Legoman
2007-02-06, 12:43 PM
I'm starting a campaign that's basically aimed to play with the psyche's of my roomates and friends. We're used to high-power, monty haul type campaigns, which, with a bunch of new players, is fine.
I wanted to give them the feeling of actually being able to do a lot of things, feeling like they're hella powerful, when in actuality, they're all pretty much at the whims of whatever cosmic evil dwells. Eventually, It'll snowball into a full-fledged horror campaign. So, I went with a gestalt, 25 point buy. I figured some of the newbies would suffer from MAD, but generally have powerful enough combinations to stay useful.
Now, I mentioned to them that it's starting off in a massive metropolis. Their
choices for classes?
Ranger / Rogue.
Warblade / Rogue.
Druid / Rogue.
Swordsage / Rogue.
Bard / Rogue.
Right. So, we have maybe 2-3 healing spells a day, no serious arcane to speak of, and the druid's ultimate plan is to be a vermin lord from the BOVD.
So, my questions are three-fold:
1) What do I throw at these guys that gives them a run for their money, but doesn't feel like they're being gimped? (Undead would be a slap in the face, for instance. Doesn't mean they won't have their fair share of vampires eventually, though.)
2) How do I keep the ToB characters from dominating the game? They're the two newest characters, so I gave them the info on ToB to get them hooked, and the bard, for instance, isn't worried so much about combat as about getting a legion of groupies. I have a feeling that the ranger and the Druid are going to feel horribly, horribly under-classed, though..
3) With this many people sneaking around, should I go ahead and design splinter-cell/Theif type areas, with the blatantly obvious "THIEVES GO HERE" dark, narrow pathways? Or, should I just go ahead and make the buildings as normal, trusting their obscene Hide/MS modifiers to keep them safe?
I wanted to give them the feeling of actually being able to do a lot of things, feeling like they're hella powerful, when in actuality, they're all pretty much at the whims of whatever cosmic evil dwells. Eventually, It'll snowball into a full-fledged horror campaign. So, I went with a gestalt, 25 point buy. I figured some of the newbies would suffer from MAD, but generally have powerful enough combinations to stay useful.
Now, I mentioned to them that it's starting off in a massive metropolis. Their
choices for classes?
Ranger / Rogue.
Warblade / Rogue.
Druid / Rogue.
Swordsage / Rogue.
Bard / Rogue.
Right. So, we have maybe 2-3 healing spells a day, no serious arcane to speak of, and the druid's ultimate plan is to be a vermin lord from the BOVD.
So, my questions are three-fold:
1) What do I throw at these guys that gives them a run for their money, but doesn't feel like they're being gimped? (Undead would be a slap in the face, for instance. Doesn't mean they won't have their fair share of vampires eventually, though.)
2) How do I keep the ToB characters from dominating the game? They're the two newest characters, so I gave them the info on ToB to get them hooked, and the bard, for instance, isn't worried so much about combat as about getting a legion of groupies. I have a feeling that the ranger and the Druid are going to feel horribly, horribly under-classed, though..
3) With this many people sneaking around, should I go ahead and design splinter-cell/Theif type areas, with the blatantly obvious "THIEVES GO HERE" dark, narrow pathways? Or, should I just go ahead and make the buildings as normal, trusting their obscene Hide/MS modifiers to keep them safe?