I've just started DM'ing again after a long break and am now in the process of drafting an adventure for 3-5 1st level adventurers.
The premise is quite simple: some Orcs have stolen something and the villagers have (t)asked the adventurers with retrieving said object. The Orcs are camping out in an abandoned fort/guard tower. Besides Orcs there are also some Goblins who act as servants/underlings to the Orcs. The Goblins are cowardly and will fight if Orcs are present but will flee rather than die. So if the Orcs get beaten the Goblins will run away rather than fight to their death. (*)
The Orcs are aggressive and hairtriggered, but they can be reasoned with. The Orcs don't realise what they have stolen, so they are willing to give it back or trade it against a keg of wine (for example). So the adventurers can approach this as a hack-n-slash mission, or can try to reason/negotiate.
Now my questions
- how many Orcs and Goblins? What is reasonable to survive if the adventurers approach it hack-n-slash mode (which is the most likely)?
- how many rooms / places? at this moment the abondoned fortress has a guard tower with three rooms (above each other), a courtyard, an old stable, and a prison cell in a basement (just one room, not a dungeon complex).
- I have written out the background, and the story line. Do you also write out all the encounters or do you ad-lib those?
- which reward? the village is just a small village. the stolen object has sentimental value, it's not a large chest of gold. What reward should be handed out? (either by the villagers or as found treasure)
(* I never understood this in D&D... why do monsters always keep on attacking till the death?)
The thing to remember about first level characters is that they're squishy. Even a single hit from a goblin can potentially KO a wizard or rogue if the goblin rolls high on damage.
So off hand, something like two orcs ad three or four goblins, probably. You can use a few more if you want to encourage the party to try to negotiate rather than fight
And as far as why everything always fights to the death? A lot of it has to do with D&D's beginnings as a wargame and the fact that unlike many other RPGs, in D&D there's no penalties that apply as you take damage: a monster at 1 HP still has the same chances of hitting as one at full HP. And prior to 3rd Edition, the rules for XP being awarded were based on killing the enemy: if they ran they weren't worth XP, so having monsters retreat when the party had almost beaten them was seen as rather unfair if done regularly. And also the rules don't really allow for easy escapes unless you've got a significantly higher movement rate from your enemy or the ability to Disengage as a bonus action instead of an action.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
According to the "CR" (challenge rating) a party of four 1st level adventurers should be able to take on 2 Orcs, or 4 Goblins.
But clearly 2 Orcs and 4 Goblins spread over 5 locations (stable, 3 rooms in the guard tower, dungeon/basement,...) isn't a lot. Ah well, I guess I'll give them / let them find a healing potion or two...
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I've just started DM'ing again after a long break and am now in the process of drafting an adventure for 3-5 1st level adventurers.
The premise is quite simple: some Orcs have stolen something and the villagers have (t)asked the adventurers with retrieving said object. The Orcs are camping out in an abandoned fort/guard tower. Besides Orcs there are also some Goblins who act as servants/underlings to the Orcs. The Goblins are cowardly and will fight if Orcs are present but will flee rather than die. So if the Orcs get beaten the Goblins will run away rather than fight to their death. (*)
The Orcs are aggressive and hairtriggered, but they can be reasoned with. The Orcs don't realise what they have stolen, so they are willing to give it back or trade it against a keg of wine (for example). So the adventurers can approach this as a hack-n-slash mission, or can try to reason/negotiate.
Now my questions
- how many Orcs and Goblins? What is reasonable to survive if the adventurers approach it hack-n-slash mode (which is the most likely)?
- how many rooms / places? at this moment the abondoned fortress has a guard tower with three rooms (above each other), a courtyard, an old stable, and a prison cell in a basement (just one room, not a dungeon complex).
- I have written out the background, and the story line. Do you also write out all the encounters or do you ad-lib those?
- which reward? the village is just a small village. the stolen object has sentimental value, it's not a large chest of gold. What reward should be handed out? (either by the villagers or as found treasure)
(* I never understood this in D&D... why do monsters always keep on attacking till the death?)
The thing to remember about first level characters is that they're squishy. Even a single hit from a goblin can potentially KO a wizard or rogue if the goblin rolls high on damage.
So off hand, something like two orcs ad three or four goblins, probably. You can use a few more if you want to encourage the party to try to negotiate rather than fight
And as far as why everything always fights to the death? A lot of it has to do with D&D's beginnings as a wargame and the fact that unlike many other RPGs, in D&D there's no penalties that apply as you take damage: a monster at 1 HP still has the same chances of hitting as one at full HP. And prior to 3rd Edition, the rules for XP being awarded were based on killing the enemy: if they ran they weren't worth XP, so having monsters retreat when the party had almost beaten them was seen as rather unfair if done regularly. And also the rules don't really allow for easy escapes unless you've got a significantly higher movement rate from your enemy or the ability to Disengage as a bonus action instead of an action.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
According to the "CR" (challenge rating) a party of four 1st level adventurers should be able to take on 2 Orcs, or 4 Goblins.
But clearly 2 Orcs and 4 Goblins spread over 5 locations (stable, 3 rooms in the guard tower, dungeon/basement,...) isn't a lot.
Ah well, I guess I'll give them / let them find a healing potion or two...