Hi all! I’m turning to the hivemind for some input once more. Here’s the score:
At present, my players are in a mega dungeon I expect will keep the PCs occupied for a few weeks in world. I am hoping that I can use the isolation and the length/scope of the dungeon to face them with some challenges and ideas they’ve not had to do much of before. Also, frankly, they’ve been spoiled so far in the campaign, and I want to get them acclimated to thinking very strategically before they start running into harder challenges and higher tier play soon.
Party composition is a little wonky, which has always thwarted my attempts at balance. They are:
Halfling Ancients Paladin 7/Blade Pact Warlock 1
Drow Illusionist Wizard 8
Goblin Arcane Trickster Rogue 8
Tiefling Rogue 7/Draconic Sorceress 1
Tiefling Divine Soul Sorceress 8
As you can see, HP totals aren’t exactly the party’s strong suit. Just throwing high damage encounters at them isn’t particularly engaging, although I have enjoyed watching them sweat this arc when they get one-shot KOed by enemies that can actually hit them.
Keeping their low HP in mind, I WANT to emphasize the need to forage for food and water, as well as the threat of exhaustion levels. However, they DO have four days of rations currently, and I suspect that the party Wizard will just spam Tiny Hut as a ritual constantly to ward of the threat of exposure. Obviously, I don’t want to nerf their spells and items just to force the issue, so how do I set them up to experience SOME tension from these threats without cheapening their abilities and belongings?
They’ll be in desert terrain and magical darkness soonish, so heat and visibility should be threats, but I wager they’ll be offset without much sweat. I’m considering something that generates an anti magic field in the desert that serves as a mystery target to destroy or a puzzle to solve, but again, don’t want it to feel too cheap. I’m also considering some sort of giant sand monster that may stalk them if they get too comfortable in the desert.
What other ideas, experience, or considerations would all of you have to offer?
I am assuming that the Tiefling Divine Soul Sorceress has 7 levels in something. You only list one. I note the lack of a Druid or Ranger to help them live off the land or keep from becoming lost. Someone in there ought to be able to Create Food And Water though. So the problems they face are getting lost and surviving various elemental hazards.
Being lost in the desert is nasty. High heat in the day time and it can get down below freezing at night. In the day, the light reflection off the sand can be blinding. The air can be full of choking grit. Sand gets into everything, including armor, food, and bedding. The weather can be punishing. Sand Storms are no joke. You can be buried alive at night, and totally blinded during the day. There is a very real chance of exhaustion. Just trudging along in the sand is tiring. Try doing so up and down hills with the wind gusting around you, half blind with the sun beating down on you while carrying the usual half a ton of Stuff that Player Characters tend to lug around.
Armor becomes horribly uncomfortable to wear and is heavy to carry around. It takes a long time to put on if you need it in a hurry. Most of the party won't care, I doubt they are wearing any armor, but the Paladin probably will, and the Tiefling with the unknown class may very well. I hope she's a Cleric, or better yet, a Druid.
The stereotypical desert is just sand, but they can vary a whole lot. Check into what you can find in Death Valley. High mountains, cliffs, salt flats, little caves, and winding corridors of slightly slippery rock. You can get rain, and the characters might be glad of it, until the flash flood comes roaring down those corridors.
So there they are, safe and secure at night in their Tiny Hut, plenty of food and water, they can rest as much as they like. Wonderful. They are still lost in the desert. How long do they want to stay on this delightful vacation? Once they come out again, they get to deal with all those problems. If you want a Big Nasty Monster how about the ever popular Purple Worm?
They are gargantuan, very fast on land, and just as fast as the party while traveling under the sand. They can swallow any member of the party whole, burrow down under the sand again, and even if the character does enough damage to be spit back out, nothing says they get spat up above ground. They could easily suffocate before they made it back up. The Purple worm even has a moderately nasty poison sting. They can swallow one character, sting another, and be back under the sand and on their way again in the same round. So they can be 30 feet away and however far down you feel like. Tremorsense lets them keep track of the party from 60 feet away.
They aren't very smart. They aren't very perceptive. A Purple Worm can be beaten with good tactics.
