I'm writing a homebrew campaign involving a bunch of level 6/7 players fighting lots of goblins. And only goblins. I've added a few convolutions (suicide bombers, wolf and giant spider riders, some champions etc) to keep things interesting and challenging, but at the end of the day, a goblin isn't a huge challenge to a raging level 6 barbarian. I don't want to just beef up goblins, because I don't want to mess with what they basically are.
So I thought about the opposite.
Make the characters weaker. The goblins have got their hands on a relic that causes you to age as you get closer to it. Your strength fades, your mind grows feeble, until by holding it, you have aged half your normal life span. None of my characters are middle aged, so it won't kill anyone by itself, but it should reduce their ability in battle etc. I'm after ideas on how to make this work. Any ideas are good ideas. Should it be a straight progression? Every 50ft you age 5 years? Or something that increases as you get closer? 5yrs the first 100ft, 10 yrs the second, 15 the next etc? Would love some advice/feedback/ideas.
And the relic is basically guarded by goblin teens. Goblins mature early, so that shouldn't be a problem, although it will be reflected in their fighting tactics. More brawling/overwhelm with numbers than tactics. And the relic is being held by an ancient goblin shaman who is at the crux of everything.
I don't think aging and weakening your players is the way to go. Rather, you can reskin other monsters to be goblins to keep the challenge up. Any npc monster (mage, champion, etc) can be made to be any humanoid race by adding that races' traits to it. And don't forget traps and tamed monsters.
I don't want to beef up the goblins. Every one knows what a goblin is. If a Barbarian crit's it and does 50 damage and I say it's still standing, that's just ridiculous. They're pulp. Fodder. And I have a bunch of other ideas that I'm bringing into play. But I'm pretty set on weakening the characters in some way. Someone on another forum suggested fatigue rather than age, and I'm toying with that idea, but I'm 100% not going down the reskinning path.
Just a reminder that Volo's already uses mage reskin as an example of a goblin sorcerer. You can also use other goblinoids hobgoblins and bugbears to add diversity. Or maybe the goblins are taking orders from some ogres or trolls that have moved in. You can also give them a magic item that they learned how to use, like a wand of fireballs.
2nd edition had pretty good aging mechanic. As your characters got older, you would lose 1 strength and constitution, but gain 1 wisdom and intelligence. Characters don’t lose much if they are only middle aged (45 human years). The mechanic had them loose an additional 2 points of str, dex, and 1 point of con; while gaining 1 wisdom at old age (60 human years).
Levels of exhaustion could also be a mechanic you use. Despite the characters getting a good nights rest, they still lose a level of exhaustion.
2nd edition you say? I may just check that out. Someone else has suggested running with Exhaustion on another forum, and that is definitely an option I'm looking at too. Note that the aging would only be temporary. Once you move away from the relic again you would return to your natural age. Thanks for your suggestion!
Making the players weaker as they accomplish their goals will not make the game more enjoyable for them. Players always get pissed off when they are nerfed, especially if it was not necessary. Nerfing the player abilities or making them weaker because they're doing good kinda sucks and will make the players not want to retrieve this artifact anyways.
Either A) suck up beefing the goblins B) stick the goblins with other creatures to help them C) let the players walk through the entire dungeon unscathed (not as bad as it sounds, some groups like power fantasy)
(EDIT: you don't have the beef the gobbos CON if you feel its too unrealistic. Maybe beef up their numbers or damage output or higher AC or something. All kinds of things you could do.)
I'm writing a homebrew campaign involving a bunch of level 6/7 players fighting lots of goblins. And only goblins. I've added a few convolutions (suicide bombers, wolf and giant spider riders, some champions etc) to keep things interesting and challenging, but at the end of the day, a goblin isn't a huge challenge to a raging level 6 barbarian. I don't want to just beef up goblins, because I don't want to mess with what they basically are.
So I thought about the opposite.
Make the characters weaker. The goblins have got their hands on a relic that causes you to age as you get closer to it. Your strength fades, your mind grows feeble, until by holding it, you have aged half your normal life span. None of my characters are middle aged, so it won't kill anyone by itself, but it should reduce their ability in battle etc. I'm after ideas on how to make this work. Any ideas are good ideas. Should it be a straight progression? Every 50ft you age 5 years? Or something that increases as you get closer? 5yrs the first 100ft, 10 yrs the second, 15 the next etc? Would love some advice/feedback/ideas.
And the relic is basically guarded by goblin teens. Goblins mature early, so that shouldn't be a problem, although it will be reflected in their fighting tactics. More brawling/overwhelm with numbers than tactics. And the relic is being held by an ancient goblin shaman who is at the crux of everything.
I don't think aging and weakening your players is the way to go. Rather, you can reskin other monsters to be goblins to keep the challenge up. Any npc monster (mage, champion, etc) can be made to be any humanoid race by adding that races' traits to it. And don't forget traps and tamed monsters.
I don't want to beef up the goblins. Every one knows what a goblin is. If a Barbarian crit's it and does 50 damage and I say it's still standing, that's just ridiculous. They're pulp. Fodder. And I have a bunch of other ideas that I'm bringing into play. But I'm pretty set on weakening the characters in some way. Someone on another forum suggested fatigue rather than age, and I'm toying with that idea, but I'm 100% not going down the reskinning path.
Just a reminder that Volo's already uses mage reskin as an example of a goblin sorcerer. You can also use other goblinoids hobgoblins and bugbears to add diversity. Or maybe the goblins are taking orders from some ogres or trolls that have moved in. You can also give them a magic item that they learned how to use, like a wand of fireballs.
2nd edition had pretty good aging mechanic. As your characters got older, you would lose 1 strength and constitution, but gain 1 wisdom and intelligence. Characters don’t lose much if they are only middle aged (45 human years). The mechanic had them loose an additional 2 points of str, dex, and 1 point of con; while gaining 1 wisdom at old age (60 human years).
Levels of exhaustion could also be a mechanic you use. Despite the characters getting a good nights rest, they still lose a level of exhaustion.
2nd edition you say? I may just check that out. Someone else has suggested running with Exhaustion on another forum, and that is definitely an option I'm looking at too. Note that the aging would only be temporary. Once you move away from the relic again you would return to your natural age. Thanks for your suggestion!
Anyone still paying attention to this post?
No.
Making the players weaker as they accomplish their goals will not make the game more enjoyable for them. Players always get pissed off when they are nerfed, especially if it was not necessary. Nerfing the player abilities or making them weaker because they're doing good kinda sucks and will make the players not want to retrieve this artifact anyways.
Either
A) suck up beefing the goblins
B) stick the goblins with other creatures to help them
C) let the players walk through the entire dungeon unscathed (not as bad as it sounds, some groups like power fantasy)
(EDIT: you don't have the beef the gobbos CON if you feel its too unrealistic. Maybe beef up their numbers or damage output or higher AC or something. All kinds of things you could do.)