Posted December 01, 2020 by ignotus17
Work has begun.
One team member has stepped up to function as Lead Story Designer. He has begun to sort through existing lore and non-player characters (NPCs) to determine what to keep and what to remove. In part, some content that feels dated or out-of-touch with modern gamers will be unused. What better way to eliminate unwanted lore in D&D than by having it eaten by dragons?
Another team member has begun monster design. We previously discussed the problem of high-level spell casters using certain spells (such as Tiny Hut) to rest safely. She described having success by hunting PCs with Helmed Horrors -- a constructed enemy that can be immune to the effects of three spells. To suit our adventure, she has modified them to high-level "Improved" Helmed Horrors to challenge level-appropriate PCs.
Finally, I continued learning CC3+ and working specifically with Dungeon Designer 3 (DD3).
I also began planning out some potential encounter groups. I find D&D 5e's style of encounter in published adventures to be too plain. Instead of "half-red-dragon veteran leading 21 kobolds and 7 lizardmen," I prefer assigning Monster Roles -- changing weapons, armor, or spells of an adversary to change how they fight. Instead of "21 kobolds" they can be "kobolds: 7 with shortswords and slings attacking from range but drawing swords if needed, 4 with heavy armor and rapiers who fight close, 4 with whips who attack with reach, 4 with shortbows who only attack at range (or flee), and 2 sneaking about with poisoned daggers to finish off a heavily-wounded PC." These monster roles were used in D&D 4e but removed for 5e. They also appeared in the 3.5e book Dungeonscape, the monster designs of 13th Age, and have similarities to Animal Behaviors I've seen in Traveller (though I can't remember which edition or book, off hand).