Hammer & Anvil Reactions

Hammer & Anvil, along with the not yet completed sister work Mortar & Pestle, are the latest 5e vault products from Cubicle7. I’ve looked at Uncharted Journeys and A Life Well Lived previously, and I’m slowly going through Broken Weave while working on other projects. 

This book offers a crafting system for players which builds on the downtime and camp craft activities in A Life Well Lived. I like this consistency, which lets me just roll these systems together. Additional camp craft activities are great for giving your players interesting and flavorful things to do during these resting periods.

The main mechanic, which is featured in previous titles, is extended tests. These require three skill or tool checks which are compared against both a difficulty class, as normal, and a goal number. In addition to succeeding at the DC, the total over the DC on the check is tallied up and results determined based on how much or by how little the goal number provided.

This core mechanic really is why I think will make this system easier to implement in your own game. Bespoke, often complex resolution mechanics for crafting systems can make them difficult to implement. I think the system here is simple enough to implement, and modular enough to alter yourself should you choose to do so. The other piece of crafting systems that can be complex is crafting components because it creates more complexity as simple components are used to create more complex components, which in turn allow something else to be made with enough diverse components (i.e. Monster Hunter). This system largely abstracts this, but does provide some example attributes for equipment and items that you can create with potential components that enable a given attribute. It is similar with the enchantments system. The great thing about this is that you can then create your own traits for equipment, or you own enchantments, based on the examples in the book, and assign components. You can do this when your player comes to you with a zany idea that should work, but lacks a template. Then you go through the crafting or enchanting process to see if it is actually possible for them to produce it.

The enchantment system also introduces the idea that you can only learn a certain number of enchantments as a character, balancing against the mundane crafting rules for equipment quite well. The lists of enchanted items available also provide a good sample of how to set your own costs, requirements, and components for existing magic items. They’re also additional items that you can hand out in your games, some of which are quite cool. Even better, they have provided a table with the information for every item in the 5.1 SRD, which was literally the one thing I would have asked if it wasn’t here. 

The majority of the book them is made up off artifact level magic items. These are all really cool, with developed backstories and adventure hooks for you to throw into your own game. Nothing to complain about here.

So this system checks pretty much all the boxes as far as my asks and expectations. I really need to see it in play to make any true or final judgments, but having used downtime activities from A Life Well Lived with the same resolution mechanic previously, I think this book will be very valuable as a resource going forward, especially to help players using artificers or wanting to engage the fantasy of producing their own items and equipment. I might even use it in Planegea to encourage hunting and gathering behavior appropriate to the setting. Resources in that case would be a great motivator to go adventuring. So as an initial reaction, I would definitely recommend Hammer & Anvil.

Strongholds & Followers Reaction

The product that started it all for MCDM in 2018. This product spawned as a personal project by popular D&D YouTuber Matt Colville. The project blew up on Kickstarter bigger than even he could imagine, amassing over one million in funding from 28,918 backers (according to Colville’s videos and the dedication in the book).

The book’s titular content makes up the first 90-odd pages of its 272 page count (I'm referencing the pdf as I write. The hardcover may be a few pages shorter). Pages eight to 67 detail a system of strongholds that is tantalizingly teased by some opaque references and cost tables in the 5e Dungeon Master's Guide, but not fully fleshed out.

Thoughts

You can certainly see the differences between S&F and later MCDM products, but I don't mean that as a criticism, merely an observation. The design and writing styles changed as Colville brought on more outsider writers and designers for later projects. It still had some significant play testing (by 3,114 testers, again according to the dedication). 

This book also seems more grounded in the legacy and content of earlier editions of D&D. The influence of Matt’s studying the rules of prior editions, along with his own play experiences, particularly in AD&D and 2e are pretty evident. In a video that I don't recall the title of, he makes reference to the 2e Birthright setting, which you can see as a conceptual influence in both this and the sequel book Kingdoms & Warfare. Certainly, the idea of roleplaying a character from being a dirt-under-the-nails, torch-gripped-with-white-knuckles adventure all the way through their career which accrues them riches, titles, and land with strongholds (which might eventually become dungeons that future adventurers will pick through) seems deeply rooted in the history of a game whose initially premise was to zoom in on an individual soldier in a wargame and allow the player to experience that person's journey. 

It's certainly interesting to see this take on the subject matter. In the future I'd like to do an in depth comparison of S&F style of managing strongholds and compare it to the Bastion system that WOTC plans to include in the 2024 edition of D&D. There may be elements of each that a GM can cherry-pick and combine to create more simple or more complex systems for abstracting or managing strongholds. 

The stronghold mechanics in this title helpfully focus on providing cool new limited use abilities to player characters. Some of these are quite powerful. But I think if the GM is doing their job and drawing the players out of their strongholds in order to continue adventuring then these abilities will not be game breaking (they mostly only function within the geographic area of their stronghold, and their class-tied abilities require an extended rest (one week at their stronghold).

In addition to the core stronghold mechanics, the book contains 28 pages of followers, including NPCs that can be attracted to grow your stronghold and provide income, and retainers to act as lieutenants for your domain. While the MCDM design for retainers has changed (I think for the better), overall it’s not hard to covert these early stats for the later rules, and they still function well as simple stat blocks for followers. The sidekick rules from WOTC came out a couple years after this rule set, which are much more complex and similar to an actual character class. I think those are perhaps better for a one-on-one game where you want a more powerful partner for your player to keep them alive. The retainers are actually the most transferable rules from this book into the entirely new domain system created in Kingdoms & Warfare.

Next is the Siege of Castle Rend adventure, which provides the opportunity to implement the stronghold mechanics for a group of fifth level characters. I think it works as a good drop in adventure that features a village, and a ruined castle filled with a tribe of orcs. The artwork and maps for this adventure are beautiful.

There is an additional 75ish pages of new monsters, many of which are designed to provide fiends and celestial that fill in the gaps in CR that exist based on those available in vanilla 5e. These are also intended to support concordance rules (essentially an added way to include divine intervention for characters). There's also the interesting inclusion of gemstone dragons long prior to WOTC's own exploration of these monsters in Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, and a rudimentary psionics system for them (at some point perhaps I'll take a side-by-side look at this system and compare it to where the psionics system went in the Talent supplement from MCDM). Of the creatures, my personal favorite groups are the Celestial Court, the Court of All Flesh, the Court of the Elements, and the Inexorables. The stat blocks are quite boring in most respects though (ironic considering MCDM's later kickstarter campaign for Flee Mortals! promising to "unboring" 5e monsters--spoiler; they succeeded with that later book, but hadn't quite cracked the code yet in this initial offering).

Finally the warfare system makes up the last portion of the book. Interestingly, I think this section is the only OGL content that I've found in any MCDM product. So if you want to make a Warfare supplement do it with this book, not Kingdoms & Warfare, which is most definitely not open game content. This time through the book marks the very first time I've sat down to focus and really read this section--previously I knew Kingdoms & Warfare was already out, so I've just ignored this earlier warfare system.

I will say, this system is much more replicable and easy to build units yourself than Kingdoms & Warfare, which needed to release the resource document (which still isn't open game content) to provide directions on how to build your own units. The basic system, other than positioning and the additional traits (of which there are many) is very similar to the one created in the later book. This book offers actual upkeep and recruitment costs, which is helpful, and the ability to abstract positioning isn't bad. Finally, the simple resolution capability is a quick way to take care of any warfare scenarios. Having looked at both systems, and considering how my players seem to interact with the additional complexity of intrigue and warfare, I think a blending of the two systems player focused things like organization titles, and simple warfare might be a good way to go for many tables (although I really like the idea of intrigue, it's difficult to explain, and simply resolving organization actions narratively seems more simple than making Operations and Lore tests. I'll need to think more about all of this.

Finally, there is an appendix section on new magic items, including the codices. I love theses books--they are flavorful magic items that provide narrative inspiration. And they're books, which I love personally. They each provide campaign altering powers. At some point I need to drop one of these or one of the additional codices detailed in Kingdoms & Warfare into my campaign.

