I sat down today with my Bard, and she is kind of fine with carrying less gear. She had intended to play kind of a weakling, so she is ready to face the disadvantages. Tomorrow I sit down with my gaming group if they all are fine with it, and if yes, I'll probably implement encumbrance in one way or another.
A lot of good ideas in this thread! Thanks for all the replies! I really like carrying a bag of gear to be dropped before combat. Also the simplified encumbrance rules seem quite nice, I'll give those another good thought.
As for perception, the answer to my riddles or the solution to a problem is (almost) never using the perception skill in my adventures. We only played 3 games yet, so maybe the trend isn't visible yet :P I'll have a good OOC chat and will try to include more skills, maybe that helps.
Again, thanks for all the replies and discussion! It really makes you think ;)
So, I'm running my first Pathfinder campaign with a group brand-new to RPG's in general. We've run into two problems, one of the rule sort and one of the more general sort.
One of my players, a Barbarian, wants to play with encumbrance, which we ignored until now. However, the rules seem a bit harsh to me. Would using the rules as written mean that our poor 8-strength Bard can only carry 26 lbs. in combat without taking penalties to rolls? That means that with her armor and weapons (Studded leather 20+ bow 2+quarterstaff 4+arrows 3+instrument 3=32) she would be over it already. This doesn't even count the rest of her equipment (That would mean another 60 extra, tho I guess she doesn't really need all of it). Are there in-game solutions to this problem (they are 2nd level now) or do you think it would be better to just keep handwaving it.
The second problem is what me and the Barbarian call 'The Perception Disease'. Basically when my players encounter a challenge (say a riddle, or a dungeon room) the first reaction is to try a perception check on everything. For example, I gave them a riddle in a graveyard and the course of action was this: I Perception. I check the grave. I check the gravestone. I climb on a stone and look around. I climb in a tree and look around. I check the grass around the grave. etc. etc. I already discussed with my players that this way the solution is almost never found, however they are too afraid that they might miss something if they don't investigate everything. Does anyone have a similar experience and know how to solve it?
As a beginning DM and role-player in general I found myself wondering how to make a fun combat encounter. One of the base requirements I could think of is making a brute force solution -just hit things with your biggest stick - unfavorable. To design an encounter with this in mind, one of course needs to know the odds of winning when using the brute force solution.
Here's the thing, I'm kind of a nerd. Just placing a random CR-appropriate encounter for the players to fight and hope they'll lose if they play stupid doesn't do it for me. So, I wrote a script to calculate the actual odds of winning such a battle.
Of course this is useless. No player is ever going to mindlessly bash things 'till they die, but it's more of a hobby project for me than anything of practical use. Still, I'd like to share my code with you guys. The layout and code itself are horrible, I just picked up javaScript and HTML a week ago, but here it is:
The already filled-in stats are the ones of the battle of my foolish fighter-player and the BBEG(http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=277612), but you can add creatures and edit stats yourself. Just press the 'Go!' button and it will calculate the odds. A negative horizontal axis value means team 2 wins and a positive means team 1 wins. The number is how many turns it takes. The height of the bar is proportional to the chance of winning (100% all bars total)
The rules used are those of the Pathfinder Beginner Box. There is no AI, movement or any advanced tactics. A battle of ethereal, infinite movement mindless zombies or something of the like will be a good in-game representation of this battle ;)
I'm now working on expanding my code with the following things:
- Initiative (Right now, team 1 always goes first)
- A battlegrid (which means being able to implement movement, range, AoE etc. My definition of vision is still a bit wonky, and calculating distances is hard. Currently using a variation of Dijkstra's Algorithm.)
- AI (so I can implement multiple kind of attacks)
I have decided to go with the Hell Hound as final boss. He seems a bit more interesting at this level and with this team comp.
Brun IronBender wrote:
Made a very simple map for you, see above post.
The brown corridor has a secret door on either end and allows different escape route from the skeletons and way to get the jump on the thugs in the middle.
Hope you like it.
Can I ask you which program/site you used for making this map? It seems quite nice.
As suggested, I will give my players a clue that they need to escape Room 3. I like the runes on the floor idea, I will probably use that.
As for the final encounter, I still have a few questions there. I can't find why the statue can't be sneak-attacked. Maybe it's in the full version of the rules? Also, as far as I can find hardness works on any damage and not just on physical. The warrior has power attack and uses a Battleaxe two-handed, giving 1d8+6 damage on a power attack, so he should be able to damage it quite a bit.
I don't expect the Wizard and Cleric of the party do any damage on the statue, so it might be fun to just find another boss instead. How about a Hell Hound (also CR3). It kind of fits in the evil cleric plan I have for the rest of the crypt.
Too bad the monster manual in the Beginner Box is a bit limited. I'll have to convince my party to switch to Core Rules ;)
If anyone of the Eindhoven Pathfinder group is reading this, please stop now.
Hello everyone,
I am a GM preparing for our second game of Pathfinder (or any RPG) ever. The previous time we did the adventure provided in the Beginner Box. We’ve had a lot of fun, only the party found the combat encounters too easy. Our party consists of a Rogue, Fighter, Cleric and Wizard. So, for our next adventure I’d like to give them more of a challenge. However, I don’t want to kill them, hence my topic-title question.
