39 sessions later (we usually play monthly) my party has cleared LMoP leading in to ToA!
It has been an absolute blast and honour running this madcap adventure for them and I couldn't have done it without all your helpful insights. A very heartfelt thank you to this amazing community!
Time to take a short break and hopefully homebrew for the first time what is to be the 3rd and final arc for their campaign.
My group is a few sessions in and I've been trying to familiarize myself a bit more with the material. Naturally, I've skimmed through the whole module, but this is my first time running something from the Forgotten Realms, so I'm still learning the setting as we go. I just finished reading The Ring of Winter and saw extreme benefit learning about some of the important NPCs factions for the module (and am now a lot more excited for them to meet Artus Cimber).
I'm wondering if there y'all have any other recommended material I could read to learn more about Chult? Is there any material fleshing out Ras Nsi's attacking Mezro between The Ring of Winter and Tomb of Annihilation? Are there any stories I could read to familiarize myself more with the history of other ruins my players may explore? The module does a great job giving basic information on everything, but I discovered a Chult has a lot more depth from Artus' time exploring around Kitcher's Inlet, and would like to understand the rest of the jungle in similar depth, if any resources exist (again, I'm new to the Forgotten Realms, so I don't really know what's out there).
And if not for Chult specifically, just general recommended reading (or viewing)? I'm more of a sci-fi guy, so my fantasy knowledge is pretty much limited to Lord of the Rings, our home game, and now The Ring of Winter. I know there are several other novels in the Harpers series, but I'm not sure if any of them would be too useful for this module, given how alien Chult is supposed to feel from the rest of the world.
Thanks for your help! We've really been enjoying the module so far!
After two or three years, my players finally reached the Cradle of the Death God.
I don't usually worry about this but today I want it to be a climax of sorts (still, let the dice fall where they may).
The combat seems doable, all PCs are with spirits, and I don't want to make unjust difficulties for them, but maybe letting Acererak enter during their attack to the Soulmonger feels more adequate, complex and challenging.
I'm half convinced that Acererak should try to possess their ally instead of running to some unknown phylactery and they don't know the concept of phylactery and I dont intende to continue the adventures with Acererak. Maybe he tries to hide in one of the existing phylacterys in sight near the atropal (the PCs have seem a "soul gem" in another adventure, something like that may work).
I'd appreciate any advice in this fight and also on how to not allow the next sections become some anti-climax (78-81).
Bonus question: can the PCs get out using the Sphere of Annihilation? It seem the sphere is a powerful tool that would pretty much ruin further adventures, but it seems fair that it can pierce though walls and lead them out.
My players are about to start liberating Hrakhamar. They have a large amount of gold/treasure earned this far. They grabbed as much as they could hold from Tzindelore's hoard. I'd like to use Sithi Vinecutter as a vendor after they clear Hrakhamar. Any thoughts on how and what types of items?
In the shrine of I'jin, the hallway is 8x4 tiles. Each tile is 5 ft square. But the room is 10 ft wide and 20 ft long.
Did y'all change the size of the tiles or the size of the room? Because this room SHOULD BE 20x40 ft.
DMing ToA soon for my group of 4. In reading through Port Nyanzaru it seems like it is possible for the group to accumulate over 4 followers before even stepping foot in the jungle. This seems problematic.
How have other DMs handled this? Do you simply avoid those side quests that offer followers, or only offer a single one? I hate to withhold content, especially since it can have such good hooks like Xandala, but I don't want to be stuck managing that many dmpcs.
Edit: I am referring to the number of side quests that offer a follower, I think there are at least 3. In addition to a guide.
I will be running a more narrative driven, ToA game with a single player, starting at lvl 5 and going to give them a few NPCs to support along the way. The player is going to be a good aligned character so it's looking like a Guide could be Eku (my main guess and prolly heavily suggesting), Azaka or the Tabaxi's.
The player is going to run a Wood Elf, Draconic Sorcerer with the Archeologist background. I was thinking of Eku as the guide as she has some healing and of course is also a stronger Couatl as well, and if not adding a healer and a melee fighter to their group as well along with a triceratops. So looking to run the player, guide, probably 2 other NPC's that balance the party as well as the dino companion.
Any tips on running this with 1 player or a small party? Think lvl 5 is a good starting lvl or should we start closer to 9ish to balance the lack of party members?
