I am a new DM hosting a group for a pair of veteran players and a new player. My friend who got me into DnD is one of the players, so typically I would run ideas and decisions and questions by him-but as he is in the campaign I cannot.
So I am making this post in order to hopefully be able to run some ideas past some folks, ask some questions, etc. I'm hoping that you all would be able to help!
To start I had a question around one of the first boss fights that our players will run into. Lance Rock. So in reading the boss of that area, Orieth I believe his name is or something like that, it kind of seems like he is designed to straight up kill a character. For those that have not read the source he has a wand of magic missiles with 7 charges in it and an ability where if he kills a player he can immediately raise them as a zombie (on his next turn).
So it would seem, as he is an intelligent character and a coward as per the book, that it would make sense for him to unload his wand right off the bat, blasting 10 missiles at a level one character can probably insta-down any of them, then try to kill that person while they were down in order to raise them back on his side. Now obviously as the DM I can play him differently and spread the pain around but I was just looking for some folks thoughts.
Thank you all, and I'm excited to be joining the DM club!
If your players are only level 1, you will have to play him incredibly stupid (e.g. not using his spells), or he will destroy them, even without the wand.
He can cast Magic Missile on his own as third level spell, which will kill a level one non-martial PC at minimum damage. If you roll anything but ones, it will down martials as well, especially since the players fought their way through an entire dungeon to get to him and are already weakened.
According to the book he wants to avoid physical confrontation, though. And he sounds quite mad.
I would either replace him with a weaker creature (maybe halve his HP and replace the damage spells with CC like Hideous Laughter) or turn it into a social encounter where the PCs can somehow convince him to return peacefully to the guards... or gain his trust to kill him in his sleep.
And make sure to inform your players that a necromancer controlling half a dozen skeletons and zombies might be a bit out of their league for open combat.
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Hello everyone!
I am a new DM hosting a group for a pair of veteran players and a new player. My friend who got me into DnD is one of the players, so typically I would run ideas and decisions and questions by him-but as he is in the campaign I cannot.
So I am making this post in order to hopefully be able to run some ideas past some folks, ask some questions, etc. I'm hoping that you all would be able to help!
To start I had a question around one of the first boss fights that our players will run into. Lance Rock. So in reading the boss of that area, Orieth I believe his name is or something like that, it kind of seems like he is designed to straight up kill a character. For those that have not read the source he has a wand of magic missiles with 7 charges in it and an ability where if he kills a player he can immediately raise them as a zombie (on his next turn).
So it would seem, as he is an intelligent character and a coward as per the book, that it would make sense for him to unload his wand right off the bat, blasting 10 missiles at a level one character can probably insta-down any of them, then try to kill that person while they were down in order to raise them back on his side. Now obviously as the DM I can play him differently and spread the pain around but I was just looking for some folks thoughts.
Thank you all, and I'm excited to be joining the DM club!
If your players are only level 1, you will have to play him incredibly stupid (e.g. not using his spells), or he will destroy them, even without the wand.
He can cast Magic Missile on his own as third level spell, which will kill a level one non-martial PC at minimum damage. If you roll anything but ones, it will down martials as well, especially since the players fought their way through an entire dungeon to get to him and are already weakened.
According to the book he wants to avoid physical confrontation, though. And he sounds quite mad.
I would either replace him with a weaker creature (maybe halve his HP and replace the damage spells with CC like Hideous Laughter) or turn it into a social encounter where the PCs can somehow convince him to return peacefully to the guards... or gain his trust to kill him in his sleep.
And make sure to inform your players that a necromancer controlling half a dozen skeletons and zombies might be a bit out of their league for open combat.