Anywho. The main goal of the starter kit/red box adventure is to retrieve a skull for a dwarf from a necromancer. One of the monsters in the campaign says that the dwarf and the necromancer have a past and argued about something. It doesn't actually tell you what...
So I wrote out their past together.
At the end of the campaign, the adventurers will note that this skull is imbued with very powerful necromancy and they'll surely begin to wonder why the dwarf has such a thing. So this is where the past I wrote comes into play. I'm guessing my player's will not want to return the dangerous item to the dwarf who is still mostly a stranger to them.
Long story short, I made it so the skull was given its greatest powers when the necromancer sacrificed the dwarf's lover to it. The dwarf wants to free her soul by taking it to the Shadowfell. Until they release her soul and destroy the skull, it is a highly potent magical item.
I want my players, though we're all new, to have a truly scary, exciting, epic adventure and possess this very potent magical item. I want them to be aware of what they can do with it, and of course that means that they might use it.
Is this kind of adventure too much responsibility for brand new players? I would like the skull to be able to bring back the dead while my players are in possession of it, but how should I limit that power so it doesn't get out of hand?
I also want the skull to shatter at some point, but still work to an extent, with the shards perhaps doing different things, influenced by the soul of the woman inside. She was a warrior, but also learning to be a talented healer, so I want the skull's powers to reflect that.
Also, the final boss battle for this adventure... I want the soul of the woman inside the skull to be influenced by the strong dark presence of the Shadowfell. As I wanted the skull to be shattered in half, I thought it would be a neat battle idea for her soul to spilt, and when she manifests to slaughter the players, one part is a healer while the other is a strong warrior. I'm a totally brand new DM, so I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction as far as a way to stat this boss battle, or a monster to base each part of the soul off of?
That was a lot! Thanks for reading and for any advice!
I want my players, though we're all new, to have a truly scary, exciting, epic adventure and possess this very potent magical item. I want them to be aware of what they can do with it, and of course that means that they might use it.
This sounds like an artifact. The Red Box probably doesn't have much information on them, but if you have access to the DMG (or any previous editions of D&D) you could get some ideas there. Basically, artifacts are powerful plot-related items that may fall into PC hands from time to time, but which have drawbacks as well (usually they have a strong will to further their own objectives). As a player furthers the goals of an artifact it grows stronger in his possession, but if he acts against its aims or neglects it the artifact will hinder him or leave. They are not normal magical items, so they don't have prices and are not strongly ballanced. They are meant to be tools the DM can use to further the plot as well as tempt PCs with great power at great cost.
Is this kind of adventure too much responsibility for brand new players? I would like the skull to be able to bring back the dead while my players are in possession of it, but how should I limit that power so it doesn't get out of hand?
It could be. It depends on what you mean by "bring back the dead". One idea could be to simply allow it to be used to cast the Raise Dead ritual (IIRC, rituals are not covered in the Red Box, either), which is something normally players can accomplish around level 8 or so. You could have the skull be a way that anyone could do it - but still have it cost the same (500 gp, maybe a little less if you actually want to see it get used before 6th level) and still take an 8 hour ritual. If your players do not have a ritual caster among them, this gives them access to something they wouldn't otherwise be able to do, but its something that isn't totally out of the realm of things D&D heroes can do, so its not too overpowered. It also helps keep the story going, since PCs (or NPCs they care about) can now re-enter the story.
I'm assuming the rules in red box don't cover this, so the party doesn't have access to rituals and probably isn't high enough level to bring anyone back if they died in a fight. You could also allow the skull to speak with the dead (maybe a question or three each day), which would be a way for your players to interrogate NPCs and find out more information - which is something that could enrich some adventures, but could short-circuit others (if they ask clever questions, they might skip a lot of stuff you had planned and jump right to the end of some kinds of adventures).
I also want the skull to shatter at some point, but still work to an extent, with the shards perhaps doing different things, influenced by the soul of the woman inside. She was a warrior, but also learning to be a talented healer, so I want the skull's powers to reflect that.
Again, this sounds very much like an artifact. As plot devices, there are a number that began as immensly powerful ancient magic items which broke or were sundered and scattered (usually for the safety of the people of the world). Usually the pieces of such artifacts have a goal to be reuinited someday, and are using the heroes to further that end - this would fit well if doing so would grant more power to the PCs while they were working towards that end, but would someday allow the (now defeated) spirit of this woman to re-enter the world, or something similarly sinister. Artifacts can break the rules, but the DM has to exercise a lot of caution and care when handing them out or you may unbalance your game or raise the PCs expectations for rewards. The DMG gives some guidelines as to the power-levels of artifacts of the various tiers (heroic, paragon, epic) as well as how those powers/bonuses might go up or down depending on whether the players please or displease the artifact. Without access to those guidelines, you could make some things up, but you are correct to worry about it being potentially unbalancing.
Artifacts are one of the hardest things to balance (since they break the rules by definition), so I wouldn't suggest trying as a new DM. My suggestion would be a to pick a few cool things you want the skull to allow the players to do, and not worry too much about the "rules" part - but don't pick things that would make the existing characters feel redundant or unnecessary. The idea that it can raise the dead (for a price) is a good one, assuming none of your players can already do that.