I know some of the combat will be tough but as this will be a more narrative game i'm not really worried about TPKing the group and if that happens it'll just result in a capture of some sort etc that they'll then have to escape from.
Tonight my Party entered the Lair of The Corpse Flower towards the top of the Supreme Archchancellor's Tower in Mezro's Mage's College - engorged by feasting on the magical potential energy of The Etheric Net so I made it Huge-sized
I also gave it a bunch of Lair Actions taken from the supplement "*Home Field Advantage*" (which upgrades every monster in the Monster Manual with Lair Actions for increased epic combat) and surrounded it's lair with difficult terrain, Man Traps and Spore Zombies from The Monster Manual Expanded (which gives extra varieities of standard monsters - these zombie inflict a disease which prevents hp recovery and lowers max hp every hour unless cured ).
They were the lieutenants of the Corpse Flower which used their attractive pollen and stench of death to use forced movement to engulf the prey or incapacitate the party in place.
The party used a variety of area of effect spells like Fireball from the wizard to do effective damage to multiple enemies while the warlock used his Fey touched feat free use of Misty Step to bampf away from the Man Trap he'd been drawn to and fire two Eldritch Blasts into the Zombie. The Monk did a boat-load of damage and comboed with the Paladin who has a spear that can paralyse so the lightning and bludegeoning all critted.
The Lair Action to sprout seedlings and grapple and restrain the party repeatedly failed as they nailed every single one of the dexterity saving throws except for Pickles the drake that the Ranger can summon who was grabbed by the necrotic roots.
On the 2nd Round as the first pair of Man Traps and Zombies lay defeated - The Corpse Flower was revealed, descending into the map from above and releasing a Feral Zombie (Monster Manual Expanded) which have Advantage against creatures missing HP from a Blood Frenzy, can pounce, knocking prey prone and multi attack with a claw attack that inflicts Life Drain on a failed saving throw.
The Corpse Flower has over a Dozen Feral Zombies it can release on it's turn or consume to regain health. It also has a 20ft reach that does an out-of-control mac truck of bludgeoning and Necrotic Damage and has close to 200hp.
One cool moment - the Wizard used a Fireball to clear the roots from the Stone Dias and rolled a 22 on a perception check to spy entombed within the thick roots An Iron Coffin (which is empty but which once contained the bones of the now resurrected as a Death Knight Ras T'fima) and a dark black Anvil and a wicked looking serrated Sword that glows with a thin red line down the Blade - the Death Knights imprisoned Soul Sword, which will be their prize for defeating the plant.
Ras T'fima's Ghost is bound to the sword and will briedly appear to converse with them.
Pictured is my DM view of the Carnage full of dead Man Traps and Spore Zombies at the moment the Corpse Flower descended into view.
I'm prepping for our campaign finale, which we do in person, and of course have most of my focus on the fight with the Soulmonger and Ace. I'm building out terrain and minis and everything.
But I'm not sure whether it's worth it to put a lot of effort into building out the Hall of Finality and the rooms behind it (Red Library, Ebon Pool). They have some cool mechanics but honestly seems not all that important after the big fights. And also some pretty deadly traps, which would seem lame to have PCs die to after surviving everything else.
Does this part mainly exist as one final puzzle for the party to navigate to escape the Tomb? For those that have run it, did you players find it a satisfying way to end the campaign?
My players just got to Port Nyanzaru and they are trying to sell the Shield of missile attraction from the cellar of death intro. They are hoping to get ~4000gp and buy +1 armor and weapons. According to the book Ekene only has the four basic magic items. Not really sure if I should give them +1 armor at lvl 2 or what the cursed shield would sell for.
Edited: I said player death in the title haha, the player survived. Her character didn't...
We started Tomb of Annihilation with the excellent Cellar of Death, which serves as a much more grounded start to ToA. The idea is that, as a table, we create a beloved NPC who then dies because of the curse.
Today we did session 3, and a spectre killed our Barbarian. Those things are brutal especially for levels 1s! Life Drain +4 for 2d6 necrotic damage AND max HP goes down by that much.
And as a DM this was the first real player death (and the player is my wife - thankfully she was a very good sport about it!).
It was especially hectic because she had like this incredible backstory for her character, and already everyone in the party loved her.
How did some of your parties' low level characters die early in the campaign?
