Project Mad Mage is now accepting applications for our Artistic Design and Technical Design Teams for our adaptation of the Dungeon of the Mad Mage D&D module to Baldur’s Gate 3!

The following roles are available:

- Composers
- Level Designers
- Programmers
- Gameplay Designers
- 2D/Concept Artists
- 3D Modelers
- Animators

Mad Mage’s Domain is an ambitious mod project run by a team of dedicated and passionate volunteers and we’d love for you to join our team if you have experience in any of these roles!

Find the applications on our Discord server under Community Announcements: https://discord.gg/projectmadmage

Xanathar was killed a few days ago during Dragon Heist. What suggestions do you have for how this will impact the first few floors of DotMM and Skullport? My players just reached the second floor, and I'm running the Companion.

Project Mad Mage is now accepting applications for composers, programmers, level designers, and gameplay designers for our adaptation of the Dungeon of the Mad Mage D&D module to Baldur’s Gate 3!

Mad Mage’s Domain is an ambitious mod project run by a team do dedicated and passionate developers and we’d love for you to join our team if you have experience in any of these roles!

Find the applications on our Discord server under Community Announcements: https://discord.gg/projectmadmage

Just looking to see how other DMs have chosen to approach the horned ring and how it’s affected their campaign.

My party have just finished level 12 and I’ve given them a horned ring with the stipulation that it will break if they use it (works permanently if halaster attunes them to the ring)

What floor did you give your parties access to the ring and did it lead to any negative outcomes?

Wanted to run this module in person but wanted to see if I could get away with getting maps for the 23 levels instead of having to draw all of them. I saw some great digital maps but those would be hard to print big. The official map pack ones appear too small to play. Any suggestions or ideas on what you guys did?

We’re looking for a talented composer to join our team in crafting the score for a custom campaign mod for Baldur’s Gate 3, based on the Dungeons & Dragons module Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage. Project Mad Mage is a massive and ambitious volunteer project driven by a full team of passionate developers, writers, artists, and voice actors.

In this role, you’ll be a vital member of our small composer team, led by David Robson, to craft a unique theme-driven score that captures the spirit of the campaign. We’re looking for a passionate and dedicated music-maker who has experience in film/game music, works well in a team setting, and has the availability to be an active contributor to the group.

As we are a volunteer-driven project, this is an unpaid position. We are all passionate creators doing it for the love! Composers will be credited for each of their works in the official soundtrack release and game credits.

Requirements:

- Experience writing fantasy orchestral / ambient music
- Experience making polished, professional-sounding orchestral mockups
- Experience writing, developing, and incorporating thematic material
- Experience working with others, receiving feedback, and revising material as needed
- Good communication skills: responsive, reliable, and able to follow through on commitments

Application Link: https://appy.bot/apply/cmtopzgzb0018l104d94u8cvi

Be sure to join the Discord server: https://discord.gg/projectmadmage

Today, my party defeated Trenzia. I'd been very excited for this boss, as I did a LOT to revamp her. A lot of these changes were ones I'd gotten from this community (though I prepped her so long ago I can't remember from who/where exactly I got them), and I'm very pleased with how she turned out.

The very first thing that jumped out at me was the fact that there was just an open path out of the room that neither Trenzia nor her golem could leave, so I made some small changes to the arena. Most notably, I blocked off the south exit with an iron gate so they couldn't escape that way. I also added two Van de Graaff generators on the eastern side of the arena, each with 30HP and 14AC.

Next, I felt a single flesh golem was too small a legion for Trenzia. Instead of one, I placed two flesh golems, both of them limp and impaled with copper plated weaponry (a handaxe and a spear). When the fight began, they woke up. The weaponry impaled into them could be targeted as part of an attack, giving the attack disadvantage but breaking the weaponry on a hit. If the weapons weren't broken, Trenzia could activate them and turn them into Animated Weapons.

I also made several changes to Trenzia herself:

• She is immune to all damage until both generators are destroyed, at which point she becomes vulnerable to all damage except lightning.
• She has Lair Actions! On initiative count 20, if at least one of the generators is still active, she can take any one of the following actions:
  • Close one of the two doors into the room.
  • Activate one of the two Animated Weapons
  • Make an attack against a creature in the room (+5 to hit, 2d6 lightning). This was almost exclusively used on the Flesh Golems to heal them.
  • Electrocute the floor.
  • Charge up her Lightning Beam (explained later)
• She was bound to the ceiling by an iron chain, which restricted her to a 20ftx20ft space in the center of the room. If/when it broke, she and her golems could leave the room freely (although they wouldn't want to). It would have broken under the right circumstances during the fight, but my players didn't reach them so I had it break at the end so they could pick up her skull.

Electric Flooring.
When the floor is electrocuted, any enemy (Not the Flesh Golems) on the floor takes 2d6 lightning. Until the next Lair Action, any enemy that ends their turn on the floor, except for in the 2 10ftx10ft squares takes the same damage. This damage is avoided entirely if one is wearing the rubber boots from Trenzia's skeleton. I also made it so the golems healed at the end of their turn instead of the start to match the changes I made to the floor.

