The Red Hand of Doom was ranked #1 adventure for 3rd edition by EnWorld.com!This is a promotion based on the Dungeon Masters Guild community that sponsors OGL (fan-based) content in conjunction with WOTC and with the 'Classic Modules Today' Google+ usergroup. All conversion guide and maps require the original adventure(s) in question and are not included in this promotion.Backers of this particular promotion will be receiving digital-only files for The Red Hand of Doom which was originally published by WOTC in 2006. All backers will receive an email with the files attached.Higher brackets for sponsorship includes a 'subscription' for any work by me (Daniel C. Pryor) done for the DMs Guild community for a certain duration of time.The conversion guide will be in pdf format.
WHAT’S IN THE GAME BOX?. 24” x 24” full color game board. 8 playable adventurer character cards which come with their own items & abilities.
standees of each adventurer. 120 Monster cards divided into five decks by map region. 60 Encounter cards divided into four decks by map region. 12 Epic Monster cards. 66 Loot cards.
12 Epic Loot cards. 28 Doom cards. 38 Skill cards. 34 Danger cards. 6 dice. 50 8mm cubes.
92 25mm counters & the Hand of Doom!. 24 page rulebook. 20 page missions book.
Reference cards. DUNGEON DEGENERATES LOOT BAG ($25)!If you selected a pledge level that doesn't include the LOOT BAG, you can add one on to your pledge!To buy the add-ons, all you need to do is increase your pledge by the total of all the add-ons you want.
To do this:. Press the 'Manage' button next to your pledge on the Kickstarter project page. If you have not pledged yet, it will say 'Back this Project'. Click on “Change Your Pledge”.Increase your pledge in the 'Pledge Amount' box by the sum of all add-ons you want to order.
After the Kickstarter campaign ends you will receive a link to the project's Pledge Manager.On that page you will then be able to select the specific add-ons & quantities you want.Note: Upon campaign end Kickstarter pledges are final & can neither be fully or partially reimbursed through the Pledge Manager. Risks and challengesWhile this is the first board game published by GOBLINKO, we have been publishing magazines & comics since 1999 & have never missed a deadline or failed to deliver a product on time. We have been running a busy webshop with mail order fulfillment since 2012 & we know how to handle getting our products into our customers’ hands. We understand the complexities of taking on a project of this scale & have budgeted enough time into our project timeline to complete all necessary tasks & our conservative estimates allow for errors to be caught & corrected without causing project delays. All aspects of game design, development & artwork are being handled in-house by our team. We have completed writing, art & design stages & have moved to the play testing & refining stage of the project. Our estimated date of delivery is August 2017.Of course, with any project of this scale, sometimes things go wrong.
We believe in project transparency, & keeping our backers updated with the project no matter what. If something does happen that causes a delay with the project, we will notify backers immediately. Possible delays could include:- A problem at the factory could delay printing of some of the games- We could face unforeseen shipping issuesAlso, due to shipping logistics, backers from different parts of the world may receive their packages at different dates than others.
TLDR Summary:, but not necessarily a strong buy if you already own some of these maps. While several of them are only marginally useful, the collection is still a reasonable deal, providing a wide variety of terrain. I would have liked to have seen a few different reprints with more useful terrain, but on the whole, it's a decent deal for the price.D&D collects 20 different encounter maps together from the last few editions of D&D into a single map collection. The maps are double-sided and printed on folded poster paper (so no dry erase or wet erase surface) with a 1 inch grid for tactical play.
The paper is standard poster weight, so it requires gentle handling. You should probably get a thin plastic 'plexiglass' insert from a cheap poster frame to lay over top the maps to protect them in use.Note: I own most of the originals of these maps included in this reprint pack, so my impression of this set is based upon the utility I have gotten out of each map over the last several years. For the few that I do not currently own, I try to evaluate their utility based on the terrain and features. An index of the included maps follows at the end.Green Valley (King's Road)Green Valley PassThis map, originally called the King's Road, was included in the Keep on the Shadowfell and reprinted in map pack. This is by far the most useful map in my collection. In terms of utility, I have used this on par with the Paizo and flip mats. It's a nice generic country side road with different terrain and good cover (damn you, Sharpshooter feat!).
Goes well with the or really any adventure with an on-the-road encounter. So, basically, all of them.Farmer's Road (Harkenwold)Farmer's RoadIncluded with the Reavers of Harkewold adventure in the 4th Edition, this map consists of a couple farmsteads and smaller roadside hovel. This is an excellent generic terrain for traveling along rural roads alongside farms and field.
Hand Of Doom Pack Wizard 101
This has also seen a fair amount of use in my games. Busy Town StreetPrior to this writing, I had not owned this map from Red Hand of Doom. It's utility is obvious off the bat. I have other similar street maps that hit the table consistently, so this is likely to be used in most campaigns. It is unfortunate that the reverse side is less useful (see below).Ruined Town (Vor Rukoth)Decrepit Bridge & Ruined TownAny maps representing the ruins of formerly civilized lands will be eminently useful in any D&D campaign. These two maps are almost certain to find a fair amount of use in anyone's game as they have in my own. Abandoned Fort (Hommlet Moathouse)Abandoned FortGiven that the is one of my all-time favorite adventures, I can't fault the inclusion of the Moathouse.
The one minor caveat is that this map is smaller in scale than the original moathouse in order to fit it on the standard poster map sized paper. I have used this map on several occasions, as I have run a version on Hommlet in the last few campaigns I've DM'd. Even without Hommlet, it makes a great generic ruin to explore.Snowy City GateAs a part of the Legacy of the Crystal Shard promotion, this maps is an excellent city snippet for a location such as Bryn Shandar in Ten Towns.
I rarely get to use snowy maps, but I have more recently for the Storm King's Thunder campaign.Ice Flower DugoutThe 'Icingdeath’s Lair' map comes from the ICONS Gargantuan White Dragon miniature. This map does make for a challenging ice cave or crevasse-riddled mountain location. While snowy maps do have a somewhat lower utilization, it is nice to have one when the time comes.
Bandit's Checkpoint (Vaults of the Underdark)Source:Vaults of the UnderdarkI've 'bundled' 4 maps together in this section since they all came from the Vaults of the Underdark collection: Bandit's Checkpoint, Arcane Hideout, Underdark Caverns, and Mushroom Grotto. If you are running an Underdark campaign, or commonly use dungeon crawls, these maps should be fairly useful. For my part, I've only gotten a bit of use out of Bandit's Checkpoint which I've adapted for above-ground settings by adding bits of terrain. I don't often run the kind of dungeon settings for which these maps would work well, but these are good maps for underground encounters. Your mileage may vary.Volcanic Treasure Trove & Red Dragon LairThese lava themed maps came with the ICONS Colossal Red Dragon 'miniature'. While these have intriguing terrain and are aesthetically attractive, the usefulness of a volcanic encounter area may be small. They are further limited in that they are front and back of the same map, so you can't lay them out side by side on a large table.
