First time GM, running Rise of the Runelords. I have a group that consists of the following:
* Fighter
* Barbarian
* Summoner/Paladin
* Ranger
* Wizard
* Cleric
Obviously, I have more players than recommended for this campaign, which might be part of the issue, but that's not going to change, and I don't want it to. Most of the time, I feel I'm able to up the difficulty to compensate.
The group's three frontliners often find themselves near 0 hp, yet as long as the baddies don't find their way to the wizard in the back, he feels like every encounter is super easy.
My question is, how can I better create encounters that challenge ALL of the players? In the example of the wizard, I could have someone throw Shatter on his bonded object, but I feel like that is a big no-no. Am I being too nice?
Spells, tricks, effects, or other things that are good against large groups?
Spells, tricks, effects, or other things that are good against large groups?
If you want to stress the characters behind a bit, fly, earth glide and invisible sneak allow to drop some trouble on their heads.
Fireballs and other area damage spells let casters sweat. Widened area metamagic can be useful sometimes, despite being expensive.
Area debuffs like Slow also become more powerful with an increasing party size.
This group doesn't have a trap disarmer, does it? Don't just put single traps on the floor, integrate them into your encounters. Examples would be alarm, immobilizing and debuff traps. Monsters could engage once the trap is triggered. You could even do kobold style: Traps don't trigger automatically, but are triggered manually once the party is in the right position.
In any case: If the frontliners are already on the brink to death, be careful not to overdo it. Two fireballs in a row can kill a wizard which might be perceived unfair. Give them some chance to adapt, and probably advance warnings.
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This group doesn't have a trap disarmer, does it? Don't just put single traps on the floor, integrate them into your encounters. Examples would be alarm, immobilizing and debuff traps. Monsters could engage once the trap is triggered. You could even do kobold style: Traps don't trigger automatically, but are triggered manually once the party is in the right position.
Traps sound like a great way to go, especially magical ones, with Slow and/or Stinking Cloud (a certain necromancer springs to mind). Our ranger has focused a bit on disable device, but no one has trapfinding. Apparently rogues are underpowered and trapfinding "not worth it."
How does the kobold style trigger that you mentioned work mechanically? What's required? I couldn't find anything about such traps. I'm not very experienced with creating traps though.
Thanks for good ideas so far!
First time GM, running Rise of the Runelords. I have a group that consists of the following:
* Fighter
* Barbarian
* Summoner/Paladin
* Ranger
* Wizard
* ClericObviously, I have more players than recommended for this campaign, which might be part of the issue, but that's not going to change, and I don't want it to. Most of the time, I feel I'm able to up the difficulty to compensate.
The group's three frontliners often find themselves near 0 hp, yet as long as the baddies don't find their way to the wizard in the back, he feels like every encounter is super easy.
My question is, how can I better create encounters that challenge ALL of the players? In the example of the wizard, I could have someone throw Shatter on his bonded object, but I feel like that is a big no-no. Am I being too nice?
Spells, tricks, effects, or other things that are good against large groups?
Full HP to enemies, and about 2-3 additional low level grunts.
Have some sneaky enemies that use terrain to get past the front-liners when they're occupied.
Use will-save effects to take the front-liners out for a bit.
I agree that shattering somebody's bonded item is bad form. Likewise, I don't use sunder against PC's.
How does the kobold style trigger that you mentioned work mechanically? What's required? I couldn't find anything about such traps. I'm not very experienced with creating traps though.
It's just like a normal trap, except instead of triggering based on a trip wire, they run the wire to someplace where you have a hidden kobold. Or the throne has a lever to drop the floor out from under somebody and put them in a pit with a gray render.
I don't know how much this will help because I make my encounters difficult according to the guide book in the first post.
Hope it helps at least give you some ideas.
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A few ranged combatants are always nice to start hitting back liners. Acid Arrows and readied actions to attack a caster when they start casting a spell also work out. I loved using Magic Missile with the Orc Bloodline, for instance, because 5d4+10 that auto hits is nasty for Concentration DCs.
Have an archer or other ranged unit hold its action until the wizard casts a spell and disrupt his casting. It makes tactical sense, reduces the number of foes attacking the front line, and will have the Wizard no longer escape unscathed.
Attack them from behind. If the PCs are beating up a bunch of goblins, the noise will attract others. You'll need to add extra mooks anyway to make up for the PCs' extra numbers.
The problem will only get worse at higher levels as the casters start to dominate.
First time GM, running Rise of the Runelords. I have a group that consists of the following:
* Fighter
* Barbarian
* Summoner/Paladin
* Ranger
* Wizard
* ClericObviously, I have more players than recommended for this campaign, which might be part of the issue, but that's not going to change, and I don't want it to. Most of the time, I feel I'm able to up the difficulty to compensate.
The group's three frontliners often find themselves near 0 hp, yet as long as the baddies don't find their way to the wizard in the back, he feels like every encounter is super easy.
My question is, how can I better create encounters that challenge ALL of the players? In the example of the wizard, I could have someone throw Shatter on his bonded object, but I feel like that is a big no-no. Am I being too nice?
Spells, tricks, effects, or other things that are good against large groups?
Not quite sure what the underlying challenge is here... Is it that you have not adequately adjusted the encounters for the 50% increase in pc's vs. assumed count for the AP (6 vs. 4)? Note: it's not just 4 pc's but 4 pc's at 15 pt buy. If you have 6 pc's at 20 or 25 pt buy, that really magnifies things.
But the melee characters getting to 0 with some regularity suggests you've adjusted to some level. And the wizard player's perspective seems strange - unless he takes hp damage, the encounter is easy? A wizard's contribution to a party rarely has hp at the top of the priority list. Spells cast, magic items used even knowledge or spellcraft checks are much more important for a wizard. Are those being used? If the melee pc's are hacking through everything and the wizard doesn't have anything to do, then that's likely an issue.
I wonder if the trouble might be your tactics? How often are the pc's enemies casting spells, using ranged attacks, etc.? It doesn't take much intelligence to decide to start shooting at the miserable schmuck who keeps hitting you with sleep or scorching ray or fireball, etc. Ditto for the cleric - "Wait, we start knocking them down and then he shows up and undoes all that work with magical healing. That's it for him then." So if the spell-casters aren't doing much or if the monsters aren't specifically targeting them either in response or preemptively then you may not be using good tactics.
I, for one, would be very reluctant to go after a wizard's bonded item (beyond the mechanical - how would the enemy know what that is) - I'd like only consider it if the players started doing something along those lines.