A new DM seeking advice... [Archive] - Wizards Community

A new DM seeking advice... [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Hell_Gell
05-27-06, 01:33 AM Hello everbody,
I have been playing D&D for a few years now, and I finally want to make my own campain. I have told the players to be Lv.5 and to try to keep it simple. I want my campain to be creative and easy-going (since Im new at this) Im planning to throw a Ogre Lv.4 and a few Kolbalts at them, I think the can handle it. The three players have told me what their being..(Im being leanient) 1. is a halfling wizard, the other one is a half bronze dragon ( :twitch: ) and the last is being a human(??) rogue/fighter. The player w/ the halfling told me his has spells like fire ball, and in passed campaings, I've noticed the omega damage that it can do (:raincloud ) The advice that I am seeking most is what exactly to throw at them, enimy wise. The Lv.4 Ogre is like the 1st battle. I appsheate the help fellow gamers :tiphat:

~Hell_Gell~
kelvinaw273
05-27-06, 01:49 AM Anything with a challenge rating of 4-5 should be within their ability to handle, although they may get unlucky. Only problem might be the half-bronze dragon, his LA is going to mean he has few HP and will be vulnerable despite his powers if he is not careful.
DarthMarasmus
05-27-06, 01:59 AM What class is the half-bronze?
BeerMan5000
05-27-06, 06:01 AM Ok, the half dragon won't be a big problem because he's low lvl and will barely have anything for hit points and saving throws. He'll do alot of damage in melee sure... but won't be able to hit very well, etc. Just throw the regular stuff at him and you'll figure out what's up soon.

A wiz 5 is not a big deal. Fireball only does 1d6 per lvl of spell. It's no big deal. Use CR 4 and 5 creatures and they'll do just fine. Also, remember that they aren't a full powered EL 5 group as there are only 3 players. So unless they just tear through absolutely everything... don't throw much at them over their own EL because they're sure to all die soon.

DM'ing is like swimming. Some people take to it like fish to water, other people struggle, splash around alot and don't get anywhere for awhile. It's ok. If the players like it, it was probably a good game. However, the only thing to watch out for is players who only like to win and never like to have a little fight. I'm not saying that you should drive them mercilessly before you, but a good scare should fix them up every 3rd game or so for now.

Also, you have to hav more than just an ogre and some kobolds. you have to have a story, a hook and a plot. Read the DMG... games that are solely combat based are boring as sin. After 18 years of playing DnD, i can safely tell you this: when making your own game world and campaign setting you are essentially writing a story. The elements of a story are background history of the setting,supporting characters, hero's, villains, problems, and eventually problems resolution. You provide the background history, the villains, the supporting characters and the problems. The players provide the hero's and the resolution.

There are far more problems in a good story than Ogre Lv. 4 wants to kill me and feed me to his pet kobolds. You need countries, geography, a system of government (anarchy, democracy, oligarchy, theocracy, monarchy), rulers for those countries ( don't bother writing stat's for the ruler types, but have an idea how the countries run ), etc.

Then you need villains and problems. villains are easy don't go too far over the players head's with any CR monster or NPC that you are willing to pit against the players in combat or all the players will just die) Problems... there should be lot's of problems... which is good, because you're going to need them to keep the players busy and keep it fun for everyone. The country they start in could be at war (popular with the kids), under siege by some great army of X... but you have to answer the questions: why is the army here, what did they come for, is there something more to this than meets the eye, and most of all, why are they trying to destroy the country i live in... that's where i keep all my stuff. The world could be plagued by evil magic of a demonic source that the players are forced to fight if they want to survive. Or, it could be plagued by an evil agent embedded deeply in the government.

Keep the game fun, don't just worry about little things like creature encounters. That's a good place to start, but soon the game will get boring unless you add a little extra to it yourself--- don't count on the players having their own ideas about things right off the bat.
Hell_Gell
05-27-06, 12:21 PM Thanks to everyone espacially BeerMan5000. I have a good story and have some awesome villans in mind, I didnt bother to mention it in my Thread because the players read these and I didnt want to spoil anything for them. The monster thing wont be too much of a surprise because I was looking for oppoians and I got them (thanks a bunch :ayyyy!: ) The story is deep and I wanted the players to give me a background story about their characters and why they would be in the village. I'd like the players to get what they want like each character can go onto a side quest to make them happy.
thanks once again :tiphat:

