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I'm gonna start DMing for 2 new players and I was wondering what I could do to make it a bit easier for them to survive. One of the things I'm thinking of is giving them maximum HP at every level. Does anyone have any experience with that?
Another thing I'm pondering is point buy or 4d6 drop lowest. I think a point buy of 30 would be the best choice for them.
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In addition to Max HP, which I allow, let them be gesthalt.
Gesthalt:
You can also give a free Feat and avoid Save or Die situations.
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I've never had much difficulty with maxing out hit points, since it is in theory possible to roll. 4d6 has always been my preferred method, but point buy seems to be popular. I would just ensure that they have access to ample healing and curative magics, and if you want them to survive give them time to rest or regroup frequently. Holing up in an abandoned room before moving on to the next in the dungeon, or a friendly npc cleric near at hand can help keep your players alive without pacifying too much.
The easiest way to keep them alive would be to reduce the lethality of the encounters. Don't use too many advanced combat tactics such as flanking or ambushes, and you should probably cut the encounter difficulty by 1 CR or so on average, at least until they've got the basics of combat sorted out. Once they've mastered the skill sets of their characters, you can ramp up the difficulty to normal.
I would advise against using gestalt, as that would mean they'd have to learn how to use two classes at once. I would also advise against using a point buy as high as 30. The regular options of 15 or 20 should suffice.
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I would also advise against using a point buy as high as 30. The regular options of 15 or 20 should suffice.
15 or 20 is regular for Pathfinder and this is the 3.5 forum. Somehow WotC assumes 25 points regular, but my experience and this site tells me otherwise. Although I do have to admit I did not check the math myself, and no explanation is given.
I'm gonna start DMing for 2 new players and I was wondering what I could do to make it a bit easier for them to survive. One of the things I'm thinking of is giving them maximum HP at every level. Does anyone have any experience with that?
Another thing I'm pondering is point buy or 4d6 drop lowest. I think a point buy of 30 would be the best choice for them.
I would run a DMPC, that does not overshadow them, and I would take the number of characters into account when designing encounters.
15 or 20 is regular for Pathfinder and this is the 3.5 forum. Somehow WotC assumes 25 points regular, but my experience and this site tells me otherwise. Although I do have to admit I did not check the math myself, and no explanation is given.I would also advise against using a point buy as high as 30. The regular options of 15 or 20 should suffice.
Pathfinder's point 25 point buy and WotC's does not use the same chart.
Use pathfinder's 15 or 20 for a normal game to slightly hi power game.
edit:If this is a 3.5 game then use the WoTC chart.
Isn't 25-28 standard for point-buy in 3.5? I believe 32 is for an extremely high powered game. My experience is to start them with a lower point buy so they don't get spoiled by it in later games. But I think that has as much to do with the personalities of the players themselves, so you'll just have to make that judgment call.
28 points was standard in 3.5, roughly the equivalent of 10 point Pathfinder. 32-15 and 36-20 are the rough equivalents in points power.
25 was the standard in 3.5, actually, and it produced equivalent numbers to 15 in Pathfinder (the elite array of 15-14-13-12-10-8 is built using 25 in 3.5 and using 15 in PF).
My vote for the new players is to let'em role.
4d6 drop the lowest will make the charecters alot more meaningful because with point by you know your going to get a low stat somewhere but with random roles you could end up a quasi-demi deity or a pathetic weakling looking to suicide.
If you want to extend the max HP out that can be an ok thing for a few levels but all levels would be a bit too genorous, my solution would be a NPC war cleric that is there to help,heal,and train them to learn to survive.
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For all my 15 years of GMing (taken with a grain of salt please) I have always allowed 1st level characters MAX hit die for two reasons.
1) Nobody wants to play a level 1 Fighter (w/whatever con bonus) if they roll a 1 on their hit die.
2) Said nobody will tempted to make a new character just to get a better roll.
Also, when they level up, I allow them to REROLL their hit die if they wish, but must keep second result.
Level 1 Fighter w/his 10 hp (con bonuses aside) roll's 1d10 for his 2nd level of hit points and rolls a 4... he decides the odds are good for a better result and rerolls, but rolls a 2. He must keep that 2. This is the worst case scenario of course, but all in all, it gives the players a slight edge on survivability. Good for new players or small groups.
Also, what I did for my smaller group is gave them extra feats, 1, 2, 3, you decide how many. I also gave them a "GM feat" which is something at the end of character creation (usually after I think about the character for a bit) is simply just a Feat that I chose for them, not player chosen.
I find saying, at the end of character creation "I am also going to give you ______ because the way you described your character _____ blah blah" feels pretty good, and I have never had a player not be excited with what I chose for them.
I know some GM's are noobs and would be tempted to give their player a useless feat, if you do, just.... stop GMing please lol.
You can add or mix into this TRAITS as well, entirely your show.
For example, I have one player who is a half elven fighter, his human ancestry being Ulfen and being raised himself in the Land of the Linnorm Kings I gave him the regional feat "Berserkers Cry" cause to me as a GM, it made sense with his character.
Take from this what you will, and have fun running your game!
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Some of the best games are L1.
You might try my array for ability scores.
ROLL OPTION VIII: Pax's Homebrew system - Give every 1st level player 17,16,15,14,13,12 have them assign in any order, then allow them to "move 2" points in any combinatin from one to another.
This keeps them alive and well, along with max hp.
Adopt the PATHFINDER RPG -CON rule for death, and bingo = happy healthy players.
Enjoy.
The most powerful characters I ever ran were made with method 1: 3d6 arrange as they fall. That party made it to 20th level. It was two players, one was experienced, the other was a noob. The noob did die 3 times, but to be honest, it was more like murder on my part :(
The point buy system is fair. It keeps all PC's happy and eliminates stat envy. "He has 2 18s and 3 16s, my highest score is a 14 :(" This was the case in my 3d6 game, but I will say that that said character ended up with the highest stats and most magical gear of all of them. Your stats and your HP don't rule your characters, is my point.
I do have to say that the Pathfinder death and dying rules are a LOT softer than WotC's. If you go by them, then it shouldn't be too bad. Frankly I don't like the idea of max HP and ESPECIALLY not Gastahlt. Heck, I remember 2nd edition when you stopped rolling HP after like 9th level lol.
As a DM you are going to have to keep party composition in mind when designing encounters and learn to pull your punches, but not too much. It's an art form that takes some practice. If you are running modules then you might feel like you don't have much option in encounter design, that's okay, you can always 'fudge' rolls. I wouldn't abuse that too much, unless it's you that made the mistake (putting them up against something they couldn't defeat with no way out.) The DMG has excellent advice for starting DMs. Hold it as your bible until you are ready to walk on your own.
I hope you found everyone's posts in this threat helpful and good luck to you :)
Regarding HPs, instead of just maxing them you might also try "high-side" rolling (i.e. for a d6 any roll of 1 would mean you get 4hp, 2=5, 3=6...you can extrapolate that for all other types of dice). It has worked out well for my party since I tend to run difficult fights. They feel themselves strong enough to survive even though I regularly run them out or nearly out of their hit points.
Back in the day we used a DM PC, but also let the players run two characters if they wanted. Of course, you have to be careful in regards to what knowledge the characters under one player may share.
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A better solution in my opinion would be to focus the campaign around things like investigation, exploration, role playing and puzzles rather then constantly throwing the smaller party into combats.
Also feel free to look at them hiring of NPCs for things like men-at-arms, or similar henchmen to help ease the burden of not having a lot of people-power.