I'm about to rerun this game, but just as a forewarning to DMs, the reason the council meets in Waterdeep (and it is never mentioned in this book, not until Dragon Heist) is because of the Dragonward of Anghairon. Only dragons touch by the Dragonstaff can enter the city, thus a dragon attack at home base is unlikely.... BUT it makes for an excellent mission to retrieve said staff if say the cult stole it to enable attacks on the city..... Love the series, it definitely is helping the prep.
Love watching your videos before running the campaign, excellent job, and yes, the Tyranny of Dragons really needs a lot of extra to make it work well and your videos help piece it all together, thank you!
I just ran this a few weeks ago and I found the suggestions especially about the random encounters to be really helpful. Also, unrelated, but one thing people don't realize about the Tomb is that the Lizardfolk there don't have darkvision and they don't have torches (as written). So, as written, they can't actually see (since the dungeon is described as being in darkness except where it is specifically stated not to be).
I'm still on chapter 2 of HOTDQ but trust me I will make my way here and make good use of your tips. Love your videos, they are extemely helpful for running these
Started watching your videos from the beginning for this module, and have already taken away many useful notes and ideas. I just wanted to thank you as others have, these videos are quite useful. I would like to see a video on the use of the devils (maybe it's here and I haven't stumbled across it yet).
Yes, please add a video about devils! They actually play a big part in my campaign as one of my players is a tiefling whose family history is heavily intertwined with devils in the Nine Hells.
Two things the adventure could have made use of are Abishai and the Githyanki. The Abishai are devils who are the allies of Tiamat. Obviously, their statblock for 5E was introduced in Mordenkainen's. But it was kind of a disservice for WotC not to include them. Likewise, the Githyanki are allies of Tiamat. They aren't devils but it kind of feels like the adventure glossed over some pretty huge allies that Tiamat could draw on to try to get the ritual to happen.
Since I had two player monks, I had the Black Monestary who were being blackmailed by the cult of the dragon show up at the bridge. We had a martial arts showdown on the bridge. I should find someway to find some Bane or Cyric theme to make the bridge battle a foreshadow.
@@LutesDice Oh I see, I liked your idea, maybe I'm going to use it in Baldurs Gate, it's the city my players like most anyways. I ran Muder in Baldurs Gate before HotDQ
The Dragonward protects the parts of Waterdeep that existed back in Ahghairon's day - he died in 1256 DR (and might have cast the warding maybe 100 years or more earlier). There's been nearly 240 years of construction since his death. In those new areas the effect is much weaker, if present at all. With the damage caused by the Walking Statues in 1385 DR there was a lot of destruction in the old city - perhaps the Waterdhavians extended substantially outside of the area of the Dragonward?
I have the SKT book, but I haven't run it yet. From what I hear though, SKT should be way better than the Tyranny of Dragons at least in terms of game design. ToD is a mess that the DM has to spend a bunch of time to solve. Of course it would be much easier with my video guides! So it's not the end of the world. I have to mention that SKT is also a little bit of a sourcebook for various locations of the North of the Sword Coast. I used it a couple of times just to get some ideas about different towns and so on. That being said if you're a sucker for dragons, and willing to put some extra effort, I mean.. fighting Tiamat is pretty cool! I guess it's a matter of taste in a way. Anyway, I hope I helped somehow with this rant!
I'm about to rerun this game, but just as a forewarning to DMs, the reason the council meets in Waterdeep (and it is never mentioned in this book, not until Dragon Heist) is because of the Dragonward of Anghairon. Only dragons touch by the Dragonstaff can enter the city, thus a dragon attack at home base is unlikely.... BUT it makes for an excellent mission to retrieve said staff if say the cult stole it to enable attacks on the city.....
Love the series, it definitely is helping the prep.
Love watching your videos before running the campaign, excellent job, and yes, the Tyranny of Dragons really needs a lot of extra to make it work well and your videos help piece it all together, thank you!
I just ran this a few weeks ago and I found the suggestions especially about the random encounters to be really helpful.
