Swiftest
2010-06-14, 06:56 PM
Greetings Playgrounders,
I am currently running the Red Hand of Doom for a group of 5 level 6 PCs. They have just defeated the Skull Gorge Bridge encounter complete with slaying the green dragon Ozyranndion (they have ridiculous ranged burst damage, got him with ranged volleys as he tried to flee at low health). The party is made up of:
- A full orc fighter4/barbarian2 (whirling frenzy) monkey gripping a large greatsword. Hits stuff. Going Frenzied Berserker. Died in battle with the dragon. The player intends to reroll.
- A Fighter 1 evocation sorceror 5 going Spellsword/Eldritch Knight (favorite spell currently scorching ray)
- A Fighter 5 Dervish 1 -- hits stuff, tumbles, some skills.
- A Halfling Fighter/Paladin/Halfling Outrider mounted on a riding dog who charges things with a lance for decent damage. His dog died in the combat. The player is frustrated that his mounts have been dying and that the charging mechanic is sometimes hard to implement effectively (flying enemies, difficult terrain, etc) and is probably going to reroll soon if I allow him to do so.
- A bow fighter going homebrewed (mix of 3.0 and 3.5 versions) Order of the Bow Initiate. Big arrow damage. Also died in the fight. Probably will not be resurrected (player wants a new character).
As you can see the party is not very optimized at all except in pure physical damage and things are in flux for them character-wise, though they all very much enjoy the campaign. Not one full caster. Very little healing (wands are their best friends). Despite my advice they lack even the most rudimentary knowledges and most skills although this is slowly being rectified as they level. It is likely that 1-2 of those who reroll will do so in order to meet the parties' need for a divine caster and a skillmonkey.
The battle was *very* hard for them (ecl 10 plus I would add another 1 to it based on circumstances) and I want to reward them appropriately, but not too much. I need to decide what treasure to award them for the battle. The books allowed in this campaign are Core + SRD + Complete Warrior.
So far in the campaign I have been taking the writers' advice and tailoring found/looted items to match what the party would want to find since they won't necessarily have time to buy/craft their own custom stuff. They recently found a +1 Frost Scimitar (dervish took) in Vraath Keep, a set of gauntlets of ogre power (barbarian took, also in Vraath Keep), a small Mithral Breastplate (halfling outrider obv -- from the hydra at the ford) along with several +1 armor items, rings of protection, and such.
The dragon was listed as having bracers of armor +3 (9000 gp value) and an amulet of health (4000 gp value). I am thinking of altering this to include a metamagic rod of lesser empower (the sorcerer is a bit underpowered at the moment) and then gloves of dexterity (or perhaps of ogre power) rather than the amulet of health. This is all in addition to the miscellaneous +1 armor items, masterwork weapons, potions, and gold that the hobgoblins had.
tl;dr: Is the above loot appropriate to give to them at this point in the campaign? It's equal in gold piece value to what was already there and the party is a little underpowered at the moment -- I think they could use the help. It occurs to me that the rod of lesser empower might be a bit too overtly for the sorcerer, but I think that's ok as they'll learn they can all expect to find what they want *eventually* and someone's lucky day has to come first. Also, two characters died and will probably not be resurrected, so the loot at large needs to be useful to the living. Thoughts? What sort of loot would you provide to a party of this sort? They have multiple wands of CLW so healing isn't an issue at the moment.
I am currently running the Red Hand of Doom for a group of 5 level 6 PCs. They have just defeated the Skull Gorge Bridge encounter complete with slaying the green dragon Ozyranndion (they have ridiculous ranged burst damage, got him with ranged volleys as he tried to flee at low health). The party is made up of:
- A full orc fighter4/barbarian2 (whirling frenzy) monkey gripping a large greatsword. Hits stuff. Going Frenzied Berserker. Died in battle with the dragon. The player intends to reroll.
- A Fighter 1 evocation sorceror 5 going Spellsword/Eldritch Knight (favorite spell currently scorching ray)
- A Fighter 5 Dervish 1 -- hits stuff, tumbles, some skills.
- A Halfling Fighter/Paladin/Halfling Outrider mounted on a riding dog who charges things with a lance for decent damage. His dog died in the combat. The player is frustrated that his mounts have been dying and that the charging mechanic is sometimes hard to implement effectively (flying enemies, difficult terrain, etc) and is probably going to reroll soon if I allow him to do so.
- A bow fighter going homebrewed (mix of 3.0 and 3.5 versions) Order of the Bow Initiate. Big arrow damage. Also died in the fight. Probably will not be resurrected (player wants a new character).
As you can see the party is not very optimized at all except in pure physical damage and things are in flux for them character-wise, though they all very much enjoy the campaign. Not one full caster. Very little healing (wands are their best friends). Despite my advice they lack even the most rudimentary knowledges and most skills although this is slowly being rectified as they level. It is likely that 1-2 of those who reroll will do so in order to meet the parties' need for a divine caster and a skillmonkey.
The battle was *very* hard for them (ecl 10 plus I would add another 1 to it based on circumstances) and I want to reward them appropriately, but not too much. I need to decide what treasure to award them for the battle. The books allowed in this campaign are Core + SRD + Complete Warrior.
So far in the campaign I have been taking the writers' advice and tailoring found/looted items to match what the party would want to find since they won't necessarily have time to buy/craft their own custom stuff. They recently found a +1 Frost Scimitar (dervish took) in Vraath Keep, a set of gauntlets of ogre power (barbarian took, also in Vraath Keep), a small Mithral Breastplate (halfling outrider obv -- from the hydra at the ford) along with several +1 armor items, rings of protection, and such.
The dragon was listed as having bracers of armor +3 (9000 gp value) and an amulet of health (4000 gp value). I am thinking of altering this to include a metamagic rod of lesser empower (the sorcerer is a bit underpowered at the moment) and then gloves of dexterity (or perhaps of ogre power) rather than the amulet of health. This is all in addition to the miscellaneous +1 armor items, masterwork weapons, potions, and gold that the hobgoblins had.
tl;dr: Is the above loot appropriate to give to them at this point in the campaign? It's equal in gold piece value to what was already there and the party is a little underpowered at the moment -- I think they could use the help. It occurs to me that the rod of lesser empower might be a bit too overtly for the sorcerer, but I think that's ok as they'll learn they can all expect to find what they want *eventually* and someone's lucky day has to come first. Also, two characters died and will probably not be resurrected, so the loot at large needs to be useful to the living. Thoughts? What sort of loot would you provide to a party of this sort? They have multiple wands of CLW so healing isn't an issue at the moment.