LuminousWarrior
2017-11-24, 10:13 PM
Okay, here's the deal. I'm about to start a new campaign with my group, and I need some help setting up the first session. The game is Pathfinder, homebrew setting, players start at level 3. The players, listed in order of how well-developed their characters are at the time of writing, are: An ex-detective “Human” (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/3rd-party-races/jon-brazer-enterprises/reapers/) Investigator on a soul-searching journey after a near-death experience revealed that one of his ancestors was a psychopomp; an Android Gunslinger, who was recently activated and has been wandering aimlessly before encountering the rest of the party; the basic Human Fighter who left his small town to seek his fortune; and one more player who I haven't quite talked to about his character yet. I think he's planning on playing a cleric or an oracle, but that might change. Everyone in my group are friends already, but the party is a group of complete strangers. The first couple sessions are intended to introduce the party and set up the basic ideas of my campaign. I had a plan for the first session, but I realized that there's a fatal flaw. See if you can find it. Also, to my players, if you're reading this please leave.
My plan for the first session is this. The players are all heading toward the same location, your traditional “City of Adventure”. At this point they haven't met yet and are all traveling separately. While they're on the road the sun sets and rain begins to fall. They need shelter. At this point I'm planning to have them roll Initiative. The player that wins Initiative finds shelter first, a cave, and the other players arrive in order. Players talk, introduce their characters, and set up camp.
After some time the characters hear noises from deep inside the cave. If they choose to investigate they find the hidden lair of a cult to an undeath god. For the sake of simplicity, let's call him Vecna. The players arrive just in time to see the cult about to preform some sort of ritual, with a few cultists in heavy robes chanting and bowing as another cultist is preparing an unconscious woman to be stabbed on an altar. The players will most likely at this point fight the cultists and save the woman. This is where the twist comes in. Unless my players succeed at a Knowledge (Arcana) check they'll misread the situation, and I know them well enough to know that they won't even try. They'll think that they're saving a young girl from being sacrificed to Vecna, but what they actually did was stop a ritual to turn the cult's high priestess into a lich.
The girl wakes up soon after she's “saved”. She realizes what happened and acts friendly, latching onto one of the players as her “hero”, and telling them a fake story about what happened. She says that those horrible cultists kidnapped her and a number of other girls, and were planning to sacrifice them to their evil god. She then leads them to “save” the rest of the cult's prisoners, leading them deeper into the lair.
They'll have an encounter or two with some undead as the girl leads them through the dungeon, but soon they'll find where the girl is leading them. The girl will then attack them, along with a few minions, revealing her true identity as the cult's high priestess and an aspiring lich. Players have a boss fight against her and her minions. If they win, they escape as a team, bonds forged in fire, along with whatever loot they manage to find. If they're defeated, they're captured and the next session or two will be about them trying to escape.
So, as you can see, I have a decent plan in place for the first session. I also have contingency plans for most foreseeable deviations, players don't investigate, players figure out the thing to early, et cetera, et cetera. However, as I was reading the Bestiary to find the stats I needed, the fatal flaw in my plan hit me. A lich is a CR 12 monster, and my players are level 3.
Now, hopefully my party isn't going to have to fight an actual lich, as that would mean that they failed. But, in order to become a lich the person must first have the Craft Wondrous Item feat and be an 11th level caster. I could use the Undead Creator from the NPC Codex, but that's still a CR 10 encounter for a 3rd level party, plus whatever minions are used.
I don't want to give my players an unwinnable boss fight for their first session, so how should I go about nerfing this boss? I was thinking of removing the higher level spells and an HP reduction, explaining it as a result of preparations for becoming a lich. Any other ideas? Nothing is set in stone yet, so if I need to do a complete rewrite, tell me.
My plan for the first session is this. The players are all heading toward the same location, your traditional “City of Adventure”. At this point they haven't met yet and are all traveling separately. While they're on the road the sun sets and rain begins to fall. They need shelter. At this point I'm planning to have them roll Initiative. The player that wins Initiative finds shelter first, a cave, and the other players arrive in order. Players talk, introduce their characters, and set up camp.
After some time the characters hear noises from deep inside the cave. If they choose to investigate they find the hidden lair of a cult to an undeath god. For the sake of simplicity, let's call him Vecna. The players arrive just in time to see the cult about to preform some sort of ritual, with a few cultists in heavy robes chanting and bowing as another cultist is preparing an unconscious woman to be stabbed on an altar. The players will most likely at this point fight the cultists and save the woman. This is where the twist comes in. Unless my players succeed at a Knowledge (Arcana) check they'll misread the situation, and I know them well enough to know that they won't even try. They'll think that they're saving a young girl from being sacrificed to Vecna, but what they actually did was stop a ritual to turn the cult's high priestess into a lich.
The girl wakes up soon after she's “saved”. She realizes what happened and acts friendly, latching onto one of the players as her “hero”, and telling them a fake story about what happened. She says that those horrible cultists kidnapped her and a number of other girls, and were planning to sacrifice them to their evil god. She then leads them to “save” the rest of the cult's prisoners, leading them deeper into the lair.
They'll have an encounter or two with some undead as the girl leads them through the dungeon, but soon they'll find where the girl is leading them. The girl will then attack them, along with a few minions, revealing her true identity as the cult's high priestess and an aspiring lich. Players have a boss fight against her and her minions. If they win, they escape as a team, bonds forged in fire, along with whatever loot they manage to find. If they're defeated, they're captured and the next session or two will be about them trying to escape.
So, as you can see, I have a decent plan in place for the first session. I also have contingency plans for most foreseeable deviations, players don't investigate, players figure out the thing to early, et cetera, et cetera. However, as I was reading the Bestiary to find the stats I needed, the fatal flaw in my plan hit me. A lich is a CR 12 monster, and my players are level 3.
Now, hopefully my party isn't going to have to fight an actual lich, as that would mean that they failed. But, in order to become a lich the person must first have the Craft Wondrous Item feat and be an 11th level caster. I could use the Undead Creator from the NPC Codex, but that's still a CR 10 encounter for a 3rd level party, plus whatever minions are used.
I don't want to give my players an unwinnable boss fight for their first session, so how should I go about nerfing this boss? I was thinking of removing the higher level spells and an HP reduction, explaining it as a result of preparations for becoming a lich. Any other ideas? Nothing is set in stone yet, so if I need to do a complete rewrite, tell me.