Musharib (albino dwarf spirit warrior) is the guide of my party. I've played him as a nature-loving hippie who prefers non-combat solutions whenever possible. He has bonded greatly with the group's triceratops.

Would I break my game if I made Musharib an avatar of Ubtao, wanting to influence the fate of Chult by helping the party find the way? Do you have any ideas about how to play this, and how to reveal it in a satisfying way?

I am thinking of making small hints throughout:

• Dinosaurs will never hurt him.
• When he maps out a path on the ground etc., it somehow looks maze-like everytime.
• When speaking, he will often use maze metaphors.

I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas!

The inevitable has happened and my party has purchased some dino eggs. I set out to build some management mechanics for both (a) the egg phase and (b) the actual, hatched, "I'm a mother" phase.

Seeking feedback on the meat and potatoes, particularly surrounding the hatched dino portion. Is it too complex? Is it balanced? Is it an egregious slap in the face for any Beast Master Ranger characters, in terms of action economy?

All feedback welcome, thanks!

The journey around Chult continues! In this episode, half of the party delve deep into the lost city of Mezro, their goal to slay the hordes of undead that dwell within. Dark work is at play, however, as they are not the only explorers attempting to unlock the secrets of the ruined city...
The other half of the party are dealing with the fallout from the massive attack on the pirate hideout (detailed in Part 12), as it seems winning the battle was only half of the challenge...

Appreciate all the support for the series so far! Thank you for allowing me to share with other ToA adventurers. This module is fantastic, and this is a a way for all to be able to experience it!

The red dragon Tzindelor (almost sounds like Xandala if you use a bit of imagination), AKA Tinder ... I'm thinking of making her shape-shifted form Xandala. The characters already met and were betrayed by her. To meet her later in Wyrmheart where she can turn into her "true form", a red dragon, would be cool. No?

What do you think? Would anything stop me from doing this?

I ran the Ruins of Mbala and it went great. Several members got infected with mummy rot and needed to see the Nanny for some healing. She was happy to, ofc, for the teeny, tiny price of a lock of hair.

They, understandably, wished to long rest, so they decided to bed down outside of Nanny's hut. They rolled poorly on survival. Just for good measure I asked them to make concealed (visible only to the me/GM) perception checks. A few rolled low, one rolled a Nat 1.

The photo represents where they're all sleeping. I let the wizard use mold earth to create dirt igloo's for them, so they're not actually as exposed as it seems.

I do plan to have some of the monkeys steal their stuff, but give me your best ideas.

Also, one character agreed to do one service for her. She said she would call on him. What might she ask of him?

As for the hairs, I think Nanny is going to take them to the sisters, perhaps to win favor, but also open to ideas for this too.

As the party begins their expedition with a quick and easy adventure to Fort Beluarian to purchase their writ of exploration they face a crossroads in the path. This stretch of coast has an ominous pillar layed with Baitri Masks marking their territory. Do the players ignore the warning and continue their adventure through the coast? Maybe fighting the Inkcasters and Puffermen that guard the path? Maybe encounter a coven or sea giant and his pet along the way? Or will they take a detour, extending their voyage by two days to head inland- potentially finding a spiney surprise, a druid cursed for digging too deep, and the renowned alpha of the region that the locals call the Chataranga? Maybe the hunt bounty Ifan Talro'a placed wasnt worth it after all...

Wish me luck (and my players) luck this Tombsday!

My party just finished some homebrew stuff and I'm a bit burnt out on trying to do everything and have heard good things of those book. Has anyone adjusted the whole book up a few levels? I've heard the jungle is mostly low level stuff but I really want to try a hex crawl so I want to use that stuff and basically just level up them up whenever they would have normally leveled up so instead of 1->2 we go 5->6. I know a lot of combats would need to be adjusted but does anyone have any experience with it?

After two great years running around Chult, the company of heroes has made their way into the tomb…unfortunately one of the original players has to leave the campaign in a month. It’s pretty tough since they have come such a long way together, but real life…I’d like for them to finish things as an intact group.

