Level Up (A5E) Adding A5e to other campaigns

[MegaloRob]

Hello everyone -

I am currently DMing the campaign book Odyssey of the Dragonlords.

I am curious if anyone else is running this campaign or another published campaign and how you have incorporated A5e things into it when the campaign writers made the poor choice of not utilizing the A5e system.

My players are all using A5e classes.

I am using the A5e monsters.

When I go to set up an encounter (my friends are in another state so we play through shard) I use the total CR based encounter building advice to reset the encounter.

Also when I set up the encounters I compare what is published to the monstrous menagerie example encounters to help me make the encounter more robust.

Journeys I struggle with a bit. I have not made a big wilderness map and have the players decide how they are going. I've done a bit more railroading. My players do journey activities. I present exploration challenges. They need to be mindful of the supplies they have on hand. The railroad is me saying it takes this much time to get from point A to point B. Tell me the story of your travel through journey activity. So my players are not picking a route on a map.

 

[foxblade]

I am also running Odyssey with A5e. Half of my players are o5e and half made the jump to a5e (a5e came out in the middle of our campaign which is now approaching year 3 and the climax). Works well, even with a blended party and changing it up in the middle of a campaign.

Spoiler: Light spoiler for Odyssey of the Dragonlords traveling

Odyssey is weird with journey activities because it has that "it takes 3 days to get to any island" handwave and you are mostly on a boat with at least 100 other people. It just doesn't quite fit for me. Once you land on an island I have had better luck, but still it kind of feels like fitting a square peg into a round hole.

Spoiler: Epic Paths Spoiler - Sort of

I have replaced the Epic Path boons by giving each player, upon completion of their individual quest, the A5e level 20 capstone for their class. It has been epic. The players feel appropriately like ancient heroes.

 

[MegaloRob]

Yeah everything seems close enough that tracking supply doesn't matter.

I am interested in how you gave them the level 20 class feature when they beat completed their epic story. That is cool.

We are still in the great labors. They completed the first of the 3 in our last session.

 

[lichmaster]

I'd really love to use a5e with odissey od the dragonlords! Any hints/warnings?

 

[foxblade]

Yeah everything seems close enough that tracking supply doesn't matter.

I am interested in how you gave them the level 20 class feature when they beat completed their epic story. That is cool.

We are still in the great labors. They completed the first of the 3 in our last session.

I found the rewards for the epic paths a bit lackluster for the campaign and I don't think I am going to continue after the main plot conclusion (so they will not get to level 20). So in keeping with the theme of epic ancient heroes, the level 20 cap was the reward. Druid is a bit much, but it's still fun (the player and I have an agreement about how True Resurrection works in the game based on the villains of the campaign). I also really, really juiced up the villains, so they will need the power boost. They got the boons at around level 13 and they freaking love it.

 

[MegaloRob]

Lichmaster my biggest tip for doing Odyssey of the dragonlords as A5e is to compare the encounters to the A5e monsters book. The encounters are tough but basic.

It's several guards or several bandits, or steam mephitis. It doesn't present much diversity.

So I've been giving guards and bandits apprentice mages and mastiffs.

For an early steam mephitis encounter I looked in the A5e book for steam mephitis and it recommended a hostile mushroom. I added that into the encounter and it made it better.

Also A5e describes environmental challenges that can be added into an encounter. Those are fun to add as well.

ODL isn't really set up for tolkin long journeys which would open things up really well to the A5e system.

I've been using the journey system more as a chance for my players to tell their character story then a survival aspect.

So in traveling we will have 1 exploration challenge and the players will describe their journey activity in that travel. They have enjoyed it.

 

[Larnievc]

Hello everyone -

I am currently DMing the campaign book Odyssey of the Dragonlords.

I am curious if anyone else is running this campaign or another published campaign and how you have incorporated A5e things into it when the campaign writers made the poor choice of not utilizing the A5e system.

My players are all using A5e classes.

I am using the A5e monsters.

When I go to set up an encounter (my friends are in another state so we play through shard) I use the total CR based encounter building advice to reset the encounter.

Also when I set up the encounters I compare what is published to the monstrous menagerie example encounters to help me make the encounter more robust.

Journeys I struggle with a bit. I have not made a big wilderness map and have the players decide how they are going. I've done a bit more railroading. My players do journey activities. I present exploration challenges. They need to be mindful of the supplies they have on hand. The railroad is me saying it takes this much time to get from point A to point B. Tell me the story of your travel through journey activity. So my players are not picking a route on a map.

I’m tuning COS with A5E rules but the place is so small I’ve not had cause to use the travel rules. But I’m also running TOD and the travel rules work really well there.

Some of the travel jobs seem a bit funky but they’re mostly okay.

 

[toucanbuzz]

I'm running a 5E conversion of the original Dragonlance modules with the following from A5E:

• Character creation rules (modified for DL)
• Spells
• Equipment / Magic items
• Monsters (unless not in the A5E bestiary)

I'm not using a ton of the extra rules (e.g. exploration, travel, maintenance, bases), not because of their design but because of our current table needs. Like any campaign, we don't always need all the rules in the books! Using the above, it's been fairly flawless.

 

[Vin St. John]

I'm using A5E monsters in my Eberron campaign as much as possible.

Re: Epic Paths: I haven't looked at Odyssey of the Dragonlords in a while, so maybe I'm wrong about this - maybe the power scales are way different or something - but isn't the Epic Path Boon in OotD basically the equivalent of A5E's Destiny feature that you get after fulfilling your destiny? They at least seem born from the same idea, even if they're not completely interchangeable.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

I'm using A5E monsters in my Eberron campaign as much as possible.

Re: Epic Paths: I haven't looked at Odyssey of the Dragonlords in a while, so maybe I'm wrong about this - maybe the power scales are way different or something - but isn't the Epic Path Boon in OotD basically the equivalent of A5E's Destiny feature that you get after fulfilling your destiny? They at least seem born from the same idea, even if they're not completely interchangeable.

yeah, not gonna lie, i thought the same thing looking at the player's guide myself.