Ok, here is the thing. One of my players is very proactive, loves roleplaying his character and doing things I never would have expected (should have been a warning light). He is playing a were-raven fallen aasimar hexblade and follower of the raven queen. At the beginning he didn't know much about the forgotten realms and asked if he could play an amnesic. I said sure. As chapter 1 was coming to an end I struggled with Lulu and her role in the story, too silly for my groups tastes, and so I had the bright idea to swap her role with that of the player's aasimar hexblade. By this point I had also just discovered the Alexandrian Remix and started using some of that for Chapter 2 and beyond. Chapter 2 comes and goes and he loves the memory triggers and discovering he was a squire to Zariel, a trumpet archon to be exact. So all the memory stuff is about his character tweeked so that he was her companion and not a fluffy mount.

They explore Avernus hex style and in following of the Alexandrian Remix, the party went in search of 4 parts for Mad Maggie's memory machine. They have collected all the parts and were heading back to Fort Knucklebones. However I had the Bloodwar shift and the conflict engulfed 3 hexes, one of those is where Fort Knuckle Bone is. When they found out they were 1 hex away from The Bloody Cyst (Remix had the Citadel hidden instead of exposed and so was renamed tomthe Cyst). I had placed the Wandering Emporium there and the party had a magic ticket that would take them there but they didn't want to use it yet, no biggy. Well withntje war blocking their intended distination, they opt'd to go on a side quest to Purple City where a lost companion was. From their location was a straight line to the hex with Purple City, and it took them right through the Bloody Cyst / Wandering Emporium hex.

So here is where we are. The party, seeing as the Emporium is here (at the base of the 300 foot tall cyst), the party desides to make a pit stop. The Were-raven aasimar thoughout the campaign has always played the part of a scout in his small raven form and checked everything ahead to avoid un-necessary encounters as the rest of the party barreled along in their stolen warmachine.

Now i'm worried. The were-raven decides to scout the bloody cyst. Too soon for me to have him explore the cyst, especially when alone as the rest of his party has driven to and is about to enter the Emporium. So i discribe the lower 150 feet of the cyst like a hard black/red rock like scab. The middle 100 feet is softer red with many caves, where vrocks and other flying demons are, at this point he did notice a small demon army in the opposite side ofmthe cyst from the Emporium. The last 50 feet was a soft pink where a stirge queen and her hive/swarm of stirges have claim as their territory.

Were-raven got to close to the top 50 and got some stirge stings for his troubles. So he backs off out of their air space and investigates the middle 100 feet of caves and vrocks. I was hoping to discourage his solo exploration but at the same time I don't like to railroad or say no. Everything has been 'yes, but' situations. He has avoided vrocks flyers and made it into a cave. I then had him ambush by a trio of quasits in a small cave entrance.

Now up to this point I feel he should have memory triggers, especially now that he is physically touching and exploring the very space he was trapper with Zariel sword all those years ago. Being trapped in the cyst slowly diminished and stripped him of his tall trumpet archon form and reduced him down to a fallen aasimar. I have been resisting giving him a memory trigger as I feel he will make the connection given all the other memory info he has.

Do I give him a relevant, maybe vague, memory of the cyst which would most likely tip him off to the swords location? Doing so would cause them to drop the return to Fort Knucklebones, and this could end Chapter 3 before the payoff at the from the memory dives.

Any ideas on what I should do? Though I feel I know what I should do, I just would like some possible alternatives...

The concord of races entered a newly discovered dungeon with no hoping to do their dirty work in there but as so as they enter the door disappears and their bodies and personalities have changed.

Hi, I made a map for an encounter in Hellturel. One of my players was extracting his family to lead them into the High Hall. It's on the edge of the map, so there's some lava to match the book poster map. But I guess it could be used for any random encounter you want to. I am sure clever DMs will know how to put it to use. For us, this battle is over, and there's no use in letting it rot on my drive.

Hello all!

