So I am a new DM. I have played before, just not as the DM.
Ok, so I need some help building encounters. Me and my family are doing the dragon of icespire peak. We did umbrage hill quest and gnomengarde quest, so everybody is level 3. We have six adventurers: a fighter, bard, cleric, two rogues, and a ranger. Everyone is level 3. So I am going to make an encounter for them to gain some items to help them (because they are all beginners). I was thinking that it would be a fairly difficult battle, but I would give them some tips to help beat it. Anyway, I was thinking: 2 ogres, 3 gricks, and 6 goblins. If they searched the area, they would find a +1 lonsword, +1 heavy crossbow, +1 shield, two sets of plate armor, 20 crossbow bolts, 3 healing potions, 400 gp, 682 sp, 1037 cp. Is that fair? The area would be an ambush site on the way on the dwarven excavation. Since we have 6 players, I thought that I should make all the encounters a little bit harder. Because they killed the mimic really easily because the fighter used a greatsword, got a crit, and ended up doing 22 damage. Anyway any tips?
Edit: Ok I changed the extra set of armour to a magic item benefitting the bard and cleric, took the cp, and I might add some other things.
I think you should do a better job tailoring your loot for your party, given your primary goal is to equip them. Currently, you are giving the party five non-consumable items, with the vast majority of those items--the longsword, shield, and both sets of plate armor--seemingly geared toward the fighter. I would cut the second plate armor--just based on the classes, it looks like your fighter might be the only one who would use it, so the party would have to slog it around until they can sell it.
Also--and I am sure I will get pushback on this from other posters--I always recommend DMs only use gold pieces, or, at the very least, only use gold and silver. Keeping track of several different levels of currency is one of those things that might seem realistic, but it mostly just gets frustrating when someone has to add together a bunch of columns of numbers any time they want to purchase an item. The benefit to in-game frustration balance just does not work for me.
As for fights not lasting that long--fights last as long as you, the dungeon master, want them to. Want a fight to last longer? You can always increase the monster's maximum HP, including in the middle of combat. If your party is taking down a 58 HP mimic quicker than you thought, perhaps it was retroactively a 108 HP mimic, and its current HP raises by 50 as well. Remember--rules that might be absolute as a player are mutable to the DM. The DM screen exists for a reason--you keep information hidden because it allows you to adjust things on the fly to ensure your party is having an enjoyable experience.
As for your encounter itself, I think it seems like a good start. If it is too hard, some of the goblins can always take the cowards' path and run away after one of the bigger Ogres are killed. Too easy--Goblins travel in tribes and some reinforcements can always show up. Your party is running two healing classes so you can probably afford to punish them a bit as they have the additional buffer of a two people's worth of potential healing spell slots.
Watch out as its a deadly encounter you're putting togheter here.
If the party is already defeating your encounters too easily to your taste, adding extra treasure, especially magic items and top heavy armor, will not make things any harder on the contrary.
Personally, i did beef up some of the existing encounters while leaving the treasure as is.
Honestly, I'm not sure that you need to worry about magic items. We did it with two players, and while there is some scaling, there's still a bias for being easier with more characters (because where there is scaling, it's usually something like 2+2n creatures for n players). We found it fine with the rewards being as indicated by the book. Indeed, be careful - Cryovain was a doddle for us.
I'm also unsure how wise it is to be giving them more magic items to make it easier for them...when you think that it's too easy and needs more monsters to make it harder for them. It's much easier to adjust one side of the equation and see how that falls out before tweaking the other side. Some thoughts:
1. I wouldn't go by the Fighter's one off crit. It was a 1 in 20 chance of the crit, then, assuming he has the max stats of +5, it's somewhat worse than 1 in 4 whether he gets 22 or better, or around 1 in 80 overall. If he has a more realistic +3, it's more like around 1 in 200. His average damage is going to be a more realistic 7+Str Mod, so around 10(ish). Don't go by what happened with the Mimic. Instead, check how pressured they feel in battles generally.
2. Rather than adjusting magic items, adjust the monsters. It will develop your skills as a DM better, bur it's also easier to fix if you do it wrong. Once you give a magic item, it's difficult to take it back without negatively affecting the experience. On the other hand, monsters can always be adjusted, both up and down.
3. I'd only adjust magic items if the players are bored with low level enemies but aren't quite ready higher tier enemies. You can give them the magic items so you can introduce bigger gun enemies sooner. I'd be tempted to tell them then suck it up - DoIP is pretty varied with its opponents anyway, and it would necessitate messing with Cryovain even more.
4. Rather than magic items, if you really want to buff the party rather than adjusting enemies, consider letting them level up sooner. Give them extra quests or something. That will let them explore their characters more than a +1 longsword will.
5. Speaking of which, bear in mind that there is a quest specifically for a magical longsword later on.
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
So I am a new DM. I have played before, just not as the DM.
