1st time DM looking for prefabs and help

[snailgosh]

Hello fellow playgrounders :smallsmile:

I will be DMing for the first time soon, for a fairly inexperienced group, and decided to stick to prefab adventures for the time being.
My campaign shall revolve around the players discovering and thwarting plans to summon Tiamat to the prime material.

I already decided to start with Scourge of the Howling Horde and to include The Red Hand of Doom later.

What other adventures do you know of, that would fit right in? And how can I sew them together plotwise?


We will start at level 1 and propably won't optimize much, but that shouldnt be much of a problem figuring most prefabs seem to be designed for a low power level, right?

The party so far consists of a Dragonborn Orc Favored Soul gish with Mind Aspect trying to utilize poisons
and a Wood Elf that will prestige into Dragon Disciple and will be a Tripper build
there will be a Cleric rolled

so far noone showed interest in rolling a Trapfinding class, should I gently nudge one of the newcomers into that direction? Or rather nerf the Traps in the prefabs if noone can find them?

thanks in advance :)

[Nibbens]

Hello fellow playgrounders :smallsmile:

I will be DMing for the first time soon, for a fairly inexperienced group, and decided to stick to prefab adventures for the time being.
My campaign shall revolve around the players discovering and thwarting plans to summon Tiamat to the prime material.

I already decided to start with Scourge of the Howling Horde and to include The Red Hand of Doom later.

What other adventures do you know of, that would fit right in? And how can I sew them together plotwise?


We will start at level 1 and propably won't optimize much, but that shouldnt be much of a problem figuring most prefabs seem to be designed for a low power level, right?

The party so far consists of a Dragonborn Orc Favored Soul gish with Mind Aspect trying to utilize poisons
and a Wood Elf that will prestige into Dragon Disciple and will be a Tripper build
there will be a Cleric rolled

so far noone showed interest in rolling a Trapfinding class, should I gently nudge one of the newcomers into that direction? Or rather nerf the Traps in the prefabs if noone can find them?

thanks in advance :)

Nah, if these are inexperienced players then they need to be hit by a few traps. lol. Anyone can spot traps with a perception check and anyone can try to dismantle it. Just make sure to describe how a mundane trap works so that the players can try to creatively dismantle it (Piling dead goblin bodies over a spike trap so you can cross it, for example). Explain, in game that "X skill" can dismantle the trap and eventually players will learn for themselves who is best at disarming them. They can alter their characters when they level to fit that play style in.

[snailgosh]

Nah, if these are inexperienced players then they need to be hit by a few traps. lol. Anyone can spot traps with a perception check and anyone can try to dismantle it.
That's what I meant by 'nerfing the traps'. Unless you have the Trapfinding class feature, you are restricted to finding and disabling traps with a DC of 20 and below. So I could nerf the traps DCs to ensure theyre not unfindable. If a dwarf is rolled I could also make sure the traps are built into stone, or show the party's cleric the Find Traps spell.

I could also implement a skill trick emulating the Trapfinding class feature, or would that be too strong?

[Nibbens]

That's what I meant by 'nerfing the traps'. Unless you have the Trapfinding class feature, you are restricted to finding and disabling traps with a DC of 20 and below. So I could nerf the traps DCs to ensure theyre not unfindable. If a dwarf is rolled I could also make sure the traps are built into stone, or show the party's cleric the Find Traps spell.

I could also implement a skill trick emulating the Trapfinding class feature, or would that be too strong?

I'd say leave the game as is (with the exception of "maybe" nerfing the traps. OR maybe just using traps with only a DC of less than 20). Or create custom traps: Maybe a pressure plate that causes feces to explode upward - no damage, but a chance for filth fever disease - Something like that. (Thematically, goblins would be more likely to use this kind of trap, i think)

In not...

Clerics can access all their spells at the start of each day, so he can prepare different ones if they wait it out. So yeah, i'd say showing/mentioning the spell in advance, just so he knows about it.

All in all, you said this is a new group, so don't get too "rule lawyer-y" on them. Just go with it and have fun. Say yes to nearly everything their characters try to do - but always make them roll for it, so they know that the game only limits them, not 'stupid' rules. lol. If this group has played a few times, maybe still follow this advice just because. lol.

[snailgosh]

Thanks for your insight :)

Really hard for me not to be rules-lawyering though, don't want to have learned them for nought, I guess ^^'
True, letting people go with whatever crazy idea they might invent is always the best recipe for fun, it just has to be incorporated into the rules properly.

[Darrin]

That's what I meant by 'nerfing the traps'. Unless you have the Trapfinding class feature, you are restricted to finding and disabling traps with a DC of 20 and below. So I could nerf the traps DCs to ensure theyre not unfindable. If a dwarf is rolled I could also make sure the traps are built into stone, or show the party's cleric the Find Traps spell.

I could also implement a skill trick emulating the Trapfinding class feature, or would that be too strong?

This may be a bit heavy on theory to throw at a new DM, but I think it's important to understand that the way traps are presented in the DMG is somewhat dysfunctional from the standpoint of what kind of experience you're trying to evoke from the game.

Required reading: Bad Trap Syndrome (http://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/90/bad-trap-syndrome/). Also, Part 2 (http://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/91/bad-trap-syndrome-curing-the-bad-trap-blues/).

In a nutshell: Don't make the PCs "search for traps". Make them obvious to spot. The most interesting part of the trap is watching the party interact with the trap to try and circumvent it. Otherwise, you're just inflicting an arbitrary "HP Tax" on the PCs.

From a game design standpoint, the trap rules are supposed to carve out a "protected role" for the party rogue, to make sure there's something the rogue is specialized for and only he gets to do it really well. In practice... it leads to bloodyminded tedious rolls that don't add any excitement or dramatic tension to the game. In your case, you don't have any rogues in the party, so I'd consider just chucking the search/disable mechanics entirely and do it "old school": the non-rogue PCs poke it with a stick until they figure out how to disable it or go around it. Yes, this means that someone may bring a rogue into the game later and *gasp* OMG their special "get rid of traps!" role is gone, but again, from a practical standpoint, 1) the mechanics are still tedious and 2) the specialized "trapfinder" role is probably unnecessary to begin with.

[snailgosh]

Thank you for your links, Darrin.

The idea of hinting at the trap in the room description I read to the players really appeals to me. Rewards listening and thinking.
And I don't have to deal with the party advancing mere 5ft at a time searching for traps...