The adventure I have in mind:
The Adventure:
General story: The players hear Blackfang is spotted near a local cemetery. They know there are rumours of undead rising, so they have an idea what they’re going to face. When they go to the spot they find a crypt with a lot of footprints in front of it, so they will probably go and investigate.
Entrance: A door which needs a specific way to open it (told to them by a ghost appearing when they approach), otherwise it curses everyone walking through. I was thinking about the sickened condition with a DC11 fortitude save.
Room 1: A warm-up fight with two Zombies (CR1/2) in a long hallway. At the end of the hallway is a trapped door (not sure what yet, but CR1) which leads to room 2
Room 2: Role-play encounter. There are a few thugs (I was thinking about 4-6 City Guards CR1/2 each) sitting around a fire. They will try to convince the players they are fellow adventurers, but are actually guarding the crypt. They will try to send the players into trap room 3, but will fight when provoked or when the players try to open the door to room 4.
Room 3: Trap room. When the players enter this room up to 30 skeletons (CR1/3) will spawn, 1d4 per turn. The spawning will stop when the players leave the room. However, when tricked by the thugs in room 2, they will lock a Good Wooden Door behind them. This will probably take them a few turns to lock pick/bash/open.
Room 4: Just an hallway giving entrance to the next two rooms.
Room 5:Story encounter, no combat whatsoever, but a place to find some hints about the plot.
Room 6: Boss encounter. I was thinking about an Animated Statue (CR3) and maybe a few skeletons. This Statue guards the entrance to the deeper parts of the crypt and a pile of loot. As it is hard to rest in the crypt, I guess the Statue alone will be enough of a challenge, but I’m not sure.
Special notes about the party: They have a Scroll of Resurrection and a Scroll of Fireball, so they have a few ‘oh shit’ moves. For the rest, the party has no special things, a few +1 items but that’s it. Also, we are using Beginner Box rules.
Thanks in forward!
Thanks for all the tips! I'll try to vary the CR for encounters a tiny bit for the next game (let's say, 1-2 CR) and maybe pick some smarter enemies than goblins. Maybe an evil necromancer with some skeletons? I'm not quite sure yet. Oh well, I guess we'll get the hang of it in a few more games.
That being said, I've still got issues with two things:
One, it seems to me that you just can go to sleep after each (combat) encounter and regains all your spells (and health, because the cleric can just cast heal over and over again). This certainly doesn't make sense in RPG terms (a party sleeping in a dungeons full of undead, or going back to town after every enemy they face). How should I prevent them from doing this? Should I just say:'don't do it, it doesn't make sense IC', or let them be ambushed if they sleep to much? It feels like a cheap way to keep them going..
Second, how to handle character death? While the odds of killing someone off is quite small if I keep the CR in check, it still could happen. It seems boring to me to say: You can't play with us until we are lvl ?? and can cast Resurrection spells. But a Deus ex machina like, 'it seemed you were dying, but a knight in shining armor ran in and saved you all' seems quite unsatisfying too.. Any tips on handling this?
Yesterday our group played our first RPG ever. We are currently with 4 (DM(me), Fighter, Rogue and Cleric) and we loved it! While me and the Fighter had a bit of experience with computer RPG's, the other two were total game-virgins.
We (I) had a great deal of fun with the fountain:
Fountain fun:
Our rogue drank from it, and got damaged. They tried everything afterward, from throwing the lizard from the goblin guards in it, to peeing in it out of frustration..
After they came back into the room later the cleric remembered to read the runes on the fountain, and they discovered that they had to throw money in it. They were scared of the water because of what happened to the rogue, but after a huge debate the fighter took a sip anyway. Too bad for them, he rolled so bad that nothing happened, even with the +5 modifier. The rogue and cleric both got angry that he 'wasted' the 'blessing' he got from throwing money in the fountain, which sparked huge debate for the rest of the dungeon.
I was particularly happy with the goblin encounter,
Goblins!:
as they didn't use the brute-force method (aka, slay everything!) but really tried to role-play the whole encounter. They even collected the body of the kings sister, so they could give her to her brother.
What I didn't like however, were the combat encounters. Is it just me, or are monsters really weak? Most encounters in the dungeons have a CR1, which should be appropriate for a lvl 1 party, right? However, the fighter killed nearly everything on his own.
Combat:
The spider died in one hit (1d8+7? Ouch!) and even though he rolled horribly at the Reefclaw, they still managed to kill him without anyone taking more that a few points of damage. The fighter even killed the skeleton warriors without taking any damage at all, even though he just slashed them with his sword, getting -5 damage on his damage rolls. The +7 is just too much for monsters to overcome..
Is this working as intended? Or get combat encounters harder after a few levels (As the +7 is a flat bonus, as I understand it)? Or do I just have to throw more monsters (higher CR) at them? Or is this just the way combat is, more like a bump in the road than a real challenge.
Because of this, I would like to give the rogue and cleric more time to shine in out next session. The cleric excels in combat against undead, but this would be a weak point for the rogue. Maybe a dungeons with a lot of locks and undead monsters? Some sneaky parts? I'm not quite sure, and any help would be welcome.
Annoy the fighter:
Also, the Dragonbane sword you get in the adventure seems quite strong. 2d6 damage for a lvl 1 (or 1-3 for that matter) seems overpowered. I was thinking about making him lose the sword somehow, or is this not unnecessary?
Anyway, we are all looking forward to our next game. I hope we'll have as much fun as in this first adventure!