I think the terrain does have a cool factor that might spur some creative juices, but it's likely you won't use these maps more than once. This is one of the few maps in the collection that I do not already own. While the Bloodstone Clearing is a half decent location, it's literally only half decent because it is only half of the poster. The Sapphire Shrine half is limited by the specific details and features. The D&D design team likely considered that they need to include some unique maps from which DMs could be inspired to build their own encounters.
But some of the maps are so specific, you'd be lucky to use them once.Draconic Shrine / Forgotten Road (Red Hand of Doom)Source:Forgotten Road / Draconic ShrineThis map pair comes from the 3rd edition Red Hand of Doom module. While the forgotten road is a fairly nice generic wilderness setting with a cottage ruin, it also makes up only 1/2 of the poster map. Given how specific of an encounter area the Draconic Shrine map half is, it's essentially wasted space.It would have been better to include a different more generic wilderness road map, like the Monster Lair / Crossroads map from Dungeon of Dread starter pack, or perhaps pair up Forgotten Road with the Bloodstone Clearing.
These were likely included unaltered because they were the reverse of the Busy Street map and reprinting them as-is is cheaper.Portal ChamberFrom the 4th Edition version of Tomb of Horrors, this map contains an intriguing cave chamber, which would have made for an excellent generic monster lair. Except the giant portal feature in the center of the main chamber utterly cuts the legs out from the map's usefulness. Given that there are several dungeon tiles that have a portal or summoning circle feature that could be overlaid on any map, they should have edited out the giant portal before republishing this map. This is a missed opportunity to provide something really useful. Temple of the Dragon Gems (Demon Queen's Enclave)Source:Temple of the Dragon GemsThis map from the Demon Queen’s Enclave adventure (4e) is actually quite cool, but has so many very specific and unique features that I just can't see how it would be useful unless you plan to run the actual adventure from which it hails.
Otherwise, you'd have to write your own custom adventure to go with the various rooms. I own this and it has never seen the table. Given that there are already a few 'creative' maps in this collection, I can think of other maps that would have been better choice. Throne of Death and DespairI do not currently own this map, but it is so specific in nature, I can't see this ever hitting my table unless I wrote a custom encounter specifically for it. It's also a fairly boring encounter area that could be easily recreated with dungeon tiles instead of a poster. This is a disappointing inclusion.Surprising OmissionsGiven the recent adventure paths, I'm quite surprised a number of obvious maps were not included. The Jungle Temple (Dungeons of Dread) map and the Yawning Portal Tavern maps are obvious candidates for Chultan and Undermountain campaigns.
The Market Place and Ratfang Sewer maps from City of Peril are perfect for city-based campaigns. Similarly, the town maps from King of Trollhaunt Warrens or The Slaying Stone would have made excellent general purpose selections.A number of maps would have better fit the most recent adventure paths. I'm a bit surprised Wizards of the Coast did not include them for this publication. I suspect a second 'reincarnated' map set may be in the works, but given the current product line, the omission of certain maps is puzzling.Final ThoughtsSince the price of out-of-print maps on the secondary market is usually daunting, this selection of maps isn't terrible for the price. I only wish it were just a little bit better.
If I didn't already own most of these maps, this collection would be worth the price, even if a few are unlikely to see play. For most who don't already have these maps, it's worth it.Special thanks to for graciously allowing me to borrow a few images for the review. Check out his of all the various battle maps from 3rd and 4th Editions.
Did you count the resistance to non-magical weapons as part of their CR? That's less relevant at higher levels, but for low CR creatures it might make the difference between 3 and 4.Yeah, I was noting the deadliness of this encounter myself. My thought was to split it into two encounters - first the hobgoblins and ogre, then have the raiders and barghests show up on round 3 or 4. That gives the party time to wipe out the very easy initial encounter and explains how the ambushers get into position.Even then, though, six CR 4 creatures is a deadly encounter for quite a range. I'm thinking it might be better to aim for CR 2 with the Raiders.
If you put the Half-Dragon template on top of the Berserker NPC then you get fairly close. Adding the resistance to non-magical weapons makes them a big threat to the militia of the Vale while relegating them to more of minion status in fights against the PCs. That said, this build kind of leaves them similar to the Bugbear Barbarians elsewhere in the adventure. Did you count the resistance to non-magical weapons as part of their CR? That's less relevant at higher levels, but for low CR creatures it might make the difference between 3 and 4.Yeah, I was noting the deadliness of this encounter myself. My thought was to split it into two encounters - first the hobgoblins and ogre, then have the raiders and barghests show up on round 3 or 4.
That gives the party time to wipe out the very easy initial encounter and explains how the ambushers get into position.Even then, though, six CR 4 creatures is a deadly encounter for quite a range. I'm thinking it might be better to aim for CR 2 with the Raiders.
If you put the Half-Dragon template on top of the Berserker NPC then you get fairly close. Adding the resistance to non-magical weapons makes them a big threat to the militia of the Vale while relegating them to more of minion status in fights against the PCs. That said, this build kind of leaves them similar to the Bugbear Barbarians elsewhere in the adventure.I did actually fail to take into account the resistance to non-magical weapons - that'll theoretically 'double' their hitpoints, meaning I can cut out a crapton of those HD to make them have closer to 60ish hitpoints, which would make them a pretty decent CR3.I'm not as worried about the deadliness of this encounter for two reasons. Firstly, the characters should be about mid-Tier 2 at this point, so all of the AoE damage should be coming into their own at this point. As I mentioned, a single fireball will deal about 28 points of damage on a successful save, wiping out the hobgoblins. Secondly, this is supposed to be a Deadly encounter.
This is the assassin squad the the Red Hand has sent out specifically looking for the heroes will destroyed the bridge and took out Saarvith/Regiarix.Even so, dropping the Ogre (at least) probably isn't a bad idea, so when thew barghests and blackspawn raiders come out to play, the party should be able to focus their full attention on them. Maybe make sure that the assassins don't get the drop on the party? Your suggestion of giving the players a few turns after they attack/annihilate the hobgoblins is a good one, especially given how the barghests/blackspawn raiders have no ranged options (save for the 40ft breath weapons).Yeah, I'm avoiding touching that Berserker statblock for the exact same reason - I feel as if it'll remove a lot of the 'oomph' from the Blood Ghost berserkers in Act 4 when they appear in Brindol.EDIT: How's this for a lower CR'd Blackspawn Raider? I note that the original text has Power Attack for the Raiders, so what if we give them some sort of GWM effect? -5/+10 might be a little too much, but perhaps something like -2/+1d6?
