▶️ One-On-One D&D: ruclips.net/video/R78CIEktkwE/видео.html 🌟 Scripts now available on Patreon! www.patreon.com/posts/37585778 Join the Pillar tier to get access and behind the scenes videos! The GRAND finale! Thank you for your support, and make sure you stick around to hear Grace and I discuss the ending! :)
DoIP is my first time DMing (the first time anyone in our group has even played D&D), and after watching this, there is NO WAY Cryovain isn't going to be an (awake!) adult dragon or some sort of modified version (maybe adult with nerfed breath?). Even an adult dragon would practically fall to 140 damage in one round. My PCs are still little babies in the story, so I didn't know so much damage was possible in a single round with only 3 PCs! As DM you basically can't let your dragon get caught in range, it seems? I watched several videos about how a dragon might be run well and thought it was too cruel, but it seems I underestimated what PCs can do. Thanks for the videos!
Out of the shadows a white wyrmling steps out. Seeing their mother so savagely slain they now seek vengeance upon these adventurers... no the world. (cue dramatic music) But really, that was very anticlimactic. 😂
I went the opposite direction at the end of this module. When my party slew Cryovain, they returned to Phandalin, a village-wide was party was held, and the newly-dubbed dragonslayers were called to behind the inn by an old man. After a brief conversation, the man declared to them, "I cannot wait to see what more you will do. And I cannot wait to make you SUFFER... For killing. My. Son." The old man then immobilized them with a fearful presence, gave them 6 months to find him as he hunted them, and then dropped his human disguise to reveal his true form as an ancient white dragon. Then proceeded to fly out from behind the inn and up to Icespire Peak, completely froze it over with his ice breath and flew off northward. And that's where my campaign took off! I'm homebrewing the rest of the story, but so far both my players are really enjoying it :)
Can we just say Grace playing three characters is hilarious. Commenting on the broken table and Amalia rolling her eyes, while Donnabella Fiasco is like RUDE!
Well, I hope those ladies had fun despite the very short encounter. Even if it hadn't ended in the surprise round, this looked set to be an incredibly short encounter. I don't think the as-written "final battle" is quite up to the preamble it took to get there. Now over to the DM Guide video to see how to make it better!
Yes, it definitely needs some work. I think for some groups of totally new players, fighting a dragon could be enough of a dramatic event, but most are going to be disappointed if it ends as quickly as my basically by-the-book session haha
You should almost always give a singular boss monster some Legendary and Lair actions, or at least some minions because of the action economy it's pretty much necessary. One of the reasons the Reavers are there is to wake up the dragon with some fighting or serve as a foil in the last fight. Once again this module doesn't do a great job of setting up a good fight for new DMs, some of the puzzle pieces are there but they definitely left a few in the box. It does give new players a pretty good shot at taking down a dragon if they are sneaky, but I still can't understand how they would do something as anticlimactic as putting in a dragon with no treasure, there doesn't need to be a giant hoard, but some coins and jewels in a frozen-over pile should have been there, and would give something to drive the Reaver conflict angle a little better. I gave Cryovain 1 use of Legendary Resistance, Lair actions for obscuring fog that damages, binding ice to restrain, and a wall of ice to force movement on the slippery terrain, and some Legendary actions for some extra damage. Depending on the party and their gear some more HP might not be a bad idea either.
Yeah, our DM has already confirmed Cryovain will be an adult dragon. Considering all the prep and allies we've done to go into this final quest, this decision actually balances the encounter much better than us facing a young dragon.
My team has an assassin and he went before the dragon, we rolled init and Cryovain went last so the other 4 wailed on him and with the assassins crit that was it. Cryovain was down without a single hit or breath on the team. The team cheered for joy. The DM (me) was sad that he died so quick, but the cheering players made up for it.
Litterally the same thing happened. My party almost woke them several times, but it slept, I gave him an additional 100hp and still a surprise round and half of one round killed it.
The Dragon is no match for 4 to 5 level 6 characters, but you know that. The same thing happened to me when I ran my first 5E dragon Venomfang in lost mine of phandelver.
Wow, did your party face Venomfang at level 4 or 5? I was under the impression that the green dragon would be a much tougher fight because the module has them going to Thundertree around level 3
Haha me and my party met Venomfang at level 3, and 4 of us being brand new players we thought HECK YEAH lets fight! A couple rounds later and we were all fleeing for our lives whilst the dragon picked up one of our horses and took it back to its lair. We never went back for him haha
I’m running this for my family this weekend and I’m so so glad I found this video! You confirmed all my biggest fears about it. I’ll be sure to use your modified dragon, and I have also made sure everyone gets Potions if Invulnerability. Thank you!!!
I’m happy to help! *Everyone* getting potions of invulnerability will probably still make it a low risk battle, but since your playing with family (assuming kids), that’s probably for the best :) Thank you for watching and commenting!
