[3.PF] Yet another "DM who needs help" Thread...

[Krazzman]

Hello again Playground,

I volunteered to DM for our Group. I already have run a campaign but that was more or less... catastrophic but fun.

Now I have thought about an "Arctic" Setting in North-West Rashemen. For those not familiar with this, it's located in North East of Toril (Forgotten Realms). I DM for my GF, and another couple. So far they decided to be a Witch (PF), an Arctic Elf Ranger/Scout (not the PF rogue archetype, the 3.5 version slightly updated) and probably a Barbarian (PF).

They will start on level 3 with 25 pt Point-buy.

I've got a safety copy of Frostburn on my PC so I can draw some things from there.

Now I have 3 point's I need advice for:

1 Encounter (and Loot) Design
Most DM's have gotten the advice to not "over-wealth" their players. This comes along to Encounter Design in my opinion. My players start with 3k Gold each.

For the start I wanted them to fight some Magical Beasts, White Dragon Kobolds or similar and Undead. So I would like if you could tell me some good combinations of what monsters I should take so that this is going to be a not too easy fight.
From the story aspect:
I wanted the Kobolds to "attack" their tribe and steal the price of the Tribal Tournament (or the a so called initiation ritual). A Strength test, an accuracy Test and I am still missing something for the witch.

Depending on how long they need in the Koboldian Lair, they either see their tribe under "siege" from some minor ice and snow elementals or come back to a quite damaged one.

2 How to write down certain things

This one is more for how to keep track of the interior of dungeons or the descriptive texts of things. Should I cover things with short notes? Or more or less full sentences?

3 Dungeon Design...
The Dungeon Design is a bit... risky. I don't want it to be boring, nor short. An ice cave, home for those white dragon kobolds.
And with a few Traps, but never really designed a dungeon nor traps, i could need advice for such.


I hope you can help me, especially with 1 and 3 as I want to make a fun session and don't tack it with cloggy combats/boring dungeoneering...

[Kol Korran]

1) first, what exactly do you mean by "white dragon kobolds"? just kobolds worshiping a white dragon totem/ spirit/ ideal or kobolds with templates? half dragons? something else?

some ideas for various magical beasts:
1) "Ice maker": basically a refluffed rust monster, that can climb ice walls, who's antenae don't turn equipment to rust, but instead inflict cold damage on a character, and perhaps dex damage as the character begins to freeze. if it reaches 0 dex, it is frozen over. you can thaw a character (and regain their dex fast) by warming them up. the village might even provide some "quick heating packages".

the monsters might be ridden by kobolds with nets, alchemical items, or just simple long spears/ slings.

2) at the end or near it you can have a baby remorhaz. use the stats for an ankheg, but instead of spit give it a lesser version of the heat power. the kobolds might try and raise it because they think it's some sort of dragon, or they might know well what it is, and think of using it for the trib'e benefit, later on.

if this is a climactic encounter, i suggest to put maybe a kobold shaman here, maybe 1-4 kobolds as guards?

3) furry savage Krenshars: i suggest to have these mostly at the entrance, as sort of guard dogs. (if the party engage them they howl and let the kobolds be prepared) and possibly on your quick response team (divinde and conquer)

4) hell freezes over hound: like a hell hound, only cold instead of fire. possibly the mount of the kobold chieftain.

Loot will depend on how much XP you plan on them gaining here. thoughts?

possible undead:
1) skeleton in a trap.
2) perhaps a low power ghost (former betrayed chieftain? previous adventurer? some plot important NPC?) whi might haggle or might fight for a secret or loot.
3) heavy ice covered zombies. the ice is so tough it hampers the zombies some more, but acts as armor (or DR?) when hit the ice splinters, possibly causing damage to adjacent targets (reflex to negate).

works best in a trap with limited space.

2) what to write? all dependent on you. some thoughts:
- in some file/ page keep the general statistics of the dungeon- height of ceilings, toughness of doors and so on. this helps you react quickly to player shenanigens.

- i keep on a separate file all the non combat info of the rooms of the dungeon. Skills DCs (in BOLD for easy reference, major features and the like. i don't write descriptive texts since my players loose interest the moment i start to read to them. instead now what's in the rooms, and play it.

- last file i keep the combat stats and so on. make it easier and simple for you. don't just outright copy the monster's entry, organize it so i'ts user friendly. especially abilities. if special rules are used (gaze for example) check these out, and make yourself a mention of them summerized.

- i also make a LOOT AND XP table- it lists the possible XP gained (i don't use the default method, but i guess you can write per encounter) and the different loot in all the places.

3) dungeon design
this is a tough one, i rarely design dungeons myself. first of all you need to decide in how many "adventure days" is the party supposed to take this? second- how much XP do you plan on them getting? the answers to these two will help you get an estimate as to how many encounters approximately.

secondly- think of the few major "set pieces" of your dungeon- the opening ambush, the deadly trap, the great hall, the caves of dread, the chief's cave and so on. plan these a bit more, and calculate the XP you "used" for these. you probably have a general view of the dungeon, place the major pieces approximately to their location.

now "feel in the blanks" by smaller encounters. these might be "on the way" encounters, or not even met by the PCs' encounters. they should have arole though-0 play time is precious, and just killing 8 kobolds is boring. make sure to give each encounter something special to remember it by- a humorous encounter, an interesting twist, a roleplay encounter and so on. use these to give your dungeon more life.

more specific:
- the kobolds might need warm enough water, and possibly a source of food. a small steaming little lake? or stream? a patch of fungus and some small herd animals? (lizards/ huge snails/ pacified milk producing furry stirges?)

