Just got Descent Into Avernus, and I gotta say, it's definitely worth my money and I'm real excited to run it with my group. (if you don't have it I would still recommend buying it, if only for the rich lore within and the infernal war-machine business I definitely am willing to take a spin on)
However, when browsing through the early segments of the book, I'm a bit stumped on the levelling for characters. The level 1 section of the module is especially troubling, as there only really is 1 combat encounter provided that would only give the party a total of 625xp, which is still 875xp short of level 2 for a party of 5 characters, unless the characters decide to go full murderhobo and sack the whole tavern that they're in and murder all the inhabitants, which probably isn't well advised... (especially if they aren't given any cause to, which they aren't)
So I'm a little worried about what I should do to push my party across the line to level 2. Of course, I could run milestone as is recommended for many modules WOTC make, but I would really like to run XP for descent into avernus, because not only would it be a bit more rewarding for my players, I also want to broaden and expand the mid-game section involving: (spoilers I guess)
infernal war-machines and the warlords of avernus, by adding my own homebrew stuff and making it more sandbox and fun kinda like the mad max fury road game and shadow of mordor/war spliced together where the party can get their own gang together if they want and roam the wasteland
One of the things I was thinking I could do is give them an early encounter with followers of the Dead Three (may also be spoilers, sorry I'm not too sure) to give them a feel for the first act and let them know what they're going up against, though I worry that the party I run with may need a little bit of railroading otherwise they may end up wandering the streets of Baldur's Gate like headless chickens (though this may be a perfect opportunity for an ambush by said cultists)
So that's my take on the whole issue. Any suggestions?
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Grappling and knocking prone a young dragon 4 times in a row as aarakocra monk=angery DM
I realize this reply is seriously late, but you can also add in non-combat experience. The Elf Song is a great location to play some cards, learn some rumors, and generally get the characters talking with each other. You can even throw in a contest or two - knife throwing, arm wrestling - to spice things up. Tracking down those rumors later could lead them to that additional encounter, or to someone who survived a kidnapping attempt, and has been in hiding, and make it feel like they've earned the level well.
I realize this reply is seriously late, but you can also add in non-combat experience. The Elf Song is a great location to play some cards, learn some rumors, and generally get the characters talking with each other. You can even throw in a contest or two - knife throwing, arm wrestling - to spice things up. Tracking down those rumors later could lead them to that additional encounter, or to someone who survived a kidnapping attempt, and has been in hiding, and make it feel like they've earned the level well.
Thanks for the reply, great suggestion. Don't worry too much about the timing, since I haven't successfully started running the campaign yet, (my last group fell apart due to complex reasons within 2 sessions) and this would be a great suggestion to spice things up.
Considering how many of my friend's games as DM end up being bogged down in combat encounters and indeed I did too in my first few sessions of Baldur's Gate, this may be a breath of fresh air my players need.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Grappling and knocking prone a young dragon 4 times in a row as aarakocra monk=angery DM
I realize this reply is seriously late, but you can also add in non-combat experience. The Elf Song is a great location to play some cards, learn some rumors, and generally get the characters talking with each other. You can even throw in a contest or two - knife throwing, arm wrestling - to spice things up. Tracking down those rumors later could lead them to that additional encounter, or to someone who survived a kidnapping attempt, and has been in hiding, and make it feel like they've earned the level well.
Thanks for the reply, great suggestion. Don't worry too much about the timing, since I haven't successfully started running the campaign yet, (my last group fell apart due to complex reasons within 2 sessions) and this would be a great suggestion to spice things up.
Considering how many of my friend's games as DM end up being bogged down in combat encounters and indeed I did too in my first few sessions of Baldur's Gate, this may be a breath of fresh air my players need.
In Descent Into Avernus, who is the deity or archdevil who controls Avernus? Or is it still the pit fiend Bel and the Dark Eight? Thanks.
Also, I liked 50 Shades of Grey 😊. Sorry, couldn’t resist lol.
I've also just started running DIA, but i went with the introduction 'The Fall of Elturel' (on DMsguild.com). It's a small introduction made to familiarise the players with the city of Elturel, and contains the scene in which it is pulled into Avernus. The group i played with really enjoyed it and they were hooked into finding out what happened to the city.
