Help coming up with Adventuring Parties

[Lord.Sorasen]

So, I officially finished my very first session as a dm! It somehow went really well. With a series of lucky rolls, a party of 3 ECL 2 members defeated an owlbear head on (scout/druid, paladin, psychic warrior), and so they were happy with how things went. However, next session they're meeting with 3 more people (Dragonfire Adept, Beguiler, Undecided). So I asked them how they'd like to meet. Eventually the standard "bar" concept came up. And one of my players confides to me that one thing they always wanted to see was a bar fight. Like, the wild kind one sees in westerns, all fists flying all over the place, things breaking everywhere...

So, I'm not sure how to go about this, if I even should! My plan as of current:

1. The party has 6 members. I was thinking of supplying two more teams of 6 and one of 4... I know that's a lot of people on one map.
2. Don't give much space to the individuals. The idea of chaos would be to make things somewhat unavoidable. Giving people cover would be a good idea as well, I figure.
3. Giving these teams something of character gimmicks, I figure would add some flavor to such a thing.


Any ideas? I'm sort of thinking about the sorts of characters they'd run into in such a place. ECL 1-3 but preferably 1, somewhat team oriented, that sort of thing... If it should be done at all.

PS: It's not worth a topic, I don't think, but anyone know the value of an owlbear pelt?

[Kol Korran]

hhmmmm... cool idea. in every battle i prefer to keep 1-3 (top 4) elements for combatants, but i can see how things might go otherwise here. since this is a big battle, i have the following advice:
- try to keep things simple, don't write up an entry for every single one of the combatants.
- have some of the other combatants fight each other, while the group fight some others, if at all possible, arrange it so one or another of the group (the beguiler?) will be able to turn the groups on each other, at least partially.

i have an idea for just one of the group, kind of an icon: The Thugs!
the group consists of 3-5 regular thungs (war 1, perhaps with the ability to sneak attack if flanking), and their leader- a barb/rog (or just barb). they come in either looking for some protection money, or because they are in feud with another group, or maybe they've heard of the party (and that they got treasure!) and decide to "take their share".the battle commences, the thugs all draw simple weapons (daggers? clubs? short swords?) while the leader draws some other MW big weapon, maybe even with a slight magical effect (hillarious more than functional)

another group could be a dwarven merchant and her/his bodyguards (maybe even a warforged that was bought?)

[Naeo]

If it's in a bar, the tables and bar itself could be used as cover.

as for how the battle could come about happening, the thug idea is the simplest, way to start a fight.

you could also go about it with an NPC group that matches the team's level comes into the bar and starts roughing up NPC(s) for bad info that caused them to lose a member in a dungeon (thus leading to your players having the option to go and take the treasure themselves) Perhaps the npc(s) told the group starting the fight that a cave/keep/insert location was empty, and it held treasure, when in fact it is home to creatures that the NPC didn't know about.

Misinformation is a great motivator for someone getting revenge. Normally when a fight starts, mob mentallity takes over and it's fight or flight.

the second group could just be another group of people that are enjoying a brew, and get involved because the initiators of the fight caused them to spill a drink / send gold everywhere that the second team was distributing amongst their members, and they see your team as part of the initiator's team. (in this case, have the two groups[your PCS and the group that starts the fight] enter around the same time.)

[Lord.Sorasen]

- have some of the other combatants fight each other, while the group fight some others, if at all possible, arrange it so one or another of the group (the beguiler?) will be able to turn the groups on each other, at least partially.

I love this idea, actually.


i have an idea for just one of the group, kind of an icon: The Thugs!
the group consists of 3-5 regular thungs (war 1, perhaps with the ability to sneak attack if flanking), and their leader- a barb/rog (or just barb). they come in either looking for some protection money, or because they are in feud with another group, or maybe they've heard of the party (and that they got treasure!) and decide to "take their share".the battle commences, the thugs all draw simple weapons (daggers? clubs? short swords?) while the leader draws some other MW big weapon, maybe even with a slight magical effect (hillarious more than functional)

This should be awesome. Barbarian 1/Rogue 1 seems about right, I think.


the second group could just be another group of people that are enjoying a brew, and get involved because the initiators of the fight caused them to spill a drink / send gold everywhere that the second team was distributing amongst their members, and they see your team as part of the initiator's team. (in this case, have the two groups[your PCS and the group that starts the fight] enter around the same time.)

This could work out really well also! I'm wondering how competent this group should be... Possibly commoners or experts, even?

[Serpentine]

If you're intending to put this much effort into your bar fight (i.e. statting out all/many of the combatants), I suggest making a full game session/side quest/lead-in to a main quest out of it. I could possibly come up with a few side-quest ideas, as could others, but if you have a main quest in mind I'd recommend going with that.

[Kosjsjach]

I like the idea of a barfight with a group of thugs, and I have a suggestion: why not make the thug leader a Thug (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#fighterVariantThug)? Combine it with the Fighter variant (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#fighter) with it and get that sneak attack you were going to get from Rogue.

Some other things to consider: what happens after the fight? Do the local authorities come to break it up? Do you all get thrown in jail and befriend each other that way? Do you leave the scene with them for some time-sensitive reason?

[boomwolf]

Bar fights are for choas, most people in such are NOT in teams, but just fight pretty much anyone who pissed them off even slightly (that being about half the bar, and they probably pissed of the other half at some point. and if someone avoids all that is is bound to piss off or be pissed from the fighting's side effects...)

So instead of making "groups", focus mainly on individuals who are not meant to be any real threat because there is no organization behind them. this allows you to throw in some over-the-chart guys in the mix, because the NPCs are fighting among themselves as well.

So, a list of ideas I got for solo brawlers (or small groups)

A bugbear barbarian. (humi spill grok drink! GRAAAAA!)
A pair of married gnolls. (you touch me woman! die!)
A human paladin of slaughter who just enjoys beating the crap out of people.
A small band of bards consisting a female elf singer, male human lute player and male dwarven drummer.
A mage of some sort with a nasty familiar. (or with the animal companion alternate class feature for a more combat based one.)
A monk who tries to avoid all the madness, but will mop the floor with you if you try a move against him.
A drow who sits in the corner and laughs his ass off, not fighting unless forced to.
A mercenary band that consists of 2 frotliners (fighters), a healer (cleric) and a scout (scout) who all use long-swords and wear matching silly armor suits. (scout got a light version, but its obviously connected.)
A drunk man that keep running into walls or tripping himself when he tries to fight.