Yael
2015-01-27, 02:19 AM
I am about to have a one-shot game of a Dungeon Defender style game, system is 3.X/P, using 3.5 rules. The PCs are CR 4 monsters, they have the option to be CR 4 creatures, advancing creatures per the Savage Species' Monster Classes rules (updated to 3.5), or a monster with class levels (CR depends on which class you take).
They are five players and they want to play weird stuff (like an Efreeti to be... A cleric...? I... Just don't know...), a werewolf gnoll, a chimera cross-breed between a squirrel, a pigeon and a slice of bread... Probably a wererat something and a devil that is basically, HIM from PPG (reduced to CR 4).
So, the theme is that an evil Tome Dragon whose name is Paarthurnax (+1 for the reference, but this is the opposite) is plotting against his old city, inside a cave he burrowed over time. He built his library and to protect it, he just knocked out random creatures and placed them inside his dungeon, he personally placed a contingency mark on every creature, for whenever they leave the dungeon's limits either material or planar/astral, they would blow up as the Kaboom! spell, found in a Warcraft sourcebook (basically a 3rd level spell which effect is to die and deal 2d6/CL fire damage on a 30-ft. radius.) There is where the PCs are, and they are of the "elite" because they are intelligent among the other dwellers of the labyrinth, so they shall protect his dungeon or die if his precious magical library and magical item stock is touched by anyone but Mr. Tome Dragon.
That is the background, now, the party stuff.
It is an NPC party whose objective is just to explore, they do not know about any hidden treasure of a certain dragon whose name is a reference to a Skyrim-main-storyline-NPC, they just are traveling for a good old dungeoncrawl. I don't want this to be just boring with 5 wizards to have everything, but with a mix of Tier 1-5, but being balanced enough for the PCs to have fun dealing with them.
I thought of a favored soul, a wizard or psion, a fighter, a rogue, and a bard, something like that, not unbalanced bot not boring too, because two of my players are basically power players, and if I limit the party enough, they won't stand a chance against the PCs, but if I make them too overpowered, the PCs will just fade against the team.
It's actually a challenge because the dungeon isn't friendly to either side (except for the dragon, who has actually Dungeon Lord levels), so traps, other creatures and else do have a high impact on how the party moves around, also the dungeon is quite big, I used dorjon's pathfinder dungeon builder to help me with the base of the dungeon, and it is a quite large place with only one floor (but not actually flat, it's decending).
So, TL;DR, tips on this kind of game? Tips on how should I balance the party? Their starting level should be 7 or 8, because a single party member could wipe out an entire level 4 party if I did that way, no flaws, elite array, any source (from DM to 3rd party, to pathfinder stuff that does not replace or alter 3.5's, so archetypes would be disallowed and so, but additives as maneuvers and classes could be fine.)
A little halperino?
EDIT: I actually just thought about this, and another idea could be to have a 2-man party from my unfinished TLoZ fanfic, starring post-Majora's Mask Link, Navi, Tatl, Tael, and Sheik, who is actually from Majora's Mask's side of the mirror.*
So a gestalt specialist/caster and an specialist/combatant with magic items as hell...
And thinking about it, a third option could include a Link-like character, a jack-of-all trades with fighting capabilities and a fairy ringtone. What could it be? Factotum/bard or something? Ideas here?
* the fanfic is called The Legend of Zelda: The MirrorForce.
They are five players and they want to play weird stuff (like an Efreeti to be... A cleric...? I... Just don't know...), a werewolf gnoll, a chimera cross-breed between a squirrel, a pigeon and a slice of bread... Probably a wererat something and a devil that is basically, HIM from PPG (reduced to CR 4).
So, the theme is that an evil Tome Dragon whose name is Paarthurnax (+1 for the reference, but this is the opposite) is plotting against his old city, inside a cave he burrowed over time. He built his library and to protect it, he just knocked out random creatures and placed them inside his dungeon, he personally placed a contingency mark on every creature, for whenever they leave the dungeon's limits either material or planar/astral, they would blow up as the Kaboom! spell, found in a Warcraft sourcebook (basically a 3rd level spell which effect is to die and deal 2d6/CL fire damage on a 30-ft. radius.) There is where the PCs are, and they are of the "elite" because they are intelligent among the other dwellers of the labyrinth, so they shall protect his dungeon or die if his precious magical library and magical item stock is touched by anyone but Mr. Tome Dragon.
That is the background, now, the party stuff.
It is an NPC party whose objective is just to explore, they do not know about any hidden treasure of a certain dragon whose name is a reference to a Skyrim-main-storyline-NPC, they just are traveling for a good old dungeoncrawl. I don't want this to be just boring with 5 wizards to have everything, but with a mix of Tier 1-5, but being balanced enough for the PCs to have fun dealing with them.
I thought of a favored soul, a wizard or psion, a fighter, a rogue, and a bard, something like that, not unbalanced bot not boring too, because two of my players are basically power players, and if I limit the party enough, they won't stand a chance against the PCs, but if I make them too overpowered, the PCs will just fade against the team.
It's actually a challenge because the dungeon isn't friendly to either side (except for the dragon, who has actually Dungeon Lord levels), so traps, other creatures and else do have a high impact on how the party moves around, also the dungeon is quite big, I used dorjon's pathfinder dungeon builder to help me with the base of the dungeon, and it is a quite large place with only one floor (but not actually flat, it's decending).
So, TL;DR, tips on this kind of game? Tips on how should I balance the party? Their starting level should be 7 or 8, because a single party member could wipe out an entire level 4 party if I did that way, no flaws, elite array, any source (from DM to 3rd party, to pathfinder stuff that does not replace or alter 3.5's, so archetypes would be disallowed and so, but additives as maneuvers and classes could be fine.)
A little halperino?
EDIT: I actually just thought about this, and another idea could be to have a 2-man party from my unfinished TLoZ fanfic, starring post-Majora's Mask Link, Navi, Tatl, Tael, and Sheik, who is actually from Majora's Mask's side of the mirror.*
So a gestalt specialist/caster and an specialist/combatant with magic items as hell...
And thinking about it, a third option could include a Link-like character, a jack-of-all trades with fighting capabilities and a fairy ringtone. What could it be? Factotum/bard or something? Ideas here?
* the fanfic is called The Legend of Zelda: The MirrorForce.