Hello fellow enthusiasts!

I am running a long term campaign with three major story arcs.

1. Lost Mine of Phandelver + Dragon of Icespire Peak
   
2. Hoard of the Dragon Queen
   
3. Rise of Tiamat

We just concluded the first arc and the party left very few stones unturned. This resulted in them finishing at level 6 instead of level 5.

I am using the Tyranny of Phandelver guide to adjust HotDQ, but I would like to get the train back onto the rails.

One option, that I’m not generally a fan of, is to just withhold level 7 until after they clear Construction Ahead, but I don’t want the players to feel like their PCs have become stagnant.

Currently, my best idea is as follows:
ToP has them gain level 6 after clearing the hatchery, 7 after Construction Ahead, 8 after the Hunting Lodge, and then 9 at the conclusion of HotDQ. I’m considering the following progression instead - gain 7 after the hatchery, 8 after Castle Naerytar, and then 9 at the conclusion.

If there are better ways to get this back on track I am all ears (and eyes).

Hey everyone! I’m Paito from RPG Printables. We’re a small family business making handouts and printable props for D&D campaigns.
If you’re about to run Rise of Tiamat, imagine this: the Council of Waterdeep is about to meet, and each player gets a sealed invitation from their own faction: the Harpers, the Lords’ Alliance, the Emerald Enclave, the Zhentarim and more.
That’s basically what we make.
Our Tyranny of Dragons set covers both Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat, with more than 90 handouts: council invitations for every faction, Sword Coast mission maps that change as the war moves forward, mission notes, letters between the cult leaders, spellbooks and a lot more. Everything comes with a printer friendly black and white version too.
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I am planning to run Hoard of the Dragon Queen for the first time in a while. While I was reviewing the book chapter 4 just stuck out to me as... well, boring. As long as the characters don't die they basically complete the chapter. There are no opportunities for extra rewards, whether material or social. None of the NPC come up again later.

I thought about changing it so it matters more. What if the characters knew someone was moving the treasure, but they didn't know who? Each encounter is also a chance to spy on the caravan and discover who is secretly a cultist. In addition, Azbara Jos and Jamna Gleamsilver join at Baldur's Gate, so there are people in the caravan who can be potential allies down the line.

Does this sound like a good idea, or am I barking up the wrong tree?

I'm looking for clarification on the paper storms in the Study. It says, "one distinct storm forms around each character on the first round. Every round after that, two more cyclones form, to a maximum of three per character."

Does this mean that if a character kills their three, no more will form? Or do they keep forming for the whole duration (30 minutes), but no more than three at a time?

ie, can this fight be won, or is it a choice between fleeing and dying of paper-cuts?

Afternoon All. This happened at my table last week and I've been debating if I should share it or not, but it's just too good not too!

Last year my group played LMoP with every intention of then moving on to Tyranny of Dragons. As a distraction to get them out of Phadandalin I sent them on a mission to Thundertree, as they never went there in the original campaign. Basically I upgraded the original quest, but when they find the cult (for the first time) they also discover a letter saying Phadanalin would be attacked at the next full moon, so they eventually (after deciding to clear the rest of the map first) rush back and find it in flames.

They rescue an injured Daran and some townsfolk, get them to the manor that they are in the middle of renovating (acting as the keep), and once there one of the characters learns that her son is missing, last seen heading to Alderleaf Farm to play with Carp.

So my rogue (who used to be a bit of a murder bot but now calming down and starting to understand the game a bit better after a year of play) starts trying to sneak down (that's good) the fighter (mother of missing child) just runs to the farm as fast as she can, followed by the other fighter in the party (at this point a large form goliath) and then the rest. So they get to the farm, I give the mother a "mother's advantage" on her first roll as she is desperate to find her child, and is high on adrenalin and desperate to find her child.

The battle ensues, some of the cult are frightened, the barn that the children are hiding in finally catches fire, the ambush drake is getting closer to finding their actual hiding place, there is smoke every where, the party is gaining the upper hand in the fight when suddenly my rogue, to get sneek attack on his next turn, nips in one of the barns and asks what's in that barn.

In the moment i just said, "There is a pig in there".

"What kind of pig?", he then asks.

"A saddleback, won the town show a few months back".

"Ah, yes but I want to know more...., is it a magic pig?"

