Hello fellow Dungeon Masters 
My Players and i started playing the realse of the 5th Edition, so you could say we arn't the elite players you might be used to see here. The Group just reached lvl 5 and they want me to build a campagn for them. But i dont have any experience in
building them. Thats why i am here to ask a few questions about general construction Stuff.
I already got a Backstory and the first Part of the Adventure written down. The Mainlocation is going to be Waterdeep with Neverwinter as the Startingarea. The players want to build a town and i've done some layout there too. They will start with small buildings like Farms, Lumberjackhut and Stonesmiths. Later on the will be able to build an Alchemist Laboratory a Tinker Shop with an Airship-dockingtower made of wood stone iron and marble ... and so on. That might cost them a lot of gold and time do to so but will make some nice profit.
The Mainstory is heavily inspired by the game Dark Souls. You might have heard about it
They have to collect 5 Lord souls(hold by strong Enemies) to finish the Campagn. There is going to be a lot of fighting, talking
and investigating.
I own the Player's Handbook, Monster Manual and the Dungeon Master Guide.
Well so much about my current workstatus. Here are a few of my questions:
1: How should i give out magic items? I saw the sheet about rolling for magic items but i dont like that kind of randomness. They might get to powerful early on. I also dont know if i sould give them items they could use.. For example we dont have a Leatherwearer right now. Should i still give them leatherarmor +1?
2. I thought about giving them the possibility to craft certain magical items. There will be a blacksmith available who is good enough to add Souls into Metal they find on their adventure (souls and metals will be loot/findable). So far i havent found a good way to make the crafting system work. My current systems is something like that:
Blacksmith lvl 1 - Allows to infuse Heide Iron (name of an metal) with minor Souls
Chain Mail Requires 45 Lb Heide Iron 275GP and a minor Soul
Plate Mail Requires 65 Lb Heide Iron 325GP and a minor Soul
Minor souls will have a bonus like - no malus on stealth checks or increased swimming speed.
Blacksmith lvl 2 - Allows to infuse Abyss steel with greater Souls
Plate Mail Requires 65 LB Abyss steel 650 GP and a greater Soul
Major souls will add resistance to one kind of elemental damage (lightning for example) enables waterwalking or will make critical hits normal hits.
What do you think? Will this break the Game?
3. I dont want anyone to feel underpowered. We have a shadowmonk, Warclerik, Vengeancepaladin and an evocation Wizard. Could you tell me something about level balacing? I know the wizard will be very powerful later on and thats why i dont want to give him a lot of magic stuff right now. Our Monk isnt doing very well damage per round twice. So i thought about giving him some gloves with slots for magic runes/stones. He could add a fire rune which will enable him to deal fire damage with unarmed strikes instead of Bludgeon.
4. Could you please give me some tipps/tricks to make a campagn players will enjoy?
Thanks in advance!
Regards Kreet
English is not my mothertongue, so please excuse any errors i made.
1) However you feel is best. Magic items are powerful and their scarcity affects the campaign you create. If everyone has a magic item, they become mundane and boring. I prefer to keep magic items rare so the players feel geniune excitement when they get one. If your group likes lots of magic items, then go with it. Every campaign is different and you control the "feel" of it. Note that you may need to work harder to provide challenges to the players (assuming they want a challenge).
2) I've never played Dark Souls, so I don't know much about what you're talking about here. It's hard to break the game, it just might make your job as DM more challenging.
3) Monks deal small damage multiple times. I wonder if the player is maximizes his abilities.
4) Pay attention to your player's reactions to what you present. Notice when they are engaged or when they become frustrated. It takes time and experience, but eventually, you'll be able to read your player's reactions and change things up on the fly.
The Monk is supposed to keep hitting every turn - not with every blow, but one or another will land. The hard part, I have found, is when you run out all by yourself and fight Team Monster as a solo star, until "the heavy infantry" can catch up. If he beats on a spellcaster, make a Concentration check where the Monk player can see it - rain on the Boss' parade some for him.
The Monk gets more Shadow tricks at L6 and should become VERY mobile. Does he have a good imagination, and/or does he improvise actions "on the fly"? Does he like swashbuckling (swing from chandleiers &c)? If so, he will have a blast every evening after sundown with "teleport between shadows". He might find daytime rather restraining.