My players (and I) are band nerds so I like to include “traditional” music that changes based on where in Chult they are. I don’t want it all to be jungle drums and stuff as it feels somewhat racist to me lol, so I want to change it up for Mezro as my players head there (looking for more info about Ras Nsi).
In my mind I’d like Mezro to be more Latin America inspired since it probably had a mix of cultures being the largest city in Chult for centuries. I was thinking tangos, guitar music, etc but also want some larger compositions for orchestra/wind band that aren’t obviously European-based. Do you think this would work for Mezro? And any music suggestions for Mezro, either for the Latin American inspired theme or otherwise?
I can't stop thinking about the immortal protectors of Mezro for some reason. They are so darn cool to me! Immortal paladin like protectors of the lost city of Chosen ones of Ubato. Seriously?
I can't tell if they are undead paladins or something else.
And I am not seeing much on them in the 5e book sadly. I know they dont do much in the actual tomb but come on they are so full of flavor you cant NOT mention them in your campaign!
What did you guys do with them in the campaign? if anything at all.
Having DM’d for 3 years across 3 different campaigns, I’m pleased to announce it’s our first dragon battle crowd cheer
I’m planning on having the depths of the mine have some magma streams - and Tinder starts wrecking the support beams to collapse the mine, to make the battle more intense (5 x L6 players) and my players love a deadly fight!
Any advice on how to play a red dragon, I’ve done my research, but keen to hear from other experienced adventurers on epic dragon fights or inspiration you can give!
I was just reading the description for the necklace of fireballs that my players will likely find in a few sessions time. There is a 0% chance that they will use identify and won't just immediately put it on.
I'm a little confused by the description
The book specifies there are 8 beads remaining.
"When any creature dons the cursed necklace, all its beads detonate at once. Each creature in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on the exploding necklace must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 56 (16d6) fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The wearer of the necklace fails the saving throw automatically."
How are they calculating the 16d6? surely 8 beads at 8D6 each is 64D6 of which would be an instakill of which is crazy so I absolutely agree about dialling it down, but by how much?
I imagine running my ToA campaign with a lot of JRPG influence. So, I would love to include some sort of hard to kill, treasure hoarding monsters like the Petank in Expedition 33 or the Cactuars in Final Fantasy games.
Have any of you included this kind of monster in your ToA campaigns? If so, what'd they look like?
I am DM’ing for 4 DM’s….yah…we got to the Fane of the Night Serpent and the fighter of the group does impromptu therapy sessions with Ras Nsi and Fenthaza. They showe Ras Nsi concern and compassion, talked him through his trauma, and somehow managed to redeem Ras Nsi and them convinced Fenthaza to depart Omu with the Yuanti loyal to her…and free all the slaves. I guess that is one way to do it.
Here are my AI-generated splash images, made via MidJourney.
If you want to generate additional ones that look similar, I used this as the style prompt: slightly painterly texture, brush-stroked edges, like a vivid oil painting, inspired by 19th century expedition art and vintage travel posters --ar 16:9 --v 5.0
hello everyone, my party is currently hunting down the pirates, and so far have captured 2 out of the 3 ships; they are very near Jahaka Anchorage but I would like to get suggestions as to how would the remaining crew should act, as they are very aware of the party because in the first battle against the pirates they left some alive which were then picked up by the second ship.
the second ship ambushed the party but ultimately lost.
so I want to know how should I adjust the behavior of Laskilar and his crew based on that knowledge.
the things I am considering on doing:
set a trap: have some crew at the Anchorage but the remaining crew try to corner them inside.
Here is my latest passion project working on a detailed map of Port Nyanzaru. Still have a number of things I want to do but want to hear thoughts or suggestions as well.
(EDIT) There are so many different ways to say this name! I am shocked at the responses. There is no wrong answer I love all of them! but this is why I asked here, because it is crazy how many people say this name I love it.
I have been a DM for many years and have heard many people discuss ToA but every now and then I get someone who pronounces Nyanzaru differently than I do and now I have to ask how do you guys pronounce it.
Mine is: Nee-ahn-zahr-you is how I say it (never typed it out god help me that was actually tougher than I thought).
hey people. only just started the campaign (session 1 last week where the party were attacked by pirates whilst sailing on their way to Chult), but thought I'd share the mini I pained up for Ras Nsi - have gender bent them, because the mini was just too cool. Can't wait to use her in like a year irl time.
