So I’m a first time DM and I’m looking for an overarching campaign plot, preferably with a “We have to stop this or it will mean the end of the world!” feel.
Party so far includes 5th level Wizard, 3rd level Druid, 3rd level Sorcerer (Abyssal bloodline), and 2nd level Ranger.
Because of the strong ties between druids and fey, I really wanted to include them a lot in my campaign. I had the idea that there is some ancient evil “corruption” blighting the land and the fey alike, warping the minds of the fey and killing/ diseasing the forests. To be honest, a lot of the inspiration for this comes from Prince of Persia 2008.
I also really like the idea of them being able to fix/ cure the corruption perhaps with some ancient druidic ritual. I also want to include a very powerful Druidic Order, wherein the Grand Druid, (the most powerful druid on the planet) happens to be a 6 inch tall 20th level druid.
The idea I had for the Big Bad was an incredibly powerful demon that had been defeated and trapped a millennia ago, before the mortal races walked the earth. He was trapped within the First World by the Eldest- but he just escaped. Driven even madder by his millennia long imprisonment, he aims to destroy the universe. He plans to start with the fey, out of spite.
After reading about the Eldest however, I’m considering having the big bad be Count Ranalc or a servant of his. He is the CN fey deity of betrayal, exiles, and shadows and for reasons unknown, was exiled to the Plane of Shadow by his fellow Eldest.
Lower CR creatures that follow/ work for the Count could be an evil wizard based on Defilers from Dark Sun or a corrupted druid based on Blighters from 3.5.
All ideas and suggestions are more than welcome!
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You've already made a huge blunder as a DM: your party level is mismatched. Your 5th level wizard is going to dominate play and make the game less fun for your 3rd level Sorcerer(anything he can do, the wizard can do better) and the 2nd level ranger. (Any thing that will challenge the reset of the party will kill him in a round, and anything that will be survivable for him will be a cakewalk for everyone else.)
Your idea sounds cool, but you should really make everyone the same level.
@ Imbicatus, The level gaps are sort of deliberate, sort of not. Everyone but the wizard is completely new to D&D and has next to no idea what they're doing, so his job is to make sure they don't accidentally die. The Ranger is down a level because she keeps missing sessions and might eventually stop coming all together.
I know the disconnect is awkward but for right now, it works for our group. Thanks for the advice, though.
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It's not the experienced player's job to make sure the new players don't die, it's yours. As a DM, you have the power to put on the kids gloves and make the encounters survivable regardless of bad tactics or players not knowing their roles in combat. You can give monster half HP, let an attack that just missed hit, and so on. The best part about being the GM is the ability to cheat in order to forward the story. If used sparingly and only when needed, they will never know you even did it. As the new players start to learn the game, it can be done less frequently, and then not at all.
By making your wizard more powerful, you are letting him be the hero and everyone else be his sidekick. When dealing with new players, it's important to let them be the hero in turn.
As for the ranger's player not showing, that happens, but because a level gap can be a huge problem, It's a policy at my table if a player doesn't show his character is a DMPC for that session. The DM makes every effort not to kill the character, but that way it provides more incentive for the player to show up, but if he doesn't the party isn't magically minus a character in the middle of an adventure and the character stays current with levels.
Sorry to derail your thread from you main question, but I really feel these issues are more important for you as a new DM with new players.
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Regarding party levels, I suggest letting the new players get used to the low levels at first, but accelerating their XP gains compared to the wizard until they catch up. It's good to have a low-level experience so you can savour going up, and incrementally adding complexity is easier than building a good advanced character right from the start. But lagging behind forever isn't fun, so it's good to catch up after a while.
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How does the sorcerer relate to his bloodline? Does he like/fear/hate the Abyss? That's an intense bloodline choice, so if you're getting evil outsiders in the plot, it might be nice to use demons. Doesn't mean your Ranalc plot doesn't work, but maybe he uses demons as a smokescreen/decoy to hide his own involvement? It should be fairly easy to convince a few demons to rampage and cause destruction.