They have a low attack bonus so this will be kind of punishing, but it would have synergy with stuff like the Hobgoblin Captain's Leadership trait or anything that provides advantage.I could take out the SA-analogue and do some sort of Powerful Blow trait, allowing them to do -2/+1d6 or the like. Or maybe make them use an improvised weapon, but give them the Bugbear's Brutal feature? It'd remove the +2 proficiency bonus and add an extra d6 worth of damage.Looking at the 3.5e statblock is also why I gave them proficiency/Expertise in Survival, actually. Yeah, I think it's better if you don't have the DM have to make the calculation as to when to take the -2 every round for every monster.
Setting them to +2 to hit with 3d6+2 damage captures the Power Attack flavor fairly well. These folks won't do well against medium or high AC opponents, but they'll be nasty against low AC PCs. Though it might be worthwhile to boost them back up to a +3 strength modifier.Edit: Also, the Half-Dragon template would give CR 3 black half-dragons 5d8 damage on the breath weapon. Hey there,I'm following the topic with much interest, as I am currently converting and translating RHoD for my players. Right now they are still playing through the Sandbox Lost Mines of Phandelver. When they're finished, I'm planning on running RHoD.The little input I can provide is not based on gameplay, because as I mentioned my players aren't there yet. Anyway, I liked the idea of having monsters linked to specific dragons.
We already have greenspawns, blackspawns and bluespawns in the campaign, but no redspawns. So to create a redspawn, I modified the Blood Ghost Berserker. I also modified the blackspawn to fit what I had in mind. Thanks for the feedback, Moradin! I'm interested in how you tie LMoP to the Red Hand. Have you made changes to any of the NPCs?
Is Phandelar going to be involved in the invasion, or will the PCs be traveling to a different region? What hook do you use to get the PCs to head to Drellin's Ferry?So, one thing I've been doing with my Spawns is giving them dual types, including the fiend(demon) type. This gives them a whole host of resistances that should make them pretty tough to fight, but also a few weaknesses like vulnerability to the Paladin's Turn ability. So the Raiders are Humanoid (Draconic), Fiend (Demon) and the Greenspawn are Monstrosity (Draconic), Fiend (Demon). I feel like this gets at the weird hybrid nature of these creatures.
Also the Draconic subtype means that they're subject to dragon-slaying weapons, which makes that kind of treasure valuable in more situations than just the big dragon fights.Kuulvheysoon, did you get a chance to run Marked for Death yet? Thanks for the feedback, Moradin! I'm interested in how you tie LMoP to the Red Hand. Have you made changes to any of the NPCs?
Is Phandelar going to be involved in the invasion, or will the PCs be traveling to a different region? What hook do you use to get the PCs to head to Drellin's Ferry?So, one thing I've been doing with my Spawns is giving them dual types, including the fiend(demon) type. This gives them a whole host of resistances that should make them pretty tough to fight, but also a few weaknesses like vulnerability to the Paladin's Turn ability.
So the Raiders are Humanoid (Draconic), Fiend (Demon) and the Greenspawn are Monstrosity (Draconic), Fiend (Demon). I feel like this gets at the weird hybrid nature of these creatures. Also the Draconic subtype means that they're subject to dragon-slaying weapons, which makes that kind of treasure valuable in more situations than just the big dragon fights.Kuulvheysoon, did you get a chance to run Marked for Death yet?Nah, man. I had to split my party into two last week, as I was missing two players (husband/wife) due to the husband's presurgery appointment in the city (which we all live about 5 hours away from). The group of three who were here did random errands around the Vale (they helped evacuate Witchcross by dealing with a trio of trolls, who seriously freaked out the players), and the husband/wife were supposed to deal with the graveyard.This week I'm only missing them again, but a former player has come back for the week to bump us up to 4. I'll drop the plot hooks for both the graveyard and something outside Brindol.
Should they go for the latter, I'll be running Marked for Death. If not, the week after next (29 or 30th) I'll have the whole team back together, and we'll do the war council, which I expect to take up the whole evening with the planning of the defense and such. I'll also drop hooks for scouting the army and such for another chance to drop Marked for Death.Long story short - either in a couple days or in two weeks. This group is pretty combat-thirsty, though, so if I drop the hint to hunt something down/secure something/etc. They should get the hint and do it.
I've just updated the Elsir War post with the Into the Horde event. I've given a lot of guidance on how to run that, and I'd appreciate feedback and other ideas on how to deal with PCs who have clever plans for fighting armies.I'm curious, what happened with the Trolls to freak out the players?Good luck with the encounter in a few days or two weeks!They apparently didn't know anything (and I mean anything) about trolls, so when they started regenerating they panicked a bit. That, and I use the Loathsome Limbs variant found in the MM. Skyrim my ancestors are smiling at me.
When I described them chopping off the troll's head, they were all 'Yeah, that wasn't so tough!' Then the body continued attacking them and the head started biting the barbarian's leg.And they used fire at the very start of the encounter with the druid tossing a produce flame at them. And promptly missing and figuring that it didn't work, so what was the point? I tied LMoP to RHoD in two ways. I will throw a light hint on what's going to happen early on when they will run into the 'Orcs' at Wyvern Tor. This is a standalone encounter that someone in Phandalin gives them. In the original campaign, orcs are waylaying travelers and they will have to be taken care of.
In my campaign, I kept the fact that travelers think it was orcs that did them in, but it was in fact hobgoblin scouts. I figured the average person would probably not be wise enough to distinguish between orcs and hobgoblins when their life is on the line. They're simply monsters to them. Anyway, the hobgoblins are scouts for the Red Hand in full attire (red hand brand and such), sent in the Cloud peaks (will address this later) to forge alliances with the local goblinoid tribes and to gather information on the potential of the area. They got carried away and they began to plunder the occasional travelling merchant.Second: the big hook will be a map that points to 'great treasure beneath Vraath Keep'. The players will find in the Wave echo cave itself. There's two different spots where to drop the map: one is with an old book in possession of Mormesk (area 14 of the Wave Echo Cave).
It says right in the adventure that the DM could use this map to tie in the following adventure. It's a good spot, but I feel the second spot is even better. I am thinking on having it lie simply on the Black Spider's desk (area 19), among other documents. This way they will find it just after the epic showdown between the party and the mastermind.
It might also be a good idea to change Nezznar the Black Spider from a drow to an hobgoblin mage, perhaps a War adept. It's still early, my players are in Thundertree right now, so I have time to do the changes. If I'm going this route, Nezznar the hobgoblin will have found the map inside Wave Echo cave and will have commented on a side of the map something along the line, ' Ask Koth to look into this, treasure means money for the invasion'. I think it would work well.Another thing I did for connecting the two adventures together was to change the entire Thundertree part.
