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DDEX1-10 Tyranny in Phlan (5e) $2.99
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
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by Jonathan F. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 04/05/2017 17:06:06

I played through this module. Party: Bear Barbarian 9, Lore Bard 8, Devotion Paladin 8. I own this module (bought the bundle), but I haven't read through it carefully yet)

Ratings: -- Target Level: 6th level (really?). -- Story: 4/5. -- Pacing: 3/5. -- Combat Fun: 5/5. -- Combat Difficulty: 7/5. (Really? Targetted at level 6?)

Disclaimer: We were moving slowly because we only had 3 PCs, so we didn't get everywhere.

Exploration:

Combat Fun: The combats were dynamic, we had

Combat Difficulty: AL needs to recalibrate how to figures party strength. 3 PCs is definitely 2 steps weaker than 5 PCs. I would probably say this felt more like it was targeted at level 7 or 8. Part 4 is like a CR 13 encounter (10300 xp) and a deadly encounter for 5 6th level PCs is 7000 xp. Part 5 is like a CR 16 encounter (15000 xp). This was a season 1 module, so I suspect the author might not have known that larger groups of monsters get multipliers on how much xp they contribute to the encounter (25300 xp divided 5 ways is over 5000 xp, and cap for the module is 4000 xp).

Roleplaying Opportunities: Laughing Goblin had some, Broken Crown... There was some [non D&D combat] combat strategizing.

Overall: I am liking the Season 1 stuff a lot, so I will probably run this module in the future (but I may have to step down some of these encounters because the XP allotments are just way too high for what cap XP is).

Spoilers follow.

In depth:

Adventure Hooks (Part 1):

  1. I am not really a fan of knights (on the up-and-up) needing outsiders to do an independent investigation for corruption and why a prisoner's sentencing is taking forever. It is one thing to ask us to act as an escort (because the knight doesn't know who to trust), but asking outsiders with no authority to try to traipse through presumably secured areas is weird.

  2. Pretty much immediately after this Maimed Virulance shows up and starts trashing the castle and her minions start capturing prisoners and taking them to the place the knight wanted us to investigate. Why did we need the first hook again?

  3. The Lord Regent happened to be out of the castle at the prison/gate hook 1 mentioned.

  4. Later our harper friends get a kill order on the prisoner from the first hook.

Hooks 2 and 3 give enough reason to go to the gate/prison. And exposition between the PCs and the knight after the attack could have raised questions of infiltration and suspicion of spies.

Part 2: Rough exploration. Felt kind of pointless.

Part 3: Skipped if you have a special mission.

Part 4: Wow. Seriously, 3 PC tables without charm immunity are liable to get wrecked here because of one bad saving throw.

Part 5: Also wow. Our DM noticed the wizard has greater invisibility and so was just blasting us from stealth. Long fight with our tanky guys dragging it out.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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DDEX1-10 Tyranny in Phlan (5e)
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