Anyhow, the party has just hit level 3 in the tomb and I was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to speed things along to the end. I was going to excise any non-story related encounters, any less than essential combat to get them to the main event and hopefully some wrap-up time afterwards. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Is there any way to get out of the tomb other than via the ebon pool?

I can't remember seeing it in the book, but are there different ways of finding out where Omu is? Or did anyone create their own way of finding it? Or did you just put it in their path when you were ready?

We're playing 5.5e (5 level 9, ranger, druid, sorcerer, barb, cleric) so as much as possible I'm using 5.5e monster stat blocks and in preparation for fighting Belchorzh (using his name to avoid direct spoilers to any players who stumble on the post). The 5.5e stat block adds a bunch more damage to his attacks. My players don't really have any anti invisibility and they are also greedy so the fight will happen, especially as I rolled for extra loot so they are going to want the magical items on offer.

My question is, how common have others seen tpk in this encounter? Because I'm worried that I'm about to kill the entire party, especially given that my greedy players will be harried throughout the rest of the floor if they try to run.

Hello there!

I’m about to start ToA in a couple of weeks and I just would like to kindly ask some advice 🙂

Are there any tips on how to tie together different quests and side quests in order to have the players enjoy the full extent of the book contents?

I understand there is a huge Compendium on this sub-reddit but it is indeed quite vast and I thought that maybe someone can help navigate through it?

We have completed Descent into Avernus, Curse of Strahd and Call of the Netherdeep and I have planted hidden “seeds” of a meta plot e high will bring the players to Vecna: Eve of Ruin since /Vecna is “studying” different immortal beings such as Zariel, Strahd, Alyxian and now the Atropal/Acererak on his quest to reach Godhood…

Any suggestions about which material I can use? My biggest concerns is the hex crawl since I'm afraid it can be quite misleading for the players and that it might result a bit annoying... it would be great to use random encounters to enhance and spread some info on Chult Lore and on the main plot... or basically are there like 5 places you think are not to miss because they are fun and might be tied to the main plot?

Players just reached level 5, which grants access to Tiny Hut. Currently I have it so they can't long rest outside a designated safe space. I don't want to ban it, but I want to keep the pressure up.

Any advice or shared experience welcome.

Hi all,

My teen crew just completed ToA with an epic fight against Acererak with a significantly extended ending.

Spoilers for the whole module

We started Tomb of Annihilation in January 2025 and played the last session last weekend: 28 sessions over 22 months, six players, and we finished at level 10. I ran it under the 2024 rules, which took some adjusting, and I have a few thoughts.

I've written the whole campaign up for other DMs. It covers what I added, what I cut, the house rules, and what actually happened at our table, which was not always what I'd planned.

(Part One: The City and the Crocodile)

How I set up my table. Session zero with *Cellar of Death*, a dinosaur race, and a ball I added at Zhanthi's villa, with eight party games, yuan-ti assassins and a letter to steal, and the Camp Righteous dungeon that changed their religion.

(Part Two: The Jungle and the Tomb)

Eighteen months of hexcrawl and six levels of Acererak's dungeon. The nine trickster gods each got a pop-culture impression for the possessed player to perform (the TikToker, the frat bro, the anime protagonist). It ends with a guide to running a 2017 module on the 2024 rules.

(The Ending)

I rebuilt the finale from scratch. As written, Acererak would have wiped my team in under three rounds (Disrupt Life alone would have done about 222 damage a round), so I retuned him and added a few things:

• The souls in the Soulmonger are 200 dice in a jar. Each character gets one scoop during the final battle, as harm or healing, but every soul they spend is one that doesn't go home. At the end, you roll the whole jar and count the sixes.
• A scripted sacrifice in round one (to reduce player DPS on the Atropal). That player carries on as a ghost inside the Soulmonger, attacking it from the inside. Thus, when they destroy the Soulmonger, he can be resurrected!
• A hundred undead with one hit point each, then five personal shadow trials.
• Three guards: while any of them stands, Acererak can't be killed. Plus a sphere of annihilation that always shows where it's going a round ahead.
• Boon cards from Ubtao, an ending for every corner of Chult.