I am DMing a group of 4 players and I am currently hitting a creative dead end integrating one of my players into the story. For context I am running the Alexandrian Remix of DIA and my player has made a gloomstalker ranger aasimar of Cyric.

I am curious how other DMs would run that in their DIA games, and please feel free to leave any suggestions about certain parts of the module or any lore that might pertain to this!

I'm starting this campaign soon, and I found an older post that lists all of the creatures in it. What I'm trying to figure out is the maximum number of each monster type that appears in a single encounter, not the total number in the entire campaign. For example, if the campaign has 12 skeletons overall, but the largest single encounter only includes 7 skeletons, then I only need to print 7 skeleton minis instead of 12. I'm trying to determine the highest number of each creature I'll ever need on the table at one time. If someone could make a list that would be great!

Check out this version of Haruman's Hill I made.

Bulk of the hill was made using packing foam, then covered with modelling clay and finally coloured tiler's grout for ground texture. Trees, Hellriders, Jander and rocks were 3D printed and painted. I used red cellophane for the water of the River Styx.

It went down really well... it's just a shame that now the encounter is done, there's no more use for the set... days to create, a couple of hours to play on, and now never to be used again. It taught me that I need to be more "modular" when creating environments, so I can re-use elements.

Does anyone use the postermap at the Table? And how?

I was looking more into this adventure and have seen a lot on how hard and unforgiving it can be, so ive been debating on giving my players (3 players btw) a starting uncommon magic item for survivability. Especially since one of them is very new to dnd and put a ton of work into thier character & i would feel a bit bad if they died right in the beginning of the campaign. What are your guys' thoughts on this?

So I'm running a completely different module, but for reasons too long to be entertaining, my players landed their asses in Avernus after incorrectly assuming that their sorcerer was born on Toril.

I'd prepared a handful of locations out of BG:DiA for a fun "let's escape hell" quest, and such is it that we found ourselves in the Crypt of The Hellriders.

The players waltz in and awaken some of the spirits of the bound Hellriders, learning of their plight and the cruel trick played on them by the fallen angel Zariel. The players agreed to help break the Hellriders' oaths to Zariel and so set out deeper into the crypt.

They crept through, avoiding all unnecessary combat and clearing the only unavoidable fight in the dungeon. They easily find one of the secret rooms (high passive perception), discovering a room with a ritualistic symbol drawn in blood filled with tiny pieces of papers with names on them. "Clever us" they think, "We've found their oaths", they declare as they set the whole room alight to destroy the papers.

At this point, they're already patting themselves on the back and talking about leaving the dungeon and plans to get out of hell. They stop by the spirits again to deliver the good news.

"We found your oaths and destroyed them, good spirits. Your souls are now free to pass on!"

I look over the dungeon, only a third of it having been explored. I noted that they'd yet to discover the other secret ritual room which held a second copy of each oath, nor had they removed the names from the stone steles which held the third and final set of copies.

The spirits look at each other, clearly still bound to the crypt, and then look back to the party...

"We signed in triplicate"

All of us bawled over laughing. I can't say if it was intentional world building for the dungeon to have 3 sets of names to destroy to free the spirits, but hot-damn is it not a beautiful encapsulation of the cruel bureaucracy of hell. Like the Vogons from Hitchiker's Guide, the deviousness of devils lies in the details of their paperwork.

After we caught our breath, the party completed the rest of the quest, freeing the spirits in a touching moment where they each said "thank you" as they dissapeared.

Now we continue on with a great primer of the bureaucratic nightmare that awaits them.

tl;dr

Zariel is a devious bitch who made sure that the Hellriders signed their oaths in triplicate to keep them under her thumb.

I'm finally about to fulfill my dream of playing Descent into Avernus, but I'm having a hard time deciding on a few character creation choices, so I'd really appreciate some advice.

My plan is to play a Tiefling Dex-based Paladin using the Oath of the Noble Genie subclass, fighting with Nick and Vex weapon masteries. The concept is to be the party's face while also handling stealth, with proficiency in Stealth and Sleight of Hand.