Now the green dragon, Venomfang, was looking for eggs stolen from her by the cultists in the eastern part of town. She asks the PCs for help (under the guise of a dryad). They did help her and recover the eggs. Before going away, the dragon said if they meet again, she won't forget the help they gave her. I am planning on having Venomfang join the horde as the green dragon guardian of Skull Gorge Bridge. When they attack, the dragon recognizes them and won't attack them. Won't attack the horde's troops either.
It will simply watch events unfold. I feel this is a reasonable behaviour from a LE creature with allegiance to one cause and a pretty significant debt to a different cause. Moreover, she's smart. She figures, if the players win, she'll be satisfied she payed her debt to the players and fly back to nurse her kids. If the horde wins, she's strong enough to kill the last defenders and claim that without her the bridge would have fallen.
Since they already helped her in Thundertree, I will have to buff the encounter significantly. Maybe 1-2 more hell hounds would do the trick. It should be fun. Phandalin is going to eventually be invaded because of where I set Phandalin in my campaign. So, in the original module, Phandalin was just south of Neverwinter. I moved Phandalin just south of Beregost, because I'm much more familiar with the area (and I have Beregost ready).
The new Phandalin is on the hills on the northern side of the Cloud Peaks, 2 days off of Nashkel, 3 off of Beregost. According to canon, in this area there's very little. You have the Cloud Peaks to the south, The Wood of Sharp Teeth to the North, the Sword Coast to the west and to the east. The GreenFields. Miles and miles of empty fields. What a waste.I set the entire Elsir vale in the Greenfield.
The Westdeep forest can be the Wood of Sharp Teeth, the Wyvernwatch mountains are the Cloud peaks, and most of the Thornwaste can be converted into mountains. You don't need such a huge desert there, the GhostLord Lair is literally 10 miles away from the road. Also, this way the Dawn Way can go through the Wood of Sharp Teeth straight to Beregost connecting Dennovar (and Marsember/Iriaebor east of Dennovar) and Brindol to Beregost, Baldur's gate and Athkatla; this also serves the narrative of the Dawn way being an important commercial route, because it connects Cormyr with Amn and the Sword Coast.In all this, poor Phandalin will be invaded as soon as the horde is finished with the Vale.
The vale is the principal prize, but once the WyrmLords are done with it, they will inevitably consider shifting their gaze on controlling the region through further espansion. In my world, Phandalin is only about 4-5 days away from Drellin's ferry, so it's natural for the horde to continue espanding that way, westward. This is also in the light of the fact that after securing the access to Amn, they might be able to move on Beregost from two different direction: from south through Phandalin/Nashkel and from East through the Wood of Sharp Teeth along the Dawn way.A big component on the appeal the characters will have about saving the vale is that if they don't, it will hurt their interest. At the end of LMoP, they will have shares of the mine, which I estimate in 2000 gp/month, about 400-500 gp/month per each player. Will they be ok with the horde taking away their rightfully earned shares? I don't think so, as Lord Jarmaath or Norro Wiston will cleverly point out once the plans for the invasion become evident.
As I mentioned above, I think the map pointing to great treasure beneath Vraath Keep is a great hook. Adventurers like their items and gold, so there's nothing better to motivate them. I placed some very cool gear in the vault underneath Vraath Keep: Gauntlets of Ogre Power, revised Wand of Life, +1 Frostbrand Bastard Sword, +1 Chain Mail. We're speaking of 20k gp worth of treasure, but there's not much more treasure in the rest of the adventure, apart from Wyrmlords gear.A different hook would be to have Kelddath Ormlyr of the Song of the Morning (Lathander's chuch in Beregost) contact the players to go deliver a message to the clerics at the Poetry of the Dawn (Lathander's Chuch in Brindol). He had a vision of impending doom, he's worried about his colleagues and Lathander's faithfuls in the vale. Unfortunately for the horde, to get to Brindol the PCs will have to pass through Drellin's Ferry. I admit the first hook feels stronger.It should be fun.
The most annoying thing about converting is that there's so many monsters we don't have conversion to 5 ed yet (looking at you, dire lions). And this is one of the reasons why I'm so interested in your work and the work of the other participants! Keep it up!Edit: I noticed that while I was writing, you posted your suggestions about Captured!
And Into the Horde. I just have a suggestion for the Captured! This event will likely take 2-3 days of in-game time. The PCs will have to go through torture to have a chance to escape. I would keep the EL for escaping at 5 (about 2000 xp for the party; the fight is designed to be quite easy after all), but would also give 1000-1500 xp to each member that manages to escape.
During their stay as guests of the horde, they did nothing else but be tortured and beaten. Giving them a solid xp reward because they escaped and survived the ordeal, I think would be very gratifying for the players, for the loss of time they experienced and the resilience they showed. 1k xp at 7th level is not so much anyway, because to pass to 8th level a char has to gain 11k xp. So, let's do up a list of monster from the module that we'll need to convert and we can get started on them in here. So, let's do up a list of monster from the module that we'll need to convert and we can get started on them in here. We'll ignore the major 'custom' bad guys and have their own list for them.Good thinking.I have homebrew Dire Lion, the Bluespawn Thunderlizard and Skather.
Will translate back to english and edit this post (I know, I'm not a smart man).Also, all the dragons (Vaarathian is the fifth dragon in my campaign), Saarvith and Koth. Will repost in a couple of hours.Edit: here's the dire Lion I posted in another thread on Converting RHoD (which sadly came to silence in the last few weeks).The template was taken from a reddit user, you can find the link below. Large Beast-Armor Class 14HP 80 (7d12+21)Speed 45 ft-Str +5, Dex +3, Con +3Int -4, Wis +1, Cha -1-Skills Perception +3, Stealth +7Senses passive Perception 13Languages n/aCR 3 (700 XP)-Keen Smell.
Feb 26, 2017 Cyberpunk 2077 Lore - Night City. This is the first part of the lore videos for the upcoming CD Projekt Red's game Cyberpunk 2077. First part will deal with Night City and and what it means to. City night concept art. Explore Moises Araya's board 'Concept Art-Night' on Pinterest. See more ideas about Futuristic city, Illustrations and Cities.
The Dire Lion has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or smell.Pack Tactics. The lion has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the lion's allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn't incapacitated.Pounce. If the lion moves at least 20 feet straight toward a creature and then hits it with a claw attack on the same turn, that target must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. If the target is prone, the lion can make one bite attack against it as a bonus action.Running Leap.
