Stegoserious
2009-04-25, 06:17 PM
So, this is my first post here but I'm a long time lurker and love most of the advice that I can glean off the various threads in these forums.
I'm starting up a 4e campaign for a few friends, we're all 4e rookies. A couple of us used to play AD&D back in the day, but this is the first serious campaign I'll be running in a long time.
I really like the 4e rules, but one thing I notice is the obvious utility of the Perception skill. All three players (Swordmage, Warlord, and Rogue) used WIS as more or less their dump stat (the warlord's is 12, highest of the three), giving them all very low passive perception scores. I'm completely comfortable with the small party size, as the important roles are there, and for the modules I'm running I've been able to scale down the encounters for difficulty. But another friend of mine suggested running a 4th party member as an NPC to both balance the party and cover the perception skill (likely an Invoker). I certainly don't want to encourage any PCs to alter their preferred class or ability score choice to just cover this one skill.
I guess my question is - is this even worth doing? Can a party get by with pitiful perception? And how would I alter my encounters to keep things fun for them? I'm wary to add an NPC, especially a controller, since I don't want to take any spotlight away from the PCs and a controller's main job is to blast through minions and look like a superstar. Although I do like the story implications of having a party member under my control and available for plot twists like betrayals and rescues etc...
My current idea is to use him and have him be a semi-permanent party member, which would be fine, but doesn't really alleviate the concerns I have with the party's lack of perception.
Thoughts? Thanks in advance.
I'm starting up a 4e campaign for a few friends, we're all 4e rookies. A couple of us used to play AD&D back in the day, but this is the first serious campaign I'll be running in a long time.
I really like the 4e rules, but one thing I notice is the obvious utility of the Perception skill. All three players (Swordmage, Warlord, and Rogue) used WIS as more or less their dump stat (the warlord's is 12, highest of the three), giving them all very low passive perception scores. I'm completely comfortable with the small party size, as the important roles are there, and for the modules I'm running I've been able to scale down the encounters for difficulty. But another friend of mine suggested running a 4th party member as an NPC to both balance the party and cover the perception skill (likely an Invoker). I certainly don't want to encourage any PCs to alter their preferred class or ability score choice to just cover this one skill.
I guess my question is - is this even worth doing? Can a party get by with pitiful perception? And how would I alter my encounters to keep things fun for them? I'm wary to add an NPC, especially a controller, since I don't want to take any spotlight away from the PCs and a controller's main job is to blast through minions and look like a superstar. Although I do like the story implications of having a party member under my control and available for plot twists like betrayals and rescues etc...
My current idea is to use him and have him be a semi-permanent party member, which would be fine, but doesn't really alleviate the concerns I have with the party's lack of perception.
Thoughts? Thanks in advance.