Hell_Gell
HeartbreakerHabberdasher
05-27-06, 12:36 PM Oh for bosses, you should make the CR one higher than their level (since the party is lvl 5, make it CR 6) for a better challange, or make it harder than usual if they handel it wrong, like if they are facing something that is sufficently harder than they can handel, make a few factors so that they can handel it, like if it's a hydra in a canyon, make it possible for a rockslide to crush it without a challange. Things like that makes good experiences in D&D, as long as the PC's are confident.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Hell_Gell 05-27-06, 01:33 AM	Hello everbody, I have been playing D&D for a few years now, and I finally want to make my own campain. I have told the players to be Lv.5 and to try to keep it simple. I want my campain to be creative and easy-going (since Im new at this) Im planning to throw a Ogre Lv.4 and a few Kolbalts at them, I think the can handle it. The three players have told me what their being..(Im being leanient) 1. is a halfling wizard, the other one is a half bronze dragon ( :twitch: ) and the last is being a human(??) rogue/fighter. The player w/ the halfling told me his has spells like fire ball, and in passed campaings, I've noticed the omega damage that it can do (:raincloud ) The advice that I am seeking most is what exactly to throw at them, enimy wise. The Lv.4 Ogre is like the 1st battle. I appsheate the help fellow gamers :tiphat: ~Hell_Gell~
kelvinaw273 05-27-06, 01:49 AM	Anything with a challenge rating of 4-5 should be within their ability to handle, although they may get unlucky. Only problem might be the half-bronze dragon, his LA is going to mean he has few HP and will be vulnerable despite his powers if he is not careful.
DarthMarasmus 05-27-06, 01:59 AM	What class is the half-bronze?
BeerMan5000 05-27-06, 06:01 AM	Ok, the half dragon won't be a big problem because he's low lvl and will barely have anything for hit points and saving throws. He'll do alot of damage in melee sure... but won't be able to hit very well, etc. Just throw the regular stuff at him and you'll figure out what's up soon. A wiz 5 is not a big deal. Fireball only does 1d6 per lvl of spell. It's no big deal. Use CR 4 and 5 creatures and they'll do just fine. Also, remember that they aren't a full powered EL 5 group as there are only 3 players. So unless they just tear through absolutely everything... don't throw much at them over their own EL because they're sure to all die soon. DM'ing is like swimming. Some people take to it like fish to water, other people struggle, splash around alot and don't get anywhere for awhile. It's ok. If the players like it, it was probably a good game. However, the only thing to watch out for is players who only like to win and never like to have a little fight. I'm not saying that you should drive them mercilessly before you, but a good scare should fix them up every 3rd game or so for now. Also, you have to hav more than just an ogre and some kobolds. you have to have a story, a hook and a plot. Read the DMG... games that are solely combat based are boring as sin. After 18 years of playing DnD, i can safely tell you this: when making your own game world and campaign setting you are essentially writing a story. The elements of a story are background history of the setting,supporting characters, hero's, villains, problems, and eventually problems resolution. You provide the background history, the villains, the supporting characters and the problems. The players provide the hero's and the resolution. There are far more problems in a good story than Ogre Lv. 4 wants to kill me and feed me to his pet kobolds. You need countries, geography, a system of government (anarchy, democracy, oligarchy, theocracy, monarchy), rulers for those countries ( don't bother writing stat's for the ruler types, but have an idea how the countries run ), etc. Then you need villains and problems. villains are easy don't go too far over the players head's with any CR monster or NPC that you are willing to pit against the players in combat or all the players will just die) Problems... there should be lot's of problems... which is good, because you're going to need them to keep the players busy and keep it fun for everyone. The country they start in could be at war (popular with the kids), under siege by some great army of X... but you have to answer the questions: why is the army here, what did they come for, is there something more to this than meets the eye, and most of all, why are they trying to destroy the country i live in... that's where i keep all my stuff. The world could be plagued by evil magic of a demonic source that the players are forced to fight if they want to survive. Or, it could be plagued by an evil agent embedded deeply in the government. Keep the game fun, don't just worry about little things like creature encounters. That's a good place to start, but soon the game will get boring unless you add a little extra to it yourself--- don't count on the players having their own ideas about things right off the bat.
Hell_Gell 05-27-06, 12:21 PM	Thanks to everyone espacially BeerMan5000. I have a good story and have some awesome villans in mind, I didnt bother to mention it in my Thread because the players read these and I didnt want to spoil anything for them. The monster thing wont be too much of a surprise because I was looking for oppoians and I got them (thanks a bunch :ayyyy!: ) The story is deep and I wanted the players to give me a background story about their characters and why they would be in the village. I'd like the players to get what they want like each character can go onto a side quest to make them happy. thanks once again :tiphat: Hell_Gell
HeartbreakerHabberdasher 05-27-06, 12:36 PM	Oh for bosses, you should make the CR one higher than their level (since the party is lvl 5, make it CR 6) for a better challange, or make it harder than usual if they handel it wrong, like if they are facing something that is sufficently harder than they can handel, make a few factors so that they can handel it, like if it's a hydra in a canyon, make it possible for a rockslide to crush it without a challange. Things like that makes good experiences in D&D, as long as the PC's are confident.