5 Lessons I Learned from running Descent Into Avernus!│DND 5E│Dungeoneer's Pack Live

Comments · 23

• IM

  @imabirdo · 4 years ago

  I homebrewed the deck of many things into what I like to call the grimoir of infernal dealings, the premise being the player always gets something positive but they get cursed with something like I had one card give a +1 to strength and a -1 to charisma and another get 100 thousand gold lose one hand permanently you can really do some chaotic stuff with it without destroying the campaign

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• GO

  @goadfang · 4 years ago (edited)

  If there was an item I wish I had not allowed in that campaign it would be the Shield of the Hidden Lord. It's just stupidly OP to hand to any shield user at the level they get it at. They became unhittable and essentially that one character became the main character from then on out. I had to add corruption mechanics to it to balance out how crazy OP it was, and finally when my player realized it was either keep the shield and turn gruesomely evil or give it up into someone else's safe care, they chose to give it up and then combat became better. Had that shield been something given out at level 12, that would be fine, but to get it at level 4 is just bad bad bad design.

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  @1987ajam · 4 years ago

  It was a great campaign. I really liked how Jeb turned out. He went from a self-exiled, living his life the best he could singing bard to a research assistance who was willing to go back to the Dwarven people.<br><br>I liked how our party ended. There was a nice balance of loss and continuing the journey at the end of the game.

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• CI

  @CitanulsPumpkin · 4 years ago

  I don&apos;t really have a problem with the deck of many things, but that&apos;s because I don&apos;t run the version presented in the books.<br><br>I&apos;ve gone through the list of cards and picked out the ones that provide great game opportunities, and removed the cards that basically equate to &quot;You die. Make a new character.&quot; It also helps that I have a bunch of old Magic the Gathering cards to base new cards off of.<br><br>Cards like donjon and the other extra planar soul removal/imprisonment card aren&apos;t in my deck. At least not at first. But the cards that give the players a keep, a level 4 fighter servant, XP milestones, and enemy npcs are all great for providing new sidequests at the drop of a hat.<br><br>I basically tell players that once they draw from the deck it will bind to them and they won&apos;t be able to get rid of it. Each day they can burn one of their Hit Dice and draw that many cards. I then present them with a small stack of cards I&apos;ve picked out that I want them to draw. They might draw a card that gives them disadvantage on some rolls for a few weeks until they do a minor quest. Or they might draw 12 XP milestones and 300k worth of gold pieces.<br><br>The deed to a keep card is one I always make sure they can draw until they get it. I have an old Temple of False Gods land card from the Scourge set just so the smart ones can see the trap coming. Once they draw the temple and clear out their new keep I add new sets of cards. I go through old creature cards and make level 4 NPCs they can get as sidekicks, pets, and minions to populate their new keep. Similar to the fighter npc card in the default deck. Then I add fun conflicting relationships to the cards. <br><br>If they draw the white knight they get a stalwart paladin adventuring companion who will focus on helping them save civilians. If they later draw the black knight an oathbreaker shows up and their paladin runs off to &quot;duel his eternal foe.&quot; The party can help one. Or the other. Or trap both in a nightmare demiplane. Or try to free one or both from the deck.<br><br>There&apos;s a cultist card that basically gives the party an evil level 4 warlock who plays up being their loyal servant. If they later draw a giant crab card then a small cave opens up at the beach near their keep and a giant crab appears. The warlock sees the crab and loses it, because in one of the crabs pincers is Blackrazor. The warlock tries to take Blackrazor, gets stabbed, and the players get to see him crumple in on himself until he&apos;s just the card they drew floating in Space, and then the card goes up in flames. The crab, still waving around Blackrazor goes &quot;Doot, doot, doot. Doot, doot, doot.&quot; does a little crab dance, and ignores the players.<br><br>There&apos;s an artifact card called The Cellar Door that creates a door in the back of the kitchen. In it a staircase leads down into what is basically a fun house dungeon populated with all the monster cards the players have been drawing and wondering why nothing happened or showed up. Hydras, liches, vampires, you name it. I stack the curated decks with plenty of monster cards that seemingly do nothing, until they run into them while exploring their basement.<br><br>Later on, if they draw a soul trap or eternal imprisonment card, or if they just die in combat, they get sucked into the deck and I let them pick an NPC they&apos;ve drawn from the deck that gets freed. They can play that character, with levels roughly matching the level their main character was at, until they draw or free their old character. <br><br>My favorite are the cards that make an archfiend or random npc hate you. For the NPC I slip an Act of Treason card in the deck and when they draw it I just say, &quot;Huh, that&apos;s odd. Nothing happens.&quot; &nbsp;Behind the DM screen one of the NPCs in their backstory or contacts list gets the Dimir background and all the tricks in both the Mastermind and Assassin rogue subclasses. As for the archfiend grudge card, I pick a creature that could be any kind of warlock patron. The card flies up, turns into a portal, and through it they see the figure. The new enemy points at them and says &quot;You! I hate you the most!&quot; The portal closes, and now that player will be hunted by warlock NPCs looking to get a head pat from their patron. <br><br>There&apos;s limitless story telling options in the deck of many things if you make the deck itself into a kind of enemy boss or group patron. They might draw the wish card 3 timed and get 9 wishes. They might get trapped in the deck and have to play a goblin, Loxodon, minotaur, or viashino for a few sessions. All you have to do is use the deck as an always available &quot;What are we doing today?&quot; fallback plan the PCs can choose. Not as an insta death nuke the campaign button like it was designed to be.

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• HB

  @HBookbinderGM · 2 years ago

  Thanks I’m about to run Avernus. For improved Monster tactics, I highly recommend Keith Amman’s books — Monsters Know What They Are Doing.

• RI

  @richardfike9339 · 2 years ago

  The CR only works if you are running with 4 players any more or less you need to adjust the encounters

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• RO

  @rosi4510 · 2 years ago

  The CR system is a very good orientation. You still have to adjust sometimes in games but that‘s something the DM has to do anyway, independent from the RPG.

• MA

  @MastertheGamerpg · 3 years ago

  The CR system definitely doesn&apos;t work in D&amp;D5e but once you know that and abandon that it gets so much better.

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• HO

  @horbi3683 · 4 years ago

  Thanks for the inspiration! I am wondering what my players will ask for once they are facing devils offering them deals 😈<br><br>One question: my party is on the cemetery of Elturel at the moment. And aside from the Dungeon of the Dead Three, almost every combat encounter felt like a walk in the park. I have two optimized characters and two, three that are not, at least not fully. Did you encounter the same problem? If so, how did you manage it? The idea with having special boss fights is cool. But I&apos;d also like the normal encounters to matter without just sending double the enemies that are supposed to turn up according to the book. Maybe send spellcaster with control spells? It would probably work but I don&apos;t like to take players out of the fight with a Hypnotic Pattern or something similar since they will feel bored easily.

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• LO

  @lodunost · 2 years ago

  Descent into Avernus was just not great. My DM had to change many things and I feel its one of the worse written adventures. We started in the city a month before with disappeared. We traveled out side the city to help farmers and from there we got another job and we traveled down the Chionthar river eventually arriving in Baldurs Gate. It was a cool experience which we had to homebrew a little.

• BE

  @Bear-bx7yo · 3 years ago

  When your players start messing with reality throw an inevitable at them. There monsters from mechanus and that&apos;s what they&apos;re here for

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• RI

  @Ricky_DM · 2 years ago

  I know I am posting super later. But don’t you dare call yourself a lazy DM because you allow your player to do what they want. That is a quality any great DM requires. <br>Maybe you just need to put yourself limits on what a wish can do.