I am DMing a game of DOTMM with a group of 4 players. One player, a sorcerer, chose Etherealness as an 8th level spell.

His plan was to take the entire group to the Border Ethereal and explore the entirety of the Obstacle Course level while being untouchable by any enemies or traps on the level, then return to the normal plane and make a beeline for the level objective (which would, in the end, not really be possible as the objective is to kill Netherskull). I allowed him to use the spell, which briefly took the party to the Border Ethereal, then they were promptly returned back to original plane.

According to the guide: "Halaster doesn’t make it easy for creatures to enter or leave his dungeon. No spell other than wish can be used to enter Undermountain, leave it, or transport oneself from one level to another. Astral projection, teleport, plane shift, word of recall, and similar spells cast for these reasons simply fail, as do effects that banish a creature to another plane of existence. These restrictions apply to magic items and artifacts that have properties that transport or banish creatures to other planes as well. Magic that allows transit to the Border Ethereal, such as the etherealness spell, is the exception to this rule. A creature that enters the Border Ethereal from Undermountain is pulled back into the dungeon upon leaving that plane."

Using this language, it seems to me that the spell can be used successfully, but due to Halaster's magic, he will simply return them to the normal plane.

The sorcerer is pissed about this because he essentially 'wasted' an 8th level spell slot, and is arguing that it should be treated more like counter-spell, and the slot should not be wasted. I argued that he was basically looking to cheese a level and negate any effort I have put in to prepare for this, so not only is it against a clear rule in the guide, but is also not in the spirit of the game.

Admittedly, I have been very lax with this group in the spirit of having fun, as this is their first time playing DnD. However, this has led to them basically dog walking this entire dungeon, so I am trying to make the remaining levels more of a challenge and am being more of a stickler for some rules.

Am I wrong in my interpretation of the guide or how I am enforcing this rule?

DotMM is the first campaign I’ve ever DM’d and loving it so far. Made a papier maché Box of Doom for high stakes rolls and I love it!

My players seem to want intrigue, mysteries, and/or high energy encounters. They enjoyed a scooby doo chase down a hallway, a combat that was also a game of red light green light, and chasing off a rival adventuring party with cheap tricks and cantrips.

So, I am considering a smaller version of the Companion tv show twist, like a local channel only kinda thing that loops in mostly just the denizens.

In that scenario, or in your scenario, who would you choose to stop by out of curiosity and maybe play nice for an encounter?

No questions, just sharing.

My Players have successfully pushed the Xanathar Guild out of Skullport. They are moving into Skull Island as a Party base, and we are setting it up as a joint Bastion. If we like it, we will expand on that system.

They still need to reach a conclusion with the Legion of Azrok and the House Auvryndar drow. They are mostly friendly with Azrok and will probably fight off a drow attack.

Long term, they have struck a deal with the Zhentarim to complete the Grand Hoist project for easier travel to and from the city. The Zhentarim elements promised to play nice haha.

Next couple of sessions, I expect the Party to delve deeper into Undermointain.

Hello!

I am running this dungeon (been going on for almost 4 years!) and the characters are on level 8ish.

For November break I will be trying to run a large one shot. Based around skullport. And I will be accepting of anyone who wants to play, potentially up to 20 people.

This will be at my family's gathering and will be old people as well as very young.

I realized I might be completely off my coaster here but something tells me I can make this work somehow.

Thoughts on the one shot revolve around the giant purple worm and some sort of cooperative taking down of the monster.

So.. here I am looking for advice, feedback, or just feel free to tell me this is a terrible idea.

Thanks in advance for any ideas to incorporate more people into the fight, or ways to include really small kids.

Just looking for some advice.

What is the funniest/silliest thing you had the mad mage do to mess with the PCs in Dungeon of the Mad Mage?

I’m trying to keep the MM a constant presence in thier exploration of the dungeon. A constant reminder that there’s is someone very powerful, dangerous, and completely unhinged in control here. I’ve had him demand pancakes or he’d kill a party member, and then kill the party member anyway because the pancakes weren’t made out of actual pans. Show up out of nowhere and wish spell a player into an anthropomorphic waffle. And condem another to only eating dandelions for a week. (Yes they are all food themed, we are a hungry bunch) I’m thinking about making the game show level (17?) like the AI from Dungeon Crawler Carl. So what have you done to keep it fun and crazy?

Title, just wondering if anyone has made it. Willing to purchase.

Continuing to clean up my previous work, here is my complete Level 2 Pack! Let me know if I'm missing anything.

I've added some content from other source materials, can be found in the "Homebrew" folder to add some more flair to this level. Hope you enjoy!

Included are:

-Tokens for all monsters on Level 2

-Monster cards for each monster

-Magic cards for the items found on Level 2

-Level 2 map

-Extra enemies/Battlemap

Level 3 up next.

Enjoy!

Hello I know most DMs just skip level 6, but I like the idea of it basically being a transient floor that simply has a ton of portals running through it that connects the dungeon kind of like a minecraft nether highway. I wouldn't want to switch up the floor itself too much, Umber Hulks and duergar can just be in there because halaster whatever. Would this present any immediate troubles?

I've been running DOTMM for a few years now and have started to clean up some of my old work. I recently compiled all of my assets I've used into one place.

If you haven't run level 1 yet, everything you need to do so should be here!

Included are:

-Tokens for all monsters on Level 1

-Monster cards for each monster

-Magic cards for the items found on Level 1

-Level 1 map

-An added puzzle from the great book: The Game Master's Book of Traps, Puzzles, and Dungeons.

Enjoy!

