Looking for Adventure Suggestions

[Ursus Spelaeus]

Hello all,

I'm trying to put together an adventure for D&D 3.5 for a group of old friends I've gamed with in South Korea and Taiwan. I may be visiting them again when I move to China in a few months, and I'd like to start up a roll20 campaign.

Allowed books:
Expanded Psionics Handbook
Tome of Battle
Magic of Incarnum
Sandstorm
Stormwrack
Frostburn
Magic Item Compendium

Banned books:
Players Handbook (except for feats, equipment, and the human race)

Special Rules:
Epic 6 rules
Point buy ability scores
Level adjustment determines point buy
Flaws from Unearthed Arcana
Soulknives and Soulborn are NPC classes

Setting:
Campaign uses a homebrew setting.
The game will be set in a port city built at the mouth of a river. The river flows through the middle of the city.
Outside of the city is a coastal desert. Vegetation is limited to densely packed farming villages along the river, and a massive world tree in the middle of the desert where strange beasts are known to dwell.
The river flows from some rain-shadow mountains visible from the city.

The city is divided up into ten districts, all surrounding the river that flows through the middle of the city, with the districts closest to the river being poorest. The river is lined with food stands, and the abandoned shoes of all those who walked into the river. People who walk into the river sometimes emerge again as zombies.
Each district is home to a fighting school associated with one of the martial disciplines from Tome of Battle.
Some of the districts are homes to psionic temples. Each psionic temple is associated with one of the psion classes disciplines.
Each district is also home to a guild hall. The guilds are all fronts for crime syndicates.

The majority of the city's population consists of humans and azurins.
A colony of dromites has deposed the king and installed itself into the city as a ruling race.
Other races present include:
Githyanki
Githzerai
Half-giants
Duergar
Thri-kreen
Elan
Xeph (refluffed as monkey people from the mountains, loosely inspired by a combination of Sun Wukong and the ape people from Planet of the Apes)
Maenads (refluffed so that they look like human normally, but transform into horned beast-men during their daily psionic outbursts, or when intoxicated)
Rilkans
Skarns
Dusklings (who reside in that world tree I mentioned earlier)

I often find that I have difficulty coming up with challenging encounters. The last time I ran D&D 3.5 the monsters barely dealt any damage to the PC's.
Any suggestions for challenging level 1 adventures here?

[nintendoh]

have you ever seen the television show Deadliest Catch yeah do that

[Uncle Pine]

A merchant specialized in exotic animals has a terrible problem: his goods escaped they're cages! Phrenic (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/monsters/phrenicCreature.htm) housecats (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/cat.htm) are on the loose! Hilarity ensues when PCs run around struggling to capture tiny furry psychic creatures, a staple of low level RPG adventures with a little twist. (Also, since by RAW phrenic housecats wouldn't get Defensive Precognition and Force Screen because the table starts at 1 HD you may want to houserule that they get it anyway.)

I like the premise of your setting, I feel it'll develop into a fun City of Adventure campaign. The idea to ban the PHB classes is interesting as well, especially since you're going to play with players that aren't new to the system and thus have probably already seen a good amount of Wizards, Clerics, Rangers and Rogues.

[AlanBruce]

Banned books:
Players Handbook (except for feats, equipment, and the human race)

A brilliant move, since some of the most broken stuff comes out of that book. Will you be using classes from that book as NPCs?


So you have melee covered (ToB and MoI) and spellcasting (XPH) when it comes to base classes. What about the setting books? All of them deal with variant ACFs for PHB classes, like the ranger, paladin, wizard, etc. Will you be refluffing those to fit the classes you are allowing from the other books?

I will assume the party begins at level 1, but the ideas here can be adjusted to fit your party's level and optimization.


The city is divided up into ten districts, all surrounding the river that flows through the middle of the city, with the districts closest to the river being poorest. The river is lined with food stands, and the abandoned shoes of all those who walked into the river. People who walk into the river sometimes emerge again as zombies.

Someone within the ten districts has been experimenting with the water. Maybe using the Tree of Life or one of its roots to access the Shadow or Negative Energy Plane, thus, having areas within the river that are tainted and kill and reanimate swimmers as zombies.

The Xeph, who nest in the tree's lower branches were the first to notice, but they aren't getting involved.

The poor district is afraid and the local guard is dismissing the odd accounts of shambling undead through the streets, having been paid by one of the guilds to look the other way. If nobody does something soon, the horde could swell in numbers and eventually take over.

The Githyanki and Githzerai, true to their legendary enmity, are at it again. The Powers that Be in the City have kept their feuds relatively tame, but an unknown third party is fanning the flames of that age old rivalry.

Normally, the scuffles are kept to a minimum, but when rumors begin to spread of red dragons being called in by the Githyanki leaders to assist in their fights, it's up to the PCs to put a stop to this madness before the entire city is reduced to ashes.

An Elan, convinced that his immortality must a blessing from the gods, has amassed a small cult devoted to himself. He has moderate powers as a psion, which lends credence to his claims amongst the uninformed. This is further fueled by a guild manufacturing psychotropic drugs taken from the river and given to the faithful, numbing their minds and making it easier for the Elan to control.

[Ursus Spelaeus]

A merchant specialized in exotic animals has a terrible problem: his goods escaped they're cages! are on the loose! Hilarity ensues when PCs run around struggling to capture tiny furry psychic creatures, a staple of low level RPG adventures with a little twist. (Also, since by RAW phrenic housecats wouldn't get Defensive Precognition and Force Screen because the table starts at 1 HD you may want to houserule that they get it anyway.)

