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)
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!
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!
