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View Full Version : [4e] Some DM to DM advice...



Lupy
2009-01-20, 06:01 PM
I'm DMing my first ever campaign with my friends, for whom it is also the first campaign, so our adventure has so far been the typical:

Go get an item (session 1 and 2)
Save the elf prince indirectly from an evil advisor with the item (session 3)
Help a small village (session 4)
Travel from there to a city (session 5)
Make the DM cry by destroying said city (session 6)

And session 7 is coming up. I have established that (in sessions 7 through 10) they are leaving the city for good, and have to travel through the dwarf kingdom to get a mystical orb to save the elf kingdom from a Dragon invasion. This session will be a quick dungeon crawl.

But I just bought manual of the planes, and I'm itching to use it. I know that level 4 (their current level) is way to early for them to travel to the Astral Sea or Elemental Chaos, so my question is: At what level would it be reasonable to assume characters could leave the plane?

Kurald Galain
2009-01-20, 06:09 PM
The MOTP has a number of rituals that shift you to another plane. The level of those rituals should roughly correspond to the level the party should have attained to be reasonably safe on that plane.

woodenbandman
2009-01-20, 07:28 PM
Give them knowledge of the planes. I tried to do this without the players knowing where to go, and it felt like a railroad, and it actually kind of was. That campaign ended poorly.

If you want them to go somewhere, let them know about that place.

KillianHawkeye
2009-01-20, 10:33 PM
The Feywild and the Shadowfell are more or less fine for low-level play, and you can even get there by accident.

hewhosaysfish
2009-01-21, 08:36 AM
At what level would it be reasonable to assume characters could leave the plane?

I would say that you can send your players to another plane as soon as they are tough enough to hold their own against the monsters there. Or a little sooner if you want them to run scared through these alien landscapes, clicking their heels together and screaming "I want to go home! I want to go home!"
Heh heh heh....
Of course, if you are confident about making up your own monsters (the guy to DMs the regular 4e game I'm in doesn't even use the MM any more) then "when the PCs are tough enough" becomes "whenever you feel like".
Which is nice.

DM Raven
2009-01-21, 05:01 PM
You can have lower level adventures in the outer planes, as long as they take place in a somewhat controlled environment. Def stay away from the abyss or any other places that would destroy them, but you can have them chase a villian into a pocket dimention or something.

You can make some pretty cool BBEGs or characters in general using the Manual of the Planes book. There is a prestige class that has the ability to make a portals as a standard action...this makes for a cool villian/ally/mysterious stranger who can show up, do something cool, then vanish at a moment's notice.

Also, have the characters find information that talks about events happening in the outer planes, maybe some specific info about a plane that can peak PC interest.

Any questions?