So as the thread title says, I am beginning the AoW AP. The characters are all really well rounded, and the group conists of:
A human mage from Greyhawk, who has lost his memory (like the movie Memento)
A half-elf bard who works at the Spinning Giant (his parents were mysteriously taken away from Diamond Lake and his mentor seems quiet on the subject, wishes to leave to see if the tales he has heard are true and to find what happened to his parents)
A half elf ranger who works for the Bronzewood Lodge and despises the mining town and is a guide of the area.
A human fighter who works for the sheriff, and is riding the line with should he leave because it is so corrupt, or should he stay to extort people.
My question is, should I send an NPC along with the group. They all decided on not making a cleric, because they figure I would. I am debating on if I should, considering they will just be like go turn them heal me. If I send one, what should I make?
So as the thread title says, I am beginning the AoW AP. The characters are all really well rounded, and the group conists of:
A human mage from Greyhawk, who has lost his memory (like the movie Memento)
A half-elf bard who works at the Spinning Giant (his parents were mysteriously taken away from Diamond Lake and his mentor seems quiet on the subject, wishes to leave to see if the tales he has heard are true and to find what happened to his parents)
A half elf ranger who works for the Bronzewood Lodge and despises the mining town and is a guide of the area.
A human fighter who works for the sheriff, and is riding the line with should he leave because it is so corrupt, or should he stay to extort people.My question is, should I send an NPC along with the group. They all decided on not making a cleric, because they figure I would. I am debating on if I should, considering they will just be like go turn them heal me. If I send one, what should I make?
If you have access to the splat books I'd make a Healer. Well I wouldn't 'cause I always take every opportunity to kill my players and if they don't make a cleric that just makes my job easier - but if I were the kind of DM that would include a DMPC I'd make a Healer. This allows healing without having the cleric step on the other players toes. This can be important with a class like Cleric which is, under many circumstances, the most powerful class in the book ... especially in AoWs.
|
They all decided on not making a cleric, because they figure I would. I am debating on if I should, considering they will just be like go turn them heal me. If I send one, what should I make?
You know what happens when your players assume things, right?
(For those who haven't heard this before...They make an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me'...).
You'd think, given the fairly obvious nature of the campaign, they'd all want to be the cleric, and totally get to lord it over everyone else. There's not many campaigns where you just know that all your class abilities are going to be all useful, all the time.
I'm actually dreading the possibility of an all-divine party, especially given the CODzilla tendencies I've witnessed over the last two years of SCAP!
I would recommend against adding any kind of DM-controlled addition to the party, for all sorts of reasons. In a nutshell, let them figure out a well balanced / fun party themselves. The "best" party balance varies as they level up anyway, for example a focus on melee types is probably great at lower levels, but later on they need solid spell-casting support too. Heck, the bard can be the healer, just let them buy enough healing potions, wands etc.
Personally, I had a bit of a mix of PC's through my entire campaign (now finished), and the melee guys dominated towards the end, but that was mainly due to the players not their classes (i.e. the spell-caster player(s) were not quite up to scratch, and the melee guy had loads of good magic items and a solid PC build). At low levels, I think the druids dominated, but that's not unusual. Overall, my players were as much into the good role-play and unusual characters rather than building the most balanced or uber party, and it all worked out fine, but most of them were pretty good, smart, experienced players. Even when we were down to two players, I refused to run any NPC myself, preferring the players to both take Leadership and hence run an extra NPC each themselves - it worked out fine. I did help them a bit with tailoring a few good magic items and some good ideas for feats, but that was basically to help the more lazy players a bit as it's a tough campaign - if I were to run it again, I'd leave it all to the players, as eventually they all learned a lot and were better players for it (and enjoyed it a lot).
Even better, a perpetual wand of curing (magic item compendium) - two cure light spells per day, almost the same cost. After all, there's a wand of cure light to be found by the time they are about 3rd level anyway...
My question is, should I send an NPC along with the group.
My personal preference is to avoid having any DM-controlled members of the party. Let them work on their side of the screen, and I'll do my thing on mine. Lines are very clear that way.
Access to healing is very important throughout the campaign, but a "cleric" is not necessary. There are tons of classes, prestige classes, and magic items available for d20 that would do. The suggestion of using a Healer is good; I've seen how valuable those can be firsthand.
Leadership is a great feat, but not at very low level (prerequisite level 6!). I allow my players to enlist hirelings with class levels, but the player runs his own hireling. The cost, and the effect on game play, keeps my group from going crazy with this. I charge 4 sp/day for level 1 hirelings, 8 sp/day for level 2, 16 sp/day for level three, and so on, up through level 10. At level 11, the price jumps to 2,000 gp/day, then 4,000 gp/day for level 12, 8,000 gp/day for level 13, and so on. I also let the characters pay for some time in advance, if they choose. My players don't use it often, but it is a great way to introduce mercenaries into the game and give a party a needed boost.
Well we finished our first session, and I must say, we all LOVED IT! The wolves were easy, the puzzle took nearly 2 hours of in game time to figure out, and we only had one death, the wizard because of the Lurking Strangler. The managed to explore some of the lair of the laborers, but we ended it with intrigue and confrontations with the Greyhawk Champions who the bard decided to seek out.
All in all, the wizard who died, his player rolled up a cleric, and we will be back at it next thursday! Great so far, and no, I did not send an NPC as it turned out we had 5 people.