I have an idea that is based off some old AD&D adventures where the party who will be around 8th to 10th level at the time and will be in a state where they do not have any of their gear, including magic items and weapons or armor. They will get all or most of their gear back at the end of the adventure.
The encounters will be set at CR's that are much lower than the party until they can get new equipment and or gear. Normally I would not have so much heartburn over this and I have done it before with a different group in a previous system, but some of the characters in this party are troubling me.
One character is a Witch going with the Bonded Witch archetype. So, she will be without her bonded item but will be able to get a new one rather quickly. The problem is that she will need a week and 1600gp to 2000gp to bond to it. There is also a party wizard who will be effectively out of action until he can get a new spellbook. Again, I will seed wands and scrolls so he should not be totally useless and there should be some spell component pouches early on in the adventure as well.
I have liked this situation and it has worked in previous systems, like AD&D, but I wonder how well it will fly with Pathfinder and the new generation of players who seem really focused on gear and items over skills and abilities. The idea is not to totally hose the characters but to make them stretch and see what they are capable in such a situation. In fact by the end they should have two sets of gear and can sell the items they do not need or maybe begin to store some items in the event something like this happens again.
Any thoughts? Maybe some ideas as what to look out for in Pathfinder versus when I have tried this in AD&D with a different set of rules and players. I am an experienced Pathfinder DM and I think the players are mature enough to handle it (after a lot of grumbling I am sure), but I thought I would throw it out to the forum for their reaction.
Pathfinder (and 3.x) are far more gear dependant then previous editions, mostly because there is alot more codified, and its not as easy to improvise things, a fighter with a table leg is not going to be very effective at all.
First of all, is this the start of their adventure? Or are they an existing party that will be somehow stripped of their gear? If they are just starting out, tell the players about the lack of gear. Maybe the witch plays a normal witch with a familair, maybe the wizard at least gets eschew materials. Otherwise these characters can literally do nothing untill they get some very specific gear (spell component pouches, spell books, bonded items etc).
Other characters would also have trouble. A full plate fighter for isntance would be without almost all of his AC, and at 8th level thats a real problem. If you are going to lower CRs it shouldnt be too bad, but its still an issue.
One help for the casters would be staves. They are still a little low level for most staves but they would allow the players to do something with thier spell slots that is genuinely effective (saves and caster level are as the user, and not the minimum like wands and scrolls). There is also a new 3rd party product Apeiron Staves by super genius games which again could be dropped into the adventure early to give the casters something cool to do untill they get their casting equipment back.
The characters have started at 1st level so they are set in their ways.
The idea would be that once they escape the reason that their gear is gone, they are able to fight some small battles and get a longsword, a spell component pouch, a wand, gold to spend in the next town to get a small wooden holy symbol, etc. Again, it will not be easy, but I think it will work. When I have done it in the past it was the general feel that it was not looked upon favorably at the time but looking back all of the players really enjoyed it.
It is also an idea that should be used very sparringly and never on the same group twice in my opinion. I think a staff early on is a nice way to allow the casters back into a fully functioning mode a little quicker. I will also allow for time so that if a certain class needs a week to regain an ability, they could do so.
Again, I want to challenge not hose!
The idea would be that once they escape the reason that their gear is gone, they are able to fight some small battles and get a longsword, a spell component pouch, a wand, gold to spend in the next town to get a small wooden holy symbol, etc. Again, it will not be easy, but I think it will work. When I have done it in the past it was the general feel that it was not looked upon favorably at the time but looking back all of the players really enjoyed it
It will work if ALL your players feel that they are in great difficulty, WITHOUT being at a commoner level. It is easy to do for martial classes (their high HP, and high physical stats, and the fact they can easily find weapons to fight), but way more difficult for most arcane spellcasters.
There will be 3 classes that will totally ignore that : the sorcerer, the summoner and the druid (if you have those at your table).
The best you can do is be careful: you already are lowering CRs, which is the easiest step to take. In addition to using less powerful monsters, you can hinder normally-party-appropriate monsters with hazards and afflictions. I'd also tend to use large numbers of low CR monsters--easy for an even "naked" APL 8 party to kill, but a lot of them, so they still have to be careful and work as a team.
The other thing is for both the benefit and bane to the party--and to the NPCs/monsters--is really pay attention to stuff like terrain. Remind them and let them use pillars or trees for cover bonuses, etc. Make it clear they're going to have to think tactically and creatively to make up for some losses. Check their character sheets too--if no one can hit a monster with an AC higher than 27 except on a natural 20 (example number arbitrarily chosen), then make sure you don't attack them with a monster with an AC of 27. Bear in mind DR too (mind, I'd love to see monster variants without DR but that's a rant I've given before and be saved again for another time).
As for the witch and wizard--remember the GP requirements represent material costs. So the witch doesn't need 2000 gp CASH; she needs to FIND 2000 gp worth of arcane bond item STUFF. These things are translated into GP costs to make things easier on GMs and players who don't want to bog themselves down in questing for every little doo dad they need to craft or bond an item; however, the costs still represent STUFF. So in this case, just make the actually quantity of STUFF show up at the right time, when you want the witch to be able to get her bonded item back. Same goes for the wizard. He can find some paper, needle and thread, and some arcane ink (which is where your GP costs are represented), and get to making himself a new spellbook. As the black raven suggests, handwaving some of the time needed would also be situationally appropriate. If you need it to be in-story explicable, they could, for example, find a magical laboratory the runes of which some how speed certain crafting and bonding rituals. Done.
We had something similar to this happen in my high level game last year. Our 14-15th level party was captured and stripped of all their gear at the end of a relatively long adventuring day that had included four combats already (including one against a CR 18).
We then had to fight our way through a tower filled with opponents - many of them wielding the party's own gear against them. It was an interesting experience - but one that definitely was challenging. I think had the party not boasted relatively high base stats (e.g. really high ability scores) and had a few advantages (character with lots of weaker resources, a fighter with fast healing) it would have been a complete nightmare. It took us almost a year to finish (mind you, we play over MIRC).
I'd be very careful with this.