It also gave the party enough XP to advance to level 2, so they enter Baldur's Gate a little better equipped.
Having not actually run Avernus in a group but having read the module several times, I offer the following suggestion:
The combat encounter with the pirates in the tavern (which I assume is what you're talking about) should get your party about halfway to level 2. From there, you have several options but this is the one I recommend:
The Appendix in the back of the book about monsters contains a whole lot of Dead Three cultists, which are underused in the written adventure. Since they're the antagonists in this chapter, you can have the party encounter a small "hit squad" in the streets, full of low power cultists. You can use any cultists you like, but be wary of Challenge Rating: Ideally nothing above CR 1, and if your characters are especially weakened nothing more powerful than CR 1/2.
The pacing of Descent into Avernus is definitely one of those "Milestone Campaign" design adventures. There are some places where it is a little more or a little less. In general it takes the feeling of leveling up in Adventure League and applies it to a longer campaign. For the players this is generally a good thing as they advance a bit. Sometimes they don't acquire as much money as in Adventure League so may have trouble buying some things, but overall it still works pretty well... and to be honest, there's not a lot of stores available where they are going.
I’m not an expert, but I like what Wizards has done with the Milestone Campaign idea in general.
Is Descent Into Avernus worth getting? I have a few modules I’m thinking of buying and like I can’t get them all, at least not right away.
I'm currently running it for friends, and I'd say yes! It is one of my favorite modules that I've read/run from Wizards.
It's got a mix of elements - from dungeon crawls, to open sandbox, to vehicular combat that keep it from getting stale. There's a pretty lengthy story, and there are more than enough elements to give characters things to do/clean up after the main storyline is done. It fits into the 'Milestone Campaign' style very well, and gives clear story beats for the DM to follow, even if you want to get a bit creative with the provided encounters and story elements.
I’m not an expert, but I like what Wizards has done with the Milestone Campaign idea in general.
Is Descent Into Avernus worth getting? I have a few modules I’m thinking of buying and like I can’t get them all, at least not right away.
I'm currently running it for friends, and I'd say yes! It is one of my favorite modules that I've read/run from Wizards.
It's got a mix of elements - from dungeon crawls, to open sandbox, to vehicular combat that keep it from getting stale. There's a pretty lengthy story, and there are more than enough elements to give characters things to do/clean up after the main storyline is done. It fits into the 'Milestone Campaign' style very well, and gives clear story beats for the DM to follow, even if you want to get a bit creative with the provided encounters and story elements.
Awesome! Thank you 😊.
Can you tell me who the deity or archdevil who controls Avernus in 5e is?
I’m not an expert, but I like what Wizards has done with the Milestone Campaign idea in general.
Is Descent Into Avernus worth getting? I have a few modules I’m thinking of buying and like I can’t get them all, at least not right away.
I'm currently running it for friends, and I'd say yes! It is one of my favorite modules that I've read/run from Wizards.
It's got a mix of elements - from dungeon crawls, to open sandbox, to vehicular combat that keep it from getting stale. There's a pretty lengthy story, and there are more than enough elements to give characters things to do/clean up after the main storyline is done. It fits into the 'Milestone Campaign' style very well, and gives clear story beats for the DM to follow, even if you want to get a bit creative with the provided encounters and story elements.
Awesome! Thank you 😊.
Can you tell me who the deity or archdevil who controls Avernus in 5e is?
It's Zariel (yes they changed it back to her in 5e), though as always there's a conflict of powers going on and she has many rivals going for her, including:
Bel and Tiamat mainly, though other foreign powers including a few demon lords such as Kostchtchie, Yeenoghu and Baphomet are also present.
The campaign is definitely worth running, even if I haven't looked at it for a while. (been a bit busy recently) There's a lot of moving parts, but also a lot of room for creativity and homebrew. (especially with the infernal war machines)
I've also just started running DIA, but i went with the introduction 'The Fall of Elturel' (on DMsguild.com). It's a small introduction made to familiarise the players with the city of Elturel, and contains the scene in which it is pulled into Avernus. The group i played with really enjoyed it and they were hooked into finding out what happened to the city.
It also gave the party enough XP to advance to level 2, so they enter Baldur's Gate a little better equipped.
Hope this helps!
Thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately I haven't got that. However, I noticed some of the DIA stuff on DM's Guild was free recently with the Play at Home event that WOTC did, so I did grab Hellturel and Abyssal Incursion so perhaps I can add some of that to my campaign later on to beef it up a bit more and give it more content.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Grappling and knocking prone a young dragon 4 times in a row as aarakocra monk=angery DM
I’m not an expert, but I like what Wizards has done with the Milestone Campaign idea in general.
Is Descent Into Avernus worth getting? I have a few modules I’m thinking of buying and like I can’t get them all, at least not right away.
I'm currently running it for friends, and I'd say yes! It is one of my favorite modules that I've read/run from Wizards.
It's got a mix of elements - from dungeon crawls, to open sandbox, to vehicular combat that keep it from getting stale. There's a pretty lengthy story, and there are more than enough elements to give characters things to do/clean up after the main storyline is done. It fits into the 'Milestone Campaign' style very well, and gives clear story beats for the DM to follow, even if you want to get a bit creative with the provided encounters and story elements.
Awesome! Thank you 😊.
Can you tell me who the deity or archdevil who controls Avernus in 5e is?
It's Zariel (yes they changed it back to her in 5e), though as always there's a conflict of powers going on and she has many rivals going for her, including:
Bel and Tiamat mainly, though other foreign powers including a few demon lords such as Kostchtchie, Yeenoghu and Baphomet are also present.
The campaign is definitely worth running, even if I haven't looked at it for a while. (been a bit busy recently) There's a lot of moving parts, but also a lot of room for creativity and homebrew. (especially with the infernal war machines)
I've also just started running DIA, but i went with the introduction 'The Fall of Elturel' (on DMsguild.com). It's a small introduction made to familiarise the players with the city of Elturel, and contains the scene in which it is pulled into Avernus. The group i played with really enjoyed it and they were hooked into finding out what happened to the city.
It also gave the party enough XP to advance to level 2, so they enter Baldur's Gate a little better equipped.
Hope this helps!
Thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately I haven't got that. However, I noticed some of the DIA stuff on DM's Guild was free recently with the Play at Home event that WOTC did, so I did grab Hellturel and Abyssal Incursion so perhaps I can add some of that to my campaign later on to beef it up a bit more and give it more content.
Thank you. I like Zariel. I’m glad they gave Avernus back to her.
Just got Descent Into Avernus, and I gotta say, it's definitely worth my money and I'm real excited to run it with my group. (if you don't have it I would still recommend buying it, if only for the rich lore within and the infernal war-machine business I definitely am willing to take a spin on)
However, when browsing through the early segments of the book, I'm a bit stumped on the levelling for characters. The level 1 section of the module is especially troubling, as there only really is 1 combat encounter provided that would only give the party a total of 625xp, which is still 875xp short of level 2 for a party of 5 characters, unless the characters decide to go full murderhobo and sack the whole tavern that they're in and murder all the inhabitants, which probably isn't well advised... (especially if they aren't given any cause to, which they aren't)
So I'm a little worried about what I should do to push my party across the line to level 2. Of course, I could run milestone as is recommended for many modules WOTC make, but I would really like to run XP for descent into avernus, because not only would it be a bit more rewarding for my players, I also want to broaden and expand the mid-game section involving: (spoilers I guess)
infernal war-machines and the warlords of avernus, by adding my own homebrew stuff and making it more sandbox and fun kinda like the mad max fury road game and shadow of mordor/war spliced together where the party can get their own gang together if they want and roam the wasteland
One of the things I was thinking I could do is give them an early encounter with followers of the Dead Three (may also be spoilers, sorry I'm not too sure) to give them a feel for the first act and let them know what they're going up against, though I worry that the party I run with may need a little bit of railroading otherwise they may end up wandering the streets of Baldur's Gate like headless chickens (though this may be a perfect opportunity for an ambush by said cultists)
So that's my take on the whole issue. Any suggestions?
Grappling and knocking prone a young dragon 4 times in a row as aarakocra monk=angery DM
I realize this reply is seriously late, but you can also add in non-combat experience. The Elf Song is a great location to play some cards, learn some rumors, and generally get the characters talking with each other. You can even throw in a contest or two - knife throwing, arm wrestling - to spice things up. Tracking down those rumors later could lead them to that additional encounter, or to someone who survived a kidnapping attempt, and has been in hiding, and make it feel like they've earned the level well.