There's lots of goodness in Strongholds & Followers. My Lost Mine of Phandelver players will complete construction on their establishment soon, so I'll actually get to see some of the stronghold powers, and attempt to implement one of the warfare systems. While the age of this title does show, especially compared to later MCDM products, I would still recommend the book for the creative influence and material it provides, along with the gorgeous artwork.

Slumbering Tsar: The Camp

Spoilers for the adventure Slumbering Tsar...

The Camp is an outstanding adventure location in so many ways. It is the hub and safe haven, but at the same time it's tone so perfectly matches the rest of the adventure by making a not a completely safe place. I love how the decisions of the players can truly take them into deep water early. For example, tangle with the Usurer because the party things the exchange rate for metal bits is unfair and suddenly they're fighting a lich. I can almost imagine the sheer terror and exclamations at such a discovery. It would probably end in a TPK, but then they'll know for the next time.

The hanged man too is so stylistic and appropriate for the ambiance, making the night dangerous and providing a truly scary encounter. I enjoy Father Death and his chapel to Nergal too, with it's macabe imagery and inevitable patience in the belief that the god of death will take everyone in the Desolation, no matter how long it takes.

How should a GM looking to play this section of the adventure in a system other than Pathfinder 1e proceed then? I think it ends up being fairly simple if you follow the adventurers' design philosophy. That is to embrace deadliness. So what if you put a full lich from 5e or Shadowdark? That's scary and thematic. It's a story they'll tell for years. For the NPCs I suggest grabbing existing NPC stat blocks and just going with it. For the hanged man, I'll do some of the work for you (at least for 5e!)

The hanged man is a unique and cool monster (and even better it's available under the OGL!) And we can make use of the handy monster stats available from the Lazy GM's 5e Monster Builder Resource Document.

The one in the adventure is stronger than the one depicted in the Tome of Horrors Complete, so we'll set our 5e version as a CR 5, and then bump up the hit points a bit. The big thing the hanged man does is try to lasso someone then hoist them from the crossbar of his own gallows, which will take a few rounds if we want to try to do it so he needs some hit points padding to stay up the 4-5 rounds to attempt that.

Advanced Hanged Man 

CR 5

Medium Undead

AC: 15

HP: 119

STR 19 (+4)

DEX 18 (+4)

CON 16 (+3)

INT 8 (-1)

WIS 7 (-2)

CHA 6 (-2)

Proficiencies: STR, DEX

Actions:

Multiattack: The Hanged Man makes two claw attacks and a slam attack.

Claw: melee attack, range 5 ft., +7 points to hit, on hit: 12 (3d6 +2) slashing damage 

Slam: melee attack, range 5 ft., +7 points to hit, on hit: 12 (3d6 +2) bludgeoning damage 

Entangle: ranged attack, range 20 ft., on hit: Targeted creature is restrained and begins to choking as they are suffocated. Each round the target is suffocating they take 27 (6d6 +4) bludgeoning damage. To attempt to escape the rope the target must make a DC 17 Strength Saving Throw with disadvantage unless another character assists them. The Hanged Man can move up to its movement dragging an entangled target 20 feet behind it and also use its multiattack.

My Homebrew World: The Heavenly Choruses of Angels

The servants of the good and neutral deities of the Nine, the Heavenly Choruses of Angels are a strictly hierarchical ordering of certain classes of celestial. Some chaotic deities maintain their own chorus in addition to the general choruses.

This article is a work in progress, but I am putting it up for the benefit and collaboration of my players.

The Heavenly Choruses

The Chorus of Blazing Glory

The Chorus of Blazing Glory is the body of the Seven Archangels in service to the Nine. The evil gods have their own retinues of fiends. These angels are Solars, but may possess distinctive and powerful abilities.

Ceraman

Title(s): The Timekeeper of the Heavens, Judge of the Nine

Alignment: Neutral

Domain(s): Balance, Clockwork, Justice, Prophesy, 

Associated Paladin Oaths: Watchers

Ceraman is said to guard the sanctum of time, protecting its flow and seeing that it remains in proper order. The location of the sanctum is unknown, even to the gods for they know that Cernunnos or Culsani might cause irreparable damage in a moment of jest or spite. Demons seek to destroy the passage of time, throwing the universe into chaos like the infinite Abyss, while devils desire to use the power to subjugate all free creatures to their will and corrupt their souls. Ceraman only emerges to act as the neutral arbiter of justice on behalf of the Nine. It is said he was the judge when Asmodeus was cast out of the heavens.

Dalquiel

Title(s): The Doorkeeper, Guardian of the Way

Alignment: Lawful Good

Domain(s): Grave, Mercy, Travel

Associated Paladin Oaths: Ancients, Devotion, Guardian, Safeguarding, Silence, Watchers

Dalquiel is the angel who oversees and guards souls on their journey to the afterlife in the upper realms with the Nine. He is constantly in struggle and working to counter the schemes of fiends that would steal or divert these souls on their path and send them to the lower realms to become tortured thralls in the legions of the damned. 

Eda

Title(s): The Waves and the Wind, Storm of the Endless Stars

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Domain(s): Arcana, Portal, Speed, Tempest, Travel, Void

Associated Paladin Oaths: Elements, Thunder, Sanity, Silence

It is said Eda lives at the center of a storm that exists simultaneously on all worlds and planes. That she represents a singularity of chaos held in control by direction of the gods, else much of creation would be undone. 

Lakratel

Title(s): The Light in Darkness, Commander of the Hosts of Glory, Master of the Choruses, Archangel of the Armies, The Radiant Marshall

Alignment: Lawful Good

Domain(s): Apocalypse, Dragon, Justice, Knowledge, Light, Martyr, Order, 

Associated Paladin Oaths: Battle, Conquest, Eagle, Glory, Purification, Radiance

Lakratel is the leader of the armies of the Nine, and leads their eternal war against the powers of darkness on all worlds. He is ever present in history and legend at the forefront of the armies and battle during each epoch. It is said he fought alongside Asmodeus before the betrayer’s fall from grace. Lakratel has no tolerance for betrayal after this, and casts out or destroys any traitorous angel in the many hosts.

Mivi

Title(s): Tamer of the Song, Composer, Trumpet of Creation and Apocalypse 

Alignment: Neutral Good

Domain(s): Apocalypse, Creation, Mercy

Associated Paladin Oaths: 

Revered as the great muse by many bardic colleges and troubadours, Mivi is said to have been born in the gods’ song of creation and will sound the trumpet signaling the end of all things. 

Nakrav

Title(s): The Grower, Lover of Life

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Domain(s): Life, Nature

Associated Paladin Oaths: 

Nakrav sees to all green and growing things drawing upon the elemental energies of Caturix for growth. He is a gentle defender of plants and animals, revered by some Druidic circles who do not worship old or forgotten gods as a nature deity.

Rindriaze

Title(s): The Executioner of the Gods, The Angel of Death

Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Domain(s): Apocalypse, Death, Grave, Judgement, War

Associated Paladin Oaths: Balance, Battle, Conquest, Justice, Silence, Vengeance

Rindriaze is the weapon of the gods against evil. She is known in many cultures, and in other aspects is worshiped as a deity in her own right. She dispatches vindicators and other angelic servants to slay the foes of good when their efforts exceed the bounds decreed by the gods. Why certain evil beings are allowed to live on is a mystery known only to her and the gods.

