Somewhat new to "proper" DM'ing

[TheDementio]

My group has played D&D for a while, but it's always been more of a "Oh, you'd die? He misses." and "You're going to need healing, so there's like 20 health potions in a crate back here". I'm going to be running a campaign where I try to break away from that. I want the campaign to be fun and challenging, but I'd also like the party to survive, barring any extreme stupidity on their part.

I've sort of mapped out how the campaign will go for about 10 levels; not to railroad the PC's, but an open ended sandbox world is a little beyond me right now, and I don't think it would hold the attention of the party just yet. I'm going to watch for opportunities to just go with the flow, though, in case my PC's come up with an idea worth following.

So far, I'd like help with 2 of the bad guys I plan to bring them against. I plan to play them intelligently.

The first is, well, the first villain the party of 4 is going to run into. It's kobold with classes in dragon shaman. The MM says a kobold with NPC class levels is character level -3 when calculating CR, but the DMH shows an NPC kobold sorcerer, level 5, as CR5. Regardless, I know the CR system is somewhat broken, and would like some input on my train of thought.

A level 3 dragon shaman kobold, equipped intelligently from the NPC gear value table, would have +1 bracers, MWK spear, leather armor, 3 potions of cure light wounds (1d8+3), and a potion of aid (1d8+3 temp HP, 1+ hit) with little gold left over. Using the elite array, though I may change the way the stats work out, I ended up with a dex of 16, giving me an AC of 17 (+1 size, +3 Dex, +1 natural, +2 leather).

The dragon shaman is fanatical, as were all the other kobolds, only because their master is a black dragon, and enjoys using the gelatinous cube it keeps as a pet as a torture device, especially when paired with a wand of healing spells. Dip, retrieve, heal, repeat.

The last room, where the dragon shaman will be hiding, is underground, and has been flooded somewhat. The item the PC's seek is sitting on a small island, surrounded by water a few feet deep. The kobold has taken his master as his totem dragon, so he can indefinitely breath underwater, and will be hiding in the water near the entrance, so as to take the PC's from behind in a surprise round.

He'll start with his line of acid, and his force aura. He'll pop his aid potion after his breath weapon, and a healing potion about half health. He'll retreat when he reaches half health again, fleeing into one of the many short tunnels the kobolds mined out before flooding the room. He'll use his fast regen to get back up to half (as he's expecting to take damage from the attack(s) of opportunity from fleeing), then pop a potion, and try to start all over again. He will die before letting the PC's escape with the item, because he really doesn't want to be digested over and over for a year or two. He'll try to pop his last potion before being KO'd, obviously.

Seems like a solid CR 2 fight for the PC's. It's going to take a lot of their resources to fight him, I think, mostly because 17 is a good AC against level 1's, healing, good damage output that's going to need to be healed through, and the chance of bad RNG screwing the PC's (rolling a 1 for his breath weapon delay a few times in a row). Maybe even a 3.

Thoughts, helpful insights, constructive criticisms, anyone? Also, if anything seems disjointed or missing, I somehow got logged out mid post, and lost about 2/3rds of it when I tried to post. So, it's probably a bit more succinct, but I may have jumped a train of thought in the middle. Sorry. I'll post about the second one later, I think, as it's currently bedtime.

[Zombimode]

The first is, well, the first villain the party of 4 is going to run into. It's kobold with classes in dragon shaman. The MM says a kobold with NPC class levels is character level -3 when calculating CR, but the DMH shows an NPC kobold sorcerer, level 5, as CR5. Regardless, I know the CR system is somewhat broken, and would like some input on my train of thought.

Read again. Its NPC classes.



The dragon shaman is fanatical, as were all the other kobolds, only because their master is a black dragon, and enjoys using the gelatinous cube it keeps as a pet as a torture device, especially when paired with a wand of healing spells. Dip, retrieve, heal, repeat.

Which is prohibitively expensive.



