3. HOTDQ - Before You Begin

3. HOTDQ – Before You Begin

LiquidAnalog

March 1, 2024

This is part 3 of my guide for Hoard of the Dragon’s Queen campaign. You can read all chapters of this guide here:

Session Zero – Forming the group

Before we started the campaign, I did several things with the players, to connect them to the story and to each other.

Why Together?

As this group of characters did not work together before, in our Session Zero we did a segment where each pair of players discussed how their characters got connected before they decided to travel together to Greenest. This also turned out great – in addition to being a fun and engaging experience. We found that the wizard hired the priest to ease those bad dreams he had, while learning that the paladin and the rogue had some shared experience working against some Cult of the Dragon cultists. Good times!

Why Greenest?

I informed the players that their characters are traveling to Greenest, but I requested them to come up with a compelling reason why. It went much better then I anticipated: The priest decided he had a lover there (Ahh, what a wonderful plot hook he cooked for himself); The paladin was trying to get as far away from his family as possible so he could prove himself worthy (which he did, in spades), and the wizard was chasing his omens of dragon apocalypse (my injection).

On Level 1 Hit Points

A lot has been said on level 1 characters and how sucky it is for players and DMs to play as a level 1 character with their puny hit points – subject to fall unconscious from a single unfortunate enemy, sneezing too hard.

I think the level 1 limitations are wonderful for players – very few resources, spells and powers. Those limitations require actual ingenuity and clever thinking, much more role-play and less combat. But unless we solve the low hit points during combat, you either limit yourself to very easy encounters that are not very interesting, or risk a tragically deadly encounter.

A good way to solve this is to give your players 2 Hit Dice at first level instead of one – while keeping everything else as intended. I argue that this hardly breaks the game – having the characters at level-2 grade hit points allows combat to be a bit more interesting and less risky (for the DM, not for the players), allows more margin for mishaps, and reduces the likelihood of tragic character untimely deaths – while not giving the characters any game-breaking powers. If asked, you can explain that the adventurers are naturally above average.

With this method, when the characters reach level 2 those hit points simply remain as they are, and now the characters are as intended. They get enough goodies as it is with the new level. This strategy solves the hit points issue neatly – the heroes can stay longer as Level 1 characters without you limiting yourself with careful and easy combat.

A similar solution you could choose is to give your level one characters a temporary or permanent in-game prop – maybe they find (or given) a magical bracelet of health that gives the wearer +6 hp each day. That is another great tool you can use to change the balance slightly without breaking the game. IMHO for this module – where the characters are injected into a deadly war on the first scene – it was less fitting, but consider this for your game.

On Character Level Advancement

This is of course a matter of preference by you, the DM. Personally I find the written pace of character level progression to be way too fast and easy. Maybe I am an old-timer (“in my days we spent months till we gained enough XP to gain a single level! Months I tell you!”) but the module leveling pace as written feels exaggerated.

I actually don’t use XP nor the rigid milestone system, but ratchet up the party level as we go, making sure the players have enough time to experience the joys (and limitations) of their current character level for some substantial play time, and getting to some meaningful accomplishment before advancing the party to the next level.

In my game I slowly progressed the player characters – they got to level 5 just as they reached Skyreach Castle and the epic battle. Level 5 is a major level for all classes (2nd attack for melee classes, 3rd level spells for wizards and priests), so that was a critical milestone to reach before the epic battle.

This of course requires some adjustments of the monsters in the second half of the module – mainly castle Naerytar and Skyreach – but that is easy to do. Have only a single Gargoyle instead of 4, secretly tone down the HP of monsters, etc.

Next: 4. HOTDQ – Episode 1 – Greenest in Flames, part I – The Dragon Attack