A little of both. I am finally giving my players a small stash of magical items, they range from fun to functional. I looked at what the party was missing, or needed to help them become more cohesive and picked a couple items that way. I then looked at what they were playing and picked a few that would simply complement their play styles. A wish list will help with those times where you can't find a reward, it happens to us all. However, I'd suggest listening to the table talk more than anything else. The players will tend to comment on the things they'd like, when asked to put it on paper they may lose focus on those things.
My notes are starting too pile up on each other. Decided to buy some binders and paper to organize it, because digitally I just can't organize it properly. I'm too old school for that it seems. Who else uses binders? and how do you organize it? With what kind of info?
Second half will just be the adventure modules printed out. First half will have maps and notes of the village/city. etc etc
With most things taken care off for now I started to take a look at the Elsir Vale map. Apparently its going to take party 8-10 days to go from the West to East. There will be plenty of small towns along the way. Might add some optional side stuff they can do. Get more invested in the area for when The Red Hand of Doom takes off. Looking into little 1 hour side quests and how to handle "overworld travel".
I make bullet point notes during the session, then I go to google docs and write them out with a touch more detail if needed. I write down any NPC I had them meet, any interaction that may have a later impact, any thing that may turn the story on it's head, and memorable in game/out of game moments (good, bad, funny, or face-palm worthy).
After taking the notes and going into google docs, I treat it like a journal:
Session 42, Loromir.
Location: White Bridge
Guild Challenge, Boar's Head vs Black Tread, Fall of Kadik
Vlad, Aloxyis on red creature, Aloxyis taking big hits, Vlad being over protective "Big brother"
Mhurren on yellow creature, Single handedly tearing apart, creature has just faded from lethal damage.
Green creature free, Karrana closing in, use vine whip to test limit of tether on creature
Nivarrah, Vistra ranged, shatter and arrow on red, noticed no effect from arrow.
Learned what Githyanki look like
Have caravan escort waiting, *forgot NPCs name, make players remind me*
etc/et. al
That kind of format really helps me, it keeps basic notes, flow of events, and I can use that information in later session if/when necessary.
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Over land travel I generally do "fast travel" where they have a chance at down time to work on things such as learning a new language or honing a skill. If there's a spot in the trip that they should be aware of, I'll find a reason for them to stop, ala Oregon trail, such as a broken axle or something blocking the road. Combat encounters I roll a d12 and on a 10-12 I'll have an encounter, unless it's scripted.
Simple scripted events I've run are bandits (robin hood), missing child/husban/wife of travelers, abandoned tower/keep/settlement, basically stuff to poke around and find interesting lore/trinkets/reputaion.
Well last night my players used the key, from Yusdrayl the kobold priestess, to go towards the Dragonpriest tomb. The ranger crafted a wooden wedge which the barbarian jammed in the arrow slit. Breaking the trap in the process. In the last area they encounted Jot... which on paper looked like a 1hit kill opponent or it would run away if surviving. Noticed that I described him as a lesser demon from the lowest rings of hell. He taunted them as he fly in and gradually becoming visible. I paid no attention to his HP causing the fight to go on for longer then it originally should. Players hit him, but described his resistances to their melee/arrows and how he shrugged it off. His "scare" attack had no effect since everyone succeeded the wisdom save. He went invisible right after and flew off stating his duty as a watcher was over. However the ranger had put Hunters Mark on Jot and noticed that the demon was still in the room, but up above them. Waiting out his time for the hero's to leave, open the door, so he could slip out as well without them noticing. Hunter's Mark ruined that plan for me. I let the ones with ranged attack with a disadvantage. They knew roughly where Jot's presence was, but not its exact location. Ranger hit air, the cleric with his crossbow hit and the druid used that hit to create vines that wrapped around Jot. Pulling the demon against the wall while the thorns were cutting in its flesh and choking him as well. Jot tried to claw his way out, but failed and quickly died. I wasn't keeping an eye at his HP at all, but decided at that time it was the moment for the players to claim their victory.
I felt good doing that afterwards, because the fight against the Dragonpriest was very anti-climactic. It crawled out of his sarcophagus and lunged towards the barbarian missing a bite attack. The cleric walked towards the far wall while unloading his crossbow missing each shot. Allowing the ranger to flank the abomination and unloaded with his Shadow Ray's 4 remaining charges. Even with disadvantage on the roll 3 of those rays hit turning the dragonpriest into a pincushion...and his last ray taking it down exactly to 0. Slightly disappointing, but that what can happen I guess.
They made it to the kobold area, took a short rest and resumed their journey into Goblin territory. Spoke with the forward kobold scout party they had negotiated for. During their absence the goblins had indeed tried to retake territory, but the long corridor with obscured vision, due to the haze from the torches aided the kobolds. They managed to take out 5-6 goblins. After some scouting found that the side path led to a room next to the large one of Goblinville. The trickster cleric, since he has Draconic as language, took the 6 kobolds and went to the tower where the Hobgoblins were stationed and waited in front of the door. I let the cleric direct the kobolds in 2 units of 3 as if they were his personal little army. The other players went through the front door. Barbarian opened the door and saw a bunch of goblins and the shaman. On the rangers turn he closed the door again, but the goblins were triggered and went to their pre-prepared defensive positions and held their actions. The players asked me to stop putting enemies on the map, because there were quite a few of them, especially once the cleric went in and also triggered the hobgoblins.
The ranger, with his firbolg strength, tore the door out of its hinges and used it as a shield and went into the main room. Goblin rangers missed the attacks, but the melee ones surrounded him. Grendl the shaman ran in and used her necrotic touch spell that dropped the ranger to the floor right away. All their attacks of their actual round missed since all heroes were in the corridor in cover. In the other chamber the hobgoblins rolled very poorly and missed most attacks, but still managed to kill 3 of the 6 kobolds. Unfortunately for me the hobs had no luck and got taken down since they got surrounded by three kobolds and the cleric. It didn't really matter, since the hobgoblins were rolling horrible, and decided it suddenly had a "reaction" to try and disarm the cleric...just as a demonstration to the players that it is a tactic smarter opponents will use and they can too. So after bashing shields together the cleric kicked the Hobgoblin against the wall with his weapon still in hand. After they cleared the tower area moved into the Goblinville catching the ranged goblins with surprise from behind.
I had also given the hobgoblin leader a 4e skill that would've let him do an area move that would let his allies get a free 3 square movement without OA. Unfortunately it never came to that. Was saving it to turn the tide of battle if it got stale. However the poor roles meant they all died too quickly for it too matter.
