Hoard of the Dragon Queen Preparations Ep 1

Campaign Prep - Ep 1

Ill try to write my thoughts on preparing for episode one as well as advice for any new DMs looking to run HotDQ with new players.


As a new DM with new players, I think its best to use this episode to get a feel for encounter difficulties as well as the playstyles of your players. You dont need to work in a lot of extra stuff at this point before you know if your players will bite.

As it stands I should have 6 players in what is "supposed" to be made for a 4 player party. Having 6 should reduce some of the difficulty, but I also have implemented some extra abilities for some of my players that should help improve their survivability. I've noticed many seem to choose the path of including healers or healing potions along the way, which I'll probably do as well to a lesser extent (I'm looking at 1 healer in the keep and another they rescue from the sanctuary, full healing on a level up short rest, but no healing potions), but I feel that that type of mechanic doesn't really work to solve the issues as fluidly and feels like an obvious gimmick.

Most of my players come from video gaming background. This tends to lead to a certain progression if left unchecked. For example: In Lost Mines in Phandelver there is a goblin cave that players need to investigate in the first part of the adventure. In almost every case players of this type have entered the first cavern on the right with the wolves, the proceeded to climb up the hidden* chimney and end up fighting the bugbear (the BBEG of the section) almost immediately before exploring the rest of the caverns. They always took the first turn and never looked back. Now perhaps its my fault for making it too obvious that there's a passage since this was normally played on a map. On the otherhand there are probably a few deterrents I'd think of now such as having the pet wolf be heard barking or even appearing over the ledge, maybe even have the bugbear dispose of a carcass over the ledge or other objects being thrown. Basically something that makes them think again about taking that route, but nothing that would prevent them should their minds be set. 

So I read the first grueling episode a couple times, then finished the rest. Some thoughts:

• Ep 1 is tough

 Its not meant to have everything completed, it just too much for level 1-2 character without access to long rests. I'd like to get as much in as I can though.Too many make the mistake of trying to cram all the content in as well as playing RAW. THAT IS A MISTAKE. This adventure was written while the official rules were still being made and before the DMG and MM. Thats not to say you need to rewrite the whole thing, it just needs some tweaks here and there to work reasonably well. Some of it come from the combat difficulty which isn't as much of an issue with a party of 6. Generally you want to check the challenge rating on kobold fight club or even just roughly compare the head count to your your party. Being outnumbered is a rather significant disadvantage.

• Hooking the characters

This takes a little work. It honestly takes a special kind of person (lawful good) to dive into a town being attacked by an adult dragon while still level 1. Fortunately Appendix A give some easy hooks through bonds you can add or replace, or features you can add to characters. These will get characters involved with Greenest or at least the Cult. I hooked mine with the kobold infiltrating the Cult and meeting with the Knight who was tasked with investigating the Cult. Our Cleric was also a bounty hunter whose target was Cyranwrath.

• Reach the Keep

Despite entering from the west or south, Every game should open with the kobolds attacking the Swift family. This does not have to be the immediate bloodbath some make it. The kobolds notice the characters, but continue to focus on the Swift family, due to assuming that you are cultists (which are all dressed normally, not in culty looking clothes fyi) If you want a darker tone you can start with them killing the family but otherwise you can stretch it out with some taunting and only the occasional hits, maybe some intentionally missed sling shots. This should easily segway into an escort mission to the keep. You may want to use this opportunity to use the NPCs to advice the characters to sneak using the dim light maybe bypassing one of the encounters.

• Inside the keep

Depending on the wounds, you may want the family to introduce the party to a cleric inside. I randomly generated a level 3 cleric of Chauntea named One-eye Philip. He liked to give hugs and said "if the gods will it" a lot. Let your NPCs have some personality :)

 Have the Governor seek them out after hearing some "well equipped adventurers" arrived. He can give them the missions and introduce them to Castellan. Most adventurer's are unlikely to continue without some sort of reward promised however. (i recommend free food and lodging at an inn or his mansion) Most of the time I try to send them down the old tunnel as its an easy mission to set up later ones.

