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by Mike on 22 January 2019
- Tomb of Annihilation Sources Tomb of Annihilation Dare to defy death in this adventure supplementfor the world's greatest roleplaying game. View Cover Art Dramatis Personae Contents Introd.
- That’s all I’m going to say about Chapter 4, and now we’ll get into the long-awaited Tomb of Annihilation. Chapter 5: The Tomb I don’t have the time or the space in this article to go through the entire tomb room by room, nor would it be super helpful even if I could and did.
Warning, this article contains spoilers for Tomb of Annihilation.
Tomb of Annihilation. Tomb of Annihilation can also be combined with the other D&D Adventure System Cooperative Play Board Games, including the terrifying Temple of Elemental Evil, The. Tomb of Annihilation gives us one of the most powerful and iconic villains in the history of Dungeons & Dragons: the archlich Acererak. This centuries-old, planeswalking master wizard was once a cambion (half-fiend) from the world of Greyhawk (Oerth), the son of an Orcus-worshipping balor and for a time the apprentice of the infamous Vecna.
This article is one in a series of artices I wrote for running the D&D hardcover adventure Tomb of Annihilation. You can find links to all of the articles below:
Tomb of Annihilation is a fantastic D&D adventure. It's an adventure of high fantasy in an interesting environment (the jungles of Chult). It has awesome locations to explore, cool NPCs to meet, a powerhouse villain, and the deadliest dungeon published in the fifth edition hardback D&D adventures to date.
Tomb of Annihilation isn't without its problems. For the most part, these problems are manageable. Let's take a moment to review two of these problems.
First, as written, the death curse (the main driver of the adventure) has too much urgency tied to it. If this urgency isn't tweaked by the DM, the best course of action the characters can take is to run as fast as they can to the Tomb of the Nine Gods to stop the curse from quickly killing off oodles of rich and powerful people all over Faerun (hmmm). Luckily, this problem is easy to deal with. We discussed a few options for managing the death curse in the Urgency of the Death Curse by using it as an urgency dial instead of a fixed countdown timer. Simply forgo the hit point loss-per-day and describe the progression of the curse in a way that better fits the pacing of the game you want at the moment. If you want the characters to feel free to explore Chult, mention that the curse is little more than a concern at the moment. A rash, really. If you want them to laser in on Omu and the tomb beneath, explain how the powerful curse has escalated.
The second problem comes with the many NPCs that can join the characters throughout the adventure. In most cases, these NPCs are just fine but in a few they can either overshadow the characters with their raw power (I'm looking at you Artus Cimber and Dragonbait) or they can end up steering the characters too far away and waste a lot of valuable time on errands that have nothing to do with the plot. We've discussed this problem in the article Handling Tag-Along NPCs. The best solution here is to be careful when introducing these NPCs, ensuring you have an exit plan for them, or skip them all together.
Both of those problems are easily managed. There is a third problem, however, and one not so easily fixed. When the characters actually enter the Tomb of the Nine Gods, the whole atmosphere of the adventure changes. Instead of being a character-driven narrative story of exploration and intrigue, this adventure becomes a puzzle and deathtrap killfest. That's the problem we're going to talk about today.
The Atmospheric Shift of the Tomb of the Nine Gods
It surprises no one that this adventure's dungeon is actually deadly. We all knew it. It says so right in the beginning and if our players are paying attention at all, they'll know it's deadly too. But we say that a lot when it comes to challenges the characters face and most of the time they can pull out of the danger and survive anyway. If you're a soft DM like me, you can probably count on one hand the number of times characters have died in your D&D games. If you're harsher, actually killing characters often, and your players don't mind, maybe this isn't a problem for you.
For some of us though this shift is a big problem. Here at Sly Flourish we take a 'character first' approach to our D&D games. It's the first step in the preparation checklist in Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. We follow the guidelines of Dungeon World and become fans of the characters. These characters have histories. They have arcs. We love them and we love watching them go on adventures. We don't love it when they get in a black box, a friend hits a button, and they're turned into dust. Literally. Well, I didn't love it.
