Biggstick
2017-04-07, 01:22 PM
As a precursor, I'm running Storm King's Thunder for some friends irl as well as on Roll20. So everything after this may or may not contain spoilers.
So I'm looking ahead and one of the coolest things about Storm King's Thunder is the amount of sandbox that it provides. The party gets to travel all over the place and do tons of interesting things. If you're an innovative DM, you can insert all sorts of fun encounters for the party to deal with. What I've noticed though is once the party is above level 5-6, most of the fun monsters have resistance to standard weapons. I feel a need to provide my players with the chance to attain magic weapons. Even if it's the standard +1 sword, I just want them to be able to feasibly fight some of the more interesting monsters without feeling extremely weak.
The question will be asked almost as a sure thing, here are the party make-ups.
Dragonborn Paladin/Barbarian. SnB.
Tiefling Life Cleric. Uses Sacred Flame and a shield.
Aasimar Vengeance Paladin. GWF with a Greatsword.
Dragonborn Sun Soul Monk. Wants to use his fists but is open to a short sword or quarterstaff.
Goliath Divination Wizard. Uses non SCAG cantrips primarily.
Half Elf Knowledge Cleric. Has been using a Dagger, but may switch to Sacred Flame eventually.
Tabaxi Arcane Trickster. Utilizing Booming Blade with a shortsword.
Human Champion Fighter. SnB with a primary stat as Dex.
Human OotA Paladin. SnB with the Shield Master feat.
Human Warlock/Wizard (hasn't chosen a school yet). He plans on shooting Firebolts and Eldritch Blast.
So now that the party make-up question has been answered, let me continue with my thought.
The players have discovered the awesome and fantastic Tressym. And they want a physical one for themselves. Well, a few of them want one. I'm totally fine giving them to them, but they're going to have to make it to Everlund. For that to happen, I'm having my players go from Nightstone to Triboar by way of Zephyro's cloud castle. Now, they haven't finished up with everything in Nightstone, so we've still got a ways to go before they're there.
Arriving in Triboar, they'll relay a message from an authority figure in Nightstone to a particular person in Triboar. After that, the adventure doesn't require them to do anything. However many days later, you the GM can have the Fire Giant attack commence.
Once the players have safely arrived, they're level 5. Once they deal with the Giant attack and receive a wave of quests from surviving NPC's, they're level 6. One of these quests received will lead them to Everlund, and consequently to their so desired Tressyms (is that the plural for Tressym? I don't know lol).
Now, the Players don't need the magic weapons for the Giant attack, but after the Giant attack comes they're going to be leaving town rather quickly. They want those Tressym! I also want to be able to challenge my newly level 6 players though without having to worry about their capability to do damage to standard weapon resistant monsters. My idea was to put some sort of small dungeon either close by the town or on the way from Triboar to Everlund. The primary BBG of this dungeon would be an Oni. Why an Oni? Because to me it seems like a Giant-kin that is unlike most of the other Giants (save Cloud Giants). They're the closest things to a Boogeyman that you're going to get! The idea of the town of Triboar having an Oni nearby that preys on the local townsfolk is also really appealing to me to. It can easily be something anyone in the town will talk about should the PC's ask questions about it.
My penciled in idea at the moment is having an Oni occasionally (as in once a month or so) stealing a child from the town. The Oni's ability to shapeshift into a woodsman or ranger type person fits in perfectly with the town of Triboar, as it's a frontier town. It also allows the Oni to potentially interact with the party before the party fights him later on (or doesn't. My Players are crafty and can come up with some pretty unique ideas). There are a couple lost children posters, but not overpowering throughout the town. The last child taken was from one of the outlying ranches, and if the PC's are interested in following the thread, they can go learn information from the parents of said child. Using this information, or information gleaned from town about where all these children might be being taken, the party can/will eventually find the Oni's dungeon. It'll be small, something that they can clear in a session (maybe two, depending on how careful they are). At the end, they deal with the Oni however they feel. The loot is a set-up of magical items that seem to fit with what the party desires.
What's nice about Oni's is they are big fans of magical items. If someone is employing this Oni (which they are very apt to take evil magical employers who can provide them with magic or magic items) they can easily have been the ones to provide these items. This makes it a little easier for the items to not necessarily be useable by the Oni, as simply having the items would be something I can see an Oni doing.
So the party deals with the Oni (most likely killing it), they save the children who still happen to be alive (probably the most recent one, or they don't because reasons), and are heroes in the town for slaying the Boogeyman. They have awesome new things to help them deal magical damage to monsters (or something else to provide a minor combat benefit equivalent to the +1 weapon users), and are ready to move forward.
I'm looking for other opinions on the idea. Can smart level 5 PC's deal with an Oni? Should I wait till after the Giant attack and the PC's being level 6? Should I do it before the Giant attack? What are your experiences with implementing an Oni into your games? Do you have any ideas as to how I can make it more interesting for the players? Any GM's have trouble or advice for STK beyond this point? Any advice or guidance would be appreciated!