Good one, thanks!
I'm also going to try and put together incarnum infused animals, like an owlbear with soulmelds. MoI, sadly, seems to lack a good template for that.



I like the premise of your setting, I feel it'll develop into a fun City of Adventure campaign. The idea to ban the PHB classes is interesting as well, especially since you're going to play with players that aren't new to the system and thus have probably already seen a good amount of Wizards, Clerics, Rangers and Rogues.
These players have expressed complaints regarding the tedious cliches of D&D in the past.






So you have melee covered (ToB and MoI) and spellcasting (XPH) when it comes to base classes. What about the setting books? All of them deal with variant ACFs for PHB classes, like the ranger, paladin, wizard, etc. Will you be refluffing those to fit the classes you are allowing from the other books?

I'm mostly going to be using Sandstorm, Stormwrack, and Frostburn for DM side stuff like monsters and environmental hazards.
There's actually going to be a tavern built over a deep pit holding a huge monstrous crab. The floor of the tavern is a sturdy grate that swings open when the man behind the bar pulls a lever. Brave men sometimes volunteer to go down there and fight the crab, but they die in the process and leave their treasure behind. Other people just play the "Game of Claws" where they use their telekinetic powers or simple fishing hooks to try and snag small treasures.

The players will also have access to all the equipment found in the book, including harpoons, eagle's claws, and goggles, and I will be using some of these items for NPC's. Some of the items will go on the recommended equipment list I'll be compiling for the players (I like to print off little booklets will all the equipment tables for the players. It speeds of character creation when everybody isn't having to share one book.)
The feats will be available, though only Eagle's Fury will be added to the list of recommended feats (It always takes players a long time to pick out feats, more so when they have to pass the books around and share, so I like to print out lists of recommended feats with all their rules and pass them out to everybody.)

Unusual races from the books may be used on request. PrC's may be adapted on request.



I will assume the party begins at level 1, but the ideas here can be adjusted to fit your party's level and optimization.

Awesome!



Someone within the ten districts has been experimenting with the water. Maybe using the Tree of Life or one of its roots to access the Shadow or Negative Energy Plane, thus, having areas within the river that are tainted and kill and reanimate swimmers as zombies.

The Xeph, who nest in the tree's lower branches were the first to notice, but they aren't getting involved.

The poor district is afraid and the local guard is dismissing the odd accounts of shambling undead through the streets, having been paid by one of the guilds to look the other way. If nobody does something soon, the horde could swell in numbers and eventually take over.

The Githyanki and Githzerai, true to their legendary enmity, are at it again. The Powers that Be in the City have kept their feuds relatively tame, but an unknown third party is fanning the flames of that age old rivalry.

Normally, the scuffles are kept to a minimum, but when rumors begin to spread of red dragons being called in by the Githyanki leaders to assist in their fights, it's up to the PCs to put a stop to this madness before the entire city is reduced to ashes.

An Elan, convinced that his immortality must a blessing from the gods, has amassed a small cult devoted to himself. He has moderate powers as a psion, which lends credence to his claims amongst the uninformed. This is further fueled by a guild manufacturing psychotropic drugs taken from the river and given to the faithful, numbing their minds and making it easier for the Elan to control.


Good one! Thanks!

[Uncle Pine]

I'm also going to try and put together incarnum infused animals, like an owlbear with soulmelds. MoI, sadly, seems to lack a good template for that.
I love owlbears! My players less so since I started throwing Communist owlbears at them as minor antagonists in our campaign... But this is another story.
I'm not terribly familiar with Incarnum, but even though a normal owlbear can't bind any soulmeld (because Open Least Chakra requires 6+ HD) and doesn't have a single point of essentia, it can still take Shape Soulmeld and get some goodies. Here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?321557-The-World-in-One-Feat-A-Shape-Soulmeld-Handbook)'s a detailed list, if you're interested. For example, one thing I noticed is that an owlbear shaping a Flame Cinture has resistance to fire 10. And we all know that nonmagical fire only deals 1d6 damage/round (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/environment.htm#catchingOnFire)... And owlbears have Improved Grab and an interesting +14 grapple bonus...
Then there are the lost and necrocarnum zombie templates, the latter of which also provides a small amount of essentia that can be used to fuel a soulmeld. A lost owlbear would be a CR 5 creature, while a necrocarnum zombie owlbear a CR 4 one.

[Ursus Spelaeus]

I love owlbears! My players less so since I started throwing Communist owlbears at them as minor antagonists in our campaign... But this is another story.
I'm not terribly familiar with Incarnum, but even though a normal owlbear can't bind any soulmeld (because Open Least Chakra requires 6+ HD) and doesn't have a single point of essentia, it can still take Shape Soulmeld and get some goodies. a detailed list, if you're interested. For example, one thing I noticed is that an owlbear shaping a Flame Cinture has resistance to fire 10. ... And owlbears have Improved Grab and an interesting +14 grapple bonus...
Then there are the lost and necrocarnum zombie templates, the latter of which also provides a small amount of essentia that can be used to fuel a soulmeld. A lost owlbear would be a CR 5 creature, while a necrocarnum zombie owlbear a CR 4 one.

I love owlbears too!
I usually describe them as not actually being owls or bears, any more than kangaroos are two-headed deer rabbits. Explorers from faraway lands just call them owlbears because that's the only frame of reference they have to describe them. The natives call them "Grr'hoots".

I like the idea of swapping out monster's feats for shape soulmeld. And I like the idea of toads with the 'dissolving spittle' soulmeld shaped. Thanks for the link!