I have a party of three. They've all decided to play as Kitsune (homebrew lineage) Rogues, in a homebrew setting (I know an all-Rogue party is a bad idea, and so do the players. They seem excited, though).
I've read through the first floor of the citadel, and I like what I see thus far, though I'm definitely going to warn the party against attacking everything they see, given the high amount of kobolds.
Is there anything you'd recommend changing about the adventure? How deadly does it tend to be for a party of three 1st-level characters? The players aren't new to D&D, and they know what they're doing.
If it's helpful to know, my Kitsune lineage grants a +2 to Dexterity and a +1 to either Intelligence or Charisma, a bite attack that counts as a finesse melee weapon and deals 1d4 on a hit, proficiency in Deception, and a shapeshift ability to make them look like a single other humanoid of their choice.
I played this campaign in both it's original incarnation and revised version in 'Tales from the Yawning Portal' and it's geared more to novice players. For more experienced players, I recommend tweaking the HP for more mini-boss enemies, only use passive perception to alert the party to traps, random monster encounters every hour, and use combined skill checks for things like opening doors and disabling traps. My DM promoted us up to 4th level by the end of the campaign. We had pretty heavy combat and took plenty of damage.
I played this campaign in both it's original incarnation and revised version in 'Tales from the Yawning Portal' and it's geared more to novice players. For more experienced players, I recommend tweaking the HP for more mini-boss enemies, only use passive perception to alert the party to traps, random monster encounters every hour, and use combined skill checks for things like opening doors and disabling traps. My DM promoted us up to 4th level by the end of the campaign. We had pretty heavy combat and took plenty of damage.
Thanks for the info. I don't want the adventure to be too deadly, but making it slightly more dangerous sounds like a good idea. I'll have to be careful though; I have a bit of a reputation in the group for unintentionally causing TPK's
Yeah, nobody likes a TPK. I'm running a modified version of the Shine of Tamoachan right now and while the group said it was easy with not many deadly traps or hard enemies, our last session ended with them trapped in room filled with fire walls and their bard killed then resurrected by a wraith. Balance is a tricky thing as a DM; it's all about adaptability.
Yeah, nobody likes a TPK. I'm running a modified version of the Shine of Tamoachan right now and while the group said it was easy with not many deadly traps or hard enemies, our last session ended with them trapped in room filled with fire walls and their bard killed then resurrected by a wraith. Balance is a tricky thing as a DM; it's all about adaptability.
Indeed.
I tend to change things on the fly in my games anyway, so if it becomes too deadly I can always just make it less so
My one piece of advice: give Meepo a funny voice. Your players will love him forever.
In seriousness though, if you're worried about your players hacking and slashing anything that moves, remember you can control when to call for initiative. If the first player sees their first kobold and goes "I kill it!", you can take controll of the narration for a hot second. "Ok, you draw your blade and lunge at the kobold-- the kobold immidiately yelps, rasing their hands in surrender, squaking 'No, stop, I want to make a deal!'". Now the player knows that this isn't necessarily a mindless bag of hitpoints, and with that information they can choose whether to see what might be in it for them if they listen to the kobold. If they still maintain they'd like to slay their way through, then you roll initiative.
My one piece of advice: give Meepo a funny voice. Your players will love him forever.
In seriousness though, if you're worried about your players hacking and slashing anything that moves, remember you can control when to call for initiative. If the first player sees their first kobold and goes "I kill it!", you can take controll of the narration for a hot second. "Ok, you draw your blade and lunge at the kobold-- the kobold immidiately yelps, rasing their hands in surrender, squaking 'No, stop, I want to make a deal!'". Now the player knows that this isn't necessarily a mindless bag of hitpoints, and with that information they can choose whether to see what might be in it for them if they listen to the kobold. If they still maintain they'd like to slay their way through, then you roll initiative.
Oh I am 100% giving Meepo a voice. Kind of scraggly and high-pitched 👌
Very good advice on initiative, I'll keep it in mind. I hadn't actually thought of *not* calling for an initiative roll if/when players attack things, as obvious as it is. Thanks
When I ran it, the players allied with the kobolds against the goblins/hobgoblins which made the next part more manageable. I think that is basically how the plot line is intended to run so having the players attack the kobolds sets them up for a much more difficult challenge against the harder subsequent opponents.
