Ran my first game as a DM this week and it went well.
So i had a couple questions.
The first couple encounters in PoTA i did not change creature numbeds even though it was 7 PCs. I wanted the newbies to get the hang of it and i didnt really want to kill anyone right off.
i should be adding extra creatures continuing on though, right? I want them to hit the level 2 milestone at the end of necromancers cave, so i know there needs to be more monsters.
I also know the Part 2 is strangely anemic and has almost no XP. So i was planning on having a moderate random encounter on their way
back to Red Larch from Haunted Tomb. I am thinking a gnoll ambush along the road. They will probably rest overnight after that before they head to Lance Rock. There arent a ton of monsters in there so i can easily add a few more critters to pace the game get them to lv 2.
Does all of this stuff sound fine to folks?
The random encounter chart is really deadly. Like seriously how did that list end up full of flying 5th level casters and Hard CR 5 monsters.
At the start of each Expedition, and at the start of the princes of the apocalypse (encounters document) it should state something to the effect of "This adventure is designed for 3-7 players of levels 1-4 and is optimized for X level Y characters". Following that is a brief description of how to determine the average character level of the party, and a table. Simply find your APL on the table, and it should give you a value between very weak and very strong.
Use that as a guideline when adjusting the encounters - but it is a guideline only. Always be mindful of how well your party is handling each encounter. If they are having a more difficult time than their APL suggests - drop it one level and see how they do. If they are having an easy time, or the party synergizes extremely well with incredible teamwork - bump up the difficulty one stage.
Ahh ok knew I had seen it, but it wasn't in my Princes packet I got. It was in the DM Basic rules page 56-57(if case anyone else could use the info).
Next Question!
I missed out on the first Expedition at the beginning of season 2...But one of the players at my table started with a level 2 Character that he says got Platemail(the 1500gp kind) from the expedition at 1st level. Is that actually one of the rewards or is there actually that much treasure in that thing? He also DMed 1 session so that would account for 150gp that I know of, but I know for a fact that he hasn't used his 'DM folio' reward because he was bragging and asking what item he should pick or to take the extra money.
So how on earth did a fresh level 2 character get 1350 gold? I havent audited anyone's character sheet, but maybe he mistakenly thought he got 150gp PER character he DMed?
Are you asking if DDEX2-1 City of Danger gives out either plate armor or 1000+gp/player?
The DM folio reward should probably only be handed out with Encounters (though I suppose that's up to the FLGS), so, maybe more details? Cause if he's only DM'd one session of Encounters, he wouldn't have any DM rewards yet...
Yeah that is what i am asking.
How much treasure does it actually give or does it give platemail? Is it possible he could have it legit?
we just did session 2 of Princes so anything he has had to come from that Expedition.
Well, unless someone who ran it at a Con has an answer, I'm afraid we'll have to wait until tomorrow to answer this.
Byakugan01 wrote:
When in doubt, it is within your rights as a DM to request supporting documentation for any discrepencies. As the player claimed it was a DM perk, they should be able to provide the certificate or log entry to prove this.
I am aware of no such certificate
Although it is theoretically possible, as I am not yet aware of the reward for running the S2 Epic. Even so, if such a certificate exists - it should be presented upon request.
Confirm he has a DM reward certificate and that it isn't a situation like someone telling him something uber-vague like "DM's get heavy armor as a reward". If he has a reward cert, then point out where it says right on it where his choices are. If he doesn't have one...then he doesn't have the reward. Sounds harsh, but there are a limited number of certs and PLENTY of people who DMed in Season 1 didn't get a DM cert reward. We actually only had 2 DMs at our store who did because the other two certs went to people who DMed one session and then vanished.
I have both the S1 and S2 reward certificates for DMs. Neither of them grant plate armor.
In respect to Armor (specifically)
- The S1 certificate grants you breastplate as one of your reward options.
- The S2 certificate grants you breastplate or splint as two of your reward options.
In respect to Gold
- Both certificates grant you 300 gp as one of your choices.
I fail to see where the option for 1000gp or plate armor comes from on any of the available certificates.
As Event Organizer for my FLGS - I have (or have had) in my possession all certificates (to date) for Season 1 and Season 2 with the exception of the Cleric of Kelemvor (Epic) certificate, and the S2 Epic certificate. As the S2 Epic certificate is the only one I have not personally seen, it is the only possible candidate.