Barbarian raged and ran in, shoved a potion down the rangers throat and ran out for cover again. The druid changed into a Blink Dog and ran in. Which is what they did for most of the part. Run in, take a few shots and move out to cover guerrilla style. Tore a goblins back open and blinked back into the corridor for cover. Ranger to on his feet, but surrounded by four sides and with Zephyr strike wounded the goblin shaman heavily before running for cover as well. The cleric cleaned up one flank and ordered the kobolds to go for the second group of goblin archers while he went towards the center of the room. Now all the heroes ran in and started fighting the three melee + shaman. Some spell scrolls like Guiding Bolt and such were used to quickly take out the shaman and 1 or 2 goblins. After that it was just time to gradually clean up the remaining targets.
This took about 3-4 hours and we only did, relatively, little. However it did feel epic and the players were happy with their first major battle. They went from "OMG!!!" to... "the flank is what is going to save us. hold out in the corridor till they arrive!!". Was fun too watch, but also a bit frustrating for me since the goblins aren't known to be brave and just charge into danger. So with the players creating a choke point there was little I could do...without breaking the roleplay/intelligence of the creatures. So they held actions and shot arrows from their cover behind overturned tables.
Having used some ambient sounds and fog of war reveal of the maps really added to it as well.
Oh and they slaughtered all the goblin commoners. Can't leave any alive for they might grow up and turn into warriors coming for revenge. "genocide is a viable to solution". Will have to monitor this. Afterwards the players did explain how no one really cares about monsters and they wouldn't do such a thing in villages etc from which there is more to be gained. Will see in due time I guess.
3 sessions in of 4 hours each. And only now will they go the Grove level in the Sunless Citadel.
-edit-wow this turned out to be much longer then expected after pressing "post" :P
I think you should do one campaign with guest stars every 5 weeks. They could be hirlings or a cousin or even an NPC that would otherwise have been role played by you. This way your core group is engaged and will be able pull the occasional player' into their emersive story.
I felt good doing that afterwards, because the fight against the Dragonpriest was very anti-climactic. It crawled out of his sarcophagus and lunged towards the barbarian missing a bite attack. The cleric walked towards the far wall while unloading his crossbow missing each shot. Allowing the ranger to flank the abomination and unloaded with his Shadow Ray's 4 remaining charges. Even with disadvantage on the roll 3 of those rays hit turning the dragonpriest into a pincushion...and his last ray taking it down exactly to 0. Slightly disappointing, but that what can happen I guess.
Sometimes you just have to add a narrative flare to the combat because the players make the fight look too easy. I had a battle in my campaign that should have, should have, been a resource waster...the group handled it in 3 turns without so much as breaking a sweat. I still did my best to describe how harrowing the fight was, even if I couldn't roll above a 13. I have my players' AC and passive written on my screen, so if I roll close to their AC I can still describe things like a scratch appearing on the arm (no damage), or the slobber of a beast spraying across their face as the creature lunges. Those visceral images make even the most mundane combat come alive.
The players asked me to stop putting enemies on the map, because there were quite a few of them, especially once the cleric went in and also triggered the hobgoblins.
LOL! I love it when players do that; "um, there's already 9 creatures on the board and he's adding more?!"
This took about 3-4 hours and we only did, relatively, little. However it did feel epic and the players were happy with their first major battle. They went from "OMG!!!" to... "the flank is what is going to save us. hold out in the corridor till they arrive!!". Was fun too watch, but also a bit frustrating for me since the goblins aren't known to be brave and just charge into danger. So with the players creating a choke point there was little I could do...without breaking the roleplay/intelligence of the creatures. So they held actions and shot arrows from their cover behind overturned tables.
This is how you know you're doing it right, when they get so deep into the game that they forget about the overwhelming odds and just dig in to accomplish their tasks. I also agree that goblins can be a pain to run as numbskulls all the time, so it is fun to toss in the random couple who have the brain cell for the day and make a tactical decision that is an outlier.
Oh and they slaughtered all the goblin commoners. Can't leave any alive for they might grow up and turn into warriors coming for revenge. "genocide is a viable to solution". Will have to monitor this. Afterwards the players did explain how no one really cares about monsters and they wouldn't do such a thing in villages etc from which there is more to be gained. Will see in due time I guess.
Always remember: if they turn into murder hobos have consequences. Nothing drastic at first, maybe whispers in a tavern or a nightmare that the cleric has. In one video game I played the more you killed people, the more rats started showing up, the darker the screen got, and the ambient music took a bit creepier tone. Using that type of indicator might go a long way, specially in the type of setting as Sunless.
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I'm glad to see you're having so much fun with the game! I just started running it for my kids and a couple friends (this will be about the 15th time I've DMed Sunless). They are out looking for clues in the farmers fields...and it's night time... They've also just learned about the previous adventuring party, so it'll be fun to see how this plays out.
We're having a lot of fun, but also need to take it slow at times. Especially with the new player choosing a druid. Which in my opinion isn't the easiest to choose to begin with. Every session we set out little goals for ourselves to improve on. For me adding atmosphere and better descriptions of rooms and gradually going deeper into it all.
Can't wait for them too do the final battle. Since the Gulthian Tree is sprouted from a wooden stake that pierced through a vampire... I'm going to give the tree some more skills. After going through 5e and 4e monster manual the only skill I plan to add is the Charm Person on random players. Without describing where that attack came from. Then give out little card with a "dream" that they witnessed while being under the influence. Some images / memories from the vampires essence. But too much text for them to explain in between turns as a free action. Looking into ways to tie it in a bit more. Perhaps have Belak be under the subtle influence of it as well without him even realizing. But since he was looking into similar shady stuff anyway the tree didn't have to charm him that harshly and decided a fair amount of free will would be more beneficial. The "dream" sequence could show some grander plan that has now been foiled... or could be used as a side quest later on if they didn't burn the tree down.
If the players break the charm save first try they can shake it off. The more turn the deeper the indoctrination resulting in being shaken for a round after breaking the charm.
Also decided to just print out ALL the adventure modules and actually read them in the next week to get a better overview of everything. Make notes, make adjustments here and there etc.
Would you happen to have some interesting ideas for such "mundane" encounters I could perhaps "steal"? ;)
Enjoy running the citadel as well. It is quite diverse if you make changes and make it your own. I plan to make the Blighted Twig hook from the aftermath a random encounter. When they rest at a barn and the farm gets attacked by them or something.
Would you happen to have some interesting ideas for such "mundane" encounters I could perhaps "steal"? ;)
I'd be happy to provide you with encounters, however I'd need a bit more than "mundane" to go with. What is the purpose of the encounters, where would you be putting them, are the first two questions that I'd need to start with.
