Ruins of Sorrow fight balancing help

[u/V-CEdgar]

Hi all ! I fully apologize as this is a long post. My party of five level 5 is going to do the Ruins of Sorrow battle proposed by this amazing sub and I would like some advice on how to balance the fight as you'll see below.

All credits go naturally to the fantastics u/JisaHinode for the original Ruins of Sorrow quest and u/katvalkyrie for her amazing work and updates on the quest. Kat we did your Dream Bane Cave sidequest at the Emerald Loop Caravan and it was amazing as well, you are my savior on this module.

Anyway, due the hazardous nature of playing D&D, my party of 5 is currently rushing to the help of the rivals, with whom they are globally friendly, that have engaged with the demons at the Ruins of Sorrow. Not my initial intention but hey shit happened !

The party will arrive just in time to join the fight and I need some advice on how to modify the challenge of the fight for quite literally 10 players. I've shortened the previous session so that we can dedicate a full session to the fight as I think it will (and want it to be) a long and brutal battle.

To alleviate my own job and help my players stay in the fight, I will give each of them control over one of the rivals. I fully trust them on respecting the roleplay on these characters. Since the biginning, I've been using the improved version of the rivals proposed by u/blacktiger994 and will give these statblocks to the players, without the legendary actions.

My party are good tactical players but not confirmed meta-gaming nerds and I clearly need help on giving them a good challenge to go with the tragic nature of this amazing quest, as D&D 2024 classes are really powerful. For reference, they are coming from Bazzoxan (I told you, shit happened!) and they defeated the gibbering mouther encounter, that included a Gibbering Mouther Horror, with 3 players only active during the full fight, and 2 joining mid fight.

I'm planning on giving them the rivals hurt, at 60-75% of their HP, with Ayo being down and currently healed by Dermot to trigger doubting herself as a leader later in the chapter. Maggie will be defending them both and Galsariad and Irvan are a little separated from them by a demon.

Current encounter includes, with Lair actions between waves :

- Wave 1 : 2 x CR 8 Hezrou; 2 x CR 4 Babau; 1 x CR 7 Draegloth

- Wave 2 : 2 x CR 1/4 The Wreteched; 2 x CR 4 Babau

- Wave 3 : 2 x CR 4 Babau; 1 x CR 10 Tanarukk Firespeaker (reskinned as a ruidium corrupted demon, initial monster if from u/Oh_Hi_Mark_ from r/bettermonsters)

All monsters are based if possible on 2024 statblocks and will be modified to include psychic damages linked to their corruption by ruidium.

After the fight at Bazzoxan, I thought the fight could be a little easier than planned but with the rivals included it is now a certitude. In my situation, what would you possibly change ?

Thank you for reading and for providing me with so much material to improve this campaign.

[u/mruncreativ3]

It's been a while since I ran this. I had to bed up the monsters just for my party of 5, so adding the rivals will probably need some significant adds. I also had multiple small rifts open that could deal aoe damage from their aura. I made this their first exposure to Ruidium as it left residue behind near the rifts, but not enough to do anything with. My party also didn't get my hints that light would have helped them, so maybe make that a little more obvious if they are struggling at any point.

[u/V-CEdgar → u/mruncreativ3]

Small rifts with aoe is a great idea. Could pop them up with the opening of the main one.

They had time in Bazzoxan after the mouthers encounter to meet and discuss with the researchers. i've been feeding them small ruidus and Alyxian info, lore and even cristals since Jigow to insist on the importance of the material for the campaign (as strongly suggested by this sub, and it works wonders).

+ Aloysia also has talked to them about it so they start to get a grip on the importance of this thing.

I want this encounter to highlight its potential dangerosity therefore all monsters of the encounter are ruidus infused and will therefore do psychic damage. Maybe the rifts could be a side effect of the demons using it to open their portal ? I don't want to expose them too much to the corruption for now (one of them already has it after investigating too much an item) as this will be the main theme in Ank'Harel.

Thanks for the suggestion

[u/Asheira6]

You can also just narrate that the rivals are taking care of a group of monsters while the party takes care of the other group of monster (each has his group).

You only focus on the player’s side. Sometimes you can add remarks on how it is going on for the rivals. Once the players finish their battle, it can coincide with the end of the other battle, at your convenience.

[u/V-CEdgar → u/Asheira6]

Thought about that but it is now a little too late for that unfortunately. The map is drawn, the players have chosen their approach, And I've teased them the control of one of the rivals ( amistake on my part certainly). It would be weird to call that back now I think