This list includes:
- DM Reward Certificates: Both DM reward certificates (special starting item)
- Published Books: Hoard of the Dragon Queen, Rise of Tiamat, and Princes of the Apocalypse
- Expeditions: All Season 1 certificates, and the first 3 Season 2 certificates (DDEX1-1 and DDEX2-1 lack certificates).
The only certificates I no longer possess copies of, are the items from hoard of the dragon queen, as all copies of the certificates were handed out last season (with the exception of the black dragon mask) which I still possess.
Incidentilly, I have 12 or more copies of some items sitting in my Event binder.
Another possibility occured to me
There was a trade event at one of the recent conventions (Winter Fantasy IIRC). At this event, players could exchange one certificate, for another different item. To my knowledge, some of the item certificates you could trade for were unique to the "Magic Item Trading Post" such as +1 weapon of your choice.
I do not know the complete list of items that could be obtained at such an event, but in any case - the player should be able to provide a certificate for any item obtained at the event.
It is mostly just annoying because the rest of the party is in the 14-17 AC range, but he already gets to ac 22 with shield of faith. So, pretty much i need 19s or 20s to hit him.
Anybody know if they fought a monster with plate armor or something? I am trying to figure out where a logical mistake could be made.
I want a better option than to have the baddie blast just nuke him with a level 6 magic missile and reanimate him as a zombie against the PCs. Which actually sounds kinda fun 
but that would probably end in TPK.
Several enemies wear splint armor in HotDQ and Expeditions (but its not lootable in most cases). I don't recall anyone wearing any plate armor - the closest I can think of is at the Lodge (ep7).
Byakugan01 wrote:
Ok. All i knew was they ran a lv 1 saturday game that they called an expedition.
The only detail i know about was they fought a minotaur pirate. Does that sound familiar to anyone?
they made new season 2 characters for it. I should probably just look at his log and check for a massive gold number then ask the DM who ran it. I think i know who it was.
Sounds like there is no way it is legit. I just dont want him to feel like im pickin on him.
Yes that does sound familiar. It was in Outlaws of the Iron Route (DDEX1-9) IIRC. Two NPCs (a human and an Orog) wear plate in that adventure. Their armor is not lootable (as it was not listed as treasure). I would direct the player to the following passage in the ALPG.
Buying and Selling items (ALPG p6)Arms, armor, and other equipment fetch half their cost if you sell them. Arms and armor obtained from monsters is worthless unless otherwise specified; if such gear is found during an adventure, it can be used for the duration of the session before it breaks or becomes unusable.
There was no 1,000gp. Getting 'lots a gold' was just one possible way to get the Plate, but if it is as we suspect, that they 'looted' the plate, then the gold isn't an issue.
And its not just AL, even the standard DnD rules states that armor from monsters is rarely in good enough condition to sell. But the AL rules leave no doubt.
Ahaa, we have our culprit!
He will be sad that i gotta poo-poo his armor and bring him back down to the same playing field as the other PCs.
So heres another dumb question, another character took the minotaur's wooden peg-leg to use as a club. He is a druid and wants to use shileligh on it. I have absolutely no problem with it, but am i correct in my thought that i should make him pay for the cost of a club, in essence to get it 'reinforced' into a real weapon. That way he can keep the flavor of the idea but still be legal? Another table already told him No, but frankly i don't see a problem.
I would allow the player who took the plate to do the same thing, but 1500g will take a lot longer to pay! If he wanted to say, fix up the orogg's armor.
By RAW - the wooden leg is an improvised melee weapon (club). I would let them keep it as a trinket and use it as an improvised weapon without penalty. If they want to transform it into an actual club, there are two ways you can accomplish this.
- Have him use the crafting downtime activity to craft a club (using the wooden club as the material cost). This is the best option by RAW (especially with more costly items), but might feel cheezy over something so insignificant and flavorful.
- Handwaive it, and have him spend GP equal to the cost of a club.
If you were for example, transforming the remains of a helmed horror into nonmagical plate armor, I would definately go the crafting route (and make them pay the full cost associated with it). They wouldn't gain any cost advantage for going this route, but would definately have the "cool" factor, granting their armor a unique (but 100% cosmetic) quirk.