Ok, so I need some help building encounters. Me and my family are doing the dragon of icespire peak. We did umbrage hill quest and gnomengarde quest, so everybody is level 3. We have six adventurers: a fighter, bard, cleric, two rogues, and a ranger. Everyone is level 3. So I am going to make an encounter for them to gain some items to help them (because they are all beginners). I was thinking that it would be a fairly difficult battle, but I would give them some tips to help beat it. Anyway, I was thinking: 2 ogres, 3 gricks, and 6 goblins. If they searched the area, they would find a +1 lonsword, +1 heavy crossbow, +1 shield, two sets of plate armor, 20 crossbow bolts, 3 healing potions, 400 gp, 682 sp, 1037 cp. Is that fair? The area would be an ambush site on the way on the dwarven excavation. Since we have 6 players, I thought that I should make all the encounters a little bit harder. Because they killed the mimic really easily because the fighter used a greatsword, got a crit, and ended up doing 22 damage. Anyway any tips?
Edit: Ok I changed the extra set of armour to a magic item benefitting the bard and cleric, took the cp, and I might add some other things.
I think you should do a better job tailoring your loot for your party, given your primary goal is to equip them. Currently, you are giving the party five non-consumable items, with the vast majority of those items--the longsword, shield, and both sets of plate armor--seemingly geared toward the fighter. I would cut the second plate armor--just based on the classes, it looks like your fighter might be the only one who would use it, so the party would have to slog it around until they can sell it.
Also--and I am sure I will get pushback on this from other posters--I always recommend DMs only use gold pieces, or, at the very least, only use gold and silver. Keeping track of several different levels of currency is one of those things that might seem realistic, but it mostly just gets frustrating when someone has to add together a bunch of columns of numbers any time they want to purchase an item. The benefit to in-game frustration balance just does not work for me.
As for fights not lasting that long--fights last as long as you, the dungeon master, want them to. Want a fight to last longer? You can always increase the monster's maximum HP, including in the middle of combat. If your party is taking down a 58 HP mimic quicker than you thought, perhaps it was retroactively a 108 HP mimic, and its current HP raises by 50 as well. Remember--rules that might be absolute as a player are mutable to the DM. The DM screen exists for a reason--you keep information hidden because it allows you to adjust things on the fly to ensure your party is having an enjoyable experience.
As for your encounter itself, I think it seems like a good start. If it is too hard, some of the goblins can always take the cowards' path and run away after one of the bigger Ogres are killed. Too easy--Goblins travel in tribes and some reinforcements can always show up. Your party is running two healing classes so you can probably afford to punish them a bit as they have the additional buffer of a two people's worth of potential healing spell slots.
Ok thanks I will change some of the items they find.
Thanks for the feedback!
Watch out as its a deadly encounter you're putting togheter here.
If the party is already defeating your encounters too easily to your taste, adding extra treasure, especially magic items and top heavy armor, will not make things any harder on the contrary.
Personally, i did beef up some of the existing encounters while leaving the treasure as is.
Honestly, I'm not sure that you need to worry about magic items. We did it with two players, and while there is some scaling, there's still a bias for being easier with more characters (because where there is scaling, it's usually something like 2+2n creatures for n players). We found it fine with the rewards being as indicated by the book. Indeed, be careful - Cryovain was a doddle for us.
I'm also unsure how wise it is to be giving them more magic items to make it easier for them...when you think that it's too easy and needs more monsters to make it harder for them. It's much easier to adjust one side of the equation and see how that falls out before tweaking the other side. Some thoughts:
1. I wouldn't go by the Fighter's one off crit. It was a 1 in 20 chance of the crit, then, assuming he has the max stats of +5, it's somewhat worse than 1 in 4 whether he gets 22 or better, or around 1 in 80 overall. If he has a more realistic +3, it's more like around 1 in 200. His average damage is going to be a more realistic 7+Str Mod, so around 10(ish). Don't go by what happened with the Mimic. Instead, check how pressured they feel in battles generally.
2. Rather than adjusting magic items, adjust the monsters. It will develop your skills as a DM better, bur it's also easier to fix if you do it wrong. Once you give a magic item, it's difficult to take it back without negatively affecting the experience. On the other hand, monsters can always be adjusted, both up and down.
3. I'd only adjust magic items if the players are bored with low level enemies but aren't quite ready higher tier enemies. You can give them the magic items so you can introduce bigger gun enemies sooner. I'd be tempted to tell them then suck it up - DoIP is pretty varied with its opponents anyway, and it would necessitate messing with Cryovain even more.
4. Rather than magic items, if you really want to buff the party rather than adjusting enemies, consider letting them level up sooner. Give them extra quests or something. That will let them explore their characters more than a +1 longsword will.
5. Speaking of which, bear in mind that there is a quest specifically for a magical longsword later on.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Oh yes I forgot about the dragon slayer. Thanks for the feedback!