth doodles about stabbing people on important military documents. Saarvith is a coward. Ulwai has a fairly stormy disposition. Hell, when you get captured, the only reason you can escape is because all the guards decide to ignore the prisoners and go loot and plunder. Maybe they are usually lawful evil, but that doesn't seem immediately clear from the characterization.

I think the simplest way to do Argonth is to have Norro tell the PC's it's on the way at the end of part one, but he doesnt expect it to make it in time. That way, they go around preparing for the battle of brindol just like in the module. If they slow down the army by more than X days, Argonth arrives and they get some victory points. As they sleep in the city-fortress that night, the Hand attacks, and they all wake up to a massive lurch Argonth falls to the ground.

Corralling and controlling a Living Spell would probably be difficult.* Another (more logical) way to get a similar result would be for the Lord of Blades to have pressed a Mistling fey into service (Mistling is a template from Forge of War), since Mistlings can CREATE Living Spells from any spell or SLA they can normally cast. A Mistling Pixie Wizard 9 can create such a Living Cloudkill, and I think it can control it, which would make it a much better battle tool.
That sounds perfect. Where do you think that would fit in best? Battle of Brindol?

ksbsnowowl

2015-06-30, 12:17 PM

That sounds perfect. Where do you think that would fit in best? Battle of Brindol?
That's where I would deploy it, if I were the LoB's. Maybe at the massacre of Drellin's Ferry, but as a military commander, that's going to go so easily in the favor of the warforged, that I would hold the living cloudkill back as a surprise, probably for the Streets of Blood series of encounters.

Understand that the Living Cloudkill is going to have a much more immediately devastating effect on the soldiers of Argonth than any other monster that would otherwise have been in the Red Hand's assault normally. The Redspawn Firebelchers can likely kill one first- or second-level warrior a round (though they could still roll a Nat 1), plus damage or kill a few others with the same attack (+7 ranged touch to deal 6d6 fire, adjacent creatures take 3d6 fire, Ref DC 19 halves), but the Living Cloudkill will flat out slay any defender of 3rd level or less (granted, after the back lines see the front lines' AoO's are ineffective, they will likely opt for the Reflex save DC 17 as they are getting engulfed, but most of their Reflex saves are only going to be at +1 at best).

Low-level NPC's also are going to be wholly unable to damage the Living Cloudkill, unless the PC's know it's coming, and hand out 50 arrows affected by Greater Magic Weapon to a cadre of archers. In that case, the NPC archers have a decent chance of taking it out. Otherwise, only the PC's have any chance of dropping the thing. But hey, that's what heroes are for, right? It will be an awesome visual and rescue situation that will emphasize the need for heroes as a mobile strike force.

Saintheart

2015-06-30, 07:40 PM

That's where I would deploy it, if I were the LoB's. Maybe at the massacre of Drellin's Ferry, but as a military commander, that's going to go so easily in the favor of the warforged, that I would hold the living cloudkill back as a surprise, probably for the Streets of Blood series of encounters.

Understand that the Living Cloudkill is going to have a much more immediately devastating effect on the soldiers of Argonth than any other monster that would otherwise have been in the Red Hand's assault normally. The Redspawn Firebelchers can likely kill one first- or second-level warrior a round (though they could still roll a Nat 1), plus damage or kill a few others with the same attack (+7 ranged touch to deal 6d6 fire, adjacent creatures take 3d6 fire, Ref DC 19 halves), but the Living Cloudkill will flat out slay any defender of 3rd level or less (granted, after the back lines see the front lines' AoO's are ineffective, they will likely opt for the Reflex save DC 17 as they are getting engulfed, but most of their Reflex saves are only going to be at +1 at best).

Low-level NPC's also are going to be wholly unable to damage the Living Cloudkill, unless the PC's know it's coming, and hand out 50 arrows affected by Greater Magic Weapon to a cadre of archers. In that case, the NPC archers have a decent chance of taking it out. Otherwise, only the PC's have any chance of dropping the thing. But hey, that's what heroes are for, right? It will be an awesome visual and rescue situation that will emphasize the need for heroes as a mobile strike force.

