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InDungeons & Dragons:Phandelver & Below The Shattered Obelisk, your party will constantly see the effects of the Far Realm on the town of Phandalin. Your players will notice the townsfolk slowly changing over the course of your adventures, and they may think they’re immune to the effects of the Far Realm, but unfortunately for them, they’re just as susceptible.
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You may be wondering how to handle the transformation of a player character through the adventure or whether you should even implement the mechanic. If you do, there are quite a few things to consider and a few ways to handle the transformation in your game.
Should You Use Transformation Mechanics In Your Game?
You’ll want to decide whether it’s worth making your player characters transform before deciding to implement it into the adventure. It’s important to note that thesetransformations are slowly taking place across the adventure, so not every party appreciates a slow-rolling progression.
The transformation can have legitimate effects on the characters, including granting them abilities but alsochanging their appearanceandhow NPCs react to them.
If your party doesn’t like to have control of how they look or act taken away from them, you can opt out of transforming them, making the transformations something that only changes those from Phandalin and not the party.
If your party will not appreciate the little adjustments or notice the subtle changes, or they will distract from the main goal, it may also be worth skipping out on changing the player characters and making more overt changes to NPCs in town.
Remember thatthis is optional for both player characters and NPCs, though it can be helpful tocreate a dynamic progression of the story that’s actively reflected by the world.
It’s recommended that youat least have the NPCs transform to help with immersionand urgency in the story for your players.
While the rest of this guide assumes your players are okay with being transformed, you can still use it as a guide to transform your NPCs. If you doplan on transforming your players, make sure youfirst get player consentto do so.
Understanding The Transformations
Phandelver And Below The Shattered Obelisk has the transformation of the characters happening in stages. Starting with the first transformations in chapter five and every advancing stage happening in subsequent chapters.
Thetransformations, however, are highly customizableand will truly work when you’re able totailor them to your party and its play style.
Thetransformation effects are broken up into four stages, as written in Phandelver and Below, with each stage progressing the effects further.
Transformation Effects
Stage One
This stage createssmall effects such as hearing random voices, seeing patternsin everyday objects, and noticing things that seem out of the ordinary. Very subtle things that can’t quite be explained away.
Stage Two
You can finally begin tomorph the bodies of the player characters. Nothing too overt, though sprouting tentacles and body parts that turn 360 degrees are noted as options.
Stage Three
Overt changes happenthat have more obvious effects on those around you. Aberrations become familiar to you; magical void items glow around you, and you leave sludge behind wherever you go. These are effects that expressly tie you to the Far Realm.
Stage Four
Youcompletely change the world around you. As your Far Realm connection is at its strongest, you seem unnatural to the normal world. Animals and people will fear you, and random effects such as temperature changes and floating objects will occur when you’re near.
Tips For Stage One Of Character Transformation
To make these stags work for your players, consider the following options. For stage one,try a recurring theme for a player,something that they can notice with a passive perception check orsomething always just out of sight.
It’s the perfect time tolet them rely on their highest ability score and abilitiesand let them shine.
For example, a barbarian with a high Constitution might notice they’re feeling a little ill or off before the rest of the party, noting their health or strength fluctuating with a corresponding roll.
A druid with high Wisdom and Perception may easily perceive what they originally thought to be the sounds of nature speaking to them. They may roll to understand what’s being said, not knowing that it’s actually the Far Realm reaching out to take over.
Whatever you decide to do and how you decide to manifest stage one,ensure it’s a subtle build that gradually becomes more noticeable before stage two.
As mentioned, use it as an opportunity toallow players to use their best skills and stats to figure out what’s happeningto them. It’ll make them more invested when they can roll higher using their best stats and finally sense something is off.
Tips For Stage Two Of Character Transformation
While continuing to allow your players to use their best stats to roll and understand the transformation they’re undergoing, you canbegin to make certain body parts change and mold based on it. The Far Realm altering a player’s body means it won’t happen in a natural way.
Take a look at some of the character mutations in Phandelver And Below The Shattered Obelisk to see how the bodies of the Far Realm Humanoid Mutates are transformed. While you don’t want to go that extreme, you can begin the process of starting to make some of those transformations.
It’s imperative for step two toculminate in some otherworldly (and maybe slightly grotesque) transformation. Bones popping out in the wrong place or even aspects of creatures from the far realm such as a single tentacle, webbed fingers, extra eyes coming out of nowhere, that sort of situation.
These extra limbs are not under the control of the player unless you decide so. If so, you may easily have them do extra things.
With extra protrusions can come extra benefits to altering their characters. Give your player advantage on perception checks based on sight with an extra eye or grant parts of the Alert feat if the eye is placed on the character’s back, meaning they can’t be surprised.
You can do the same with an extra hand or tentacle, giving your player portions of the Mage Hand spell, however, with a limited range as the tentacle will be attached to them.
Be sure totake examples and ideas from your playershere, as their characters are the ones affected. They may have some fun ideas to implement on their own.
Tips For Stage Three Of Character Transformation
Stage three should have you consideringwhat the Far Realm and void energy entail in your game. Once you decide how the Far Realm will be represented in your game, you can tailor transformations for your players with that.
You want stage three tointeract with the world outside of your characters as they change. This means making the world change around them.
It’s best displayed in the overworld, making reactions from NPCs bigger than before and making certain types of creatures have an affinity toward them.
You can do anything from making flowers wilt near them, giving them an effect that makes their transformation from step three interact more out of their control. Have their tentacle become a pickpocket, or their extra eye always stare menacingly or even have their webbed hands stick onto anything they touch, decaying it slightly.
Tips For Stage Four Transformation
Think of how exotic species are represented in D&D, and multiply that reaction by ten for your transformed players. Change the slight decay to rapid decay, with visible effects that are showcased instantly.
This is a great stage to take ideas from your players and ensure you still have their consent, as it can become overwhelming to have animals and other species instantly turn away from you.
Before every interaction, make a table of how different creatures might react to the void and roll to determine what the reaction might be.
In exchange for the uncontrolled world changes, grant players advantagebased on the changes they’ve experienced to balance out the disparaging aspects of the change.
Ensure you don’t do something that may have ramifications down the line that prevent your player from having fun or you from resolving some conflict.
The harder it is for your players to interact, the harder it becomes for them to interact with NPC and important story situations. Keep that in mind when doing more intense reactions regarding the fourth transformation.
This transformation happens late in the adventure; remember to have other townsfolk comment on the changes and how they’ve affected the players and their relationships.
Consider what has changed alongside them and what they’re returning to every time they go back, and things are a little more dramatically altered. How does their new body react to the alterations being impacted around the town?
As long as you keep in mind the environment, ensuring you don’t give characters any overwhelming changes, and showing the progression in whatever way makes sense, you can just have fun with these transformations as that’s what they’re intended for. Remember to listen to your players and react with what’s working as the transformations take hold.
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