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The dreams that you're talking about sound like a fun twist, I'd offer up taking a peek into :
Curse of Strahd as the Gulthias tree is a present there as well, the whole vampire thing. The on going campaign may not head directly into CoS but if you were to go that direction, there's a lot of stuff you can do with those dream sequences.
Otherwise you can take bits from the other modules to try to tie them in that way as well.
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Creating personal goals to improve both as a player and DM is always a wonderful idea. I have been, even after 32ish years of DMing, revisiting all of the basics, from evocative descriptions to pacing and flow. I just got done doing research on how stories, plays and movies are laid out for their pacing and found a completely different way to approach D&D that I'm going to test out. Previously I was doing research on how to create something challenging without it being a combat, that turned out to become a huge success at my table. A DM's job is never done, there are so many approaches and opinions, trials and errors, but we can always grow and become better DMs.
I didn't mean specific encounter setups or such. More in the line of sharing adventure approach ideas with little twists. Such as my idea for the Gulthias Tree as example. Little things like that too exchange and spruce up seemingly "mundane" encounters. Mundane as in the tree that just gives barskin and doesn't really do much else while the other enemies do their regular attacks and hide behind the wall...which to me sounds rather bland.
Will take a look at CoS for ideas. The next adventure after Citadel will be Forge of Fury, before heading into Red Hand of Doom and Rise of Tiamat.
There are indeed many approaches. However you want to be able to do it all in order to present your magnus opus campaign. As with everything... Baby steps to grow. Pace yourself not just your story hehe. I like how the players even ask for a 1 hour after the play sessions to review things. Things they didn't like or did, things that could be better. While playing one player raised his hand and asked if it was ok to say something for a moment. Which was just too remind what we all agreed on, but weren't doing at that time. Its good to have a group that works like that. Makes it much easier for the DM. There is so much for us to handle as is.
Ah, in that case I never run a "mundane" encounter after I get a feel for my party. Let's take the beginning of Sunless where the party is starting to find the plot hooks:
The party is out at night and they are destined to encounter twig blights. Now there's really no setup for how that combat is supposed to work outside of stat blocks and a rough idea of encounter size. I'm running 6 people through Sunless, 2 of them are my kids (8 and 9 yrs old), so I have to take into account the different types of thinking going on at the table. Rather than having them out looking at mutilated cows and these bushes sneak up and attack them, I had them witness a bush charging across the field carrying a chicken. From there they gave chase, as they did they saw other bushes start to quiver and move, and those bushes gave chase to the party. It was a riot creating this Benny Hill/Scooby Doo chase through Oakhurst with a large gathering of people gathered for the auction.
In a previous run of the game I had a player who rolled up a rogue, and this rogue would steal anything not held down by an immovable rod. When they came to Meepo's room he started grabbing up all the dragon figurines after the group had agreed to follow Meepo to talk with "da bosss slady". When they got to the throne room he tried to grab the dragon figurine in that room, only to find that there was a sleeping kobold under the table which thought his leg was a teddy bear. After knocking over the shrine the entire group was threatened into helping rather than given the choice.
The goblin fights never end up the same, they always end up being completely ad-libed due to the various approaches my players have taken. One group got the drop on 2 sleeping guards when they came to the half wall. One group was flanked by patrols just as they got to the goblin's camp, they stumbled into the goblin camp, surprising the camp. They found themselves bombarded by not only swords, arrows and javelins, but pots of boiling sludge, nasty bedrolls, and stones.
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In the end though, combat is always mundane to me, I find it boring. So for me, I will always find some way to involve terrain, environment, or external influence to add something to combat. I rarely change stat blocks, instead I change tactics, creating a sense of progression. Belak will start out fighting with arrogance, using minimal effort and taunting the players with his immense power. As the players whittle him down he starts to fight with more of a tactical mind, trying to reclaim or hold the combat advantage. When he gets low enough on health he'll go mad, start using things, like the power of the Gulthias tree, to try to crush these annoying adventurers.
Finally got an idea for a weapon part of a players background. He won a weapon with rumored power. No one knows what kind of power or if it is even true. My plan is to tie it in with his totem barbarian path and his spirit animal. Decided to tie the weapon to the realm of Elemental Chaos...Fire where the Azer are. Which in turn made me look at the Weapon of the Dwarvish Lords, Azer racial traits and lore. Plenty of time to turn it into a good story.
The idea is to have it a really nice strong weapon at higher level. So all the effects I have in mind will be unlocked, leveled up, gradually along the way. Would the end product be too powerful? Or at which lvl would it fit? Then I can back track and reverse engineer a possible path of progression.
Greataxe +6 keen Goblinoid and Giant bane Double range of Darkvision Bronze Plating: Azer Bronze skin overlay. Once per short rest impose disadvantage to a spell attack that would hit you. 2 times at lvl 10 and 3 times at lvl 20 Illumination: Head is wreathed in flames, disadvantage to stealth checks, destroys any headgear that doesn’t have fire immunity. Inner Flame: resistance to fire and cold. Getting hit by water from rain or anything else does 1d6 necrotic damage. Reach to the Blaze: Learn the cantrip Produce Flame. Later Burning Hands spell as a 1 lvl spell. Can cast it once per long rest with Constitution as the spellcasting ability. Able to use the language Primordial Adds 2d8 cold damage to all attacks during night time Adds 2d8 fire damage to all attacks during day time Summon a fire elemental once per long rest
Found a compelted 5e Red Hand of Doom conversion. 25ish pages. Looks solid so far. I think it was part of that Kickstarter. Which unfortunately got shut down. However now the material is free so still a good thing for us DM's and players of 5e.
I'm currently trying to find maps of small dnd villages/hamlets. Are there any low lvl campaigns with starter area maps worth to copy from?
Will use the Phandelver area as Blasingdell for Forge of Fury as example. I got maps for Oakhurst, Drellin's Ferry and Brindol. Still looking for a map to use for Terrelton, Nimon's Gap, Talar, Elsir Cross and Witch Cross of the Elsir Vale. Perhaps the dwarven stronghold in the mountains, but think that the Scales of War campaign of 4e has something for that. Need to check.
Well, as cheap as the answer is: google it. A search for "d&d village map" produces a lot of images you could use. As well a few web sites that can assist in creating your own maps are presented, and I believe a site or two with map collections.
Been googling for a few days. I found some maps too use, but most look out of place. Too large or simply just don't fit even the farthest stretch of the area I would need it for. Going through older adventures at the moment hoping to find some that I can simply upscale.