Chorus of the Moon-Bathed Crescent

The Chorus of the Moon-Bathed Crescent is the order of Planetars that serve the Solar Archangels in the Chorus of Blazing Glory and the Nine Gods. It is said that there are nine hundred and ninety nine members of the Chorus of the Moon-Bathed Crescent. When a member dies, the Archangels select a member of the Chorus of Innumerable Stars that is advanced to the Chorus of the Moon-Bathed Crescent. These angels can intercede for mortals, and a sampling of those most well known to the Church is provided below:

Narkesi

Title(s): Demon Hunter, Bolt of Truth

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Domain(s): Demonology 

Associated Paladin Oaths: 

Narkesi is an Angel dedicated to destroying demons, hunting them across the planes, and studying their ways to destroy them. She leads a cohort of lesser angels that follow this path and guides mortals that walk the fraught path that skirts of the edge of madness by studying and attempting to destroy the power of demons.

Nithtari

Title(s): The Redeemed, Rebuker of Devils, The Gem Among Snakes, The Risen Angel

Alignment: Lawful Good

Domain(s): Atonement, Justice, Knowledge, Life, Light, Martyr, Mercy

Associated Paladin Oaths: Glory, Perfection, Purification, Redemption, Watchers

A tiefling woman, St. Nithtari stands as a symbol of transcendence. St. Nithtari rebuked her family in the name of the Nine. Her family were devoted disciples of Asmodeus. Nithtari was martyred by her uncle, the evil Lord Karcius, a powerful Illrigger said to have been dragged down to the Hells for his failures, but left to live on in eternal torment as a Dread Knight (Monsterous Menagerie). St. Nithtari herself is said to have so humbled Wontor that he persuaded Lucan to relinquish her soul from death and made her a Planetar angel of the Chorus of the Moon-Bathed Crescent. Thus some of her devotees revere both her aspects as a risen angel, and a martyred saint.

Chorus of Innumerable Stars

The Chorus of Innumerable Stars is composed of countless Devas comprising the Heavenly Legions. They serve the Archangels and Chorus of the Moon-Bathed Crescent. These angels do not generally act as intercessors on behalf of mortals, but will appear as messengers of more powerful Choruses. Their armies are said to be organized in tens and hundreds and twenties in their legions and cohorts, and fight alongside the gods from the beginning of time to the present and until the end of time. Other angelic beings like Valkyries also make up specialized cohorts of the Chorus of Innumerable Stars.

Chorus of the Flaming Blaze of Dusk

The Chorus of the Flaming Blaze of Dusk is unlike the other Choruses. It is the Chorus of angels that have had their physical form destroyed, but their immortal spirit has not been destroyed. These angels appear like shining spirits of light in the image of their physical bodies, and dwell in the heavens. They can still defend the heavens alongside their living comrades, but are confined to their world, and their souls can be destroyed forever by magical weapons.

Chorus of the Silent Grave

These are the followers of Dalquiel, who bring the dead and dying to the afterlife and guide them upon their path through the worlds to their eternal rest. They are solemn and quiet in aspect. Angels, celestials of all types, and chthonic scions are all part of this chorus.

Chorus of Fallen Glory

This Chorus is not often spoken of, but is the term to reference those angels that betrayed the Heavenly Legions and fled into the Hells after Asmodeus, along with all fallen angels until the present. These are the worst of traitors and most bitter enemies of the gods. Their names are secret and often not known by the Church for the good of all mortals. It is whispered that some of these have become devils and demons through twisted and dark magic. 

Demonology Domain

While reaching the message boards on ENWorld, I stumbled across the subclass below created by RustyDemiGod. I loved the concept so much and thought it fit in really well as an option for the setting I’m working on for my own home games. I liked it so much I asked if I could share it here and make it more readily available to my players. 

Demonology Domain

Theology and Demonology have always been two sides of the same coin. For as long as scholars have studied the divine, others have studied the profane. Clerics that study demons are forced to walk a fine line between salvation and damnation. Will you use this knowledge to fight back corruption, or will you take the easy way to power?

Demonology Domain Spells

1st Chaos Bolt, Protection from Good and Evil
3rd Shatter, Flock of Familiars
5th Magic Circle, Summon Lesser Demons
7th Banishment, Summon Greater Demon
9th Planar Binding, Contact Other Plane

-Demonic Knowledge: When you choose this Domain at 1st level, you have a rudimentary knowledge of demonic lore. You are able to speak, read, and write Abyssal fluently. Additionally, you gain proficiency with 2 of the following skills: Arcana, Religion, Investigation, History, or Insight.

-Bound Underling: At 1st level, you gain the Find Familiar ritual spell. This spell always summons a Quasit. This counts as a Cleric spell for you, and does not count against the number of spells that you can prepare each day.

If you wish to conceal your familiar you may, as a Bonus Action, absorb your familiar into your body. If your familiar is reduced to 0 HP you may also absorb it as a Reaction. Expelling the demon back into physical form requires no action. If you die while joined you will both die.

While absorbed you can hear your familiar’s voice in your mind, and if you will it, allow it to speak through you.

-Channel Divinity: Chastise Fiends: Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to turn or command the damned.

As an Action, you present your unholy symbol, and one Fiend of your choice that is within 30 feet of you must make a Wisdom saving throw, provided that the creature can see or hear you. If the creature fails its saving throw, it is turned for 1 minute or until it takes any damage.

A turned Fiend must spend its turns trying to move as far away from you as it can, and it can't willingly end its move in a space within 30 feet of you. It also can't take reactions. For its action, it can only use the Dash action or try to escape from an effect that prevents it from moving. If there's nowhere to move, the creature can use the Dodge action.

At 5th level, whenever a Fiend fails it’s saving throw against your Chastise Fiends feature, the Fiend is Charmed for 1 minute. After the Charm expires the Fiend knows that it was charmed, and who charmed it.

-Damnable Will: At 6th level, your connection to your demonic familiar allows you to call upon its strength of will to aid your own. While absorbed, the presence of a second mind grants you advantage on saves against charm and fear effects. While your forms and minds are bonded, you also have advantage on saves to maintain concentration on spells.

-Unholy Strikes: When you reach 8th level, you are blessed with unholy might in battle. When a creature takes damage from one of your cantrips or weapon attacks, you can also deal 1D8 Necrotic damage to that creature. Once you deal this damage, you cannot use this feature again until the start of your next turn.

-Tongue of the Black Speech: At 17th level, you gain the ability to speak a few words of the foulest demon lord’s curses. You gain Disintegrate, Power Word: Pain, Power Word: Stun, and Power Word: Kill as bonus spells. You add these spells to your list of Domain Spells, and like other Domain Spells, they are always prepared and count as Cleric spells for you. These spells require on the verbal components for you.

How to Implement Kingdoms & Warfare in Dragonlance

 

Table of Contents

This post may include spoilers for the adventure Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen…

Adding the content and extra systems from Kingdoms & Warfare to this adventure may seem onerous at first, but after spending a few hours studying the rules and working on it today, I will tell you that it can be done. But first we need to understand how the new rules work.

Understanding Kingdoms & Warfare

Available in hardcover and PDF from MCDM, Kingdoms & Warfare provides two systems that are related but distinct. First it provides an overarching system for creating player and NPC domains or organizations that help model political interactions between groups (the political science student in me sings for joy!) The second system models war, which as Clausewitz taught us in On War is merely “a continuation of politics by other means.” The systems are intertwined in that intrigue allows the players to interfere with the villain through various means, and impact their capabilities in the final pitched battle that is the confrontation between them, and which uses the warfare rules to have a simplified and abstracted tabletop battle.

So we need to look at how to implement each of these systems for this adventure.

Intrigue

Intrigue involves organizations (in actual political science you might call these actors) sometimes they are a state (or country/kingdom) or sometimes they are non-governmental actors like thieves guilds, knightly orders, religious groups, or mystic circles of mages or druids. 

To understand intrigue, imagine your organization as having skills and features similar to a character sheet. There’s powers that characters can use in combat and titles that also given them powers, but those just act like extra character abilities and can essentially be ignored if you are looking specifically at what interacts with intrigue.

