pitched battle for 1st level players.

[commander panda]

ok, so as it says above i need help with an opening battle sequence for 1st level characters, and this being my first time DMing i have no idea how to calculate what would be an appropriate challenge. the situation is that a town is being attacked by... something... and the PCs are fending them off.

the battle (and the campaign) will start In medias res. it needs to be big enough to not seem like something the townspeople could handle on their own, but small enough that the PCs don't get slaughtered instantly.

the party is: one druid, a cleric, a ranger, a sorcerer, a wizard, a rouge, and a fighter.

help?

edit: bear in mind that about half of this party is unfamiliar with D&D and will be learning on the fly, so the fewer complex special attacks the better.
also, the druid guy managed to convince a mutual friend to help him make a half dragon (and allegedly large) character. should i allow this, or will he break all the encounters?

[Zero grim]

For level 1 characters I find that a slightly angry hill can be a pitched battle, or maybe a small kitten or other such deadly deadly force.

On a serious note something close to an Ogre would be a hard fight for townsfolk and would require a hard fight from the players, maybe have an NPC or two stand and fight with them and take the first few hits to show how strong the ogre is perhaps. (since a hit from the ogre will likely kill the players in one hit)

For level one characters a Large Half Dragon Druid will outshine everyone by a mile, for new players stick to Players handbook races and allow templates and monster races once everyone is more settled into things.

[John Longarrow]

For a big feeling fight that should be fairly easy for the players, use commoner goblins. They have 1d4 for HP, no BAB, and are only proficient in one weapon. Give them padded armor, a small shield, and a short spear. This gives you a lot of "One hit and they are down (2HP)" easy (AC 13) enemies that don't have much of a chance to hit individually but that would be a real threat to lighly armored townsfolk.

Add in a few warrior goblins and maybe even a 2 or 3 HD goblin warlord.

The cleric and fighter will easily be able to form a front line to fight with the ranger shooting over them. The druid can get off a couple good area spells (entagle) to help stop most of the attackers.

The wizard and sorcerer will either be stuck shooting ranged weapons (though still able to contribute) or they will be really tempted to use their spells early. If possible, make sure they understand they should hold back their few spells until something important shows up (goblin warlord) so they start getting into the resource management mindset spell casters need.

As a DM, I'd have the party only need to face some of these goblins. Most of them would be dealt with by the town militia. From the players perspective you just need to describe the fighting going on around them while they concentrate on their piece of it. Once the warlord shows up they get to face their first big bad guy.

[John Longarrow]

Specific to the large half dragon....
1) How is it large?
2) Have you read about level adjustment? 1/2 dragon is a +3 level adjustment in itself. Especially at low levels this can cause problems. I'd recommend you take a very close look at the character (or post it here) so we can give you a good idea what it is really capable of. From a quick guess it should be the equivolent of a 5th level character (+3 for 1/2 dragon, +1 for what ever template is making it large).

[Asrrin]

goblins and kobolds are 1/2 CR each. a party of 6 unoptimized players is about worth 1.5 CR. If the PCs were prepared to expend all resources on a hard battle, you can pump that CR up to 4.5. so you are looking at 8-10 goblin or kobold warriors. That would be a small raiding party.

If you want a big pitched battle, I would recommend having an army of a hundred or so kobolds attacking the city gates with city guard and militia defending it. ranged characters could maybe pick off a few, melee can prevent ladders from coming up the battlements, and you can throw a few of the critters at them at a time to keep "encounter" CR low enough for 1st levels.

Or alternatively, the Militia is doing the defending, and the party must intercept the small raiding party and preventing them from blowing a hole in the wall or opening a gate.

[Fax Celestis]

1HD Skeletons (humanoid skeletons, basically) are 1/3 CR. You can toss 12-15 of those suckers at a party that size and have it be sort of a threat. Your rogue will probably lament not being able to use sneak attack, but you'll get a good crash-course in combat, damage reduction, types, resistances, and immunities. Your cleric will probably try to take a bunch out with turn undead, so you might want to spread them out so they don't all get blasted with one turning.