Death sometimes comes to characters in our character-driven games but often it's part of their character's arc. In this dungeon, though, their arcs can come crashing down with no warning at all. Again, maybe you're cool with this. Maybe so are your players. If that's the case, you need not change a thing.
For many of us, though, it's a big change in the style of the game and one we need to manage.
Telling Them Isn't Enough
We might think that telling the players how deadly the dungeon is will be enough. We think they'll be ready for their characters to die. Sometimes this is the case. Sometimes they're even upset when they don't die. Often, however, the warning isn't enough. Hearing that a dungeon is deadly and actually watching your ninth level character get disintegrated are two very different things. Seeing a character actually die will feel very different to the player. Players might even say how much they love hard D&D adventures and love the threat of death—until it actually happens. At that point none of us know what to do.
When I ran Tomb of Annihilation and my groups got to the Tomb of the Nine Gods, I had everyone roll up secondary characters whose backgrounds had brought them to the tomb over the past century. Making them former members of the Knights of the Yellow Banner gave them a connection to other dead Banner members throughout the adventure.
Still, this wasn't enough. Even having secondary characters doesn't mean that shock and hurt will come when a beloved character gets cut in half by a giant grinning stone skull door.
Many players just aren't prepared for a character's death. I know I'm not.
Solution 1: Send in the B-Team
One way to potentially fix this problem in the adventure is to send in two separate teams of characters. The first characters aren't given the job to stop the death curse, their job is to open the Tomb of the Nine Gods. When the tomb is open, it's up to another group of dungeon delvers to go inside. The nearby wreck of the Star Goddess could be one way that a bunch of dungeon delvers have come to the tomb. The Red Wizards might also have their own group of dungeon delvers ready to go into the tomb. Even Ras Nsi might send his own Yuan-ti Pureblood characters in there as part of a team intending to stop the death curse.
These new dungeon delvers are the expendables. Our players know they might not last and that's ok. They've only had them since the beginning of the Tomb of the Nine Gods. If the die, they die.
Still, it can be hard to put aside characters the players love. Opening the tomb doesn't feel like the end of the adventure. They want to stay with their main character and send them into the tomb. From a story perspective, why should the characters who traveled all this way send some other poor saps into the death trap? If they're heroic at all, sacrifice is part of that heroism. That won't matter to the player when their character is crushed under a big door but it makes sense and it would be disappointing to do it any other way. Thus, switching to new characters at the tomb's door isn't a perfect solution.
Solution 2: Build the B-Team Switch In Early
One way to ensure your players don't get stuck on the decision to send in their main characters or switch to an alt is to wire in that choice from the beginning. Instead of giving the characters the quest to seek the source of the death curse and end it. The quest can be to seek the Tomb of Annihilation and open it. Those who send the characters into the jungle will know that the heroes who find the tomb aren't the same ones who will enter the tomb. Those who enter the tomb are better suited for tomb-delving, not jungle explorations. The main characters can become patrons of these tomb-delvers instead of the tomb delvers themselves.
If this switch is wired in from the beginning, players will feel less like they're abandoning their characters halfway through an adventure and understand that a character switch is built into the story. They'll know their other characters will be stepping out of the spotlight.
This too is not an ideal solution but it might be the best way to make the transition from a deep character-driven exploration adventure to a deathtrap dungeon.
Solution 3: Shaving Off the Sharp Edges
Here's a solution many DMs will hate: shave off the rough edges. Much of what makes the Tomb of the Nine Gods deadly are the situations where characters who drop to zero hit points are outright killed instead of simply rolling death saves and requiring a heal.
We can likely shave off the rough edges in a few different parts of the tomb to keep the characters alive, at least a little bit more alive, than they might be otherwise. We can still run a dangerous adventure where the players must make hard choices to stay alive without the direct threat of the one-button deaths that can be found in a lot of these chambers. The four elemental chambers are known to be quite deadly but they can be a little less so if we make it easier for players to navigate the puzzels as the characters flounder about.
Some of the more deadly rooms and traps to watch include:
- The onyx chest in Wongo's Tomb (room 16). Consider removing the instant death from the onyx chest.