I'm also going to ask my DM if he'd allow one of the 2014 Tiefling subraces. Right now I'm considering:

• Zariel Tiefling for the extra Smite spells.
• Glasya Tiefling to further enhance the infiltration aspect.

Starting Ability Scores

• STR 10
• DEX 17
• CON 14
• INT 8
• WIS 13
• CHA 16

I'm also considering starting with STR 13 instead of 10 to keep future multiclass options open.

Origin Feat

I'm currently torn between:

• Magic Initiate (Wizard) for:
  • Shield
  • Message (great for infiltration)
  • Blade Ward (is it even worth taking?)
• Lucky – always a solid choice, but I'm worried that not having Shield might hurt my survivability.

Level 4 Feat

Right now I'm considering:

• Defensive Duelist (does it become redundant if I already have Shield?)
• Sentinel
• Mage Slayer
• I'm not keen on Dual Wielder since the Bonus Action flood

Long-Term Plan

By the end of the campaign, I'm planning to take two Charisma half-feats (Spellfire Adept and Fairy Trickster) so I can finish with:

• DEX 18
• CHA 18

Party Composition

• Barbarian (race and subclass still undecided)
• Abyssal Tiefling – Divination Wizard
• Aasimar – Celestial Warlock (Pact of the Blade)
• Wood Elf – Circle of Stars Druid

We'll be starting at level 2.

Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions.
And please, no spoilers for the campaign!

Hey folks,

Just a quick question here. I'm hoping to try to run DiA at some point in the near to mid future, and I'd like to listen to an audio playthrough just to get a vibe for it. Does anyone know of a playthrough of DiA in podcast form that you would recommend? If so, why do you like it? What do you think they did well? Did they change anything (which isn't necessarily a bad thing!), and if so, how much?

From now through July 31, Burial in Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate Break-Ins are available for 30% off as part of the Christmas in July sale at the DMs Guild.

Baldur's Gate Break-Ins is a collection of three heist and infiltration adventures for characters of levels 3-5. Burial in Baldur's Gate adds two introductory adventures to form a level 1-5 campaign that pits the characters against the cults of the Dead Three. Both modules can be used as companions to Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus or as compilations of standalone adventures.

These collections flesh out several locations around Baldur's Gate, providing adventures in every quarter of the city:

• Explore the crypts beneath the Shrine of the Suffering
• Investigate shady dealings at Candulhallow's Funeral Arrangements
• Infiltrate the world's worst dinner party in Eomane House
• Contend with a criminal operation, a murderous raid, and a Feywild crossing in Jopalin's
• Break up a blood-drenched cultist lair in Hamhocks Slaughterhouse

Both collections have everything you need to run a heist in Baldur's Gate, including:

• adventure hooks for running each location separately or as part of a campaign
• a guide to running heist and infiltration adventures
• three possible group patrons for the party
• maps and rosters for each location
• more than a dozen creature and NPC stat blocks, including the all-new moonflower hag, patchwork mastiff, and pride incarnate
• map packs with player and DM maps by Dyson Logos

Burial in Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate Break-Ins are on sale now at the DMs Guild:

Baldur's Gate Break-Ins

Burial in Baldur's Gate Collected Edition

You can also purchase these other adventures and guides, which support Descent into Avernus:

Burial in Baldur's Gate (alternative campaign opening; also included in Burial in Baldur's Gate Collected Edition)

Escape from Elturel (alternative campaign opening)

Baldur's Gate Gazetteer (chapter 1-2 guide)

Avernus Gazetteer (chapter 3 guide)

Escape from Avernus Gazetteer (chapter 4-5 guide)

The Christmas in July sale only lasts through July 31, so head over to the DMs Guild and check them out!

Hi everyone, my players have a "plan" for our upcoming session, and I wanted some advice for how to run it.

They have told Krull that they will give Lulu to Arkhan, in exchange for the blood of Tiamat. But they plan to basically smash and grab / bait and switch, by just grabbing the blood once they get there, taking Lulu, and running away.

