Here are some NPCs you can add to the Burials of Teganshire. They’re not in the adventure, but Burials of Teganshire may mention them in passing. In blog post 20 in our series, we talked about roleplaying additions to the area. This post is specific to NPCs for the Dungeon Master (DM/GM) to use if the PCs engage the setting outside of the module.
Of course, the DM may have their own setting with their own NPCs. The below are lore-generic and can fit right in with some modification or used as-is. Sir Johansson, his wife, and his squire do not make an appearance in Burials of Teganshire. They are included here for the DM to use. Keep track of their dispositions towards the PCs, as that will impact the next adventure.
Sir Johansson
Sir Johansson is a knight that owns nearby farms and ranches north of Teganshire and west of the trade road. He has authority given to him by his Lord, Lord Teragan, and inherited his lands from his father. Sir Kyle Johansson has no political control in Teganshire, but he has considerable influence. He is the employer of the four well-paid guards in the guard tower along the road to Tegan’s bridge.
Johansson is rich, owning a multitude of farms and having significant inherited funds
Lord Teragan has Johansson oversee several of his own farms
The knight is well-liked by the local populous for being fair and hardworking
He has considerable knowledge on agriculture and animal husbandry
He’s trained in combat and a thoroughly dangerous individual
His wife is a minor cleric, known to heal the sick and wounded
Sir Johansson’s Motivations
While a fierce combatant both on horse and on foot, Johansson is less of a knight in charge of farms and more of a farmer with knightly training in logistics. His martial prowess has less to do with innate capability; instead, Johansson is athletic and healthy with good morale and leadership abilities. He has no fewer than a dozen men-at-arms, well-paid individuals with superior arms and armor ready to do violence on his behalf.
As a logistical-ordered individual, Johansson’s primary concern is food production. He does not hold the fascination with horses that his Lord and fellow knights do, believing equestrian dominance is an enormous money sink. His focus on wise spending and agrarian-based wealth has put him at odds with the other knights in the barony.
His motivations:
Provide for food production of the land, lest during bad times we’re forced to eat the horses we love so much
Protect the farmers who concern themselves with feeding us
Increase the Johansson wealth through careful spending and protecting existing assets
Apply the King’s law fairly
Protect my family and legacy from a hostile world
Be the man my wife wants me to be
Roleplaying Sir Johansson
Appearances can be deceiving, and the knight fits the bill of a noble warrior with expensive equipment. However, he has a firm understanding of local life and has a lot of empathy for his farmers and ranchers. He is not impressed with shallowness, bravado, or smarminess. Anyone willing to defend the lives of the common folk has his support.
Kyle has a deep understanding of the logistics of the region and the hazards of warfare without adequate means to feed the troops.
Dame Johansson
A cleric of a good deity and of modest divine power, Serina Johansson is wed to Kyle Johansson through an arranged marriage. Selected by her husband due to her healing abilities, medical knowledge, and education, the Dame and the Knight enjoy a marriage of mutual admiration. They have four children, the oldest now in his early teens.
The Dame is an educated daughter of a wealthy horse rancher. Her father was surprised when Kyle Johansson’s father approached him to arrange a marriage, but the Dame was the youngest daughter and was set to enter into a life of serving the church. The resultant dowry has paid for itself thrice over
The Dame holds respect but is seen as a bit naive—she is aware of this and works against it, but she was raised to serve in the church, not lead a life of minor nobility. It doesn’t help that she was the youngest of her siblings, and was a bit spoiled and sheltered
Serina works to make sure her children have a good education and are pious, respectful children
Her divine power is academically based. While she understands prayers of battle, she has never used them
She deeply admires her husband’s firm, but caring leadership abilities
She has a full understanding of the family’s finances and the Johanssons make joint decisions
Dame Johansson’s Motivations
Support the Johansson legacy through planning, hard work, and the application of proper business acumen
Make sure her family and Kyle’s sphere of influence have proper respect for the divine and meet religious obligations
Heal the wounded and take care of the sick through divine healing and medical know-how
Raise the children to respect the King’s Law and the Church
Find Squire Artane a proper wife
Be the woman my husband wants me to be
Roleplaying Dame Johansson
Serina appears youthful in her mid-30s, and while not the most attractive woman, she carries herself with grace and confidence. She also likes to talk and gossip, feeling it is her duty to know everything about everyone. She is a highly religious person and cares deeply about her immediate family, her extended family, and her husband’s wards.
While she wears a holy symbol, she does not wear cleric vestments, nor carries clerical weapons. She can speak of religious issues and has a passing familiarity with history and arcane knowledge.
Squire Artane
Squire Gil Artane was selected by Sir Johansson as his squire for a combination of two reasons:
He is extremely accurate with a bow
He killed a grizzly bear with a pitchfork
Usually, a knight is supposed to squire sons of his peers and other nobility to teach them the ways of the knightly world outside of the influence of the squire’s family. Johansson was set to do that until one of his farmer’s sons killed a goddamn brown bear with a pitchfork. This impressed Sir Johansson so much he made the lad his squire, and the two have operated as a team ever since. It helps that Gil, as a farmer’s son, knows the agricultural trade and is not afraid to roll-up his sleeves during harvest and gets to work.
Gil is not a local yocal. Or, rather, he might have been at one time. Now Artane is a warrior, skilled with a blade, horseback combat, and all things archery. He has killed men in defense of his knight and has grown confident and shrewd. He has formulated a philosophy of “why kill bad guys up close and get stabbed when you can do it far away?”
Squire Artane’s Motivations
Protect his knight. We have to watch each other’s back
Become the best archer in the realm
Avoid getting married and losing my edge
Stay out of trouble and avoid bringing shame to his employer
Hard work and loyalty is the hallmark of good men everywhere
Make sure the men-at-arms have an excellent grasp of bow and crossbow usage
Roleplaying Squire Artane
Gil is well-aware of that his athletic build, youthful appearance, the scar on his face from the bear, and deadly reputation make him attractive to the fair maidens of the region. He has a natural way with people and flirts with the lovely opposite sex as easy as breathing.
Underneath the surface, Squire Artane is a warrior with a firm understanding of the use of violence. Like Sir Johansson, he doesn’t have any aspirations to go to actual war, having seen first hand what an arrow can do to someone’s face. His arrow. He has no regrets, but he also has no wish to prove himself “glorious” in battle, especially if the harvest is coming due.
In Gil’s understanding of the universe and his place in it, he leads a perfect life.
