anyone have any neat ideas for a simple D&D 3.5e campagin? like, 4 players, starting level 3 basic shit kind of campaign?
anyone got any tips and tricks for running that game? I've never actually GMed...
PCs are building out of the vanilla PHB, gimmick builds will be punished.
I have physical copies of the Dungeon Masters Guide 1 and 2, Monster Manual 1 and 2, Players Hand Book, Heroes of Horror, and the Book of Vile Darkness. I want to limit this campaign to those books for the sake of not having to look everything up constantly.
I have one experienced player.
>IDEAS SO FAR 1.)local duke hires for a large job to retrieve a macguffin(s) 2.)macguffins are in the lair of a necromancer of significant power at the far side of the neighboring county(further away?) 3.)travels are great enough to require a couple of smaller jobs to buy food and supplies on the way 4.)???? n.)return to the dukes palace to find that he's died of old age. n+1.)his son refuses to pay you
I might need a step 4-(n-1) I need an idea for interesting encounters along the way and what should I do next?
1.)an idea for a sum of money/non-monetary rewards to convince a level 3 party to travel a couple of hundred miles.
2.)what small local jobs they could do or find on the way to the lair of the necro...
3.)what kinds of fun bullshit I can pull to dick them over a little if they play shitty.
4.)to set up and organize my LEGOs to use them as improv battle-mats.
Parker Baker
>PCs are building out of the vanilla PHB My sympathy, user, because it means your players are going to be all over the place in terms of what they can handle. Honestly, if this is your first game, and it is the players first game, set up a basic dungeon, rather than trying to knock out an entire campaign idea. Learn about how the game works in practice when you are behind the screen before you get ambitious, it leads to tears. Further, you are trying to use HoH and VoD, both of whom are packed full of extra mechanics most players never have used before (go ahead, deal them Vile damage, watch them freak out). You, the DM, are under no compunction to limit yourself, and you honestly should not, especially when you are using books that exceedingly outlier.
Eli Davis
Commit slow and painful suicide?
Or maybe play E6 than at least characters other than full-casters will have a chance to stay relevant through all the game. Core is a bad thing to use if you want to play higher than level 6.
1-2) That's more or less okay. Though if the necromancer is in the other county it means he has support of the duke's neighbour and killing him or stealing from him will lead to a diplomatic incident. Which may be interesting but will take some work on DM part.
3) Bullshit. Ranger + Cleric or Druid can deal with most supply problems easily. And any party that doesn't know it in DnD world is dead meat.
4) The aforementioned diplomatic problems - necromancer actually was supported by local lord and now he wants player characters dead. Like really dead. And sends a knight spear after them with added sorcerer.
Jordan Flores
My principal pick with your books is that not every DM and every player is down to play a horror based campaign. Make sure the players know, and are amenable to, playing a game with a lot of horror elements, and ask yourself if you can portray them well enough to do them justice. I can speak from experience it is FAR harder to do horror face to face than you may imagine. Building off a initial dungeon idea, they are simply hired on to go in, slap some dudes, retrieve some items. One of them is bad news, odd things happen after they get it, they are attacked as long as they possess it, and when they go to turn the stuff over, their Johnson is dead, and the loot is theirs. From there, you can set up small plot points to draw them along, but you haven't set up a resolution to the adventure arc you have. Always have your beginning, rising, climax, falling, ending set up, and work ideas within that. >what kinds of fun bullshit I can pull to dick them over a little if they play shitty Stop that, user, that is shitty DM'ing standard. The setting you are working in should be able to bring punishment down upon them if they tread foolishly, but if they are smart about being crooks, it is not your job to twist the setting in order to have your way. Talk to the players out of game about it if it comes to that kind of point.
Robert Williams
>Further, you are trying to use HoH and VoD no, they are just on my list of available books. as in, I can use them if I get a good suggestion for something to include. I mean that I don't want to use a .pdf copy of something at the table. no tech at the table, not even for research.
>set up a basic dungeon, rather than trying to knock out an entire campaign idea. nope, because I have one experienced player and one picky assed player demanding more than just one-shots. I should clarify, I've run one-shot "improv" games with no real concrete system before and part of why they want a campaign is so that there is a coherent story by the end.
