Are tons of magic items required to survive upper level scenarios? We play lower magic (probably 1 weak permanent magic item per PC..not including potions). As the DM, I've just removed any DR/magic qualities from any monsters.
How will my group fare? They're 15th level now and surviving.
jh
Creative Director
|
Are tons of magic items required to survive upper level scenarios? We play lower magic (probably 1 weak permanent magic item per PC..not including potions). As the DM, I've just removed any DR/magic qualities from any monsters.
How will my group fare? They're 15th level now and surviving.
jh
Depends on the game. The core rules assume that PCs have a certain amount of magic items, and by extension, the adventures we print in Dungeon assume that PCs have magic items. At lower levels, a character's abilities are more dependant on his class and racial abilities. At higher levels, magic items become equally (if not more) important.
One factor is also the high number of save or die spells flying around, and the need to be immune. Hey sometimes even 10/round against a horde of beholders, or similar..
|
We're at the Wormcrawl fissure, We have a party of 4 19th Level Characters and 1 18th Level Cohort, all of them are Core books only, ie. Complete, Races, or PHB.
Almost all of the PC's are about 200,000-300,000 gp behind the bell curve to what the DMG reccommends for value in equipment on table 5-1.
I'll agree with a lot of insta kills. Save or die, save or die, save or most of your equipment dies. The extra equipment would definatly increase survivability. Since about Blackwall Keep we've been at almost half of DMG reccommendation for level and it's been tough.
I was going to post our kills on the Obituaries, but here it is. Almost all of the deaths occured after 12th Level.
Our party deaths.
1 Wizard
1 Rogue 5th Level
1 Scout 16th Level
1 Druid 15th Level
1 Barbarian/Frenzied Berserker 12th Level
Barbarian/Fighter Died 7 Times
Knight/Legendary Leader Died 5 Times
Cleric Died 2 Times
Only a couple were from bad PC actions, this campaign is simply tough. The first three times the Barbarian Died was in the Spire of Long Shadows. You loose the initiative. About a dozen Kyuss creatures mass inflict, bleah, dead. then about a half dozen Dark Nagas, Flamestrike, bleh, dead. 3 Party Deaths from Desintigrate, and similar spells, one death from kyuss worm infection, a heal and a restoration were dropped on him before he went. So on and so forth.
If Death Ward isnt constantly going on, that and a lot of resistances, you never know whats going to tear you apart. We're finding that it's always best to flee the instant the fight starts and then return five minutes later buffed.
|
|
From what I've read thus far, it's important for the PCs to have some powerful items in the arsenal at high levels.
Such insight will certainly help guide my hand as DM with the PCs wagers during the Champion's Games. Also, I'll really try to emphasize Tenser/Manzorian's interest in the seventh piece of the Rod of Seven Parts as a 40K gp item for each character can go a long ways to help.
I have not hit the upper level adventures yet. The group I am running is just finishing up the Champion's Belt. So far there have been two death, one character and cohort.
Having a group of mostly non-core characters (human marshal/human paragon/artificer, half-elf savant/archavist, kobold ninja/kobold paragon/sorcerer, human battle dancer, and a warforged knight cohort) has forced them to be creative i dealing with threats. The marshal's auras and archivist's dark knowledge, has swung the favor for the party in a few for fights. However, they have lost someone to both the advanced octopin and team Pitch Blade due to lack of healing. Madtooth nearly kill three players itself (I rolled a 1 on a save against a sleep arrow).
From what I have seen so far, player abilities will make the big impact in what a party can do, but the magic items will keep a party going by giving them the extra oomph when their abilities fail.