Metamongoose - Thanks for the suggestion! The adventure looks great! Any specific ideas on how to make adjustments for Level 1 or 2 characters? Cut out some of the train cars? Cut out or change some of the monsters? Change the BBEG stats? Other ideas? Would love to make this adventure work for my group, which includes a few D&D newbies.
So, things I would change to make it more friendly for....let's say level 2 characters:
Caboose - No Changes.
Swaying Sleeper Car - Decrease the Dex Save DC to like 12 and only do 1d6 or even 1d4 damage of a failure.
Toy Carriage - Swap monsters for Giant Rat, Mastiff, and a Yeti Tyke. (Cut last monster if the fight isn't going well.)
Mail Car - Swap monsters for a trap of some kind with a DC 12ish save for 1d6 or 1d4 slashing damage from paper cuts.
Nutcracker Carriage - No changes.
Lighting Control Car - Edit the Mechanical Abomination to a more reasonable fight (AC 15ish, 30ish HP, Save DCs set around 12ish, have Nutcracker Guards soak a lot of the attacks while the party tries to flip the power switch, etc.).
Snow King's Court - No fighting option. Only helping.
Winter Ballroom - Lean way more heavily on the snowball fight theme. If the party has to fight a monster or two use the Snow Guard stats from the adventure.
Snow Machine - No monsters. Make this a "Winter Wonder" area that maybe grants inspiration to the party or gives back some spell slots.
Lounge Car - No changes.
Yuletide Tree - Use Monodrone stats for the flung presents. Do not use the tree as a monster.
Karaoke Car - Drop DC to around 12ish.
Dining Car - Only use a few of the lower CR monsters from the adventure. Do what feels right.
Cocoa Lounge - Again, only a few of the lower CR monsters.
Gingerbead Lounge - Drop DC to around 12ish.
Engine Car - Take Gingerdread Man, half HP to around 30-40, lose mulitattack, drop damage to 1d6+2, Drop save for grenade to 12ish, auto-half damage, save for 1/4th damage, lose Unbread Creation Power (unless the fight is a little too lopsided).
Think about having each of the rescued elves having a potion of some kind (not always healing) or some other consumable "gift" for the party that would help them along as well.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
Metamongoose - Thank you so much for the incredibly useful advice! I plan to make many of your suggested adjustments.
However, I have one follow-up question … to make things simpler and less time consuming, my players are selecting characters from the 16 WOTC pregenerated characters. One of my newbie players picked a Wood Elf Ranger, which comes with Favored Enemy (dragons) and Favored Terrain (forest). Neither ability is relevant for the Astral Express adventure. Should I encourage the player to pick a different pregenerated character (because ranger isn’t be the best class for the adventure) or simply switch the Favored Enemy to something else (elementals? fiends?) and the Favored Terrain to arctic?
I have another player who picked the Human Barbarian pregenerated character. The barbarian, like the ranger, has the Outlander background … not the best fit for the adventure, in my opinion. Another player picked the Human Druid - again, lots of outdoorsy skills.
It’s tough to know whether to encourage my players to pick characters that I know will better fit the adventure OR change aspects of their character sheets to better fit the adventure OR simply accept my players’ first picks from the WOTC pregenerated sheets (with no tweaks). It’s my first time using pregenerated character sheets, so any advice would be much appreciated!
The ranger is worth updating with a more relevant Favored Enemy. The other two should be fine as is. The background is not as important either way and there are technically plants and elementals on the train for the druid to contend with.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
This is one I wrote about the Yule Lads of Iceland. They're the Icelandic equivalent of Santa Claus, but they're a family of trolls. They used to have a much darker back story and so I tapped into some of that to give it a bit of a Gothic horror feel. Nothing too scary, though.
I'm looking for a fun Thanksgiving- or Christmas-themed 5e one-shot that would fit these criteria:
Any helpful suggestions?? Thanks in advance!!
Here you go. This adventure was a blast to run. It can be done for lower levels with a few adjustments.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/astral-express-45179988
Metamongoose - Thanks for the suggestion! The adventure looks great! Any specific ideas on how to make adjustments for Level 1 or 2 characters? Cut out some of the train cars? Cut out or change some of the monsters? Change the BBEG stats? Other ideas? Would love to make this adventure work for my group, which includes a few D&D newbies.
So, things I would change to make it more friendly for....let's say level 2 characters:
Think about having each of the rescued elves having a potion of some kind (not always healing) or some other consumable "gift" for the party that would help them along as well.
Metamongoose - Thank you so much for the incredibly useful advice! I plan to make many of your suggested adjustments.
However, I have one follow-up question … to make things simpler and less time consuming, my players are selecting characters from the 16 WOTC pregenerated characters. One of my newbie players picked a Wood Elf Ranger, which comes with Favored Enemy (dragons) and Favored Terrain (forest). Neither ability is relevant for the Astral Express adventure. Should I encourage the player to pick a different pregenerated character (because ranger isn’t be the best class for the adventure) or simply switch the Favored Enemy to something else (elementals? fiends?) and the Favored Terrain to arctic?
I have another player who picked the Human Barbarian pregenerated character. The barbarian, like the ranger, has the Outlander background … not the best fit for the adventure, in my opinion. Another player picked the Human Druid - again, lots of outdoorsy skills.
It’s tough to know whether to encourage my players to pick characters that I know will better fit the adventure OR change aspects of their character sheets to better fit the adventure OR simply accept my players’ first picks from the WOTC pregenerated sheets (with no tweaks). It’s my first time using pregenerated character sheets, so any advice would be much appreciated!
The ranger is worth updating with a more relevant Favored Enemy. The other two should be fine as is. The background is not as important either way and there are technically plants and elementals on the train for the druid to contend with.
There are some pretty decent options on this list here that might fit your criteria: https://dungeonsanddragonsfan.com/best-dnd-christmas-one-shots/
Happy holidays!
This is one I wrote about the Yule Lads of Iceland. They're the Icelandic equivalent of Santa Claus, but they're a family of trolls. They used to have a much darker back story and so I tapped into some of that to give it a bit of a Gothic horror feel. Nothing too scary, though.
https://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/382330