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quotemyname
2008-03-02, 08:47 PM
So i found myself with just a few weeks left till the end of the semester, and a group of guys that wanted me to run an eberron campaign.

So i came up with the following format.

-Quick, connected, coherent plot (few deviations, few if any sidequests)
-group of devoted players that are going to (at least try) to not screw around.
-'Boss' battle at least every two games (maybe more often)
-characters level up after each game
-few ad hoc treasure, just feed the characters a few items from story related NPC's every now and then.

Now, story wise the campaign is going great, eberron is an awesome setting and i like the tone and feel. however, its eberron, the characters get action points, and while that should not be a reason for doing as good as they are, they still seem to be walking all over everything i throw at them. They took down 3 trolls (all with barbarian levels) in 4 rounds including the lengthy process of burning them to death!

To me it doesn't make much sense, the party is pretty unbalanced, they don't even have a cleric, or a "competant" arcane caster... They currently have: (all level 7)

'DPS' Duskblade
Warforged Juggernaut (ftr)
Trumpet(horn) Bard (w/ lvl 5 cohort wizard (leadership))
Ranged ranger

soon they will be adding a lvl 7 changeling rogue to their midst.

I plan on throwing in a few above level NPC's here and there, but they won't be anything with a particularly powerful build, just a few levels higher for some extra flavor to the campaign. (mostly lvl 10)

My question to you is this...What do you suggest i throw at these guys, given the following format that will be challanging, and make for a good fun fight, without really being a TPK or paralyzing any one member of the group i.e. constructs so the rogue can't sneak...

im looking for one (maybe two) 'random' encounters per game, ending in a 'boss' fight at least every other game. i think i have the bosses nailed down though, i just don't want to have them walking over the interim fights as they have been.

the bosses that i have planned are:
(1)Runic Guardian and a powerful wizard (boss for when they are level 9)
(2)Red dragon that is blind and trapped in one wall(probably more powerful cuz it can't actually see them) these two fights are probably going to take place within at least relatively cramped quarters. 50x50 rooms maybe

penny for your thoughts!

Uncle Festy
2008-03-02, 09:06 PM
It's probably the Bard's Leadership. That feat tends towards broken, especially if you use it to give you a Wizard. (Teh Brokkenn OMG!)

quotemyname
2008-03-02, 09:12 PM
It's probably the Bard's Leadership. That feat tends towards broken, especially if you use it to give you a Wizard. (Teh Brokkenn OMG!)

Yea i rolled randomly for the race class and gender... just happened to come out to be a human female wizard... just perfect for the sleazy changeling bard that he is ~.~ lol

Kol Korran
2008-03-03, 04:45 AM
i won't try suggesting monsters and such, because that realy isn't the point. there are plenty of other ways to make an encounter interesting:

1) mix monsters up- make most of your encounters with different monsters. they may be achallange because they work extremley well together, or they require different tactics to fight (immunities or DR for example), or that different monster challange different players (one with arealy high SR to challange casters, combined with a tough hard to hit tank to challange fighters, and so on).
for example- instead of your 3 troll baberians, what if you chose two different kinds of troll (MM3), with different amunities, and some heavily armored half iron golem (which gets healed by fire)

oh,and as a side note- if a construct makes your rogue "obsolete", than you, and the rogue, should realy check up on his battle tactics... ifyour players get "too comfy", in one or tow mods of battle, than you realy aren't challanging them... aim for a gaming session in whihc about 60-70% of the battles require different tactics.

2) location, location, location: tight corridors, uphill fighting, sudden pits, rough terrain, in the middle of a storm, aboard an air ship, dangling from an air ship, above a castle'sparapet while catapults and archers are firing, a field with many places to cover, blasted by magic, filled with fog, and more...
again, a very simple tactic with the trolls: in a dungeon they might guard a very narrow opening to their room (5-10 ft) which only enables one party member to attack them directly. once a troll is down to half his hit points, he turns around the corner and let another one replace him, while he heals, thus taking turns. if many are hit, maybe one couldpull a lever that brings down a porticullis between them- thus allowing the trolls to heal even more.
or, alternetavly, there is a secet tunnel in the room, that leads to the back of the party.. suddenly the casters have a fight on their hand as well...
or, the fight takes place in storm (alchemist fire and similar taxctics lose effect), or in a heavily ferned forest, or where the trolls can take cover... these are but simple ideas from the top of my head, i'm sure you can do better given a bit of thought.