With a 10-foot running start, the lion can long jump up to 30 feet.-ActionsBite (melee) +7: 1d10+5 piercing.Claw (melee) +7: 1d8+5 slashing.What I did is to take the Lion stats (MM, page 331) and apply the template. The only modification I made myself was to keep Strength at 20, because applying the template as is, it would have been 22, which is a bit too much for a lion, albeit a dire version. I instead used those 2 extra points in Strength to buff the Dex up a point, which increases AC to 14. Also, I increased running speed by 5 feet and die for bite and claw attacks, to reflect the increase in size and muscle of the animal. It's supposed to be a beast about double the size of a regular lion (cue Nymeria and the other Dire Wolves in Game of Thrones).Will post Bluespawn Thunderlizard next. Large Monstrosity, LE-Armor Class 16HP 84 (9d10+36)Speed 40 ft-Str +5, Dex -1, Con +4Int -4 Wis +2 Cha -1-Skills Athletics +7, Perception +2Senses passive Perception 13Immunities electricityLanguages Draconic, Common (understand, cannot speak)CR 4 (700 XP)-Charge: If the Thunder Lizard moves at least 20 ft.
Straight toward a target and then hits it with a gore attack on the same turn, the target takes an extra 2d10 piercing damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.-ActionsGore (melee) +7: 2d10+5 piercing.Electricity Arc (30 ft line, recharge 5-6): 6d6 electric damage (Dexterity CD 14 for half).Electricity Link: When 2 or more bluespawn thunderlizards gather, electricity surges between them.
If they use their Electricity Arc attack in the same turn, the arc curves to create a whirlwind between two thunderlizards. Anyone in a radius of 30 feet from each thunder lizard is hit by an electric discharge that deals 3d6 damages as electric (Dexterity DC 14 for half). For each Thunder Lizard participating with its electricity arc to the formation of the whirlwind, the damage increases by 1 die and the DC increases by 1.The monster above appears during the third wave of the Streets of Blood encounter. The beast is based on the stats I found for the rhinoceros, page 336 MM. I kept the gore attack almost as is, I just increased the damage die to reflect that they should be slightly bigger than the pachyderm. The rest is largely based on the Bluespawn Storm Lizard I found on page 142 of MM IV 3.5 edition (Gods, I loved that edition!). Nothing new about the electricity arc, it's basically their breath weapon.
The DC and damage are on the lower side because after all they're CR 3 (as opposed to 6 iirc in the adventure). The big deal is the electricity link. I changed it from the original formulation because I liked the idea of creating a localized thunderstorm on the barricade the PCs are trying to protect. Because in the encounter there are 5 Thunder Lizards, they could deal as much as 6d6 electric damage to anyone within 30 feet from the barricade, with a DC of 17 to halve. Of course this would be on top of their electricity arc (which is a line, so it should hit only a limited number of creatures/players).
Assuming half damage from both arc and link, that's about 36 damage in one round to anyone around the barricate. More than enough to kill off most if not all the defenders, but it should not be enough to kill the PCs (unless one or more fail both their saves, in which case they might get as much as 72 damages; still probably just enough to kill magic users).The trick is, the thunder lizards need at least 2 turns to get to the barricade down the street.
By then, smart PCs should have realized that they could concentrate their spells and ranged attacks on one-two targets and have a decent chance of killing anything in 1 turn from a distance. So, out of the 5 Lizards, if they play smart they could get 2 down before they even reach the barricade. The EL for that encounter is 8, for a total of 4000 xp. The goblins will do very little damage anyway; mainly bother the PCs and the other defenders during those two turns of waiting for the big boom.
I would have them die during the electricity link.What do you guys think about this? Medium Humanoid (goblinoid)-Armor Class 12 (15 with mage armor)HP 40Speed 30 ft-Str +2, Dex +2, Con +1Int +0, Wis +1, Cha +3-Saving Throws Con +4, Cha +6Skills Arcana +3, Intimidate +6, Stealth +5Senses darkvision 60 ftLanguages Goblin, Common, InfernalCR 5 (1800 XP)-Heart of Hruggek.
Koth has advantage on saving throws against being charmed, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned, stunned, or put to sleep.Spellcasting. Koth is a 7th-level spellcaster. His spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 14, +6 to hit with spell attacks). Koth knows the following spells:Cantrips (at will): acid splash, mage hand, message, minor illusion, true strike1st level (4 slots): charm person, mage armor,. shield2nd level (3 slots): blindness/deafness3rd level (3 slots): fear, fireball, fly4th level (1 slot).Koth casts this spell on himself before combat begins.-ActionsMultiattack.
Koth attacks twice with his morningstar.Morningstar (melee) +5: 2d8+2 piercingWand of Magic Missiles (7 charges): For one charge, casts the 1st-level version of the magic missile spell; increase the spell slot level by one for each additional charge expended. The wand regains 1d6+1 expended charges daily at dawn. If Koth expends the wand's last charge, roll a d20.
On a 1, the wand crumbles into ashes and is destroyed. Small Humanoid (goblinoid)-Armor Class 16 (studded leather armor)HP 60Speed 30 ft-Str +1, Dex +4, Con +2Int -1, Wis +2, Cha +0-Saving Throws Str +4, Dex +7Skills Animal Handling +5, Medicine +5, Perception +5, Stealth +7, Survival +5Senses darkvision 60 ftLanguages Goblin, Common, Draconic, Elvish, GiantCR 5 (1800 XP)-Nimble Escape. Saarvith can take the Disengage or Hide action as a bonus action on each of his turns.Natural Explorer. Saarvith has advantage on initiative rolls, as well as on attack rolls against creatures that have not yet acted during his first turn of combat.Greater Favored Enemy.
Saarvith has a +4 bonus to damage rolls with weapon attacks against humanoids and giants. He has advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track humanoids and giants, and on Intelligence checks to recall information about them. He additionally has advantage on saving throws against the spells and abilities of giants.Coordinated Attack.
When Saarvith uses the Attack action on his turn, if his hawk can see him, it can use its reaction to make a melee attack.Spellcasting. Saarvith is a 7th-level spellcaster. His spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 13, +5 to hit with spell attacks). He knows the following spells:1st level (4 slots): absorb elements, alarm, ensnaring strike, hunter's mark, longstrider2nd level (3 slots)-ActionsScimitar (melee) +7: 1d6+4 slashing, 1d6+9 against humans and giantsShortbow (ranged 80/320 ft) +9: 1d6+4 piercing, 1d6+9 against humans and giantsIn the same thread there's an alternative construction posted by Kuulvheysoon, who's also participating to great effect in this thread. Medium Humanoid (goblinoid)-Armor Class 13 (leather)HP 11Speed 30 ft-Str 0, Dex +3, Con +1Int +0, Wis +0, Cha -1-Senses darkvision 60 ftLanguages Goblin, CommonCR 1/2 (100 XP)-Sniper when using a ranged weapon, the hobgoblin has advantage to hit with that weapon-ActionsMultiattack when using a ranged weapon, the hobgoblin makes two attacksLongbow (ranged 150/600 ft) +5: 1d8+3 piercing. If you look at the Not-So-Sick Spy, I have a version of Miha based on the Lamia monster entry.