Have been setting up some nice maps and tokens for usage in GIMP with fog of war. It'll be projected on a giant wall through a beamer next session and will be curious too see how it'll work out. It would make life so much easier. Not looking forward to drawing out those ever expanding dungeon areas.
We're about 5 sessions in with approx. 20-25 hours in total. It looks like next session will be the final fight of the Sunless Citadel vs Belak the druid and then back too Oakhurst and on the road towards the East of the Elsir Vale. Can't wait to leave this stuffy dungeon. It has been a lot of fun, but time for some fresh air and change of scenery while meeting new people.
Last night was funny though. They had to go to the Grove level for the first time. Which meant going down the 60-80ft pit. Preperations were made to tie a rope around the dwarf barbarian as a safe line while he tried climbing down. Unfortunately he slipped and the Firbolg couldn't hold the grip. So the dwarf crashed down into a patch of bio-luminescent fungi, that softened his landing a bit. The cleric assisted the firbolg and they lifted the barbarian back up for a heal. So the firbolg tried climbing down and couldn't find his footing and fell down and went unconcious. At that time the cleric remember he had scroll of spiderclimb and casually walked down but kept out of view from the monsters. He then casted a cure wounds scroll to revive the firbolg. We imagined how this would've looked from the monsters perspective and just couldn't stop laughing. Imaging how the skeleton farmers would scratch their heads and look at each other with a confused look as the adventures just come crashing down. I rolled the dice and apparently mr Balsac the bugbear wasn't on patrol so he and his pet rats joined in.
After that they just explored and it all went well. Had some trouble with the multi-attacks and flame retaliation from the first Fire Snake they encountered. Later in one of the Arboretum's they threw a torch inside and just left it at that. At the neighbours Arboretum there were some skeletons and twig blights. Round 3 the Fire Snake from next door joined in and I almost had a TPK on my hands there. The cleric was at 1hp from the skeletons that wailed on him with critical hits. Firbolg ranger went down from the Snake. Lucky for the players I rolled really poorly so that for several rounds it was just "dancing" with the barbarian. Both of them were missing blow after blow after blow until the raged dwarf finally killed the Fire Snake.
They ran back to the room with the little dragon shrine statue. The players kept checking for secret passages or traps expecting something. Which is understandable... According to the module and such I did find it strange to have a room all the way over there with nothing going for it. Since they're currently taking a long rest there I'm thinking about granting them a temporary boon/buff. They did put a gold piece each on the plate the dragon statue was holding in its mouth. It'll be a similar buff to the other shrine in Room 50 that could grant advantage too charisma checks for 24 hours. However I'm not sure what buff to give them from this current shrine they're resting at. Any suggestions would be welcome.
For the next session its time to make the final stretch interesting and challenging. Means I'll be running a few simulations to see how far I can push the difficulty. As mentioned before the Gulthias Tree will be able to use the vampiric skill of Charm... with "dream sequences" showing a bit of the trees background. As well as explain that Belak isn't operating fully of his own volition. Still it feels rather "meh" and want to add another environmental hazard to it. Thusfar I've been very aware of describing the purple "underdark" funghi that is everywhere in the Grove. Perhaps I could find something in the monster manual that would fit that and place it in the final encounter as well.
They're still planning on bringing Meepo with them on their way out. He isn't currently with them since he's recovering from an arrow wound. Took one to the kne...shoulder. Prepared a char sheet where he is a rogue and 1 level behind the players. He was a bad ass sniper with his slingshot managing to hit kobolds who were in 3/4 cover and such getting regular killshots from focus firing the ones the party were going for as well. They love him for his badassery. Later I'll multiclass him with some fighter levels since that works great for a sniper in general. Meepo will become a "henchman" of the party where they can tell him what to do, but I roleplay his personality. Which means a nice little backstory for him as well. After reading Rise of Tiamat with the metallic council...it gave me the idea of creating a brass adult dragon that spends a lot of time as a human. Wandering the Elsir Vale and keeping his eye out, being jovial and good company and helping in subtle ways. He'll be a recurring NPC that appears in various villages where the players happen to be as well. Then after finishing Red Hand of Doom he will show his true nature and be a secondary hook to get Rise of Tiamat started. I assume Meepo will have a bit of a religious uncertainty going on. Trying to find a new goal in his life in general since he has had enough of being treated like shit by his tribe. Through the NPC I'll try to introduce Meepo to some Bahamut teachings and over time let him grow to become a strong "wyrmlord" himself. Will be interesting to see how to RP Meepo when the party encounters other kobolds in the wild that they kill. As well as interactions of townsfolk to a party that has a "pet" kobold with them.
I've also been keeping an eye out to join a group. Would like to play instead of only DM as well. Unfortunately no groups on this board and Roll20 that are in my time zone and during the week days. The few that do are looking for a DM...guess we're a rare breed ;) One of the players suggested he wants to run a 1 or 2 shot adventure where the party is pure orcs doing their thing of kidnapping people for their ritual to Gruumsh. I might do a Warlock Orc.
I definitely read it as just +1hp/level, so a level 7 dwarf warrior would get 10+6D10+(Con bonus * 7) + 7 (from toughness)*....about 71hp for +3 CON ..........but you seem to have a higher than normal power level in your campaign, so having 1+2+3+4+5+6+7 extra (about 92 for a +3 Con character) is not going to be game breaking, and lets you throw bigger, badder encounters the players' way. 1 hp per level is barely noticeable! 28 extra HP at level 7 turns you into Marv from Sin City!
Looking at your proposed greataxe above, you seem to believe that if bigger is better, much bigger is awesome! (I bet you loved the opening scene of Star Wars IV)
Yea, it's a flat +1 to whatever you roll, or your average, HP gain per level.
I feel it would have been worded something more like: "Your hit point maximum increases equal to your character level every time you gain a level", to match the second option.
Thanks for the input. I assumed the second. But after adding them up you'd have 70+ extra HP at lvl 15ish. Then again its not that much. Opponents at that stage will take it away in a single turn, excluding immunities/resists. Will have to give this some more thought on whether to proceed the current path or not. Then again they're only going to be lvl 3 next week. So that 1extra hp isn't going to kill anyone if we just resume as per Thac0's explanation.
@Plundered_Tombs As for my Greataxe suggestion. No I don't want to have OP out of proportionate stuff. I just don't have that much experience with 5e, as in none, to know how the balance works in this version. That's why I ask for feedback to improve on such elements. However you didn't gave anything useful...other then saying its too powerful.
Thankfully there are other sources on the internet that gave me some more information on how to get closer to the balance curve. Current version, still work in progress...I took the liberty of copying elements from Youtuber DawnforgedCoast
Description: This Greataxe was won by Oberon in a tournament between Hill Dwarves. Rumors say this Greataxe has hidden potential, but no one knows for certain. It still looks like a well crafted weapon nonetheless.