For something like a club..... it's simply not meaningful.
Either way, he should record it on his character sheet as Club (wooden leg) or Wooden Leg (Club).
Byakugan01 wrote:
Coredump00 wrote:
Here's the description of the peg leg, by the way:
"The creature’s left leg is fashioned from intricately carved wood,
starting just below the knee, resembling an angry man with its
arms and hands upraised to support the leg."
I would not only let the character use the peg leg as a club, but I'd probably grant inspiration, too.
Bumping this thread because I wanted to share some more about how it played out.
The DM that ran the expedition actually did award the PC with Plate armor as a treasure. The player told me the DM told him to mark it on his sheet like a magic item, so I talked to that person and he told me he did award the1 PC with it. I'm not particularly happy about it, but I told the PC I would honor the other DMs ruling. He is actually playing his Paladin as a meat shield. I just think part of the fun is lost when you basically get to start with the best armor in the game. He is a bit min-maxy so if its fun for him, myeh.
That said, my second time DMing the session went well. The PCs seemed to have fun and we got through 700 xp worth of encounters. All but 1 of the PCs came back from last week, so I couldn't have done too bad, lol. Basically, they got through the Haunted Tomb, a gnoll ambush, and most of the way through the Necromancer's Cave. They mostly rolled over everything due to overwhelming numbers and me rolling horrible on attack rolls. The ghostly knight in the Tomb very nearly killed 1 PC, but failed to hit on the only 2 attacks it was able to make before defeat.
Then the last fight of the night, the DM got his retribution *maniacal laughter*. They encountered the costumed zombies...all 3 of which all hit and rolled max damage including 1 double 6 crit. knocking 2 PCs unconscious and almost a 3rd. Then the PCs killed the poor bear zombie. The jester stabbed another PC and rolled another near max damage roll, then the PCs killed them both with a crit and 2x Clerics spamming Sacred Flame. That one felt like a medium fight, even though it was easy by the numbers. The PCs got worried real fast and I heard at least one whispering under his breath about a possible TPK. *more maniacal laughter*.
My guess is next week they will take a short rest right away, then power through the rest including the fight with the BBEG...Then they will all want to go back to town and rest to Level Up to level 2.
I'm planning on using 2 or 3 burrowing Ankhegs to trigger Part 2 of the adventure....Makes perfect sense to me that they could have destabilized the ground and caused the cave in. They are a bit nasty, and should be a difficult fight without killing anyone outright if I spread the attacks around. The party has 2 Life clerics, a ranger, a druid, and a Paladin...so they definitely got some heals. I like this scenario and think the PCs will be a lot more likely to hurry down to save the helpless children.
Also, I let the PCs know I am not going to be using the Flanking option, which both the other DMs we had before were using. IMO it inherently disadvantages the PCs because it encourages them to make horrible tactical decisions. Which admittedly is their choice, but they dont need any more help from the DM to do that on their own :-p This will encourage them to choose their abilities wisely and to assist each other if they want to have advantage.
What do you guys think?
Awarding the Plate as treasure, and counting it at 'magic' are both not AL legal. But to be honest, as far as 'illegal AL house rules" go... it isn't that bad. If feasible (and it may not be) I would at least let them know that isn't how it is supposed to go.
Flanking is also an AL no-no. The *only* variant rules allowed in AL is Feats,Multiclassing, and Humans. No DMG variants/optionals are allowed. Again, I would at least explain that to your players at to *why* you are not doing it, and you may want to mention it to the coordinator.
But... if most of the players/DMs don't deal with conventions, they may feel that doing ti 'fun' is more important that doing it 'right'. While I don't agree to the decisions they have made, I can at least understand the concept. Basically, while you may want to let them know their 'mistaes'.... I would be careful to pick your battles and make sure they are worth it. Another option is to not make a big deal, but tell your players you will be sticking with the AL rules and explain to them the differences.
Good luck, glad folks seem to be having fun.
Coredump00 wrote:
I'm gonna go with rule 0 i guess.
If the DM says you get flanked then you are flanked.
Also I'm pretty sure the coordinator and another table are using flanking rules too. So I am the one deviating as far as the players know.
