#stun lock

This is the ongoing adventure in the 5e conversion of classic 3.5 adventure The Red Hand of Doom! Not only does this detail the adventures of my three players but it also give detailed suggestions on how to run a 5e conversion of this campaign (for a group of three characters starting at level eight).

Tools I reference a lot: The 3.5 Red Handbook of Doom, The beastiary Revenge of the Horde, secondary beastiary Tome of Beasts.

Last session ended with Tyrion losing his axe and with it some of his impetuous, rush-into-danger nature, created in part by the axe’s curse. This session begins with the players taking advantage of Tyrion’s newfound patience to stratigize.

“We need to scout out the area,” Traki says. “We need to know what we’re going up against.”

“I’ll go,” Trellara volunteers. “I can move among these fens like the wind and just as invisible.”

This is determined to be a good idea and Trellara leaves the party on her mission. The rest huddle together under an unusual rock formation that makes a sort of natural tent, one of many random smattering of rocks spread out across the lonely, foreboding moor. A storm is settling in and the rain that falls upon the moor is cold and heavy, stinging the skin where it strikes.

Three hours go by. The storm builds in intensity. Over it, the players hear an occasional unsettling roar, most of them high pitched and chirping. Nysyries reminds the others this is the sound made by the creature the Mad Wizard fought. There must be at least one somewhere out there in the lake... or wandering around it, looking for easy, huddling, prey. There is another roar, too, though. This one is loud and angry and booms across the lake by thunder. It is accompanied by the sight of a reed boat fleeing quickly across the lake through the storm, being paddled by four lizardmen.

"There were originally six,” Trellara tells them when she finally returns. “They had a fight without another group of lizardmen, went out to the biggest building in the center of the lake, and then that roar happened (you heard that, right?) and only four emerged... they emerged quickly, too.”

She also tells them the lake is definitely patrolled. Lizardmen walk the shores and live in huts spread out around the lake; glints of steel on top of the half sunken bell tower show that soldiers of some kind patrol there and command a wide view of their surroundings; and then of course there are those roars.

The party recalls that Traki spent a lot of time on an island with lizardmen: Rori Rama. “I don’t think I speak Lizardman,” he says. “I don’t have it on my chart.”

“Heck, let’s say you do,” I offer. “You spent years there. How many, of course, is up for debate, but let me check the blog...”

Going back we see Traki at least had dealings with the Lizardmen for trade, though not much else. So we rule he’ll understand every few words they say, if they can get close enough to hear. He’s interested in seeing if the lizardmen are possibly chafing under the rule of the Red Hand and if they can inspire a revolt. He wants to get close enough to hear them converse and then decide whether to approach them with an offer.

There’s a lot of ways to play this. Does Traki go with Trellara, because they can use their Wood Elf abilities to hide in the rain? Or does Nysyries and Trakki go, because maybe the creatures will be more willing to listen to a Dragonborn? In the end, everyone decides to go, which essentially sacrifices their stealth. Making matters more difficult is a random terrain roll I make, which shows that there is no cover for a thousand feet around the hut they decide to approach. They do manage to catch enough of a conversation between the lizardmen to realize they worship the dragon in the lake as a god. They asked him to interfere in a lizardmen spat and he didn’t take kindly to the request, eating two of their number who “were honored to be selected,” though the others don’t seem eager to gain that honor themselves. They drop a hint that the dragon will go hunting soon, a hint the players either ignore or miss (essentially, if they hang out for another hour or two, the dragon will leave the lake and they can move in much easier). Shortly after this, the lizardmen spot them and a quick battle ensues.