• I made a timetable to show the optimal time usage over the course of the night and they would get ~3 short rests and probably gain a level shortly after reaching the keep
• Nightfall: Seek the Keep
• 9 pm: Meet Nighthill+get prisoners quest+meet Escobert+Old tunnel Mission
• 10 pm: pull characters back for Sally Port mission
• 11 pm: Level up Short rest
• 12 am: Dragon attack ( dragon leaves- they feel safer going out, likely undamaged)
• 1 am: Sanctuary
• 2 am: Short rest
• 3 am: Save the Mill
• 4 am: Dragon Champion (they should be exhausted at this point, maybe heal a heroic character beforehand)

• Old tunnel mission

I've seen a lot of people advocating removing the rats from tunnel. DON'T. This is often one of the most memorable moments. The tunnel is just wide enough for single file passage, but since I have 6 I will probably open up the last few yards to 2 wide. 2 swarms of rats inhabit the area and attack if disturbed, so I generally go with any loud noise. Keep in mind they can inhabit the same space as a character, so they dont block the way and multiple characters can attack them even if single file. They have resistance to most physical attacks and immunities to conditions. With that in mind, dont roll for their HP, leave it at 24 or less. They also flee at 12 HP.

• Sally Port

After they unlock the door (skip any fights outside for now, maybe later), have a villager or one of the Swifts bring them back to the keep and run the Sally Port mission (or tease the sighting of Fraulam). The sally port is an external room beside the main doors that is used as an extra area to reach invaders attacking the main doors. This is NOT visible on the overmap. You will need to create one or imagine it. This is pretty easy to run and can teach the importance of non combat spells. After this most people should hit level 2 by my count based on my party of 6. A party of 4 may have hit it after the old tunnel mission.

• Custom level up rule: You need a short rest to get your level increase benefits. Spellcasters regain half max spell slots. Full HP and Hit Die.

Ahhhhhh rest......

• Dragon attack

Snap back to reality! This section can be a little difficult to run since it can be VERY deadly. I put a ballista (the crew just got fried with the captain) on the wall from the DMG (pg 255) 

+6 attack, 3d10, 3 actions, 1 to load/1 to aim/1 to fire

You can also have charismatic character rally the troops:

30 troops (1d4 die every breath attack and 1d6 injured)

Take cover (dc 12) success means half the normal amount will die and be injured

Fire (dc 12) 3d6 - 1d6 per 10 deaths/injury

Hold the line (dc 14 after death or failed fire)

Dont ever use the breath attack directly on the PCs. It WILL KILL THEM. Key them in when a breath attack might come (hair stands up) and remind them to duck.

I can GUARANTEE someone in my group will try to talk to the dragon and there is no reason why it shouldn't converse. I mean it clearly doesn't want to be here. Maybe have some deal with the necromancer or offer warlock powers....

• Random encounters

If stealthy roll checks every 100 feet, if more than half fail then roll a d6 and if below 4 roll an encounter. if not stealthy just do the d6 every 100 feet. Its dark, give them advantage on any stealth checks. You probably shouldn't do too many of theses give the difficulty of the night in the first place, but if you do....I recommend the pendragon hack. Its a rolling encounter table that includes other events such as lightning and various combat setups.

• Sanctuary

You can probably tease this by mentioning there is another cleric (aka heals) probably there. This is one of the more involved and well designed missions as it has moving enemies and a perceived time limit. One of the biggest things here for the DM is to get the party to observe long enough to make a plan. Once inside the the door ramming is occurring, a visible timer can up the ante.

• Save the mill

Ah the ambush mission. One of the things to keep in mind here is that you want them to notice that is something isn't quite right with the mill burning (or in reality, not burning) getting them to observe and investigate.