Another thought is to make the Mistling Fey who can control the living spell into a target for assassination by the PCs. This could be a handy sidequest prior to the Battle of Brindol if your party (as most seem to) gets back to Brindol with a lot of time on its hands ahead of the fight. Admittedly it's taking away most of the impact of seeing the living spell in action, but describing all the above mechanics to the players is probably going to convince them of the threat this thing represents. If you've got a teleport-capable party ahead of the Battle of Brindol they are very likely to be asking about what hit-and-run tactics they can use against the approaching horde anyway, and this is one way to do it.

atemu1234

2015-06-30, 08:46 PM

In general, what one should do is narrow down the differences (what cannot exist in the one you're trying to make it about), and change those things to better suit it. What is the issue, except for maybe changing the fluff text, the domains of a couple clerics, or what?

n00b17

2015-07-01, 02:53 AM

@Saintheart That's actually a really good idea. To that end, I might have one big mistling capable of casting cloudkill and some smaller ones with less dangerous spells that show up if the big one gets killed.

ksbsnowowl

2015-07-01, 09:25 AM

Another thought is to make the Mistling Fey who can control the living spell into a target for assassination by the PCs. This could be a handy sidequest prior to the Battle of Brindol if your party (as most seem to) gets back to Brindol with a lot of time on its hands ahead of the fight. Admittedly it's taking away most of the impact of seeing the living spell in action, but describing all the above mechanics to the players is probably going to convince them of the threat this thing represents. If you've got a teleport-capable party ahead of the Battle of Brindol they are very likely to be asking about what hit-and-run tactics they can use against the approaching horde anyway, and this is one way to do it.

This makes a good argument for bringing out the Living Cloudkill prior to the battle of Brindol. If the PC's don't know about it before the climactic battle, they won't know that they should go assassinate the Mistling. But if they saw the Living Cloudkill steamroll through a line of peasants at the massacre at Drellin's Ferry ... they'll know of the danger, and be more likely to seek out taking care of that issue before the big battle.

If you bring it out earlier, be sure to remember that a Living Cloudkill is faster than most humans, and virtually all dwarves and halflings. If the PC's see it mow down some peasants... then start moving toward the PC's... it will put a great amount of fear into them, especially as it slowly gains on them. But make sure to only do that if the PC's have a faster means of escape (horses) that they can reach before the deadly ooze reaches them. If the means of outrunning it isn't BLATANTLY clear to the players, they will try to fight the thing off... and they will die.

PC's tend to have a bad habit of standing firm and fighting when they should be running for their lives. So put those tied-up horses in eye-shot, whinnying loudly, and make sure you describe the screaming horses every time you take the cloudkill's turn and move it closer to the PC's.

Also, as the cloudkill moves about the battlefield, make it obvious that the Mistling is the one controlling it (over-exaggerated orchestra-conductor motions, even though it's purely mental control). That way the PC's know who they need to kill later on, when they decide to do some assassination missions.

n00b17

2015-07-01, 10:45 AM

That discription of the cloudkill moving towards the PC's just gave me another idea. Warforged are immune to poison and don't need to breath. They could easily throw up Stinking Clouds all across the battlefield and just walk straight through. Perfect for that WWI chemical warfare feel, troops with no human faces marching out of gas-filled trenches.

If I do go with the mistling, I'll try to bring it out early, but I think I should probably stick to stinking cloud instead of cloudkill for balance purposes. You're right, that spell is just really deadly. Also I'm afraid to build too much around it, since there's a Factotum in the party and if he thinks it might be an issue, he'll just memorize a spell to blow it away and that'll be that.

DrKerosene

2015-07-01, 11:57 AM

Someone already mentioned the Effigy template (from the PrC) for "roboticizing" non-constructs. I fully support the idea of the LoB hiring mercs, especially useful monstrous ones.

I'm sure you have plenty of mindless constructs available to replace the "lol stab" NPCs with, but Automotons might be a good weaker construct that "malfunctions conveniently".

Also, I think Force Golems and
Magmacore Golems would be interesting weaker constructs.

Mindflayers of Thoon have Madcrafters that spit out other constructs during combat, and some other monstrous options.

I like the idea of the Warforged and construct "soldiers" being dead-silent in combat.

