The most consistent way I adjusted this module during our run of the campaign was tweaking and modifying the various statblocks present therein, especially once the 2024 rules released and I allowed many of my players to rebuild their characters with the new rules. Since 2014, there’s been a non-negligible amount of “power creep” in the game’s rules. Many subclasses that were printed in sources added later into 5e’s lifespan had more built-in power than those found in the old PHB. Then, with the 2024 ‘Handbook, many classes got major buffs to their throughput; spells changed, and many other features were edited in various ways.
In this new set of core rulebooks, the Monster Manual was the last book to released. With the PCs feeling more powerful than ever, it was going to take some work to make appropriately challenging encounters from those written before 5th edition had even been published. Luckily, I have more than a decade of experience running this game (hell, this edition), so I knew a few healthy ways to rewrite these statblocks.
Early Game Examples
When my table played the earlier sections of the module, the 2024 books were still forthcoming. As such, we didn’t have the same number of major changes in those first dozen or so sessions, but there were still monsters I wanted to adjust.
Ambush Drakes and Ambush Drakes (B)
In the statblock provided by the module, an Ambush Drake has Pack Tactics and Surprise Attack. The latter grants the ambush drake an additional 2d6 damage if it hits a Surprised target in the first round of combat. This, added to its usual bite damage of 1d6+1 would average out to 11. Most PCs at level 1 have somewhere around 9 – 13 hit points. If one were to use the creature’s CR to build an encounter, and use two of these in battle against 4 level 1 PCs, it’s quite likely two of those PCs are unconscious before getting a turn, especially if using the 2014 Surprised condition.
Naturally, I don’t think that’s likely to make a very good encounter. It could be dramatic, sure. You could, if using the scenario I described in my post on how we opened this module, have the Ambush Drakes kill some traveling civilians instead of the heroes. There’s ways to use the statblock as it exists without creating a bad experience for your players, sure.
The thing is, I also wanted to have these Ambush Drakes have the limited ability to do a weak dragon’s breath. So, I made the alternate statblock “Ambush Drake (b)” which kept Pack Tactics but lost Surprise Attack, and instead gained a once-per-day breath weapon determined by the drake’s color that dealt 3d6 damage halved by DC 11 Dexterity saving throw.
The encounter I ran in that first session was 1 Ambush Drake, 2 Ambush Drakes (b), and 1 Guard Drake. A quite difficult encounter, but one for which my players had an ally and not all of the attacks were coming for them; some landed on horses, some on other travelers, etc. If I’d needed to, I could’ve adjusted the difficult a little down once more by choosing to use Ambush Drakes with breath weapons target the damage types my players had resistances to; we had both a Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer with Fire Resistance, and a Fire Genasi character. With no adjustment to the statblocks, this fight could’ve been tweaked even further to reduce its threat.
The Grey Hag
The next homebrew statblock didn’t show up until my party battled the boss of our added homebrew dungeon while in the On the Road chapter. See, the thing about my games is I use hags pretty much every campaign. Maybe it’s confirmation bias, but I think I run them well. My players still talk about Edith Marshcradle, who they battled near the beginning of a campaign that began back in November 2020 (couldn’t appreciate VTTs more for helping us through that year). As we’re getting closer to beginning my next homebrew campaign, one of my players has asked multiple times if there will be more hags in it; hell, I shoehorned one in here, in the module about the Dragon Queen getting summoned up from Avernus.
Point is, I’ve used hags a lot, and I wanted to make a unique encounter for my players here. I took inspiration from the boss battle with Auntie Ethel in Act 1 of Baldur’s Gate 3, and gave this Grey Hag the ability Divide and Conquer. As an action, the hag created 1d2+1 semi-illusory duplicates to aid in overwhelming her foes. Each had 1 hit point and dispersed into mist when defeated, but otherwise shared the Grey Hag’s statistics. Each duplicate acted on its own initiative, but they could only cast cantrips or strike with their claws. They all appeared within 20 feet of the Grey Hag’s original position when created, and as part of the same action, the true hag could appear anywhere within that radius herself. I, additionally, gave the Grey Hag a bonus action she could use to swap places with one of her existing duplicates, to ensure she could escape her foes without needing to spend her action to create more of them or losing her ability to cast a leveled spell and strike with her own claws.
