Out of the Abyss Questions [Spoilers]

[Vaz]

For anyone who's playing through Out of the Abyss, why are you reading a thread about Out of the Abyss?

That said, I have been planning a few session plans for when we come to Out of the Abyss, and they've just escaped Velkynvelve.

1; I have spent a bit of time creating a huge list of Magic Items influenced by Diablo 3, and as a bunch of old 3.5 players, magic items is the most amount of fun was in gaining lots of Magic Items. having spoken with some of players, they are rather keen to get playing with these, as we're all big fans of Diablo. So, that said, how integral is Dawnbringer to the plot line? I gather that as it's an "optional" sidequest, and a quick CTRL+F of the PDF version, it's not exactly McGuffin; the sword. I also have a Hexblade who wishes to use one of the weapons created, and the entire party love the concept of Equipment Sets; hunting out various parts of the armour. Given that Out of the Abyss is very location hoppy, is replacing the Dawnbringer in the Tomb of Khaem with gear that is "not-Dawnbringer" going to have much of an impact on the story? If it is, what do I need to be careful of with regards to how it changes the story?

2; Has anyone played "Monster Mash" at the end of the Campaign, when the Demon Lords fight each other? I have 5 players, and while I normally hard ban PvP, feel that rather than having a Cutscene moment, I'd like to have the players each take a Demon Lord (roll a d20; lowest gets to choose which demon lord they want first, in ascending order. This d20 is now their initiative score, adding the Demon Lords Dexterity to it), and just have the players mash into each other, last one standing being the one that the party fight (the party, in the meanwhile are going to be fighting a pair of Marilith(s?)) so that're not at full stats. Has anyone run something similar to the "Clash of the Titans", where each player takes control of a large monster with Legendary Actions, and PvP'd? Do you have tips regarding this?

3. 3 month Break after escaping the Underdark; one of the players has made mention of playing through the Pathfinder Kingmaker AP. Now; another player within the team has their backstory as their ancestral home, north of Sundabar in the Silver Marches as being destroyed, and I feel that it's actually a decent place to start Kingmaker. Has anyone played Kingmaker? How long is it is supposed to take in game? Can the first adventure path be completed within 3-6 months? Will delaying the return of Out of the Abyss by 6 months objectively affect anything? Given that the party is due to start at ~7th level (Milestone levelling) by the time they leave the Underdark, is it worthwhile having a small portion of the Kingmaker campaign take place in the middle?

Thanks.

[Alejandro]

For anyone who's playing through Out of the Abyss, why are you reading a thread about Out of the Abyss?

That said, I have been planning a few session plans for when we come to Out of the Abyss, and they've just escaped Velkynvelve.

1; I have spent a bit of time creating a huge list of Magic Items influenced by Diablo 3, and as a bunch of old 3.5 players, magic items is the most amount of fun was in gaining lots of Magic Items. having spoken with some of players, they are rather keen to get playing with these, as we're all big fans of Diablo. So, that said, how integral is Dawnbringer to the plot line? I gather that as it's an "optional" sidequest, and a quick CTRL+F of the PDF version, it's not exactly McGuffin; the sword. I also have a Hexblade who wishes to use one of the weapons created, and the entire party love the concept of Equipment Sets; hunting out various parts of the armour. Given that Out of the Abyss is very location hoppy, is replacing the Dawnbringer in the Tomb of Khaem with gear that is "not-Dawnbringer" going to have much of an impact on the story? If it is, what do I need to be careful of with regards to how it changes the story?

2; Has anyone played "Monster Mash" at the end of the Campaign, when the Demon Lords fight each other? I have 5 players, and while I normally hard ban PvP, feel that rather than having a Cutscene moment, I'd like to have the players each take a Demon Lord (roll a d20; lowest gets to choose which demon lord they want first, in ascending order. This d20 is now their initiative score, adding the Demon Lords Dexterity to it), and just have the players mash into each other, last one standing being the one that the party fight (the party, in the meanwhile are going to be fighting a pair of Marilith(s?)) so that're not at full stats. Has anyone run something similar to the "Clash of the Titans", where each player takes control of a large monster with Legendary Actions, and PvP'd? Do you have tips regarding this?

3. 3 month Break after escaping the Underdark; one of the players has made mention of playing through the Pathfinder Kingmaker AP. Now; another player within the team has their backstory as their ancestral home, north of Sundabar in the Silver Marches as being destroyed, and I feel that it's actually a decent place to start Kingmaker. Has anyone played Kingmaker? How long is it is supposed to take in game? Can the first adventure path be completed within 3-6 months? Will delaying the return of Out of the Abyss by 6 months objectively affect anything? Given that the party is due to start at ~7th level (Milestone levelling) by the time they leave the Underdark, is it worthwhile having a small portion of the Kingmaker campaign take place in the middle?

Thanks.

I am playing in OOTA right now, and my PC has Dawnbringer. It's not necessary to the plot line at all, but very helpful to have. My GM did not make her an actual Sun Blade though, as that is actually extremely powerful in the Underdark. Replaced with some different abilities.

[Walmcoli]

Dawnbringer is not actually part of any plot so you should feel free to not include it.

I am running a group through OotA now and regret giving them Dawnbringer. It trivializes most encounters as almost everything has sunlight sensitivity (a Sun Blade is one of the few things in 5e that creates actual sunlight). The Pudding King was a much softer encounter as well since green slime dies from exposure to sunlight. I RP the NPCs complaining about the bright light but Dawnbringer's personality makes it very reluctant to be put out. Even though Stool gets sick and will die from prolonged exposure, the group just had it stay on the opposite end of the party from the bearer.

I would just put in your custom magic items in place of Dawnbringer. You could watch how things progress and insert it if the party seems to be struggling with encounters.

[Dudewithknives]

I played through OotA, we found the Dawnbringer, and threw it away.

Our party was, a moon druid, a blaster warlock, a Lore bard and a gwm paladin/death cleric. The mood druid couldn't use it, the warlock and bard were all casting and the Paladin used heavy weapons. Nobody was good aligned, and nobody wanted a big glowing target on them from having it.

It is not really important to the story.

However the whole campaign is very low magic item centered. Having powerful items will throw the power curve way off.

P.S. Kingmaker is amazing but use some tweaks. Great campaign but lots of book keeping and tons of RP. Not for your dungeon crawl fans.

[silvertree]

Our group completed OoTA, and we each took control of a demon lord for the final battle. Our DM gave us a week between when we picked our demons and the session where we fought, so we could familiarize ourselves with their abilities. Each had a natural enemy, so that made it easy for each player to choose who they'd fight against initially, which in turn helped prevent double and triple teaming against one player.

A couple of unique circumstances in our group:

- The player who drew Graz'zt spent the fight trying to escape, rather than fighting. The DM countered this by making the ritual prevent the demons from traveling more than x feet away from the center point of the ritual. He also had it pull the demons to it every x rounds, the effect also caused damage. Because of this necessary but impromptu mechanic, the final demon lords ended up dying to this effect, rather than the last one left for PC cleanup duty, which made the conclusion slightly anti-climactic.

- Two players controlled Demogorgon (one for each head), which was comical.

- The player who drew Orcus did his homework, and had 3 powerful summons on the field with him. He would have easily wiped the floor with everyone else except for...

- The DM decided the ritual also pulled in Lolth. We had story reasons for this. Orcus ended up spending a lot of his attention on Lolth, and Lolth in turn had to spend her attention on Orcus.