- The elemental cells before Shagambi's Tomb (rooms 47A-D). Give plenty of clues about how to navigate the cells.
- Belchorzh the beholder (room 44). Play him sub-optimally. He's more interested in tormenting the characters than killing them. Get rid of the instant-deaths on his finger-of-death ray and his disintegrate ray. He wants to have fun, not turn them to ash. Maybe have those spells inflict permanent injuries instead of outright deaths.
- The gargoyle guardians (room 45). Give the characters a chance to flee from the room or lower the gargoyle's hit points. Like the beholder, play them sub-optimally.
- Any of the 'if this damage reduces a character to 0 hit points, they die' effects. Ignore that line or add a permanent injury instead.
- The devil onslaught in the Hall of the Golden Mastodon (room 67). Put in fewer devils, lower their hit points, or play them sub-optimally. Embrace it when the characters cast save-or-suck spells on them. The deal the Erinyes offers doesn't have to kill a character outright. Instead, they could sign a contract for their soul when they die, after the threat of the tomb is defeated.
Frankly, this is my recommended method. People just don't like to see their characters instantly killed in my games. Maybe some do, but I haven't seen them.
Solution 4: Run As Intended and Come What May
Finally, you can ignore all of this and run the adventure as it is. I've seen a lot of discussions from DMs who have run the Tomb of the Nine Gods and described the dramatic shift in lethality. They talked a lot about how it hurt peoples' enjoyment of the game. That was the case in the two groups I ran it for as well.
Tomb of Annihilation is close to the best D&D hardback adventure Wizards has released. This tonal shift from fantasy exploration to deathtrap hurts it. Otherwise, this is a nearly perfect adventure. The exploration is awesome. The setting is fantastic. The story is solid. The tomb, setting aside its lethality, is incredibly well designed. This adventure hits the exact level of focus I love in published adventures. I can deal with the warts regarding the urgency of the death curse and the issues bringing in problematic NPCs but the deadly shift of the adventure can kill a lot of fun after months of play if we're not careful. That's a hard problem to get past. Hopefully this article has given you some ideas how to deal with this shift so you and your players can get the most out of this otherwise fantastic adventure.
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Tomb of Annihilation gives us one of the most powerful and iconic villains in the history of Dungeons & Dragons: the archlich Acererak. This centuries-old, planeswalking master wizard was once a cambion (half-fiend) from the world of Greyhawk (Oerth), the son of an Orcus-worshipping balor and for a time the apprentice of the infamous Vecna (before the latter ascended to godhood). Acererak’s real claim to fame, however, is his penchant for constructing elaborate death traps to harvest the souls of powerful adventurers. It is this legacy that endures in the eponymous dungeon of Tomb of Annihilation.
This article is part 1 of the Tomb of Annihilation series. You can read part 2 here.
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Since his first appearance in the original Tomb of Horrors (1978), Acererak (ah-SAIR-ak) has taken many forms, including that of a lich, demilich, and a vestige (a kind of super-ghost invented to give a purpose to the Binder class in Third Edition). In the Fifth Edition Monster Manual, Acererak was mentioned in the context of the demilich entry, possibly indicating that he was originally intended to take that form again. However, demiliches are no longer the advanced form of a lich as they were in the past, and so Chris Perkins et. al. at Wizards of the Coast opted to restore him to full lichdom in Tomb of Annihilation. Not only that, they gave him an advanced stat line that put him on the same level as some demon lords. Seriously, he’s nuts.
Most remarkable about Acererak’s Fifth Edition stats are his spellcasting abilities, which are well beyond even the mightiest mortal archmage. Able to cast 1st- through 3rd-level spells at will—including outside his turn as legendary actions!—as well as having more spell slots of higher levels (two 9th-level spell slots!), he is in a completely different league than any PC could become. Reading through his abilities, it is impossible to not have visions of arcing bolts of lightning and roaring eruptions of flame. Dropping three fireballs just as legendary actions?
Except… no, that can’t be right. He doesn’t even have fireball prepared? What?