Edit: To be evil, perhaps the LoB and "his people" are being pursued by Clockwork Horrors that want to use/convert the "Warforge-biomass". Finale with Disjunction at-will on an airship being cannibalized?

the_david

2015-07-01, 02:49 PM

I'd think players might get into a "look, it's another warforged" mood. As they all would have the same weakness, players would start to consider things like multiclassing into ranger just to get the favored enemy bonus. (Well, I would.) So you might just need to mix it up to keep it fun and challenging. Some (not so) random encounters might help.

n00b17

2015-07-01, 03:58 PM

@the_david. Yeah, I considered that, but I think it'll be okay as long as I stick to mostly warforge-izing the hobgoblin/goblin troops and keep the other enemies as-is. Less work that way too. But then how should I justify the draconic troops. The big dragons will probably be warforged, since they need to be smart enough to be supporting the LoBster by their own free will. I'm thinking that if I make the Fane Dracotech and the aspect a sentient draconic creation forge left buried under Cyre but revealed by the mourning, then I could have monsters that were both living construct and infernal, which might spice things up a bit.

@DRkerosene I don't really want to use that many mindless constructs, maybe one or two tops. In large part because I'm not terribly experienced at making balanced fights, and Sainthearts guide makes it really easy to tweak the book without changing the combats too much. Once I start replacing fights, I'm gonna run the risk of making fights way too hard or way too easy. So I'll mess with all the fluff, but try to leave the mechanics.

@Saintheart I'm restatting the Wyrmlords now, and I wanted to know your opinion dropping the casting on a couple. I was thinking of making kharn warblade 5/warforged juggernaut 5, but I know your guide recommends keeping caster levels on him. Would giving him a couple cleric/artificer mooks be enough?

Different problem, but another important one.

One of the party is warforged. When they encounter Jorr, how racist should he be? Should he outright attack the PC? Should he refuse to be a guide unless the PC stays behind? Or should a high enough Diplomacy check (maybe DC 20) convince him to serve as a guide, since he figures the PC will at least be killing other warforged.

Saintheart

2015-07-01, 07:38 PM

@Saintheart I'm restatting the Wyrmlords now, and I wanted to know your opinion dropping the casting on a couple. I was thinking of making kharn warblade 5/warforged juggernaut 5, but I know your guide recommends keeping caster levels on him. Would giving him a couple cleric/artificer mooks be enough?

It's really more about action economy balance and dealing with a party that has one caster or more. In that final encounter, if the party's been doing everything right, Kharn as written only has a couple of hill giants and ogres. I'd guess James and Rich were hoping with this encounter that most of the party's "I Win" buttons have been pressed and used up on everything from Streets of Blood through to Abithriax's Rampage. It's meant to be a melee grind as far as I can tell and meant to push the players to being knocked out or just winning.

In practice, parties are a bit more savvy than that as far as I've seen. They tend to keep at least one nuke in the backpack for an End Of Level boss, and Kharn is pretty much the living definition of that. The main reason I suggest Kharn has spellcasting support in this battle -- either from him or from a mook or two around him -- is because (a) It's 3.5, Caster Levels Are King, and the party will be level 9 or 10 by the time they hit this battle (b) Kharn's original build is Favored Soul, Talon of Suck Tiamat, which would indicate the writers certainly understood he needed a little self-buffing at least to get through this battle.

Putting in cleric/artificer mooks might well be superior to leaving caster levels on Kharn if you have an action economy imbalance - if you have a party that's got more than about 5 players and you have one caster or more. Kharn's allies as written are hill giants and ogres, i.e. pretty much dead on one Will-save spell and otherwise just big lumps of hitpoints without battlefield control to them. It's a delicate balance - make your clerics too high-levelled and they turn this into a potential TPK, make them too low and it's like the experience with Ulwai - level 3 clerics are nowhere near strong enough to meaningfully engage or debuff a level 8 party.

Saintheart

2015-07-02, 12:44 AM

This makes a good argument for bringing out the Living Cloudkill prior to the battle of Brindol. If the PC's don't know about it before the climactic battle, they won't know that they should go assassinate the Mistling. But if they saw the Living Cloudkill steamroll through a line of peasants at the massacre at Drellin's Ferry ... they'll know of the danger, and be more likely to seek out taking care of that issue before the big battle.