>both of whom are packed full of extra mechanics most players never have used before (go ahead, deal them Vile damage, watch them freak out). it's my board gamming group and we LOVE THE SHIT out of complicated mechanics, playing stuff like SPEED Arkham Horror, or just picking up a complicated game and playing it first time perfect.
all that and I love to set up long campaigns(2 of which I worked on in other threads and we apparently good enough that other people played them and enjoyed them)
Parker Allen
>no tech at the table, not even for research. You are the DM, you have the implicit right to say bollocks to the rules the PLAYERS are under. >demanding more than just one-shots Good thing this isn't a one-shot, but the kick off to a campaign, then! If your players do not trust you to do right by them and allow you to run the game the way you want, that tells you that you have shitty players. I'm an experience player, too, for 24 years. Do you know how many times I have I have rescued a princess from a dragon? Zero times. It has never happened, ever, or anything remotely close. Do not conflate experience with not enjoying the basics, or you wouldn't be starting at low levels.
Asher Gray
>Commit slow and painful suicide? not an option, food on the observation ward fucking blows
>3) Bullshit. Ranger + Cleric or Druid can deal with most supply problems easily. And any party that doesn't know it in DnD world is dead meat. unless they don't play a ranger or druid? right now I have no idea what they're playing, could be 3 rogues and a left handed fighter...
>The aforementioned diplomatic problems - necromancer actually was supported by local lord and now he wants player characters dead. Like really dead. And sends a knight spear after them with added sorcerer. this could be good
>My principal pick with your books is that not every DM and every player is down to play a horror based campaign. again, those are just the books I HAVE, I don't NEED to use them, those are just all the options I want to use because physical media is best media
>it is FAR harder to do horror face to face than you may imagine. I actually won a small award for a frightening recitation of "the Undertakers Horse" (Rudyard Kipling)
as to running horror I also created pic related, pretty sure I can setting-build for horror...but it isn't the prime goal here...
>Stop that, user, that is shitty DM'ing standard. noted and stopped. the one experienced player is a really shitty person though...wanted to be ready...
>You are the DM, you have the implicit right to say bollocks to the rules the PLAYERS are under. no I meant for me too, I HATE having to wait for .pdfs to load, it bogs things down.
>Good thing this isn't a one-shot, but the kick off to a campaign, then! but how would I tie it into a start?
>If your players do not trust you to do right by them and allow you to run the game the way you want, that tells you that you have shitty players. I have no track record in running long-term things, and my BSRPG(BullShitRolePlayingGame) with its squishy inconsistent rules and resolutions really are shitty, and I DO want to do better...
Grayson Parker
this meant for
but I can't run this setting because it is supposed to feel like souls-bourne games, I don't want to run this in D&D when I don't know enough to be sure I can run it in ANY system properly much less whatever system I end up tacking on or brewing up.
Tyler Morris
if I ever want to run it I need to learn how to run SOMETHING first
Julian Gutierrez
>unless they don't play a ranger or druid? You say you have an experienced player, and then say you won't have a primary caster? Alright, user, advice. Sit everyone down at the table, and do a group character building session so you don't have stupid shit like 3 rogues and a fighter. >but it isn't the prime goal here... Your primary splatbooks are the horror game ones, you may need to think about what you are trying to do. >the one experienced player is a really shitty person though Then you pull them aside and tell them, in no guilded words, to knock the dumb shit off, or you will kick them, end story. NEVER ALLOW PLAYERS TO BULLY YOU, YOU RUN SHIT, ACK LIKE IT. >it bogs things down You are using it wrong. Pdfs exist to bring up bullet points, monster stats, trap things, and should be hotkeyed in or also written down in your notes. The pdf is a backup, not a primary. I run 4e with all material open, and I have a tablet with all the books on it, but anything I know I will be actively using, like DCs and such, I have written down. Empower yourself, my man, because the players are always out to roll you. >but how would I tie it into a start? The party ALREADY knows each other (this is important), trusts each other (more important), and all were approached about a well paying job, or if money isn't desired, boons/favors. This set up allows you to begin bringing horror elements into play slowly, get a little fighty on for the players who can only do fighty, introduce plot hints of something bigger (my players are currently balls deep in an abandoned Eladrin citadel made of towers. They HEARD a dragon roaring somewhere, every third walkway has collapsed on them, and IO've had 3 near tpks. I have put fear in them). Trust is absolutely vital in a game group, and like I said, if you said, hey, I got this campaign idea, they must allow you the latitude to get it going. No campaign starts off full throttle.
Austin Flores
Unless, of course, you start the game with them running out of a dungeon at night, everyone at half health, all slot/day abilities expended, being chased by a few dozen skellies. >always wanted to do this
Ryder Rogers
>right now I have no idea what they're playing, could be 3 rogues and a left handed fighter... If they play 3 rogues and fighter vs necromancer they die. Horribly. Consider describing how necromancer does some unspeakable things to them and laughs in their faces.