3) a limiating plot factor: the party has a time limitation (great incentive, makeswhte wizards, clerics andthe likes realy think up their spell selection, and use), or they are told not to hurt certain kinds of creatures (for research? their bosses wanting to try and ally with them? one of them might be the changling spy they are looking for?), they must solve some situation that would beeasy by fighting, but they are supposed to be discreet (inflitration mission).
while the party rushed to reach the end of the temple, the three trolls rushed to block them, not even trying to attack them, but just holding them back (grapple, full defense, and such). sure, tey could fight the trolls, but the great chiming bell was counting down, to something... can they spare the time?
as they reached the sacred prayer hall of Blood of Vol, they saw the mummy priest giving the sermon of blood to the 12 new acolytes- sons anddaughters of Karnn nobility. one ofthem was proabaly Boren, whom the party have been looking for. but they all wear those strange masks. who can it be? the party;s leader ground his/ her teeth- andthese bloody basterds would be fantaical about protecting their priest, wouldn't they?
make sure that not meeting the demands you set has reprecautions, otherwise they won't be deterring enough.

4) the unexpected surprise: this isusually great if the party had time to investigate their enemies, or learned about them through their adventures. the "hints" about the coming battle should either be vague enough (thus enabling the party reach the wrong conclusions), a blatant lie (as a general misdirection, or especially directed at the characters). the idea is to let the party prepare for a certain kind of foe, and then find another.
for example: the party lears that the Big Bad is aided by "raisers of spirit and dead". they prepare to fight undead, when suddenly they find a cleric of the Undying court,with several undying around him (he may be charmed, or have betrayed the court, or the court might actually support the Big Bad for whatever reason).
or they sought the lair of a silver dragon, found the legends concerning him and are finally ready to take it down. once inside it's lair they are surprised to find a red one, who killed the previous owner, but does not realy like the intrusion (party's spells are exactly the opposite), or they find the ghost of the former dragon (fighting against the undead instead of the living), or perhaps the dragon guarded one of the entrances to Khyber, and a few of the children killedhim and nowoccupy this place (beholder, mind flayers, and such).
a rakshasa instead of any previously concieved villain.

there are probably more ideas. just try to keep the suspense going, the party on edge (no paranoia game!) and thing exciting. an encounter is never just monsters, they are but tools in the encounter. (and if you play it right, they are never the realy importent tool)

hope this helped. i might give more concree ideas if i knew what your campaign and plot were about. have fun!

quotemyname
2008-03-03, 10:02 AM
hope this helped. i might give more concree ideas if i knew what your campaign and plot were about. have fun!

man you would not believe how much this did help. thanks a lot.

more about my campaign plot is... they are hired by a powerful spellcaster, who is a strong political power in aundair, to hunt down three artifacts. these artifacts have the power to fuse together dragonshards to make something more powerful, and stop the war of espionage that is ongoing in eberron ever since the end of the great war.

game format usually alternates
game one: get location of artifact, get on the lightning train, leg it to the final destination, run into trouble on the way there, boss fight that guards the artifact.

game two: get back to the lightning rail station, have a run in with the over zealous (yet good intentioned) paladin that is overly high level that is convinced they did something wrong (found at the scene of the crime) yet they got away the first time, and now she is chasing them across the continent. get away, get on the train, get back to aundair, muck about in town for a few days while the wizard comes up with the location of the next artifact.

the last boss fight i threw at them was a clay golem and a flesh golem (ill admit a little over powered, but that was mainly due to the fact that only 1/4 of the fifteen hour game i ended up running had actually been planned out >_<) the monsters DR and magic immunity managed to paralyze the duskblade, bard, bard's cohort, and ranger (for the most part) as well as the npc halfling barbarian rogue meat shield i threw in to guide them. the only one able to do decent damage to the clay golem was the warforged due to his adamantine fists which were not even his main weapon. the slowed flesh golem ended up playing a game of tag with the rest of the group by threatening their squares and taking AOO's when they tried to get away while the warforged kept the clay golem occupied single handedly (impressive show i might add) this was possible mainly due to the cramped 50x50 room i trapped them in. little room to work with, enemies they could barely hurt, and a an inability to heal (thanks the the golem's curse) made this a very tough battle. they all survived albiet by the skin of their teeth.

i plan the next destination to be somewhere past (or in) the mournlands, in a hidden subterranean shrine (the shrines themselves are very small, one or two rooms, no corridors, just a place for storing the artifact and the boss)

for the next encounter, i was thinking maybe a medusa, and a succubus, and something else. only problem is that if either of those get touched by either of the two fighter types, they are probably done for as both of them have little enough hp to be one shotted. obviously, tactics will be important, and i think i have some ideas on that respect, but as for upcoming encounters, i am kind of pinched.

need maybe an encounter for when the group is ECL 11.5 (five 8's and a 6)
appropriate to the mournlands?

