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Ok guys and gals. In eight days I am going to start my first foray into DM territory. A quick note: there will only be 2 PCs. We will be doing Gestalt or dual class with a few levels advancement.
Any help from you experienced folks would be appreciated.
A quick breakdown of materials and house rules:
PHB, DMG, MM (base core books)
Advanced Bestiary, PH, DMG from Green Ronin (Thanks for the awesome sale.)
the super cool PF character sheets posted in other threads.
City Market Flip mat (Going to use this for the first few battles in Sandpoint)
a handful of miniatures (can you hurry up with those Pathfinder ones?)
a couple sets of dice
32 point buy
2-3 levels at start
max hp 1st level, avg or roll for rest
money and gear appropriate for PC levels (maybe a wand of CLW or something to help out)
I am not going to stress (nitpick) over rules so much this time around. As long as we are all having a good time then I am happy. I figure if the group makes it then we can delve into the rules deeper.
Their starting classes they are looking into are:
Fighter/Wizard
Monk/Cleric
Other than spell failure on the Fighter/Wizard for wearing armor he should be able to cast spells even in Plate, correct?
Sorry for asking such simple questions, but it just came up while I was at work without benefit of my books. Plus any beginners info from you fine folks will be appreciated.
With two players, I'd let each of them generate a second character as their main PC's assistant/minion/associate. Otherwise, one blown save can knock half the party out of commission.
Upstairs/Downstairs
In Cthulhu by Gaslight, they suggested a similar concept: The main PC could be from the upper classes, while the other was his servant or other lower-class associate. This allowed the GM to focus roleplaying encounters on one character or the other, eliminating the player's need to simultaneously run both when interacting with NPCs. it also gave each player a character for situations that only one social class would participate in: Unsavory lower-class interaction or dealings with the upper-crust.
When I've put this in practice, some hilarious "Jeeves and Wooster" style interactions occured. I ran a swashbuckling game where the main PC turned out to be a complete incompetent and his "servant" ended up saving his arse on numerous occasions.
As far as the Fighter/Wizard goes, he'll probably want to use true strike, blindness/deafness, and suggestion, as well as some of the swift spells from the Spell Compendium (if allowed). They're verbal only, so they don't have spell failure chances in armor.
I'd have to agree with sir wulf that you should add a couple more warm pc bodies, and to have the second characters be more of a Ringo Star type character than a John or Paul.
I think that might solve a lot of the difficulty issues rather than running ghestalts, which for a new GM can be quite tricky in mid-upper level affairs. You'll come up against a situation where the dice aren't going in the party's favor and with two characters the death of one almost assures the death of the other. There is also the issue of actions per round (2 players' actions vs 4+), and some more difficult encounters can go really haywire with two pc's (ghestalt or not).
As far as other advice, if this is your first foray into GM'ing I have to recommend the book Dungeon Master For Dummies. It sounds condecending but it is a really good source of beginning DM concepts that can make it less daunting and more fun for you. My little sister-in-law picked it up before she started DM'ing and she LOVED it. She also did a bang up job her first time out.
As an alternative to more PCs:
This AP is well set up to have NPCs ally with the PCs temporarily. My group is unusually weak for its level, but has been clever at recruiting NPC allies for every major conflict. I've played the NPCs as having agendas of their own, and it's worked out well for us.
Spoilers for RotRL 1-6:
In #1 the PCs can ally with Shalelu, Ameiko, Hemlock, Zantus, or other townsfolk quite naturally--a lot of groups pick Shalelu. (There are stats for her in #3; you might want to cut her down one level for #1, or then again maybe not.)
In #2 I built some allies in Magnimar, members of the cult of Sarenrae; help from Shalelu or Hemlock would also make sense. My PCs also recruited someone completely unexpected here (Aldern!) and have had him ever since.
In #3 there are built-in allies in the form of Shalelu and the rescued Black Arrows. I also added some gnomish rangers and druids from Sanos Forest for the White Willow arc.
In #4 Conna is a natural ally and in our game the PCs also allied with dissidents among the giants. I had Mokmurian holding some giant elders as hostages, and the PCs were able to gain giantish support by rescuing them.
In #5 my PCs allied with the Wrath faction (though the PCs were planning all along to "use up" as many Wrathful as possible before the end, and are now concerned that they didn't quite succeed....)
In #6 my PCs plan to collect the giant army from #4 to go to the endgame, as well as the leftover Wrathful. I expect that plan will go belly-up partway through, but in the meantime, they have allies....
If you go this way, you will want to carefully prepare the NPCs in a quick-to-run format, and consider having a player help you run them. Otherwise the game can bog down badly. By #4 and #5 I was using extensive tracking sheets to keep the NPCs straight.
I've been quite pleased with how this worked. I get sick of running module after module where you have to find excuses for the NPCs to sit around twiddling their thumbs while the PCs do things. Here, the PCs are begging the NPCs for help and *getting it*, and things just feel so much more natural. (And with our fairly weak party, not too easy at all--without allies I think they'd have died in #2.)
Mary
In Cthulhu by Gaslight, they suggested a similar concept: The main PC could be from the upper classes, while the other was his servant or other lower-class associate. This allowed the GM to focus roleplaying encounters on one character or the other, eliminating the player's need to simultaneously run both when interacting with NPCs. it also gave each player a character for situations that only one social class would participate in: Unsavory lower-class interaction or dealings with the upper-crust.
I really like this: I'm going to steal it for my next party. (We do a lot of one-player games.)
Mary
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Thank you all for the information. Mary, thanks for the NPC write up for the whole AP. I will print that out to keep it handy in my notes.
After reading the posts over the weekend I spent some time thinking about how to include a "servant" type PC. It hit me to make the PCs very minor working noble from a small farmstead outside of Sandpoint. Their servant could be the butler (that came into town to get supplies, etc) or maybe a farmhand that came into town to enjoy the festival. After the initial fight the Mayor and Sherif offer the players the chance to go after the bad guys. Maybe tell them they can go without taxes for 6 months or offer them an exclusive contract for whatever their farm produces.
Man, there are just so many roleplaying options that would be cool. To bad there is not enough time to flesh it all out.
That would also give them a reason to keep Sandpoint as a base of operations when the giants attack.
I even thought about a small shop they might run as co-owners with a couple hired help. Of course then they have to leave it unattended during the adventures. I am starting to like the farmstead approach the best. They would have other workers out there and it would not be a big surprise if the boss was gone for a week or two at a time. It can be worked in that they usually travel to Magnimar for major equipment every so often anyway.
Let me know what you all think of that.
Thanks for the help and support.
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Not to demean any of the excellent ideas out forward in this thread so far, but I think I'll go ahead and point out that two third level PCs using 32 point buy - *especially* if they are gestalt - will probably be okay as is, without much extra help. Some of that will depend on their specific builds and their level of tactical ability, but I'd feel fairly comfortable starting out the AP with such a group without any backup. They will be greatly helped by having good contacts in the town, especially with Father Zantus, but they should be fine.