The skills are Diplomacy, Espionage, Lore, and Operations. Much like character skills they can be used to accomplish various tasks and are resolved through a d20 roll with a modifier added based on the score, then compared to a target difficulty class (DC). Now this is an important distinction; outside intrigue these skills can be used to conduct any number of imaginative activities thought of by your players. Inside intrigue, which can be compared to 5e combat, using a domain skill counts as a domain action. These actions function exactly like in combat. An organization only gets one domain action per turn, and if the organization has features that allow them it can also choose to take a domain bonus action and reaction. Domain skill tests can’t be made as domain bonus actions or reactions unless they are included in a feature that allows them.

Each domain also has defenses, which have both a set number that acts as a DC if a skill test is targeting one of them as a domain action. Separate from the number are defense levels, which start at zero at the beginning of each intrigue. There is a scale for each of these and they can be increased and decreased through domain actions on a range of up to +3 or down to -3 (the separate scales for this is a bit confusing in the text of the book as is buried in the middle of a paragraph). There is a section of Kingdoms & Warfare defining consequences that occurs during the final warfare battle between the two organizations at the end of intrigue based upon how these defense levels have changed over the course of the intrigue. So targeting these helps give you more advantageous circumstances in that battle. 

Other examples are provided for domain skill tests as domain actions that include Operations tests to muster additional units for your army, Espionage tests to determine statistics of the enemy domain or learn about their army composition, and diplomacy tests to petition NPC domains not involved in the intrigue to provide units for you to use with your army in the final battle (these units leave after the battle occurs). 

Player Organization 

So the first step of implementing the system is to have your players make their own heroic organization from those options available in the book. For a Dragonlance campaign the Martial Regiment, or the Mercenary Company specialization from the Adventuring Party organization type fit best for a warfare campaign and with the characters as essentially helping Kalaman, but if another organization type works for your group then try it out. 

Enemy Organization 

On the GM side, you need to build a villainous domain for the heroes to oppose. There is a section in Kingdoms & Warfare outlining the process, and it’s pretty clear and concise. 

For Shadow of the Dragon Queen, we’re dealing with only a portion of the Red Dragon Army led by Kansaldi Fire-Eyes. So that portion will have its own organization for now. One issue I’ve noticed with the enemies in the adventure is that the major leaders of this small portion of the Red Dragon Army are all CR 11 or 12, far too high for officers fighting even a group of 10 or 11th level characters at the end of the adventure as written…but the adventure as written uses some of these as bosses over it’s progression, so we’ll just use that attrition and have lower CR commanders fill out Kansaldi’s miniboss ranks when we get to the climax.

We’ll call this organization the Red Dragon Army Vanguard. Although we definitely could use the Draconic Imperium NPC domain as a base I think the Despotic Regime is a better fit for the capabilities and activities of this organization (all the details on these are found in Kingdoms & Warfare). It is a size 2 domain as compared to the characters’ size 1. Because of this we get 16 domain points to spend on the skills and defenses on top of the base stats for Despotic Regime.

Red Dragon Army Vanguard 

Type: Despotic Regime 

Size: 2

Domain Skills:

Diplomacy: -1

Espionage: +2

Lore: +2

Operations: +4

Domain Defenses:

Communications: 14

Resolve: 15

Resources: 13

NPC Domains 

The next step is adding some other domains for the players to interact with. As written there aren’t many options, but I think we can brainstorm a few.

• Kalaman military: This is an already aligned organization, but I want to represent it as something the characters can interact with and influence. I may even do a bit of a house rule and allow the enemy organization to be in intrigue with both the Kalaman and player domains so that the players have to choose between taking their own domain actions against the enemy or assisting their ally. They will get to command the military’s units in the final battle, but these might get some debuffs from the intrigue actions.
• Detachment of Solamnic knights: It’s Solamnia, right? I figure there’s a company or garrison of knights somewhere nearby that can be petitioned for aid. They might have their hands full with their own problems, but hey worth a shot, right?
• Estwilde Goblin Tribe: Though not strictly canon based on what I’ve read about Estwilde in a quick google search, I think it’d be good for Gringle to influence other people like him, and it makes sense that not all of the barbarian tribes of the region bow the knee willingly to the Dragon Armies.
• Silvanesti Exiles: These elves are in the Northern Wastes, and might be a good option to influence via diplomacy to get some magic ranged users help in the final battle. Zhelsuel is a named leader, and the characters can impact his attitude towards them directly, much like in the Baron of Bedegar adventure in Kingdoms & Warfare.
• Thoradin Bay Dimernesti Sea Elves: These elves are also set up to be assisted in the story and are against the Red Dragon Army for their own reasons. 

Fixing Mass Combat in Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen

Table of Contents

There's a lot of very cool content in the 5e Dragonlance offering from WOTC. But there's also a lot missing. I will be actively running the adventure for one of my groups, and will provide some of my thoughts and modifications to change up the book to make the mass combat better

First, sorry fans of the books. I never read them. I don't have any of the setting material or adventures from the previous editions. This book is all I've got. The book does not give you enough information to run a real campaign in an authentic Dragonlance setting. We'd need a book on par with Eberron: Rising From the Last War in order to actually do that. So my Krynn may kill some sacred cows. I will remain blissfully unaware, but apologies in advance if it bothers you. My Krynn is different from your Krynn.

One thing I dislike from the book is the need to try and boost sales of a board game. Maybe instead actually attempt to introduce real mass combat or warfare rules (an abstract example are the victory points used in the Ghosts of Saltmarsh adventure The Final Enemy, which are similar to rules provided in 3e). There are some good ideas worth stealing though. The concept of the fray around the area that the characters are on a map to simulate being in a larger battle is valuable. It creates a more cinematic moment in the combat, and real constraints on maneuvers. Next positive idea is battlefield events, such as those included in the battle for High Hill in chapter three. This simple random table has you roll for a random event at initiative count zero, adding random complications to the battle like an arrow flowing out of the fray and sticking someone, or new enemies emerging. This is a great way to simulate the chaotic, violent, and random nature of combat. 

But we still want mass combat. So what do you do? Take a leaf out of MCDM's book that they wrote to solve this problem, Kingdoms & Warfare. The system outlined in that title provides flexibility and an actual opportunity for your players to feel like they are influencing a wider battle.  The intrigue system even helps you set up situations in which their is a climatic fight between the leaders of opposing domains during battles. Grabbing an organization like the Military Squadron specialization of the Martial Regiment heroic domain sets up the situation of exploring the Northern Wastes and adds a layer of diplomacy and intrigue that is distinctly lacking. Taken together all of these things give your players something shocking that the adventure as written seems to want to deny them...player agency and ability to impact the story!

Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen - The Avengers of the Crossing

Table of Contents

Spoilers follow for the adventure...

After the council of Kalaman had deliberated for far too long for their liking, the adventurers were ushered back into the meeting chamber.

"We have considered your words and the plight of your people," said governor Miat. "We will provide aid and shelter for the refugees of Vogler, but it comes with conditions. Our own resources are stretched in these troubled times, and we will need assistance protecting our own and now your people. Marshall Vendri, would you explain your idea?"

The marshall stood, leaning toward on the oak table.

"Your account of the battle for Vogler was impressive and compelling. You are formidable warriors. We ask that you form a martial company of those able-bodied survivors of Vogler, along with any others you can recruit, to assist us with the defense of Kalaman. We need every sword we can muster to defeat this threat."

The adventurers considered the offer, then nodded in assent. Marshall Vendri's hard eyes crinkled as she gave a thin smile.

"This is welcome news. We also ask that at least one of you take an oath of allegiance to Kalaman, becoming an officer of our military and gaining the title Esquire of Kalaman. Not all of you need take it, and those who do are of course able to undertake other personal business during your time at liberty not engaged in our defense. You will be released from your oath when the conflict is over. Who of you will take the oath?"

Gringle stepped forward, chuckling to himself.

"Well, I will take your oath!"

Asterius watched the small goblin for a moment.

"As will I."

Marshall Vendri then directed them to raise their right hand while resting their left upon their weapon, and repeat her words.