Similarly, cats are CR 1/4, dogs are CR 1/3, hawks are CR 1/3, tiny monstrous centipedes (d'aww) are CR 1/8...so maybe if there's some thing making the animals crazy (rabies outbreak! All y'all make saves for disease!) that could work.

[commander panda]

this is great, thanks :smallbiggrin:. i think i'l go with the goblin commoners and leave some pre-killed corpses around the field to lend some size.

[magwaaf]

Specific to the large half dragon....
1) How is it large?
2) Have you read about level adjustment? 1/2 dragon is a +3 level adjustment in itself. Especially at low levels this can cause problems. I'd recommend you take a very close look at the character (or post it here) so we can give you a good idea what it is really capable of. From a quick guess it should be the equivolent of a 5th level character (+3 for 1/2 dragon, +1 for what ever template is making it large).

it's large because the dm said so. rules be damned... the books are just guides to be tooled around with


1HD Skeletons (humanoid skeletons, basically) are 1/3 CR. You can toss 12-15 of those suckers at a party that size and have it be sort of a threat. Your rogue will probably lament not being able to use sneak attack, but you'll get a good crash-course in combat, damage reduction, types, resistances, and immunities. Your cleric will probably try to take a bunch out with turn undead, so you might want to spread them out so they don't all get blasted with one turning.

Similarly, cats are CR 1/4, dogs are CR 1/3, hawks are CR 1/3, tiny monstrous centipedes (d'aww) are CR 1/8...so maybe if there's some thing making the animals crazy (rabies outbreak! All y'all make saves for disease!) that could work.

make the game pf and rogues won't feel combat useless!

[John Longarrow]

it's large because the dm said so. rules be damned... the books are just guides to be tooled around with

Odd, if the DM had said so, why is the DM unsure how the 1/2 dragon is large?

[russdm]

The large half-dragon druid is beyond the party's level. Its at least +3 for the half-dragon for effective character level and with one level of druid, the character is now essentially a 4th level PC. The druid will get wings if large, a bite attack, 2 claw attacks, a breath weapon of a kind relating to the dragon side, immunity to energy based on dragon side, bonuses to stats (+8Str, +2Con, +2Int, +2Cha), +4 Natural Armor, and some skills, plus immunity to sleep/paralysis, lowlight and darkvision 60ft.

The druid is getting a whole lot of benefits here, and its level one. That's completely game destroying. Until the party reaches level 4, the other PCs won't be able to keep up with this PC at all. And nearly every special thing requires significant investment for the other PCs to get, which the druid will have free.

Plus, only large size creatures get wings, so the PC has to be of a race that is already large because the template does not increase size. So that would be half-ogre/ogre, maybe half-giant or goliaths. Nothing else in game count as being large before applying the template.

Also, the druid only gets level 2 after earning enough xp to make 5th level, since the druid is being counted as being level 4, not 1. The druid could spend xp to do LA buyoffs, I suppose.

But, hey, if you want to break game outright, more power to you.

[JusticeZero]

First level isn't really "hard fight" territory so much as "tutorial mission" territory. use Small monsters that attack with weapons that do 1d4, and use a number of them in a large area with lots of rocks and trees and whatnot to use for cover/concealment/awesome strategic coups.

[Kol Korran]

I suggest that instead of one big encounter, do a few smaller encounters, that just FEEL liek a part of a larger battle:
1) The town gets attacked at night (goblins is a good idea, better for beginners than skeletons I'd think, though I'd still think regular goblins are better) The party are in a tavern, some goblins break inside. First encoutner is simple of fighting a few goblins there.(Have there be a party and most patrons are too drunk to be that effective.) Then have some town person come in, yelling about 2-3 places that are attacked. The party chooses where to go next (Perhaps a small temple, or the local equipment store, or the mayor's mansion). This introduces the party to making important choices. Each choice may affect things later (like a favor, boon or reward from the places).