Bob World Builder Well, my 16yo son and his step mom, playing a fighter/rogue and Paladin respectively. Plus 2 sidekicks. I think adding HP to Cryobain is an easy fix but addressing his ability to kill one or more characters in a single attack is trickier. Hence the potions. I love that lair action you recommended because it’s not just more damage. It might be heresy by I’m considering changing the breath weapon from cone to a line, so it’s only targeting one character at a time. I love the idea of it switching up tactics, and the tension of it disappearing into the air with the possibility of returning from anywhere sounds super fun.
Bob World Builder Also one of the sidekicks is secretly a wererat now, so I might decide the battle happens to take place just before moonrise. And suddenly there’s a sidekick attacking whomever is closest, dragon or not. :D
That's a very generous use of the word "impressive," but thank you! Yes I did scribble all these out! Definitely something I'm going to miss, and not miss, about this series lol
Yeah, just ran this WITH the modified white dragon (adolescent) and my players killed it in its sleep. They did a combined 167 HP before the dragon got a chance to beg for mercy.
you could've play the music 'antarctic reinforcement' as boss music for the final boss fight. since everyone went supernova on the dragon, you could've bumped up the hp on the dragon to lengthen the fight a bit so that it could've been a bit more fun. and also aren't you gonna play the extensions for dragon of icepire peak. btw here's the link for the song: ruclips.net/video/PtvS4-VqxRA/видео.html
Thank you! I get all my music from the RUclips audio library to avoid copyright issues. And giving it 5 extra HP was already more than I would usually do during these videos! I like to running them by the book so others can see what needs to be changed -- and you certainly spotted the big flaw haha As for the extensions, I'm going to produce DM guides but not gameplay. There will be some gameplay videos in the future, but probably not as part of a regular series. While these gameplays are fun to produce, they take WAY more time than a normal video, and people seem to like the DM guides much more, so I'm going with what's better for me and the audience as a whole.
I so wanna play now I am in London using your imagination is way more impressive than using computers or games consoles I am exited just listening to them talk!
▶️ One-On-One D&D: ruclips.net/video/R78CIEktkwE/видео.html
🌟 Scripts now available on Patreon! www.patreon.com/posts/37585778 Join the Pillar tier to get access and behind the scenes videos!
The GRAND finale! Thank you for your support, and make sure you stick around to hear Grace and I discuss the ending! :)
TY for leaving in the explanation of what you cut out around 20:10. I enjoy that type of behind the scenes stuff.
"You gotta toss a coin to your blood hunter." Pure gold! :D
Gold? I see what you did there, haha 😆
DoIP is my first time DMing (the first time anyone in our group has even played D&D), and after watching this, there is NO WAY Cryovain isn't going to be an (awake!) adult dragon or some sort of modified version (maybe adult with nerfed breath?). Even an adult dragon would practically fall to 140 damage in one round. My PCs are still little babies in the story, so I didn't know so much damage was possible in a single round with only 3 PCs! As DM you basically can't let your dragon get caught in range, it seems? I watched several videos about how a dragon might be run well and thought it was too cruel, but it seems I underestimated what PCs can do.
Thanks for the videos!
Out of the shadows a white wyrmling steps out. Seeing their mother so savagely slain they now seek vengeance upon these adventurers... no the world. (cue dramatic music)
But really, that was very anticlimactic. 😂
Haha, yeah, I think showing this location pretty much by-the-book has proven to be the greatest lesson in this series -- don't trust the module!
I went the opposite direction at the end of this module. When my party slew Cryovain, they returned to Phandalin, a village-wide was party was held, and the newly-dubbed dragonslayers were called to behind the inn by an old man. After a brief conversation, the man declared to them, "I cannot wait to see what more you will do. And I cannot wait to make you SUFFER... For killing. My. Son." The old man then immobilized them with a fearful presence, gave them 6 months to find him as he hunted them, and then dropped his human disguise to reveal his true form as an ancient white dragon. Then proceeded to fly out from behind the inn and up to Icespire Peak, completely froze it over with his ice breath and flew off northward.
And that's where my campaign took off! I'm homebrewing the rest of the story, but so far both my players are really enjoying it :)
@@bluehat_plumber9763 Hey, uh… I'm gonna need an UPDATE on that tease, my friend. Dish.
I'm sure this is a tremendous amount of work, but I absolutely love these gameplay videos! Would love to see more!
Can we just say Grace playing three characters is hilarious. Commenting on the broken table and Amalia rolling her eyes, while Donnabella Fiasco is like RUDE!
Well, I hope those ladies had fun despite the very short encounter. Even if it hadn't ended in the surprise round, this looked set to be an incredibly short encounter. I don't think the as-written "final battle" is quite up to the preamble it took to get there.
Now over to the DM Guide video to see how to make it better!
Yes, it definitely needs some work. I think for some groups of totally new players, fighting a dragon could be enough of a dramatic event, but most are going to be disappointed if it ends as quickly as my basically by-the-book session haha
I upgraded Cryovain to an adult and that seems to be about the right balance. Making it as epic as it should be is a bit of a challenge tho.
