I'm finally DMing a campaign! Uh-oh, please help me!

[ddude987]

My players, you know who you are, please stay out!

Hello everyone! I am finally starting a campaign that I dm in. I have DMed a few other campaigns, but most died quickly or were one shots. I am playing 3.5 in a camapaign setting I have been working on for a little over a year (see sig). It will be an e8 campaign, and starting level is 3. The players are not starting with any magic gear.

The party is currently, a pixie (statted as a forest gnome) barbarian (unarmed), a human swordsage (unarmed), a human monk (throwing dagger person), and a warforged fighter (sword and board).

For the first session, the players start as working for an archaeologists guild. They have two jobs they can select from, one leads them to a dungeon, and one leads them to more of a puzzle based place. So, with that said, a few questions:

1. I'm not using WPL as most items are custom made, and WPL is just more numbers to keep track of, and we are more focused on roleplaying. What would be a decent amount of gold/gems/art to give then, since they will need to buy supplies and whatnot, and about what is the powerlevel of magic items they should be allowed, assuming they each get 1 at the end of the job?

2. Any good websites, books, etc. you use for riddles? How about ingame puzzles?

3. The party does not have a dedicated caster, will this be a problem?

4. For designing encounters, suggestions? Guides? any information is helpful.

Thank you so much!

[Zweisteine]

DMing guide (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76474)!

Not using the wealth tables won't save you much math at character creation. All it means is that they can buy their starting gear without you having to worry about them having too much or too little. You can hand out loot during the adventure as you see fit, or a the DM (or better, the MIC) says.
How will you be handing out wealth during the adventure? Will you be rolling random loot, or just handing out money?

At level three, you could probably let your players just grab whatever mundane equipment they need, as long as they can be reasonable about it (and you tell them that they can't have the absurdly expensive things like a spyglass).
If they're more combat-based classes, they should all have at least masterwork gear, if they can't start with +1 weapons or armor.


Not having a dedicated caster could be bad, but only if you make it so. The biggest problem might be a lack of healing, which can be solved by making sure they have at least one character with Use Magic Device and a wand of cure light wounds and/or lesser vigor. Healing belts are good, too.

I can't help you with riddles much, though I can say that it may depend heavily on how your players think. Some riddles won't work on people more inclined to think about answering the question than about the wording of the question itself, for example.

[ddude987]

Well that guide was quite a read, but extremely helpful. Thanks.

[lumberingmenace]

You can simply google the word "riddles" and numerous websites will pop up with tons of riddles and their answers. Word of advice on riddles if you cant answer it, dont use it. If you do have an alternate means of success that may be more dangerous if a wrong answer is given. I use incentives like bonus treasure or xp for a correct answer. This avoids the problem of players not caring about getting the answer right yet, they dont get too hesitant to answer either. Playing without castes is actually fun because the players have to actually think their way through challenges. Spellcasters reach a certain level and they have the perfect spell for just about everything, talk about boring. Spellcasters in return make great npcs on the other hand to fill a niche when needed or to serve as a great foe. I find limiting spellcasters' spell access to be helpful if they are filling in as a temporary ally when needed. This ensures the npc doesnt step on your players' toes.