• Dragon Champion

He's gonna kill a character. Make a big deal about. Make them hate him. The biggest shame is that he doesn't really have any story impact. He appears in Ch 3 as part of a mob to be killed. You might want to keep him around as a constant BBEG. Not everyone is a fan of this being what is basically an impossible fight, but i think it can hook the characters in deeper to the story. (just don't actually kill your PCs)

Other things to think about

• Enemy HP - probably going to go standard and adjust up as i feel, randomized for random encounters
• Starting point. I was seeing where a lot of DM's were starting the campaign on the west side of town rather than the south side. Might make it so its player choice or split groups if things dont work out for the first session. West side seems to allow more area for encounters
• Fog of war. I'm just going to say that they have the rough layout memorized when the come over a hill looking out at the town so I dont have to mask everything. Enemies will be hidden though. Not enthusiastic about having to deal with dark vision vs normal vision. 
• Exploration initiative is set by marching order, shouldn't be an issue in this ep.
• Not a whole lot of items in this, just some healing potions or healers
• I will have a brazier in the keep for the necromancer to use find familiar.
• NEED TO REMEMBER
• Kobolds (including the necromancer) have pack tactics
• Elf, Kobold, and Tiefling have Darkvision
• Human, Goliath, and Hafling do NOT have dark vision
• MEANING: DISADV on sight perception checks -5 PP

Important Characters

• Tarbaw Nighthill (Found pic)
• Human Male (60) Governor of Town
• Right side of face and head bandaged 
• Bloodstained light blue tunic
• takes characters to parapet to talk and see Faulam Mondath
• Believes raiders dont intend to attack deep, just want loot
• Old Man voice?
• Castellan Escobert the Red
• Keep Guard?
• Dwarf with tangled red hair
• has key ring
• mainly for tunnel info and sally port mission
• Grunty dwarf voice?
• Lilan Swift and Cuth Swift
• seek the keep mission
• Cuth limp
• Lilan has some training but is commoner
• Lennithon (24HP 19AC)
• adult blue dragon
• unenthusiastic
• mostly using frightful presence
• Deep voice? (Clownfish changed?)
• Frulam Mondath
• Purple robes
• Seen in distance
• Rezmir
• Dragon lady
• Black Half Dragon
• Sentient greatsword
• Not seen but mentioned
• Big Bad of this module
• Langdedrosa Cyanwrath
• Half blue Dragon champion
• might make reoccurring (bounty for war cleric)
• normally miniboss in ep 2 dungeon
• Cocky deep voice?

At this point its still a work in progress. Lots to do, but at least still plenty of time. Until I start forgetting...


UPDATE PART II

I came across this blog entry:
http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/p/hoard-of-dragon-queen-index.html

Which include a lot of advice and serious tweaks. More than I'm willing to do since I want a somewhat vanilla D&D experince for first time players, but there were some useful bits here and there.

Characterization of Tarbaw Nighthill
"Govern Tarbaw Nighthill: 60 years of age. Wounded->(Broken Right arm, bleeding from face). Adding the trait of "Swears Dramatically" and the personality of calm and pontificating. Short list of swears:

• "By the shadows of Mask's ass!"
• "By the black hand of Bane!
• "What in the ass of the abyss are/is. . . "
• "I'll be smacked with the c*&k of Tempus!"
• "By the hairy pair of Moradian. . ."
• "Great stinking balls of Tempus!"
• "By Mystara's ice-cold brass tits!"
• Explitives
• "Tymora's Tits!
• "Orcsucker!"
• "Smoke and ashes!"

He says these in a completely calm conversational tone (calm) and goes on about the greatness of the players and his plan and the need for their help (Pontificating)"

Not as thrilled with Castellan. Do need to come up with a reason for the "Red" moniker. Probably related to drinking or something. I dont see why i cant just make run him as a generic type dwarf for my group.

He also outlines consequences and that result in how many people are saved as well as other modifiers. 

