Tomb of Annihilation advice

[SmiloDan]

Hi!

I'm going to incorporate Tomb of Annihilation into my homebrew campaign. A lot of the names are going to be changed, and I think I'm going to alter the "Death Curse" a bit.

The party will be 5th or 6th level and has a dirigible. I think this is going to bypass or eliminate or at the very least mitigate a lot of the "wandering around the wilderness and being zombie and/or dinosaur chow" aspect of the adventure.

One aspect of my homebrew campaign is that the continents float in mid-air, so there will be no ocean surrounding "Chult." The continents were raised above the seas by ancient aarakocra who performed a ritual that sacrificed their flight to grant flight to the continents. They lost their wings and bright colors and virtue and faded into kenku.

So I need an alternate winged race to replace the aarakocra monks that are harboring the princess.

I have the Monster Manual, Volo's Guide to Monsters, the Tome of Beasts, and the skills to stat out new monsters. :-) I just need inspiration on a replacement race. I really like the idea of the princess's little brother dressing up as a bird, so I kind of want to steer away from winged apes, batfolk, phanaton, flying saurials, etc. Well, maybe phanaton. Just thought of them....

Also, how important is the sub-plot about the Ring of Winter?

[The Sword]

What about Avariel - winged elves? Or if you’re concerned about alignment and want something wicked go with Fey’ri - the half elf, half demon hybrids. Both simple to convert.

[Tim Emrick]

Avariels were updated to 5e in a recent "Unearthed Arcana": Elf Subraces. They could easily be reskinned to be more bird-like in appearance.

[SmiloDan]

That's a good idea.

What about that owlly race from Races of the Wild? What were they called again?

[William Bryan]

Kenku? They're in Volo's.

[Ginasteri]

Are you thinking of the Syrinx?

[Ginasteri]

Kobold Press also has the Ravenfolk in one of their races books, both 5E and PF

[SmiloDan]

I'm already using kenku/tengu/ravenfolk elsewhere in the campaign.

I don't think the race I'm thinking of is the Syrinx.

I'm kind of leaning towards phanaton now. It will add some old school Isle of Dread zest for my Grognard players.

[SmiloDan]

Raptorans!

[DM Jeff]

The ring of winter could be removed and really effect nothing in the game. It's a good item to enrich the campaign but not necessary to the actual plot. :-)

[SmiloDan]

I really like the Ring of Winter item.

I just don't know about Artus Cimber. I don't like tagging NPCs onto the party, and we have a party of 6 already, so we don't really have any missing roles.

[SmiloDan]

Now I'm thinking of renaming

spoiler:

the Soulmonger, because it's such a silly name. It's not selling souls. I'm thinking about the Oneirophage (Dream Eater) or Vivivore (Life Eater), and adjusting the Death Curse appropriately.

What do you think?

[SmiloDan]

Destroying the

spoiler:

Soulmonger

seems really boring.

spoiler:

Just breaking a strut after an epic quest seems super meh. Or just banging away on an inanimate object also seems kind of blah. Any ideas on how to spice up the Soulmonger? At least the atropal is an interesting monster.