Closely perusing Acererak’s spell list has led many people to scratch their head in wonder at the way his stat block was designed. How does he expect to prevail against interloping adventurers without fireball? How can he have not availed himself of the opportunity to throw one of the best spells in the game around four times in a single round? He’s got 27 Intelligence, this is a no-brainer!
Worst spell list ever.
Now, many have argued that Acererak isn’t expecting to have to rush to the tomb that day in order to smite some upstart adventurers, and therefore that he’s not necessarily going to be packing enough magic to annihilate a small army. And those people would be right… if his current loadout didn’t include high-level damage spells like disintegrate and circle of death. He frequently travels the planes exploring dangerous locales, has enemies across the multiverse, and regularly deals with dangerous situations. He is always going to be ready for a fight.
In actuality, there is a more (and also less) logical reason for him to eschew the most damaging spells that he can spam: so that he doesn’t wipe the entire party within a few rounds. Adding three fireballs to the average damage of each turn raises Acererak’s per-round average damage considerably. We say that this is more and also less logical because there is already zero chance that the PCs should be able to defeat him; they should have depleted most of their resources crawling through six levels of Faerûn’s deadliest dungeon and then fighting a coven of night hags as well as an aborted godling. By this point, Acererak could show up with nothing more than a pointed stick and be able to destroy the 10th-level (max!) party.
In other words, sparing the players fireballs as Acererak’s legendary actions in hopes that it makes the encounter at all survivable is an exercise in futility. No 2nd-tier party should prevail against Acererak the Devourer. In fact, we would go so far as to say that you’re doing your players a disservice if you don’t wipe the floor with them in this fight. You wouldn’t make Demogorgon a pushover, would you? A 10th-level party that fights Orcus or Dispater is going to be soundly trounced, and that’s precisely what the party should be expecting from this fight.
Of course, those who argue that Acererak, while he should be ready for deadly situations, shouldn’t be outfitted ready to singlehandedly wipe out a small army have a very good point. But it is a point that raises issue with his basic spell list, too. For someone supposedly not prepared for war, there is a notable lack of utility in Acererak’s spell list. It’s as though he was halfway through swapping out his spells from a day he expected combat to a day he thought he’d just bum around opening magically locked doors and then just… got bored and stopped. It really doesn’t make sense.
So what should he have prepared? To figure that out, let’s look into a day in the (un)life of one of the most powerful wizards in the multiverse.
Acererak’s Day
What does a mighty archwizard who has need of neither air nor food nor sleep do in a typical day? Aside from overseeing the construction of deadly tombs on far-flung worlds, Acererak primarily “wanders the cosmos in search of souls to harvest” (TOA 94). In his odyssey across the planes, he comes into conflict with powerful spirits (such as the Nine Trickster Gods of Omu) and rivals in his search to plumb the secrets of creation. His adventures, then, are fraught with peril, and even though he will always reform when destroyed (so long as his phylactery survives), he is sure to resent delays in his adventuring and so would ensure that he possesses the means to defeat his foes.
What about Acererak’s style? As a necromancer, he probably doesn’t put too much stock in the illusion school, so while phantasmal killer would certainly be fitting for an evil wizard who enjoys terrorizing his foes (or underlings), it probably doesn’t belong on Acererak’s list. Likewise, he is too economical to run a high-level spell like maze, which does what a low-level spell (banishment) does better. A creature that Acererak doesn’t have time to deal with but also doesn’t want to destroy (perhaps because he wants to interrogate it later) is better banished indefinitely for later recovery using the demiplane spell. The only illusion spell he’d take would probably by greater invisibility, as it allows him to cast spells without fear of being counterspelled (since he cannot be seen and therefore cannot be targeted).
