u/GuntherWheelin

A young green dragon fight is incoming soon. It's been hinted at and foreshadowed.

I have 3 PCs that will likely be level 6 by the time it happens. War cleric (power gamer) fey presence warlock and fighter. I know my cleric has some silly nonsense plans to try to cheese my dragon.

I'm a new DM and I've never run a dragon before, so I want this fight to be COOL. I want it to be DANGEROUS and cinematic. I don't want some strange interaction of spells to completely neuter this fight.

I am a pretty generous and forgiving DM but a dragon is a dragon. I will likely give him a few legendary resistances and maybe one or two legendary reactions. There's only 3 PCs so maybe just 1 reaction.

Our Cleric and Warlock scheme together so I'm concerned about some strange interaction of spells they could have that would make this fight a cake walk, and how to counteract cheese strats.

My style as a DM is to play fast and loose with the rules but I like to be consistent about it. If a rule as written doesn't make sense narratively, I will play it differently. And if my PCs can explain why something would work differently than RAW, I will usually allow it.

I don't mind power gaming and I don't want to punish my party, but I want my first and their first dragon to be a MOMENT.

Jason, if you're reading this, I'm taking the Sentinel Shield back you lousy meta gamer!

In my last PROPER session, the party rescued an unconscious but stable Gundren from King Grol. The follow up session, only 3 out of 5 players could make it, so I spun off a little side quest because I didn't want the story to fully progress without the whole party.

I gave my players two options to recover some herbs that could be used to make a tincture to help Gundren recover. Option A was seek out the druid Reidoth for a more social encounter and options B was to journey into Neverwinter Woods towards a known area of the goblin cult (the psi goblins, I've been dropping little hints about them, and one of my players was absent since the killing of Glasstaff, and returned recently. I wrote it as she was captured by the goblin cult. She made some pretty poor rolls to recall information about them, but she knows they had other captives and were performing strange rituals on them. She escaped, with the help of several Cragmaw goblins, and she wandered the woods until Reidoth encountered her and set her on the path to Phandalin) for a more combat focused encounter. I was hoping they would take the combat focused encounter, but they went towards Thundertree and Reidoth.

They had a really good encounter with Reidoth, who they all seem to really like. Reidoth explained that a dragon had recently taken roost in Thundertree, and with it, the emergence of a Dragon Cult. I removed the twig blight stuff from Thundertree and I had loose plans for the cult, but mostly I was just winging it. Due to this, the cult definitely came off more dumb and unprepared than I would have liked them to, and I let my party know that when they return, the Dragon Cult may be a bit more cunning and devious.

Regardless, they did some good socializing. Our goblin rogue fed all the guard dogs little bits of meat, so they may not respond with hostility if the party tries to sneak in at some point. The party learned that the cult thinks Venomfang is an ancient green dragon, and they are trying to curry his favor. The Cult also hinted that they may be offering up a sacrifice to Venomfang soon. (The cult has two child captives, one a human boy from Leilon and the other is a wood elf girl from a community in Neverwinter Woods called Griffons Roost I created and the party has a soft friendship with)

If anyone in the party has knowledge about dragons or speaks to Reidoth about what the Cult has said, they will learn that Venomfang is NOT an ancient green dragon and is in fact a young green dragon.

I'm looking for ideas on how to run Venomfang. I was thinking about playing him as mildly irritated by the cult, but sees them as a means to an end and is trying to figure out how to utilize them. I was also thinking about having Venomfang try to turn the party against Reidoth, which I think will be very hard after the last session, but maybe the offer of an alliance with a dragon may sway them.

I want Venomfang to be an interesting and tense encounter, as it is the first time they have experienced a dragon, and it's also the first time I've run a dragon as a DM. I want Venomfang to be devious and cunning, not wanting to charge into battle but also not to be pushed around either.

Id also like the cult follow up to be a bit more horror tinged. The party has discovered that there are spellcasters amongst the ranks of the cultists. In addition to this, the common members of the cult are all zealots and fanatics, and I'd like to play them with a bit more depth than I previously did.

I wonder if the party may suggest the recently cleared out Cragmaw Castle as a new home for Venomfang, which I think a green dragon might like (who wouldn't want a castle) but I don't want this to be an easy exchange.

How did you guys run Venomfang and what are some cool ideas I could use to beef up the cultists?

