[dahgda]

I am just learning the new system (I have been away from gaming for about ten years...) and I want to know how to balance enounters properly in the new system. In the DMG it gives the EL system but it is kinda tough to figure out how to balance say a group of thieves ambushing the party - do I just add up total levels to equal the total of the party? Or is there a factor that needs to be added in if there are more attackers then PCs (I can see having extra attacks in a round making it more difficult for PCs).

And does anyone have any encounter generators that can create urban encounters including NPCs - all I can find creates totally off the wall encounters with monsters that do not seem to make sense together. I am trying to piece together an Excel spreadsheet to generate them, but I am not the best Excel user

Also, would like some input on my campaign ideas - I know there are rules for posting, but new to this, too - where do I start that?

Thanks in advance for the input -

Dahgda

[WoeTheSinner]

Well in theory a party of adventurers should be able to have about 5 confrontations a day with a group of creatures whose total CR is equat tot he average level of the party...this is acording tot he WotC...Yeah so forget that

CR is usualy a good guideline for difficulty but it will vary wildly depending on your campaign world and the setup of your PCs characters. I have had parties with 2 wizards a sorceror a bard and a rogue...pretty much anything that could get into mele witht hem was a HUGE problem, but even the bigest baddies that they could keep at range were no problem at all. Then I also had the exact oposite, 2 fighters, a barbarian, a cleric/barbarian, and rogue/paladin (good story for this char btw)...if it was mele they could chop it to bits...but anything that started casting spells with will saves made the part shiver!

I am not aware of any Urban random encounter generators, I don't thinkt he resources section has anything geared to Urban encounters but someone else on the forums might know.

You can't go too wrong with CR though. Basicaly yhe CR = the LvL of the PC your good to go. There is a table somehwere in the DMG that has a breakdown of party levels 1-20 with the apropriate CR to throw at them, with varying with difficuty. It breaks down the # of creatures and all that. I still only have the 3.0 DMG and I can't seem to find it in the SRD but I'm sure its in there somewhere. Anyone care to give a page #?

As far as questions about campaing ideas go...if you have something specific to ask about, then place them in the most apropriate forum you can see, if not then just post int he general DnD discussion area. Don't worry noone is going to yell at you too much and I'm sure if its wildly inapropriate for the forum it will get moved around by Rintaran or Lady O

I think you will find many many many campaign ideas and people willing to expand on them on these forums...I believe we are collectively building a spaceship or some such thing at the moment for someones campaign

[dahgda]

Thanks, Woe, I am faking some characters to try out the rules, so I can see how different things work in the new system.

As for the campaign - here is the synopsis I am using. It is an update of an old campaign I was involved with long long ago - I thought simply redoing an old one would be easier, but in truth I am having to create so much from scratch I could have done a whole new campaign..... oh well, learning is good, then I can create the perfect world.

***

The nation of Aalan is a major power, and one with a long and glorious history. It was founded when Kaevic Linaerthion defeated the Duke of Edriss, bringing into his realm the final free land on the peninsula. For hundreds of years, the Linaerthions ruled wisely and well, and the land prospered. Then came the war with Saldiyah, and though the Aalani defeated their enemy, the cost was an uncureable wound in the side of the king, Aeric VI. Slowly, over the next 15 years, he waned, becoming more and more debilitated, and the Dukes slowly began to assume more authority, at first for necessary reasons, but more and more they have their own agendas.

With the death of Aeric, the throne passed to his son – the youngest child of the marriage to the sister to the Duke of Adaar, Graem is also the weakest and least suited, but the Church of Corinth would not allow a female to ascend to the throne. He has three sisters – Arella, who is by his side at court (and many whisper the true ruler of the kingdom); Maeve, who married the Duke of Adaar; and Nyessa, who disappeared soon after her father died.

The Duke of Adaar is the most powerful of the nobles, thanks to his control of the mines of the ancient dwarven homeland. He is also rumored to be eyeing the throne, thru his son as the next in line – a puppet to be directed by the Duke. However, some recent problems have sprung up as a result of the Duke’s increasingly draconian ways. First, there was an uprising in the dwarven town of Vairn, which was put down thru very harsh and violent methods. This led to the enactment of harsh laws, designed to keep any rebellion from forming. The actual result of this was to cause the rebellion, however, as people took issue with the new taxes and restrictions.

It would have come to naught save for one fact: Adaar had alienated its neighboring nobles, who lend tacit support to the growing numbers of people rising against the Duke, by providing food and supplies – all in an effort to derail his royal ambitions. They use the depths of the Ghostwood to hide in and act from, and thus far the Duke’s rangers have been unable to locate the hidden village in its depths.