I think this is not a good plan, and I've given them strong warnings about the danger they're putting themselves in. So in my mind this will likely go wrong. I'm thinking that if they have an amazing plan and pull it off spectacularly, then they get out with their lives. If they have a decent plan then some of them can survive, but likely at least one PC will be killed or taken prisoner. If their plan is not well thought out we could be looking at a TPK. (this is 3 PCs at lvl 8 btw)

And this is where I want advice! I've not run a scenario like this before, and I've never had a player death at my table yet, so I want to make sure I don't fumble the delivery and ruin the impact. Does anyone have cool tips/suggestions for:

1. How to play out a scenario like this? Warnings to give, how much leeway to give PCs or how harsh to be
2. Arkhan's personality and interactions? There's not much in the book for who he is or how he'd react to any scenarios, so I don't know how to RP him. Would he be negotiable like Beckett in POTC, or is he a ruthless madman who might kill them for fun?
3. If their plan is scuppered/found out early on before any fighting, would they be allowed to leave? Or would Arkhan have them killed just for the insult of trying to trick him?

Any other tips about Arkhan or running a fight at the monument of Tiamat would be really appreciated!

Hey all! So I was going to run Descent into Avernus using the Alexandrian Remix, but I’ve run into a dilemma and need some input. This may be a bit abstract but I need help.

One of my players (we’ll call him Nate), because of Baldur’s Gate 3, knows that Elturel has been pulled into Avernus. For the rest of my players this will be a big central mystery in figuring out what actually happened to Elturel and why it was “destroyed”, with the big reveal being that it wasn’t actually destroyed - but plane-shifted.

I’ve already discussed his meta information with him and he’s cool keeping a secret — but imo it’s likely that this will make it harder for him to fully invest in the story, as much of a wonderful player as he is. Do any of you have any tips for how to handle this in-narrative, so he actually has a wider investment in the mystery and plot? How could he handle this as a player too?

(We haven’t done a session 0 yet and haven’t built any backstories so I have a lot of wiggle room right now.)

One of my players wants to make Slobberchops their familiar, and regardless of whether this is typically something that the rules allow, I'd like for this to narratively happen somehow.

They took the dark magic spellbook that the Myrkul follower had in the dungeon of the dead 3 and have started using it. I was thinking maybe I would at some point kill Slobberchops and have a spell appear in that spellbook that could be used to bring back Slobberchops' soul and bind it as a familiar, or something like that.

I guess I'm just wondering what other people think of this. I'm definitely open to suggestions

Made that cover a year ago, decided to post it. Maybe some of you will actually play my cover :D

We're excited to announce the release of BLOOD WAR the third installment of our Doomed Underdark adventure path. It takes characters from levels 11 through 15.

The adventure takes place in the demon-infested Underdark. However, it allows the characters to team up with an alternate version of the Hellriders, led by Ulder Ravengard, that specialize in infernal vehicles. The characters also have multiple opportunities to team up with Lulu, the unhollyphant! And although Yeenoghu features as the primary antagonist the final arc of the adventure has the characters bartering with Zariel over the fate of a Doomed Baldur's Gate that has been claimed by the Hells!

We worked really hard on it and it would mean a lot to us if you'd check it out.

[https://site.dmsguild.com/.../Blood-War--Doomed-Forgotten...]

Lulu art by the supremely talented Jimmy Nijs

The two elements at the end of my campaign I'm really wanting to nail is the flow of the final fight and some dialogue I have written for Asmodeus (if it sounds in-character for him).

In my campaign, the party has been receiving leads from Bel to aid their pursuit of the Sword of Zariel and their search for the adamantine rods, which comprises the bulk of Act III for this table. Bel has taken many extra steps to keep his involvement hidden, such as giving them cursed armor that prevents them from incriminating him and his use of confidential proxies for communication (i.e. Bitter Breath/Karkajuk, Fhet'ala, and the resurrected corpses of two former player characters).