This makes her less of a shapeshifter trickster and more of an Enchantress style mind-bender, but I think that's an interesting antagonist anyway. I also have a version based on a Doppleganger if one wishes to stick with the shapeshifter angle. In any case, as far as I know the Aranea doesn't exist anymore.
Which is not to say that we couldn't make one.I'm not sure that the Dire Lion has the damage output of a CR 3 since it doesn't have a consistent multi-attack feature. What if we reduced the die by one step but then used a Brute-type feature to give it two dice on each attack? So the claw is 2d6 and the bite is 2d8. Of course that all goes away when we switch to Ghost and it gets a 4d6 necrotic attack.For the Bluespawn Thunderlizard, what do you think of adding the Fiend (Demon) type and the Demon resistances to fire, cold, lightning, and non-magical weapons? At the very least it should be resistant to non-magical weapons to reflect its DR from 3.5e. The whirlwind feature makes them a lot deadlier than anticipated and thus might be worth increasing the CR by a point. Alternatively we might reduce their HP and AC to make them more of glass cannons (which is even more important if they have a lot of resistances).
Taking off 2 HD would get them down to 63 HP, and we could reduce their AC to 12 or 13.I like the idea of having Saarvith drop +1 Studded Leather. That would be a fantastic drop for any rogue or warlock in the party. It might even be worth bumping it to +2 or giving it a feature like acid resistance (maybe it's made with the dragon's shed scales).I'd note that Martial Advantage works just fine for ranged attacks. It applies to any weapon attack if an ally is within 5 feet of the target. Throw a few regular hobgoblins in to trigger that ability and the archers can be hitting for a lot of damage.
I think if we just take the regular hobgoblin, drop strength to 11, buff dex to 14, and give them chain shirts for armor then we'll have a really solid ranged threat.I really like how you've tied LMoP to the Red Hand. Reusing the Green Dragon is a great move. I'd note that Lorka has also used LMoP and did switch the Black Spider to a hobgoblin. This has worked quite well for them.
They also made the mask a magical item that has been providing the party unreliable narrative help from an imp that it summons.Oh, if the Black Spider is an agent for the Horde, doesn't that duplicate Miha somewhat? Perhaps they are rival spies, or partners? Is there a way to work Miha into LMoP?I'll have to review Saarvith again when I get to that point.Thanks again for all the input! Keep it coming.:-D. Oh, if the Black Spider is an agent for the Horde, doesn't that duplicate Miha somewhat?
Perhaps they are rival spies, or partners? Is there a way to work Miha into LMoP?I'll have to review Saarvith again when I get to that point.Thanks again for all the input! Keep it coming.:-DI have switched out the dragonspawn things for good old school draconians, for several reasons; 1. I think there are to many dragons for there to be also dragon-like monsters, 2. There is to many goblins for there not to be another 'humanoid' foe, 2.I'm not sure that the Dire Lion has the damage output of a CR 3 since it doesn't have a consistent multi-attack feature. What if we reduced the die by one step but then used a Brute-type feature to give it two dice on each attack?
So the claw is 2d6 and the bite is 2d8. Of course that all goes away when we switch to Ghost and it gets a 4d6 necrotic attack.For the Bluespawn Thunderlizard, what do you think of adding the Fiend (Demon) type and the Demon resistances to fire, cold, lightning, and non-magical weapons? At the very least it should be resistant to non-magical weapons to reflect its DR from 3.5e. The whirlwind feature makes them a lot deadlier than anticipated and thus might be worth increasing the CR by a point. Alternatively we might reduce their HP and AC to make them more of glass cannons (which is even more important if they have a lot of resistances).
Hand Of Doom Pack W101
Taking off 2 HD would get them down to 63 HP, and we could reduce their AC to 12 or 13.I like the idea of having Saarvith drop +1 Studded Leather. That would be a fantastic drop for any rogue or warlock in the party. It might even be worth bumping it to +2 or giving it a feature like acid resistance (maybe it's made with the dragon's shed scales).I agree with your considerations on the damage output of the Dire Lion.
Your solution would work, or simply adding Multiattack might do the trick.For the Bluespawn ThunderLizard encounter, I miscalculated the EL. 5 CR 3 (thunderlizards) + 5 CR 1/2 (goblins) = EL 13. Even considering that the goblins would not do much damage and die during the Electric Link, that's an EL 10 for the 5 thunderlizards alone, which is in line with the EL 11 reported in the original encounter the EL I originally calculated is correct (EL 8).
Hand Of Doom Youtube
However, since in the original campaign the suggested EL is 11, we could increase CR to thunderlizards (hence bringing them from 3 to 4) without any changes to AC or HP. This would mean that the new EL is 10 instead of 8, making the encounter more in line with how it was originally designed to be played.I agree the way I built the electric link makes them more dangerous than what they originally were, but we also have to consider that there have to be at least 2 bluespawns in order to create an electric link. One cannot create it on its own, and the damage output created by 2-3 is quite low anyway: 3d6/4d6, assuming PCs fail their saving throw, we're looking at 9-12 damages.I think a sensible choice is to Alternatively, one could reduce AC and HP without changing the CR. This is because the encounter as is is already Hard/deadly for 4 7-8th level PCs.I think it's a good idea to give them resistances, but I wouldn't go so far as to give them resistances to other elements. I think resistance to non-magical weapon is the best choice.
By then, PCs should all have magical weapons anyway, or could summon/create some.The acid studded leather armor is a nice touch. I hadn't tought of that, but it would make perfect sense. Saarvith and the dragon have been friends for quite some time, it just makes sense that the goblin has access to black dragon scales. On the +2, I have my doubts, as I feel 7th level might be a little too early for a +2 armor. Bounded accuracy makes it capital to drop +2 armor/shield/weapons with parsimony and later in the game.
I was planning on having +2 armor/shields start dropping from important monsters when the players will be around 9/10th level (so ideally, Azarr Kun would have a nice +2 armor). Additionally, by that level not all the PCs are likely to have enchanted armor, so a +1 blackscale studded leather armor should be very welcome anyway. Medium Humanoid (goblinoid), Neutral Evil-Armor Class 16 (breastplate)HP 130hpSpeed 30 ft-Str 14 (+2), Dex 16 (+3), Con 14 (+2)Int 14 (+2), Wis 14 (+2), Cha 18 (+4)-Senses darkvision 60ft, passive perception 15Saves Dexterity +6, Charisma +7Skills Deception +10, Perception +5, Performance +7, Insight +10Languages Common, GoblinCR 7 (2900XP)-TraitsArmy Arcana As hobgoblin devastator (VGtM, pg. )Arcane Advantage As hobgoblin devastator (VGtM, pg. )Bardic Inspiration (d8 4 times/rest), options as College of Valour Bard, PHB pg. 55Stormheart once per turn, Ulwai may add 2d8 electricity damage to one melee attackSpellcaster As 8th level bard (Spell save DC 15, Spell Attack bonus +7)Cantrips known: message, stormbolt, true strike, vicious mockery. Staff of Stormclouds ( Strong Conjuration; rare, requires attunement):This staff can be wielded as a magic quarterstaff that grants a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it.
