D&D 5E Enhancing "Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus"


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jayoungr

Legend
Supporter
I was only a player in this campaign, but our DM used the Alexandrian Remix and was quite happy with it. I don't know the details why exactly he liked it, but it seem to solve a lot of the structural issues: Remixing Avernus
Thanks, I'll give it a look! Though I don't know how much our group needs it to be done; Mr. Alexandrian treats it as a given that the structure of Tyranny of Dragons "needed" to be fixed, but my group was perfectly fine with it as written.

ETA:
Okay, having looked it over a bit more, I can see that there's a lot of useful stuff here. It seems like it's worthwhile just for the "appendix" material alone (names, rumors, etc.). Thanks again for the link!
 
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jayoungr

Legend
Supporter
So, after talking about it for four years, I finally started running this adventure. I had session 1 last Saturday.

I'll get into some thoughts and tips drawn from my experience in future posts, but for now, I have a question for you folks. I want to throw in an interlude in between the Elfsong Tavern and the bathhouse dungeon. Does anyone have any suggestions for a good, short encounter the group could stumble across? Might be connected to the bathhouse or might be separate. The group knows where the bathhouse is, so it can't be about finding it.

All the PCs except one are native to Baldur's Gate. They took the murder of "Dr. Death" as their Dark Secret. Amrik Vanthampur knows about it. I might be able to make use of that somehow?

Does anyone know of any good stand-alone encounters in one of the adventure supplements? Maybe something in one of the AL modules?
 

pukunui

Legend
So, after talking about it for four years, I finally started running this adventure. I had session 1 last Saturday.

I'll get into some thoughts and tips drawn from my experience in future posts, but for now, I have a question for you folks. I want to throw in an interlude in between the Elfsong Tavern and the bathhouse dungeon. Does anyone have any suggestions for a good, short encounter the group could stumble across? Might be connected to the bathhouse or might be separate. The group knows where the bathhouse is, so it can't be about finding it.

All the PCs except one are native to Baldur's Gate. They took the murder of "Dr. Death" as their Dark Secret. Amrik Vanthampur knows about it. I might be able to make use of that somehow?

Does anyone know of any good stand-alone encounters in one of the adventure supplements? Maybe something in one of the AL modules?
There's some stuff in the Murder in Baldur's Gate extras (like the Launch Weekend module) that may be of use. I've sent you an email.
 

jayoungr

Legend
Supporter
The hook as written is garbage. Figure out another way to get the PCs invested.
So, I have a hilarious story about this. Once the players actually made their characters, it turned out that the hook as written was actually perfect for this group! Most of the PCs grew up in Baldur's Gate; one had come to town a few years ago from Elturel and joined the Flaming Fist. They took the Dark Secret of murder, and the role of the Flaming Fist PC was that she had known about the murder and looked the other way. So it was super-simple to start off with that character being called in by Zodge, her superior, and told to deputize some adventuring types to track down the Cult of the Dead Three, because the rest of the Flaming Fist had their hands full with all the refugees pouring into the city. And it just so happened that she knew a bunch of people who owed her a big favor...!
 




jayoungr

Legend
Supporter
Resources for Chapter 1 (in Baldur's Gate)

My campaign is under way, and I wanted to share some resources that I'm finding useful.

First, here are some free ones:

A 48-page player guide to character options and the setting.

Another player's guide, largely overlapping with the first but including some extra backgrounds: Hellrider, Flaming Fist, and Order of the Gauntlet.

A free DM's Guild supplement to a rundown neighborhood in Baldur's Gate. May be useful for side adventures or even a place for some of your PCs to call home.

And here are some that cost money but that I'm finding to be worthwhile:

I don't remember who recommended this to me, but thank you! I'm finding that it is well worth the price, and we haven't even left Baldur's Gate yet. The suggestions for alternate story hooks, remixing to avoid the hollyphant for groups with low cuteness tolerance, and transitioning into the adventure from other campaigns are all really solid. I expect to get even more out of it when we actually head to Avernus, as there are supplemental side adventures with maps, stat blocks for more challenging devils, etc. Big thumbs-up on this one!

My players want to loot everything they come across, so this series of supplements has been a lifesaver. The only thing I wish it included was suggested cash for the humanoids, because once I've described their equipment, the players tend to follow up with "So he didn't have any money on him?" (What can I say? They mostly go back to the AD&D days.)

Helpful for when the gang wants to sell all the stuff they looted from various corpses.

I've already mined this for when I needed some extra encounters in town.

Also can be raided for extra city encounters. For example, the "Thieves!" event can be dropped in almost any time you need a little action, and you could also repurpose the assassination subplot for one of the remaining dukes (probably Dillard Portyr) if you want to play up the political situation in Baldur's Gate and don't want to bring in the entire plot from the Adventurer's League season.
 
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