> those are just all the options I want to use because physical media is best media Unless the books at hand are shit. And they are shit for the type of adventure you want to do.
>noted and stopped. the one experienced player is a really shitty person though...wanted to be ready... Make him play ranger or maybe barbarian. They are not powerful enough to make you cry but good enough to make him complacent. Don't allow him to play full-casters (wizard, sorcerer, cleric, druid)
Kevin Turner
>...and then say you won't have a primary caster? he claims that he plays rogues and gimmick-fighters and nothing else because it always ends badly for him
>Your primary splatbooks are the horror game ones but not mandatory ones just what I have, and this ties into... >You are using it wrong. Pdfs exist to bring up bullet points, monster stats, trap things, and should be hotkeyed in or also written down in your notes. The pdf is a backup, not a primary. none of us have any tech thats portable and fast enough to be effective. if it takes 3 minutes to look up monster stats out of some book I don't have then it bogs down things. so I'd either have to print EVERYTHING, or limit myself to the books I have in hardcopy, and my atrocious handwriting.
I might do this and have it imply >The party ALREADY knows each other (this is important), trusts each other (more important), and all were approached about a well paying job, or if money isn't desired, boons/favors.
>Consider describing how necromancer does some unspeakable things to them and laughs in their faces. I can hope they get creative, it might work.
>Unless the books at hand are shit. and I also have no tech that could run the other splats...my desktop is not portable enough and thats all I have.
>Don't allow him to play full-casters he hates casters cause he dies horribly every time he plays one...but I may have to hard-limit him just in case...
Anthony Williams
>print EVERYTHING You can't copypaste shit and print what you need, user? >I can hope they get creative, it might work. No, user, it won't. That's actually the most unfortunate thing about magic in most D&D, you can't BE creative when using it or facing it, the rules are hardcoded to disallow it.
Brayden Rogers
>dies horribly every time he plays one He probably chooses an Evoker or Abjurer someshit.
Jeremiah Reyes
>You can't copypaste shit and print what you need, user? I mean that. every chunk and piece that I MIGHT potentially need would need to be printed out.
not gonna question it, he just won't play a full-caster.
>you can't BE creative when using it or facing it, the rules are hardcoded to disallow it. so a caster cannot be caught unawares? can't be tricked? or cannot be killed?
Nathan Myers
I got creative once! One of my party members had an outsider type, and once I really fucking needed them and the rest of the party, so I used Planar Binding to call him to me. Gave him the 'task' of snapping a twig, then gave it to him. Then all he had to do to be sent back to the party was to snap the twig and tell me about it.
A large problem I've found with 3.5 D&D is that fighters/maritals have basically nothing to do but full attack every round. Tome of Battle did a lot to fix that, as did (arguably) Magic of Incarnum, if you don't consider those more casters than martials.
Xavier Taylor
>so a caster cannot be caught unawares? Can. Jut not as easy as most other characters except skillmonkeys with maxed Spot/Listen. At higher levels he beats even them in ability to shit on surprise attacks.
Somewhere around level 6 is the best spot for most classes.
>can't be tricked? In theory. Until he gets dimension door, teleport, invisibility and other "get out" cards.
>or cannot be killed? Yeah that's a possibility until around level 15. After that it's mostly only dumb luck on the part of his opponents and only if he is incredibly dumb himself. Though good casters either have some way to stand up in the fight (druid, cleric) or have something on the ready to run away (wizard, sorcerer).
Joseph Morgan
>A large problem I've found with 3.5 D&D is that fighters/maritals have basically nothing to do but full attack every round. To make things better for them you will want at least "Complete X" series of books. There is some nice tactical feats.
Ethan Edwards
Just to add to this, the methods by which he may shit on surprise attacks are retarded gimmicky shit like "turn into a dire tortoise."
Nolan Cook
Dire tortoise? Say thanks that it is not pyrohydra.
Mason Morris
>every chunk and piece that I MIGHT potentially need would need to be printed out. Hol' up, user, you are getting silly. What you print out is only what you know you will need, like monster blocks, trap blocks, shit like that. Everything else you handle via the time honored tradition of "DM do your fucking job". You should be coming up with at least 40% of a campaign on the spot. Watched my old DM shut down a player abusing that with, "so, do you know what that is, how it works, with your terrible knowledge roll?". To be fair, the player was a twathole.
Jordan Cooper
If he wants to turn into a big firebreathing monster, that's fine. The only thing that infuriates me is shit like "I turn into an annis hag and then use a hat of disguise to look smexy" crap.