Kol Korran
2008-03-03, 04:51 PM
ok, glad my suggestions helped. in accordance with what you told me, here are a few ideas you might use or tweak:

- the wizard patron (i guess he is from Arcanix, right?) is not what he seems. i'm thinking of something on the lines of Rakshasa (and when the party finds htis out, the Paladin turns to be their new helper, or connection to a patron organization), a dragon from the Chamber (with good or bad intentions), or perhaps an angent of the Aurum, or one of the Dragonamrked houses (one of the houses of shadow sounds right).

- this patron might gives all kinds of strange orders to the party, saying he is a scholar of the draconic prophesy, and that this seemingly baffling occurances are actually importent ("what ever you do, do not cross the lion bridge till the 3rd of Zarathyr!", "the crafter of flesh must not be killed near the foundtain of the devourer!", "the marked ones must not be harmed"!) this could be actuall propecies (mostly fitting if it's a rakshasa or a dragon), or some other elaborate plan.

- if you're allready doing a "race to the artifact" sort of campaign, they you absolutley must have competitors! the party needs to be hassled, railroaded (literaly?), sabotaged on every turn, and they must find a way to getto the stuff before others do. (added complications). here is a real chance of a strategic endevour. possible organizations forces- emerald claw (though that is a little cliche), merceneries or adventureres who are sponsored by whomever oppoeses their patron (in his true form). the various dragon houses (under guise), the other magical establishments (morgrave, the twelve). i suggest to focus on up to two competing factions, each with it's own style, character, resources, and purpose.

- not every adventure needs to end, or even contain a dungeon of some sort... and these usually tend to limit your strategic possebilities. if you're going into the mournland, than why not one of the followings:

a Cyrian fortress, which was under attack by one of the nations (i'm thinking Karrnath for this one) on the day of mourning. one of the armies mages foudn this artifact, sensed it's power, and though he didn't know what it was, he rushed to the fortress, hoping agains't hope it will help save the day... the party must search high and low, but the fortress is not at rest- many of the Karrnathi skeleton and zombies (and maybe some higher undeads as well), roam here, many hide amongst the bodies... also, some abominations and living spells are drawn here by the artifact's power (the party might find they have to use these in order to track the artifact's actuall location in all the landscape). the main complication here is that there is no "clearing out all monsters" strategy here. plus- any reasonably loud fight just draws more and more combatants. the party must use their brain, and choose their battles.
this setting also offer many interesting battle situations: while they are exploring the main yard some of the Karnn skeletons grab hold of a ballista or two, and they start shooting up the party from afar (Ballista has good range), and from cover. you could use great ambushes, flanking tactics, disruptive horse (dead horse) charges, burning oil and other siege equipent, to let the party feel it's fighting part of the old war again. a living "animate dead" spell can whip up some of the cyrian corpses to fight against them. you killed one of them? so what- it justpicks up another... (i know there are no rules for that, but you can think something up). encounters with flying beasties (tainted harpies, their songs causessomething different, or they have strange immunities and such), or incorporeal ones that make excellent use of the rubbles and walls. Demons, abberations, undead (oh my!)- twist it and play it right, and it might be a blast.
(also, if you bring in competitors, some discussion might ensue, since surviving this requires cooperation... in here comes the paranoia- how far do you trust these guys?)
oh, one other, a bit crafty idea- suppose that the distortion of the Mournland doesn't jsut hide the Artifact's location, it also distorts it to some kind of monster! when the party fight it, and land the first serious blow, they suddenly get a flash, seeing it as the warped artifact, crackign where it was hit! now a new complication arises- they need to capture it, alive, and get it to the edge of the mournland (which could be a task all unto itself, depending on the creature- Morph, Medusa, or a highly charming creature such as the succubus might be interesting). if you are adding competition, you can even make it more problematic- the other group doesn't want to retrievethe artifact, they want to destory it... (this could turn out interesting with regards of the paladin, who learns they actually escorted a henious abomination out of the mournladn, protecting it from harm!)