Also, unrelated, but one thing people don't realize about the Tomb is that the Lizardfolk there don't have darkvision and they don't have torches (as written). So, as written, they can't actually see (since the dungeon is described as being in darkness except where it is specifically stated not to be).
That's a nice observation!
I'd like to see what you have for the devils. I can't imagine running this Tiamat-themed campaign without having an abishai or two.
Totally agree. I used them in my game.
@@LutesDice Please do a video on the devils if you haven't already
Yes! More Tyranny of the dragons!!
I'm still on chapter 2 of HOTDQ but trust me I will make my way here and make good use of your tips. Love your videos, they are extemely helpful for running these
Ace. Need more of ToD content! Your videos are super useful and make me want to run the campaign as soon as we finish OotA.
Started watching your videos from the beginning for this module, and have already taken away many useful notes and ideas. I just wanted to thank you as others have, these videos are quite useful. I would like to see a video on the use of the devils (maybe it's here and I haven't stumbled across it yet).
Yes, please add a video about devils! They actually play a big part in my campaign as one of my players is a tiefling whose family history is heavily intertwined with devils in the Nine Hells.
Two things the adventure could have made use of are Abishai and the Githyanki. The Abishai are devils who are the allies of Tiamat. Obviously, their statblock for 5E was introduced in Mordenkainen's. But it was kind of a disservice for WotC not to include them.
Likewise, the Githyanki are allies of Tiamat. They aren't devils but it kind of feels like the adventure glossed over some pretty huge allies that Tiamat could draw on to try to get the ritual to happen.
Very nice to see ROT content here too. Im about to finish HOTDQ and you're helpint a lot!
Having the wyrmspeaker burst into flames reminds Me of the Priors from Stargate.
Very nice. Thanks for your time and effort.
Excellent work as always!
Thank you!
Since I had two player monks, I had the Black Monestary who were being blackmailed by the cult of the dragon show up at the bridge. We had a martial arts showdown on the bridge. I should find someway to find some Bane or Cyric theme to make the bridge battle a foreshadow.
If you let the players have the white mask, what was varram looking for in the divination pool? Just looking for ideas
Love the prequels quest idea
Dragon Heist states that no Dragon can entrer waterdeep because of a spell called Aghairon's dragonward.
Have you considered this info or ignored it?
Yeah, I ran this game before Dragon Heist released. And I don't remember seeing this info in the City of Splendors boxed set. Maybe I just missed it 😃
@@LutesDice Oh I see, I liked your idea, maybe I'm going to use it in Baldurs Gate, it's the city my players like most anyways. I ran Muder in Baldurs Gate before HotDQ
@@coolsiderpg5854 oh yes, Baldur's Gate is a very cool place. Ran my homebrew campaign there.
The Dragonward protects the parts of Waterdeep that existed back in Ahghairon's day - he died in 1256 DR (and might have cast the warding maybe 100 years or more earlier). There's been nearly 240 years of construction since his death. In those new areas the effect is much weaker, if present at all. With the damage caused by the Walking Statues in 1385 DR there was a lot of destruction in the old city - perhaps the Waterdhavians extended substantially outside of the area of the Dragonward?
Such great videos
I have enjoyed your series.
Thanks, Fred!
Would u recommend buying the hoard of the dragon queen, and rise of taimat?
Or should I just get storm kings thunder?
I have the SKT book, but I haven't run it yet. From what I hear though, SKT should be way better than the Tyranny of Dragons at least in terms of game design. ToD is a mess that the DM has to spend a bunch of time to solve. Of course it would be much easier with my video guides! So it's not the end of the world. I have to mention that SKT is also a little bit of a sourcebook for various locations of the North of the Sword Coast. I used it a couple of times just to get some ideas about different towns and so on.
That being said if you're a sucker for dragons, and willing to put some extra effort, I mean.. fighting Tiamat is pretty cool! I guess it's a matter of taste in a way. Anyway, I hope I helped somehow with this rant!
@@LutesDice thanks m8
I think I’m going to choose SKT
Make video about MTG + D&D
What exactly do you mean by that? XD
@@LutesDice I mean about this dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/guildmasters-guide-ravnica