It also has the following additional properties. The staff has 10 charges, and it recovers 1d3 charges each day at dawn.Fog Cloud, 1 charge as a 1st level spell;Call Lightning, 3 charges as a 3rd level spell;Control Weather, 8 charges as an 8th level spell.Price: 10000 gpEdit: Skather.
As suggested by Saintheart in his 3.5 RHoD Handbook, Skather feels to me rather underwhelming. Part of the reason I think lies in how the EL is set up. The suggested level is EL 11, but while the War Priests fight the PCs downstairs, Skather waits for them upstairs, hiding. The fact that these are two separate encounters is further enforced by the presence of cantrips on the stairs (making it difficult for anyone, including the War Priests, to join Skather upstairs). This to me means that the War Priests encounter should be treated as separate, with an EL of 6/7 depending on how you statted the War Priests. These guys are just a diversion, to give Skather those 2 turns he needs to poison is blade, hide and prepare an action.
The real EL11 encounter is with him, and he's prepared an action. This should be by all means a hard, even deadly encounter. In close quarters he should be no match for 4 8th level players, but he should definitely be able to bring one down before dying of retreating. For this reason, I restatted him on the Blackspawn raider I posted earlier and added 7 Rogue levels, Assassin Archetype. Oh, she had the staff - but she had it hidden in her chambers when the PCs hit the Ghostlord's lair because she couldn't use it to full effect inside.
She escaped during the struggle with the Ghostlord's minions, however, and she'll be making a return at Brindol along with Ozyrrandion and Varanthian. I'm going to build up my own version of Skather in the next couple weeks, and I'll post what I've got then. I consider him a primary ranged falling back onto melee, so expect to see some Sharpshooter shenanigans.I've got a dilemma.
My players have about 2 weeks before the Red Hand reaches Brindol, and they've decided to use the dwarven mercenaries to help organize the townfolk into teams to dig a moat from the nearby river. They should be able to get a pretty decent amount of work done in two weeks, and I was trying to figure out how to incorporate this into the Siege. Suggestions?(They're also going to spends time training the peoples to fight, and I've got an idea of what to do with that). Also, suggestions on what effect siege weaponry (such as catapults) could do for the defenders of the city?.I've got a dilemma. My players have about 2 weeks before the Red Hand reaches Brindol, and they've decided to use the dwarven mercenaries to help organize the townfolk into teams to dig a moat from the nearby river. They should be able to get a pretty decent amount of work done in two weeks, and I was trying to figure out how to incorporate this into the Siege. Suggestions?(They're also going to spends time training the peoples to fight, and I've got an idea of what to do with that).
Also, suggestions on what effect siege weaponry (such as catapults) could do for the defenders of the city?Building a moat makes for great storytelling and great organization from your PCs. I would definitely reward them with some experience points for the idea and the roleplay, 500-1000 xp each or maybe more depending on what they do and what level are they at. Quantic off the beaten track flac player. But I doubt it will have much of an impact on the siege.
I think it would definitely delay the assault by 1-2 days, just enough time for Kharn to figure out what the best way to deal with the moat is. You mentioned Kharn has Ulwai, Ozzy and Varanthian; I would say that between the 4 of them they can easily think of a strategy to beat the moat. On that note, since your PCs lost VPs for ozzy, Ulwai and Var, you might want to throw them a bone and assign 1-2 VPs for building the moat: that way you reward the idea indirectly, in the same spirit as placing the clerics inside the cathedral earns 2 VP. If the PCs decide to push for spreading the clerics throughout town, they lose VPs, but the siege goes on as planned. Similarly, I don't think building a moat would swing the tide so to speak, but it would make it easier to win in the end. The horde has lots of flying monsters anyway, and the hill giants would still be able to hit from far away.I'm curious about how you will deal with the training of the people.
I'm pretty sure my PCs will do something similar when they'll be in the same situation. Keep us posted!As for siege weapons, DMG pages 255-256 reports a few. Take a look if you haven't already.
I'd say each siege weapon is worth about 10-20 extra defenders. The big problem I see is that siege weapons are made of timber. And the horde has a red dragon. Once Kharn discovers Brindol is building siege weapons, he will send flying monsters to attack and destroy them. Perhaps drop a few flammable kegs on them.
Abitriax will want to have fun with them too. So maybe you could have him attack the siege weapons instead of random buildings during the second attack. Perhaps the PCs might count on this and might also build a few giant ballistas, to attack the dragon and help defend against other flying monsters (a la Bart from the Hobbit).
Alternatively, the presence of siege weapons might reduce the number of enemies in the 3-5 waves in the Streets of Blood event. Building a moat makes for great storytelling and great organization from your PCs. I would definitely reward them with some experience points for the idea and the roleplay, 500-1000 xp each or maybe more depending on what they do and what level are they at. But I doubt it will have much of an impact on the siege. I think it would definitely delay the assault by 1-2 days, just enough time for Kharn to figure out what the best way to deal with the moat is.
You mentioned Kharn has Ulwai, Ozzy and Varanthian; I would say that between the 4 of them they can easily think of a strategy to beat the moat. On that note, since your PCs lost VPs for ozzy, Ulwai and Var, you might want to throw them a bone and assign 1-2 VPs for building the moat: that way you reward the idea indirectly, in the same spirit as placing the clerics inside the cathedral earns 2 VP. If the PCs decide to push for spreading the clerics throughout town, they lose VPs, but the siege goes on as planned.
Similarly, I don't think building a moat would swing the tide so to speak, but it would make it easier to win in the end. The horde has lots of flying monsters anyway, and the hill giants would still be able to hit from far away.I'm curious about how you will deal with the training of the people. I'm pretty sure my PCs will do something similar when they'll be in the same situation. Keep us posted!As for siege weapons, DMG pages 255-256 reports a few. Take a look if you haven't already. I'd say each siege weapon is worth about 10-20 extra defenders. The big problem I see is that siege weapons are made of timber.
And the horde has a red dragon. Once Kharn discovers Brindol is building siege weapons, he will send flying monsters to attack and destroy them. Perhaps drop a few flammable kegs on them. Abitriax will want to have fun with them too. So maybe you could have him attack the siege weapons instead of random buildings during the second attack. Perhaps the PCs might count on this and might also build a few giant ballistas, to attack the dragon and help defend against other flying monsters (a la Bart from the Hobbit). Alternatively, the presence of siege weapons might reduce the number of enemies in the 3-5 waves in the Streets of Blood event.So I'm missing a player next week and they begged us not to start the Battle of Brindol, so we're doing a sidequest instead of a timeskip.Do you know what that means?