Pre-gaming

Campaign Decisions

Time to talk about about what decision I am making before the game and why.

Why HotDQ?

Because one of my players bought the book and gave it to me.

Homebrew?

No, I'm not allowing it for now. At least not at character creation. Given how new my players and I are, I'd like for us to get a feel for the game and the natural balance before changing things up too much. I am allowing all core content so the PHB, Sword Coast Adventurer's guide, Elemental Evil Player's Companion guide, and Volo's Guide to Monsters.

UPDATE: So a little change here to satisfy my players to help them "feel" like their classes and balance characters a bit. I have allows small parts of UA content like starter spells and Lost book of Spells as well as some Feature ideas.

Why Fantasy Grounds?

1. I got the ultimate license. 
2. The Druid would have to play remotely anyways. He hasn't been able to join but 1 session up to this point, and even then it was remotely. 
3. The automation take a lot off my back, especially now that I learned a bit of the programming to make effects and the like. 
4. I learned about it before Roll20 and it had licensed content.

Greenhest is tough for level 1 characters. Why not bump them?

Originally I only had 4 players and I might have then. Then we got 6. I added some powers and spells, they'll be fine. I can adjust on the fly. Not to mention near death is kinda fun. (At least I think they are ok with it)

Characters

Now that I have most of the characters created there are a few things i'm making allowances for listed below.

Kobold necromancer - Sage NE

He's evil, so i fixed that with a Geas spell tying into his background. Originally part of a kobold clan living beneath a town who were on good terms with the citizens. At least until this kobold "helped" by attempting to raised a man's dead wife. The situation was taken care of by a traveling knight. To make peace with the people, the clan shaman cast a 9th level geas, commanding the kobold to obey the knight. So he leaves and travels with the knight. He later infiltrates the Cult of the Dragon under her orders and is to meet her at Greenhest....

Also necromancy is boring until level 5 when he can raise the dead, so i opened up the option to get spells from other sources like the "lost book of spells" and "The (not really) Complete Tome of Spells. Give more spell options is all I have to do since he's a wizard. Almost comedic in his world domination complex. Combine that with a strength score of 6 and it should be interesting.

Also boosted from the release of Xanathars guide. Toll of the dead is stupid strong.

Human Purple Dragon Knight LG

This is the Knight in question from the Kobolds background, therefore her Lawful good alignment should keep him under control and alive.

Soooo she doesn't actually choose the archetype until level 3. To maker her feel more knightly and fit her kit, I added a daily power from 4e called Heroic Rescue at level 1 as suggested by Matthew Coville in his Video. Its a fun power that keeps people alive a bit better in what is a tough first level as well as meshing will with the PDK kit.

Wood Elf Monk - Hermit? NG

So I've got a soft spot for these melee/weapon classes and I dont want them to just "swing my sword" in combat so I game him a daily power where he regain temp HP after loosing half his HP and gains damage while it lasts. Some sustainability with a twist. Still working on specific but sound like he is going to be totally new to the concepts of civilization

Goliath War Cleric - Urban bounty hunter (bounty: Cyanwrath) LN

He's a giant, honor-bound, unflinching, family-man. Think of it as a Kratos with a greatsword. Given that his sword is 2 handed, he prefers spells that only have a verbal component.

No real changes here since he has spellcasting+heals+AC+weapon damage. Fortunately he really wants a cool greatsword, and there is a sentient one within the campaign I'm going to catch his eye with.

Ghostwise Hafling Moon Druid - Far Wanderer N

No changes here. Just give him the list of animal, maybe limit it so he has to find some. Silent Speech is HUGE for his combat wild shape. Produce fire cantrip should work great to keep him alive at level 1 before he gets to shapeshifting.

Tiefling Rogue - Far Wanderer exile CN

Stereotypical, but it doesnt matter since we haven't played! It works! Sneak attack makes it so I dont need to help her out any as well as the fact that she has her favorite cantrip "vicious mockery"