I'm a fairly experienced player who has a good chance of starting a DnD thing at my small school. Of course, nobody has ever played DnD besides me (you have no idea how many times I've heard "like from Stranger Things?"). Even though I know it's probably discouraged, I like the idea of running with my own thing instead of a prewritten. The plan is to have the players investigate sewers to encounter a dude with some pipes of the sewers. I figure it would be a cool encounter, introduce new players to magic items (which I think low levels should at least get a taste of), and be pretty simple overall. I could adjust the amount of charges in the pipes and how far away the dude starts based on how many players there are and what classes are chosen. The dude himself would probably have a dagger or two, leather armor, and +2 or +1 dex. I'm generally pretty horrible at balancing, so I was just wondering if this would be a reasonable challenge for a party of first time players.
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Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny. Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
You could have a group of Artificers backing an antagonistic organization, so the party is facing enemies with magic weapons and magic items, but the spoils from these factions lose their magic the next day when the Artificers infuse new items for use by other agents of the faction.
And for balancing, if the Xp calculation says it's a winnable fight, check the action economy. If the party has more actions per round than the enemies, they'll usually have an easier time than the calculation suggests. If the enemy has more actions than the party, it'll be a harder fight than the calculation suggests.
Unfortunately, the CR system is imperfect, so a lot of ballancing is just getting enough experience to feel it out. If you don't want to accidentally wipe the party, you can start with easy encounters, and slowly increase the difficulty of each encounter until it's where you want it. (Ex: start with rats or goblins, and work your way up to shadows, instead of starting with shadows and having the whole party lying dead with zero strength.
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A new DM post. Original, I know.
I'm a fairly experienced player who has a good chance of starting a DnD thing at my small school. Of course, nobody has ever played DnD besides me (you have no idea how many times I've heard "like from Stranger Things?"). Even though I know it's probably discouraged, I like the idea of running with my own thing instead of a prewritten. The plan is to have the players investigate sewers to encounter a dude with some pipes of the sewers. I figure it would be a cool encounter, introduce new players to magic items (which I think low levels should at least get a taste of), and be pretty simple overall. I could adjust the amount of charges in the pipes and how far away the dude starts based on how many players there are and what classes are chosen. The dude himself would probably have a dagger or two, leather armor, and +2 or +1 dex. I'm generally pretty horrible at balancing, so I was just wondering if this would be a reasonable challenge for a party of first time players.
Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny.
Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
You could have a group of Artificers backing an antagonistic organization, so the party is facing enemies with magic weapons and magic items, but the spoils from these factions lose their magic the next day when the Artificers infuse new items for use by other agents of the faction.
And for balancing, if the Xp calculation says it's a winnable fight, check the action economy. If the party has more actions per round than the enemies, they'll usually have an easier time than the calculation suggests. If the enemy has more actions than the party, it'll be a harder fight than the calculation suggests.
Unfortunately, the CR system is imperfect, so a lot of ballancing is just getting enough experience to feel it out. If you don't want to accidentally wipe the party, you can start with easy encounters, and slowly increase the difficulty of each encounter until it's where you want it. (Ex: start with rats or goblins, and work your way up to shadows, instead of starting with shadows and having the whole party lying dead with zero strength.