Well . . .
At the request of my long-suffering DM, who is currently taking a group of us through Ptolus, I decided to give DMing a shot.
Fortunately I stumbled on the threads of Allen Stewart and Turin the Mad.
I've DM'd in the past, so I have some sins to atone for: handing out magic items like Halloween candy . . . manipulating saves to allow party members to survive their stupidity . . . fearing the death of a PC as if it were my own.
The wheel of karma turns some more; Shiva rises, 8-armed, to cut her path of destruction.
But be warned: I've got nowhere near the experience of 3.5 that I see in other people on these boards. Hence the research, especially to figure out how to run advanced encounters. Allen and Turin have been most helpful in this respect; props to them. And I am going to need plenty more help and advice; I hope a few of you out there will be willing to provide it.
Our group, alas, has but three people in it: Splatboy, master of all known realms of knowledge; Kirby, whose characters generally talk their way up greased poles; and ValorPal, lover of paladins, crusaders, clerics, and their ilk.
Thus, each person is responsible for two PCs. A little research enabled me to nix the frenzied berserker ahead of time; I now know what to say as soon as Splatboy begins cackling ("No, you can't"). Unfortunately, having no advance knowledge of other potentially broken character classes, I allowed a crusader in without demur. While ValorPal slowly worked the point-buy system (40 pts; let it not be said that I am ungenerous) to produce his cleric, Splatboy reavealed 2 of the 7 mad schemes that had kept him up late in the previous week:
A venerable dragonwrought kobold bard with a str 6, dex 18, int 18, cha 21; immune to sleep and paralysis. "What's cool about kobolds is that that they don't take penalties for aging," says Splatboy.
A Tortle druid with Cha 6, Wis 20, Con 16. "It's the one template that increases your wisdom score without requiring a level adjustment," says Splatboy. The druid has a dinosaur animal companion: a little dinosaur with a breath weapon.
Meanwhile, Kirby cooks up a half elf half fey warmage (6 Str, 21 Cha; immune to enchantment, can fly, can charm at will.) He has a level adjustment of +3; I am waiting to see how his 6 HP fare in CR3 encounters.
As ValorPal finishes his cleric, Splatboy must take quite a few minutes to convince him to take the travel domain, which allows freedom of movement as a granted power. ValorPal is a bit new to the system, and has yet to encounter packs of ghouls.
And with that, they are ready to enter the streets of Cauldron. They should make excellent spawn . . .
* * *
We've just had our first session, and already a bit of disappointment is in the air. Can long imprisonment count as character death? Join us next time as the PCs decide that, having been in the town all of two days, they are ready to shake down city hall.