The final problem facing the Duke is his own half-brother, the legendary Shadow Thief. He disapproves of the new laws, and has lent his skills to the rebellion, insuring they have up to date information on searches and troop deployments. A bounty of 5000 gold pieces has been offered for the Shadow Thief’s capture or death.

Also of concern is the growing rift in the clergy of Corinth – the main faith of the kingdom, it is fairly dogmatic and unyielding in its ways. The major cause of the schism is the role of women in the church – the mainstream teaches women are at best helpers to men, and are not to have any major role in the faith. Two years ago, however, a young woman appeared, claiming that Corinth had not such stricture, and that it was the clerical hierarchy that had enacted it, since it insured the law of primogeniture and the dominance of men. When the church attempted to capture her, and label her a false prophet, she stunned them all by invoking the power of the Sunlord in her own defense. Since then, many priests have begun to question their superiors teachings, and a growing number have thrown their true loyalty to the Anointed’s mission. As a result a new order of Inquisitors has been created to root these heretics out, as well as to police the arcanists in the kingdom – since magic is officially frowned upon (except the Royal Council of Mages and the Church-bound mages), they are supposed to attempt to save the mages’ souls, but dark rumors speak of more direct and permanent solutions.

Finally, the political environment was further shaken up by the recent slaying of the Duke of Edriss by Phaedrik, the master assassin. Who hired him to do this, and why, are still unknown, but he was the most loyal of the Dukes to the Royal Crown. How this will affect the already uneven balance in the kingdom is unknown.

***

I will stand back and see what you can slice and dice (and please, feel free - I take criticism well, and it is very much appreciated!!!) - read a bit on how people are helping in other threads, so I am hoping to get as much feedback as they did *HINT HINT*

Thanks !!!!!!

[Raven Bloodmoon]

Nice. I currently have a schism between a strict church and a more libral one in which a general witch hunt, inquisition, and crusade are playing out, so I understand all the stuff that players start asking. The biggest thing I had to consider was relaxing alignment requirements on clerics and paladins so that the LG Church, which was rife with corruption, could be...well...corrupt. After all, if all the clerics and paladins had to be LG to be in teh church, who would be hunting and killing arcanists for heracy?

Next thing to consider: The conservative church will want to maintain power. And it will probably do so at any cost. Take a hint from real life: have the church stick a moronic puppet in position of power with their people behind the scenes. The controling organization (this goes for businesses, religions, political affiliations, etc...) arranges for just enough of an emergency that your puppet can use teh fear in the population to grab some power while attention is diverted. Then anytime the puppet's ratings drop, toss out some more fear tactics. Heinrich Himler once said that the best way to gain power is to fake an emergency and start a war. Now where have we seen this before....

Anyway

Draw on real life events. I have some overlycomplicated evil plots I stole right out of history/contemporary events. No major preperation needed. Just some NPCs, motivations, and you are set. And remember that plots work for Good as well as Evil. The most difficult to combat are the Evil ones set up by Good people. After all, enhancing the human genepool so as to strengthen the species is a noble idea, but when you start killing Jews to do it, things get less than copasetic.

[dahgda]

Yeah, I am having some problems with the good church doing not-so-good things, but I am thinking the way around it is to make it somewhat relative. Two LG countries could go to war, if their views on what is good and lawful are different. One might condone slavery and the other thinsk it is the most vile thing around - and worth fighting to end. Both will argue correctness of their actions, but they would still clash regardless (though the prisoners would probably be better treated then in most wars...)

Right now I am trying to work out how Druids fit into this - I do not do the whole worship nature as an abstract thing, so their powers come from a god. I have that part down, but I want to have the Druids be more relaxed about things like women in the clergy, but having the god be part of the overall Good pantheon is causing me a few headaches. One player wants to be a Druid, so I am working hard on this part, to answer how the gods relate.

To explain, there are two sets of gods, one good and one evil. Neutrals would be able to worship either, depending on their leaning. As whole, the Good gods work together, though of course often some issues with specific actions on the path to achieving their goals. In most lands, this is balanced by worship of all relatively equally, but in the main campaign area, the sun-god has become preeminent. All of them are still worhsipped, but the others are usually as additions to the sun-god rather then total individuals.

Overall the gods are aloof and do not interfere in the religion (as opposed to the faith itself), which is how man's influence can shape things. I am not going to have the sun-god give a hoot about the role of women, but his followers here do, because of long-standing tradtion of male dominance.

Another tool to keep this going is the potential to have evil invade the church - again do to aloofness, the gods leave it to their followers to deal with cancers in their midst. What they forget is mortals are not omniscient and do not notice Joe Priest is not QUITE doing what the liturgy says, and might just be turning the flock towards ickiness, but we are not QUITE sure. This is possible simply because I do not allow detecting alignment of mortals, becuase the mortal races are not inherently good or evil. The exceptions to this are people like paladins, who must be exemplers of their faith (more so even then a LG cleric, since they could shift to NG or LN and still follow the same god), and a spell-caster using an axiomatic effect or spell (though what is really be noticed is the spell-energy, not the alignment). Only a few exceptions are allowed, such as an evil race as noted in Book of Vile Darkness (fully corrupted and tainted from living with true evil for as far back as can be remembered, etc.).

I also do not have racial gods, per se - yes elves and dwarves were created by specific gods, but those same gods can be worshipped by anyone, and the two races are free to follow whichever god they choose. I never did agree with separate pantheons, simply because gods are gods, and I cannot see one saying "No no.... I am limited to accepting followers of THIS race only - all you other mortals, whose worship would increase my power, will just HAVE to go to someone else" - almost all the settings have the gods power to one degree or another linked to the number and fervor of their followers, so why would they give up on power?

Anyway, I know this is not really on topic, for the original posting, but I appreciate the input. I am working on figuring out ELs and such (I was such a geek last night, I made up some characters just to do a fake combat, so I could get an idea of how X compared to Y and maybe I needed to add or remove something... I just do not wanna do too much of this when I actually run the adventure in a couple of weeks. I know once I get the hang of it, I will probably be fine, but this is SOOO much more complicated then it used to be *GRUMBLES BUT SMILES*

[Raven Bloodmoon]

Wow, lots to respond to.

1) You must be consistent. Are you treating alignments the same way DnD does? If so, Good is Good. If slavery is Evil, then a Good person will not uphold it REAGARDLESS of points of view. Period. I do not force people to any alignment, but I do apply an alignment to my players based on how they behave in the world. A cleric or paladin or druid or what not is simply not bound to be a specific alignment. Thus corruption. Simple. None of this, "Cutting people shorter is okay in one country because that is the way they have do things," crap.

2) The ancient Celts were a matriarchal society. Read about it. Ancient Hindu society was matriarchal. Read about it. Ancient Russian society was matriarchal. Read abotu it. Research other examples of matriarchal societies. Use that to figure out how women fit into positions of power.

3) The PHB specifically mentions that there are good and evil druids. They are not all true neutral. Also see Point #1.

4) EL is just a judgment call. I figure a water elemental plodding down a dry hallway is not as threatening as if it and the players were submerged under 100 feet of water. So just sort of tweek it the direction you think it should go. Also look at how many resources are consumed in passing the challenge. (That only works if your players are brighter than a black hole.)

[Lyinginbedmon]

Raven Bloodmoon, on Jun 5 2005, 10:45 PM, said:

4)  EL is just a judgment call.  I figure a water elemental plodding down a dry hallway is not as threatening as if it and the players were submerged under 100 feet of water.  So just sort of tweek it the direction you think it should go.  Also look at how many resources are consumed in passing the challenge.  (That only works if your players are brighter than a black hole.)

I can vouch for the water elemental on dry land part there. The Dead-Nicks faced one when they were recovering Majus, and it took them just 3 rounds to kill it because there wasn't a drop of water around

P-Minus: 2

[dahgda]

I am not treating it QUITE the same - because as I said, different cultures do view different things as right and wrong. For example, in an Arabic culture, a man being alone with a man who is not her husband or relative is considered sinful (hence evil), whereas in American society there is nothing wrong with having unmarried couple living together. Our perception of good and evil is a result of our cultural background. I also am separating inherent good/evil from mortals who have the power of choice.

I also think DnD is nuanced enough (in the 3.5 edition) to handle such differences. In my example of the two lawful good nations, where one has the cultural background of slavery and one does not - I do not think they would simply jump to war, but if neither side would give up its stand, and the anti-slavery nation felt strongly enough about it, conflict would arise.

Also, I am not saying I do not have ideas of women being an element of society - I am working to resolve how the church deals with one god saying it is bad and one saying it is fine (or rather, their priests saying such). I am personally all for women as equal members of society, so please do not take this as misogynistic in any way *HIDES FROM HIS BEST FRIEND THE AMAZINGLY VEHEMENT FEMINIST*

[dahgda]

Also found a great tool to help with ELs -

http://www.d20srd.or...rCalculator.htm

Trying it out a bit, so far seems to work pretty well - any experienced 3.5 DMs see major problem with it, or does it work like it says it does?

[dragonhand777]

I have seen something very similar to this before and it worked great. In fact I downloaded it. It was basically the exact same, but the skin and charts had a different look.

I don't use it much any more because most of it I can figure in my head or look up (like xp) just as quick.