===”Story Path”===
T1 Unlock (lvl 3) – Through spiritual pathworking with his totem animal Oberon can start to kindle the flame. After returning to his own state of conscious the weapon is now warm to the touch. It emits a soft orange glow from its blade.
T2 Unlock (lvl 7) – Through further spiritual growth and focus on the weapon the flame burns brighter. On the blade various Ignan writings appear.
T3 Unlock (lvl 10) – After using the Greataxe for long periods of time Oberon develops resistance to the fire
T4 Unlock (lvl 14) – Through another spiritual pathworking event. Oberon will enter the greataxe once more finding the small flame has grown into a gigantic flame. Part of an Azer essence has awoken once again giving sentience to the weapon.
=====Mechanics===
T1 - +1. magical weapon property, add 2d4 fire damage to each attack made with the Greataxe. If the d4 rolls a 4 you may roll it again, adding the new roll to the first roll.
T2 – Flame Arc. You can, as an action, once per long rest, unleash a wave of powerful energy in a 15-foot cone in front of you. Any creatures within the cone can make a Dexterity saving throw (DC=8+ proficiency + constitution bonus) or take 6d6 fire damage. If the damage reduces the creature to 0 hit points, its body becomes a pile of still smoldering black ash.
T3 – Resistance Fire Damage.
T4 – +3 magical weapon, cold resistance, Bane Efreeti, reduces 1 tier of opponents fire resists/immunities.
Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 16. Lawful Neutral. Hearing and Darkvision to 60ft.
The Greataxe communicates by transmitting emotions to the wielder. Through spiritual pathworking Oberon can “enter” the weapon and speak more directly with the azer flame. Its purpose of creation has to do with the Efreeti and the City of Brass. Add a possible “negative” element as a trade off. Azer love high quality gems. Depends on how the campaign develops and what might need more smoothening out.
I still need to work out the details for the quests/events for each step however. This is for the only player in the group that gave me a background story to work with. Want to put in effort for him to make it cool and fun. Indirectly also motivate the other players to come up with something as well.
Will drop some Azer elements into Forge of Fury. As if Durgeddin the Black learned some of his secrets from them as well. After Rise of Tiamat there is Palace of the Red Pasha which has an Efreeti lord. That adventure also provides an item which allows inter planar travel to open up City of Brass and such for lvl 16+ adventuring. To tie up personal stories and such.
Got most of the big elements of the campaign working well together. Soon I can just sit back and focus on each individual session and improv the hell out of them while knowing the general gist of it all.
A little of both. I am finally giving my players a small stash of magical items, they range from fun to functional. I looked at what the party was missing, or needed to help them become more cohesive and picked a couple items that way. I then looked at what they were playing and picked a few that would simply complement their play styles. A wish list will help with those times where you can't find a reward, it happens to us all. However, I'd suggest listening to the table talk more than anything else. The players will tend to comment on the things they'd like, when asked to put it on paper they may lose focus on those things.
My notes are starting too pile up on each other. Decided to buy some binders and paper to organize it, because digitally I just can't organize it properly. I'm too old school for that it seems. Who else uses binders? and how do you organize it? With what kind of info?
Second half will just be the adventure modules printed out. First half will have maps and notes of the village/city. etc etc
With most things taken care off for now I started to take a look at the Elsir Vale map. Apparently its going to take party 8-10 days to go from the West to East. There will be plenty of small towns along the way. Might add some optional side stuff they can do. Get more invested in the area for when The Red Hand of Doom takes off. Looking into little 1 hour side quests and how to handle "overworld travel".
I make bullet point notes during the session, then I go to google docs and write them out with a touch more detail if needed. I write down any NPC I had them meet, any interaction that may have a later impact, any thing that may turn the story on it's head, and memorable in game/out of game moments (good, bad, funny, or face-palm worthy).
After taking the notes and going into google docs, I treat it like a journal:
Session 42, Loromir.
That kind of format really helps me, it keeps basic notes, flow of events, and I can use that information in later session if/when necessary.
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Over land travel I generally do "fast travel" where they have a chance at down time to work on things such as learning a new language or honing a skill. If there's a spot in the trip that they should be aware of, I'll find a reason for them to stop, ala Oregon trail, such as a broken axle or something blocking the road. Combat encounters I roll a d12 and on a 10-12 I'll have an encounter, unless it's scripted.
Simple scripted events I've run are bandits (robin hood), missing child/husban/wife of travelers, abandoned tower/keep/settlement, basically stuff to poke around and find interesting lore/trinkets/reputaion.
Well last night my players used the key, from Yusdrayl the kobold priestess, to go towards the Dragonpriest tomb. The ranger crafted a wooden wedge which the barbarian jammed in the arrow slit. Breaking the trap in the process. In the last area they encounted Jot... which on paper looked like a 1hit kill opponent or it would run away if surviving. Noticed that I described him as a lesser demon from the lowest rings of hell. He taunted them as he fly in and gradually becoming visible. I paid no attention to his HP causing the fight to go on for longer then it originally should. Players hit him, but described his resistances to their melee/arrows and how he shrugged it off. His "scare" attack had no effect since everyone succeeded the wisdom save. He went invisible right after and flew off stating his duty as a watcher was over. However the ranger had put Hunters Mark on Jot and noticed that the demon was still in the room, but up above them. Waiting out his time for the hero's to leave, open the door, so he could slip out as well without them noticing. Hunter's Mark ruined that plan for me. I let the ones with ranged attack with a disadvantage. They knew roughly where Jot's presence was, but not its exact location. Ranger hit air, the cleric with his crossbow hit and the druid used that hit to create vines that wrapped around Jot. Pulling the demon against the wall while the thorns were cutting in its flesh and choking him as well. Jot tried to claw his way out, but failed and quickly died. I wasn't keeping an eye at his HP at all, but decided at that time it was the moment for the players to claim their victory.
I felt good doing that afterwards, because the fight against the Dragonpriest was very anti-climactic. It crawled out of his sarcophagus and lunged towards the barbarian missing a bite attack. The cleric walked towards the far wall while unloading his crossbow missing each shot. Allowing the ranger to flank the abomination and unloaded with his Shadow Ray's 4 remaining charges. Even with disadvantage on the roll 3 of those rays hit turning the dragonpriest into a pincushion...and his last ray taking it down exactly to 0. Slightly disappointing, but that what can happen I guess.
