My party consists of three characters, a lvl 2 bard/cleric (1 lvl in bard and 1 lvl in cleric), barbarian (Lvl 2), and druid (lvl 4). The barbarian and druid are controlled by the same person who will start fights and kill anything in sight even if it is a harmless NPC who will give a side quest! Do you have any tips? I don't want to TPK the party.
Hey this is an easy fix, it sounds like your player is simply frustrated at the lack of dungeons, combat, and treasure in your game. The player clearly isn’t being given enough things to hit, so they take that frustration out on the NPCs.
So work on getting your mega dungeon ready for them, so that this player needn’t follow any rules because they will be exploring a place where none exist.
My party consists of three characters, a lvl 2 bard/cleric (1 lvl in bard and 1 lvl in cleric), barbarian (Lvl 2), and druid (lvl 4). The barbarian and druid are controlled by the same person who will start fights and kill anything in sight even if it is a harmless NPC who will give a side quest! Do you have any tips? I don't want to TPK the party.
Talk to them. If they just want to kill things, and that's not the sort of game you want to play, you're going to have to reach some kind of accommodation, which may be not playing together.
A cave that's rumored to be where a clan of goblins (150 members) used to live. The entrance to the cave has three pathways. One to the left that contains a kitchen area for this clan, one to the right where a jail is (3 cells) with a brimstone floor, and a pathway that goes straight into the dungeon. This pathway loses light as the dimly lit torches are extinguished by an unexplainable cold wind, so they are now in the dark (hope they have darkvision).
Monsters (each bullet point is an encounter):
- Gelatinous cube
- 3 goblins
-Boss is a "Goblin King," a human-sized goblin in breastplate armor.
The HP is 120 (11d20+1) and the AC is 16. All stats with negative modifiers are now the absolute value of the modifier. The speed is 35ft. Everything else is the same (attacks, actions, senses, skills etc.) except the king has darkvision.
Remind the player that every actions have consequences if it want to continue be a murder hobo it may influence other NPCs coming to interact with the party and have an incidence on future mission or reward, not to mention it's usuakky condemnable behaviors and so dealing with justice will be inevitable.
A cave that's rumored to be where a clan of goblins (150 members) used to live. The entrance to the cave has three pathways. One to the left that contains a kitchen area for this clan, one to the right where a jail is (3 cells) with a brimstone floor, and a pathway that goes straight into the dungeon. This pathway loses light as the dimly lit torches are extinguished by an unexplainable cold wind, so they are now in the dark (hope they have darkvision).
Monsters (each bullet point is an encounter):
- Gelatinous cube
- 3 goblins
-Boss is a "Goblin King," a human-sized goblin in breastplate armor.
The HP is 120 (11d20+1) and the AC is 16. All stats with negative modifiers are now the absolute value of the modifier. The speed is 35ft. Everything else is the same (attacks, actions, senses, skills etc.) except the king has darkvision.
Cool, tell you what when I get home from work I can whip something like that up for you and then give you a step by step on how I did it, so you can use that process to make your own dungeons going forward.
The Goblin King could want something and ask help from the party, to recuperate its goblin magic banner that function as a Dread Helm, which could be stuck in the Gelatinous Cube. After loosing many goblins disolved in acid and seeing the tribe greatly dimished, it'd look for another way to get it back.
Wandering Monsters: 2 goblins and 2 wolves returning from a patrol or raid. 1 in 6 chance every 3 turns (30 min).
1. The Kitchen. There is a 1 in 6 chance one of the goblins from room 3 is in here preparing food.
Trap: The pantry to the south is a fake and trapped, if opened a large pile of rubble falls on the head of anyone opening it, dealing 6d6 bludgeoning damage and alerting the goblins in Room 3. Taking a 10 min turn to search will allow for a perception check 14 to notice the trap.
2. Jails. The jails house hostages that the goblins have taken during their raids. (insert whatever NPCs you want held hostage here). The doors are locked and the Goblin boss has the key. They can be picked with thief's tools and a sleight of hand check of 16. Attempting this takes a 10 min turn.