Asher Diaz
>A large problem I've found with 3.5 D&D is that fighters/maritals have basically nothing to do but full attack every round. not if they apply thought to the problem of "how can this be more effective?" but then, I am an engineer and solving problems based on shitty initial conditions is like, 90% of what I am trained to do...
but why would a caster have just those spells ready if they intended to spend their day or research, experimentation, enchanting, crafting undead, or working other plans?
like, I intend for the macguffin to be some "technically magical curiosity" the guy inherited so long ago he forgot about it.
(but I'm thinking it is really just the activator for a semi-automatic golem forge buried deeply beneath the starting county someplace)
>You should be coming up with at least 40% of a campaign on the spot. >40% I feel like this is a lot higher than it should be.
Jose Harris
>"so, do you know what that is, how it works, with your terrible knowledge roll?" Wizard that doesn't have Knowledges through the roof ? Shit wizard. Normally you can catch sorcerer's like this. Though this guys prefer "mobile artillery" style of combat. With teleports and dropping spells from a distance.
Christopher James
>but why would a caster have just those spells ready if they intended to spend their day or research, experimentation, enchanting, crafting undead, or working other plans? Because he doesn't want to die. Immortality if I remember right is a mid level spell in a Book of Vile Darkness. Necromancer has all the time in the world to deal with his projects. From his point of view dedicating 30-50% of spells to not dying is okay. He has the time. He runs away and returns a couple of days later with support and loaded to gills with combat spells.
Just a minor setback.
Logan Reed
Because nothing about that would be interfered with by prepping such spells.
By the way, if you let PCs hang out as dire tortoises to evade surprise rounds, you're a pushover. Same with turning into balors repeatedly for free magic swords etc.
Brody Lewis
this is actually fine so far. cause the party just needs to be in and out with specific loot, plus whatever they can carry, and then be on their merry way. if they get greedy they might easily die and that would be their fault
>By the way, if you let PCs hang out as dire tortoises to evade surprise rounds, you're a pushover. Same with turning into balors repeatedly for free magic swords etc. can the PCs do this at level 3-8?
starting level is 3...
Michael Phillips
>I am an engineer and solving problems based on shitty initial conditions is like, 90% of what I am trained to do... Unfortunately, you can't apply real life sensibilities to D&D, and you NEVER have been. At best, you can ignore the spirit of the rules on paper but, you, the DM, must realize what the actual idea of the rule is supposed to be. Shit like that can apply to trapchecking, but doesn't for magic. >but why would a caster have just those spells ready if they intended to spend their day or research, experimentation, enchanting, crafting undead, or working other plans? A caster, especially an evil one that can honestly have something to fear from being found out, will have back up plans. Remember that your BBEG caster is going to have int of 16+, already making them a literal genius. Don't play enemies as stupider than what they are so you can make a point. >I feel like this is a lot higher than it should be. Because you have never run an actual campaign. You can not prepare for what 4+ other thinking humans are going to do with anything approaching regularity, and the real challenge of the DM is to be flexible enough to remain on the ball and present a living world that reacts to the players as much as the players must react to the world. >Wizard that doesn't have Knowledges through the roof ? Shit wizard He literally had a bad roll, user. It was just under the hd limit, and the DM ruled you needed at least 10 past the hd limit to transform and gain all benefits.
Connor Howard
If you're talking about real life situations, no, 99% of campaigns will not have to worry about broken horseshit like that gets bandied around. Most players, for example, do not know how Conjuration is all powerful. So don't worry about it.
William Taylor
Can't always assume, user. All it takes is a visit to any of the charop sites.
Ethan Stewart
one of them comes here and likes to hear about broken character-builds from time to time...like the Hulking Hurler or Pun-Pun or the Light-Speed Monk. inexperienced does NOT mean incompetent, thats the other part of why I am forcing a limit on starting conditions to the Core Books limits some bullshit
Matthew Ortiz
That's why I said 99%. I've been DMing for 22+ years, never seen *anything* of the level of retardation that gets bandied around online. The very worse was the annis hag one. And yes, I do have plenty of players that use CharOp builds -- the results are never stupid shit like that pops up in these threads.
So yeah. 99% is a conservative estimate. The people who really do CLAIM that they would spend all their free time polymorphed into a dire tortoise essentially never play.
Michael Nelson
>I am forcing a limit on starting conditions to the Core Books limits some bullshit
Nice, I too agree that casters should always reign supreme over faggy muggles.
Nolan Reed
???????
Lincoln King
Core only utterly, completely fucks the less magical classes while ensuring wizards, clerics and druids utterly, completely fucking dominate over them. Its a bad idea unless all you're after is caster supremacy.