They made it to the kobold area, took a short rest and resumed their journey into Goblin territory. Spoke with the forward kobold scout party they had negotiated for. During their absence the goblins had indeed tried to retake territory, but the long corridor with obscured vision, due to the haze from the torches aided the kobolds. They managed to take out 5-6 goblins. After some scouting found that the side path led to a room next to the large one of Goblinville. The trickster cleric, since he has Draconic as language, took the 6 kobolds and went to the tower where the Hobgoblins were stationed and waited in front of the door. I let the cleric direct the kobolds in 2 units of 3 as if they were his personal little army. The other players went through the front door. Barbarian opened the door and saw a bunch of goblins and the shaman. On the rangers turn he closed the door again, but the goblins were triggered and went to their pre-prepared defensive positions and held their actions. The players asked me to stop putting enemies on the map, because there were quite a few of them, especially once the cleric went in and also triggered the hobgoblins.
The ranger, with his firbolg strength, tore the door out of its hinges and used it as a shield and went into the main room. Goblin rangers missed the attacks, but the melee ones surrounded him. Grendl the shaman ran in and used her necrotic touch spell that dropped the ranger to the floor right away. All their attacks of their actual round missed since all heroes were in the corridor in cover. In the other chamber the hobgoblins rolled very poorly and missed most attacks, but still managed to kill 3 of the 6 kobolds. Unfortunately for me the hobs had no luck and got taken down since they got surrounded by three kobolds and the cleric. It didn't really matter, since the hobgoblins were rolling horrible, and decided it suddenly had a "reaction" to try and disarm the cleric...just as a demonstration to the players that it is a tactic smarter opponents will use and they can too. So after bashing shields together the cleric kicked the Hobgoblin against the wall with his weapon still in hand. After they cleared the tower area moved into the Goblinville catching the ranged goblins with surprise from behind.
I had also given the hobgoblin leader a 4e skill that would've let him do an area move that would let his allies get a free 3 square movement without OA. Unfortunately it never came to that. Was saving it to turn the tide of battle if it got stale. However the poor roles meant they all died too quickly for it too matter.
Barbarian raged and ran in, shoved a potion down the rangers throat and ran out for cover again. The druid changed into a Blink Dog and ran in. Which is what they did for most of the part. Run in, take a few shots and move out to cover guerrilla style. Tore a goblins back open and blinked back into the corridor for cover. Ranger to on his feet, but surrounded by four sides and with Zephyr strike wounded the goblin shaman heavily before running for cover as well. The cleric cleaned up one flank and ordered the kobolds to go for the second group of goblin archers while he went towards the center of the room. Now all the heroes ran in and started fighting the three melee + shaman. Some spell scrolls like Guiding Bolt and such were used to quickly take out the shaman and 1 or 2 goblins. After that it was just time to gradually clean up the remaining targets.
This took about 3-4 hours and we only did, relatively, little. However it did feel epic and the players were happy with their first major battle. They went from "OMG!!!" to... "the flank is what is going to save us. hold out in the corridor till they arrive!!". Was fun too watch, but also a bit frustrating for me since the goblins aren't known to be brave and just charge into danger. So with the players creating a choke point there was little I could do...without breaking the roleplay/intelligence of the creatures. So they held actions and shot arrows from their cover behind overturned tables.
Having used some ambient sounds and fog of war reveal of the maps really added to it as well.
Oh and they slaughtered all the goblin commoners. Can't leave any alive for they might grow up and turn into warriors coming for revenge. "genocide is a viable to solution". Will have to monitor this. Afterwards the players did explain how no one really cares about monsters and they wouldn't do such a thing in villages etc from which there is more to be gained. Will see in due time I guess.
3 sessions in of 4 hours each. And only now will they go the Grove level in the Sunless Citadel.
-edit-wow this turned out to be much longer then expected after pressing "post" :P
I think you should do one campaign with guest stars every 5 weeks. They could be hirlings or a cousin or even an NPC that would otherwise have been role played by you. This way your core group is engaged and will be able pull the occasional player' into their emersive story.
Good luck
Jesus Saves!... Everyone else takes damage.
We're having a lot of fun, but also need to take it slow at times. Especially with the new player choosing a druid. Which in my opinion isn't the easiest to choose to begin with. Every session we set out little goals for ourselves to improve on. For me adding atmosphere and better descriptions of rooms and gradually going deeper into it all.
Can't wait for them too do the final battle. Since the Gulthian Tree is sprouted from a wooden stake that pierced through a vampire... I'm going to give the tree some more skills. After going through 5e and 4e monster manual the only skill I plan to add is the Charm Person on random players. Without describing where that attack came from. Then give out little card with a "dream" that they witnessed while being under the influence. Some images / memories from the vampires essence. But too much text for them to explain in between turns as a free action. Looking into ways to tie it in a bit more. Perhaps have Belak be under the subtle influence of it as well without him even realizing. But since he was looking into similar shady stuff anyway the tree didn't have to charm him that harshly and decided a fair amount of free will would be more beneficial. The "dream" sequence could show some grander plan that has now been foiled... or could be used as a side quest later on if they didn't burn the tree down.
If the players break the charm save first try they can shake it off. The more turn the deeper the indoctrination resulting in being shaken for a round after breaking the charm.
Also decided to just print out ALL the adventure modules and actually read them in the next week to get a better overview of everything. Make notes, make adjustments here and there etc.
Would you happen to have some interesting ideas for such "mundane" encounters I could perhaps "steal"? ;)
Enjoy running the citadel as well. It is quite diverse if you make changes and make it your own. I plan to make the Blighted Twig hook from the aftermath a random encounter. When they rest at a barn and the farm gets attacked by them or something.
Curse of Strahd as the Gulthias tree is a present there as well, the whole vampire thing. The on going campaign may not head directly into CoS but if you were to go that direction, there's a lot of stuff you can do with those dream sequences.
Otherwise you can take bits from the other modules to try to tie them in that way as well.
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Creating personal goals to improve both as a player and DM is always a wonderful idea. I have been, even after 32ish years of DMing, revisiting all of the basics, from evocative descriptions to pacing and flow. I just got done doing research on how stories, plays and movies are laid out for their pacing and found a completely different way to approach D&D that I'm going to test out. Previously I was doing research on how to create something challenging without it being a combat, that turned out to become a huge success at my table. A DM's job is never done, there are so many approaches and opinions, trials and errors, but we can always grow and become better DMs.
I didn't mean specific encounter setups or such. More in the line of sharing adventure approach ideas with little twists. Such as my idea for the Gulthias Tree as example. Little things like that too exchange and spruce up seemingly "mundane" encounters. Mundane as in the tree that just gives barskin and doesn't really do much else while the other enemies do their regular attacks and hide behind the wall...which to me sounds rather bland.