Marked for Death, of course! They didn't find Miha Serani, so I'll have to think of someway for her to draw them out of the walls.
Right now all I have is her 'husband' is a siege engineer, and could prove extremely helpful in building their own. Any other ideas, people?As for the training, I'm doing a variant of the Mass Combat rules, and the training will just make a more elite unit instead of a basic militia unit.Them doing a sidequest also gives me more time to plan out how much of a ditch they can dig in 2 weeks with about 600ish people, and what the Red Hand will do once they discover the existence of the moat. I mean, by all rights they should have scouts running in advance of the horde and so they'll build bridges, but it might take an extra day to start the siege? Problem is that I want to reward the players for this kind of thinking, not make their efforts meaningless, you know? On a moat, estimates say that a 3 person crew with medieval tools can move about 11 cubic yards of material in an 11 hour day.
With 600 people, make that 2200 cubic yards. 14 days of this (exhausting work) means 30,800 cubic yards. Make a line 1 yard wide and 1 yard deep and you can go 30,800 yards, or 17.5 miles or 92400 feet. Brindol has about 3000 feet of wall according to the map.According to DnD rules, a being can clear a horizontal jump equal to their strength score with a running start. That means that the average hobgoblin soldier could probably just leap over any moat less than 10 feet across, and we'll want 15 feet to be sure. That's 5 yards, so our moat length is reduced by a factor of 5 to 18480 feet. A moat needs to be at least 10 feet (3 yards) deep or the hobgoblins just run down one side and up the other.
So we can get 6160 feet of a 15' wide, 10' deep moat. Fortunately there's a river so the moat can be filled with water, forcing the hobgoblins to swim. The players have enough capacity to make the moat twice as wide or twice as deep. A narrow moat could be crossed easily by hobgoblins with boards, so wider is probably better. But that's up to the PCs.The main advantage of a moat is that it prevents the invading army from bringing siege weapons or ladders up to the wall. However, the hobgoblins aren't planning to batter the walls down with a ram.
They're going to shatter it with giants, and that makes the moat basically just an obstacle as the hobgoblins run to the breach. Even at 30' wide, the hobgoblins could just swim across.
If it's unfilled, they can climb down and then climb up. It slows them down somewhat, which does give the defenders more time to shoot them. Unfortunately, that's just not enough to really change the course of the battle. The hobs are going to knock down the wall and then the army will swarm over the moat and through the hole. Eventually they'll deploy a mobile bridge at the breach to speed themselves up (which puts me in mind of Sanderson's Way of Kings).Not to say that this is a bad plan.
It's probably worth a couple of victory points as the moat buys the defenders more time to get soldiers to the breach in the wall and fight back. However, I don't think it will greatly change the flow of the fight.As for Marked for Death and Miha, what if Miha helps with the hit squad? Someone has to let them into the city, after all.
She could join the fight or she might engage in additional acts of sabotage and spycraft. Maybe she burns the siege weapons in the night or something like that.
Better, she could operate the whole time through Charmed agents, making her a sort of Laughing Man kind of antagonist that the PCs have to track down.Edit: UlwaiA Lore Bard gets a lot of the Magical Secrets that enable them to pick liberally from the Druid spell list. Picking up Call Lightning makes the Staff of Stormclouds practically obsolete (though it's still pretty nifty, and needed for Control Weather). I will note, though, that Call Lightning, Greater Invisibility, and Polymorph all require concentration. She's going to be somewhat constrained in her actions. Picking up Chromatic Orb (lightning) and thunderwave fit her theme really well, and should likely replace faerie fire and tasha's (both require concentration as well).
I'd swap sleep for Cure Wounds, as Greater Invisibility and healing make her a fantastic support for Kharn if she lasts that long. On a moat, estimates say that a 3 person crew with medieval tools can move about 11 cubic yards of material in an 11 hour day. With 600 people, make that 2200 cubic yards.
14 days of this (exhausting work) means 30,800 cubic yards. Make a line 1 yard wide and 1 yard deep and you can go 30,800 yards, or 17.5 miles or 92400 feet.
Brindol has about 3000 feet of wall according to the map.According to DnD rules, a being can clear a horizontal jump equal to their strength score with a running start. That means that the average hobgoblin soldier could probably just leap over any moat less than 10 feet across, and we'll want 15 feet to be sure. That's 5 yards, so our moat length is reduced by a factor of 5 to 18480 feet. A moat needs to be at least 10 feet (3 yards) deep or the hobgoblins just run down one side and up the other. So we can get 6160 feet of a 15' wide, 10' deep moat.
Fortunately there's a river so the moat can be filled with water, forcing the hobgoblins to swim. The players have enough capacity to make the moat twice as wide or twice as deep. A narrow moat could be crossed easily by hobgoblins with boards, so wider is probably better. But that's up to the PCs.The main advantage of a moat is that it prevents the invading army from bringing siege weapons or ladders up to the wall. However, the hobgoblins aren't planning to batter the walls down with a ram. They're going to shatter it with giants, and that makes the moat basically just an obstacle as the hobgoblins run to the breach.
Even at 30' wide, the hobgoblins could just swim across. If it's unfilled, they can climb down and then climb up. It slows them down somewhat, which does give the defenders more time to shoot them. Unfortunately, that's just not enough to really change the course of the battle. The hobs are going to knock down the wall and then the army will swarm over the moat and through the hole. Eventually they'll deploy a mobile bridge at the breach to speed themselves up (which puts me in mind of Sanderson's Way of Kings).Not to say that this is a bad plan. It's probably worth a couple of victory points as the moat buys the defenders more time to get soldiers to the breach in the wall and fight back.
However, I don't think it will greatly change the flow of the fight.As for Marked for Death and Miha, what if Miha helps with the hit squad? Someone has to let them into the city, after all.
She could join the fight or she might engage in additional acts of sabotage and spycraft. Maybe she burns the siege weapons in the night or something like that. Better, she could operate the whole time through Charmed agents, making her a sort of Laughing Man kind of antagonist that the PCs have to track down.I've decided to make her a Succubus, actually. It fits better with the whole Devil theme that they've got going as a secondary theme and they're low enough CR this edition to not be too badly off. The Aranea just never really fit, you know?I'm going to have Miha be busy seducing Captain Lars Ulverth, weakening the defenders that way (impeding leadership), but giving them a few bonus VP (especially considering that they're at 28 before the battle!) wouldn't hurt.Players are either going to be doing my graveyard challenge or Marked for Death tonight.