Benjamin Martinez
And by doing so, you are literally crippling legitimate character ideas into not working status, like a sword and board warrior of any stripe, a paladin full stop, a monk. Shit, you'd do better banning all of core and allowing splat classes rather than the other way around. Rather than throwing the baby with the water, ask players what they want to do, and open up options to allow them to do it competently. I don't mean the outrageous shit that are not actual characters rather than mechanics studies, I mean players who trip up the power level of a game because they looked up the "right" spells to use, or the "right" acfs to use on classes that are already powerful on their own right. I once made a good paladin in a 3.pf game that was paladin(mystic fire knight)6/fist of raziel1/swordsage1/crusader1/marshal2/warlord(bushi/privateer)1, who was a dragonborn draconic lesser aasimar who ended up with the Saint template. The entire party was made of martials and partial casters, and I went from a beatstick to group support bastion, and we had a good fucking time righting wrongs and bashing the bad guys faces in. Then some faggot brought in a wizard, and another faggot brought in a minmaxed cleric, and it all went to hell.
Brandon Lopez
FUCK
>you'd do better banning all of core and allowing splat classes rather than the other way around. but I have none of those books except in .PDF format and printer ink is stupid expensive.
Anthony Perry
Fortunately, they just reprinted most of the 3.5 books! And really, just allow the players to use classes outside the core book, have them write down class features and shit, you can use the fuckever you want.
Nicholas Hill
>Fortunately, they just reprinted most of the 3.5 books! are they cheaper than printer ink?
Juan Price
Dunno how much your printer ink is, user. But you can ebay a fair few of them for nickels on the dollar.
Carter Bennett
I am not sure why people are bitching about caster supremacy and broken game mechanics for a bunch of first-time players starting at Level 3. I mean, sure, someone could end up picking Druid + Wolf and make a joke out of a bunch of dualclassed Monk/Rangers in the party, but I highly doubt that's happening. At least, it shouldn't be the primary concern.
I am no expert on making campaigns myself. However, in general, I would recommend picking a "theme" for the campaign and trying to build up around that. Perhaps the theme is orcs/ogres, and so it becomes about some unusual orc activity and so you throw in orcs with levels or ogres or various half-breeds in most situations. Perhaps the theme is ghosts possessing people, and so you tie it into a necromancer or a possessing demon. Just don't make it "dragons" or "demons of hell" because you likely won't ever be getting that far; expect to wrap things up around Level 8 to Level 10, the way most campaigns go.
From there, just build dungeons or situations which relate to the main theme of the campaign. They don't always need to be the same or feature the same enemies, just toss in a few indications pointing towards the theme. Perhaps the first adventure is off to take care of a bunch of kobold bandits holed up in a destroyed altar to Gruumsh (orc deity) as opposed to just dealing with orc bandits every time. I'd also recommend trying to keep such dungeons/plots short to start out with. There's nothing more boring then sitting down for the first game and the DM expecting you to fully prepare and explore some massive temple dungeon just because it is there.
Isaiah Turner
One last tip: when making bigbad NPCs, give them some sort of motivation and decide what the NPC is planning on doing, not how the NPC reacts to the PCs. Far too many new DMs just make some combat NPC and try to crowbar it into a situation where it will fight the PCs, because EPIC BOSS BATTLE!! Instead, you'd want the NPC to be trying to accomplish something (get the thing, do the thing) and either push forward or retreat, depending on their personality, when the PCs create an obstacle. It makes them a bit more believable - or gives them a bit more personality - as opposed to just being a character sitting in an empty room until the PCs happen to show up.
Tyler Gutierrez
I don't get it.
If you want to play core only low level 3.5... why not just play 5e instead? It was basically made for people who want to play like that.
Michael Miller
I might prowl the half-price bookstore and hope...
>I would recommend picking a "theme" for the campaign working on that in my head...
Logan Robinson
make them fight a mind flayer lich and have them go into his mind to destroy the phylactery
Nicholas Carter
>At least, it shouldn't be the primary concern. No, but it is something that the DM should be aware of, because the thing about it is it's insidiousness. You know how people found out about Caster Supremacy? Because groups that made basic druids, or wizards that weren't blasters, or clerics that decided to buff themselves rather than be healbots did massively better than other classes. It's not about intent, it's about shit, this happened and I didn't even see it coming. And if it doesn't happen? Capital, everything goes as planned.
Austin Allen
Just pick a monster which looks interesting. Preferably, something that a 8th-10th level party could take out. (So around CR12 or CR14 at most.)