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The successful funding campaign is over, but Burials of Teganshire is still available on Indiegogo’s InDemand service. Click here to get your copy! https://igg.me/at/teganshire
Session 0 doesn’t necessarily mean a separate session but is a meeting of minds between the DM/GM and the players. It is where the DM sets the tone, logistics, and expectations.
Personally, I find it helpful to put Session 0 information in a handout, and then both email and then physically hand it to the players. Session 0 is also an excellent time to roll up a new PC, so the information should be sent before the DM expects the players to have their new PC ready to go.
Here’s an example Session 0 handout for Burials of Teganshire and the Circle of the Blood Moon Adventure Path. As always, simple information that a player would find helpful is better than a “lore dump” that just gives the DM a captive audience.
No need for a lore dump. Let the PCs make their own story, discovering the world as they go.
Session 0: Circle of the Blood Moon Adventure Path
Circle of the Blood Moon is a 5E D&D game using standard D&D rules.
When
Every Friday at Rob’s House
Player Books
D&D 5.0 Player’s Handbook or SRD (required)
Xanathar’s Guide to Everything (optional)
Stronghold and Followers (optional)
Campaign Setting
Homebrew, European-style feudal system
Races
All except Dragonborn and Tiefling
Classes
Any
Character Creation Rules
Any class out of the PHB
Standard Point Buy
Standard Starting Funds
Milestone experience
Roll for HP when leveling
PCs can have feats if they meet advancement requirements
PCs can multiclass
The campaign uses Encumbrance
Campaign Tone
This is a challenging and complex campaign where players will need to earn their PC progression through heroic actions and deeds. Players are in the driver’s seat to the extent that the DM has material to cover what the PCs are going to do that evening, and if they wander too far off the adventure path, then the game pauses for the material to catch up. It is possible to fail objectives and have the campaign continue—win or lose; there’s going to be action. Your decisions have consequences; this is not a railroad, but there isn’t a multiverse shattering puzzle, either. You’ll know soon enough what needs to be done.
PCs will be making trips outdoors. Outside of villages, it is widely known that the less-civilized wilderness contains monsters and fey. The local authorities are feudal-based and, for the most part, well-respected by the local populous.
Difficulty
PC causalities will happen if players bumble about or if merely unlucky.
Players are expected to use team-centric, combined-arms tactics/strategy. There are random encounters that could turn deadly, and PCs can wander into places beyond their ability to survive if the party does not retreat and reassess.
PC Death
PC death could result in a new 1st Level PC until the campaign advances to where it makes more sense to have a new PC at a higher level.
Magic
This is a heroic-magic campaign setting—there are NPCs with magic, but they usually do not wander about killing monsters. The frequency of magic items is straight out of the DMG.
There is no open market for magic items, except potions, and even then, the alchemist making potions usually has a customer list she’s working towards. However, most alchemists rely on external sources for their concoctions and are predisposed to people selling rare materials.
Coin
Circle of the Blood Moon uses the same coin system that is in the PHB. The nobility also uses letters of credit, which they can exchange for coin with other nobility and the crown. There’s no fractional banking system, but there are wealthy merchants that will exchange coins for these letters of credit.
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Print copies are moving along, too. Theoretically (it’s always a bit unsure in the COVID-19 shipping world), we should get the printed proofs today and approve them. We’re still optimistic the printed versions will go out in September, too.
Our support alias is support@griffonloregames.com.
From the Tales of Lothmar Beastiary comes the Island Red Fox, a teleporting trickster that can’t be killed, but can shoot fire beams out of its eyes if it thinks it’s funny.
Island Red Foxes, of which only three are known to exist, long has been an enigma to the inhabitants of the island chain they inhabit. Benign but annoying, the island red fox will occasionally steal a chicken from a farmer, clothing from bathers, and even toys from children. If it’s food, they’ll proceed to eat it, but other items they play with until bored. “Chase the fox” is their favorite game.
Usually (but not always) found together, the island red foxes are clever and bright (for an “animal”) and can understand the Common language. They will perform tricks for food (sit, roll-over, play dead, shake hands, heel, leave it, and even more complex tasks such as “go to Port Lance and give this to a town guard”), but never stays with a particular person longer than a couple of hours. Sometimes they will sleep next to a campfire, but snap at anyone trying to get them to move.
Several hundred years ago, Garranthe the Sage formally studied the foxes but didn’t find anything people already didn’t know, except for one tidbit: they have a fondness for smoked elk sausage, an oddity as there are no elk on the island chain they inhabit. Garranthe, however, did not study the foxes for long, saying, “he had no interest in revealing any secrets from what appears to be a figment of a long-dead trickster god.”
He did, however, confirm they were not fey.
Currently, if island natives see an island red fox, they believe it is a sign of good luck and coming prosperity.
Combat
If they think it’s funny, an island red fox will use their fire eye beams to light something on fire, including adult people who are trying to harm them. They have a sharp bite, but an island red fox avoids combat with their misty stepor teleport.
Crossbow Man would never shoot a fox. They’re just too dang cute!
Burials of Teganshireis a self-contained, modular adventure that emphasizes localization, so the DM can plug the module into their own environment. It’s also so the players can develop their own story without the plot forcing them to travel hundreds of miles somewhere else. Going back 20 days, we talked about Localized Campaigns:
These posts are a mix of DM Practical and DM Design. Practical is necessary for the DM to save time. The Design is essential for the DM to add bespoke flavor—no commercial product can anticipate all the needs of your game table.
This post gives you some practical options to liven up Burials of Teganshire. Page count, modularity, and such prevented the information from showing up in the module. Perhaps one day, when we complete the adventure path, we can expand the text to include all that flavor that makes a setting come alive.
Of particular note, the next adventure in the series in the Circle of the Blood Moon adventure path (#CBM2) will have more information on Teganshire Village, so the options here are generic.
Before the PCs Head Out
Before the PCs head out to take care of the “bridge problem,” here are some generic flavor additions.
Carols the Halfling Merchant
Carols is a female halfling brewmaster with a wagon of high-quality beer heading up the road to the bridge. However, Carols only has two guards with her, and they are accompanying her mostly to handle the four horses pulling the wagon.
She is now held up and will approach the PCs—she’ll add to their reward. Carols doesn’t have much spare money (only 10 gold pieces), but will pony up a keg of beer if the PCs take care of “whatever killed that poor man!”
Carols and Laura of the Bouncing Mutt don’t get along, as Carols never has any beer to sell her, selling it up the road where she gets a better price.