It’s actually a nastier fight than I had suspected it would be. Traki does his usual tactic of running and jump kicking one of the lizardmen. Then three of them pile on him, and get three critical hits, dealing somewhere around 30 or 40 damage in a turn. Ouch. But Tyrion uses his hypnotic pattern to stun them while Nysyries uses the storm to blast one who made it into the lake, electrocuting him as he tries to swim out to warn the belltower of the approach of adventurers. The stunned lizardmen don’t stand a chance against Traki’s counterattack and the pack quickly dies. After this, the party grabs the reed raft the lizardmen have outside their hut and make their way into the lake city. They argue for quite a bit about where to go next, whether to target the bell tower first or to try and sneak into the dragon’s lair. Ultimately, they abandon the raft amidst a cluster of buildings, planning on swimming to the bell tower and there to use Tyrion’s hypnotic pattern to incapacitate the guards and then hopefully take them out before they can sound the alarm.

So the players are in the water, wading towards the belltower, when suddenly there is a gasp from the back of the party and Tyrion is pulled underwater! The black shape that moves behind him is large and scaly.

But before we get to that, a little side note here from me, a little DM advice.

Side Conversation: Hypnotic Pattern and Stun Locking

Hypnotic Pattern is getting used a lot (you’ll see it used again, to brutal effect, later this session) and there is a lot of discussion about the spell online. Some people even think it’s broken. This discussion comes up a lot with a lot of the “stun lock” abilities in DND 5, whether it is Hypnotic Pattern or the Monk’s stunning fist. It’s easy to see where people are coming from. The idea here is that most monsters aren’t immune to stun and charm. So player abilities which cause stun and charm have a decent chance of locking down that enemy. For spells like Hypnotic Pattern, which do this in a relatively large radius, it is easy to see why some DMs start worrying about how to keep the challenge up in their game, when their entire horde of charging Bugbears is suddenly standing around while birds tweet in the background, waiting for players to unleash massive damage attacks on them. There are counter arguments to this, too: Hypnotic Pattern is easily broken by any damage or just a monster being shaken awake. The monk’s stun ability requires precious ki points. Whether these checks and balances do enough to rebalance the abilities is largely up to personal opinion and makes for great discussions on the forums. But does it make for actual fixes?

Let me tell you something I’ve learned about Dungeons and Dragons. While we as DMs can sit all day in forums and prevaricate about how this ability and that spell should be fixed, it is almost never a good idea to “fix” a player ability. This isn’t to say Wizards of the Coast are perfect. There are imbalances in Dungeons and Dragons products for sure and you may have come up with literally the perfect solution, the thing they should have done all along. But the truth of the matter is, you cannot “fix” an ability without it feeling like you are taking away a player’s options and making them weaker.

Now, there are some exceptions. I’ve talked about how I heavily adjusted the “luck” feat. This feat, however, has been the most talked about broken aspect of DND 5 and many tables ban it outright. It is also not tied directly to a player race or class, but rather has to be deliberately chosen. Nor does it have a lot of roleplaying value. In short, the player who picks it picks it because they know it is a little broken and so they will not be so surprised when they hear it is being cut down to size. I’ve also changed the rules time and again for things like swimming, suffocation, character NPCs, and recently I adjusted the rules of flanking away from granting advantage to instead giving a +2 bonus to attack against the flanked target and disadvantage on dex saving throws for the flanked target. These are all rule changes, but again they don’t target a player’s class directly. There are also times where we’ve had to come up with rules for attacks that stem from player abilities but have no rules assigned to them. When a monk runs up a 100 ft wall, then leaps off and tries to land on an enemy, how do you simulate that attack? What’s the extra damage? When a barbarian smashes down a door, then grabs it and uses it like a shield, what does it add to his AC? These are all situational, though, and improvisation on the fly is an established part of Dungeons and Dragons. None of these rules tell a player that they can’t do something, or make changes to any published rules. The class is left intact.