"By the strength to wield this weapon gifted by Kiri-Jolith, I swear to uphold the defense of Kalaman and protection of her people above any personal endeavor or desire, even until death or the wardens of Kalaman release me from my bond."

They both repeated the oath. The marshall nodded in witness of their words.

"Now, we will provide you as many resources as we can spare to aid you in mustering your troops, and will provide you lodging within Castle Kalaman. Additionally we will provide a small weekly allowance to you as officers of Kalaman that you can use to defray the costs of some of your efforts."

She then called one of the guards and directed them to guide the adventurers to their quarters.

As they walked through the large castle, Davgin and Asterius noted the Solamnic motifs in the architecture, along with the art, showing the fortress to be an ancient hold of the Solamnic knights.

Soon they arrived at their quarters in a large disused ballroom on the fourth floor of the castle. Several rooms that were onc3 likely parlours adjoined the large room. Cots, tables, and some crates sat in the once opulent room, hastily placed there based on the resent disturbance of the layer of dust and crumbling plaster than coated the floor. The ceiling displayed a faded painting of Solamnic knight marching onto a field of green in battle array. Intricate crown molding outlined this and the three grand chandeliers of gleaming crystal. A large fireplace that looked long disused took up a large portion of the long interior wall and bright windows stretching from floor to ceiling let in the dazzling sunlight.

The adventurers immediately began arranging their equipment and settling into the space. Soon they were seated at the table, surveying a map of Kalaman and the surrounding region along with some reports furnished by Marshall Vendri's aid. They also began drawing up the charter for their company. Davgin suggested that the company be named "Avengers of the Crossing," to which the others arged after some short debate. Gringle idly drew an emblem as they discussed plans, and when lunch arrived from the castle kitchens everyone agreed that they would use Gringle's picture as their symbol and on their battle standards.

Their plans and discussion went long into the night...

GM Reflections

This is where I have chosen to depart fairly significantly from the adventure as written. I felt as I've mentioned before that the characters really need to be able to make meaningfully choices, and the best way I saw to do that was to put them in command. Most of the session was spent making decisions about their martial organization following the rules of Kingdoms & Warfare. We’ll see how my experience implementing the system for the first time goes. Moving through intrigue and trying to explain it to players is a bit difficult, and there’s a lot that isn’t necessarily intuitive about that system. But I would like them to be able to make a tangible impact on the Red Dragon Army’s operations throughout the adventure.

The Opening Move

Piety Rewards

One focus area I’m working to improve as a GM on is providing rewards to my players for their efforts to role play and take their character in interesting directions of their own choosing. 

In my Lost Mine of Phandelver campaign I have a light cleric of Helm who does a great job roleplaying their devotion to their deity. In a recent session the party visited Helms Hold on their way to the ruins of Thundertree, and the cleric took the time to pray in the Cathedral of Helm...while of course the rogue pilfered from the offerings box. How can we reward great roleplaying like that?

Inspiration is a great way to reward players for roleplaying (when you remember to hand it out), but I think that the cleric's efforts deserve a more substantial (and more mechanical) reward.

I found the inspiration for how to implement this from a YouTube video by WebDM on the book Mythic Odysseys of Theros. They suggest that it almost acts as a sort of Deities & Demigods for 5e, just that you can “file the serial numbers off” and take the piety rewards for devotees of the various gods for use with the pantheon of your own world of choice.

As an example, I took the rewards for the god Helios and modified the flavor slightly so they could go to a follower of Helm. The powers from a couple appropriately themed gods became those of the wizard acolyte of Oghma.

I think this tip from WebDM is a great idea, especially to make use of the design work done for no fewer than fifteen gods in Theros. This also happily squeezes more value out of this book than it merely being a Magic the Gathering or a pseudo-mythic Greek setting (I will get around to a reaction post about Theros eventually). The mechanics for these gods effects also provide good templates to create additional ones for more specialized or distinct portfolios depending on your own pantheon. There are other similar systems, like Concordance from Strongholds & Followers, but I think the Theros implementation is particularly robust in terms of design that can reward a player throughout play. 

In the future I’d like to explore the theme of divine power in D&D, along with looking at various products and supplements that look at this topic. There are also only a few of these types of beings that have stat blocks, which is another area I’d like to explore, at the upper reaches of CR where reality and collective play experience start to get thin.

Negotiation System

Recently I was listening to MCDM's Q&A sessions about their upcoming RPG. The designers have now mentioned something they call the negotiation system multiple times, with patience and interest as axis along with an NPC can oscillate. I ran across a moment in one of my games during which a player attempted to persuade a young green dragon to work for the party, and the situation didn't progress as smoothly as I wanted. The idea of negotiations providing a specific gameplay structure or system struck me as something I could use right now based on that and previous NPC interactions with that group. So I went ahead and developed my own negotiation system, inspired by the concepts mentioned by the MCDM designers. I have no current access to any playtest or design documents from MCDM, so I have no idea how their current or final design will function, but here is my own independently developed system that should be adaptable regardless of your current game system (but it is geared towards 5e because that's what I currently play). You might have a harder time in non-skill system based RPGs, but you are the best judge of what your particular RPG's persuasion or social interaction check-type actions are that can influence this.

The Negotiation System; or "Behold my OG skills developed through long computer lab sessions with Microsoft Paintbrush as a child"

An NPC with whom you can negotiate has an Interest and a Patience score. The starting score in a given interaction is determined by the GM. The NPC must have an interest of at least one for them to interact at all with the player characters. Whether or not they do not have an interest of at least one then determine the NPCs starting Attitude of Hostile, Neutral, or Friendly to determine how they interact (i.e. attack, or the tone of how they ignore the characters' overtures). You can roll randomly on a d6 (1-2 Hostile, 3-4 Neutral, 5-6 Friendly) if you want, but you'll generally have an idea of the NPC's attitude in advance. Through roleplay, skill checks, or a combination of both (or however your RPG of choice functions) the player characters can increase an NPC's Interest, and potentially lower the DC of a skill check to persuade them to take a desired action (again, this is all set by you. Some DC should still be 30 and decreased only to 25 if the decision is not optimal for the NPC. Your bard could persuade them, but it should be earned).

As the players talk or make checks, the NPC's patience degrades by one to two points (depending on how the interaction relates to the NPC's Attitude and Desires) per interaction or check made by the characters. If it decreases to zero, the NPC is no longer interested in listening to the characters. You can also decrease it if you feel the conversation is dragging on. Talking about pitfalls can also decrease an NPC's Patience and Interest, potentially provoking the NPC to attack the characters or at least end the interaction. Tailoring roleplay to an NPC's desires can increase their Interest and maintain their Patience levels.

Terms Defined:

Attitude: Feeling NPC has towards the player characters. Ranges from Hostile, Neutral, or Friendly.

Pitfalls: Some topics are non-starters for an NPC. Others are sensitive and likely to decrease an NPC's Interest or Patience significantly (by three or more points). Players can conduct research through roleplay or actions like domain checks (if you use domain-level play like in Kingdoms & Warfare).

Desires: Topics that NPC is very interest in, and desires information or assistance to achieve. Discussing these topics can maintain an NPC's Patience level for a time and potentially increase their Interest level.

Interest: The number assigned to represent how much an NPC desires to speak to a character. Can move up or down depending on the actions of the player characters. Once the interest reaches zero, the NPC is no longer interest in conducting Negotiations at all.

Patience: The number assigned to represent how will an NPC is to continue speaking to a player. This number can move up or down depending on the actions of the player characters. Once the Patience reaches zero, the NPC no longer has the patience continue negotiating with the player characters.

Further Customization: 

The Interest and Patience scores do not need to be on a ten point scale. Depending on the situation or the personality (or even stats) of the NPC you can scale these scales up or down (as an example, the Ents at Entmoot had much higher patience than your average crime boss).

You can easily keep track of an NPC's scores and personality by writing a description detailing their motives (i.e. Desires, Pitfalls, Interest, Patience) stored either digitally or on an index card and use two dice of appropriate sizes as your respective Interest and Patience trackers.