When you take into account Acererak’s particular brand of villainy and consider his daily activities, you can draw a few conclusions. He would have to have spells that can move him from place to place, damaging spells that can deal with various types of foes, spells to protect himself against those damage types to which he is not already immune, and spells to help him to defeat ancient magical protections. Let’s take a look at what this would look like:
Now this is a spell list you could expect from someone who means business. He has a spammable spell that grants disadvantage to someone trying to attack him (ray of sickness). He also has spells which deal lightning, cold, and fire damage, a well-rounded arsenal able to overcome most any foe. He can fly wherever he wants at will, allowing him superior manoeuvrability, and if he really needs an escape he can teleport 30 feet away as a bonus action with misty step. He can singlehandedly wipe all but high-level parties with a single use of chain lightning followed with some legendary action fireballs, but if he really gets angry he can cast time stop followed by delayed blast fireball, dealing 13d6 damage to any creatures caught inside the conflagration. He can also dispel a pesky persistent effect like Bigby’s hand if he missed negating it with counterspell. And don’t forget that greater invisibility allows Acererak to cast spells without fear of being countered by someone who doesn’t have truesight, as counterspell requires that you are able to see the target. Pair that with shield and you have a lich who a fighter with Strength 20 and a +1 weapon can only hit one third of the time on average.
Yet, as equipped as he is for battle, Acererak also has the right utility spells for adventuring. .Comprehend languages, detect magic, knock, speak with dead, and telekinesis are all the kind of spells that an adventuring wizard would rely on to explore long-lost locales or ancient libraries, and some spells like disintegrate have out-of-combat applications if Acererak runs out of less drastic options. He also packs utility cantrips (of which this list gives him the full five that a 20th-level wizard is entitled to), including light if he needs to look at something in colour (darkvision is greyscale) and mending. If you really want to load Acererak up with more battle spells, comprehend languages and detect magic are both rituals and could be swapped out for something that hits harder; we felt it was appropriate that he would spare the extra 10-minute casting time and use one of his unlimited 1st-level spell slots to cast them as needed.
Finally, he also has the most important spell in a wizard’s arsenal: wish. Because if anyone in the multiverse should have this prepared, it’s Acererak.
Remaining Spell Slots
Now that we’ve figured out what spells Acererak should have prepared, we should guess at how many spell slots he has remaining when he arrives. Let’s assume that he casts mind blank on himself every day, so that takes him down to a single open 8th-level slot. Now, let’s assume that he’s been exploring some ancient ruin on another plane—maybe the ruins of Bakluni on Oerth (Greyhawk) or the Mournland on Eberron. We can expect he generally relies on his at-will utilities like dispel magic and mage hand to do most tasks, but perhaps he had to use telekinesis or a 5th-level banishment at one point. Then he had to plane shift to Toril in order to confront the upstarts wrecking his experiment.
Let’s consider what his spell slots would look like, then:
Cantrips: at will
1st level: at will
2nd level: at will
3rd level: at will
4th level:3 slots
5th level: 2 slots
6th level: 3 slots
7th level: 2 slots
8th level: 1 slot
9th level: 2 slots
New Challenge Rating
Of course, changing out Acererak’s spells also changes his damage potential, which has an impact on his challenge rating. Note that DMs playing Adventurers League can ignore this section; Acererak’s challenge rating will remain unchanged even if you decide he has no spells prepared.
The process of calculating a monster’s challenge rating is laid out in chapter 9, “Dungeon Master’s Workshop”, in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. It involves a long series of calculations based on AC, hit points, damage, and attack bonuses or save DCs (whichever the monster uses more). To spare you the boring steps, here’s how we re-calculate Acererak’s challenge rating:
Defensive CR: 25
Offensive CR: 28
Final CR: 26 (90,000 XP)
Optional Bonus Features
Now, changing out the spells is well and good, but it may not be enough to make sure that Big A gets to shine. You see, he has several significant weaknesses which might still make him too easy for a party that can focus its efforts, especially if many of them possess magic weapons or can counterspell. The following optional features offer a way to ensure that Big A doesn’t fall victim to the action economy if facing a larger party.
New Action:Empowered Spell (Recharge 4—6). Acererak casts a spell from his list of prepared spells, choosing one of the following additional effects:
- Acererak gains 5 temporary hit points per level of the spell.
- Any attempt to negate the spell using counterspell or similar magic requires a successful spellcasting ability check, regardless of the spell slot used negate the spell.
- If the spell deals damage, Acererak can deal an additional 20 necrotic damage to one target affected by the spell.