I'm a totally brand new DM, so I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction as far as a way to stat this boss battle, or a monster to base each part of the soul off of?
I'm not that great at creating monsters from thin air, myself. My suggestion would be to use an existing monster as an example, but change the description and maybe a few of the powers to match what you want. In this case, maybe take two monsters (one soldier, and one controller/healer-type). Before stating out the final battle, you would have to plan ahead a bit and guess at what level (approximatly) the PCs would be when they reach this climactic event. What level are they now? How many adventures/encounters do you expect to lead up to this. If you suggested the level of the encounter that you would like to put together, I'm sure a lot of people here could toss out some homebrew monsters that would be appropriate.
Even if your players decide the spirit in the skull is "evil" and refuse to make any sacrifices in exchange for bringing back the dead... they will learn that the skull is capable of this amazing power, and will have to make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands before it can be destroyed (which, when that happens, ends up leading into your boss battle). A lot of artifacts are treated that way. The PCs find them, recognize that heroes shouldn't necessarily use them, but have to go on a quest to find a way to destroy them and keep the bad guys from getting their hands on the powerful items until they do. Like Lord of the Rings.
Right now my players are level one. They may be level 2-3 by the end of this first adventure, so I hope they'll be level 4 for this next one. I'm not quite accustomed to the XP in D&D yet though, so I may be mistaken. The party is made up of three players, plus me if I can juggle DMing and running a character. We've got an eladrin wizard, tiefling warlock, and drow ranger. I'm a tiefling rogue. So we have no real healers in the group at all, and the ranger chose not to take Heal as a skill, at least not yet.
The skull having it's own obvious will was something I had not considered at all, so that's a brand new concept for me to roll around as well. I'll have to decide how much I actually want it to be able to say to the players, and what it might want. If I have the dwarf be killed early on, I could have the skull's first real awakening happen shortly after that, before the soul inside is broken or tainted by the Shadowfell, so she can ask the adventurers to use her power to bring him back from the dead. That seems like a good way to show my players what the skull can do and how to do it, under the soul's instruction.
Wow. OK! I have a lot of writing to do! Haha!
Thank you so much for all of the information! I have the Rules Compendium as well so perhaps I can find more information about rituals and artifacts in there. I was actually rolling around the idea of having the dwarf NPC die at some point to demonstrate the skull's power, and that works perfectly with some of your suggestions. You've given me a lot of information to go explore in the books and a lot of great ideas. I really appreciate it.
I dont think there are any in the Compendium, those are DM related info; you should try the DM Kit or Mordenkainen Magical Emporium if you wanna stick with Essencials material, otherwise the DMGs (both of them) have info not printed elsewhere, including examples of artifacts.
However, like it was said before, giving an artifact so soon may be too much, particularly with the powers you describe, it will make the players a lot less afraid to die and will most certainly start taking stupid chances, since they have that nifty artifact (like said, the same ritual is L8 and comes with a steep cost for such lower levels).
The skull having it's own obvious will was something I had not considered at all, so that's a brand new concept for me to roll around as well. I'll have to decide how much I actually want it to be able to say to the players, and what it might want. If I have the dwarf be killed early on, I could have the skull's first real awakening happen shortly after that, before the soul inside is broken or tainted by the Shadowfell, so she can ask the adventurers to use her power to bring him back from the dead. That seems like a good way to show my players what the skull can do and how to do it, under the soul's instruction.
It can also be obnoxious, like Murray from Monkey Island [1][2] or "Morte" from Planescape: Torment , perhaps something along the lines of the Corpse Bride.
Oh! Edit: pruano: Thank you! I actually own that book! The emporium one. My husband insisted on getting a cool item book. I had no idea I might find the information in there though, so I'll go look!
Oh! Edit: pruano: Thank you! I actually own that book! The emporium one. My husband insisted on getting a cool item book. I had no idea I might find the information in there though, so I'll go look!
Right now my players are level one. They may be level 2-3 by the end of this first adventure, so I hope they'll be level 4 for this next one. I'm not quite accustomed to the XP in D&D yet though, so I may be mistaken. The party is made up of three players, plus me if I can juggle DMing and running a character. We've got an eladrin wizard, tiefling warlock, and drow ranger. I'm a tiefling rogue. So we have no real healers in the group at all, and the ranger chose not to take Heal as a skill, at least not yet.
Great thread, I love the story.
A couple of comments:
A level takes roughly 10 at-level encounters. It will be fewer than this if you're running higher level encounters against the party.
I would avoid running a character as the DM for a couple of reasons. The main reason is that you'll have enough to take care of with the monsters and it isn't much fun to watch the DM playing with themselves. There are other potential pitfalls to a DM run PC, but I won't get into them.
The best option would be to make an NPC that you create and then let one of the players run them. The have some good rules for companion characters in the DMG2, but I wouldn't run out and buy that book just for that. The idea behind a companion character is that they are simplified versions of Player characters and aren't as complex to run. At low level it probably wouldn't be too hard for a player to run two full fledged characters. Perhaps have a different person take responsibility each week.
Can someone else on the boards can give a good way to create companion characters without the DMG2?