Randy the Rider
Randy is a message courier with a swift horse, wearing leather armor and a light crossbow, but obviously, he’s not a fighter, but a mailman.
He’s contemplating a bypass, but his horse is a jumper. He’ll ask the PCs if he can follow them, in hopes of saving time crossing the river.
Randy is not allowed to engage in combat, and won’t do so. As soon as the PCs kill the monster, he’ll rush the bridge at full gallop and jump over the damage, continuing on his route.
Randy is a young man and only carries a small amount of coin, as the stops on his route feed both him and his horse. Interfering with Randy has severe consequences, as the local authorities also use his route to deliver military correspondence.
If Randy watches the PCs kill the monster, he’ll inform his employer who will arrange for the PCs:
Discounts on fast riding horses
Free mail delivery throughout the region
Discount at the inns along Randy’s route for a month
No Empty Stomach Left Behind
Before the PCs head out, the matrons of the village pack the PCs lunch, including two freshly baked pies. Farmer Paul, a man of modest means, also gives the PCs two small bundles of high-quality, smoked sausages, one for the PCs, and one for the “nice fellows in the watchtower up yonder.”
While PCs are Traveling
Beyond the random encounters in the module, here are some things to add for additional flavor.
Three Men
Three men were riding war horses along the river coming from the west, hoping to cross the bridge. However, they could see the bridge had significant damage and turned away. They are now riding to Teganshire, to warn the Burgermeister of the issue.
They did not investigate the bridge, but their horses were very nervous, and since they are the ones who trained said horses, they left.
These men are horse trainers. Their mounts are high-quality, and they were set to deliver the horses. They will continue to Teganshire and then leave after a meal, avoiding the road, traveling west.
The Guard Tower
As mentioned in the module, the purpose of this guard tower is less of a way stop and more of a patrol waystation to prevent errant forest critters from molesting the farms and ranches to the west.
As such, they are highly knowledgeable about the region. If helped, the well-paid guards are a treasure trove of information about:
Local nobility
Which farmers or ranchers have eligible, marriage-age bachelors and bachelorettes (ranked according to appearance)
All have respect for Harold and tell the PCs his young wife died long ago before they had children. If the PCs seem like honest, good folk, one of the guards says to the PCs that Harold needs help getting over his grief, and it would be a shame if he continued to be unmarried, as he is a respectable man
One of the guards was shot down, spectacularly, by the owner of the Bouncing Mutt in the village. If the PCs haven’t heard her story yet, he tells it here. He feels terrible because he didn’t know she was in mourning
If the PCs help the guards, they can also supply the PCs with some fresh goods from the local farms. If given the sausage bundle, the guards share a recipe of fried sausage and eggs.
One of the guards knows how to skin and process animal fur. If the PCs killed the dire wolves, he offers to the skin and process the hides, so the PCs can turn them into clothing sometime later.
Machan’s Tower
This would be a great place to put in a cursed book that ties to the next module in the Circle of the Blood Moon adventure path. Just put it there with Machan’s journal, no need to be fancy about it:
Book of Celestial Whispers
This book does not detect as magical but is a highly magical tome and a dangerous one as that. If read, the book, will without fail, impart the ability to speak celestial to the reader. It will also turn the reader’s alignment permanently lawful, so if the reader was neutral good, they would then be lawful good. If the reader was chaotic evil, then the book would change their alignment to lawful evil.
Book Contents
The book, written in Common, is an engaging and well-written story about a paladin named Sir Hashmon Keirman coming to the aid of a celestial forced into mortal form and now besieged by enemies in the mundane world. The story ends with Keirman finding out his paramour is an angel, and in a bittersweet decision, convinces her to go back to Arcadia, and resume her position.
This story is true and contains a large amount of action, romance, and philosophical questions between the nature of duty and desire. It’s approximately 70,000 words.
Curse
However long it takes for the reader to read the book (some can read it in a week, some in a day), when completed the curse takes hold and is irreversible—the Law, Neutral, Chaos portion of their alignment shifts to Lawful. The reader is made aware of this, but they may not know why.
One of the “benefits” of the curse is the reader understands celestial but has no knowledge of the fact. Celestial spoken to the reader sounds likes the reader’s own native language. When they talk to someone else that understands celestial, that’s the language they unknowingly speak.
If the reader already knows the celestial language, the alignment shift still occurs. If the reader is already also lawful, they feel a supernatural sense of understanding Sir Keirman, and their Wisdom score is increased by 1 (to a maximum of 20).
Recharge
Once the book curses a reader, it takes 4d6 weeks for it to “recharge” before it can curse someone else (reading the book twice has no effect the second or subsequent times). If destroyed, it reforms 4d6 months later in a random location, next to another book on a bookshelf.
Bound accuracy is the D&D 5E concept in which the escalator ramp of bonuses caps out, thereby simplifying game attributes like armor class, attack bonuses, skill checks, what have you. It’s cool, I like it, and Pathfinder 1E doesn’t have it, and I don’t care. So, why bring it up?
Bound accuracy dramatically simplifies things for the player and DM. Still, it muddies the waters when it comes to designing 5E encounters because it places a significant burden on the DM for making things hard and challenging. Pathfinder 1E, with well-established escalation calculations, it does not suffer, for the most part, from this design burden.
But we can steal other concepts from 5E. We just need to be a mite bit careful because of that very lack of bound accuracy.
Recap: the Pathfinder 1E Action Economy Dominates Everything
Three conical sources explained the Pathfinder 1E action economy, available some time ago:
4. The game is built with the assumption that the PCs will win an encounter, and it isn’t until CR +4 that the encounter is a fair fight between the PCs and their opponents. We can prove this because placing a party against a Linear Guild party is always a CR +4 encounter.
5. The most effective way to design challenging encounters is to overwhelm the action economy in the antagonist’s favor. When the enemies have more actions than the PCs or the PCs’ actions are restricted, encounters are challenging.
Just like in 5E, the “Deadly” encounter CR (CR+4) is where the killing monsters portion of Pathfinder becomes fun.
Tweak the Pathfinder Action Economy for Your Villains with these 5E Mechanics
In Pathfinder, talking an Encounter from CR+4 to CR+5 can result in mass casualties at your game table due to the absence of bound accuracy (as noted above). But as the three articles by Alexander explain, challenging your PCs really starts with putting the antagonist ahead of the action economy curve. Using 5E Legendary, Lair, and Villain actions are a great way of maintaining the CR+4 encounter math and ramping up the difficulty.
As long as we avoid the pitfall of raising the CR with extra attacks.
Pitfall First
In Pathfinder, a CR+4 encounter probably has enough attacks to seriously damage a party. Adding additional attacks on initiative 20 (Lair actions), and after a PC (Legendary actions) can elevate the encounter beyond the CR+4 rule-of-thumb, more so than 5E. Depending on party class makeup, however, your PCs may be able to absorb that.
Add Legendary Actions to the Primary Monster
Either solo or with some buddies, Legendary Actions ramp-up the BBEG Action Economy:
At the end of another creature’s turn, a creature can use a legendary action. A creature with legendary actions has separate actions it can choose from. Each one costs a different amount of “actions.” Only one legendary action can be used at a time, and the creature cannot use legendary actions while incapacitated. The creature regains its legendary actions at the start of its next turn.
Legendary Actions Example
Here are some Legendary action examples that aren’t concerned with dealing a ton of damage. Every round, the BBEG gets 3 Legendary Actions:
Performs a swift action (Cost: 1)
Casts a cantrip (Cost: 1)
Move rated movement speed without provoking an attack of opportunity (Cost: 1)
Remove all detrimental conditions such as grappled, stunned, prone, etc. (Cost: 2)
All enemies within 15ft. are automatically pushed 15ft away from the Legendary creature (Cost: 3)
Target an enemy with a ranged attack without provoking an attack of opportunity (Cost: 1)
Webs fall from the ceiling in a 30ft. diameter area (Cost: 2)
Lair Actions occur on initiative count 20, (losing all ties). The monster can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row.
Lair Actions Example
Let’s use the lich from the 5E System Reference Document:
The lich rolls a d8 and regains a spell slot of that level or lower. If it has no spent spell slots of that level or lower, nothing happens.
The lich targets one creature it can see within 30 feet of it. A crackling cord of negative energy tethers the lich to the target. Whenever the lich takes damage, the target must make a DC 18 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the lich takes half the damage (rounded down), and the target takes the remaining damage. This tether lasts until initiative count 20 on the next round or until the lich, or the target is no longer in the lich’s lair.
The lich calls forth the spirits of creatures that died in its lair. These apparitions materialize and attack one creature that the lich can see within 60 feet of it. The target must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw, taking 52 (15d6) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a success. The apparitions then disappear.
We can modify that for Pathfinder 1E:
The lich rolls a d8 and regains a spent spell that level or lower. If it has no spent spell of that level or lower, nothing happens.
The lich targets one creature it can see within 30 feet of it. A crackling cord of negative energy tethers the lich to the target. Whenever the lich takes damage, the target must make a DC 20 Fortitude saving throw. On a failed save, the lich takes half the damage (rounded down), and the target takes the remaining damage. This tether lasts until initiative count 20 on the next round or until the lich, or the target is no longer in the lich’s lair.
The lich calls forth the spirits of creatures that died in its lair. These apparitions materialize and attack one creature that the lich can see within 60 feet of it. The target must succeed on a DC 20 Fortitude saving throw, taking 30 points of negative energy damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a success. The apparitions then disappear.
What’s a villain action, you might ask? Watch this video, and it explains all. I’ve seen Matt use it and I’ve also used it, and it rules. Literally!
Ahem, sorry. Rule of thumb: pretend the monster is only going to last three rounds. Design accordingly. While this video is 5E specific, the majority of it applies to any D20 D&D derivative, such as 3.5 and Pathfinder 1E.
Action Conclusion
In Pathfinder 1E, there are tons of monsters, tons of villains, tons of adventure modules, tons of just about anything a GM could ever want or need.
The mechanics of the action economy does not change with all of those resources. CR+4 is your gold standard, and consider Legendary, Lair, and Villain actions an easy way to add not just flair, but adds actions to keep ahead of the PCs’ action curve.
In D&D and its derivatives, like Pathfinder, the designers, all the way back to Gygax and Anderson, developed a complex, highly detailed magical system that permeates everything. Low magic or high magic, epic magic, or gritty, it’s a beautiful system to play a fantasy roleplaying game.
And right from the get-go, a Dungeon Master (DM/GM) can use the system to add conflict to their campaign. This post is about Cold War-style conflict, that added undercurrent to the main events going on that add tension, tone, and drama.
A hot-war will take over the campaign. The Magical Cold War will add flavor to it.
Set the Stage to the Magical Cold War
D&D 5E has a magical system around these core concepts:
Arcane magic—direct from the weave of magic
Divine magic—magic from the gods
Druid magic—drawing on the divine essence of nature itself
You know what that looks like on the surface? It seems like three factions. Factions are a great way to add theatric sub-plots to a campaign setting. A low-level hum of struggle against the backdrop of PC actions that inserts authenticity onto the environment.
Defining the History of Magical System Conflict
Now that we have the three factions let’s see why they oppose each other.
Arcane Magic Users
Some time ago, demons corrupted a group of powerful sorcerers. These sorcerers started to take over small provinces to the Empire in secret. They built up considerable momentum but were found out by the Providence Magisters (similar to court wizards) in the more significant imperial regions. Events spiraled out of control, and rather than bring in divine help from the various churches, the magisters turned to infernal support through bargains with archdevils. Many of them turned themselves into liches.
Eventually, the wizards prevailed, only to be turned upon by the divine churches of the Empire.
Divine Magic Users
Caught unaware of the demon-devil conflict in their midst using wizards and sorcerers as their proxies, the churches of the Empire fought both and held the Empire together with sheer will, divine magic, and large numbers of men-at-arms. They fought a cataclysmic war with both arcane factions, but suffered heavy losses and the Empire collapsed into fragmented, waring kingdoms jockeying for power and survival. A dark age came upon the Empire, and they could not stop it.
Druidic Magic Users
The hierophants of old stepped into the power vacuum, and each regional archdruid organized what little remained of civilization into pockets of peaceful, relatively safe areas. They instituted monarchies to quickly assemble the remanents into a usable hierarchy. Not wanting to repeat the mistakes of the past, they installed themselves as the overseers of food production, the surviving paladin orders as Inquisitors, and forced arcane magic users into a caste system of serving the people, banned from holding positions of power.
However, over time, the monarchies became powerful nations. Eventually, they instituted the position of the Court Wizard, in which wizard schools, formally wizard prisons, reported to the Court Wizard, who in turn pledged fealty to the King.
Just an Example
This is just an example of the historical conflict. The idea is to be brief—this happened long ago. That also allows the DM the flexibility to flesh out more lore as needed. As long as the three factions had a conflict in the past, it’s all good. And it doesn’t even have to be true. It could be just what people believe and what is in the history books.