This fight proved fun, and a bit uniquely challenging for my party at the time as they were not yet 5th level and no one had access to Magic Missile which would’ve changed the tenor of this battle dramatically (just as it can in the fight with Auntie Ethel, come to think of it).
Mid Game Threats
As they tipped over into the second tier of play, I knew I could create even more challenging monsters for them to battle. The first monster they battled here that I had a unique spin on was the lizardfolk in Castle Naerytar I named Blessed Ulithara. This ultimately wasn’t too in-depth of an adjustment; I merely allowed her to select spells from both the Sorcerer and Cleric spell lists as a result of her dragon blessing. Instead, I wanted to highlight the adjustments made to a couple recurring cultist villain: Rath Modar.
Rath Modar’s Simulacrum (Skyreach)
In creating the simulacrum for their encounter in Skyreach castle, I kept in line with the Simulacrum spell rules, and determined a number of spell slots the construct had used in conquering Skyreach Castle that he simply wouldn’t have. This allowed me to limit the ability of a spell caster I really wanted to buff up for the final battle of the campaign, while also giving a good challenge to my party when they faced him. As such, despite buffing Rath Modar up to a 16th-level caster (more on that later), this simulacrum of the red wizard had nothing higher than 1 6th-level spell slot, had only 1 4th-level spell slot remaining, and had spent a 1st- and 3rd-level spell slot prior as well.
When the encounter began, I spent that 6th-level slot on Summon Fiend, but instead of using the spell as written, I just used it to explain the presence of 4 Hellhounds included in the encounter. I, additionally, made Rath Modar (prime) an Evocation wizard instead of an Illusionist, and I allowed the simulacrum to Overchannel once per day as well. The intent there was to show my players what kind of wizard Rath would be when they faced him, to ensure they got information from battling his simulacrum, just as Rath was getting by observing it.
Oh, I also only gave the simulacrum a homebrew item, the Amulet of Shared Sight (mentioned previously!) instead of Rath Modar’s usual equipment.
While on this leg of their adventure, my party was also accompanied by Talis the White (B1), whose statblock I had to rebuild since I wanted her to be a wizard as well, instead of a cleric. It wasn’t much more than an adjusted spell selection, though, so no header for her.
There was, however, one other encounter I adjusted in Skyreach Castle: Rezmir.
The Juvenile Dragons
As I reached this part of this post, I realized I brushed right past revisiting the Cultist Camp and investigating the Dragon Hatchery earlier in this series! It certainly makes sense I did; I ran the dungeon mostly as written. The exceptions were that I pulled Frida Maleer and Cyanwrath out of the dungeon to ensure they were saved for later, and I had the party encounter a Black Dragon Wyrmling in the hatchery room, along with two previously hatched eggs.
Along with some documents and Frida’s underling, the hints here were that the cult was trying to accelerate the growth of dragons to have more resources at their disposal in amassing the wealth they needed to summon Tiamat. My party didn’t quite fit the puzzle together (and I wanted this to be more of a lingering thread, anyway), which allowed the presence of two dragons beside Rezmir in Skyreach Castle to be quite the surprise!
Now, I didn’t want to drop even two young dragons into this encounter. My party was only around level 7, if my memory serves. That would’ve probably killed them. However, a pair of wyrmlings with Rezmir would’ve been a bit too easy for my table as a boss encounter. So, we made a statblock right in the middle: juveniles.
We’ll use the blue one I made for the example here. Instead of a wyrmling’s 6d6 breath attack or young dragon’s 10d10 breath attack, we instead had one that dealt 6d10. Dice pool equal to the wyrmling, dice value equal to the young dragon. Additionally, I kept it at 2 attacks for its Multiattack action, but to-hit bonus was settled at +7 (right in the middle), and the damage values were closer to that of the young dragon’s. The juveniles, having magically aged, were also still primarily running on instinct. Without Rezmir’s commands, they behaved more like beasts. They were only, like, two months old after all.
Climax Enemies
I did adjust many of the foes my party would come to encounter in the climactic battle in the Well of Dragons as well (see above allusions to the evocative* Rath Modar), however, most of the changes there tied quite directly into the way I designed that final encounter. So, between that and this post being plenty long already, we’ll save that information for when I write about that finale. (*Yes, I know it’s a bad pun.)
As always, thank you for reading. Good luck out there, heroes!
Ben Stovall Blog 
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