Byakugan01 wrote:
Another possibility is that the DM didn't divide the total amount of gold by the number of players. For example, the first Encounters module for season 2 gives a total of just under 450 gold. 450+300+150 would be 900 gold (still not reaching the 1500 for breatstplate, but getting up there.)
However, since you have to play AL with at least 3 players, the most you shold get from that Encounters module is 150.
***Spoiler Alert**** sorry I dont know how to hide text. Go away if you don't wanna read stuffs!
My group finished the Necromancer's cave this week. I had to play the necromancer -really- badly, and I still almost TPKed the party.
I left the wand in storage, and had him cast a level 3 False life after he ordered the skeletons to attack and then fled to his hiding place room. Then he actually rolled a 19 on stealth to hide behind the curtain and nobody rolled high enough to see him, but I decided that he was overconfident and just tossed the curtain asside and rolled initiative. So he rolls an 18 on initiative and all the players but 1 roll really poorly. First round he casts a 3rd level Magic missile, and hits everybody with 1 missile, with the 5th missile targeting random player...I rolled low damage but only 2 PCs manage to hit him and they barely manage to get past the temporary hitpoint shield. So next round he casts another Magic missile...randomly assigning the 5th missile....2 PCs go down....and I'm thinking well damn lol. Both PCs manage to hit him and hes down to about 25 hitpoints...I decide to cast Shocking grasp on the plate wearing paladin, because 4 more magic missiles would just be deadly at this point...Oh look 19 on the die, pally goes down to 5 hitpoints...Pally knocks him down to like 12 hitpoints...Mage decides to be overconfident and gloat and casts a Ray of sickness at the ranger, which tactically is like the worst possible choice I could make for him...disadvantage and I still roll a 16, lol Ranger rolls a 1 on his save....takes 9 damage and goes down...Paladin goes at the end of the round and manages to just drop the mage. At this point the warlock has failed his first 2 death saves and he is at the top of the round. He rolls a 10...which I am only just now realizing is actually a fail, but I mentally added his con bonus and let the paladin stabilize him with a healers kit. Then there was still a unconscious druid that had 1 failed save, and he rolled a 2(whew so close!), then pally stabilized him. And the ranger had no fails so he was saved next. The end result was actually pretty perfect...a harrowing fight that very nearly killed them all, but that they scraped through by the skin of their necks. Super cool for the BBEG fight right before they graduate to 2nd level. The fact the pally was 2nd level already is the only reason he was still standing. I don't think I rolled a single dice that was below a 15 that whole fight.
The players were really on edge because when they realized they were facing a spellcaster with multiple 3rd level slots they were like 'but we're only 1st level, holy ****!' They didnt really do anything wrong in the fight, but it was not lost on them that I was using horrible tactics. They seemed a little sad knowing I used terrible tactics and still beat them within an inch of their lives, so I pretty much showed the stats to them and explained that the scenario is so deadly that even the DM recommendations suggest not rolling random encounters and to do things like let the bad guys monologue and skip turns and stuff because they are so nasty. That seemed to convince them I didn't take anything away from them. I asked for feedback after the session, and everyone said they are enjoying the game. I'll call that a win since this was only my third session as a DM. They asked if we could try using minis to give them a better perspective on the battles, which I plan on doing next week. I already have tons of DnD minis! One player said he could tell I was spending time to prep and that he appreciated me using lots of vivid details. That made me feel good.
I know that part 2 doesn't have enough XP so I gotta fill in with random encounters...They are pretty much guaranteed to stay in the cave for a overnight rest, so I am planning on having them encounter a group of Air Cultist Scouts in the morning when they are fresh...The scouts are on their way to meet with the necromancer, and this ties in with the Elemental Eye symbol they had just discovered. Then they will have a few days in Red Larch to get the rest of the rumors they missed before and to ask around about this strange cult thye just discovered. Then to start off part 2, I am going to have 2 Ankhegs tunneling through be the cause of the cave in instead of the 'it happens just cuz' way its explained. It should put them on edge and they might even leap into the pit heroically to save the children from being eaten! Or more likely half of them will fall in accidentally, lol. That should be enough to fill in the XP gap so they hit 3rd level at the end of part 2.
sblock is your friend.
[spoiler] stuff [/spoiler]
works too