Charles Martin
>You know how people found out about Caster Supremacy? >Because groups that made basic druids, or wizards that weren't blasters, or clerics that decided to buff themselves rather than be healbots did massively better than other classes. Oh, I know. I was the guy who preferred playing Fighter/Clerics in AD&D2e, and so went Fighter 2/Cleric 4 or whatever with my first D&D3e character. I also tried out a Druid early, to see how the changes went, and played a Gnome Wizard with high CON. I'm well aware of how easy the game is to break to pieces.
I'm also aware that my first Cleric was not exceptionally stronger than the party Fighter, especially since I spent most of my spells healing rather than more optimal options (like buffing AC). It might be a concern with the one experienced player at the table, but I would assume that simply talking to them to make a non-broken character would be the best option.
Also, don't be afraid to ask players to switch up classes (or even if the experienced player can make something which works better for other players) in order to remove blatant imbalance. Most players generally do not enjoy lording over the rest of the party with their SuperPC, from what I've seen. They will, and I have, been willing to retire a particular character early if it just turns out too strong and overshadowing everyone else.
Michael Adams
in other news the experienced player just claimed that he was going "1rogue/2Fighter"
because I only have the 3.5 books and new 5e books are expensive.
but as written(for now) the Necromancer is actually just some hapless dude. the duke in the beginning had an investigator track the item he wanted, it was in the possession of a certain necro.
he wants the item, and the necro has no way to really know whats coming.
granted, if the necro runs from the fight he can become the BBEG after that "because they had the audacity to invade my house and burgle my posessions"
Chase Bell
>because I only have the 3.5 books and new 5e books are expensive.
The SRD is free online.
Brody Williams
>the experienced player just claimed that he was going "1rogue/2Fighter" Oh.
That kind of "experienced".
Well, okay. Sounds like he'll be decent in combat, at least a bit, but not going to wreck your campaign.
>the Necromancer is actually just some hapless dude. >the duke in the beginning had an investigator track the item he wanted, it was in the possession of a certain necro. Sounds fine for a one-shot, or even a few game sessions working that out, but doesn't sound exactly like a campaign.
Which is fine. You can have them run off on that quest and take care of it while planning the rest of the campaign. The one quest might not have much relation to the rest, but there's nothing saying that the PCs can't run off and kill a random evil NPC while doing everything else.
My biggest concern with using a Necromancer is that it will be 5th level (if a Cleric) or 7th level (if a Wizard) minimum to be casting Animate Dead, assuming we are talking about a spellcaster who is creating undead for their own purposes. That, along with a few skeletons/zombies, will be exceptionally difficult for a 3rd level party without some creative thinking.
Mind you, the party doesn't NEED to fight the Necromancer directly. They could fight something like a Bugbear Zombie with a few skeletons guarding the whatever instead, which is a bit less likely to instantly kill some of the party. Do be a bit wary about throwing the Necromancer at such a party directly. You'd probably want to come up with some excuse why the necro would be caught somewhat unprepared; perhaps with just a single zombie alongside them.
Evan Parker
SO, HERE'S THE NEW PLAN.
players start in medias res, skipping the buisines of tavern figures lurking in hooded corners of some dark, introducing them to each other.
there is a town crier/job board calling for adventurers, not many are doing more than reading/listening out of idle curiosity.
meet the duke!
given a copied illustration of the object and sent out on their way
adventures along the way occur
arrive and slay their way into the lair of the necro
necro escapes
PCs find the thing in a dusty chest in a storage room
PCs return, in the woods around them they begin to notice things. climax point is a distinctive creature attacking them, one they met and already killed before. necro is after them...slowly...
they return in time for the old dukes funeral
dukes son is a piece of shit individual and refuses to pay for the artifact, imprisoning the party if they get uppity over not being paid.
>That kind of "experienced". claims to prefer pathfinder airquotes why?
>My biggest concern with using a Necromancer is that it will be 5th level (if a Cleric) or 7th level (if a Wizard) minimum to be casting Animate Dead. ...animate dead is a 1-turn spell witha permanent effect. whose to say that a necro cant simply have a slower easier way of producing undead? sure, that means no animating corpses mid-battle, but it seems reasonable that before you learn the fast way you learn the slow way...
>That, along with a few skeletons/zombies, will be exceptionally difficult for a 3rd level party without some creative thinking. I intend for the trip to the necro's house to take long enough to level a couple of times...
>You'd probably want to come up with some excuse why the necro would be caught somewhat unprepared; perhaps with just a single zombie alongside them. fledgling necro, surviving student of a much more powerful one. not in the habit of being paranoid, yet.
this circles back to not having fast or portable tech to look shit up on...
Brayden Howard
the bit after the imprisonment is where I am confus
Grayson Wilson
>airquotes why? In general, there are two kinds of people experienced with D&D3e/Pathfinder.
