While getting my materials ready to (hopefully) run Burnt Offerings I've been thinking about what to do with the Boar hunt the PC's take with Aldern.
I was planning on not having them do the catacombs of wrath, but I still wanted to use the sinspawn. So I thought that during the hunt Aldern and his horse would fall down an old shaft to a mine. While the pc's are trying to figure out how to get him out he's going to be snached by two sinspawn from the runewell who have made their way out and made the old mine their lair.
So it's a small dungeon crawl against two sinspawn and the makeshift traps they have set up (want to give the rogue something to do).
I was wondering what others have done with the boar hunt and how involved they made it for the PC's, and if anyone has any ideas on how to help flesh out the sinspawn lair a bit.
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I'll just have it be a normal boar hunt since I don't want them to have the feeling that everything in and in the immediate vicinity of Sandpoint is totally screwed up. Otherwise they'll have the feeling of, why in Any of the Gods forsaken name would you want to live here!
I'll be having them play it out though, a boar is a dangerous creature, it's CR2 and can be a real pain for 1st level players armed with spears and with at most leather armor to make it a challenge!
I'll just have it be a normal boar hunt since I don't want them to have the feeling that everything in and in the immediate vicinity of Sandpoint is totally screwed up. Otherwise they'll have the feeling of, why in Any of the Gods forsaken name would you want to live here!
You definately have a point there. I guess my perception of a challenge has been skewed a bit by only being able to play about once a month or so. Becuase of that I've been trying to keep things fast paced and "different" to keep my players excited about what will happen next.
I'll just have it be a normal boar hunt since I don't want them to have the feeling that everything in and in the immediate vicinity of Sandpoint is totally screwed up.
I did the same thing, and for the same reason. They need a little normalcy in their lives. And this side trek was an opportunity to simply showcase a bit of the countryside around Sandpoint and why people like to live there.
However, having said that, I should also mention that I cranked up the encounter to make it a CR 3 boar instead of the CR 2 variety. I did this because I wanted to boost the PCs' experience between the Swallowtail Festival and the Glassworks, hoping that by the end of all that, they'd hit Level 2. Rather than make the encounter contain a Dire Boar (CR 4), I just scaled up the hit dice for a regular boar to make it more interesting.
My two-cents,
--Neil
If you wanted to increase the challenge, you could also increase the number of wild boar encountered. Wild pigs aren't solitary creatures, and encountering several of them would make the hunt much more dangerous.
My group's player characters wore their armor and kept their weapons with them: There are rampaging goblins somewhere out there!
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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i've thought about using a dire boar myself. 4 PCs, plus say 4 1st level warriors to maul allows the party to be scared, but not overwhelmed.
And, to steal someone else's idea, it allows Aldern to be a jerk as he laments the loss of horses, not the men riding them
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[Off topic]
I did this because I wanted to boost the PCs' experience between the Swallowtail Festival and the Glassworks, hoping that by the end of all that, they'd hit Level 2.
--Neil
After spending last night calculating the XP for all the encounters up to entering Thistletop, if the encounter all of the fights, they will level immediatly after the glass works.
If they don't get any XP for the Shayliss encounter, they will have 1070 XP by the end of "Against the Goblins"
:)
[/offtopic]
After spending last night calculating the XP for all the encounters up to entering Thistletop, if the encounter all of the fights, they will level immediatly after the glass works....If they don't get any XP for the Shayliss encounter, they will have 1070 XP by the end of "Against the Goblins"
Yes, but I'm running with five players instead of the traditional four...and so the numbers get a little wonky if you don't ratchet up the competition "just so" in each encounter.
For the most part, I've left the encounter levels the same, because I've kept the PCs pretty low in terms of power-level (i.e., only 28 point-buy, one bonus regional feat from the Player's Guide, 80% of starting equipment, etc.).
So, to make sure everyone still meets the general "level up" milestones, I've introduced more encounters. Hence, the boar hunt...and possibly some other roleplaying encounters, story awards, and so on, to encourage more well-rounded game play among the five players. It's working out well so far.
--Neil
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Yes, but I'm running with five players instead of the traditional four...and so the numbers get a little wonky if you don't ratchet up the competition "just so" in each encounter.For the most part, I've left the encounter levels the same, because I've kept the PCs pretty low in terms of power-level (i.e., only 28 point-buy, one bonus regional feat from the Player's Guide, 80% of starting equipment, etc.).
So, to make sure everyone still meets the general "level up" milestones, I've introduced more encounters. Hence, the boar hunt...and possibly some other roleplaying encounters, story awards, and so on, to encourage more well-rounded game play among the five players. It's working out well so far.
--Neil
Even better, that is how I calculated it, 5 characters, 28 point buy, bonus feat, normal starting equpment though......
I haven't bothered beefing up any encounters though, I am considering running the boar hunt as an encounter, using Dog stats as suggested.
I just figure they will get slightly less XP at first and it will all level out, an extra char isn't a very big deal afterall
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Yes, but I'm running with five players instead of the traditional four...and so the numbers get a little wonky if you don't ratchet up the competition "just so" in each encounter.So, to make sure everyone still meets the general "level up" milestones, I've introduced more encounters. Hence, the boar hunt...and possibly some other roleplaying encounters, story awards, and so on, to encourage more well-rounded game play among the five players. It's working out well so far.
--Neil
I haven't bothered beefing up any encounters though, I am considering running the boar hunt as an encounter, using Dog stats as suggested.
I just figure they will get slightly less XP at first and it will all level out, an extra char isn't a very big deal afterall
I figure they have a week or so off, they arn't going to just sit there,