Define the Current Magical System Conflict
Now that we have our history, what are our three factions up to? Apparently, shenanigans. Many shenanigans. Since this is all about conflict and drama—have some struggle and tension.
Arcane Magic Users
At one point, arcane magic users chafed under the yoke of Inquisitor tyranny (from their point of view), but that was long ago. Wielders of the arcane enjoy state-sponsored rights and protections for the “privilege” of policing their own—making sure the younger mages and sorcerers toe the line. However, these factions cross national boundaries, and over time, the Court Wizards formed a Council of the Arcane. While the nobility of the various nations deploys power through their feudal system, it is the Council of the Arcane that rule behind the scenes, now working to bring back the glory of the Empire by appointing an Emperor of Nations.
Two groups stand in their way—the Inquisitors that prevent the churches from falling in line and the Druids that run the nations’ agriculture systems. Yet in some rural areas, there are wizards and other arcane users who believe the Council to be an oppressive organization dedicated to stripping away freedom and dignity, all in the name of law and order.
Divine Magic Users
The churches of the nations, sharing the same pantheon, do not want to change the system that gives them power, money, and influence. Things are fine just the way there are, now that they’ve clawed their way back from the brink of annihilation.
Some paladin orders, however, stick to the old school way of doing things, which includes (but not exclusively), the Inquisitors. The Inquisitors aren’t buying the Council of the Arcane at all and undermine them at every opportunity, including waging 4th Generational Warfare in nations that have given their wizards more power than they should. They’ve been here before and see where this is going: a Cabal of Liches, plunging the realms into darkness one more “to save the people’s souls from demons once more.”
The Inquisitors have tried to engage their previous allies, the Druids, to no avail. Some think they’ve been compromised by witches and cultists.
Druid Magic Users
No one could say exactly when the nobility came to be the top of the hierarchy over the archdruids, but that’s what happened. Most druids have forgotten their contribution to putting together the pieces of the Empire back into a small modicum of civilization. Many wonder if that was a good idea, given the large Cities of Men and the power of churches. Churches are more concerned with coin and station than the divine souls of their subjects.
Regardless, the new Council of the Arcane seems precisely like an organization the Inquisitors of old, organizations the archdruids founded long ago, were supposed to prevent. Still, all indications are the Inquisitors are sitting on their hands without church backing or any semblance of higher organization, each Inquisitor chapter acting like a coven of witches or a cultist cell.
Now Engage the Magical Cold War
There you have it. The gist of the Magic Cold War is:
It is background conflict and drama
No one except a few want to see it turn into a Hot War
Each faction has a history
Each faction has a current description of why they are in conflict
That’s the recipe. DMs interested in fleshing out their worlds now have a framework on how these magical groups interact with each other, and it’s all conflict and drama. Each faction even has sub-factions that cause issues within the bloc and without, and there are also small groups that could ally themselves with like-minded members to the “enemy” factions.
The idea is here is that there are paladins who hate wizards and sorcerers. Why is that? And why do the druids have power over food production? And why is there some underlying conflict in cities with strong wizards, etc., etc.?
The Cold War. It’s everywhere. And sometimes it seems nothing can stop it from becoming a Hot War. Put that in the back of your campaign world and see how your players react. And it’s an excellent DM vehicle for tension.
Or, perhaps, a vehicle for lighting the nations on fire.
PC Wizard: Where is Lord Drake? We’ve returned from our quest.
Paladin: I hung Lord and Lady Drake for being witches consorting with demons.
PC Wizard: …
Paladin: …
PC Wizard: We’re not demon consort, um, consort-ers.
Paladin: That’s why you’re still standing here. I am Inquisitor Johanson of the Order of the Platinum Oath, and by the authority given unto me by the First King, I demand you help me save the souls of this demesne.
PC Cleric: You have no author…
Paladin: Quiet acolyte, the adults are talking.
PC Wizard: Why do you even trust me?
Paladin: Because I heard you speak against the Council. Because Bahamut told me to. Now, do you want this spellbook we’ve been keeping in our reliquary for hundreds of years or not?
Our Indiegogo campaign is nearing the conclusion. Click here to back now so you can get your module in September! : https://igg.me/at/teganshire.
In addition to three custom feats, we’re going to go back up and talk about the custom backgrounds from several days ago, and provide some additional context on modifying those backgrounds and the feats.
But before we do that, let’s talk about D&D Beyond.
D&D Beyond is a 5E Customizer’s Dream Software
Have to admit, like many other people, D&D Beyond’s branding agreement with Wizards of the Coast confused me. I thought I was going to a Wizard’s site. I could not understand why Wizards would sell their hardcovers without an option to also buy a coupon to access the book on D&D Beyond. Stuffing a unique coupon in a printed book—there are a dozen ways to do it.
Then I went on their forum, and read the dozens of replies to confused people—D&D Beyond was not Wizards of the Coast.
Oh. Hahahaha. Take my money then, D&D Beyond, you go with your bad selves.
I love D&D Beyond quite a bit. It has a modern, responsive UI, almost everything I want is available, and I can subscribe and share all my custom goo, and the books I purchase, to our group’s game tables.
The customization, and sharing thereof, makes me a big fan.
Custom 5E Backgrounds—In It for the Roleplay
I can take or leave official Backgrounds, but in D&D 5E, it’s easy to pick one and apply it to your PC, so why not? The players I know like Backgrounds as it gives a bit of customization to the PC without expending a lot of effort, and that’s the appeal, I believe. If picking a Background meant doing a lot of work, they wouldn’t do it.
Let’s go over the list of Backgrounds from the Background post and why they were inserted into the game.
In the Kingdom of Lothmar Campaign Setting, there is a remote holdout city under the direct control of the neighboring Empire, the conglomerate of provinces Lothmar used to be a part of.
This University has strict requirements, and students at the Imperial University of Darathole must exhibit proficiency with magic, or the Dean of Students expels them. They are the elitists of the Empire and Kingdom when it comes to arcane magic. Graduates are either sages, court wizards, or war wizards (the other two backgrounds are under construction).
The campaign setting has a Barony that is run by mercenary compies. A player requested a mercenary forward scout Background, that was all about mercenary companies. She was precise: a scout had to have Perception, Survival, and Nature as skill proficiencies, available at first level, and that’s it. That’s all she wanted—no languages or tools.
Who am I to argue when a player does world-building for you? Certainly not me!
