Hey, everyone. I am making a homebrew campaign somewhat loosely based on the witcher game series. The players will belong to a monster hunting school tasked with hunting down some exotic and highly dangerous creatures.
Having never created a campaign before I figured I'd see if anyone here had some ideas for cool stuff to include into the campaign. Anything from:
Cool quests
Challenging monster ideas
Interesting items
Unique NPCs
Etc
I realize the topic is fairly broad and I am still in the brainstorming part session for the campaign. So what you all got?
How exactly do you want your world to look like the Witcher serie ?
Because iirc magic is really rare, there is really few people who really master magic like pathfinder wizzard (the sorcelor have really limited magic power). Same for the magic items.
Try to look for the lore before the first game, when sorcelor school were popular.
You could try a world where the commoner and even the little-medium nations are powerless against even the small monster because they don't know anything about magic.
Also, consider either playing the training / youth of the monster hunter with fast progression rate or start at higher level because the whole point is that the sorcelors are way superior to the humans.
Last thing : hunting cool and unique monster is fun, but will become repetive. Mix it with some plot and try to force the players to gather information about the monster before the fight.
You should also add plot with local nobility/nation and competition with other monster hunter school.
How exactly do you want your world to look like the Witcher serie ?
Because iirc magic is really rare, there is really few people who really master magic like pathfinder wizzard (the sorcelor have really limited magic power). Same for the magic items.
Try to look for the lore before the first game, when sorcelor school were popular.You could try a world where the commoner and even the little-medium nations are powerless against even the small monster because they don't know anything about magic.
Also, consider either playing the training / youth of the monster hunter with fast progression rate or start at higher level because the whole point is that the sorcelors are way superior to the humans.
Last thing : hunting cool and unique monster is fun, but will become repetive. Mix it with some plot and try to force the players to gather information about the monster before the fight.
You should also add plot with local nobility/nation and competition with other monster hunter school.
Some good questions. A little more about the campaign: It will be taking place in a low-magic setting where casters are rare and the PCs will all be martial characters. At various points they might be able to get some SLAs similar to the signs the witchers have.
For the training/studying the players will be able to effectively buy extra feats, skill points, etc representing their increased abilities from the school.
And good point on the monsters potentially being repetitive. There will be an overaching plot that the monster hunting is just a part of, however, some of my players read these forums so I can't go too into that. There will be points in which the monsters will require advance planning and research on:
I.E. the group is contracted to hunt some beast that is killing peasants in the country side. Maybe studying some of the bodies they can get a clue as to what type of creature is doing the killing and realize it is a special type manticore that has fast heal 20 unless struck with a specific toxin that neutralizes that creatures regeneration.
This seems fun :)
Just a little point based on my previous experiences (may be I'm wrong) but I think pathfinder is not really balanced for combat with 1 big monster against a PC team. Because if you want the fight to be memorable it have to last a few turns, but the damage and resistance of the monster scale together and the action economy is defavorable to the monster. So if you want a monster that can survive few turn with several PC focusing on it, he is going to have some really dangerous attack and will probably one-shoot your PC on a critical hit (or kill a wizzard in one turn with a full attack).
Some more experienced players/GM could have some suggestion of encounter, or maybe you could houserule some monster for higher resistance / lower damage.
A piece of advice on big monster fights - add +2 to its CR and just double its hp, maybe even just roll the Mythic Initiative power into it without making the creature Mythic. Let's the creature last longer and gives it more action economy. If your players are built with hunting monsters in mind, they're probably going to deal a good bit of damage themselves.
Yeah, those are some good suggestions. And a lot of the fights won't necessarily be one huge monster either. No reason that werewolf can't be part of a pack or the dragon might not have some hatchlings around that would help it in a fight.
Some of the main things I am looking for are interesting non-magical gear ideas, quests, and potentially what a recommended difference would be between buying things like skill points, feats, etc? Like if a skill point cost 100gp should a feat cost 500, 1000, more/less?
I really wouldn't delve into buying skill points and feats with money, as character builds that don't need as much money can then buy themselves more feats to make even crazier characters. But if you're really set on it, make sure to have some hard rules about how many feats people can buy (maybe no more than one every even level) and make sure it takes significant time. That way if other people don't want to buy a feat, they have downtime to craft or make plans.
I would refer you to the excellent Dungeoncraft series of articles that was orginally written a decade or so ago. It still for me offers the most intimate helpful and step by step guide to creating a campaign that I have ever read.
http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/dnd/dungeoncraft/
One of the Key rules is "Don't make up more than you have to." you don't have time.
That said, some themes for a Witcher campaign could be....
1. Those in power are generally corrupt/selfish/untrustworthy
2. Peasants are generally superstitious, uneducated and racist.
3. The wilderness is dangerous - you can't just cross the wilderness safely.
4. Monsters draw on superstition and folklore. Key monsters should probably be of a higher CR than normal but with lots of opportunities to prepare/gather equipment/research the beast.
