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View Full Version : [3.5] A little help with a kobold heavy campaign



Orran
2010-02-16, 04:05 PM
First things first some background information, I am running a 3.5 campaign for 4-5 players at level 4. It has been running for roughly 10 weeks and the players are about to hit 5th level (we play fairly slowly, and the players aren't great at being there every week.) One of those players uses these forums occasionally (leon666), however if he comes across this thread I trust him not to read it. The campaign is very kobold based, and almost every fight so far has been with kobolds, or their draconic themed minions, however soon that stroy arc will draw to a close, and there will be more variation in enemies.

The party makeup is:
Level 4 half-orc druid- Probably the most powerful character of the bunch , partially due to entangle, and partially due to his bear animal companion. Also does not prepare spells in advance, however I am working on this and often design encounters bearing these strengths in mind.
Level 4 human hexblade- This character is much more of a roleplayer than a rollplayer, most notable mechanical choice was taking the close quarter's combat feat from compete warrior. This player was particularly pleased when the party all gained the dragonblood subtype last session.
Level 4 human cleric- A new player, but has taken to being a cleric well, like the sanctuary spell and his character can be a bit of a coward. Otherwise mostly healbots and makes use of the arrow deflecting shield I gave him. (A little beyond WBL, but I think it works well for him)
Level 4 Dwarven fighter- Classic fighter, hits things with a greataxe, but suffers from abysmally bad rolls sometimes, and is overshadowed by some players, especially the druid.
Level 4 Strongheart halfling conjurer- Took the abrupt jaunt ACF, since dying as an illusionist a little earlier in the campaign. This player has been taking optimization tips from me recently, but is still hung up on blaster magic, however he is learning how to do it better. Refuses to tell me about some trick he has up his sleeve, but that shouldnt be a problem.


The PC's have been a thorn in the side of a large militaristic group of kobolds recently, and just last week botched an infiltration job into their main warcamp, and then burnt it down. The leader of the warcamp has informed the BBEG (A little more about him next paragraph) who is sending a crack squad to track them down and deal with them. The warcamp's orders are to continue moving towards a gnome army that is headed towards them.

The BBEG is a youngish white dragon (age category undecided yet) who has gone power mad and is performing all kinds of crazy experiments to create kobold supersoldiers to serve him loyally. A large amount of encounters so far have been with these experiments, kobolds with dragon grafts, a tortured wyvern, a half dragon barbarian. And because of this the ratio or dragonwrought kobolds, half dragons, and winged kobolds is unnaturally high. the next form of experiment they will be fighting is the crack squad, which will be formed of white dragonspawn barbarians.

The problem is that I'm aware of how horribly overpowered white dragonspawn are, and while I am mitigating that somewhat by making them barbarians as opposed to casters, just the natural armor and flight speed could be enough to make a massive difference. My first idea is to have them wearing no armor, since it would intefer with casting (I plan to give them mage armor and true strike as their spells known) but with +4 racial dex and +7 NA, their armor class will still be through the roof. Another idea was to have their breath weapons (2d8 cold cone) be unpredictable and go off in each others faces at inopportune moments. I think this would be good with the 'experiments gone wrong' theme, but may stink of deus ex machina.

So how else could i make this work? I'm looking for numbers, levels, tactics, and spell selection suggestions. (Although I'd like it to be something like 4 level 3 barabarians)

TLDR: Group of 5 level 4 adventurers are to be fighting white dragonspawn barbarians, how should this encounter be balanced?

Cyrion
2010-02-16, 05:01 PM
One option would be to have the party encounter the crack squad when they've got company/reinforcements. That way the party isn't bearing the weight of the entire attack- you've got some expendables who can do a little damage, occupy some attacks and die for drama.

You could also give your party some consumable toys from a previous encounter that will help balance the encounter. Maybe a wand of fireball with one or two charges, or a wand of clumsiness (again with limited charges) to lower the dex bonus and bring the AC within the party's reach.

Or, exercise your right as a DM- change the stats of the monsters so that they'll present an appropriate challenge. If the AC is too high, wipe out some of the natural armor. Too many HP, lower the level or have them wounded from an "accidental" encounter with something they annoyed (that might be chasing them- and then the party has to deal with it shortly after taking out the barbarians; choose the beast as being able to damage the other bad guys but that the party is better equiped to deal with).