You should almost always give a singular boss monster some Legendary and Lair actions, or at least some minions because of the action economy it's pretty much necessary. One of the reasons the Reavers are there is to wake up the dragon with some fighting or serve as a foil in the last fight. Once again this module doesn't do a great job of setting up a good fight for new DMs, some of the puzzle pieces are there but they definitely left a few in the box. It does give new players a pretty good shot at taking down a dragon if they are sneaky, but I still can't understand how they would do something as anticlimactic as putting in a dragon with no treasure, there doesn't need to be a giant hoard, but some coins and jewels in a frozen-over pile should have been there, and would give something to drive the Reaver conflict angle a little better.
I gave Cryovain 1 use of Legendary Resistance, Lair actions for obscuring fog that damages, binding ice to restrain, and a wall of ice to force movement on the slippery terrain, and some Legendary actions for some extra damage. Depending on the party and their gear some more HP might not be a bad idea either.
Yeah, our DM has already confirmed Cryovain will be an adult dragon. Considering all the prep and allies we've done to go into this final quest, this decision actually balances the encounter much better than us facing a young dragon.
My team has an assassin and he went before the dragon, we rolled init and Cryovain went last so the other 4 wailed on him and with the assassins crit that was it. Cryovain was down without a single hit or breath on the team. The team cheered for joy. The DM (me) was sad that he died so quick, but the cheering players made up for it.
Litterally the same thing happened. My party almost woke them several times, but it slept, I gave him an additional 100hp and still a surprise round and half of one round killed it.
Wow! 100 extra HP! That must have been one nasty surprise round!
@@BobWorldBuilder yeah party of 6 and they also rolled well, the barbarian critd.... Twice in a round and half
Literally a 'double crit for the win' hahah that's too good!
The Dragon is no match for 4 to 5 level 6 characters, but you know that. The same thing happened to me when I ran my first 5E dragon Venomfang in lost mine of phandelver.
Wow, did your party face Venomfang at level 4 or 5? I was under the impression that the green dragon would be a much tougher fight because the module has them going to Thundertree around level 3
Recommendations to make this the epic fight it should be? My players are going to fight Cryovain next session and it’s a group of 5 all level 6
@@phoenixhazard Make it hard. Two Young Dragons. Legendary actions. Adult Dragon. No sleeping Dragon. Pick something.
Haha me and my party met Venomfang at level 3, and 4 of us being brand new players we thought HECK YEAH lets fight! A couple rounds later and we were all fleeing for our lives whilst the dragon picked up one of our horses and took it back to its lair. We never went back for him haha
I’m running this for my family this weekend and I’m so so glad I found this video! You confirmed all my biggest fears about it. I’ll be sure to use your modified dragon, and I have also made sure everyone gets Potions if Invulnerability. Thank you!!!
I’m happy to help! *Everyone* getting potions of invulnerability will probably still make it a low risk battle, but since your playing with family (assuming kids), that’s probably for the best :) Thank you for watching and commenting!
Bob World Builder Well, my 16yo son and his step mom, playing a fighter/rogue and Paladin respectively. Plus 2 sidekicks. I think adding HP to Cryobain is an easy fix but addressing his ability to kill one or more characters in a single attack is trickier. Hence the potions. I love that lair action you recommended because it’s not just more damage. It might be heresy by I’m considering changing the breath weapon from cone to a line, so it’s only targeting one character at a time. I love the idea of it switching up tactics, and the tension of it disappearing into the air with the possibility of returning from anywhere sounds super fun.
Bob World Builder Also one of the sidekicks is secretly a wererat now, so I might decide the battle happens to take place just before moonrise. And suddenly there’s a sidekick attacking whomever is closest, dragon or not. :D
Definitely feel free to change up the breath weapon and keep Cryovain in the air! And I love the wererat surprise idea! xD
Excellent! Thanks Bob and thanks Grace!
Our pleasure! Thank you for watching and commenting :D
Did you draw all these yourself?!?! Impressive!
That's a very generous use of the word "impressive," but thank you! Yes I did scribble all these out! Definitely something I'm going to miss, and not miss, about this series lol
Yeah, just ran this WITH the modified white dragon (adolescent) and my players killed it in its sleep. They did a combined 167 HP before the dragon got a chance to beg for mercy.
you could've play the music 'antarctic reinforcement' as boss music for the final boss fight. since everyone went supernova on the dragon, you could've bumped up the hp on the dragon to lengthen the fight a bit so that it could've been a bit more fun. and also aren't you gonna play the extensions for dragon of icepire peak. btw here's the link for the song: ruclips.net/video/PtvS4-VqxRA/видео.html
Thank you! I get all my music from the RUclips audio library to avoid copyright issues. And giving it 5 extra HP was already more than I would usually do during these videos! I like to running them by the book so others can see what needs to be changed -- and you certainly spotted the big flaw haha
As for the extensions, I'm going to produce DM guides but not gameplay. There will be some gameplay videos in the future, but probably not as part of a regular series. While these gameplays are fun to produce, they take WAY more time than a normal video, and people seem to like the DM guides much more, so I'm going with what's better for me and the audience as a whole.
I so wanna play now I am in London using your imagination is way more impressive than using computers or games consoles I am exited just listening to them talk!