One small note here: the Massacre at Drellin's Ferry only happens if the party is really, really slow on the uptake and doesn't manage to convince the villagers to head for the hills. The massacre is meant to be the DM saying "Are you getting the point yet that you can't win on your own? Well, here's a big death sandwich for afternoon tea!" In most cases the party is going to convince the Ferryfolk to get the hell out of town well ahead of the Hand's arrival there. On the other hand, retooling the Raid On The West Bank -- or the Chimaera Attack -- as a sort of "test flight" for a living cloudkill might drive the point home too, and turn those events into something other than "Random Encounters Home Delivery Service".

kalasulmar

2015-07-02, 05:05 AM

It's really more about action economy balance and dealing with a party that has one caster or more. In that final encounter, if the party's been doing everything right, Kharn as written only has a couple of hill giants and ogres. I'd guess James and Rich were hoping with this encounter that most of the party's "I Win" buttons have been pressed and used up on everything from Streets of Blood through to Abithriax's Rampage. It's meant to be a melee grind as far as I can tell and meant to push the players to being knocked out or just winning.

In practice, parties are a bit more savvy than that as far as I've seen. They tend to keep at least one nuke in the backpack for an End Of Level boss, and Kharn is pretty much the living definition of that. The main reason I suggest Kharn has spellcasting support in this battle -- either from him or from a mook or two around him -- is because (a) It's 3.5, Caster Levels Are King, and the party will be level 9 or 10 by the time they hit this battle (b) Kharn's original build is Favored Soul, Talon of Suck Tiamat, which would indicate the writers certainly understood he needed a little self-buffing at least to get through this battle.

Putting in cleric/artificer mooks might well be superior to leaving caster levels on Kharn if you have an action economy imbalance - if you have a party that's got more than about 5 players and you have one caster or more. Kharn's allies as written are hill giants and ogres, i.e. pretty much dead on one Will-save spell and otherwise just big lumps of hitpoints without battlefield control to them. It's a delicate balance - make your clerics too high-levelled and they turn this into a potential TPK, make them too low and it's like the experience with Ulwai - level 3 clerics are nowhere near strong enough to meaningfully engage or debuff a level 8 party.
The party I ran through RHOD used Immerstal to scry and assassinate Kharn. But Ulwai took his place. Call Lightning was a really great tool to use during the final stand in Cathedral Square, especially considering the bluespawn godslayer I added in for scary melee shenanigans. The first big blast the party took while trying to swarm and overwhelm the bluespawn was glorious. Watching big burly barbs and fighters dive for cover into the coffinmaker shop while the horde mows down mook defenders made me giggle. Caster bosses, brute lieutenants. Formula works for a reason.

Malcador

2015-07-02, 10:33 AM

ksbsnowowl

2015-07-02, 03:11 PM

What are you doing with the Ghostlord? My recommendation is to replace him with the mistling responsible for the living cloudkills. Instead of the phylactery, have the LoB kidnap another mistling (the GL's lover/sibling/good friend/casual acquaintance) with less powerful spellcasting, who can only produce living stinking clouds and such. That way, depending on how well the players play, they can deny the LoB some or all of his living spells.

There is a problem with that, mechanically. The Living Spells that the Mistling can create only last for 1 hour per level, then they just cease to be. So he can't stock them up over a series of days (and the ability is only once per day), so mechanically it doesn't work.

Of course, a little DM handwaivium can make it work. Just depends how much the OP's group is sticklers for the rules, or not.

One small note here: the Massacre at Drellin's Ferry only happens if the party is really, really slow on the uptake and doesn't manage to convince the villagers to head for the hills. ...To clarify, when I said peasants, I really just meant your average NPC's, whether they were Commoners or 3rd level Warriors, the effect would still be the same.

Every time I've played or run some variation on RHoD, the PC's have evacuated the women and children, and tried to make a stand at Drellin's Ferry with what defenders they could muster (either to buy time for the fleeing villagers, or because they think they can hold off the horde). Usually it takes two or three waves before they decide to fall back.

Granted, your suggestion of running the Living Cloudkill as one of the early assaults on the town makes sure the PC's know of it, even if the party evacuates with the villagers. It definitely has that perk going for it.

Talesin

2015-07-03, 08:18 AM

Every time I've played or run some variation on RHoD, the PC's have evacuated the women and children, and tried to make a stand at Drellin's Ferry with what defenders they could muster (either to buy time for the fleeing villagers, or because they think they can hold off the horde). Usually it takes two or three waves before they decide to fall back.

