About DM'ing

[felhanded]

a group of friends and i decided to start playing d&d with me as the DM.

As we are all new to RP it would be really great if you guys could give me some tips and pointers that are good to have as new DM

one particular thing that confuses me is challange rating - i want to create an encounter where my the players (there is 5 of them) have to escort a caravan along with some other guards, but the guards betray to pc's and so battle begins. I chose the guards as the npc class warrior, but im unsure of how many guards i will need for a group of 5 level 1 characters

Hope you can help me :)

[only1doug]

Could I recommend that you start with pre-written adventure scenarios (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20030530b&page=1)?

they have all the work done for you in advance, it will give you a chance to get a feel for running the game without haveing to worry about plot and balance at first.



Dark and Stormy Knight is an ideal initial adventure for a new group.

Edit: added Hyperlink to free adventures

[Lord Il Palazzo]

According to the SRD (Improving monsters (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/improvingMonsters.htm)):

Nonassociated Class Levels
If you add a class level that doesn’t directly play to a creature’s strength the class level is considered nonassociated, and things get a little more complicated. Adding a nonassociated class level to a monster increases its CR by ½ per level until one of its nonassociated class levels equals its original Hit Dice. At that point, each additional level of the same class or a similar one is considered associated and increases the monster’s CR by 1.

Levels in NPC classes are always treated as nonassociated.
If I read this right, taking a baseline human (1 HD) and adding 1 level of an NPC class (like warrior) would give a CR of 1/2 because the number of levels isn't yet greater than the original HD. (Warrior level 2 should give 1 CR and everything above that should have CR equal to its warrior levels minus 1.)

Once you have that, the Encounter Calculator (found here (http://www.d20srd.org/extras/d20encountercalculator/)). This is just a bit wonky, however, as the calculator seems to think a party of 5 level 1 PCs would have a "very difficult" fight with 3 CR 1/2 warriors. Bear in mind that CR is just a guideline and a loose one at that; a level 10 monk and a level 10 wizard are both CR 10, but the wizard is going to put up a much better fight, especially against multiple opponents.

I'll echo only1doug to suggest using pre-written adventures for a few sessions to get your feet under you and see how well the party does with different types of fights. I started my current (and first) campaign with A Dark and Stormy Knight to introduce the PCs to one another and then ran The Burning Plague to challenge them a little bit more before I started coming up with my own scenarios and encounters. It worked well and with a little creativity you can come up with a segue to connect the pre-written modules to an overarching story of your own. (For me, the PCs killed the evil cleric boss of The Burning Plague, but the plague didn't go away, so they had to go questing for a cure and so on and so forth.)

[Urpriest]

One thing you absolutely need to do is read my Monster Guide, link in sig. It's got a section that covers Encounter Level, which is your tool for figuring out how many foes of what CR to pit against your PCs.

[felhanded]

According to the SRD (Improving monsters (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/improvingMonsters.htm)):

If I read this right, taking a baseline human (1 HD) and adding 1 level of an NPC class (like warrior) would give a CR of 1/2 because the number of levels isn't yet greater than the original HD. (Warrior level 2 should give 1 CR and everything above that should have CR equal to its warrior levels minus 1.)

Once you have that, the Encounter Calculator (found here (http://www.d20srd.org/extras/d20encountercalculator/)). This is just a bit wonky, however, as the calculator seems to think a party of 5 level 1 PCs would have a "very difficult" fight with 3 CR 1/2 warriors. Bear in mind that CR is just a guideline and a loose one at that; a level 10 monk and a level 10 wizard are both CR 10, but the wizard is going to put up a much better fight, especially against multiple opponents.

I'll echo only1doug to suggest using pre-written adventures for a few sessions to get your feet under you and see how well the party does with different types of fights. I started my current (and first) campaign with A Dark and Stormy Knight to introduce the PCs to one another and then ran The Burning Plague to challenge them a little bit more before I started coming up with my own scenarios and encounters. It worked well and with a little creativity you can come up with a segue to connect the pre-written modules to an overarching story of your own. (For me, the PCs killed the evil cleric boss of The Burning Plague, but the plague didn't go away, so they had to go questing for a cure and so on and so forth.)

will check out a dark and stormy knight, planned on using The burning plague too, but thx for all the tips ;)

[Lord Il Palazzo]

will check out a dark and stormy knight, planned on using The burning plague too, but thx for all the tips ;)The Burning Plague is the better adventure as it has an actual story and gives a few good opportunities for roleplaying. What I like about A Dark and Stormy Knight is the fact that it gives a good reason to get a bunch of adventurers together and gives a variety of decent encounters to get players used to the system, their characters and so forth. (Also, it includes the Belt of Lifting, a magic item so bad it's become a running gag in my group.)

[only1doug]

I've run 2 different groups of players with enormously different play experience through dark and stormy followed by burning plague, had no complaints from any of them.

[nedz]

According to the SRD (Improving monsters (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/improvingMonsters.htm)):

If I read this right, taking a baseline human (1 HD) and adding 1 level of an NPC class (like warrior) would give a CR of 1/2 because the number of levels isn't yet greater than the original HD. (Warrior level 2 should give 1 CR and everything above that should have CR equal to its warrior levels minus 1.)


I think you have arrived at the right answer here, but your logic confuses me :smallconfused:
Normally you would just create a Level 1 Warrior with a Race of Human, there is no base Human HD. The PH covers this pretty well.

[Lord Il Palazzo]

I thought I remembered reading that all creatures are treated as having 1 HD before you start adding class levels but I could be wrong. Either way, NPC class level minus 1 works, even if I derive it funny.

[yougi]

Well if you go on Paizo's website, they have many PDF modules free to download. And while it's Pathfinder, and as such the enemies will be a bit harder, a party of 5 balances it out quite nicely.

To the Warrior thing, a Warrior's CR is level - 1, and 1/2 at Lv1, in the case of humans and the such.