Someday I’ll run a mercenary campaign where all the PCs are forward scouts, kind of like the Black Company meets, um, the Black Company.
I made this as a mirror of the sage-like Imperial University scholar, only for the Kingdom’s theology students.
The (non) Balance of the Backgrounds
In an ideal world, this would not be a thing:
“As detailed in the rules for backgrounds, if a character would gain the same proficiency from two different sources, he or she can choose a different proficiency of the same kind (skill or tool) instead. This will happen automatically in the character builder.”
But it is, and it’s enforced in D&D Beyond. To meet the roleplaying requirements of the Background, I had to list three skills, which would set up the possibility of the player picking something else from the list.
Is this balanced?
Yes and no. It’s not balanced because the custom Backgrounds don’t follow this pattern:
2 skill proficiencies from a list
1 language
1 tool proficiency
However, it is balanced in my particular campaign world. For one thing, most encounters are designed to be Deadly, random encounters can also be deadly, and there are static locations that are super Deadly. And we play with gritty rules (long rest is a week, short rest is eight hours).
Furthermore, my players have a high degree of expertise in playing D&D. It’s a harsh and unforgiving place for their PCs. An extra skill proficiency just isn’t going to unbalance anything, given the extra planning and tactics they need to use to stay alive. In fact, the setting is so challenging; some of these backgrounds come with extra feats!
And here they are.
Homebrew Feats for Your Homebrew Backgrounds
The two “academic” backgrounds eventually come with extra feats. The gist of the feats is for roleplaying purposes for PCs and to set a particular tone with NPCs. These feats are awarded during the campaign after a year at the University. The student is no longer a freshman and has survived “The Culling,” in which the Dean of Students or the Seargent of Arms has expelled the students that did not pass muster.
The Dean of Students expells any student that does not show some proficiency with arcane magic after the first year. The ability to read and write magic is a required skill of any well-educated Imperial student, regardless of their study area.
You learn two cantrips of your choice from the wizard’s spell list.
Choose one 1st-level spell from the wizard’s spell list. You learn that spell and can cast it at its lowest level. Once you cast it, you must finish a short rest before casting it again using this feat.
Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
You become proficient in Arcana, if not already.
Design Comments
This feat is a modification of the Magic Initiate Feat, but specific to arcane magic and a prerequisite.
The feat goes with the Imperial University Scholar background, the campaign setting’s version of a sage. However, the school is much more vigorous than that. If the student doesn’t learn at least two cantrips and a spell, out the door they go, banished from the city gates!
When the game ticks from Freshman to Sophomore, the player adds the feat to their character. D&D Beyond supports this from the character sheet by clicking on the Feats gear icon.
This feat also has the design for application without the Background. For example, a PC or NPC that makes it past the first year but not the second.
The Royal University’s Seargent of Arms expells any student that does not show some proficiency with divine magic after the first year. The student must also pass a test on the Kingdom’s religions and church history.
You learn two cantrips of your choice from the cleric’s spell list.
Choose one 1st-level spell from the cleric’s spell list. You learn that spell and can cast it at its lowest level. Once you cast it, you must finish a short rest before casting it again using this feat.
Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
You become proficient in Religion, if not already.
Design Comments
Similar to the arcane counterpart, this feat adds the same flair, but down the divine path, to the religious college in the Royal City of Lothmar.
Your expertise as a mercenary troop/army scout makes you an expert at slinking through the wilderness, leaving no trace. You gain the following benefits:
You gain +1 to Dexterity or Wisdom, up to 20 in either ability
In the wilderness and other uncivilized places, you do not leave tracks or other noticeable signs of your passing.
Design Comments
Since we had three Custom Backgrounds, here’s a custom feat to go along with the Mercenary Company Forward Scout. Unlike the other two feats, this one the PC must pay for by choosing it when leveling.
Wilderness Shadow is a simple feat, but in the context of the campaign world, leaving no tracks without being a druid or a spell-casting ranger is almost a prerequisite. In the Black Company-like mercenary campaign, an enemy tracking a forward scout is a super big problem.
More telling, however, is the bump for either Dexterity or Wisdom. Not much use for that except for the mercenary forward scout. At least in the Kingdom of LothmarCampaign Setting.
The Mercenary Forward Scout usually has nice views. When it isn’t raining. Or being chased by bears. Angry druids. Occasional obnoxious fae. And mosquitoes. So. Many. Mosquitoes.
Departing Words on Feat Homebrew
The feat customization and creation options in 5E, once you use the core feats as a template, are a powerful, powerful way to add campaign setting specifics to your game world that has an immediate impact on players’ PCs. I also use homebrew feats to attach to homebrew magical items for a unique flair.
Before embarking down that path, a DM needs to keep in mind three things:
Player buy-in, as it’s their PC
Keep the feat balanced by using other core feats as a template
Willingness to increase the difficulty of the game if players are receiving feats outside of leveling
What are some of your favorite custom feats? Bonus points for a link to D&D Beyond!
Crossbow Man: absolutely going to pick Crossbow Expert feat at 4th Level
Yesterday we provided context for this post in picking apart D&D 5E’s balance problems—there are problems, and some of those problems are systemic. The fundamental issue on the table (literally haha) is that D&D is a game, and games require challenges. However, Fifth Edition of D&D contains mechanics that beneath the surface cause the game to stagnate, and also lacks practical guidance outside of combat concerning player dynamics.
We won’t be the first person to write about this and offer solutions, and we won’t be the last—but here is our take. This essay provides two solutions: game table changes, and encounter and monster changes.
Practical Solutions: Game Table Changes
Since the dawn of the game table, player dynamics, the interaction between players (and the DM), is the primary attribute in making the game challenging, or not.
That’s what makes the game so fun! It’s a social game. So let’s make some social solutions before we dive into mechanics.
Increase Player Agency
Increasing player agency, and thereby “Table Agency” removes the work burden from the DM of making sure each and every interaction with the game world has a homogenized difficulty. In the campaign, via the game world, there needs to be encounters and situations the players can “break into jail” and fail at.
We could go on-and-on about this topic (see: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=D%26D+player+agency) but suffice it to say “Dungeon Master as a Referee” (vs. “DM as a Story-Teller”) is going to go a long way in having players decreasing DM workload as they are the ones driving the story.
We’re not here to beat the Player Agency Dead Horse™. Just realize it’s the real game balance mechanic of D&D, the players’ ability to:
Have their PCs fail (deadly encounters the DM places)
Wander into a wrong place (static places in the world above their ability to emerge victoriously)
Fall to the whims of the dice not working in their favor (random encounter at the wrong place/wrong time)
If the players can’t fail, they don’t have agency.
