Dungeoncrasher and the Red Hand of Doom?

[The Robot Goat]

Hey! I'm relatively new to D&D 3e, but I've played a lot of other RPGs, so I'm getting a hang of it. I think my DM is going to be running my party (5/6 people) through Red Hand of Doom soon. I'm hoping not to be slaughtered, especially because my party tends to be horrible at optimizing, so I thought I'd try to make something that at least did well at what it was supposed to. With that in mind, the Dungeoncrasher build for Fighters caught my eye the other day, and I was wondering if anyone knew how viable that would be in RHoD, without spoiling anything that happens of course. I'm mostly worried there won't be much to throw enemies into, since my DM told me that there aren't many dungeons in the game.

Thanks in advance!

[Zombulian]

Hey! I'm relatively new to D&D 3e, but I've played a lot of other RPGs, so I'm getting a hang of it. I think my DM is going to be running my party (5/6 people) through Red Hand of Doom soon. I'm hoping not to be slaughtered, especially because my party tends to be horrible at optimizing, so I thought I'd try to make something that at least did well at what it was supposed to. With that in mind, the Dungeoncrasher build for Fighters caught my eye the other day, and I was wondering if anyone knew how viable that would be in RHoD, without spoiling anything that happens of course. I'm mostly worried there won't be much to throw enemies into, since my DM told me that there aren't many dungeons in the game.

Thanks in advance!

It won’t be a perfect strategy all the time, but there are quite a few pseudo-dungeons in that path that would let the smooshing into walls schtick shine.

[Kelb_Panthera]

It won’t be a perfect strategy all the time, but there are quite a few pseudo-dungeons in that path that would let the smooshing into walls schtick shine.

I dunno. There's pretty much always a wall or equivalent somewhere on the map but I remember a -lot- of those maps being outdoors. Lining up with them could prove difficult even with shocktrooper.

[Saintheart]

Basically, what's been said thus far. There's a variety of locations in RHOD, but not all of them are classic dungeons as such. I'd say there's enough walls around in the major areas to render it such that you'll be able to shine a couple of times, but definitely don't build your Fighter on the assumption that you'll be pulling that same trick every fight.

And I wouldn't be that worried about the party not being optimised as such, especially if you're running more than 4 people. When parties do TPK -- and it's pretty rare -- it's generally because of poor tactical thinking rather than not having a Wizard with Shivering Touch. It's a published module, it was designed with a standard four-man adventuring party in mind and such encounters as you're meant to fight usually can be handled by said 4 man adventuring party so long as they're not being complete fools.

[The Robot Goat]

Thanks for the advice all! I'll probably go ahead with it then, but try to make sure I'm not a one-trick-pony in the process. And glad to hear it's not quite as dangerous as I'd thought. Tbh, I don't have much experience with published modules, so I just kind of assumed the worst.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Could you have, say, a dragonborn (wings) warforged, or a raptoran? Having (Ex) flight would mean you could smack enemies into the ground when you can't smack 'em into walls or each other. Maybe see if you could find a way to make walls (via summonses, say) when you don't have access to them naturally. And in lieu of all of those, how about Leap Attack for all the same reasons as flight?

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Tbh, I don't have much experience with published modules, so I just kind of assumed the worst.

Yeah unless the title includes the words "Tomb", "Horror", and/or "of", you should be fine.

[Fizban]

Yeah unless the title includes the words "Tomb", "Horror", and/or "of", you should be fine.
Let's not be so generous- there are plenty of other modules punching way above their weight.

But Red Hand of Doom is not one of them. Me being me (someone who bans dungeoncrasher), I'd actually go so far as to say dungeoncrasher is too much, if the module is being run without modifications. But that's because dedicated dungeoncrasher builds are crazy. If you're just using it when the situation permits and not playing ping pong, it should be fine.

[Mr Adventurer]

When we started running RHoD, we had two TPKs (one character may have survived the second one actually).

To even attempt crashing people into floors via flight, you'd need Good manoeuvrability or better so you can hover, or else some investment in feats or items to let you do the same.

Leap Attack wouldn't work because it's part of a charge and you have to charge to the closest available space from which you can attack, which isn't going to be over their heads if you are starting on the ground.

Your table may have some objection to the attempt as well, since they may consider it not an appropriate use of the ability.

Blockade is my favourite wall-summons spell. Great in a wand chamber.

[Zombulian]

When we started running RHoD, we had two TPKs (one character may have survived the second one actually).

To even attempt crashing people into floors via flight, you'd need Good manoeuvrability or better so you can hover, or else some investment in feats or items to let you do the same.

Leap Attack wouldn't work because it's part of a charge and you have to charge to the closest available space from which you can attack, which isn't going to be over their heads if you are starting on the ground.

Your table may have some objection to the attempt as well, since they may consider it not an appropriate use of the ability.

Blockade is my favourite wall-summons spell. Great in a wand chamber.

I think when Leap Attack was mentioned it was supposed to be an alternative damage method when Dungeoncrashing wasn't an option.

Blockade is a great idea.