One type are the ones who have seen how the system works and how the system breaks, who understands the abuses of 5' steps and Concentration checks, and who can look at wands as the most efficient source of healing.
The other type understands some basic mechanics, and thinks that dual-wielding sneak attack bonuses are absurdly powerful because it means twice as many sneak attacks in a round.
It sounds like your player is in the second camp, or perhaps in the first but willing to go with an intentionally underpowered setup for fun. Which is probably good, since it means you won't need to spend as much time worrying about party balance.
>whose to say that a necro cant simply have a slower easier way of producing undead? As long as the party doesn't ask for or attempt to use the method, that should be fine. I guess I'm just a bit paranoid, as I've had parties who look into such things and say "Well if this guy could animate an army of skeletons, why don't we do the same and use them on adventures?"
>I intend for the trip to the necro's house to take long enough to level a couple of times My concern there is that leveling up can take quite awhile. It's around 13 battles, buy the book standard, between each level. Having 25 random battles along the road is quite the ordeal, and would be rather dull if they are all random encounters. And if they aren't - if this is effectively a forest dungeon just to reach the necro's front door - then you should be focusing your effort on that and those 25 encounters, making them interesting, since that's what the party will be doing for the next few sessions.
>not in the habit of being paranoid, yet. Makes sense. It will probably bring up the question of where the mentor went.
Lucas Baker
>SO, HERE'S THE NEW PLAN. Sounds like it could work. I wouldn't plan on the necro getting away necessarily. They should have an escape plan, although if they are bumbling enough to not even have a zombie in the room when attacked, then it would be a wonder if they had an amazing escape plan set up.
I would say that the thing should likely be someplace in the room the necro was found in - perhaps tucked away in a chest in the corner of the room. Logic being that it was something the previous master had stolen, and so the apprentice necro didn't know enough to do anything with it. Tucking it away in a closet means that the PCs might miss it, especially if they aren't searching every square foot and/or fail a search check. But you'd better believe that the party will look through a chest found in the "boss room".
You might want to make some rooms in the necro tower intentionally easy to fortify, if you plan on having the PCs rest up after a large battle before running into the "distinctive creature" on the way back. Players are unlikely to be inclined to casually sleep in a tower full of undead, unless they can securely barricade the door and windows.
The rest sounds good, although the obvious question "why did the duke suddenly die?" will come up.
Chase Gray
>PHB only
Good job dumbass. Also nice on banning gimmick builds because gimmick builds are the only thing that can save fighters and barbarians because they have 0 good feats in the PHB.
You gave them the most powerful classes in the game.
You can rectify this by banning druids, wizards and clerics. Possibly sorcerers too.
Caster supremacy is apparent by 7th level. At 9th level I created a fucking hurricane and splatted all of our enemies on the walls behind us. See to try and "limit us" the GM gave us wild magic by that we roll 1d6. I chose odds so 1 is a +1 cl 2 is a -1 cl 3 is +2 cl, etc you get the point. I used a bead of karma and i counted as having a cl of 16.
What's your fighter gonna do when the death cleric is animating undead armies at level 5?
Joseph Collins
>where the mentor went. choked to death on a fish-bone and had an enchanted self-fulfilling last will and testament that prevents him from being contacted after death(BECAUSE FUCK YOU AND YOUR PROBLEMS APPRENTICE, YOU PROBABLY KILLED ME YOURSELF)
>"Well if this guy could animate an army of skeletons, why don't we do the same and use them on adventures?" cause doing so requires that you soak yourself in dark energies that change your nature as a living being first...
It's around 13 battles, buy the book standard a couple of small dungeons then? so 5-6 small adventures on the way, then perhaps the necro lives a couple of counties over...
>before running into the "distinctive creature" on the way back. oh, no the implication is that the creatures they killed on the trek to the necromancers den are being animated to harass them on the journey BACK by the necromancer using some cheap trick or pre-enchanted doodad leftover from his late mentor. it may also imply that the necro is actually FOLLOWING them back...
>"why did the duke suddenly die?" no idea, might be I watch a lot of shows where the hero goes through all that hard work for a thing to find out it was basically worthless... BUT IT COULD BE A TWIST
Easton Cruz
Fair enough. I'm mostly raising concerns/issues because they might crop up during your campaign or when planning, so it is worth thinking a little bit about it now rather than scrambling to think up a solution when the planning is otherwise done and campaign is half over.
If you are planning some 5-6 dungeons, then perhaps tie the dungeons together with the necromancer being the final bit of an overall campaign? Perhaps the necromancer stole the item but nobody knows where he went, so the adventures involve visiting the places where the necromancer lived at one point and trying to collect clues to where he ran off to, if not find the object in one of them. You could probably make a few locations for the PCs to search right off the bat: the old mage tower where the necro used to live (inhabited by other stuff now), the grave site of an abandoned town where the necro raised most of the bodies, etc.
As one last bit of advice: I would recommend against filling the campaign entirely with undead. Especially if you are going to be using rogues, the undead's immunity to sneak attack is going to be a massive pain. It makes sense for undead to be thick in the final necro tower, but other locations could easily be inhabited by animals or orcs or anything else which had moved in since they were abandoned.
Carson Gonzalez
>I would recommend against filling the campaign entirely with undead no worries there.
if I were the necro, I'd take everything necro-related with me that I could.
means that all his previous lairs would be empty shells probably inhabited by nut-jobs that don't mind the light dusting of dark-energy-crazies permeating the locations...
Chase Howard
Nah you rectify it by allowing psionics and tome of battle. Weaker casters, stronger martials.
David Torres
convert it to a different system
Jaxon Ortiz
no can do.
Oliver Cox
PLAYER TWO HAS CHIMED IN AS DRUID3
Colton Barnes
IT BEGINS!
Bentley Baker
>I HAVE A POTENTIAL SIDE-QUEST
"so" says the man in the heavily acid-stained tunic.
"the guild of alchemists has purchased this island in the middle of the river and sent me to survey it for a new branch guild-hall and research laboratory. I tried yesterday, but it seems the subterranean sections are more expansive and infested with (monsters?) than I was lead to believe by the seller so I am paying to you a measure of my seed-gold for the project to clear. though I'd far prefer to pay you in guild-script you can redeem at any affiliated laboratory or guild-hall for chemical supplies, reageants, equipment, or other saleable items"
"oh, no, none of the things on the cart are for sale I need them to prep the structure as it's built"
"yes, once the job is done and my things moved over I can sell you the cart and the donkey at a fair and reasonable price"
"do hurry, the team of Masons is a handful of days out from here and I must have the first part of the surveying done by then."
Jordan Gutierrez
This is rather good.
Ryan Torres
yeah, I still need monsters to put in this remote ruin that a team of 3 level 3 characters can handle
Nathan James
"we've been having a lot of raids on local farms, a half dozen cattle at a time going missing or slaughtered , bales of straw, sacks of grain or potatoes laid up against the winter"
"The Reziel farm was burned down last night and all but the youngest was killed."
"it was the big man with the horns, he told the animals to do it they killed my mum and dragged off the grain"
>druid raiding farms to prep for winter >need a zone-map for the druid camp >are the stat-blocks for boar representative of their actual level of danger IRL? >if not I can do a wolf-pack instead
Anthony Baker
so I have a main line, and a pair of side-quests.
ANYONE HAVE ANY MORE IDEAS?
I'll be posting game-maps I want to put to use just because it's a better way to bump the thread
Josiah Lee
...
Logan Green
...
Nolan Jackson
...
Christopher Myers
...
Cooper Edwards
...
Adam Stewart
...
Hudson Moore
That Damn Crab - it is CR 3
Robert Wilson
Is not that their son dont gonna pay, but that their sons dont want the mcguffin.
The mcguffin is a map for a crazy old legend, and the duke was a pretty excentric guys. The sons only want to fuck bitches and stay drunk so dont have time for that stupid nosense.
The players now witht the mcguffin in their hands has to make some money to survive while looking for more information. So you can insert an autoconclusive adventure before advancing the plot.
Mason Walker
>you can't BE creative when using it or facing it, the rules are hardcoded to disallow it. >what is grease
Lucas Phillips
maybe he wants to play a game thats not crap.
especially at lower levels people bitch about caster supremacy in 3e but at least wizards dont get infinite casts of any element they want at an absurd range at level 1 in 3e
Michael Watson
you can buy the pdfs online from drive through rpg
wizards used to have a frontend for d&d on that site but im not sure what happened to it
Julian Brooks
...
Are you bitching about 5e cantrips at low levels? Also known as "shit, I'd be better off using a thrown weapon until 5"?
Aaron Evans
I like this, and might use it instead.
I had an idea already about WHAT it does, might be cool to swing it your way instead...
STOP THAT I'm playing 3.5 because I happen to actually have hard copies of the books because .pdfs are not a viable means/method
Luke Flores
what book is the crab in, and whats its actual name?(so I can look it up; dire-crabs arent in the monster appendix) what do you think of a minor water elemental bound in the basement for a boss monster in ???