Block of text, I know. Thanks for reading though!
So I'm looking ahead and one of the coolest things about Storm King's Thunder is the amount of sandbox that it provides. The party gets to travel all over the place and do tons of interesting things. If you're an innovative DM, you can insert all sorts of fun encounters for the party to deal with. What I've noticed though is once the party is above level 5-6, most of the fun monsters have resistance to standard weapons. I feel a need to provide my players with the chance to attain magic weapons. Even if it's the standard +1 sword, I just want them to be able to feasibly fight some of the more interesting monsters without feeling extremely weak.
The question will be asked almost as a sure thing, here are the party make-ups.
Dragonborn Paladin/Barbarian. SnB.
Tiefling Life Cleric. Uses Sacred Flame and a shield.
Aasimar Vengeance Paladin. GWF with a Greatsword.
Dragonborn Sun Soul Monk. Wants to use his fists but is open to a short sword or quarterstaff.
Goliath Divination Wizard. Uses non SCAG cantrips primarily.
Half Elf Knowledge Cleric. Has been using a Dagger, but may switch to Sacred Flame eventually.
Tabaxi Arcane Trickster. Utilizing Booming Blade with a shortsword.
Human Champion Fighter. SnB with a primary stat as Dex.
Human OotA Paladin. SnB with the Shield Master feat.
Human Warlock/Wizard (hasn't chosen a school yet). He plans on shooting Firebolts and Eldritch Blast.
So now that the party make-up question has been answered, let me continue with my thought.
The players have discovered the awesome and fantastic Tressym. And they want a physical one for themselves. Well, a few of them want one. I'm totally fine giving them to them, but they're going to have to make it to Everlund. For that to happen, I'm having my players go from Nightstone to Triboar by way of Zephyro's cloud castle. Now, they haven't finished up with everything in Nightstone, so we've still got a ways to go before they're there.
Arriving in Triboar, they'll relay a message from an authority figure in Nightstone to a particular person in Triboar. After that, the adventure doesn't require them to do anything. However many days later, you the GM can have the Fire Giant attack commence.
Once the players have safely arrived, they're level 5. Once they deal with the Giant attack and receive a wave of quests from surviving NPC's, they're level 6. One of these quests received will lead them to Everlund, and consequently to their so desired Tressyms (is that the plural for Tressym? I don't know lol).
Now, the Players don't need the magic weapons for the Giant attack, but after the Giant attack comes they're going to be leaving town rather quickly. They want those Tressym! I also want to be able to challenge my newly level 6 players though without having to worry about their capability to do damage to standard weapon resistant monsters. My idea was to put some sort of small dungeon either close by the town or on the way from Triboar to Everlund. The primary BBG of this dungeon would be an Oni. Why an Oni? Because to me it seems like a Giant-kin that is unlike most of the other Giants (save Cloud Giants). They're the closest things to a Boogeyman that you're going to get! The idea of the town of Triboar having an Oni nearby that preys on the local townsfolk is also really appealing to me to. It can easily be something anyone in the town will talk about should the PC's ask questions about it.
My penciled in idea at the moment is having an Oni occasionally (as in once a month or so) stealing a child from the town. The Oni's ability to shapeshift into a woodsman or ranger type person fits in perfectly with the town of Triboar, as it's a frontier town. It also allows the Oni to potentially interact with the party before the party fights him later on (or doesn't. My Players are crafty and can come up with some pretty unique ideas). There are a couple lost children posters, but not overpowering throughout the town. The last child taken was from one of the outlying ranches, and if the PC's are interested in following the thread, they can go learn information from the parents of said child. Using this information, or information gleaned from town about where all these children might be being taken, the party can/will eventually find the Oni's dungeon. It'll be small, something that they can clear in a session (maybe two, depending on how careful they are). At the end, they deal with the Oni however they feel. The loot is a set-up of magical items that seem to fit with what the party desires.
What's nice about Oni's is they are big fans of magical items. If someone is employing this Oni (which they are very apt to take evil magical employers who can provide them with magic or magic items) they can easily have been the ones to provide these items. This makes it a little easier for the items to not necessarily be useable by the Oni, as simply having the items would be something I can see an Oni doing.
So the party deals with the Oni (most likely killing it), they save the children who still happen to be alive (probably the most recent one, or they don't because reasons), and are heroes in the town for slaying the Boogeyman. They have awesome new things to help them deal magical damage to monsters (or something else to provide a minor combat benefit equivalent to the +1 weapon users), and are ready to move forward.
I'm looking for other opinions on the idea. Can smart level 5 PC's deal with an Oni? Should I wait till after the Giant attack and the PC's being level 6? Should I do it before the Giant attack? What are your experiences with implementing an Oni into your games? Do you have any ideas as to how I can make it more interesting for the players? Any GM's have trouble or advice for STK beyond this point? Any advice or guidance would be appreciated!
Block of text, I know. Thanks for reading though!