5. Use more obscure monsters from the later bestiaries/AP's or even make adjustments to normal monsters. Add poison, new abilities, resistances etc.
6. Non-humans are potential allies but are also despised and mistrusted by many.
7. Religion and superstition are intertwined - perhaps a system there is no proof gods exist and divine magic is seen as just another type of magic(a la Eberron).
8. Lastly and maybe most important for me - the series is set against a backdrop of War. The major conflicts bring out the worst in people and create a backdrop of uncertaintanty, insecurity and poverty that allow the monsters to survive and thrive. The authorities won't help because resources are being taken up by more pressing needs war. That means that the Witcher characters are the only hope for nobles and peasants alike.
Good luck. I got into the series in the last year and am just playing through the third game for the second time but on Deathmarch this time. I love it. My favourite line in the game is the when one of the kids in the swamp orphanage says "Heard an ol' man say once, when the army was here, he says, "Hide them lasses in the woods! They's dazzlin' the soldiers with their t!@*, and it's torturin' the poor lads!" That’s what he said." The kids in that game get all the best lines.
Mechanically I would consider looking at 5th Edition D&D specifically the rules for legendary monsters (they get passes on saving throws and extra actions) and also the short and long rest mechanics (easily replicates meditation).
I would refer you to the excellent Dungeoncraft series of articles that was orginally written a decade or so ago. It still for me offers the most intimate helpful and step by step guide to creating a campaign that I have ever read.
http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/dnd/dungeoncraft/
One of the Key rules is "Don't make up more than you have to." you don't have time.
That said, some themes for a Witcher campaign could be....
1. Those in power are generally corrupt/selfish/untrustworthy
2. Peasants are generally superstitious, uneducated and racist.
3. The wilderness is dangerous - you can't just cross the wilderness safely.
4. Monsters draw on superstition and folklore. Key monsters should probably be of a higher CR than normal but with lots of opportunities to prepare/gather equipment/research the beast.
5. Use more obscure monsters from the later bestiaries/AP's or even make adjustments to normal monsters. Add poison, new abilities, resistances etc.
6. Non-humans are potential allies but are also despised and mistrusted by many.
7. Religion and superstition are intertwined - perhaps a system there is no proof gods exist and divine magic is seen as just another type of magic(a la Eberron).
8. Lastly and maybe most important for me - the series is set against a backdrop of War. The major conflicts bring out the worst in people and create a backdrop of uncertaintanty, insecurity and poverty that allow the monsters to survive and thrive. The authorities won't help because resources are being taken up by more pressing needs war. That means that the Witcher characters are the only hope for nobles and peasants alike.
Good luck. I got into the series in the last year and am just playing through the third game for the second time but on Deathmarch this time. I love it. My favourite line in the game is the when one of the kids in the swamp orphanage says "Heard an ol' man say once, when the army was here, he says, "Hide them lasses in the woods! They's...
Sorry for the late reply. Been busy. Thanks for the feedback and advice, definitely some good stuff here.
1. Definitely going to be present to some extent.
2. Also to some extent. Maybe not quite the degree featured in the witcher series.
3. Absolutely.
4. Yep. The real bosses are going to be extremely tough. Having tricks like mythic initiative, extremely high DR, regeneration, etc. But also the ability to learn about them ahead of time and find a way to neutralize their biggest advantages.
5. Going to be more modification then anything.
6. Haven't decided how much I'm going in on this one.
7. Probably not this time. But an interesting idea for the future.
8. This one is also going to be present. Haven't decided what kingdoms should be the main players in the conflicts or even if I should have it in the standard pathfinder setting or just make one up.
EDIT: And for the concern over characters that don't need gear buying more feats the value in GP was just an example trying to get a reference for pricing comparison. In the campaign they will have a special pool of points earned by doing quests. So gear dependency won't in itself be an issue.
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I played some Witcher 3, I am not sure whether the preparation for fights with alchemical goodies was that important, because I didn't bother with any (playing at easiest level difficulty though). Did boss fights, no goodies. Heck 3/4 of the time, i don't even bother to trap wraiths in Ydren before I roll behind them and smack the sh*t out of them. The lets play I watched, at the 2nd hardest difficulty didn't bother with potions or oils. So the emphasis on those preparations to me doesn't make sense.
Witcher can be a pretty crappy world, since your actions, even with the best intentions can result in screwed up results. It's all gray morality, there's no real right choice and you'll alwaya end up stepping on some nice guy's toes no matter which option you choose(please warn your players beforehand about the nature of the world).
I don't think pathfinder was really meant for Witcher conversions, since the best I can think of Geralt is as a magus/alchemist gestalt.