Designing a dungeon for a level 1 sorcerer and her npc paladin escort of equal level?

[MonkeySage]

I am running a 1 on 1 side campaign for a friend of mine, and have given them access to an npc paladin to improve their chances of survival. They control the npc's actions while exploring and fighting, to some extent.

In any case, I intend to make a dungeon for her(Surene), and the idea is that: She hasn't quite gotten a handle of her powers, she has no idea what she is yet. She's pretty much a child, an 18 year old half elf. She went to look for someone who might be able to teach her about her abilities. This person, Seth, is going to send Surene to a Yuan-ti ruin that was helpful to Seth herself. My idea is that, in addition to being haunted, the ruin has been taken over by a small group of kobolds(Seth doesn't know about the kobolds). There are portions of the ruin that Seth never explored, as she was 9 years old at the time.


Sorry for the jumbled mess, but before I went on to design this dungeon, I wanted to get some ideas.

Both Surene and her escort are level 1.
In terms of environment, they are currently set in a temperate desert.

[Jack_Simth]

Well, they probably can't find traps, so you probably want to avoid those, for the most part. Perhaps the kobolds have only recently begun moving in, and haven't fully set up shop yet; they've got a number of scouts in the area checking it's suitability, say.

1st level characters are squishy; the party doesn't sound like it has a source of actual healing, so I'd suggest playing the kobolds stupid, and making sure most of them have something along the lines of a potion of Cure Light Wounds... and make sure to drop a few other 'potions' in, that aren't so grand (trap materials - Acid flasks, Alchemist's Fire, small centipede poison, black adder venom, and the like; things a Kobold would reasonably be carrying to set up traps and ambushes) to make sure she doesn't just blindly drink things. The kobolds should probably be encountered no more than a small handful at a time, and should probably have NPC class levels (Warrior, Expert, Adept) rather than PC class levels. 1st level characters are squishy, and it's VERY easy to accidentally kill someone. As these are ruins, doors should probably already be pretty much bashed down or rotted out at this point.

[Ruethgar]

It depends heavily on the optimization of the sorceress, though obviously limited by being a half elf. The paladin is kind of eh, would it be too much trouble to change it to a crusader? Has she taken any ACF and are you going by the book on what spells she can learn as a sorceress(aka any she's familiar with which in turn leads to extensive and multiclass rich backstory for tasty shenanigans) or do you go by the sorcerer list only?

Of course I agree with the above that if the kobolds are enemies, you need to play them stupid. If they aren't enemies, they might be able to recognize and respect draconic decent from which sorcery is often derived and try to help.

[MonkeySage]

So a bit more for more ideas, but so far awesome ideas :).

So far he's gone by the core rulebook for her spells. They are Detect Magic, Prestidigitation, Light, and Ray of Frost for cantrips, Sleep and Charm Person for 1st level spells. She also has venomous fangs, thanks to serpentine bloodline. Seth has given her a few smokesticks.


The paladin's class choice was intentional, but is also something I intend to take careful watch over so that my player doesn't abuse control over an npc. He'll only escort some of the time, he has his own stuff to take care of.