Howdy folks, I'm struggling with my TEAC TN 200. Started noticing it was playing a bit slow. Brought it to Bay Bloor Radio in Toronto, who have always been really helpful with me. They couldn't figure out exactly what it used, but they said it used to same size as the TN 400 and sold me a 21.4. I put it on and it's playing very fast, chipmunky vocals, etc. I brought it back, but they didn't have anything in stock between 22.5 (the length of my used one) and 21.4 (the size of the fast playing one). The worker recommended I try a 22" one. I can't find measurements for a lot of the belts on Amazon, they mostly just reference the turntable brands and model numbers. I found one that's 22.4 that seems like it might be my best bet but id rather just know for sure. I just got a big ol' box of records in the mail and I want to dig in!

Howdy folks, I'm struggling with my TEAC TN 200. Started noticing it was playing a bit slow. Brought it to Bay Bloor Radio in Toronto, who have always been really helpful with me. They couldn't figure out exactly what it used, but they said it used to same size as the TN 400 and sold me a 21.4. I put it on and it's playing very fast, chipmunky vocals, etc. I brought it back, but they didn't have anything in stock between 22.5 (the length of my used one) and 21.4 (the size of the fast playing one). The worker recommended I try a 22" one. I can't find measurements for a lot of the belts on Amazon, they mostly just reference the turntable brands and model numbers. I found one that's 22.4 that seems like it might be my best bet but id rather just know for sure than taking a shot in the dark. Any input would be appreciated. I just got a box of records in the mail and I wanna start digging in!

Based on my previous post and some ideas from commenters, I believe I have come up with new plan for Wave Echo Cave and I'm so excited to run this for my groups.

The Spider has found the location of W.E.C and is on his way there with the best of the Cragmaw clan, the Orcs and the Redbrands. The Spider doesn't know the secret to unlocking the Forge, but Gundren knows a riddle. He doesn't know what it means, but he knows it means something.

My party will be ambushed on the way to the cave by a mixed group of redbrands, goblins and orcs to show that the Spider has GOONS with him. This will also give my party the nudge into level 5 they have been waiting for. Due to this, I'm also going to ramp the difficulty up in W.E.C.

I've written Gundrens brothers out of this story, so in the entrance to the cave, I think there will be a dead goblin and a ghoul, showing that there may be an ongoing struggle inside the cave.

If the party heads to the left - the maze that the ochre jelly would be in - I have revamped this to be a mine cart maze that's fully under control of several groups of goblins each led by a hobgoblin. The low ceilings of the maze will hamper movement speed and large weapon attacks by the party. I've been allowing our half orc fighter to grapple/bonus action throw goblins, doing damage to the thrown goblin as well as the target and often times killing them, so I think this could be very fun for him despite the weapon limitations. The goblins will use traps, ambush, and hit and run tactics and will use hide a lot, so the party won't know where they are at all times. I'm hoping this will create a scenario that's tense and filled with dread, where the party is actually scared of little ass 7hp goblins that die to EVERYTHING. I'm excited to play the goblins as cunning and devious and efficient, as up to this point I've been pretty forgiving with the skills of my baddies.

If the party goes to the right instead, there will be some fresh redbrand and goblin corpses in the stirges area, further showing the ongoing struggle in the cave. Not only does the party have to contend with the Spiders goons, but there is another 3rd moving part at work too. This also goes for the Spiders goons. If the party moves towards the fungi room, they will hear the sounds of a battle happening. When they can see, they will find a group of the Spiders goons engaged with some ghouls and a Violet Fungi Necrohulk. I'm really going to play up the horror around this scene, as the encounter will begin with the Necrohulk absorbing one of the Spiders minions and launching a spore bomb into the rest of them. As the Spiders minions and the Necrohulk are engaged with each other, the party will have the option to flee. If they engage, it will be an absolute cluster fuck, which could be awesome too.

The "safe room" will have a couple of orcs and redbrands looking for something (clues to access the Forge) and it will become safe after they have cleared the room. Beyond the "safe room" is the great hall, which has been taken and held by goblins, under the watchful and militaristic eye of several hobgoblins. The goblins have lookouts at each access point and they have archers on high ground and behind cover. Under the hobgoblins orders they will attack efficiently and with good tactics. If the hobgoblins get killed, their tactics will break and they will either attack whoever is closest to them or they may flee if things seem bad for them.