Will take a look at CoS for ideas. The next adventure after Citadel will be Forge of Fury, before heading into Red Hand of Doom and Rise of Tiamat.
There are indeed many approaches. However you want to be able to do it all in order to present your magnus opus campaign. As with everything... Baby steps to grow. Pace yourself not just your story hehe. I like how the players even ask for a 1 hour after the play sessions to review things. Things they didn't like or did, things that could be better. While playing one player raised his hand and asked if it was ok to say something for a moment. Which was just too remind what we all agreed on, but weren't doing at that time. Its good to have a group that works like that. Makes it much easier for the DM. There is so much for us to handle as is.
Ah, in that case I never run a "mundane" encounter after I get a feel for my party. Let's take the beginning of Sunless where the party is starting to find the plot hooks:
The party is out at night and they are destined to encounter twig blights. Now there's really no setup for how that combat is supposed to work outside of stat blocks and a rough idea of encounter size. I'm running 6 people through Sunless, 2 of them are my kids (8 and 9 yrs old), so I have to take into account the different types of thinking going on at the table. Rather than having them out looking at mutilated cows and these bushes sneak up and attack them, I had them witness a bush charging across the field carrying a chicken. From there they gave chase, as they did they saw other bushes start to quiver and move, and those bushes gave chase to the party. It was a riot creating this Benny Hill/Scooby Doo chase through Oakhurst with a large gathering of people gathered for the auction.
In a previous run of the game I had a player who rolled up a rogue, and this rogue would steal anything not held down by an immovable rod. When they came to Meepo's room he started grabbing up all the dragon figurines after the group had agreed to follow Meepo to talk with "da bosss slady". When they got to the throne room he tried to grab the dragon figurine in that room, only to find that there was a sleeping kobold under the table which thought his leg was a teddy bear. After knocking over the shrine the entire group was threatened into helping rather than given the choice.
The goblin fights never end up the same, they always end up being completely ad-libed due to the various approaches my players have taken. One group got the drop on 2 sleeping guards when they came to the half wall. One group was flanked by patrols just as they got to the goblin's camp, they stumbled into the goblin camp, surprising the camp. They found themselves bombarded by not only swords, arrows and javelins, but pots of boiling sludge, nasty bedrolls, and stones.
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In the end though, combat is always mundane to me, I find it boring. So for me, I will always find some way to involve terrain, environment, or external influence to add something to combat. I rarely change stat blocks, instead I change tactics, creating a sense of progression. Belak will start out fighting with arrogance, using minimal effort and taunting the players with his immense power. As the players whittle him down he starts to fight with more of a tactical mind, trying to reclaim or hold the combat advantage. When he gets low enough on health he'll go mad, start using things, like the power of the Gulthias tree, to try to crush these annoying adventurers.
Finally got an idea for a weapon part of a players background. He won a weapon with rumored power. No one knows what kind of power or if it is even true. My plan is to tie it in with his totem barbarian path and his spirit animal. Decided to tie the weapon to the realm of Elemental Chaos...Fire where the Azer are. Which in turn made me look at the Weapon of the Dwarvish Lords, Azer racial traits and lore. Plenty of time to turn it into a good story.
The idea is to have it a really nice strong weapon at higher level. So all the effects I have in mind will be unlocked, leveled up, gradually along the way. Would the end product be too powerful? Or at which lvl would it fit? Then I can back track and reverse engineer a possible path of progression.
Greataxe
+6 keen
Goblinoid and Giant bane
Double range of Darkvision
Bronze Plating: Azer Bronze skin overlay. Once per short rest impose disadvantage to a spell attack that would hit you. 2 times at lvl 10 and 3 times at lvl 20
Illumination: Head is wreathed in flames, disadvantage to stealth checks, destroys any headgear that doesn’t have fire immunity.
Inner Flame: resistance to fire and cold. Getting hit by water from rain or anything else does 1d6 necrotic damage.
Reach to the Blaze: Learn the cantrip Produce Flame. Later Burning Hands spell as a 1 lvl spell. Can cast it once per long rest with Constitution as the spellcasting ability.
Able to use the language Primordial
Adds 2d8 cold damage to all attacks during night time
Adds 2d8 fire damage to all attacks during day time
Summon a fire elemental once per long rest
Found a compelted 5e Red Hand of Doom conversion. 25ish pages. Looks solid so far. I think it was part of that Kickstarter. Which unfortunately got shut down. However now the material is free so still a good thing for us DM's and players of 5e.
https://mapmagic.app.box.com/s/2hys5dnmvs0vdh5b2qtk5amrtfbvqmq2
I'm currently trying to find maps of small dnd villages/hamlets. Are there any low lvl campaigns with starter area maps worth to copy from?
Will use the Phandelver area as Blasingdell for Forge of Fury as example. I got maps for Oakhurst, Drellin's Ferry and Brindol.
Still looking for a map to use for Terrelton, Nimon's Gap, Talar, Elsir Cross and Witch Cross of the Elsir Vale. Perhaps the dwarven stronghold in the mountains, but think that the Scales of War campaign of 4e has something for that. Need to check.
Any help finding some would be appreciated.
Well, as cheap as the answer is: google it. A search for "d&d village map" produces a lot of images you could use. As well a few web sites that can assist in creating your own maps are presented, and I believe a site or two with map collections.
Been googling for a few days. I found some maps too use, but most look out of place. Too large or simply just don't fit even the farthest stretch of the area I would need it for. Going through older adventures at the moment hoping to find some that I can simply upscale.
Have been setting up some nice maps and tokens for usage in GIMP with fog of war. It'll be projected on a giant wall through a beamer next session and will be curious too see how it'll work out. It would make life so much easier. Not looking forward to drawing out those ever expanding dungeon areas.
We're about 5 sessions in with approx. 20-25 hours in total. It looks like next session will be the final fight of the Sunless Citadel vs Belak the druid and then back too Oakhurst and on the road towards the East of the Elsir Vale. Can't wait to leave this stuffy dungeon. It has been a lot of fun, but time for some fresh air and change of scenery while meeting new people.
Last night was funny though. They had to go to the Grove level for the first time. Which meant going down the 60-80ft pit. Preperations were made to tie a rope around the dwarf barbarian as a safe line while he tried climbing down. Unfortunately he slipped and the Firbolg couldn't hold the grip. So the dwarf crashed down into a patch of bio-luminescent fungi, that softened his landing a bit. The cleric assisted the firbolg and they lifted the barbarian back up for a heal. So the firbolg tried climbing down and couldn't find his footing and fell down and went unconcious. At that time the cleric remember he had scroll of spiderclimb and casually walked down but kept out of view from the monsters. He then casted a cure wounds scroll to revive the firbolg. We imagined how this would've looked from the monsters perspective and just couldn't stop laughing. Imaging how the skeleton farmers would scratch their heads and look at each other with a confused look as the adventures just come crashing down. I rolled the dice and apparently mr Balsac the bugbear wasn't on patrol so he and his pet rats joined in.