The last room, where the dragon shaman will be hiding, is underground, and has been flooded somewhat. The item the PC's seek is sitting on a small island, surrounded by water a few feet deep. The kobold has taken his master as his totem dragon, so he can indefinitely breath underwater, and will be hiding in the water near the entrance, so as to take the PC's from behind in a surprise round.

He'll start with his line of acid, and his force aura. He'll pop his aid potion after his breath weapon, and a healing potion about half health. He'll retreat when he reaches half health again, fleeing into one of the many short tunnels the kobolds mined out before flooding the room. He'll use his fast regen to get back up to half (as he's expecting to take damage from the attack(s) of opportunity from fleeing), then pop a potion, and try to start all over again. He will die before letting the PC's escape with the item, because he really doesn't want to be digested over and over for a year or two. He'll try to pop his last potion before being KO'd, obviously.

Thats a cool set up and one that could actually work to make this kobold interesting as a solo encounter.
In general, fights against multiple enemies are more interesting and less onesided. Oftentimes, a fight vs. a single enemy ends with said enemy killed quickly by the concentrated effort of the PCs, or with one of the PCs dead by an alpha stike of the enemy.
Even a designated "boss fight" gains something by adding some weak minions, if only to serve as a roadblock.

[Flickerdart]

Potions won't work too well - when it costs a move action to draw and a standard action to swallow, healing potions end up burning an entire turn. If there are four PCs beating your face in at the time, then it's very likely you will take more damage than you healed. In order for in-combat healing to work, you need to either have a very powerful heal effect, a heal with no action cost, or some means of preventing the PCs from attacking you while you are healing.

[Geddy2112]

To keep the plot going, have plot hooks and events ready to happen if the players start doing nothing or have no idea what to do, but once they start doing something they can do most of the work. It's good to have Schrodinger's dungeons/encounters ready. The party was headed north towards the tower full of undead, but instead go south to a cave? The cave suddenly and mysteriously has the same layout as the tower(in reverse) full of same undead. The players don't know unless they were specifically told said cave is full of something else.

A 5th level druid is a challenge for a 2nd level party, with the ability to summon, a domain/animal companion and 3rd level spellcasting. If you are putting this against a level 1 party it will likely kill them. A 5th level dragon shaman can fly which is a major challenge for some parties, or boost AC through totem transformation. As said before, solo enemies are usually a TPK or easily killed, even at high levels. Playing smart and making the fight more about manuvering/finding the kobold would be fun, but also consider having them fight other kobolds, summoned monsters or the gelationus cube as well.

Instead of potions, have a wand of cure light wounds-it can be used as much as the kobold wants, and once the party kills them they have a source of magical healing. Even if they already have a cleric or any caster with CLW, they have a second source and it can still be sold for okay money depending on how many charges it has.

[Zombimode]

Potions won't work too well - when it costs a move action to draw and a standard action to swallow, healing potions end up burning an entire turn. If there are four PCs beating your face in at the time, then it's very likely you will take more damage than you healed. In order for in-combat healing to work, you need to either have a very powerful heal effect, a heal with no action cost, or some means of preventing the PCs from attacking you while you are healing.

Sure, but in this case, the kobold can more of less move freely in the water. Full retreat under water, quaff some potions, ready to go.

[Flickerdart]

Sure, but in this case, the kobold can more of less move freely in the water. Full retreat under water, quaff some potions, ready to go.
This tactic gives the PCs two whole rounds to muck about, and PCs are great at mucking about. I recommend either finding some way to keep the pressure on them while he's underwater, or trying to lure them into the water where they will be at a disadvantage.

[Theodred theOld]

Kobolds rarely attack when they are alone, instead preferring to ambush as a unit. Throw a few weaker kobolds in as ranged attackers and suddenly this fight takes on a whole new dimension. While the main baddie heals the others can keep the party busy by peppering them with little arrows or slung rocks.

[TheDementio]

Really appreciate the responses.

The dragon and the gelatinous cube are simply fluff. I wanted the Kobolds to be fanatical and die to the last 'bold. The dragon isn't anywhere around, nor will he show up anytime soon, though he may be the final BBEG.