In the other areas I have smaller encounters going on between the Spiders minions and the undead. I'm going to sprinkle in a few undead ogres for some bigguns. In some of these encounters, the Spiders minions will be winning, in some they will be losing. I really want to get a good push and pull between all the active groups in this dungeon, I think it could create some really cool dynamics.

I am going to leave the Giant Constrictor and the Giant Octopus because I think a random big monster encounter could be really fun and scary. I might change one of them (probably the octopus) to a giant crocodile cause that's cooler.

I have Mormesk the wraith designed to be cursed to never finish his task, which was the making of an enchanted weapon (for my War Cleric) which is now under the watchful gaze of the Spectator. The Spectator is also somewhat holding the Spider off from accessing the Forge. If the party uses the riddle on Mormesk, he will have a moment of clarity and request the parties help to complete his work and be free. The Spectator encounter could go social and it could go combat. Either way, they will access the Forge and get their enchanted gear.

I will let the party know that at the beginning of this dungeon we will be using dungeon turns, so they know that things are happening outside of the scenes. The Spider will be actively moving around the dungeon trying to figure out how to access the Forge. Each dungeon turn I will roll to see if the Spider makes progress or if the Spider encounters the group. If the Spider encounters the group, he will try to get them with webs and maybe summon minions to gum them up before fleeing to continue his search. I hope to build tension and anger for the final showdown with the Spider. I had previously created a group of main henchmen for the Spider that were SUPPOSED TO survive to this point, a female drow rogue, a duergar berserker and Glasstaff, who would have been GREAT to sprinkle into this setting, however my party killed ALL OF THEM despite my attempts to have them survive.

If the Spider makes good progress rolls or the party spends too long in the dungeon, the Spider will access the Forge before they do. In this case. The Spider will be powered up and seek out and confront the party. If the party gets it before the Spider does, they will have that bonus. Either way, the Spider will turn into a Drider upon death, starting a second phase of his fight.

My party absolutely LOVES combat so I'm not too concerned with having too much going on. I'm so excited to run this, and I very specifically love this subreddit for giving me so many neat ideas. The stuff I have gotten from here is SO MUCH BETTER than the stuff in the book, so thank you to anyone who has commented on any of my posts, you guys are really creative and inspiring and I love the collective and collaborative storytelling that comes from these spaces. You guys all rule and DND fuckin rules and I can't wait to see where this goes.

Hi all, my party has just rescued Gundren from Cragmaw Castle. Gundren is unconscious but stable. I am planning on him needing several days to recover from his wounds, during which the party might take a trip to Thundertree, as the dragon there might have backstory implications for one of my players.

In my story, the Spider is uniting the goblins, orcs and bandits of the area. He will have taken the best of these groups with him to W.E.C. Gundren withheld an important secret to opening the Forge (I haven't figured it out yet) but I want the Spider to know that the party will be following and to be ready.

My players are all first time players so I have been playing pretty fast and loose and being very generous with them, and also with the tactics of the enemies they have been facing. They are all getting really good at working together and I have been ramping up difficulty pretty significantly and they are really enjoying it.

I'd like the Spider to have the initial portions of W.E.C. be well fortified and booby trapped and I would like the bad guys to use devious hit and run kind of tactics. Id like them to be smart and cunning and treacherous. I want the party to feel dread and actually be worried about some goblins with 7hp.

The party will be level 5 by the time they make it there. We have a war cleric, a fighter and a warlock. The party is small enough I have to be careful about overwhelming them, but they work well together. The cleric has 19ac so he's usually the tank and support character, the fighter ... Fights, and the warlock eldritch blasts and uses her imp to scout. In the Cragmaw Castle encounter, I had the Hobgoblins command the goblins to focus on the spellcaster, so they are getting more accustomed to the idea of well organized enemies working together, however I have not actually set this fully in motion yet.

What would you do to work this into W.E.C.? If you have run W.E.C before, what parts of it do you think you could replace and what parts do you think work well as written? I want the party to feel harried and stressed and scared by the time they reach the Spider and to really relish the fight with him. I also plan on having him turn into a drider when he dies (cue Ludwig theme from Bloodborne) and to have a second combat.

I would also take good ideas as to why the Spider hasn't figured out the Forge yet :)