- a place where the kobolds bury their dead. possibly some warrior's grave. it might have a trap that leads to some undead (like a sled to a pit with the ice covered zombies for example), or more traditional traps (spikes and poison). you might put some interesting holy relics (not the super powerful ones) here- perhaps some incense that gives visions if you're powerful enough (a 1 time legend lore if you pass a wis check) or some special tribute to the dead (magic oils and the like)

- the great cave of the kobolds: one with ice pillars in it, not all ways are good to pass the cavern, triggering a taglefoot bag attack, and the kobolds response team, who attack the stuck characters from afar, perhaps even bringing the ice makers.

- the room with the nefarious plan: probably in the den of the kobold shaman. here you can spring a nasty surprise, like the remhoraz baby

- chieftain's room and loot. not sure what to make the chieftain, i'd let you decide. favored soul 4 or cleric 3 (of some draconic god) sounds right to me. or warlock? firing on them from the walls, with it's fiendish ice hell dog from beneath?

some nice traps with koblods:
- simple pit trap, but then the ceiling starts to give. the party must get out fast or get crashed for more damage.

- a very, very smooth room. traversing it requires balance or you fall, and slides to a ditch filled with nauseating substance. the kobolds have snow shoes (size small) to avoid this. the room can be filled with various ditches with various substances, even flamable oil.

- the old porticullis at both ends, and murder holes for kobolds to shoot poison darts from (porticullis from hardened ice, can be broken)

hope this helps,
Kol.

[Krazzman]

1) first, what exactly do you mean by "white dragon kobolds"?


White Scaled Kobolds as represented in the Bestiary 1.


some ideas for various magical beasts:
1) "Ice maker": basically a refluffed rust monster, that can climb ice walls, who's antenae don't turn equipment to rust, but instead inflict cold damage on a character, and perhaps dex damage as the character begins to freeze. if it reaches 0 dex, it is frozen over. you can thaw a character (and regain their dex fast) by warming them up. the village might even provide some "quick heating packages".

the monsters might be ridden by kobolds with nets, alchemical items, or just simple long spears/ slings.

I like that one, thanks.


2) at the end or near it you can have a baby remorhaz. use the stats for an ankheg, but instead of spit give it a lesser version of the heat power. the kobolds might try and raise it because they think it's some sort of dragon, or they might know well what it is, and think of using it for the trib'e benefit, later on.

if this is a climactic encounter, i suggest to put maybe a kobold shaman here, maybe 1-4 kobolds as guards?

Is this one in the MM1 or B1 or in another subsequent book?


3) furry savage Krenshars: i suggest to have these mostly at the entrance, as sort of guard dogs. (if the party engage them they howl and let the kobolds be prepared) and possibly on your quick response team (divinde and conquer)

same as the Ankheg, in which book are they?


Loot will depend on how much XP you plan on them gaining here. thoughts?

I thought about at least half a level.


possible undead:
1) skeleton in a trap.
2) perhaps a low power ghost (former betrayed chieftain? previous adventurer? some plot important NPC?) whi might haggle or might fight for a secret or loot.
3) heavy ice covered zombies. the ice is so tough it hampers the zombies some more, but acts as armor (or DR?) when hit the ice splinters, possibly causing damage to adjacent targets (reflex to negate).

works best in a trap with limited space.

That last one is mean... I like it.


- in some file/ page keep the general statistics of the dungeon- height of ceilings, toughness of doors and so on. this helps you react quickly to player shenanigens.

Exactly what I wanted to know.


- i keep on a separate file all the non combat info of the rooms of the dungeon. Skills DCs (in BOLD for easy reference, major features and the like. i don't write descriptive texts since my players loose interest the moment i start to read to them. instead now what's in the rooms, and play it.

- last file i keep the combat stats and so on. make it easier and simple for you. don't just outright copy the monster's entry, organize it so i'ts user friendly. especially abilities. if special rules are used (gaze for example) check these out, and make yourself a mention of them summerized.

As I thought reading = bad.


- i also make a LOOT AND XP table- it lists the possible XP gained (i don't use the default method, but i guess you can write per encounter) and the different loot in all the places.

I wanted to use the Magic Item Compendium for random loot, as they are a pretty thievy bunch of kobolds... and give them exp acording to cr of the encounters + if they got it 500 extra points.


3) dungeon design
[SPOILER]this is a tough one, i rarely design dungeons myself. first of all you need to decide in how many "adventure days" is the party supposed to take this? second- how much XP do you plan on them getting? the answers to these two will help you get an estimate as to how many encounters approximately.

less than 1 day to the dungeon less than 1 day back to the tribe. About 4 Hours in the dungeon (bare minimum, running in grabbing stuff running out).


secondly- think of the few major "set pieces" of your dungeon- the opening ambush, the deadly trap, the great hall, the caves of dread, the chief's cave and so on. plan these a bit more, and calculate the XP you "used" for these. you probably have a general view of the dungeon, place the major pieces approximately to their location.

now "feel in the blanks" by smaller encounters. these might be "on the way" encounters, or not even met by the PCs' encounters. they should have arole though-0 play time is precious, and just killing 8 kobolds is boring. make sure to give each encounter something special to remember it by- a humorous encounter, an interesting twist, a roleplay encounter and so on. use these to give your dungeon more life.

the thing "arole though-0" i didn't get the rest, thanks for mentioning them.


more specific:
*good ideas*

Gonna work some of them into it, thanks.


some nice traps with koblods:
*traps*

I like them, although I probably wont bring the balance one...yet, thanks.


hope this helps,
Kol.

Quite much, thanks.