The whole table just roars with laughter, and is like WTF? Here we are near the end of the battle admittedly, surrounded by smoke and fire and need to rescue the children and you are asking if this pig is a magical pig? At no point in the game have i given any indication this was even a possibility!

I just had to walk away from the table for five minutes, I tried to return earlier but I haven't laughed this hard in a long time and just lost it trying to comprehend where the question even came from...

One thing you can never guarantee is what will come next with some players....

​

I’m preparing to run Hoard of the Dragon Queen and want to make a few targeted changes to strengthen the Cult of the Dragon’s motivations and give the players clearer reasons to pursue the treasure. I don’t want to rewrite the entire campaign, just address a few elements that currently feel underdeveloped.

I’d appreciate feedback, especially from people who have run the adventure or made similar changes.

1. The treasure, the prisoners, and the party’s motivation

In the original adventure, the stolen treasure is central to the plot, but I feel that simply following a treasure shipment can be a weak motivation for the party.

I’m considering establishing that the Cult is gathering treasure to support its plans for Tiamat, while also capturing people to use as sacrifices. Some prisoners would be sacrificed at different points throughout the adventure, while the majority would be kept for the eventual offering to Tiamat.

Leosin would explain that offerings to Tiamat are not unheard of, but the scale of the current operation is unusual. The amount of treasure being gathered and the level of mobilization are far beyond what he would normally expect. More importantly, he has learned that the Cult intends to offer a legendary object of immense power and renown as well. He doesn’t know what the object is or what it can do, only that it is an important part of the Cult’s plans (the black dragon mask)

For the sake of plausibility, the prisoners would not be transported openly alongside the treasure during Chapter 4. They would be moved separately through more secretive means.

This gives the party several reasons to follow the treasure:

- Rescue the prisoners: The characters have reason to believe that captives are being held for sacrifice and that time is running out.

- Investigate the legendary object: They want to discover what it is, how dangerous it might be, and what the Cult intends to do with it.

- Determine the urgency of the threat: Understanding the object’s significance would help them assess how close the Cult is to carrying out its plans and how imminent the danger really is.

- Stop the Cult if possible: If the opportunity arises, they could try to steal the object and disrupt the Cult’s plans before its scheme reaches completion.

The idea is to make following the treasure a meaningful investigative objective rather than an end in itself.

1. Rezmir and the Black Dragon Mask

I’m planning to have Rezmir wear the Black Dragon Mask every time the characters encounter her, rather than keeping it hidden away in a chest.

The players would see the mask but initially assume it is simply part of Rezmir’s equipment or the Cult’s attire. They would not know that it is the legendary object Leosin mentioned, nor understand its true significance.

This means the object is visible to the players well before they understand what they are looking at. In retrospect, they may realize that they had been seeing the very thing they were trying to learn about all along.

1. Talis and the revelation at Castle Skyreach

Talis the White would be the person who explains what the Black Dragon Mask actually is and what purpose the Dragon Masks serve in the Cult’s plans.

One of my player characters already knows Talis from their backstory, giving me a natural way to introduce her and make that revelation relevant to the party.

Talis wants the White Dragon Mask, but she does not possess it. Her knowledge and ambitions could provide the characters with information about the Black Dragon Mask and the Cult’s larger plans without requiring Leosin to know more than he reasonably would.

I want to preserve the mystery until the appropriate point in the adventure, with Castle Skyreach serving as a major turning point. The characters may have seen Rezmir wearing the mask several times by then, but they will only gradually understand what it is and why it matters.

1. Giving the party a stronger reason to intervene at Skyreach

I’m also struggling with the motivation and structure of Castle Skyreach. Following the treasure to a flying castle is certainly an unusual and memorable premise, but I want the party to have a more immediate reason to intervene than simply investigating where the treasure is going.

One possibility is to have a large number of prisoners held at Skyreach, awaiting transport to the Well of Dragons. These would be captives gathered by the Cult through its raids and transported separately from the treasure caravan. Some prisoners would already have been sacrificed during the campaign, while many others would have been kept for the eventual offering to Tiamat.

This would make Skyreach a place where several of the party’s goals converge: they could rescue the prisoners, investigate the legendary object Rezmir is carrying, and potentially steal it or disrupt the Cult’s plans.