This system, like any system supporting roleplaying is subjective. It does not proscribe what a GM should do in any given situation. They need to understand the motivations of the NPC and attempt to communicate them to their players (for instance, I thought I made it pretty clear that the aforementioned green dragon wouldn't be forthright in negotiating when I had it bite a dragon cultist's head off as they knelt in obeisance to the monster--but apparently that wasn't clear enough). It does however give you a mechanical framework that you can communicate to your players (I.e. you should let them know they are in a negotiation and the basic framework). You can hide what's going on "under the hood" as it were unless they make some sort of Insight check successfully to gauge the NPCs reactions (look a mechanical reward for an Insight check! You can actually give them the number and say "they're getting tired of talking to you"). But this way there is a definite cut off to the negotiation so the roleplaying doesn't get drawn out and stale as your other players start to play tic-tac-toe (yes, this happened during the conversation with the green dragon. I make terrible mistakes as a GM all the time).

Hopefully this system helps you in some way. Let me know if anything doesn't make sense or needs more detail in the comments section.

Pregen Characters for Descent to Avernus

Spoilers for Descent to Avernus and the Alexandrian Remix.

I've spent a fair bit of time reading through Justin Alexander's Descent to Avernus Remix, and I really enjoy it and would recommend a read. As far as Baldurs Gate: Descent to Avernus goes in general, I don't think the campaign is great for a beginner GM, but it has some great ideas, improved upon with the additional connective tissue Justin adds. But perhaps my favorite addition is the additional history and metaphysical justifications Justin creates to explain the story. Now you might go the entire campaign and depending on the players not require much of this extra info. But if like me you use the framework provided by Mike Shea in Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master, then you'll find some of this extra history useful as secrets and clues you can lay on your characters. And how can you make them even more invested? Tying it all to their background! So I created eight pregen characters tied into this campaign.

Now, depending on your group your mileage may vary. My group is currently using modified versions of the pregens for the original Lost Mine of Phandelver starter set campaign, and character creation is still a difficult process for them (and for me at times). So in a fit of inspiration (since I have no idea when or if I'll end up running Descent to Avernus) I made a selection of highly themed pregen characters that can be used for an adventure preceding the disappeance of Elturel that have pretty heavy ties to the lore of the Alexandrian Remix. Note the trinkets and background items that I have modified to provide potential story hooks into the lore. I personally envision this party as a group of idealists. Most are younger )with a few exceptions) and none of them are aware of the secret plots of the Cult of Zariel within Elturgard, but they are advancing within their respective orders and likely would have been initiated into the Cult (or eliminated if they proved disloyal) had Elturel not been transported to Avernus. 

I would probably run an intro scenario of the party partoling in the Trollclaws on the Northern Frontiers of Elturgard and stumbling upon some sort of dungeon, perhaps with some Zarielite or Gargauthian imagery to hint at discoveries yet to come in the campaign. As the characters complete their patrol and they begin their return to Elturel to report their findings. The sun has just set as they come into sight of the city, still aways off, but the night remains lit by the comforting, everpresent light of the Companion. Suddenly the earth tremors, and the light of the Companion seems to fade then begins to "emit a strange, purplish-black light..." and the surface seems to crackle with lighting that arcs downward, lighting fires like tiny candles in the city below. Thunder booms as this energy flashes. The players have a chance to react before the cutsceen continues. At an appropriate moment, the tremors and thunder crescendo, as the city blinks out of existence, leaving a massive crater behind, and taking all of the characters friends and loved ones with it. The characters are left to figure out what to do. You can launch into the journey of refugees that fled Elturel towards Baldurs Gate, and have folk plead with them to help as Hellriders and Knights of the Companion, thus launching the journey.

My goal with these character descriptions is to tie the characters deeply to the plot of the adventure. Make them deeply invested in their city and give them personal payoff when the GM relates the lore about the history of the Hellriders, the Knights of the Companion, and their own families. For instance, the Warlord character (see below) has hooks in their items and backstory that should demonstrate during the adventure that their own family were senior members of the Cult of Zariel (perhaps this character meets their father as a transformed Hellknight in Elturel). This confronts the character with a dramatic issue of identity, complimenting the adventure theme of a descent into darkness with the hope of a redemption to the light. You'll also see that all members are sworn to the Creed Resolute, meaning the have direct personal stakes in freeing their own souls from this pact. It also means that you have built in hooks if you want to continue your journey through the Nine Hells after Descent by playing the recently released Chains of Asmodeus. There are also characters with ties to Baldurs Gate that could create interesting story beats as the players go through the mystery of the refugee murders in part three of the Remix and interact with the Flaming Fist. (Remember to strip out the GM notes in italic below before providing this info to your players).

As far as leveling, you can start with these first level characters, or alternatively start them at third level. For level progression, I'd just be upfront with your players if this will then slow down their initial progression, or alternatively just level them up when you choose to and adjust the encounters throughout the adventure accordingly.

I use character options from KibblesTasty (Warlord Class, Crusader Fighter, and Divine Hand Rogue), Spectre Creations (Oath of Purification Paladin), and Benjamin Huffman (Pugilist Class and Street Saint Subclass). The other character classes and subclasses are available in the Player's Handbook, Xanathar's Guide to Everything, and Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.

I'm sharing the OGL covered portions of the characters and the subclass name (but not the copyrighted features) so you should be able to recreate them fairly easily. Note that I provide a proposed name for male or female versions of the characters. For players looking to play non-binary characters just encourage them to maintain the surname since it ties to the lore. They can chose their own given name. Additionally, note that I give my first level players five extra hit points, which you can subtract from their total HP if you desire.

There are a total of eight characters to choose from:

Joshod Restat (male) or Shidra Restat (female)

Human Warlord

Level 1

Subclass: Commander’s Presence

HP: 14 (hit dice: 1d8 per level)

AC: 18 (Chain Mail, Shield)

STR: 16 (+3) 

DEX: 10 (+0)

CON: 13 (+1)

INT: 8 (-1)

WIS: 15 (+2) (saving +4)

CHA: 12 (+1) (saving +3)

Proficiency Bonus: +2

Skill Proficiencies: +5 Athletics, +1 History, +4 Insight, +3 Intimidation, +3 Persuasion 
Tool Proficiencies: Three Dragon Ante, Cartographers Tools
Languages: Common, Goblin, Elvish

Background: Noble (Knight)

Inventory:

Flail

Shield

Chain Mail

A set of fine clothes

a signet ring

a scroll of pedigree

a purse

A blank book whose pages refuse to hold ink, chalk, graphite, or any other substance or marking (gifted to you by your father, a High Knight of the Companion)

Explorers Pack (Includes a backpack, a bedroll, a mess kit, a tinderbox, 10 torches, 10 days of rations, and a waterskin. The pack also has 50 feet of hempen rope strapped to the side of it)

25 gp 

Character Description:

A young and perhaps future leader in the Order of the Companion, sworn to uphold the tenets of the Creed Resolute and give thanks for the Companion which “walks beside us every day, a constant companion to us in times of trouble.” You are a descendant of a long line of noble knights that have long mapped and defended the frontiers of Elturgard. Your grandfather was Cathasach Restat, the second High Observer of Elturgard (ruler of the nation) and one of the founders of the Order of the Companion. He also established the worship of Torm through Elturgard, and reconsecrated the High Hall to the God of Order. Like all in your family, you are a dedicated devotee of the Companion and Torm. You are the leader of a patrol of Knights of the Companion and Hellriders (the party), ordered to investigate evil doing on the borders of the holy land of Elturgard. Your family back in Elturel are relying on you to defend the family legacy as you work to protect the Companion's holy light over the city. (GM Note: As mentioned above, this character has plenty of potential ties as they might see friends, relatives, or mentors reborn as fiends in Avernus. Their family began well, but now likely has deep ties to the Cult of Zariel, and perhaps worked closely with Thavius Kreeg to bring about the descent of the city to Avernus).