3. Goblin hangout. 3 goblins eat, drink, and gamble here between raids. When alerted to the presence of intruders, they climb up the east ladder to a defensible 15 foot high ledge and shoot their bows, and pull the ladder up after them. They duck behind the ledge for full cover before ending their turns.
Trap: At the base of the west ladder, a pit trap with a gelatinous cube is carefully concealed. The goblins toss prisoners no longer useful for extortion or forced labor purposes into the cube. Falling into the pit causes a target to be immediately engulfed by it.
4. Boss Hideout. The Goblin boss resides here, either counting his coins or planning the next goblin raid. If fighting breaks out in Room 3, he comes to investigate.
Treasure: The boss has stored his raided treasure here.
Thanks, so the first step is to draw out the dungeon, or if using software like me to use that to get a basic layout of the place. I use Dungeon Painter Studio, which you can get on Steam. I don't recommend it however, because the developer seems to have abandoned it. It's what I learned on though so I'm stuck with it until I care enough to learn another.
Afterwards you can furnish the map and begin documenting the place room by room. Just remember: encounters, traps, hazards, puzzles, obstacles, and treasure. These are the basic things to fill the dungeon with besides furnishing.
Finally a few words actually running the dungeon: whenever the players want to "do" something (investigate, try to perceive something, check around, etc) that will take a turn. The tension of a dungeon comes from the balance of needing to move slow so you don't run into traps or get ambushed by monsters, yet moving fast so that you aren't bogged down by random encounters that the dungeon master is rolling for every so many turns.
Hopefully this teaches a lesson! Thank you so much!
If the party tries to find the pit trap what would a reasonable DC to see it be and understand how it works? I was think a 16 perception and a 13 investigation.
Hopefully this teaches a lesson! Thank you so much!
If the party tries to find the pit trap what would a reasonable DC to see it be and understand how it works? I was think a 16 perception and a 13 investigation.
That sounds about right. If they do find it call it a tarp that is the exact color of the dirt, with some dirt sprinkled on top is what they notice on the ground there.
Make an intelligence check encounter where they are surrounded in a bar and let fate take its course killing both the offending characters and leaving the one who was not stupid alone.
Trap: The pantry to the south is a fake and trapped, if opened a large pile of rubble falls on the head of anyone opening it, dealing 6d6 bludgeoning damage and alerting the goblins in Room 3. Taking a 10 min turn to search will allow for a perception check 14 to notice the trap.
Wow, 6d6 damage is a hefty trap.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
My party consists of three characters, a lvl 2 bard/cleric (1 lvl in bard and 1 lvl in cleric), barbarian (Lvl 2), and druid (lvl 4). The barbarian and druid are controlled by the same person who will start fights and kill anything in sight even if it is a harmless NPC who will give a side quest! Do you have any tips? I don't want to TPK the party.
Hey this is an easy fix, it sounds like your player is simply frustrated at the lack of dungeons, combat, and treasure in your game. The player clearly isn’t being given enough things to hit, so they take that frustration out on the NPCs.
So work on getting your mega dungeon ready for them, so that this player needn’t follow any rules because they will be exploring a place where none exist.
I have an idea for a reward for this dungeon already...
You want to help make this dungeon with me? I have never made one.
Talk to them. If they just want to kill things, and that's not the sort of game you want to play, you're going to have to reach some kind of accommodation, which may be not playing together.
You got it bud, I can help. Describe your dungeon for me. What is it, and what sort of monsters are in there?
Beef your NPC's up.
A cave that's rumored to be where a clan of goblins (150 members) used to live. The entrance to the cave has three pathways. One to the left that contains a kitchen area for this clan, one to the right where a jail is (3 cells) with a brimstone floor, and a pathway that goes straight into the dungeon. This pathway loses light as the dimly lit torches are extinguished by an unexplainable cold wind, so they are now in the dark (hope they have darkvision).
Monsters (each bullet point is an encounter):
- Gelatinous cube
- 3 goblins
-Boss is a "Goblin King," a human-sized goblin in breastplate armor.
