So One of my all time favorite campaigns Is Dragon Mountain. An epic campaign that took forever to build a group up to.
I'm working from the back forwards converting the end boss and every thing to do with the mountain stronghold and it's inhabitants first to give me an idea where the players levels should be to make it a challenge but hold that threat that at least one or more PC's could die.
That being said ancient Red Dragons from 2nd were magic powerhouses and the dragon from DM is worse.
If going with the rules for adding abilities to monsters I would have to make her a ancient red Dragon with 9 levels of Wizard. and 3 levels in Cleric. And imbue her with a polymorph self at will ability.
Would this feel too powerful or a challenge that would offer a good climax to a campaign that would have truly taxed the players skill?
That seems like more work that you need to put into this sort of thing. I'd just copy over the Spellcasting section from the Archmage and call it a day. Maybe tweak some of the spells and add in some cleric spells if you want.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
Part of the issue I'm finding is that the Dragons of the earlier edition were more in tune with magic and as a result would have a ton more abilities if they were They had daily allotted spell like ability. higher age categories had spell slots in both mage and cleric. Alot of the role playing and the intrigue in the adventure is that the Dragon is never idle while the adventurers are She's watching them in various Polymorphed forms.
Hmm that might be a way to explain it. A magic item that imbues the wearer with the ability to polymorph self.
Sorry part of my mental process very much like a coding rubber Duck.
Alter Self doesn't quite work, since you can't make a quadruped into a biped. The Polymorph spell limits the ability to speak or cast spells. True Polymorph would allow speech and spell casting (as long as the new spell doesn't require concentration) but it is a 9th level spell, so theoretically you could only cast it once per long rest (unless you homebrew the rule obviously). If you just want to watch what your players are doing Arcane Eye might work just as well.
As for challenge level, it's hard to say. An ancient red dragon with it's 5e stats and legendary actions, plus 9th level wizard spells, plus 3rd level cleric sounds OP to me unless the party is huge, and/or at a very high/maxed level. YMMV. Sounds like a fun campaign though.
I'm currently converting very slowly all the encounters to try and balance them. So far all the encounters needed to be watered down a little. First major encounter in the original is 18 brigands (2 lieutenants, 8 archers and 8 swordsmen.)for a party of 6 level 7 players.
I modded it to 6 bandits, 4 archers and 2 bandit captains(one of the captains is there less as an attacker and more of a early warning for the person they work for). Based on the create encounter feature on the site it's just shy of being a deadly encounter.
I plan to run it PBP on discord after I have the 1st book converted at least 1/3 or the way.
Hey I was just wondering if you finished this conversion and if you would be willing to share? I have this too and always wanted to try it for 5e. Thanks.
I am still working on converting the encounters and magic items in the second half of the first book in my spare time. I know one of the original play testers of this game and One thing that he said always that I'm finding this adventure was not built with balanced encounters for the players.
So One of my all time favorite campaigns Is Dragon Mountain. An epic campaign that took forever to build a group up to.
I'm working from the back forwards converting the end boss and every thing to do with the mountain stronghold and it's inhabitants first to give me an idea where the players levels should be to make it a challenge but hold that threat that at least one or more PC's could die.
That being said ancient Red Dragons from 2nd were magic powerhouses and the dragon from DM is worse.
If going with the rules for adding abilities to monsters I would have to make her a ancient red Dragon with 9 levels of Wizard. and 3 levels in Cleric. And imbue her with a polymorph self at will ability.
Would this feel too powerful or a challenge that would offer a good climax to a campaign that would have truly taxed the players skill?
Would love suggestions and constructive ideas.
That seems like more work that you need to put into this sort of thing. I'd just copy over the Spellcasting section from the Archmage and call it a day. Maybe tweak some of the spells and add in some cleric spells if you want.
Part of the issue I'm finding is that the Dragons of the earlier edition were more in tune with magic and as a result would have a ton more abilities if they were They had daily allotted spell like ability. higher age categories had spell slots in both mage and cleric. Alot of the role playing and the intrigue in the adventure is that the Dragon is never idle while the adventurers are She's watching them in various Polymorphed forms.
Hmm that might be a way to explain it. A magic item that imbues the wearer with the ability to polymorph self.
Sorry part of my mental process very much like a coding rubber Duck.
Alter Self doesn't quite work, since you can't make a quadruped into a biped. The Polymorph spell limits the ability to speak or cast spells. True Polymorph would allow speech and spell casting (as long as the new spell doesn't require concentration) but it is a 9th level spell, so theoretically you could only cast it once per long rest (unless you homebrew the rule obviously). If you just want to watch what your players are doing Arcane Eye might work just as well.
As for challenge level, it's hard to say. An ancient red dragon with it's 5e stats and legendary actions, plus 9th level wizard spells, plus 3rd level cleric sounds OP to me unless the party is huge, and/or at a very high/maxed level. YMMV. Sounds like a fun campaign though.
Did you ever ran this camping? If you did I would love to hear your thoughts on the conversion.
I'm currently converting very slowly all the encounters to try and balance them. So far all the encounters needed to be watered down a little. First major encounter in the original is 18 brigands (2 lieutenants, 8 archers and 8 swordsmen.)for a party of 6 level 7 players.
I modded it to 6 bandits, 4 archers and 2 bandit captains(one of the captains is there less as an attacker and more of a early warning for the person they work for). Based on the create encounter feature on the site it's just shy of being a deadly encounter.
I plan to run it PBP on discord after I have the 1st book converted at least 1/3 or the way.
Hey I was just wondering if you finished this conversion and if you would be willing to share? I have this too and always wanted to try it for 5e. Thanks.
-CG
I am still working on converting the encounters and magic items in the second half of the first book in my spare time. I know one of the original play testers of this game and One thing that he said always that I'm finding this adventure was not built with balanced encounters for the players.
Try this:
change the age of the dragon to a younger version who took over an old lair. Adjust age accodring to your PCs abilities.
Poog the Destroyer has spoken.
By the way. I’ve had the same idea of converting old games and campaigns. How has it worked out?
Poog the Destroyer has spoken.
Any updates to your conversion? I am very interested in this!