I am a very new DM. My group has only done 3 hoembrew campaigns, and until now I’ve mostly taken a very uncreative approach to difficulty. Players would all start out at level 1, encounters would usually be medium difficulty. But death never really felt like a probable or permanent threat.
My idea is that one player will be more powerful than the others, and that character will have to protect the other two until they become more experienced. Encounters will be less frequent but more deadly. I want the party to have to flee from some monsters. Death will be permanent, and i want it to feel like a real possibility. I’ve talked to my players about this, and they’re cool with it.
My first problem is that I’m not sure what level to make my “strong” player. I want It to feel clear that he is much stronger than the rest of the party, but not so powerful that he can handle anything. Should he be level 5? Higher?
My other issue is that I’m not sure how strong to make my monster when i want them to run from it. I’ve never made an encounter with a “deadly” difficulty before. I want it to be strong enough that the party will almost certainly die if they don’t run away, but not so strong that It kills them instantly. I want to give them a chance to realize they need to flee.
Since im pretty new at this, i just don’t want to mess up the numbers and ruin my campaign before It even starts. Thanks in advance!
One thing you didn't mention, but which you might want to consider isn't just the relative strength of the party, but how quickly you want the lower level characters to catch up. Obviously you can adjust things by giving them different experience amounts, but keep in mind that the amount of xp to get from level 5 to level 6 is actually more than than the xp it takes to get from level 1 to level 5 so the lower level characters would catch up to the top character before the top character gained a level. At level 6, the top level character would gain 1 level before the others caught up. You can do other examples yourself, but something to keep in mind.
Ok, so a lot of the strength will depend on the classes involved and I would consider talking to the person who is going to play the stronger character and figure out what they'll be playing so you can tailor it a little. But here are three ideas for break points for increased strength (hp calculations are based off assuming a con hp bonus of 1/3 the hp die... it's not perfect, but we're talking approximations here and +2 = 1/3 of 6, +3 ~ 1/3 of 8 and 10):
Level 4: this is the first ability boost so it makes the character hit more often and hit slightly harder, 3x the hp
Level 5: one of the largest power spikes in the game: extra attack or access to 3rd level spells (like fireball), 3.5x the hp
Level 6: fighters get another ability improvement, casters can use more of the powerful spells, 4x the hp
So, looking at these a level 4 character can take 3x the damage, but their damage output isn't going to be that much higher than a starter character. Yeah, they have a couple of extra abilities and they can probably protect themselves a big better, but they lack the ability to really put out the damage.
At level 5, the character gains the ability to do 2x the damage they did before because of extra attack or staggering amounts more a limited amount of times (hello fireball). Casters are going to run dry on high-level stuff pretty quickly though.
At level 6, the casters gain more staying power and fighters gain a bit more consistency.
Beyond level 6, I would be worried about how to realistically threaten the high character without instakilling the lower characters. 4x the hp is already a pretty big difference, but if you assume 2 level 1s and 1 higher level the disparity in totally hp is only 2x and you can make the monsters focus on the front character more and just use lots of monsters of lower difficulties. But as you go higher and higher, you run into two problems: 1) the character may gain the ability to just wipe out low level monsters en-masse and 2) eventually you have to use so many low level monsters that realistically speaking they can surround the top character and just murder the other ones. And if you start using high level monsters, their attacks will one-shot a level 1 character every time.
So personally, I like either level 5 or 6 and I might vary that depending on the character class the top level player created.
In terms of monsters, I would suggest you carefully tailor the fights (and maybe even try running them yourself in advance) to see how they work out. A single troll will be a different difficulty for a high level fighter than a high level wizard (the fighter is probably better off if he has fire) whereas a wizard would be able to easily deal with a mob of lower level foes (once) while the fighter might be bogged down. Again, that depends on the specific foes (and the spells prepared). And there's always the chance of a bad roll sending things spiraling.
One way to make people run away is to make it clear there are more coming (Drums in the Deep). If they fight a single troll and win (barely), but they see 3 more coming they'll probably be smart enough to run. They certainly have a better chance to figure out they're going to lose if you build up to it than if they see a dragon, charge it, and lose 3/4 of their hp in one round. How are they going to escape from that bad decision (hint: they aren't)? If instead they charge the troll, lose 1/4 of their hp, see more are on the way (but are slowed by... something), and then fight a running battle against the one troll barely bringing it down just in time to escape before its friends show up... that could happen.