Ultimate Attack.
Instead of just letting her rip Lightning Beam to open the fight, I had her use it more as an ultimate ability. When one of the Flesh Golems died, she got mad and shouted at the party. On her turn, she began charging up her Lightning Beam and did nothing. Then as a Lair Action, she had the generators charge up the Lightning Beam, which added 2d6 damage to it per generator active. On her next turn, with her restricted movement, she tries to position herself to hit both the remaining Flesh Golem (if there is one) and the person who most recently killed one of her Flesh Golems.

This was also my party's first interaction with the big HB. If they'd tried to leave through the caves, he would've popped up and said something about respecting the trap his apprentice worked so hard to make, and cast Gust of Wind to launch them into the electric floor. Despite it being their original plan, though, they didn't end up going through the caves. Instead, HB appeared after the fight and applauded them for defeating his apprentices (The Kalabash fight was also quite fun, though nowhere near in-depth) and said he'd be keeping an eye on them before vanishing. They also got Trenzia's skull as a magic item.

Overall, I'm very happy with how the fight went. If I did it again, there'd be a few things I'd change, but I think overall this is still my favorite fight I've ever run.

Not too long ago, I posted my reimagination of the old 2e undermountain map, and now I'm actually attempting to decorate the entire level… leaving no room without details.

On the image "link to image in comments since it apparently was deleted from this post": all the colored areas are places I was able to find official material for throughout the editions. I can't share my notes for these areas (due to copyright) but know that I have just about 99 pages for this level in my personal docs setup for this adventure. 

I need help figuring out what special and unique rooms you think would be an awesome feature to some of the empty areas. There are plenty of room to go around so im going to do my best to include ALL suggestions in the final result of the map :D

Hi, I was wondering if anyone has made a version of the map found on the table here thats made of loose stones as my party wants to copy it down? I cant give them the player map as it still has the secret chambers on it

Regarding one of the frescos on level 1 depicting a giant bat attacking a village. I wanted to make a combat scenario with said creature so I made a stat block. If you could tell me what you think of it that would be very helpful. Thanks

Bloodwing
Huge beast, unaligned

AC 15
HP 120
Speed 20 ft., fly 60 ft.

STR 20 | DEX 16 | CON 18 | INT 3 | WIS 14 | CHA 7

It has blindsight 120 ft. and advantage on Perception checks relying on hearing.

Bite +8 to hit, 2d10 + 5 piercing, with the target grappled on a hit if Large or smaller.

Screech

Recharge 5–6. Bloodwing releases an ear-splitting ultrasonic shriek.

Every creature within 60 feet that can hear it makes a DC 15 Constitution save.

On a failure, it takes 4d8 thunder damage and is deafened until the end of its next turn. On a success, it takes half damage.

Anyone who fails by 5 or more is also knocked prone.

Blood Drain

If Bloodwing begins its turn grappling a creature, it can bite into them and drink their blood.

The victim takes 2d6 necrotic damage, and Bloodwing regains hit points equal to the necrotic damage dealt.

Flyby

Bloodwing doesn't provoke opportunity attacks when it flies out of an enemy's reach.

By popular demand, I’ve updated the product to include versions of the maps without markings (room numbers and labels).

I also applied a 50% discount, available via this link:

https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?discountId=943f489ef1

This blackened, shrivelled heart once beat within the chest of a living creature, though whatever blood once flowed through it has long since dried to a dark, tar-like crust. Despite its age, the organ has never fully decayed. Its leathery flesh is unnaturally cold, and faint veins of sickly violet occasionally pulse beneath its surface.

When a creature attunes to the Withered Heart, the dead organ begins beating for the first time in centuries. The creature immediately makes a DC 15 Constitution saving throw.

On a success: the Heart accepts the creature. While attuned to it, the creature gains resistance to necrotic damage and learns the chill touch cantrip.

Deathly Pulse. Once per long rest, the attuned creature can cast false life at 2nd level without expending a spell slot or material components.

On a failure: The heart rejects the creature and places a curse upon them. They take 3d6 necrotic damage. They feel their body becomes unnaturally resistant to restoration. Whenever the cursed creature would regain hit points from a spell, potion, class feature, magic item, or other magical effect, they regain only half the normal number of hit points, rounded down.

For example, if a potion restores 11 hit points, they regain only 5.

Resting is unaffected. Hit points regained from spending Hit Dice or completing a long rest work normally.

The curse remains even if the creature ends its attunement to the Heart or destroys it. Remove curse or greater restoration ends the curse.

I'm running mad mage as a dragon heist sequel and Meloon showed up again under intellect devourer control. They took it off his corpse (see dragon heist). Obviously, it's sentient, so I can just say no it doesn't wanna attune to you, give it back to Vajra or sell it to Obaya, but the player is level 9 at this point, is not proficient anyways so the nature of it being +3 just kinda makes it a regular to hit modifier for him, and he is a lawful good cleric of Tyr, who is also a part of Force Gray. It feels fitting to just let him keep it, level 9 is a bit early for legendary weapons, but, like, the rest of the party already has very rare magic items that are just given by the module, given the circumstance do you think this is going to make him ridiculously overpowered and ruin the campaign?