So how do you fix these things? This is where it is helpful to remember something about being a DM: you have literally unlimited tools with which to create your monsters and your scenarios. Are your players using Hypnotic Pattern every single encounter? Then stop grouping your enemies in one big clump. Afraid the Dragon boss will be stun locked? Give it legendary resistance or make it immune to stun and charm (say it has elvish blood in it or was born of an elder god). Or throw in a cleric to protect it with lesser restoration to remove its conditions. Nervous that the players will get in too many turns before your big bad werewolf gets off a hit? Have the werewolf travel with a pack of dire wolves. Or heck, why doesn’t your dragon know magic and try casting the spell itself (after countering it with counter-magic, of course). You literally can build any monster you want to populate your world, any trap, any situation. Your players will not only accept these challenges, they will enjoy the fact that your world is diversified. Don’t make your players slower: make your monsters faster.

Learn from your players and keep the game tactically interesting. This is something every DM has to do differently for every group and every game as the players and the game evolve. The rules can’t account for every situation because DnD is about imagination and thinking outside the box. Don’t try to build an iron box: that takes away the best part of DnD. Instead, keep changing the dimensions and size of that box. Keep the box unfamiliar and challenge your players to find new ways out of it.

Encounter: Regiarix (underwater)

Battle difficulty meant to be: hard (but the dragon will retreat at half health)

Players are supposed to walk away feeling: Panicked, “There’s something in here with us!”

Rebuild: Ever since I read about the idea in another DM’s campaign journal, I’ve been dying to have Regiarix attack the players while they swim around in the sunken city. It just feels so freaky. You are swimming in this cold black lake when suddenly a dragon is attacking from the water?!

As far as stats, I avoid rebuilding Regiarix. My party is pretty strong (see below) so he doesn’t need to be toned down, and Regiarix is supposed to fight alongside Wyrmlord Saarvith, so he doesn’t need to be stated higher than the CR 7 listed for a young dragon. The only change I made was to limit his size a little, because his lair as drawn is really restrictive if he is a 4x4 creature. I make him more of a 2x2 creature, with the backstory that in his fight with Jarmath of Brindol and Immerstel the Red ages ago, Immerstal cast a spell that permanently stunted his growth.

How does it go: Regiarix sneaks up on the party and attacks at random: I roll a d4 (Trella, Tyrion, Traki, Nysyries) and Tyrion is selected. Tyrion takes quite a hit on this first attack, over 40 damage. I do get a critical on one of the rolls that is destined to be (even when his lucky trait forces me to reroll, I still get a critical). It seems an inauspicious way to begin. Traki swims over and starts attacking, getting in some good hits but nothing to write home about. Trellara generally panics and tries to fire arrows at the Dragon, but they miss.

Then Nysyries turns into a Killer Whale.

We actually debate this for a moment and have to look up how big a Killer Whale actually is to determine if it can function in this shallow of water. Turns out they are very long, but really not too “tall.” It makes sense, so it happens. As a side note, because I’ve gotten some questions about Nysyries’ transformations, she is a level 9 Circle of the Moon Druid, giving her access to CR 3 creatures. She grew up in Chult and her background was as a sailor, so that explains most of the creatures she turns into.

Also, I’ll share the advice my party gave me when I questioned the whale: Don’t argue when something is effin’ epic. It’s not a golden rule, but it is good advice because we now have a dragon wrestling with a killer whale. When else am I going to get to write those words? Even my wife looks over when this happens and gets involved: “Killer Whales are totally small enough to fit in that lake,” she says.

I’ve been told.

Regiarix rolled the lowest initiative, so it is stuck going after everyone, meaning it gets a bite from Nysyries for 26 damage before it manages to explode out of the water and get into the air, where it taunts Tyrion and Traki’s attempts to coax it back down (I AM REGIARIX THE MIGHTY! WHY DONT YOU COME UP HERE AND SAY THAT?) and plans its next move, probably a strafing run with its breath attack. He’s still feeling really good. But that doesn’t last long.

Tyrion uses his hypnotic pattern attack. He’s done this before on dragons while they are in the air and I’ve interpreted the Speed 0 on the spell to show that it basically means they stop flying and take fall damage when they hit the ground. Such an action does wake them up, though, and they get to take a turn on their initiative. Regardless, I’m not too worried about it. The Dragon has a Wisdom save and that should be enough to...