Thanks for the reply, great suggestion. Don't worry too much about the timing, since I haven't successfully started running the campaign yet, (my last group fell apart due to complex reasons within 2 sessions) and this would be a great suggestion to spice things up.
Considering how many of my friend's games as DM end up being bogged down in combat encounters and indeed I did too in my first few sessions of Baldur's Gate, this may be a breath of fresh air my players need.
Grappling and knocking prone a young dragon 4 times in a row as aarakocra monk=angery DM
In Descent Into Avernus, who is the deity or archdevil who controls Avernus? Or is it still the pit fiend Bel and the Dark Eight? Thanks.
Also, I liked 50 Shades of Grey 😊. Sorry, couldn’t resist lol.
Good luck on your campaign. For real.
I've also just started running DIA, but i went with the introduction 'The Fall of Elturel' (on DMsguild.com). It's a small introduction made to familiarise the players with the city of Elturel, and contains the scene in which it is pulled into Avernus. The group i played with really enjoyed it and they were hooked into finding out what happened to the city.
It also gave the party enough XP to advance to level 2, so they enter Baldur's Gate a little better equipped.
Hope this helps!
Having not actually run Avernus in a group but having read the module several times, I offer the following suggestion:
The combat encounter with the pirates in the tavern (which I assume is what you're talking about) should get your party about halfway to level 2. From there, you have several options but this is the one I recommend:
The Appendix in the back of the book about monsters contains a whole lot of Dead Three cultists, which are underused in the written adventure. Since they're the antagonists in this chapter, you can have the party encounter a small "hit squad" in the streets, full of low power cultists. You can use any cultists you like, but be wary of Challenge Rating: Ideally nothing above CR 1, and if your characters are especially weakened nothing more powerful than CR 1/2.
Hope that helps!
DM of many adventures, player of even more
WHY THE HECK IS THAT SWAN BREATHING FIRE?!
The pacing of Descent into Avernus is definitely one of those "Milestone Campaign" design adventures. There are some places where it is a little more or a little less. In general it takes the feeling of leveling up in Adventure League and applies it to a longer campaign. For the players this is generally a good thing as they advance a bit. Sometimes they don't acquire as much money as in Adventure League so may have trouble buying some things, but overall it still works pretty well... and to be honest, there's not a lot of stores available where they are going.
I’m not an expert, but I like what Wizards has done with the Milestone Campaign idea in general.
Is Descent Into Avernus worth getting? I have a few modules I’m thinking of buying and like I can’t get them all, at least not right away.
I'm currently running it for friends, and I'd say yes! It is one of my favorite modules that I've read/run from Wizards.
It's got a mix of elements - from dungeon crawls, to open sandbox, to vehicular combat that keep it from getting stale. There's a pretty lengthy story, and there are more than enough elements to give characters things to do/clean up after the main storyline is done. It fits into the 'Milestone Campaign' style very well, and gives clear story beats for the DM to follow, even if you want to get a bit creative with the provided encounters and story elements.
Awesome! Thank you 😊.
Can you tell me who the deity or archdevil who controls Avernus in 5e is?
It's Zariel (yes they changed it back to her in 5e), though as always there's a conflict of powers going on and she has many rivals going for her, including:
Bel and Tiamat mainly, though other foreign powers including a few demon lords such as Kostchtchie, Yeenoghu and Baphomet are also present.
The campaign is definitely worth running, even if I haven't looked at it for a while. (been a bit busy recently) There's a lot of moving parts, but also a lot of room for creativity and homebrew. (especially with the infernal war machines)
Thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately I haven't got that. However, I noticed some of the DIA stuff on DM's Guild was free recently with the Play at Home event that WOTC did, so I did grab Hellturel and Abyssal Incursion so perhaps I can add some of that to my campaign later on to beef it up a bit more and give it more content.
Grappling and knocking prone a young dragon 4 times in a row as aarakocra monk=angery DM
Thank you. I like Zariel. I’m glad they gave Avernus back to her.
I think I am gonna get Descent Into Avernus after I finish Curse of Strahd.