After that they just explored and it all went well. Had some trouble with the multi-attacks and flame retaliation from the first Fire Snake they encountered. Later in one of the Arboretum's they threw a torch inside and just left it at that. At the neighbours Arboretum there were some skeletons and twig blights. Round 3 the Fire Snake from next door joined in and I almost had a TPK on my hands there. The cleric was at 1hp from the skeletons that wailed on him with critical hits. Firbolg ranger went down from the Snake. Lucky for the players I rolled really poorly so that for several rounds it was just "dancing" with the barbarian. Both of them were missing blow after blow after blow until the raged dwarf finally killed the Fire Snake.
They ran back to the room with the little dragon shrine statue. The players kept checking for secret passages or traps expecting something. Which is understandable... According to the module and such I did find it strange to have a room all the way over there with nothing going for it. Since they're currently taking a long rest there I'm thinking about granting them a temporary boon/buff. They did put a gold piece each on the plate the dragon statue was holding in its mouth. It'll be a similar buff to the other shrine in Room 50 that could grant advantage too charisma checks for 24 hours. However I'm not sure what buff to give them from this current shrine they're resting at. Any suggestions would be welcome.
For the next session its time to make the final stretch interesting and challenging. Means I'll be running a few simulations to see how far I can push the difficulty. As mentioned before the Gulthias Tree will be able to use the vampiric skill of Charm... with "dream sequences" showing a bit of the trees background. As well as explain that Belak isn't operating fully of his own volition. Still it feels rather "meh" and want to add another environmental hazard to it. Thusfar I've been very aware of describing the purple "underdark" funghi that is everywhere in the Grove. Perhaps I could find something in the monster manual that would fit that and place it in the final encounter as well.
They're still planning on bringing Meepo with them on their way out. He isn't currently with them since he's recovering from an arrow wound. Took one to the kne...shoulder. Prepared a char sheet where he is a rogue and 1 level behind the players. He was a bad ass sniper with his slingshot managing to hit kobolds who were in 3/4 cover and such getting regular killshots from focus firing the ones the party were going for as well. They love him for his badassery. Later I'll multiclass him with some fighter levels since that works great for a sniper in general. Meepo will become a "henchman" of the party where they can tell him what to do, but I roleplay his personality. Which means a nice little backstory for him as well. After reading Rise of Tiamat with the metallic council...it gave me the idea of creating a brass adult dragon that spends a lot of time as a human. Wandering the Elsir Vale and keeping his eye out, being jovial and good company and helping in subtle ways. He'll be a recurring NPC that appears in various villages where the players happen to be as well. Then after finishing Red Hand of Doom he will show his true nature and be a secondary hook to get Rise of Tiamat started. I assume Meepo will have a bit of a religious uncertainty going on. Trying to find a new goal in his life in general since he has had enough of being treated like shit by his tribe. Through the NPC I'll try to introduce Meepo to some Bahamut teachings and over time let him grow to become a strong "wyrmlord" himself. Will be interesting to see how to RP Meepo when the party encounters other kobolds in the wild that they kill. As well as interactions of townsfolk to a party that has a "pet" kobold with them.
I've also been keeping an eye out to join a group. Would like to play instead of only DM as well. Unfortunately no groups on this board and Roll20 that are in my time zone and during the week days. The few that do are looking for a DM...guess we're a rare breed ;) One of the players suggested he wants to run a 1 or 2 shot adventure where the party is pure orcs doing their thing of kidnapping people for their ritual to Gruumsh. I might do a Warlock Orc.
Could someone clarify this...
Hill Dwarf: Dwarven Toughness. Your hit point maximum increases by 1, and it increases by 1 every time you gain a leveI.
So does that means the player gets +1 on top of his die roll every time he levels up?
Or... does he get +2 on lvl 2, +3 on lvl 3 etc etc??
I definitely read it as just +1hp/level, so a level 7 dwarf warrior would get 10+6D10+(Con bonus * 7) + 7 (from toughness)*....about 71hp for +3 CON
..........but you seem to have a higher than normal power level in your campaign, so having 1+2+3+4+5+6+7 extra (about 92 for a +3 Con character) is not going to be game breaking, and lets you throw bigger, badder encounters the players' way.
1 hp per level is barely noticeable! 28 extra HP at level 7 turns you into Marv from Sin City!
Looking at your proposed greataxe above, you seem to believe that if bigger is better, much bigger is awesome! (I bet you loved the opening scene of Star Wars IV)
*Lame.
Roleplaying since Runequest.
Yea, it's a flat +1 to whatever you roll, or your average, HP gain per level.
I feel it would have been worded something more like: "Your hit point maximum increases equal to your character level every time you gain a level", to match the second option.
Thanks for the input.
I assumed the second. But after adding them up you'd have 70+ extra HP at lvl 15ish. Then again its not that much. Opponents at that stage will take it away in a single turn, excluding immunities/resists. Will have to give this some more thought on whether to proceed the current path or not. Then again they're only going to be lvl 3 next week. So that 1extra hp isn't going to kill anyone if we just resume as per Thac0's explanation.
@Plundered_Tombs
As for my Greataxe suggestion. No I don't want to have OP out of proportionate stuff. I just don't have that much experience with 5e, as in none, to know how the balance works in this version. That's why I ask for feedback to improve on such elements. However you didn't gave anything useful...other then saying its too powerful.
Thankfully there are other sources on the internet that gave me some more information on how to get closer to the balance curve. Current version, still work in progress...I took the liberty of copying elements from Youtuber DawnforgedCoast
I still need to work out the details for the quests/events for each step however. This is for the only player in the group that gave me a background story to work with. Want to put in effort for him to make it cool and fun. Indirectly also motivate the other players to come up with something as well.
Will drop some Azer elements into Forge of Fury. As if Durgeddin the Black learned some of his secrets from them as well. After Rise of Tiamat there is Palace of the Red Pasha which has an Efreeti lord. That adventure also provides an item which allows inter planar travel to open up City of Brass and such for lvl 16+ adventuring. To tie up personal stories and such.
Got most of the big elements of the campaign working well together. Soon I can just sit back and focus on each individual session and improv the hell out of them while knowing the general gist of it all.