I would be careful. My PCs saw the size of the Horde at Cinder Hill and then more or less ran through the town on their way out east. Plus given it takes the Horde at least 10 days to get to Drellin's Ferry, unless the PCs faff around in the forest/Skull Gorge bridge then even the preliminary encounters don't happen for a few days after the PCs return.

Should be more than enough time to evacuate the town unless they get bogged down talking about whether they should leave. If Jorr is there then it adds quite a weight behind the PCs GTFO plan.

n00b17

2015-07-18, 04:13 PM

Alright, so I've taken a while to think about this and I have a layout for the revisions to RHoD, and also now have a plan for for the adventure leading up to it.

My hope for this is for the campaign to be easily reproducible, so people can try the bits they like if they like it. So here's my stab at that.

Thank you to everyone who's contributed. Campaign journal should start in a little more than a month, although the RHoD may not begin until a few months after that. Everything is still subject to change, so keep the great comments coming!

Leading up to the RHoD

PC's begin in Sharn. A new ruin is discovered far below ground, and a Morgrave professor hires the PC's are hired to explore.
The dungeon turns out to a Dhakaani library. Most books are ruined, but they find at least one book in good condition. The examines it and says it contains lore on Giant civilizations. The professor promises to get back to them after making a copy.
As they go to meet with the prof again, the Watch breaks in, confiscates the book, and arrests the prof. As he's being dragged out, he shouts to the PC's to figure out what's going on.
Pc's discover watch is bribed by house Cannith, which is after an warforged-related artifact described in the book. They must uncover the corrupt captain to free prof, then chase house Cannith to the ruin in Xen'drik. To complicate things, the Aurum is seeking to break HC's monopoly and has hired an explorer to get there first.
Race to the ruins, with skirmishes all along the way
In the ruins, they find a chamber carved with 5 dragon heads pointing to a central pedestal. Around the walls are carved (in giant and draconic), the story of how a 5 headed dragon taught the Giants the gift artifice and raised them from primitive civilizations to mighty empires.
No matter who gets there first, they find the artifact is already gone (Although the rest of the loot is not).
Everyone is forced to return to Sharn.
Sometime after they return, they are sent to investigate bands of warforged raiders near New Cyre (which will replace Drelin's ferry). This leads into RHoD.

The Wyrmlords
Koth: Psiforged Psion
Saarvith: WF scout gunslinger(Because why wouldn't you want a 3 foot tall robot cowboy who rides a mechadragon? Eberron is the best)
Ulwai: Male Wf with an unfortably sexualized body. Originally created by the creepily obessed Norro d'Cannith. Named Stoney. may or may not be Rocky from the Rocky Horror Picture Show, but with lightning powers. :smallbiggrin:
Kharn: Uses RKV build from Saintheart's guide, and has LoB as his "deity", but otherwise unchanged.

The Lord of Blades
Artificer 11. Has 2 wand sheaths to allow more versatility. Will use a mix of blasting spells (with metamagic) and either buffs for when the PC's close in, or BC spells to keep the PC's at a distance. Might use Double Wand Wielder, but I'll have to playtest him a bit so I don't end up with a TPK.

Monsters
Dragons and all draconic creatures --> Warforged version, just apply Living construct subtype
Ogres--> Replace monstrous humanoid(giant) with construct(Living construct) and adjust racial traits
Hobos --> standard issue warforged
Goblins --> WF scouts
Others remain the same.

The Battle of Brindol
Defending the walls: Change giants to artillery
Abrita...Arbatra...Abitrata .... Red Dragon rampage: changes as per Saintheart's guide
Streets of blood: Redo second wave, will include warforged with alchemical bombs that work like Stinking Cloud, swarm the PC's before they can recover. Last wave will include WF Titan
Sniper Attack: As per Saintheart's guide.
Kharn: As per Saintheart's guide.

The Lord of Blades' Creation Forge
The party must journey into the Mournland to reach the LoB, shich is a challenge in itself.

The aspect of Tiamut will be replaced by/refluffed into a sentient creation forge that the Lord of Blades has created by combining the Giant/Draconic artifact with the broken remains of House Cannith's Genesis Forge in Cyre. After the PC's fight the LoB, the forge will become enraged and rip free of its constraints, saying the PC's have "Threatened the Prophecy"