I find that the player reactions to NPCs have a lot to do with how they initially perceive the situation. If they encounter a lone kobold sitting crying then they react one way, if they come upon a kobold guard post but the kobolds talk first then they react another, if the players encounter a band of kobolds in a corridor where they think they could ambush them then they react another way. Since the DM controls the initial introduction, the DM tends to be able to influence how the party reacts to the situation. In all these cases, the situation could still devolve into a fight but by setting the scene the DM influences the way it could go. Typically, the less threatening the scene, the more likely the players are to do something other than instantly attack.
I have a party of three. They've all decided to play as Kitsune (homebrew lineage) Rogues, in a homebrew setting (I know an all-Rogue party is a bad idea, and so do the players. They seem excited, though).
I've read through the first floor of the citadel, and I like what I see thus far, though I'm definitely going to warn the party against attacking everything they see, given the high amount of kobolds.
Is there anything you'd recommend changing about the adventure? How deadly does it tend to be for a party of three 1st-level characters? The players aren't new to D&D, and they know what they're doing.
If it's helpful to know, my Kitsune lineage grants a +2 to Dexterity and a +1 to either Intelligence or Charisma, a bite attack that counts as a finesse melee weapon and deals 1d4 on a hit, proficiency in Deception, and a shapeshift ability to make them look like a single other humanoid of their choice.
[REDACTED]
I played this campaign in both it's original incarnation and revised version in 'Tales from the Yawning Portal' and it's geared more to novice players. For more experienced players, I recommend tweaking the HP for more mini-boss enemies, only use passive perception to alert the party to traps, random monster encounters every hour, and use combined skill checks for things like opening doors and disabling traps. My DM promoted us up to 4th level by the end of the campaign. We had pretty heavy combat and took plenty of damage.
Thanks for the info. I don't want the adventure to be too deadly, but making it slightly more dangerous sounds like a good idea. I'll have to be careful though; I have a bit of a reputation in the group for unintentionally causing TPK's
[REDACTED]
Yeah, nobody likes a TPK. I'm running a modified version of the Shine of Tamoachan right now and while the group said it was easy with not many deadly traps or hard enemies, our last session ended with them trapped in room filled with fire walls and their bard killed then resurrected by a wraith. Balance is a tricky thing as a DM; it's all about adaptability.
Indeed.
I tend to change things on the fly in my games anyway, so if it becomes too deadly I can always just make it less so
[REDACTED]
My one piece of advice: give Meepo a funny voice. Your players will love him forever.
In seriousness though, if you're worried about your players hacking and slashing anything that moves, remember you can control when to call for initiative. If the first player sees their first kobold and goes "I kill it!", you can take controll of the narration for a hot second. "Ok, you draw your blade and lunge at the kobold-- the kobold immidiately yelps, rasing their hands in surrender, squaking 'No, stop, I want to make a deal!'". Now the player knows that this isn't necessarily a mindless bag of hitpoints, and with that information they can choose whether to see what might be in it for them if they listen to the kobold. If they still maintain they'd like to slay their way through, then you roll initiative.
Oh I am 100% giving Meepo a voice. Kind of scraggly and high-pitched 👌
Very good advice on initiative, I'll keep it in mind. I hadn't actually thought of *not* calling for an initiative roll if/when players attack things, as obvious as it is. Thanks
[REDACTED]
When I ran it, the players allied with the kobolds against the goblins/hobgoblins which made the next part more manageable. I think that is basically how the plot line is intended to run so having the players attack the kobolds sets them up for a much more difficult challenge against the harder subsequent opponents.
I find that the player reactions to NPCs have a lot to do with how they initially perceive the situation. If they encounter a lone kobold sitting crying then they react one way, if they come upon a kobold guard post but the kobolds talk first then they react another, if the players encounter a band of kobolds in a corridor where they think they could ambush them then they react another way. Since the DM controls the initial introduction, the DM tends to be able to influence how the party reacts to the situation. In all these cases, the situation could still devolve into a fight but by setting the scene the DM influences the way it could go. Typically, the less threatening the scene, the more likely the players are to do something other than instantly attack.