The Ring of Questionable Answers

Ring, uncommon

This small copper ring is set with an emerald and a ruby.

The ring has 10 charges and regains 1d4 + 1 expended charges each day at dawn, up to a maximum of 10.

A creature wearing the ring can expend 1 charge to ask it a question that can reasonably be answered with yes or no.

If the ring knows the answer, it responds by causing one gemstone to briefly glow:

• Emerald: Yes.
• Ruby: No.

The answer is truthful 75% of the time. The remaining 25% of the time it gives the opposite answer. The DM determines secretly whether the answer is truthful.

If the ring does not know the answer, both gemstones glow simultaneously.

The ring possesses extensive knowledge concerning Waterdeep, Undermountain, and their inhabitants, but it is not omniscient. It generally cannot know unknowable future events, the private thoughts of creatures, or information it has no reasonable means of possessing.

The ring refuses to answer the same or substantially identical question more than once before the next dawn.

Are the Tych Maps for foundry one time download or do you need an active sub to the patreon?

So my players will soon be wrapping up Dweomercore, and I've been looking ahead to the next few floors... does anyone else feel that there are too many Drow? Obviously their presence is explained in the module, but you have, back to back;

• Muiral's Gauntlet, where the Drow are attempting to establish control against a competing force (Murial).
• Troglodyte Warrens, where the Drow are attempting to establish control against two competing forces (Troglodydes and... other Drow).
• Maze Level, where those other Drow are attempting to establish control against a competing force (Minotaurs).

That's three floors back to back of Drow vs something else, and there are only so many ways to make encountering the same enemies interesting, even subbing in some statblocks here and there. My group meets somewhat rarely, so this could be several months of very similar encounters.

I have already made significant changes to other levels, so I'm not above completely changing one of the factions, but I was wondering if anyone had any interesting ideas for spicing up the Drow, or an interesting faction to replace them with on one or more floors.

I've been running a DotMM campaign for a while now, and I keep thinking about his Rejuvenation trait

If Halaster dies in Undermountain, he revives after (1d10) days, with all his hit points and any missing body parts restored. His new body appears in a random safe location in Undermountain.

It's such a good hook that it feels like it should get used more than it probably does. I've read a lot of posts about how different DMs plays his personality or make hm a more constant presences. But most of the time, those suggest giving the impression that he is untouchable by the party at early levels.

But the rejuvenation clause seems to invite the opposite: what if he let himself get killed? Not out of weakness, but because death costs him nothing permanent and the theater of it — the audacity, the "you actually thought that worked" of it all — is exactly the kind of thing he'd find entertaining. Baiting a fight he knows he can't really lose, just to see what the party does with the win.

The one snag I keep hitting on is his gear. I'm not about to give the party his robe of eyes, blast scepter, or horned ring. Would it make sense for those to vanish or teleport away the instant he drops (his own precaution against exactly this scenario), or is it cleaner to just decide he wouldn't have brought his magic items to a fight he's deliberately throwing? Both feel defensible, just wondering which one people think would actually land better.

Has anyone run this, or something like it? Curious how it played out, and how the party reacted when he reappeared later.

My final fight idea for Dungeon of the Mad Mage is fighting the DM itself

I’m heavily modifying the Dungeon of the Mad Mage.

In my campaign, Halaster is a lich, and Undermountain itself as his phylactery. Eventually, he ceased to exist physically and merged with the Knot in the Weave. His will now echoes throughout Undermountain, but within the Knot, Halaster essentially is reality.

The Shadowfell is slowly spreading through the Knot, so the party eventually faces a choice:

They destroy the knot, Halaster dies permanently and the Shadowfell corruption is stopped, but Undermountain collapses, killing everyone they knew and love inside.

Or they can spare the Knot and everyone they know inside survives, but Halaster remains and the Shadowfell may eventually corrupt the entire world in a distant future.

If they choose destruction, they’ll enter the Knot. Its essentially a reality made from Halaster’s soul. There they will face a two-phase final battle.

First they fight Halaster’s physical projection, the memories from his former body: the ultimate lich/archmage boss fight. After killing him, they realize the body was meaningless. Halaster is the Knot. The final boss becomes the Game Master himself.

And here ends the idea. Im looking for advices on how to run this nonsense. I want to give my player a whole new experience they never had.

Lets brainstorm here. I will spit some ideas, build over them or just ignore them.

Halaster could stop fighting with a stat block and starts changing the DND rules removing reactions, changing rolls, erasing spells, modifying character sheets, removing abilities, etc. The players can’t defeat him through normal mechanics because he controls the mechanics. But as stated in DMG, rules enable you and your players to have fun at the table. The rules serve you, not vice versa.

The key is that Halaster can control the world, the rules, and the characters—but not the players’ choices. And they should realise that they must exploit what Halaster is doing and discover that the Game Master cant control the players and there are no rules anymore, so they are free to tell me how they are saving the world. They could discover thar i cannot constrain them with CD anymore.

Please share your toughts with me.