... nope, nevermind, I roll an 8. Regiarix falls and I really have to give credit to Nysyries here, because she spent her turn on a reactionary strike meant for when this happens. Another chunk gets taken out of Regiarix and he wakes up and flies off again, now intending to flee the battle next turn and rejoin it later with Saarvith.

And then this happens:

The waters parted with a burbling splash as Traki erupted from them at a frantic speed. His arms and legs were both flailing at the water’s surface and impossibly they were finding purchase, pushing off of the water moment’s before it lost its shape and fell back. He was at the broken wall in moments and then he was moving up that, too, his body nearly horizontal as his feet pounded off of the stone. He moved as his ears told him to, towards the cursing roars that signified where the dragon calling himself Regiarix had escaped to. He reached the top of the stone wall, but Regiarix was higher, having flown a good 60 feet above the wall and preparing to make his escape.

Traki leaped. He pushed himself off the wall like a magic missile, flying unerringly for the dragon. Regiarix took a moment to realize what was happening and the moment was just long enough for Traki to grab hold of his long sinewy neck and pull himself around to mount the dragon. Enraged, Regiarix hisses and screeched and cartwheeled madly in the air. But Traki held on. Regiarix flew higher then, eighty feet higher, and cartwheeled and spun as he went. Yet still Traki held on.

Then Traki drew the dagger of Erythnul and drove it double handed into the base of the dragon’s neck. Then with both hands he punched it, driving it further in. When he pulled the blade back out it was like pulling a sword from stone and a gush of black blood erupted from the wound. Regiarix let out a low moan and then he was falling. 140 feet the two of them fell, Traki holding the body, riding it down, letting it take the majority of the impact as the two of them crashed into ruins of stone below.

Hoooooly shit. Behind the scenes what happens here is that Traki uses his monk’s movement abilities (running on surfaces and doubling his jumping distance) to try a risky mid-air grapple. He succeeds on two separate opposed rolls: one to grab onto Regiarix, who first tries to dodge the grapple, and then one to hold on to him, which Regiarix completely messes up his strength contest. From there it is not difficult with flurry of blows to deal enough damage to drop the dragon.

Final Thoughts: So... do I recommend this? It’s difficult to say. The moment that comes out of it is absolutely epic and one of the more impressive battles the players have fought. They just do it perfectly, with one epic maneuver after the other, from wall running to whale shapeshifting, and playing their classes to perfection. Tonite we created something truly memorable with this fight, even the opening where Tyrion gets dragged underwater.

That said, this encounter did not go the way it was intended. Regiarix is meant o fight with Saarvith astride him, firing arrows as they fly, using this powers to heal his mount and buff him. This is a cool dynamic that we will not get to try out now and I’m a little sad about that. The intent here was to get a taste of the dragon before a larger encounter later, to provide a quick scare and cool moment on the way to a bigger fight. But it is just too dangerous in DND 5E to throw a single monster at a high level party unless it is quite a bit higher in level than they are, or it has legendary actions. It relies too much on me making good rolls. The fact that I mess up four important rolls shows this--initiative, which would have let the Dragon escape before taking damage; an easy Wisdom save, which would have prevented the stun maneuver; and two contested rolls against Traki on which the Dragon had big bonuses, either one of which would have knocked Traki off and kept the Dragon alive. Again, I’m not complaining. The fact that the party was fortunate enough to gain these opportunities and tactically smart enough to take advantage of it is very much a positive thing and shows how good our game is going and how into it the players are. Also, it shows that they are truly ready for higher level challenges, which opens up a lot of the Monster Manual to us and some very interesting monster pairings.

That said, unless your party is lower level or you want to push the Dragon as a separate encounter, I cannot recommend using the dragon in the water. It’s a cool idea, but it just carries too much risk of the Dragon being killed here.