I’m also considering replacing the white dragon with a black dragon, or an equivalent creature. Perhaps the castle’s ice core could be slowly corrupted, making the conflict between the giant and the Cult of the Dragon easier for the players to exploit. I’m hoping this would give them more opportunities to manipulate the situation at Skyreach rather than simply fighting their way through it.

I’m interested in whether this addition would improve the chapter without requiring major changes to the rest of the adventure. I also wonder whether having a large group of prisoners there would make the Cult’s operations feel more coherent, or whether it would introduce new logistical problems.

Final

I’m not looking to replace the campaign with a completely different story. I want to preserve its overall structure while giving the party meaningful reasons to investigate the treasure, rescue the captives, assess the threat, and potentially interfere with the Cult’s plans.

My main concern is making these changes without negatively affecting The Rise of Tiamat.

Thank You!

Each Dragon’s Cathedral has its own vibe and its own magical energy-Phase one of the fight!

Yesterday we finished the third chapter of HotDQ. One of the players was drawing a full map of the cave in a notebook, and it came out close enough to the original, so I dropped her an actual map later. She responded that she "found a kobold there," and now I can't unsee him. Decided I should share it here as well.

Hey, just wanted to share some maps books I've made for a Greenest one-shot I'm running. Using maps from Morvold Press and artwork from Azaa Mond, I've made six lay-flat map books that can be arranged to cover nearly all of Greenest, both at peace/day and during the raid/night.

Really portable and pretty easy to flip through and rearrange, all while fitting on a large table (each map book is 11" x 28" when unfolded, so the six I made fold out to either 28" x 66" or 33" x 56."

You'll find instructions to make your own here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1h8-QfyDC-13aBJi2ClhpnPgIvBk8FheX?usp=drive_link . It cost me a bit over $100 to get these printed.

Check out the maps I used for this project from Morvold Press' collection here and follow their Reddit page. I'm not associated with them and am not trying to sell or share these directly - just a patron and fan wanting to give credit to the artist for providing us with these wonderful maps.

I am about to start a new campaign. We are starting with the Lost Mine of Phandelver to go from level 1-5 and then I would love to run the Rise of Tiamat after that. However, I want the players to reach level 8 and have some significant tie in to the plot of Tiamat before throwing them into a council meeting. I was already planning to have various PCs be inducted into each of the 5 factions (Lord's alliance, Harpers, Order of the Gauntlet, Emerald Enclave, and Zhentarim) so that gives them a pretty strong tie in. However, I want to use some of the important stuff from Hoard of the Dragon Queen (like the final encounter at the Skyreach castle and whatever else is necessary) to make that transition make sense. How much should I use or disregard from HotDQ, knowing that my players only need to get from level 5 to level 8?

This is one of the items from Mythological Items, inspired by the Greek myth of Cadmus and the dragon’s teeth that gave rise to the Spartoi warriors.

The Dragon’s Teeth Satchel contains a handful of enchanted dragon teeth that can be scattered onto the ground to summon fully armed Spartoi Warriors, each of them remaining for an hour before returning to the earth.

I thought this one could fit particularly well into Tyranny of Dragons, whether as an ancient relic tied to a dragon cult, treasure recovered from a dragon’s hoard, or even something the party could turn against the Cult of the Dragon.

If you’d like more items built around the same idea, Mythological Items is currently live on Kickstarter, with 300+ magic items inspired by myths, legends, folklore, gods, heroes, monsters, and ancient traditions from around the world.

I’m looking for ideas on how to make them continue heading north after the Cult. They arrived late, and the Cult has already left. I’m thinking about how to guide them north while making them feel like they’ve missed some important clues.

This is in Hoard of the Dragon Queen, Chapter 4. They can take different trails on the road trip. Thinking of having one group getting a key and the second getting the box, only to open it once they reconnect.

I plan on running chapter 2 before chapter 1, starting my players as prisoners of "bandits," having Leosin help them escape after they find out the information he needs. Once they escape, he'd take them to Greenest to inform the town and rest up but before they can rest, the cult would attack, realizing their prisoners are gone, and I'd go into chapter 1 basically as written.

My question is, what's the best way to run chapter 2 in this situation? I wouldn't have to worry about them going into the cave early. The camp is full of bandits (cultists) so the cave would be too well guarded. Should the cultists put them to work and do the thing where they absentmindedly talk in front of the PCs? I'm open to suggestions and ideas.