A little backstory. The world has reached a tipping point, in that the dragon population has reached population density thresholds. Younger dragons (the first 3 or 4 CR's worth) are much more common. It'll be dragon heavy, though not solely dragons.

Regarding the npc levels and CR. Like I said, right in the books, it says a kobold with 5 levels of NPC sorcerer is a CR 5 (DMH), even though it should be a CR 2 by the rules listed under Kobolds in the MM.

I'm replying from my phone, so I feel I'm missing replying to stuff. The wand idea, I'll look into. I don't want it to be able to heal too much, but partial charges can fix that. I'll have to look up wand usage and turns and stuff.

The PC's will have gone through a medium-short dungeon that the kobolds have set up with multiple simple traps. Mostly crossbows attached to doors, but atleast 1 spiked pit trap they dug. They'll be trying to distract the characters while they might be searching, to prevent them from finding them. Example is, 2 kobolds are sitting on a ledge 10 feet up, 20 ft opposite a door. The PC's open the door, eating or dodging the crossbow attached to the door. They've dealt with a similar trap 2 times now, and are expecting.

However, as soon as they open the door, the kobolds let loose with slings at whoever opened the door. Maybe even an alchemists fire (I'd need to check the price, to see if the kobolds would have it). The natural inclination of more people, I'd think, would be to rush in and try to deal with the threat. So, maybe the rogue is first, having been trying to open the door enough to check for a trap, to disable. Charges into the room to allow the other PC's a chance to attack, no saving throw against the pit trap.

The kobold crew is small, and this is more of a hidey hole while they wait. They've rigged most of the place with small tunnels they can use, and traps. Lots of traps. A dedicated crew of 4 kobolds will remain on the first floor to attack the PC's and run, trying to draw them into traps, while a 5th runs down to let the boss know about intruders.

As for a single enemy and the PC's offing it in no time, that's my concern. Do you guys think a level 3 dragon shaman with 2 or 3 kobolds, taken stat for stat from the MM, would be too much for 4 nearly newly minted characters? I can always lower his level to 2. That reduces his saves a bit, his HP would be closer to 12 average, instead of 16.

Or a trio. Level 3 dragon shaman, 1 kobold stuck in a raised, screened hidey hole with a wand of healing, and a second kobold standing on the island to sort of draw the PC's attention for the surprise attack, be another body, and generally serve to split their attention for a round or two.

If I'm forgetting to respond to an idea, sorry. Just woke up, not much sleep. Really appreciate the help.

[Zombimode]

Regarding the npc levels and CR. Like I said, right in the books, it says a kobold with 5 levels of NPC sorcerer is a CR 5 (DMH), even though it should be a CR 2 by the rules listed under Kobolds in the MM.


No, read it again. The rules apply for NPC classes. Is Sorcerer an NPC class (or Dragon Shaman for the matter)? No. So those rules don't apply and a Kobold Sorcerer 5 is CR 5.

[Troacctid]

The NPC classes are Adept, Aristocrat, Commoner, Expert, and Warrior.

[TheDementio]

OH! OK. Thanks. Well, now I feel kind of dumb. That makes a lot more sense, not sure why I didn't pick up on that at first. I think I'll stick to level 2, then. That, and a few regular kobolds should make for an interesting final fight. Level 2 will also let me stick him with the gear I've mentioned, except I'll drop the potions for that single wand of cure light wounds. I feel really dumb for having missed the PC vs NPC classes distinction.

Anyway. Second villain I'll post later, as I want to take some time to put it together instead of rambling in the thread while I figure out how I want to build him.

[ericgrau]

It more or less boils down to keep the CR reasonable, or however you measure difficulty, but after that don't pull any punches. Play the monsters smart. Have them focus fire, have plans and tactics reasonable for their kind, lay wait in ambush, use the terrain, etc.

[EisenKreutzer]

This document (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nx-o8VAjhUwh3nnfzDQT-JA5eFLnN_BZJiBitGjBMDg/edit) is a guide to help GMs create challenging, fair encounters. I really suggest you read it, it has helped me out A TON with designing encounters.