Thanks for your Replies!
The Monk is currently using his stealth just to scout and report back, cause he got punished a few times for entering a room with hidden enemies. I am not sure if we are using perception(passiv or rolls) and stealth correctly. The current usage of stealth is as follows:
1. the player who wants to stealth tells what to do in a silent manner.
2. the player rolls for stealth and moves to that location.
3. if the enemies know the players are around, i roll a hidden d20 for their stealth checks.
4. If the Stealth check is higher then the players passiv perception they are hidden and attack the player if he enters the room with surprise.
5. Surprise round: 1 free attack or whatever the monster/player wants to do + advatage on attack rolls.
6. normal combat starts .. rolling initiative and so on
Last time they started to use the ready action. "If we hear a noise in the room the Monk enters we imediatly engage" Should i make them
roll for stealth too and give them a surprise attack or are they fine with a normal fight?
We had another problem with Perception rolls and Investigation. The Group cleared a dungeon and thought they got to little Gold and Magic Items. So they went into every room again to roll for loot. They always asked if there could be loot in the hallways to. I didnt know what to answer so i told them to just roll in every room. It took them a while to search everywhere and it was quite boring. How do you handle those situations?
And the shadow monks shadowstep. How does it work? he can move from a shadow to another. Does a dark cavern count as a Big Shadow where he is able to teleport around like crazy? I dont know how to handle that Skill. Is it just usefull for scouting or even in combat? When a creature is in a shadow is he still able to move there? I am confused ;)
Regards Kreet
Kreet wrote:
They fought Against 5 Enemys in an adjacent room. First they crushed the Door with a natural d20 Strength check. And used some kind of Thunder(loud noise) damage spell .. i cant remember which ;).
The Players were searching for a lost Dwarf and had to hurry.
Are We using stealth correct?
How do you handle identifying items or objects?
Monsters:
I told them they could only check once if they know something about a Monster and roll a d20 Nature or Arcana Check. Does it take an Action or a Bonus Action to do that?
Items:
I didnt want them to pass an item around for 10 times so i only allowed them to roll once. If two persons are profiecent in something they could roll once with advantage. How do you handle that kind of thing?
Rolls for Investigation/Perception
One Guy is searching for Traps the other one for hidden Items and Secret Doors. How should i handle that. Let them roll in every room and hallway? Or use passiv percepten/investigation. But many checks are higher then the passiv skills. I am confused :/
Thanks for your Replies so far!
Regards Kreet
Are you rolling the monsters' perception or using the passive? Or just deciding whether they know the party is there (completely legitimate in cases where the party doesn't realize they've been spotted before trying to be stealthy or moves through the line of sight of a foe)? If the players are actively on the lookout, I'd have them roll Wisdom (perception) rather than use the passive.
IDing Monsters: If they have a good reason to know, they know it. If they have a good reason to be confounded, they're confounded. If there is some doubt and it doesn't matter too much, I tell them anyway. If there is some doubt and the knowledge could have a significant effect on how the encounter goes, then we roll based on what the monster is. And it isn't an action or bonus action to recognize something. (Unless you're playing Dori.)
IDing Items: The Identify spell exists, so that's the simple answer. If that's not available, context clues and experimentation.
Investigation/Perception: If they are searching, it's Investigation. If they are walking through, it's Perception. If they tell me "I search the flagstones" and one of the flagstones is the trigger to a falling chandelier trap, I tell them "You see a flagstone that isn't mortared in like the others, and it kind of wiggles if you mess with it." If they tell me "I search the tapestries" and one of the flagstones is the trigger to a falling chandelier trap, they hear "The tapestries appear to depict the history of the noble family that once lived here, but there isn't anything obviously special about them." If they tell me "I hop up on Bob's shoulders to check that chandelier" and blah blah blah, then I tell them "It's secured at the top with just a thin piece of wood tied with string, and is rigged to drop when something pulls on the string." Only if they tell me "I'm checking out the ceiling and floor" do I bother with rolling, since they aren't looking specifically at what is there to find, but are still in the area.
General rule: Roll when the outcome is in doubt AND interesting.
Kreet wrote: