Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 tornjackal Nov 29, 2010 13:42:35	So me and another person have been rotating the duties of DM, it has been me for the past couple weeks. The players are level 9 and rapidly approaching level 10. Our campaign has led them on quests to aquire their paragon leaders to teach them their new skills in the upcoming play sessions. We've already got an Elf, Tiefling, and Halfling leader following the party. They have recently left the Halfling territory and are traveling via airship to a jagged mountain where the Goliath will find his paragon leader. The encounters on the mountain are going to be mainly combat oriented and im wondering what i should do with their following leaders. If i let them have the aid of the elf, tiefling, and halfling then it will be a way to easy situation for them. Should I either bump up the level of the monsters and difficulty of the encounters and let them have the aid, or should i send the paragon leaders off to a council on the mountain leaving the PC's to fend for themselves. A little bit of info about the mountain their heading to. They were presented some foreshadowing last week, the mountain lies in the middle of a large ocean and before they took off a great blue dragon took off out of the water flying towards the mountain. I was going to have their arrival be at the aftermath of the dragons attack, finding the village in ruins. The goliath paragon will not be in the town but had gown out to destroy some eggs the dragon had laid in a deep cave guarded by a very tough monster. Thanks for any suggestions.
#2 Dreamstryder Nov 30, 2010 2:55:55	If I interpret "paragon leaders" correctly, ask the players if they want to fight alongside their mentors or alone and run likewise. If answers are unforthcoming, have the mentors alongside until they touch town, where the leaders stay to repair the place, guard the survivors, or help escort them to a secondary settlement. This means either: 1. they can't land directly in-town due to wreckage or strange creatures and must take a short path up the mountain with their mentors, or 2. they encounter a dragon leaving the site while aboard the airship, and must fend it off alongside their mentors. In addition to ranged attacks, the dragon might grab the ship, and they'll be able to melee it off. They may also have access to the ships cannons but a limited number of balls.
#3 pruano Nov 30, 2010 5:23:14	Also notice that (assuming like Dreamstryder did they are paragon masters) you both will have this recuring problem while looking for all the masters; i would recommend talking with your co-DM and try to find a more appropriate and permanent solution. Having NPCs of a higher level coming along with the party is always a source of problems, as now you are seeing.
#4 tornjackal Nov 30, 2010 10:08:31	thanks much for the responses i hadnt tought of having the leaders stayin town to guard survivors i like that idea. And yeah im realizing now having higher lvl npc's with them is kind of difficult but im a fairly new dm who started abuot 4 months ago. I was also thinkin of having them encounter some sort of flying creature on the ride over and fending off the dragon is a great idea especially using the cannons. Thanks again