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 Recent posts by
roll4initiative:
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Rezdave wrote:
Put another way, your BBEG goes from being an EL 8 to being an EL 9 with a CR 1 Henchman (or some extra trick up his sleeve).
HTH,
Rez
Thanks. Now that the Ranger will be getting her animal companion (actually a plant companion from an article in Dragon magazine), the party's level is boosted even more. I did run a couple higher level adventures for the group. Worked out nice with a few adjustments. A couple creatures were a bit too tough on the characters by dropping two of them to negative HPs but I don't want to be easy on the party!
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Rich2346 wrote:
I cant believe that 4 is an average group......
I know! Adjusting the treasure is a pain in the ass! Luckily, I have plenty of time during the week to do my "homework". I just try to gauge the party vs. the group of monsters or monster as best as possible.
Adding hit points, attack adjustments, and better weapons (masterwork or magical) has been the best formula so far.
And, yeah, I almost constantly "fudge" die rolls behind my screen!
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I just started the STAP again with a new group of players consisting of two veteran D&D players and two newbies. we stuck the campaign in the Forgotten Realms. Here's the details:
Male Human Swashbuckler - based his character from Master and Commander. New to D&D and wanted to start his character as a captain of a ship but I had to explain to him that he would have to be at least 5th level to have that kind of experience. Hails as a noble from The Champion's district.
Female Half-elf Cleric of Lliira - Another newbie to the game. She has the highest strength and charisma of the party. Great door-basher and diplomat. Non-native of Sasserine (from Amn). Her profession is "herbalist" so I've mentioned to her about possibly trying a druid for her next character if this one should ever die, and in this campaign, that will probably happen.
Male Human Rogue/Scout - A veteran of my group that I have been gaming with for 8 years. Just took a feat from Complete Scoundrel that stacks his Sneak Attack damage with Skirmish damage. Make's his home under a bridge in Shadowshore. Now happy to be in the employ of Lavinia Vanderboren.
Male elf Sorcerer - Created with PH starting package. Three out of four weeks he is played by the veteran player or myself or another veteran that can only play once a month. Obviously, since this guy is played by three different players, he has split personalities. Native of Sasserine with a fear of getting in the water.
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Fake Healer wrote:
I believe I have R4I's party details from the STObits....
Dw'Zin Kegfloater: dwarf cleric 4/fighter 2
Captain Roberto DeMorgan: human swashbuckler 6
Elzedar Ras: mongrelfolk rogue 5/fighter 1
!!Dhurrkh (click-click-dirk): Darfellan ranger 3/fighter 3
There are 2 things that stand out as having a hugely negative role in this group.
1. No arcane caster. Arcane casters do damage to many creatures at once, making the melee meat shields not become overwhelmed by a bunch of mooks.
2. It looks like everyone in the group was trying to be a fighter...fighter/rogue, fighter/ranger, fighter/cleric, only 2 guys in the group look like they to an actual "role" in the party. The ranger/fighter (depending on combat style) looks like he takes the role of meatshield or ranged combat, and the Swashbuckler takes on his role. The other 2 look confused as to where they fit in with the group.
By multiclassing into melee roles they seem to have lessened their effectiveness. A 4th level cleric in a 6th level challenging game is unacceptable as the only healer. No arcane caster, even a limited caster like sorcerer, bard, or beguiler, is unacceptable in a challenging game.
Fighter (barbarian, ranger, etc.)
Cleric (druid, healer, etc.)
Rogue (beguiler, or other trapfinder, etc.)
Wizard (sorcerer, etc.)
That is the classic 4 member crew in D&D with variety thrown in. Your group had mostly fighters mixed with a minimum of healing and stealth classes.
If the group is as experienced as you say, then they should have seen the glaringly obvious deficiencies in their group and compensated for them.
They didn't. They died. Lesson learned.
FH
This is all true! My players are the total hack'n'slash type. I told them they'd be better off with a well rounded party but one player told me that "it doesn't matter what the party is comprised of". This player also told me that the authors of adventures in Dungeon Magazine write them for their players which are their playtesters and therefore can't judge how another group will handle the adventure. I'm going to print out your reply to show the group! Thanks for your input!
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Well, my players bought alot of the books and try to use everything they can find. New classes, races, feats, spells, etc. When fighting The Mother of All the party consisted of a Mongrelfolk rogue, Human swashbuckler, Dwarf cleric, and Darfellen Ranger all of 6th level. The books most frequently used other than the Core books are: Stormwrack, Spell Compendium, Complete Warrior, Complete Adventurer, Complete Arcane & Divine. All characters were rolled up with the standard 4d6 and I allow three sets of 6 rolls with the player choosing the best of the three so all PCs were pretty much above average. I've been running the Shackled City Hardcover for a different group and they've been breezing through it! So much so that I had to boost the ECLs by a monster or two (that group is currently part way through the 6th adventure which occurs on the plane of Occipitus where they're fighting demon after demon). I kinda think my players just weren't into a high seas/swashbucklin' adventure path as much as I was into running it. I've always run adventures only from Dungeon Magazine for the group having problems with STAP. Oh! also, this is the first time they've played 3.5! We've been doing AD&D 2.0 since 1999.
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Drakli wrote:
I believe if you have 5 ranks in it, it also synergises to give survival checks made underground a +2. And beyond identifying monsters, their strengths, and their weaknesses, I believe it's also useful for understanding underground ecology, identifying cave structures, cultures of Underdark etc. Knowledge Dungeoneering might be considered a skill to roll upon when trying to figure out what to take for gear on an extended delve.
I think the Knowledge skills are more or less supposed to be "How much do I know about 'Blah?'" skills. When the DM (or the player with DM approval) thinks the player might know about some place, creature, phenomenon, etc, the roll happens.
Thanks so much, my player says "works for me"! I agree.
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