Brirar Starsk (male) or Mire Vov (female)

Human Cleric

Level 1

Subclass: War Domain

HP: 9 (hit dice: 1d8 per level)

AC: 16 (Chain Mail), 18 when using Shield

Spell Save DC: 13

STR: 15 (+2) 

DEX: 10 (+0)

CON: 13 (+1)

INT: 8 (-1)

WIS: 16 (+3) (saving +5)

CHA: 12 (+1) (saving +3)

Proficiency Bonus: +2

Skill Proficiencies: History (+1), Insight (+5), Medicine (+5), Religion (+1)

Tool Proficiencies: None

Languages: Common, Celestial, Dwarven

Background: Acolyte

Equipment:

Warhammer 

Shield 

a light crossbow and 20 bolts

Chain Mail

A holy symbol (a gift to you when you entered the priesthood)

a prayer book or prayer wheel

5 sticks of incense

vestments

a set of common clothes

pouch

A mechanical canary inside a gnomish lamp

15gp

Explorers Pack (Includes a backpack, a bedroll, a mess kit, a tinderbox, 10 torches, 10 days of rations, and a waterskin. The pack also has 50 feet of hempen rope strapped to the side of it)

Character Description 

You are a young War Priest of Torm, god of duty, loyalty, righteousness, obedience, and law (holy symbol is a right handed gauntlet). You are sworn to the high ideals of the Creed Resolute, and dedicated to defending the Companion's holy light from all evil doers, both mortal and from the beyond. You seek to advance within the Order of the Companion and have deep admiration for the High Observer of Torm, Thavius Kreeg (who also rules Elturgard in that office). Your superiors have promised to initiate you in the deeper mysteries of the Order if you perform well on your first patrol of the frontier. (GM Note: In case the subtext is unclear, this young priest was going to be initiated in the Cult of Zariel if they did well on this mission. They also have deep ties to the establishment and may have disturbing personal or familial connections revealed in Avernus).

Dornorin Veirnaves (male) or Faerona Elderfate (female)

High Elf Rogue

Level 1

Subclass: Divine Hand (Will take at 3rd Level)

HP: 15 (hit dice: 1d8 per level)

AC: 14 (Leather Armor)

STR: 8 (-1) 

DEX: 17 (+3) (saving +5)

CON: 14 (+2)

INT: 10 (+0) (saving +2)

WIS: 14 (+2)

CHA: 12 (+1)

Proficiency Bonus: +2

Skill Proficiencies: Acrobatics (+5), Athletics (+1), Deception (+3), Investigation (+4), Perception (+4), Sleight of hand (+5), Stealth (+7 expertise)

Tool Proficiencies: Thieves’ Tools (+4 expertise + DEX mod), Dice Set, Disguise Kit

Languages: Common, Elven, Goblin, Thieves’ Cant 

Background: Spy 

Equipment:

Rapier

Shortbow and quiver of 20 arrows

Leather armor

Two daggers

Thieves’ tools

Burglars pack (backpack, a bag of 1,000 ball bearings, 10 feet of string, a bell, 5 candles, a crowbar, a hammer, 10 pitons, a hooded lantern, 2 flasks of oil, 5 days rations, a tinderbox, and a waterskin. The pack also has 50 feet of hempen rope strapped to the side of it)

Crowbar

Dark set of common clothes with hood

A white, sequined glove sized for a human

Pouch

15 gp

Character Description 

At times, the light finds us in the midst of darkness and raises us up. So it was for this rogue, formerly a common thief grubbing for survival in the Outer City of Baldur’s Gate. One fateful day a priest of the common folk, a street saint (see pugilist character) found you, and taught you the ways of the light. Now you are a dedicated follower of Lathander (also called Amaunator), the god of life, light. Keeper of the Golden Sun. You are sworn to the Creed Resolute as a Hellrider, training to serve the Companion and the Keeper of the Sun as a Divine Hand when the time comes. Sometimes to serve the light, one must descend into the deepest darkness and work in the shadows. (GM Note: This member is intended to be an bit of an outsider, but has connections to Baldurs Gate that might be used to ground the setting during the murder investigations. There is the possibility of tying in mentors because this person was likely going to be coopted, perhaps unknowingly, as an assassin for the Cult of Zariel. They would have eliminated those idealists who impeded the Cults goals in Elturgard, all under the guise of doing that which is right according to "the light of the Companion and the orders of the High Observer").

Lampert (male) or Teresa (female)

Human Pugilist

Level 1

Subclass: Street Saint (Will take at 3rd Level)

HP: 15

AC: 14 (Leather Armor, Iron Chin Feature)

STR: 17 (+3) (saving +5)

DEX: 14 (+2)

CON: 14 (+2) (saving +4)

INT: 8 (-1)

WIS: 12 (+1)

CHA: 10 (+0)

Proficiency Bonus: +2

Skill Proficiencies: Athletics (+5), Acrobatics (+4), History (+1), Sleight of Hand (+4), Stealth (+4)

Tool Proficiencies: Thieves' Tools

Weapons Proficiencies: Simple weapons, Improvised Weapons, whip, hand crossbow

Languages: Common, Thieves' Cant, Goblin, Infernal

Background: Sage

Equipment:

Leather Armor

Dungeoneer's Pack (backpack, a crowbar, a hammer, 10 pitons, 10 torches, a tinderbox, 10 days of rations, and a waterskin. The pack also has 50 feet of hempen rope strapped to the side of it)

Thieves' tools

A bottle of Ink

A Quill

A small knife

Letter from a dead colleague posing a question you have not yet been able to answer about the doctrine of the Companion

a set of common clothes

A nightcap that, when worn, gives you pleasant dreams

pouch

10gp

Character Description

You were once a Seeker, a sage who learned to write and copy books from the Avowed of the great library of Candlekeep (GM Note: See Elminster's Candlekeep Companion or Candlekeep Mysteries for more info on the Avowed), but a visit from a paladin in your youth changed your path forever. You joined the Hellriders and the Order of the Gauntlet, taking the Creed Resolute and dedicating yourself to helping those less fortunate as a priest of Lathander (also called Amaunator). But you are the priest of the people not like any other. You help as much with your fists as your kind words and service. You know when force and less scrupulous means can be used to the God of Light's ends (You will gain your subclass abilities at level 3). You used all these skills to help many children off the streets (see Divine Hand character description) and out of the gangs of the Outer City of Baldurs Gate, working sometimes alongside and against the members of the Flaming Fists, a mercenary company charged with defending Baldurs Gate. Now you are older, but not done with your duties. You have been recalled to Elturgard to help defend the holy land of the Companion. (GM Note: Again, another relative outsider and priest of the people. This character brings ties with organizations in Baldurs Gate and could be an older mentor and guide to others in the group. They likely would have been killed due to their loyalty to their ideals instead of coopted into the Cult).