As for the fey, remember that good and evil are rather wonky when it comes to them. There's quite a few nasty fey, but those might still be important allies. Good and evil fey could work together as long as the rules of courtly intrigue hold steady; and to the fey that's the normal way of things. The human(oid) druids might be rather shocked about it however; I think there's RP potential there; druids preferring the "honesty" of nature and fey cavorting and backstabbing.
What's the wizard's "style"? Does he have a theme to his character, is he interested in a particular flavor of magic? I think it's important to put in an "arcane" angle of some sort. If the campaign is very druid-centered there's a risk that the other characters will look like they're his henchmen while he's the star of the story. By adding an important arcane magic angle to the story the wizard gets to play a main character role too, if he happens to be an expert in that aspect of arcane magic.
I'm having a harder time finding an interesting angle for the ranger. You wrote that the player may drift away, so I suppose pumping him for a background might be tricky, although if you can give him some main-starring role in the next short-term plot maybe the player will become more invested. Can you tell us more about him? It's easier to tie people into a story if we know a bit about them.
@ Imbicatus, I know it’s not really his job to keep them safe- we’ve talked about it a lot and he knows that if it starts to get boring or unfun for him that it’s perfectly fine for him to retire his character and try something a little different. For most of the early sessions he was able to just sit back and let them handle it but now that they’re learning more about their own abilities they can handle much more.
He’s very conscious of their need for the spot light and likes to step back and let them go at it- they’re really fantastic RPers, I’m very excited. I also try hard to include bits of their character backstory and family as often as possible to make them feel more involved.
On the Unreliable Ranger: Yeah, I actually gave her the Scar of Destiny and had her vanish. It seems really wonky and strange in character but I didn’t think I’d be able to manage her character and a bunch of goblins so I went with that.
@ Ascalaphus, They just hit 3rd level and from the math I’ve done, they should reach 4th lvl just as he reaches 6th but I may artificially advance their XP as the sessions progress if I feel the gap is hurting their fun or their character development.
He despises his father and refuses to summon demons, but it’s above using his bloodline to strengthen his other summons (DR/ good equal to half lvl). The sorcerer doesn’t know it but his entire clan of elves was once closely related to a sect of evil elves that regularly summoned demons to advance in power. Learning this may show up later as a small quest.
He and his twin brother were trained by their Evoker uncle. During their training however, the PC Wizard realized that his twin and uncle had an unhealthy amount of interest in Sin Magic (from Rise of the Runelords) and he chose to avoid sin magic and pursue Abjuration instead. Their uncle is long since dead and neither he nor his sister has heard from their brother in years. He is currently imprisoned in the capitol city (or another very large city with lots of magic users). He may or may not eventually escape and cause some chaos.
The wizard actually was an adventurer before he retired. He and his friends (cleric, fighter, and rouge) adventured together for several years before they encountered a green dragon. Over estimating themselves, they challenged it. Within seconds the dragon killed the fighter and rouge and bit the cleric’s leg clean off before the Wizard not cast teleport. Since then, the cleric and wizard have retired and used their wealth from adventuring to build a large temple and wizard’s tower. They use the tower’s library as a classroom to teach the village’s children and have taken to showing simple magic theory to a few promising young students. Being one of the few to face a dragon and survive, he’s made a bit of a name for himself and is actually the reason the Sorcerer came to town. He wanted to be trained by the famous Wizard of Southbay.
I hadn’t thought about the need for an arcane angle. I’d be interested to hear your ideas on that. Perhaps make a wizards guild?
The ranger also has a younger brother and sister- very young, her brother is barely an adult and her sister is about 7 or so. They do odd jobs, and hunt for food and she gives them a portion of her monthly salary as a ranger of the Order. Their parents died of a plague a couple years ago, along with several other members of the village. They have a guard dog and she has taught them to use bows but they are still only commoners.