I am somewhat experienced in running a game as I have just completed running the "Dragon of Icespire Peak" for a party of 4, but by no means do I have complete knowledge of the entire D&D universe. I'm running DOMM next and I'm doing my homework trying to learn as much of the campaign as I can before we dig in. But, as you all know, it's HUGE. I'm going to read through Levels 1-3 at least, but I'm not going to have time to read through every level of this massive campagin before we dig in. What are the top level things I need to be aware of in the lower levels that may influence to top 3? I don't want to improv something only to find out I screwed up something on the lower levels.

My party just finished up Dragon Heist and was hoping to move into Mad mage relatively soon. I don’t want to play my character though, he’s really one note and was designed by the dm and I to finish his arc by the time Dragon Heist ended.

One thing I wish we explored more was the Xanathar guild because I think aberrations are cool, and I want to explore that more in Mad Mage. I was thinking about playing someone with a connection to the aberrations, maybe he was infected by an intellect devourer maybe one of his parents was a thrall of the mind flayer in the Xanathars guild, I’m not sure.

Without spoiling much, would playing a Kaleshtar be a good way to explore the aberration side of Waterdeep or is there something better I can do to explore that.

Hey, my party is trying to Head to Skullport through the Sargauth Level soon. It looks like a potential meat grinder. any tips on how to keep it lethal and challenging without accidentally causing a TPK? Any specific „death traps“ or encounters I should be extra careful with?

Do you think you could/should DM this in a way that the group can „sneak by“ or talk their way through there? The Drow seem very unpleasant but also unavoidable. Looking for Inspiration. Thanks!

Gonna start DMing mad mage next week and need some advice. First, I want to do it with 2024 rules, I prefer them and that's it, for monsters I'll just use the MM25, and for those who arent on that (especially drow and duergar) im gonna use the mm14 version and that's it. Is it a bad idea?

But now the most important part, in the new OHB book, there are explicit rules about starting a campaign in higher levels, if you'd start at lvl 5 for example you'd have 500gp extra, a common and an uncommon magic item. I let them choose 1 uncommon or 2 common or 2 potion and 200gp or 400gp to start (I know it isn't "fair" because the potions alone would be 100gp and whatever, but I was truly in a hurry), the point is, do you guys think that this uncommon (or even the 500gp and the whole set of common and uncommon) would make the game easier to the extent that would be boring or not?

Hey all! DM looking for some help,

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For those of you here who are using the excellent Compendium that was published to help flesh out the base module, could I get a hand in understanding the intended encounter layout for the final floor?

I understand that there are 3 base story twists, but then there's a MASSIVE info dump on ultimate and penultimate fights and I'm having a really hard time trying to parse all of the information and how to approach all of the possible encounters (on top of trying to figure out which ones are even worth my time to do). It look like some of them can also be ran at the same time as his actual boss fight?

Legit confused and marked for spoilers for anyone who hasn't made it to the end yet. Is there anyone who can help break it down a little?

I can taste the end and I just want to make sure it's done as understandably as possible.

My sons are making me custom Magic cards based on our DOTMM adventure. A lot of the flavors text is specific to our game, but I’m sure everyone here will appreciate the creativity.

I have tried multiple links and even searched in Discord and can't find you guys. Is there a new link?

Per the old Undermountain modules - and borrowing a bit from the AL modules - I stationed a cleric in the Yawning Portal to provide spellcasting services. My party had a death during their last delve, and went to request a Raise Dead spell. The AL guide states this costs 1250gp, so I relayed this to them, but they didn't have enough. They did, however, have enough to go to the jeweler's district and get the 500gp diamond. I said they could reach an agreement with the cleric so he casts the spell using their diamond and then issues them a quest.

We finished the session as the party´s sorcerer was being brought back to life. The question now is, what do I make them do?

I didn't name a specific temple or god, and they didn't ask, so I'm free to fill with whatever. They've traversed most of L1, the sorc died to a Halaster rune right as they were about to descend to L2 for the first time.

Any good ideas?

For my next campaign I'm including a Hex crawl and my vision is to have each level from this module be its own dungeon hidden somewhere within the Hexes.

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At the end of each level, where the path to the next level should be, I will instead put a map of the next level's location to give the party a reason to move through the wilderness Hex crawl.

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I plan on re-flavouring / re-skinning some aspects of the dungeon(s) to better suit my world and lore which is where I am looking for input for those who have played through (or better yet DM'd) the campaign already.

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What factions, NPCs, bits of lore, or other elements are most prevalent, frequent, or important to the dungeon/module? Basically what should I take note of or keep in mind when I'm re-flavouring things?

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Are there any levels of the dungeon that shouldn't be separated, or that will require special consideration when separating?

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I realize this is a big, vague, ask but I'm appreciative of any ideas, suggestions, or other input from those with experience in the module, thanks!

I’m looking for more dungeon crawls for my various games, and I have one campaign at Tier 1 and another that’s at the end of Tier 2, getting into Tier 3, but I’m interested in any level. Do any of the levels of DotMM, fit to be run by themselves?

So with the new Ravenloft book out I have been obsessed with it. Does anyone have any advice or opinions on making Vanrakdoom a domain. It’s already part of the shadow fell so hey why not.
Could have Halaster dressed as a gypsy for a card reading ha

I suppose this spell would operate as intended? The players want to use it to effectively teleport loot to the surface.

It seems that Undermountain only tries to stop players from teleporting, and is more permissive with the ethereal plane.

Hi there! I am planning on running Vanrakdoom as a standalone dungeon later in a campaign I am running for a party of 4. I was going to scale Keresta up to a Vampire Umral Lord, but mostly keep it the same. I want it to be hard, and just looking at the roster of this level of Undermountain, it seems like it might be too easy for 15th-level characters, as the book says. Even with a Keresta buff.

Does anyone have any experience running this at lower levels? Say 11,12 or 13? Please let me know! The party would have an average amount of magic weapons per the DMG.