2) next fight may be a bit more difficult. Here is a good trick I've learned: If it's really simple, then you can upgrade by reinforcements. If it's too tough, then some goblins may run away to call for such reinforcements, which also puts an added pressure. This fight should be tougher, but not much, with maybe an added complication (Like cover, ranged combat or maybe a new enemy- a wolf or fire throwing goblins?)

3) Lastly, a call goes out for anyone to help battling some foe. This is the "big boss" (The warlord mentioned earlier in the thread for example), which the party then faces, and become heroes, with all goblins fleeing after their leader is cut off.

Have potential help come about, like a priest with cure spells, or maybe some militia and such. Nothing serious, just to show they are not alone in this. (But leave them well alone against the big boss, of which all are afraid)

good luck!

[commander panda]

on the half dragon point, we agreed that he would wait till at least fourth level then make a new character (i'll probably make him wait longer though, an no large size.) so there's no problem there.
actually, would a warforged be broken? i know its LA+0 but iv heard people say that it has the stats for LA+1. i'm considering it because a transforming robot character sounds awesome and i don't think it's broken, but i could easily be wrong.

and the battle doesn't need to be huge, really (i mean, most of my party are spell casters, so a long battle at 1st level would just annoy them for their limited number of spells.) i was thinking more of a bandit raid.



I suggest that instead of one big encounter, do a few smaller encounters, that just FEEL liek a part of a larger battle
i think i'll go with this, and use commoner/warrior goblins plus a boss or two.

again, thank you. feeling much more confident about this.

[danzibr]

on the half dragon point, we agreed that he would wait till at least fourth level then make a new character (i'll probably make him wait longer though, an no large size.) so there's no problem there.
actually, would a warforged be broken? i know its LA+0 but iv heard people say that it has the stats for LA+1. i'm considering it because a transforming robot character sounds awesome and i don't think it's broken, but i could easily be wrong.

and the battle doesn't need to be huge, really (i mean, most of my party are spell casters, so a long battle at 1st level would just annoy them for their limited number of spells.) i was thinking more of a bandit raid.



i think i'll go with this, and use commoner/warrior goblins plus a boss or two.

again, thank you. feeling much more confident about this.
Warforged is a good LA +0 race. The best thing is their ton of immunities, though they get lots of options.

However, if this is the first time playing D&D for a lot of the players, it might be best to stick with SRD. Or even just core.

Although Half-Dragon is uber broken now, it's not worth the +3 LA. A level 4 Druid is way better than a level 1 Half-Dragon Druid.

[commander panda]

good to know, i'll bring it up with him.

[Psyren]

The GM's Guide to Creating Challenging Encounters (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nx-o8VAjhUwh3nnfzDQT-JA5eFLnN_BZJiBitGjBMDg/edit)

[sabelo2000]

I find a good strategy for any pitched battle, is to send enemies at your PCs in bite-size groups rather than have them engage the entire horde of baddies.

For instance, if you're fighting kobolds, have them engage "parties" of 3-4 basic kobolds led by a 2-3HD taskmaster. Rinse, repeat until the pitched battle is completed.

Much the same thing applies with Undead (3-4 skeletons led by a 1HD Cleric) and nearly any other monster you can imagine.

This has two benefits: first, it prevents the combat from deteriorating into a never-ending slogfest; and second, it allows you to gauge your party's progress and scale the encounters up or down as needed. Have them engage enemy parties until they've expended a certain percentage of resources: then, either (A) the battle is won, or (B) they fight the BBEG.

[Glimbur]

I like nonlethal damage for introductory battles. Maybe the goblins are slavers wielding saps. If the fight is going very nicely for the PC's, and they are picking things up quickly, throw in some nets. This starts to teach them about debuffs (entangle) and sticks with the slaver theme.

The benefit to nonlethal is even if the PC's lose they don't die. Some poster around here talks about having consequences for failure apart from death and game end, and that's nice to have sometimes.