Calemyr
2010-07-29, 05:28 PM
I could use some help from any veteran DMs who frequesnt these forums.
The last session we played, we finished the campaign I had set up for them. Hurrahs and drinks all around. But I've got one more weekend to play before I head back to college. I want to use this opportunity to make a finale to remember, and I could use some advice on how to balance a fight this big (this is only my second campaign as DM).
The basic plot of the campaign was around the existence of a "wall" built around the planet that cut off all sources of magic (divine, elemental, and arcane). The wall has been crumbling, however, and in the final session the party opted to remove the last support preserving it, allowing magic and the gods to return to the world. Eventually, anyway, as it will take time for the wall to fail completely.
Anyway, the goal of this session would be to create an coalition of magic-reliant creatures (magical beasts, demons, fey, and dragons, for instance, of all alignments and allegiences joined by a common indignation), all of whom have been starving for centuries in the weak magic field left after the wall was erected. Finally able to revive themselves, a large number of these creatures direct their ire at a city the party is friendly with. The result is a very large battle where the city's defenders and the party's allies take on the small stuff while the party and some of the more elite allies take on the bigger threats in the fight.
The party consists of an air-elemental sorceress, a paladin, and a druid, all of which are human and level 12, as well as possibly up to 4 one-shot characters of up to level 10. The main three characters aren't particularly optimized yet have been able to take on things significantly above their level with minimal difficulty (including a froghemoth back when they were level 10). The druid has an unused magical staff with the reincarnate spell, so death has the potential to be more amusing than tragic.
Any suggestions on how I can balance this fight to be truly fun and appropriately epic? I don't really want to just open the beastiary and just throw everything with a CR of 10-16 at them, but I'm not entirely sure how to arrange it to make it a finale to remember.
The last session we played, we finished the campaign I had set up for them. Hurrahs and drinks all around. But I've got one more weekend to play before I head back to college. I want to use this opportunity to make a finale to remember, and I could use some advice on how to balance a fight this big (this is only my second campaign as DM).
The basic plot of the campaign was around the existence of a "wall" built around the planet that cut off all sources of magic (divine, elemental, and arcane). The wall has been crumbling, however, and in the final session the party opted to remove the last support preserving it, allowing magic and the gods to return to the world. Eventually, anyway, as it will take time for the wall to fail completely.
Anyway, the goal of this session would be to create an coalition of magic-reliant creatures (magical beasts, demons, fey, and dragons, for instance, of all alignments and allegiences joined by a common indignation), all of whom have been starving for centuries in the weak magic field left after the wall was erected. Finally able to revive themselves, a large number of these creatures direct their ire at a city the party is friendly with. The result is a very large battle where the city's defenders and the party's allies take on the small stuff while the party and some of the more elite allies take on the bigger threats in the fight.
The party consists of an air-elemental sorceress, a paladin, and a druid, all of which are human and level 12, as well as possibly up to 4 one-shot characters of up to level 10. The main three characters aren't particularly optimized yet have been able to take on things significantly above their level with minimal difficulty (including a froghemoth back when they were level 10). The druid has an unused magical staff with the reincarnate spell, so death has the potential to be more amusing than tragic.
Any suggestions on how I can balance this fight to be truly fun and appropriately epic? I don't really want to just open the beastiary and just throw everything with a CR of 10-16 at them, but I'm not entirely sure how to arrange it to make it a finale to remember.