The HP is 120 (11d20+1) and the AC is 16. All stats with negative modifiers are now the absolute value of the modifier. The speed is 35ft. Everything else is the same (attacks, actions, senses, skills etc.) except the king has darkvision.
Remind the player that every actions have consequences if it want to continue be a murder hobo it may influence other NPCs coming to interact with the party and have an incidence on future mission or reward, not to mention it's usuakky condemnable behaviors and so dealing with justice will be inevitable.
Cool, tell you what when I get home from work I can whip something like that up for you and then give you a step by step on how I did it, so you can use that process to make your own dungeons going forward.
The Goblin King could want something and ask help from the party, to recuperate its goblin magic banner that function as a Dread Helm, which could be stuck in the Gelatinous Cube. After loosing many goblins disolved in acid and seeing the tribe greatly dimished, it'd look for another way to get it back.
Let me know about the process so I can practice making good dungeons. Thank you for helping me out.
Documentation
Wandering Monsters: 2 goblins and 2 wolves returning from a patrol or raid. 1 in 6 chance every 3 turns (30 min).
1. The Kitchen. There is a 1 in 6 chance one of the goblins from room 3 is in here preparing food.
Trap: The pantry to the south is a fake and trapped, if opened a large pile of rubble falls on the head of anyone opening it, dealing 6d6 bludgeoning damage and alerting the goblins in Room 3. Taking a 10 min turn to search will allow for a perception check 14 to notice the trap.
2. Jails. The jails house hostages that the goblins have taken during their raids. (insert whatever NPCs you want held hostage here). The doors are locked and the Goblin boss has the key. They can be picked with thief's tools and a sleight of hand check of 16. Attempting this takes a 10 min turn.
3. Goblin hangout. 3 goblins eat, drink, and gamble here between raids. When alerted to the presence of intruders, they climb up the east ladder to a defensible 15 foot high ledge and shoot their bows, and pull the ladder up after them. They duck behind the ledge for full cover before ending their turns.
Trap: At the base of the west ladder, a pit trap with a gelatinous cube is carefully concealed. The goblins toss prisoners no longer useful for extortion or forced labor purposes into the cube. Falling into the pit causes a target to be immediately engulfed by it.
4. Boss Hideout. The Goblin boss resides here, either counting his coins or planning the next goblin raid. If fighting breaks out in Room 3, he comes to investigate.
Treasure: The boss has stored his raided treasure here.
This is awesome! How did you do that?
Thanks, so the first step is to draw out the dungeon, or if using software like me to use that to get a basic layout of the place. I use Dungeon Painter Studio, which you can get on Steam. I don't recommend it however, because the developer seems to have abandoned it. It's what I learned on though so I'm stuck with it until I care enough to learn another.
Afterwards you can furnish the map and begin documenting the place room by room. Just remember: encounters, traps, hazards, puzzles, obstacles, and treasure. These are the basic things to fill the dungeon with besides furnishing.
Finally a few words actually running the dungeon: whenever the players want to "do" something (investigate, try to perceive something, check around, etc) that will take a turn. The tension of a dungeon comes from the balance of needing to move slow so you don't run into traps or get ambushed by monsters, yet moving fast so that you aren't bogged down by random encounters that the dungeon master is rolling for every so many turns.
But yea, hit em with that!
Hopefully this teaches a lesson! Thank you so much!
If the party tries to find the pit trap what would a reasonable DC to see it be and understand how it works? I was think a 16 perception and a 13 investigation.
That sounds about right. If they do find it call it a tarp that is the exact color of the dirt, with some dirt sprinkled on top is what they notice on the ground there.
Make an intelligence check encounter where they are surrounded in a bar and let fate take its course killing both the offending characters and leaving the one who was not stupid alone.
Here is the inn
Thendra's Respite - Basement
Thendra's Respite - First Floor
Thendra's Respite - Second Floor
Thendra's Respite -Third Floor
Thendra Ursonsdottir's
Just published a map on DriveThruRPG The Forgotten Temple
Wow, 6d6 damage is a hefty trap.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
I have an idea if they stand or walk over the tarp. They have to make a DC 15 Dex save to successfully go over it without tearing.