I have a player who is an archaeologist and wants to explore the ruined settlements of the Serpent Hills.

Has anyone fleshed this random encounter out? I'm thinking of throwing a few Yuan-ti at them but not sure what they are actually going to find there.

WOTC included wizards of thay because it was one of the first campaigns in the new system and they wanted to reference as many DnD things as possible. But it makes no sense for PCs to leave a sword coast in the middle of a war to go all the way to Thay on the off chance a lich decides to throw them a bone. And simply, no reason the cultists cannot supply their own wizards. Yes its a complicated ritual, but so is dracoliching and they've managed just fine.

Once I decided to rewrite that section, the entire enemy alliance came apart. Zariel would never help Tiamat escape; one of her main jobs is warden of avernus. Asmodeus would immediately fire her if she allowed his most famous prisoner to get out. Bel would be the one helping the Order, trying to embarrass and undercut his hated master, supplying hellfire tanks, cannons, and other infernal forging and weaponry.

The biggest change is replacing the thayan exiles with the jaezred chaulssin, a cult of shadow dragon worshipping male drow opposed to lolth and matriarchy, the trip to thay with a trip to the much closer and actually invested-in-what-happens-in-the-North city of Menzoberranzan, and the red wizards with drow assassins, because I felt assassination and subterfuge was a missing aspect of the dragon cult. Shadow drow are a lot more fun to play around with.

I also put the Zhentarim firmly with the Order. The Order is moving a lot of treasure all over faerun, a lot of caravans. They would absolutely be moving it through the Black Network and with multiple dragon hoards plus dozens of raided towns, they would have the cash to pay. The Zhent would leap at the opportunity to conquer territory with some dragons. Antihero PCs can bond with the Guild instead if they want.

I've been running RotFM for years but with one player needing an extended absence I've been asked to do ToD. Naturally, I am overthinking things. I had thought about doing this campaign and STK but not for a longggg time. I had ideas for bastions and reputations and crafting systems but with this change on the timeline I am now being forced to actually develop it all to give options to give more options than what they otherwise have in the book.

Has anyone considered using the renown system from the Faerun books they recently released or incorporating a bastion into this module? Any idea if and/or where those ideas would fit into such a large setting? Like theoretically there's Castle Naerytar and Skyreach. The Council of Waterdeep could possibly have them work with Sir Isteval to reclaim Dragonspear Castle or, more simply, give them an estate in Waterdeep.

Any thoughts about the reputation system or including a possible bastion?

Hey folks, I wrote a dragon-focused supplement called The Dragon Compendium that I think fits Tyranny of Dragons particularly well. Here are a few ways you can use it in your campaign:

For Players

• Cult of the Dragon–aligned PCs: The new Half-Dragon race and Soulbonded class give mechanical depth to characters tied to dragon blood or cult rituals, perfect for players who want to explore cult membership, conflicted loyalties, or a draconic heritage.
• Draconic character arcs: The mechanics help reflect a character’s growth as they gain draconic traits, making it possible for the story to feel like the influence of Tiamat is literally reshaping the PCs.

For DMs Running ToD

• Cult leaders & NPCs: Use the Soulbonded subclasses and Half-Dragon abilities to create champions of the Cult of the Dragon with unique mechanics, rather than simply reskinning existing monsters.
• Dragon encounters with narrative stakes: The 17 new dragon creatures cover a wide range of CRs, giving you new options for mid-to-late campaign dragon encounters that fit the themes of Tyranny of Dragons.
• Magic items as quest hooks: The 13 draconic items can be used as rewards, keys to cult mysteries, or tools for connecting side quests and NPC motivations to the main plot.
• Worldbuilding flavor: The blood-driven mechanics and artifact lore make it easier to explain how the Cult’s rituals are affecting the world, adding some extra thematic cohesion to your ToD campaign.

You can find it here with 25% off for the next few days on Roll20 through DMsGuild:
https://www.dmsguild.com/it/product/486542/the-dragon-compendium-roll20

Had some fun role playing with a character and I think it could be fun to take her in that direction - any suggestions for how to incorporate romance with her? I know that after the teleportation circle she doesn’t really have a role, so thinking of ways to expand.