If you want to scare them, the desert is home to Dragons. Blue and Brass Dragons can be found there. An Adult Blue Dragon out to be scary enough. An Adult Brass Dragon might help the party out, but they will want to talk, and Brass Dragons *really* like to talk. The hardest thing may be to get the Dragon to let them get away. Plenty of challenge in the roleplaying area if you need something other than Combat and Exploration to liven things up.
Ack! No idea why I wrote a 1 there! Fixed it! The Paladin honestly functions a lot like a Druid through her pact and some other items and features, so she’s their resident survivalist, but I definitely expect her to be taxed soon in the desert.
I’m also realizing that, even with the Tiny Hut, there’s still a good possibility of exhaustion piling up, so I’m less nervous thinking about it. Your points about the difficulties of walking in sand and of going up and down buttes and mesas is also really helpful, and things such as sandstorms and loose sand/sand traps should be great for this.
Thank you for kickstarting my brainstorming some more!
If things start to get too intense, you can throw them an oasis or caravan stop. Or a cave complex where they can find some brackish water and awful tasting mushrooms that nearly make you sick, but barely don't. Just enough to keep them going, but not enough to really help them feel better. You could say something like, this is just enough to keep you from adding another level of exhaustion, but not enough to be considered restful enough to take one away.
Do they have anyone with create food and water? The pally won't get it until level 9 paladin. So unless the divine soul sorcerer took it (which would be kind of surprising since they get so few spells, but maybe they did) food is going to be tough to come by. Unless you give them some edible monsters in the dungeon. But that still won't help with water.
Geann's purple worm idea is good -- but don't be surprised if they go Dune on you and want to tame and ride it. And also his desert ideas. I've you've ever been to Phoenix (if not, maybe look at pictures) its more of a rocky desert than sand, with hills and mountains. And Deserts, of course, get really cold at night.
I'm reminded of I3-5 Desert of Desolation NWN conversion I played long ago... much sand in me sandals! and more recently The most excellent Dark Dice an actual-play D&D podcast I listened to where the party was getting progressively worn down, long or even short rests were hard to come by
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“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
I’ve not been to Phoenix, but I’ve been around Nevada, and parts of Texas—from which I initially hail—are certainly akin to badlands. I’m planning to draw from that familiarity for this, for sure.
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Hi all! I’m turning to the hivemind for some input once more. Here’s the score:
At present, my players are in a mega dungeon I expect will keep the PCs occupied for a few weeks in world. I am hoping that I can use the isolation and the length/scope of the dungeon to face them with some challenges and ideas they’ve not had to do much of before. Also, frankly, they’ve been spoiled so far in the campaign, and I want to get them acclimated to thinking very strategically before they start running into harder challenges and higher tier play soon.
Party composition is a little wonky, which has always thwarted my attempts at balance. They are:
As you can see, HP totals aren’t exactly the party’s strong suit. Just throwing high damage encounters at them isn’t particularly engaging, although I have enjoyed watching them sweat this arc when they get one-shot KOed by enemies that can actually hit them.
Keeping their low HP in mind, I WANT to emphasize the need to forage for food and water, as well as the threat of exhaustion levels. However, they DO have four days of rations currently, and I suspect that the party Wizard will just spam Tiny Hut as a ritual constantly to ward of the threat of exposure. Obviously, I don’t want to nerf their spells and items just to force the issue, so how do I set them up to experience SOME tension from these threats without cheapening their abilities and belongings?
They’ll be in desert terrain and magical darkness soonish, so heat and visibility should be threats, but I wager they’ll be offset without much sweat. I’m considering something that generates an anti magic field in the desert that serves as a mystery target to destroy or a puzzle to solve, but again, don’t want it to feel too cheap. I’m also considering some sort of giant sand monster that may stalk them if they get too comfortable in the desert.
What other ideas, experience, or considerations would all of you have to offer?
I am assuming that the Tiefling Divine Soul Sorceress has 7 levels in something. You only list one. I note the lack of a Druid or Ranger to help them live off the land or keep from becoming lost. Someone in there ought to be able to Create Food And Water though. So the problems they face are getting lost and surviving various elemental hazards.
