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Orannis
2010-05-08, 07:06 PM
I am going to be DMing for the first time shortly and I need some advice and where better to find it then here?
Ok, I have an encounter in mind that will be pretty cool (I think) for everyone and VERY good for one of them. I am planning on having a haunted mansion sort of thing with the bad guy being a ghost master of the unseen hand. I plan to have a lot of traps and hunting around (yielding treasure of course) and have a few low powered zombie/skeleton fights (the PCs will all be around level 9-11 so cake really). The climax will be the ghost manifesting and using Telekinesis to throw one of the party members out of a window three stories down into a garden then throwing chairs and such like at the remaing PCs to play for time. I was wanting to give this player a powerful plot item and have him feel like he earned it so after flying out of the window he lands in a garden, fights evil topiary, and sees a door. Inside is a grim reaper statue with a gleaming obsidian scythe (His main weapon) and an inscription (to be determined) that will hint at its power, upon taking it the staue may or may not animate (depends on what kind of shape he is in) and a door leadin back up into the room with the main battle opens. My question, after that long winded setup, is what is the best way to deal with this? I want him to come in to help beat the ghost (scythe beats the ectoplasam out of anything undead) but I feel like holding up the main fight would be a bit dull for everyone. My thought was to have a half and half thing going where one round with the ghost equaled one or two rounds for the other PC so that they roughly sync up in time. This sort of thing will come into play a lot as the people I play with (as a PC) tend to split up a LOT, usually ending in two fights at the same time.
Thanks!

Doc_Shiny
2010-05-08, 08:27 PM
Well, maybe you should have the main villain throw one of the PC out of the window and then run into/float through a room. When the remaining hero's barge in, they'll be greeted with a room full of baddies as some filler for the main villain's escape. That way while the thrown PC is collecting the scythe, the main group is in a tussle. You could then have them a) meet-up up outside the last door that leads to the tower (just an add-on for yeah) or b)the main could rush in to the tower and the thrown PC ends up teleported into the room after a round or two of the main groups incursion with the main villain just in the nick of time.

Orannis
2010-05-10, 10:33 PM
That is a good suggestion, thanks. I think that will alleviate my difficulty somewhat.