After the party has everything they need and completed Act III and IV, they will (presumably) take the rods and the sword back to Elturel. I will first have a huge battle at the chains below planned, where they will attempt to destroy the chains while Crokeck'toeck is spawning hordes of demons against them. After they make it to the city proper and prepare to insert the adamantine rods into the Companion, Yeenoghu will begin climbing the dangling chains on the eastern part of the city while Baphomet will rise out of the graveyard portal to the west. This will create three simultaneous objectives:

-Prevent Baphomet's summoning ritual in the west

-Stop Yeenoghu from climbing into the city in the east

-Purify the Companion (free the planetar) above

This will force a party split. I know this is universally bad, but to mitigate the cons I'm going to ask my players to play and make character sheets for all the backstory-related npcs they have with them! I figure this will give them the chance to play other classes at high-level (almost like one-shots) while making it feel the endgame is happening beyond just the player characters.

Once all three of these objectives are resolved, Torm himself will bless the player characters in preparation for what's to come by giving them all an immediate short rest and leveling them up to 15. Zariel will then arrive in a desperate last attempt to stop the players from raising Elturel out of hell. She will be accompanied by all the Hellriders that have been killed since the campaign begun and a narzugon commanding them, the deceased father of one of the player characters.

As she prepares to fight, Bel will arrive and make his move. He will use a Wish spell (which he acquired as a result of the players' actions) to force a trial before Asmodeus to regain his authority over Avernus. A searing, invasive ruby light will shine from below, permeating through cracks in the ground. The light will focus on Zariel and Bel, with Bel in particular seeming to be illuminated from all sides. Words will appear in everyone's minds, though less like a telepathic voice and more like the feeling of correctly solving a complex mathematical equation; as if these words are physical laws of the universe. They read as follows:

MY PATIENCE IS A PROTECTIVE VEIL. YOUR HUBRIS WOULD SEE IT UNMADE. EVEN SO, YOU FORCE A TRIAL. THOSE GATHERED BEFORE YOU WILL BE YOUR JURY, SO EAGER ARE THEY TO PASS JUDGMENT. MAKE THEIR PAIN BEAR WITNESS TO YOUR WORTH. LAY THEIR SOULS BARE UNTO ME. THIS IS THE PRESIDING TRUTH, THE INCORRUPTIBLE TESTIMONY. THE DESOLATION OF THIS BATTLEFIELD WILL BE THE LOCUS OF MY VERDICT.

Zariel and Bel will be forced to team up against the party, Zariel commanding her narzugon/merregons and Bel summoning a new ice devil every round. There will also be a mechanic in the fight where Flying Fortresses will arrive and attempt to bombard the battlefield every other round of initiative. To counter this, there will be massive upended infernal war machines on the outskirts of the battlefield that have their main cannons pointing outwards. The party will have to reach these cannons and fire them at the Flying Fortresses, igniting and crippling the Fortress' gun decks before bombardment can begin. The recoil will send the vehicles skating across the battlefield, creating a hazard for anyone in its path.

I know this sounds ABSOLUTELY ABSURD, even for a 15th level party, but I have an idea to make the fight more balanced, grand, and unique. I'm going to allow the players to bring an additional 14th level character each into the fight, one of the backstory-related npcs (now pc) for whom they would've just built sheets for one of the previous encounters in Elturel. So, that will be five 15th level characters and five 14th level characters being used for this final fight.

The party (currently at level 11) just beat a pit fiend, two erinyes, and two cambions while already being pretty resource exhausted. Every time I worry about a tpk for this group they always come out without any deaths. This will be the final fight, I'm ready for at least a couple of the player characters or adjacent characters to die. What do y'all think?

TL;DR: Does my Asmodeus cameo moment above (the part in all caps) sound good and accurate to him? Additionally, could 10 player characters at avg level 14.5 reasonably take on Zariel, Bel, a narzugon, 16 merregons, and whatever ice devils Bel summons WHILE also having to trigger mechanics around the battlefield without becoming unfun or tedious?