Being lost in the desert is nasty. High heat in the day time and it can get down below freezing at night. In the day, the light reflection off the sand can be blinding. The air can be full of choking grit. Sand gets into everything, including armor, food, and bedding. The weather can be punishing. Sand Storms are no joke. You can be buried alive at night, and totally blinded during the day. There is a very real chance of exhaustion. Just trudging along in the sand is tiring. Try doing so up and down hills with the wind gusting around you, half blind with the sun beating down on you while carrying the usual half a ton of Stuff that Player Characters tend to lug around.
Armor becomes horribly uncomfortable to wear and is heavy to carry around. It takes a long time to put on if you need it in a hurry. Most of the party won't care, I doubt they are wearing any armor, but the Paladin probably will, and the Tiefling with the unknown class may very well. I hope she's a Cleric, or better yet, a Druid.
The stereotypical desert is just sand, but they can vary a whole lot. Check into what you can find in Death Valley. High mountains, cliffs, salt flats, little caves, and winding corridors of slightly slippery rock. You can get rain, and the characters might be glad of it, until the flash flood comes roaring down those corridors.
So there they are, safe and secure at night in their Tiny Hut, plenty of food and water, they can rest as much as they like. Wonderful. They are still lost in the desert. How long do they want to stay on this delightful vacation? Once they come out again, they get to deal with all those problems. If you want a Big Nasty Monster how about the ever popular Purple Worm?
They are gargantuan, very fast on land, and just as fast as the party while traveling under the sand. They can swallow any member of the party whole, burrow down under the sand again, and even if the character does enough damage to be spit back out, nothing says they get spat up above ground. They could easily suffocate before they made it back up. The Purple worm even has a moderately nasty poison sting. They can swallow one character, sting another, and be back under the sand and on their way again in the same round. So they can be 30 feet away and however far down you feel like. Tremorsense lets them keep track of the party from 60 feet away.
They aren't very smart. They aren't very perceptive. A Purple Worm can be beaten with good tactics.
If you want to scare them, the desert is home to Dragons. Blue and Brass Dragons can be found there. An Adult Blue Dragon out to be scary enough. An Adult Brass Dragon might help the party out, but they will want to talk, and Brass Dragons *really* like to talk. The hardest thing may be to get the Dragon to let them get away. Plenty of challenge in the roleplaying area if you need something other than Combat and Exploration to liven things up.
<Insert clever signature here>
Ack! No idea why I wrote a 1 there! Fixed it!
The Paladin honestly functions a lot like a Druid through her pact and some other items and features, so she’s their resident survivalist, but I definitely expect her to be taxed soon in the desert.
I’m also realizing that, even with the Tiny Hut, there’s still a good possibility of exhaustion piling up, so I’m less nervous thinking about it. Your points about the difficulties of walking in sand and of going up and down buttes and mesas is also really helpful, and things such as sandstorms and loose sand/sand traps should be great for this.
Thank you for kickstarting my brainstorming some more!
If things start to get too intense, you can throw them an oasis or caravan stop. Or a cave complex where they can find some brackish water and awful tasting mushrooms that nearly make you sick, but barely don't. Just enough to keep them going, but not enough to really help them feel better. You could say something like, this is just enough to keep you from adding another level of exhaustion, but not enough to be considered restful enough to take one away.
Do they have anyone with create food and water? The pally won't get it until level 9 paladin. So unless the divine soul sorcerer took it (which would be kind of surprising since they get so few spells, but maybe they did) food is going to be tough to come by. Unless you give them some edible monsters in the dungeon. But that still won't help with water.
Geann's purple worm idea is good -- but don't be surprised if they go Dune on you and want to tame and ride it. And also his desert ideas. I've you've ever been to Phoenix (if not, maybe look at pictures) its more of a rocky desert than sand, with hills and mountains. And Deserts, of course, get really cold at night.
I'm reminded of I3-5 Desert of Desolation NWN conversion I played long ago... much sand in me sandals!
and more recently The most excellent Dark Dice an actual-play D&D podcast I listened to where the party was getting progressively worn down, long or even short rests were hard to come by
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
I’ve not been to Phoenix, but I’ve been around Nevada, and parts of Texas—from which I initially hail—are certainly akin to badlands. I’m planning to draw from that familiarity for this, for sure.