The game world has deadly static, random and status quo encounters
The players have the latitude to make choices that can get their PCs killed
Players are expected to use combined arms to overcome challenges
The campaign about to begin is more challenging than the last one
What PC classes will not be of much use in the campaign, so players will know which PC choices will be only role-playing centric
The campaign has mechanics to deal with PC death (see below)
Alleviate PC Death by Planning on It
Start using hirelings and henchmen—if a PC dies, the player can switch to playing one of those characters for the evening
Have backup character sheets ready to go, both premade by the DM and premade by the players. One possibility is the players make the hirelings and henchmen character sheets
Don’t sacrifice gameplay for the story, even if the PCs are driving the story. That is, if the current situation would make a new PC come into play seem silly, then it’s best to be silly rather than excluding a player. Then after a session, the player and DM can work on bringing a new PC online
Have a plan for what happens if everyone dies—the TPK. The idea is to have, as the DM, some predetermined direction, even if it turns out to be wrong, rather than be caught going—uh, what now for the game? This includes what happens in the campaign world and what happens at the table. Shoot for that player commandery that D&D builds so well—the game table heading to the pub to salute the fallen PCs and toast a game well played, even in defeat
Recognize that some players don’t care about their PCs living and dying; they care about playing well with what they have. Other players care about playing a specific PC, rather than about playing the game with expertise.
Work with the players that invest time into their PC to also spend time in that PC’s legacy. In other words, have character-story driven players also contribute to their immediate world (friends, relatives, in-game spouses, etc.) beyond their PC, with the expectation that if the PC dies, the new PC comes from this work
Periodically Use Grim Story Mechanics
There’s nothing like showing, rather than telling game difficulty:
Secretly work with a player before the campaign starts to have that player die a messy death in Session One (ala MCDM’s The Chain)
Privately work with a player who decides they don’t like their PC to die a messy death in the game in a believable way
Use a “life is unfair card” (sparingly) that when the players send their henchmen to go do something (let’s run a henchmen adventure!), all the henchmen die in an encounter so dark and grim, your players vow revenge (really, only do this once) on the spot
Embrace Failure Conditions
Often people play D&D where failure in the module equates to a game that halts because there is no other condition than victory. When a DM designs a static encounter or even uses a commercial product, not having failure conditions predisposes against challenges. This is another instance of “Balance the Game Outside Combat.” Find more about that, and practical advice with failure conditions, here: BoT Post 10: When the PCs Lose the Players Will Win—the Hero’s Journey.
Practical Solutions: Encounter and Monster Changes
The previous blog post described the various issues around D&D 5E’s Challenge Rating system. Let’s put what we know to good use. D&D 5E supports a lot of flexibility, even when using online tools such as D&D Beyond, or various encounter generators.
Avoid Attrition Encounters
D20 is famous for its formulaic adventure design in Living worlds. Which is fine, because players know what is in store for them (far from me to declare Wrong Fun). They went something like this: 2 small encounters, a skill challenge, a short rest, BBEG showdown.
All possible encounters should have some semblance of verisimilitude—they are in the game because the game world, not adventure design, arranges their placement. Example:
Wanted Ward and June, two serial killers working as a team, are hiding at the bottom of an abandoned castle dungeon as they know the PCs are on their tail. More sinister murderers than kobold trap experts, they manipulate beasts and an aberration to populate the complex and set some traps to the best of their ability, trying to buy some time.
Are those beasts and traps attrition? They could be. But then again, the PCs could by-pass them. Or they could use the monsters to their advantage and send them against the evil duo. Or they could get creative and draw the pair out into the open.
Either way, the totality of the two villains here should stand on their own. Everything else is window dressing for the campaign world. In other words, the two villains give it their all in the final encounter. The PCs arriving there fresh is part of the game. If they stumble into every trap, do battle with every monster, make mistakes, that’s their issue to deal with.
Not the DM’s.
Use Non-Lethal Encounters to Enrich the Game, not just the (PCs) Story
Sometimes, dealing damage isn’t about anything other than:
Humor
Adding detail to the campaign setting
Letting players blow off steam
Experimentation
In one campaign, I have “island foxes,” a trio of foxes with unique capabilities. They can talk, but they’re foxes. They are brats. They can teleport from one island to the next. They will steal the PCs’ food. Laugh at them for no reason. They can do damage by shooting a firebolt out of their eyes.
Fox: “Hey, hey, PC. Want to see something funny?
PC: “Sure?”
Fox: (shots the PC with a firebolt)
Fox: Yeeeeeeahhh BOOOOOiiiiii!
PC: (rolls initiative)
Foxes: “Hahahahahaha!”
Foxes: (teleports away)
They are there only for comedic value and to reinforce that the world of the fey can be dangerous. The island foxes don’t have a challenge rating at all.
Man, I love those foxes. But I digress.
Avoid Artificial Restrictions on the Number of Deadly Encounters Per Short/Long Rest
Sometimes:
The dice go bad
The PCs make a mistake
A singular PC makes a mistake
The party doesn’t make any mistakes, but the circumstances conspire against them
A player complained the last encounter was too easy
Et cetera. At some point, the DM needs to cross a Rubicon: is this a story-telling narrative with rails laid by the DM? Or are the players reacting organically and making choices, good or bad, and it’s their world?
If the players have agency, balance by encounter restriction in such a flexible system such as 5E is not possible. Embrace the difficulty.
Make Meaningful Encounters Deadly: The Math
Some attributes need tweaking to making a tailored encountered deadly in a balanced way—we’re not talking about populating the game world, but putting together an encounter for an adventure.
APL + 3 to +5
Take the average party level and add 4, and then add monsters until the CR becomes Deadly, plus or minus one CR.
This is your baseline. Either one monster with Legendary or Villain actions (see below) or several monsters in the CR equals APL +3 to +5.
Adjusting for More than Four PCs
For every PC or henchmen or player run combatant in the party, add an additional monster at the parties APL, plus or minus one CR.
So if you have six players at APL 6, adding two monsters, both at CR 5 (not combined!) to the mix.
Why? The CR system breaks down with the action economy. Within the scope of a Hard to Deadly encounter (using the math in the Monster Manual), players have a distinctive advantage over monsters of the same level. The game doesn’t account for this (it tries and fails), and that’s okay because most tables do not have more than four players.