Cikrim Bellandi (male) or Ionvo Bellandi (female)

Aasimar Paladin

Level 1

Subclass: Oath of the Watchers (will take at third level)

HP: 17

AC: 16 (Chain Mail) (18 when using shield and one handed weapon)

STR: 17 (+3)

DEX: 12 (+1)

CON: 14 (+2)

INT: 8 (-1)

WIS: 10 (+0) (save +2)

CHA: 14 (+2) (save +4)

Proficiency Bonus: +2

Skill Proficiencies: Athletics (+5), Intimidation (+4), Persuasion (+4), Religion (+1)

Tool Proficiencies: Dragonchess

Languages: Common, Celestial, Abyssal

Background: Knight of the Order

Equipment:

Chain Mail

Holy Symbol

Shield

Great Sword

Spear

Set of travelers clothes

A signet representing your rank and parentage in the order of the Companion

An iron holy symbol devoted to an unknown god (gifted to you by a favorite uncle) (GM Note: You can make this a mysterious Zarielite symbol)

Explorers Pack (Includes a backpack, a bedroll, a mess kit, a tinderbox, 10 torches, 10 days of rations, and a waterskin. The pack also has 50 feet of hempen rope strapped to the side of it)

Pouch

10 gp

Character Description:

You are a paladin of the Knights of the Companion, sworn to both the Creed Resolute and the Oath of the Watchers (you will gain the benefits of this subclass at level 3) Your celestial birthright is celebrated by your family as a mark of the blessings of the Companion and Helm. The rest of your family is human, but you have been touched by the heavens and born as an aasimar. You have a great heritage in the land of Elturgard; your grandmother was High Watcher Naja Bellandi who over fifty years ago fought off the incursions of vampires into the heart of Elturel. It was a dark time, and your family does not often speak of it. Your grandmother died shortly after becoming High Observer (ruler of Elturgard) and is remembered with great fondness by the whole nation. You now look to the High Observer Thavius Kreeg as ruler of Elturgard and leader of the Knights of the Companion. (GM Note: This character is descended from the ruler of Elturgard who made the original pact with Zariel that would forfeit the city of Elturel and the souls of those sworn to the Creed Resolute. This revelation should be potentially devastating as this character seeks to understand their own identity. Adding a tomb of Naja Bellandi in Elturel where the players might have to opportunity to use Speak With Dead could be an interesting roleplaying scenario).

Uricius Bladevale (male) or Levkaria Bladevale (female)

Tielfing Paladin

Level 1

Subclass: Oath of Purification (will take at 3rd level)

HP: 17

AC: 18 (Chain Mail, Shield) 

STR: 17 (+3)

DEX: 12 (+1)

CON: 14 (+2)

INT: 8 (-1)

WIS: 10 (+0) (save +2)

CHA: 14 (+2) (save +4)

Proficiency Bonus: +2

Skill Proficiencies: Animal Handling (+2), Insight (+2), Medicine (+2), Persuasion (+4), Survival (+2)

Tool Proficiencies: Brewer's supplies, Vehicles (land)

Languages: Common, Infernal

Background: Folk Hero

Equipment:

War Pick

5x Javelins

Chain Mail

Shield

Holy Symbol

Brewer's Supplies

Shovel

Iron pot

Set of common clothes

Pouch

A crystal knob from a door (GM Note: You can perhaps give this some sort of celestial or arcane power...or it can just be a lame knickknack)

Explorers Pack (Includes a backpack, a bedroll, a mess kit, a tinderbox, 10 torches, 10 days of rations, and a waterskin. The pack also has 50 feet of hempen rope strapped to the side of it)

10 gp

Character Description:

It is difficult being a tielfing in the land of Elturgard. Your loyalty to the Companion is often questioned due to your ancestors' history of devotion to Asmodeus, the ruler of the Nine Hells. You have spent your life seeking to prove yourself and dispel all doubts. You are a devotee of Tyr, the Blind Overlord, the Evenhanded god of Justice. When all else have shown you injustice, he provides a guiding light with his blind scales. As a Hellrider you uphold the Oath of the Creed Resolute and your Oath of Purification (You will get Oath benefits at 3rd level). The proudest moment in your life and for your family is when you took those oaths. You will not tolerate evil or injustice, regardless of the victim. You and your family have paid too dearly to live in Elturel to allow any form of darkness in the land of the Companion.

Tenets of Purification

Paladins who take this oath often emblazon the tenets of Purification upon their shield or weapon as a forthright display to others of what they fight for.

Bring the Truth to Light. Be not clouded by the laws and expectations of others. You seek truth, no matter what challenges impede your path.

Purify the Wicked. Rehabilitation is preferred. A fiery death for the unrepentant is an acceptable alternative.

Defend the Undefiled. Those who remain clean from the toxic path of evil are worthy of your protection. Safeguard their purity. (GM Note: This character is another type of outsider that could provide interesting roleplaying opportunities. They discover through the course of the adventure that those who discrimated against their family and people where truly the evil ones in Elturgard. This character also has plenty of reason to explore their own infernal legacy and plenty of justification to renounce their oath and become an Oathbreaker Paladin depending on their reactions to these situations).

Rorcum Thent (male) or Cilil Thent

Human Fighter

Level 1

Subclass: Crusader (will take at 3rd level)

HP: 17

AC: 18 (Chain Mail, shield)

STR: 16 (+3) (save +5)

DEX: 12 (+1)

CON: 15 (+2) (save +4)

INT: 8 (-1)

WIS: 14 (+2)

CHA: 10 (+0)

Proficiency Bonus: +2

Skill Proficiencies: insight (+4), Perception (+4), Religion (+1), Survival (+4)

Tool Proficiencies: None

Languages: Common, Giant, Orc, Elven

Background: Faction Agent

Equipment:

Chain Mail

Longsword

Light crossbow and 20 bolts

Dungeoneer's Pack (backpack, a crowbar, a hammer, 10 pitons, 10 torches, a tinderbox, 10 days of rations, and a waterskin. The pack also has 50 feet of hempen rope strapped to the side of it)

A badge of the Order of the Gauntlet

An illuminated copy of The Labors of Torm, an important religious text, gifted you by your aunt Tamal

A vial of dragon blood

Set of common clothes

Pouch

15 gp

Character Description:

You come from a proud line of holy warriors as a member of House Thent. Your parents and grandparents were great knights of the Companion, but your aunt Tamal Thent made the greatest impact upon you. She was a mighty paladin, next in line in the order to be named High Observer and rule over Elturgard until she disappeared while patrolling the frontier near Boareskyr Bridge. Now you carry on her legacy defending the holy land of Elturgard, loyally upholding your oath to the Creed Resolute and as a member of the Order of the Gauntlet. Your family have long worshiped the god Torm and have lived in Elturel for generations. (GM Notes: Another layer of potential intrigue as this characters' aunt was murdered by Zarielites. The Cult members could have been led by a relative of another party member, adding some interparty dramatic tension).

Rildar Zhael (male) or Maja Zhael (female)

Aasimar Sorcerer 

Level 1

Subclass: Divine Sorcerer

HP: 13

AC: 11 (unarmored (10 + DEX)

Spell Save DC: (13) 8 + CHA + Proficiency bonus

STR: 8 (-1)

DEX: 13 (+1)

CON: 15 (+2) (save +4)

INT: 12 (+1)

WIS: 10 (+0)

CHA: 17 (+3) (save +5)

Proficiency Bonus: +2

Skill Proficiencies: Arcana (+3), Deception (+5), Medicine (+2), Religion (+3)

Tool Proficiencies: Herbalism Kit 

Languages: Common, Celestial, Infernal

Background: Hermit

Equipment:

light crossbow and 20 bolts

an arcane focus

Dungeoneer's Pack (backpack, a crowbar, a hammer, 10 pitons, 10 torches, a tinderbox, 10 days of rations, and a waterskin. The pack also has 50 feet of hempen rope strapped to the side of it)

Two daggers

A 1-inch cube, each side painted a different color

Scroll case stuffed with prayers you wrote during your sojourn as a hermit

Winter blanket

Set of common clothes

Herbalism kit

5 gp

Character Description:

Legend tells of an angel that blessed the Hellriders of Elturel as they rode into the Hells. Your ancestors are said to have been blessed by that angel, charged forever to defend Elturgard as aasimar in the Hellriders. You too are a Hellrider who has taken the Creed Resolute. Seeking spiritual answers about the nature of this divine power, you spent many years as a hermit in the Cloud Peaks. This time taught you much about yourself. You returned to Elturgard to seek your divine destiny. You are a devotee of the god Tyr, the Maimed god of Justice. (GM Note: This character derives their power from the blessings of Zariel, setting up some interesting possibilities if the characters seek to redeem the fallen angel. Their family name should also hint at this history and connection. Alternatively, this character could also explore themes of being the fruit of the poison tree as it were. Are their powers truly divine, or destined to be used for infernal ends?)