This is the simplest method to cover Acererak’s biggest weaknesses as a single spellcaster. Fifty percent of the time, Acererak can use his action on his turn to supercharge a spell, either gaining temporary hit points, dealing extra damage, or making it extremely difficult to counter. Note that this is a specific action, so it doesn’t work when Acererak uses his At-Will Spell legendary action. To inflict maximum terror on the party, use the third option when casting finger of death on a cursed target to deal an average of 163 damage, which might actually be enough to trigger the instant death rules and successfully transform the character into a zombie under Acererak’s control.
Insuperable Magic.Spellcasting ability checks made as part of attempts to negate Acererak’s magic (as with counterspell) are resolved against Acererak’s spell save DC.
This is a huge change. Acererak can spam 1st- through 3rd-level spells, which have a DC of 11 to 13 to negate with counterspell. Therefore, a spellcaster with a spellcasting ability score of 18 (+4) will negate his spells at least 55% of the time. By changing this to a flat DC 23, you remove the biggest obstacle to Acererak actually being able to use his abilities. You should really only use this one if your players are so optimized that Big A can’t afford even one round of losing his spells to counterspell, by which point your party should have burned through any remaining spell slots they had of 3rd level or higher.
Potent Magic.Any spell slot Acererak expends to cast a wizard spell counts as a spell slot of one level higher.
This option comes with an important reminder that Acererak doesn’t have spell slots of 3rd level or lower; those spells are at will for him, and therefore wouldn’t benefit from this effect. All of his spells of 4th-level or higher, however, would deal more damage and be harder to counter.
Regeneration.Acererak regains 10 hit points at the start of his turn if he has at least 1 hit point.
If your party is on the heavy side of damage dealing (say, able to maintain an average damage output of at least 60), this will probably extend the fight by another round or so.
Superior Health. Acererak has the maximum number of hit points for his Hit Dice.
Much more potent than Regeneration, this change will be something to consider if your party is disproportionately heavy in straight damage dealers who either deal magic damage or have magic weapons that bypass Acererak’s damage immunity. Warlocks, barbarians, fighters, and the like can all sustain a pretty significant damage output that can burn through Acererak’s hit points like a hot blade through goblin. Along with the changes to his spell list, this is another option available to Adventurers League Dungeon Masters, whose parties are more likely to be at the adventure’s intended level cap (level 11). Just remember that if your party doesn’t have magic weapons, their physical attacks aren’t just resisted, they’re ignored.
Reaction: Spell Reflection. If Acererak makes a successful saving throw against a spell, or a spell attack misses, he can choose another creature (including the spellcaster) he can see within 30 feet of him. The spell targets the chosen creature instead of Acererak. If the spell forced a saving throw, the chosen creature makes its own save. If the spell was an attack, the attack is rerolled against the chosen creature.
What could make an archmage capable of blasting a cavalry charge to bits even more deadly? Turning their enemies’ own spells against them. Remember the short range (30 feet) of this feature. In all probability, it will be against a melee-oriented character who has got all up in Acererak’s face instead of the original spellcaster.
Putting It All Together
Acererak is a legendary archmage who has lived for centuries and defeated all manner of terrifying enemies, including would-be gods. A DM who pulls their punches with him is doing his players a disservice by cheating them out of the experience. Your players knew going in to Tomb of Annihilation that their characters would probably not make it out alive, and that’s exactly what should happen here.
While he isn’t likely to have prepared spells for the day expecting to destroy adventurers, Acererak frequently journeys through the most dangerous locales of the multiverse in search of powerful souls to harvest and therefore would have a suite of damaging spells prepared as part of his regular repertoire. Unfortunately, the prepared spells suggested by the adventure do not reflect his experience in leveraging his magical abilities. Thus, a revision is absolutely necessary to truly deliver the real “Acererak experience”. The improvements presented here will ensure that this battle is one of the most memorable of your players’ gaming careers.
Don’t forget to check out part 2 of this series, Tomb of Annihilation: Playing Acererak.
Tomb Of Annihilation 5e
If you enjoyed this article, we highly recommend that you check out Sly Flourish’s take on Acererak’s spells.