But if they do, well, playtesting reveals that as long as the monsters you add are above the party’s average level (APL), adding a monster on par with their APL compensates for the dramatic change in the action economy. More on the action economy below.
Final Adjustment
When all is said and done, here’s the time to make sure that 1) the encounter is at APL +4 or more and 2) adding monster numbers because the monster design itself is weak, especially if the DM does not want to change the monsters’ design.
Make Meaningful Encounters Deadly: The Design
Putting together an encounter balanced for that right amount of difficulty also relies on design.
Adjust the Encounter for Crowd Control
Some parties’ class combinations have crowd control built-in, such as a warlock, wizard, or stun-moving monk. Some parties do not.
However, any party class combination can do crowd control, it’s just that some will be better at it than others.
Assume the party is doing crowd control, the hard way or the easy way: either place monsters at different ends of the map or add lower-level monsters to harass the party, regardless of what it does to the Challenge Rating.
The party doesn’t do crowd control? Well, that’s their problem, not yours. Surviving to run away and having a learning opportunity is an excellent motivator for combined arms paly.
Adjust the Encounter for Ranged Attack Opportunities
If the encounter has a mixed set of monsters, then some of those monsters need ranged options, especially if they are intelligent. If they are just a bunch of dumb animals, it makes sense to compensate for their lack of ranginess by having them move faster than usual (“These two tigers are ravenous!”) or some other adjustment such as invisibility, flying, incorporeal, or other nasty conditions.
Adjust the Encounter Terrain and Setting
If it’s difficult terrain, not a terrain built into the monsters’ CR already, then either leave the encounter difficulty as is or adjust one CR downward. But only one.
Traps make an excellent terrain adjuster, especially if a PC manages to push a bad guy into one.
Players should be able to compensate for difficult terrain outside of battle–that’s the instance where you want to leave the CR as it. “Surprise difficult terrain!” is when the CR adjusts downward.
Adjust the Encounter for Party Magic Items or Other Effects
This happens more frequently in other versions of D&D as 5E does an excellent job of providing magical items that are cool but still within the bounded accuracy design.
However, there could be instances where the party obtains an overpowering item, effect, or the game world or adventure has arranged for things to go the PCs way.
Here’s where the DM needs to do more design than math. Adding a monster to the encounter with the ability to negate that effect or item is cheezy. However, adding some dangerous monsters, beyond the CR, for the player with the magic item in question to use? That is cool. And the player will love it.
Players can forget to use an item (just tell them), the PC with the thing can be incapacitated or drop from an unlucky roll, etc. That be the breaks. And before anybody throws a yellow flag on this play, the same thing happens to bad guys—all the time.
Adjust the Encounter for Player Expertise
Some players are just good at what they do. If that’s the case, the DM should:
Consider giving the monsters a temporary effect that makes sense in the context of the game world-such as the cults sipping on what is effectively a potion of haste, giving them all haste during the battle. After six rounds of this monkey business, they all die
Add a Hard encounter right after the Deadly one concludes
Add a CC expert to the monster roll
Add an evil object to the encounter that radiates a curse for the PCs, or a bless to the monsters
Or both (warning: that’s difficult!)
Make Meaningful Encounters: Balance the Action Economy
And here we come to the balance issue of all balance issues, the action economy.
The Action Economy is a game term to describe how characters are allocated a certain mummer of actions per turn (used by the game’s overall mechanics). This is where things are indeed mathematically tricky for the players or the monsters. If monsters act 40 times a round and the PCs 15 (including bonus and reactions), well, that’s gonna be a problem. The reverse is also accurate, and if anything makes a DM wonder why things were so easy for the players despite the CR, there you go.
Give your bad guys reactions and bonus actions. To compensate for the added complexity of the monster, make sure what they can do as an action is limited to four or fewer things, and that includes casting a singular spell. Make the 5E “cut to the chase” design work for you.
This is not to say having a monster with a lot of actions to choose from is wrong. But it’s challenging to do that all the time. The more actions a monster has, the more experience and prep time a DM needs to run that monster.
Heat Up the Action Economy by Favoring Mixed Monsters
I wanted to make an encounter that was “semi-deadly” in that I wanted it to go south if the PCs made mistakes, but I also wanted the PCs to win the battle without running away (this was a journey of discovery to advance one of the player’s PC plots). They were five Level 6 PCs. I added:
A CR 8 Monster: a custom aberration
Two CR 5 red slaads
This is a deadly encounter. However, if I wanted it to be an iffy encounter, I would have added three CR 5 red slaads, as the paladin did precisely what she was supposed to do—she burst damaged the aberration. Again, the goal here was to not have the PCs get into a position where they run away. I wanted the encounter to be severe but survivable, but notice I didn’t do that by making it a Hard encounter. I just made it less Deadly with the maths. They still could have suffered a PC death—and almost did.
Why was I assured of victory for the party? Because they were way ahead of the Deadly encounter’s action economy. Adjusting the action economy one way or the other is a way to achieve balance or other goals.
Heat up the Action Economy with Villain Actions
What’s a villain action, you might ask? Watch this video, and it explains all. I’ve seen Matt use it and I’ve also used it, and it rules. Literally!
Ahem, sorry. Rule of thumb: pretend the monster is only going to last three rounds. Design accordingly.
Heat up the Action Economy with Legendary and Lair Actions
If your monster seems legendary, make it one. That’s 5Es approach to heating up the action economy and making legendary monsters a rip-roaring epic battle.
Overused, however, it deadens the impact.
And for that truly epic encounter, give your Legendary monsters Villain actions. In their lair. So the PCs have to contend with:
Action-Reaction-Bonus Action
Villain Action
Legendary Action
Lair Actions
Bonus: added minion actions
A Balanced Conclusion
This essay proposed two approaches to making your game balanced: changes to the game table and a host of functional changes to apply CR math, monster/encounter design, and the action economy.
If the players feel the game is teetering on a knife’s edge, and only a combination of skill and teamwork can save them from the villains’ villainy and the capricious whims of the dice—the game has achieved balance.
I leave you with the cover of our next module, which you should back on Indiegogo if you have not already. Crossbow Man and his companions hiding behind him are going to face a challenge. In playtesting, the monster usually brought down half the party before succumbing. In one instance, it brought down all the PCs except one, and that PC was the benefit of an NPC heal built into the encounter. The players were surprised, and when they won, they felt like they had achieved something meaningful and good.
One group high-fived. At that moment, the game was theirs, not ours.
Crossbow Man, I salute you. You are braver than I.
