Grimgar/Darksouls inspired setting.

[RingofThorns]

I am looking to put together a setting that is mostly based off the anime Grimgar fantasy and ash, and with little bits of Darksouls throne in.

Mostly I am not looking so much to make the whole setting dark and brooding but instead I am looking for something in the difficulty side of things, as in the perfect example being in Grimgar the party of heroes start out and actually have trouble fighting even a single goblin because even goblins aren't just cannon fodder enemies.

I was mostly thinking of having the party start at level one, and have goblins be the main bad guys for a while but bumping them up in challenge, giving them more hit points, better ac, and even feats and better skills to make the party have to actually try in the encoutners, to plan and really consider if the fight is worth it.

Anyway to the question at hand is mostly just me looking for help with ideas and suggestions that could help me make this a well thought out setting.

[karusk]

Hey, im relatively new to the GMing of a campaign but i have played both Darksouls games and a large theme throughout both of them is the diminishment of not only humans but the world itself, so taking that point why not first start with the humans role in the world. Are they still dominant? probably not if goblins are to be tougher in this setting. Personally I've always loved shattered kingdoms that were once unified, which is in keeping with the whole diminishment of darksouls and the hecticness of Grimgar.

If it were me, i would centre the goblins not around the weak bumbling creatures they are in current fantasy but on something completely different, perhaps they are so dangerous because they are plain dwelling horse-archer nomads in a time of phalanx warfare . Or perhaps the strength of the Goblins comes from having an entirely merit based society in an otherwise corrupt and inept setting. Maybe the goblins are a military dictatorship in an otherwise peaceful collection of nations.

to be honest the two points that you should probably explain is
1) what sort of point in time is the campaign to be set, ancient? Medieval?

2) why are humans 2nd to goblins, a notoriously weak race? (there are a number of reasons this could be the case)

[RingofThorns]

The setting would of course be a fantasy medieval type setting as it is DnD, as for the other question no race would really be second. I know it might sound kind of weird but in the setting I am trying to set up neither side is really on top, the player races live in their own lands and kingdoms that are well enough off but anything outside of that is more or less the territory of the more monster like races. The goblins I am thinking of would of course have their own set of social rules and the like, I am already planning on trying to make them behave more as living beings instead of randomly generated mobs. They would press the advantage they had in a fight, they would try and escape if the fight was heavily out of their favor or if they got to low on hit points, etc.

The player races would largely be fighting to keep their own lands established as what ever BBG I think up for all of this will be trying to eventually take what land isn't already under their control, but I also want to avoid the whole sweeping army thing, instead playing more to the whole 'we live here and they live there, but they are slowly trying to take what we have.' type of warfare...I think cold war or slow war would be the best way to describe it which would also help explain why some iffy level one types would even be considered for service.

[karusk]

ok, so your like moving away from simple tribal to more kind of culturally structured goblins, thats cool. well then if you want to have conflict then perhaps something worth considering is try drawing parallels between real life european medieval cultures and the kingdoms in your setting. In the setting I've thought up i chose what kind of place i wanted (ancient egypt) then i thought of how id justify every class. Another thing is to just squiggle on a paper and make it into a map :).

personally i love subverting traditional race tropes, what if the goblins were actually incredibly feudal? What if instead of being the punching bag for the medium size category creatures, they had developed a warrior culture (could be knights?) and have sophisticated steelworking. This would be a good way of justifying not only PC class challenge goblins but also with better equipment. Another thing that is a good idea could be a drastically different religious system, maybe have them worship another deity in whatever pantheon.



I lilke the idea of Goblin knights slaying dragons.

[Blitz8472]

So, I realize I am a little late to the thread. Did you ever get any kind of Grimgar type campaign created? I would love to run a Grimgar themed game.

[Falontani]

“Paragon” is a template that can be added to any creature (referred to hereafter as the base creature).
Among the population of every kind of creature are some specimens that are its weakest, worst representatives. Likewise, every population has its paragons: the strongest, smartest, luckiest, and most powerful of the species. Paragon creatures may represent the mythical First Creature, created in its perfect form by some creator deity, or perhaps the evolutionary endpoint of a race after thousands of years of steady improvement. Sometimes, paragons just spring up accidentally, when all the factors are right. The base creature’s type remains unchanged.
The paragon creature uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
HD: A paragon creature always has maximum hit points. Paragon creatures also gain an additional 12 hit points per HD.
Speed: A paragon creature’s speed doubles, for all movement types.
AC: . They also gain a +3 natural armor bonus (if the creature already has natural armor, use whichever is better).
Attacks: A paragon creature makes all its attacks with a +4 luck bonus on the attack roll.
Damage: A paragon creature gains a +4 luck bonus on damage rolls for all melee and thrown ranged attacks.
Special Attacks: A paragon creature’s special attacks, if any, all gain a + 3 insight bonus, if applicable. For instance, a paragon creature might have a special attack that allows it to put its enemies to sleep if they fail a Will saving throw (DC 15); applying the bonus increases the DC to 18. Likewise, it might have a special ability that allows it to rend; in this case, the +3 insight bonus could be applied as a +3 bonus on damage. The +3 insight bonus may only be applied to a given special ability once. One example of a special attack to which the +3 insight bonus would not apply is the dream haunting ability of the night hag (see the Monster Manual).
Special Qualities: A paragon creature retains all the special qualities of the base creature and also gains the following.
• Elemental resistance 1 per 3 HD of the creature. If the creature already possesses such resistance, use whichever is better.
• Damage reduction 1/- per 3 HD of the creature. If the creature already possesses damage reduction, use whichever is better.
• Spell resistance equal to the base creature’s CR + 5. If the creature already possesses spell resistance, use whichever is higher.
• Fast healing 1. If the creature already possesses fast healing, use whichever is better.
Saves: The paragon creature gains a +3 insight bonus on all its saving throws.
Abilities: All ability scores are 6 points higher than those of the base creature.
Skills: The paragon creature gains a +3 competence bonus on all its skill checks.
Feats: Same as the base creature, plus 1 bonus feat.
Climate/Terrain: Same as base creature.
Organization: Same as the base creature.
Challenge Rating: I have no clue
Treasure: Standard for a creature of the unadjusted CR
Alignment: Same as the base creature.
Advancement: Same as the base creature.


Goblin, 1st-Level Warrior
Small Humanoid (Goblinoid)
Hit Dice: 1d8+16 (24 hp)
Initiative: +4
Speed: 60 ft. (12 squares)
Armor Class: 21 (+1 size, +4 Dex, +2 leather armor, +1 light shield, +3 Natural), touch 15, flat-footed 17
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/+0
Full Attack: Morningstar +9
melee (1d6+7) or javelin +10
ranged (1d4+7)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: —
Special Qualities:
Darkvision 60 ft., Fast Healing 1, DR 1/-, Elemental Resistance 1, Spell Resistance 6
Saves: Fort +9, Ref +7, Will +5
Abilities: Str 17, Dex 19, Con 18, Int 16, Wis 15, Cha 12
Skills: Balance +11, Climb +10, Handle Animal +8, Tumble +11, Ride +11
Feats: 2 feats of choice
Environment: Temperate plains
Organization: Gang (4–9), band (10–100 plus 100% noncombatants plus 1 3rd-level sergeant per 20 adults and 1 leader of 4th–6th level), warband (10–24 with worg mounts), or tribe (40–400 plus 100% noncombatants plus 1 3rd level sergeant per 20 adults, 1 or 2 lieutenants of 4th or 5th level, 1 leader of 6th–8th level, 10 -24 worgs, and 2–4 dire wolves)
Challenge Rating:
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually neutral evil
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: +0