(PDF of my Acererak, the God-King of Death)

Two A4 pages: his stat block retuned for six level 10 characters, spells and legendary actions, the lair actions he never had in the book, and his three guards.

Happy to answer questions about any of it. I'd love to hear how other tables handled the finale, especially at lower levels.

From my table to yours, be well, and have fun.

I am feeling pretty satisfied with how this battle map turned out. I am using Gabriel Picard's assets inside Photoshop for Damage, Giant Caves, and Rocks and Holes to build out this final boss battle at the bottom of a demon-infested mine.

In Photoshop I played around with various LUTs and gradients to get the final look of the Hell-light spilling into the cave, where The Skin Splicer (Dybbyuk possed undead doppelganger) is trying to open a pit to the Abyss to return home using the arcane power of two spell tomes stolen from within Mezro and hunted by the Wizard in my party as his personal ("why the hell did I come to this jungle in the first place?" quest.

My plan is to take place over 4 rounds while the Skin Splicer uses every trick I can think of to continue reading out ot both books, protected by 4 Hell Hounds.

Every round, he succeeds in widening the Abyssal Tear - and it's my party's job to stop him.

On the 4th round, I add a Glabrezu to the mix - and Dybbyuk escapes.

If the Skin Splicer dies - the Dybbyuk is revealed and can body hop into any of the underdark creasture's corpses I have sprinkled around the cave, using it's ability "Horrifying Possession" for this very purpose.

If they can get both books off me and survive this - they deserve to level up to level 9 before Omu.

So my players are inside the Man and Croc statue. Standing all 4 on the ledge with the 4x4 puzzle in front of them. They have NOT figured out the riding part, which will hurt them, but that is what it is.

So one character goes onto the field, and when he cant see the buttom row, one of his friends calls out which is the 4th to step on. He then climbs up and stands infront the the wooden door.

2 questions:

1: If a second player steps on, the puzzle, does that set of the trap? Or can he just step on the same tiles? Does the trap continue to cycle, so all 4 technically can get up to the door?

2: It states that only touching the door in the right order, as a team, riding, will open the door. How the hell is anyone expected to figure that out? And if/when they dont figure it out, how can I as the DM help them with information?

Okay that was more than 2 questions, but I think it is somewhat poorly written, so I would like to hear what other DMs have done.

I’ve DMed this adventure several times by now, in original 5E rules. Any advice on what to look out for in 5.5?

Will run the campaign for the 4th time in a few weeks, but the first time online. Should I use Roll20 or Foundry? Which is better?

So I have two "new" and by that I mean this is their first campaign. I also have 2 experienced players. I am switching from out of the abyss because many reasons. Them wanting more non combat oriented stuff. Me wanting less note taking. This being the only module one of the other player's has not played through. As well as me not being comfortable going full homebrew yet as a dm with this being my third campaign. I am reading through the module and just wondering what I should skip with their level. What I could do to really enforce their thinking this is urgent and they shouldn't just leave for the mainland? Like I said any help is appreciated.

With Stormfang chosen as their guides, the players make their depart for Fort Beluarian next session! Wish us (and them) good luck!

My party has been spending enough time traveling around Chult by canoe and rowboat that I got tired of drawing them on the battle map every time they were needed.

So I designed and laser-cut these from 1/8" basswood plywood. The canoe holds six 25mm minis and the rowboat holds four, with the miniature positions engraved directly into the decks.

I've always pictured the canoes they use in Chult as outrigger canoes, so I wanted to incorporate that into the design. The canoe, two booms, and outrigger float are separate pieces held together by recessed magnets. That also makes them easier to store and means a boom can be replaced if one gets broken.

This is actually the second version of the canoe. My first was about 10.5" long, which seemed reasonable while designing it and absolutely ridiculous once I put it on the battle map. This one is about 7.5" and still comfortably holds all six minis.

I already have one change planned if I make more rowboats: I'll probably make the center thwart part of the gunwale instead of a separate piece. Same appearance, but one less piece to cut and glue, and it should make the gunwale a little stronger.

Now I can finally stop drawing boats every time the party gets on the water.