I am a very new DM. My group has only done 3 hoembrew campaigns, and until now I’ve mostly taken a very uncreative approach to difficulty. Players would all start out at level 1, encounters would usually be medium difficulty. But death never really felt like a probable or permanent threat.
My idea is that one player will be more powerful than the others, and that character will have to protect the other two until they become more experienced. Encounters will be less frequent but more deadly. I want the party to have to flee from some monsters. Death will be permanent, and i want it to feel like a real possibility. I’ve talked to my players about this, and they’re cool with it.
My first problem is that I’m not sure what level to make my “strong” player. I want It to feel clear that he is much stronger than the rest of the party, but not so powerful that he can handle anything. Should he be level 5? Higher?
My other issue is that I’m not sure how strong to make my monster when i want them to run from it. I’ve never made an encounter with a “deadly” difficulty before. I want it to be strong enough that the party will almost certainly die if they don’t run away, but not so strong that It kills them instantly. I want to give them a chance to realize they need to flee.
Since im pretty new at this, i just don’t want to mess up the numbers and ruin my campaign before It even starts. Thanks in advance!
One thing you didn't mention, but which you might want to consider isn't just the relative strength of the party, but how quickly you want the lower level characters to catch up. Obviously you can adjust things by giving them different experience amounts, but keep in mind that the amount of xp to get from level 5 to level 6 is actually more than than the xp it takes to get from level 1 to level 5 so the lower level characters would catch up to the top character before the top character gained a level. At level 6, the top level character would gain 1 level before the others caught up. You can do other examples yourself, but something to keep in mind.
Ok, so a lot of the strength will depend on the classes involved and I would consider talking to the person who is going to play the stronger character and figure out what they'll be playing so you can tailor it a little. But here are three ideas for break points for increased strength (hp calculations are based off assuming a con hp bonus of 1/3 the hp die... it's not perfect, but we're talking approximations here and +2 = 1/3 of 6, +3 ~ 1/3 of 8 and 10):
So, looking at these a level 4 character can take 3x the damage, but their damage output isn't going to be that much higher than a starter character. Yeah, they have a couple of extra abilities and they can probably protect themselves a big better, but they lack the ability to really put out the damage.
At level 5, the character gains the ability to do 2x the damage they did before because of extra attack or staggering amounts more a limited amount of times (hello fireball). Casters are going to run dry on high-level stuff pretty quickly though.
At level 6, the casters gain more staying power and fighters gain a bit more consistency.
Beyond level 6, I would be worried about how to realistically threaten the high character without instakilling the lower characters. 4x the hp is already a pretty big difference, but if you assume 2 level 1s and 1 higher level the disparity in totally hp is only 2x and you can make the monsters focus on the front character more and just use lots of monsters of lower difficulties. But as you go higher and higher, you run into two problems: 1) the character may gain the ability to just wipe out low level monsters en-masse and 2) eventually you have to use so many low level monsters that realistically speaking they can surround the top character and just murder the other ones. And if you start using high level monsters, their attacks will one-shot a level 1 character every time.
So personally, I like either level 5 or 6 and I might vary that depending on the character class the top level player created.
In terms of monsters, I would suggest you carefully tailor the fights (and maybe even try running them yourself in advance) to see how they work out. A single troll will be a different difficulty for a high level fighter than a high level wizard (the fighter is probably better off if he has fire) whereas a wizard would be able to easily deal with a mob of lower level foes (once) while the fighter might be bogged down. Again, that depends on the specific foes (and the spells prepared). And there's always the chance of a bad roll sending things spiraling.
One way to make people run away is to make it clear there are more coming (Drums in the Deep). If they fight a single troll and win (barely), but they see 3 more coming they'll probably be smart enough to run. They certainly have a better chance to figure out they're going to lose if you build up to it than if they see a dragon, charge it, and lose 3/4 of their hp in one round. How are they going to escape from that bad decision (hint: they aren't)? If instead they charge the troll, lose 1/4 of their hp, see more are on the way (but are slowed by... something), and then fight a running battle against the one troll barely bringing it down just in time to escape before its friends show up... that could happen.
Extremely helpful. Thank you!