another location: the Valenar/ Hobgoblin battle field, lost in time. (forgot it's name, it's under one of the region's descriptions. Darguun or Valenar) the artifact was known to be carried into battle by a mage/ cleric/ bard of ancient Dhakkan. in a battle against Valenar forces, both armies (a small region), got locked in time, and every so and so time the battle field appears again, for a limited time...
the party (and their competitors) learn that the fortress is about to appear, and the estimated location (you might do a little quest to find the exact place, perhaps travel to a small goblinoid tribe and consult their spirit shaman). the challange is to get there on time (with the competitors trying to sabotage their efforts, and they should succeed tin doing this at least once), going inside the zone, facing the two ancient armies (you could use different weapons, armor, spells, materials, feats, language, and so on), find the artifact, and get out in time, before they are locked inside as well!
the time and the competitors are an obvious complication, but so should the alien era- different manerisms and language could highly affect social skills (excellent roelpalying opportunity), spells might be cast somehwat differently (a negative to the spellcraft to identify spells) and so on. a unique complications can come to elves in Hobgoblin territory, and to all other non halfling races- the hobgobs and elves never seen them before! (this was happened before the humans reached Khorvaire). soem might think them as demons, or such. i don't even want to think what they'll think ofthe warforged.
a unique challange that youcan create, is that none (or most)of the party's equipment doesn't traverse with them to shis "time bubble" (at least anything that isn't proper to the era). now they need to deal with the places weapons, armor, versions odf potions and such... again- arrange this right and it makes quite a challange.
i think that gaining the artifact would require dealing extensively wit hthe fighting sides, probably performing a service or inflitration job to gain favour. you could throw the whole gamut of weird beasties as war mounts here- dinosaurs, simple abberations (rust monters cavalry?), magical beasts (wyvern riders) and more.
as to the artifact- perhaps it's a in a middle of a small open colloseum, dedicated to one or more of the dark six (Dhakanni style. by a kno religion check the party might gain some insight) the artifact might create all kinds of magical effects to bolster the troups (barbarian rage or moral bonus for fury, lightning and wind effects for the devourer, partial resistence to magic from the shadow, and so forth), and there are some dedicated monsters guarding it, not to mention some of the priests. (this could turn into a huge major battle, with the characters trying to get to the arifact, while everyone tries to stop them. if they negotiated with the Valenar, they might get help, that might enable them to get to the artifact. oh well they negotiated affects how much help they get.
to further compicate things, youmight say there are several copies of the artifact... if they shut the wrong one off (you need to decide how it's done), the real artifact summons some creature (there should be an outsider ortwo to begin with). or, the protecting outsider's strength is realy devestating. the party needs to find a way to get to the artifact (diversion? perhaps a sacrifice? illusion?), with out being utterly crushed by this creature.

i'm abit tired, so i can't think of any more locations and special challanges now, but i will. one last thing- an example of how you could make the medusa and succubus encounter more interesting:

- a single level of fighter for any of them:- suddenly they can wear custom made full plate armor (or some other armor that fits better), and even a shield (a tower shield could be especially usefull if you're using ready action to go under cover when the mage casts his spell... but it weighs much). also, give them the "weapon expertise" feat, or use the Total Defense option, and you got more AC. the medusa need not realy attack, one look can kill, no?and the Succubus will use her hightened defence to focus on her spells. there are probalby other ideas with other classes (sorcerer skips to mind- expeditious retreat, grease on the fighters before a kiss or a look, and so on..)
- potions, potions, potions: cure wounds potions, bear's endurance, cat's grace, expeditious retreat, fly (for the medusa), haste, gaseous form (have the walls/ floor of the place contain many cracks or holes, and suddenly the succubi appears behing the wizard...), mirror image (sure the warrior can hit her, and her, and her... but that gives the medusa at least 3 looks) all of these duplicate many known spells. why not use them
- Minions for the Succubus (preferably eyeless): she should start with some at east (due to charm monster), and there should be a close source of more monsters (spider/ scorpion/ snake pit? somehing else). that why she could easely "call upon reinforcements". don't forget- she will try to use her charm on the Tank type, and her kiss (preferably after invisibility/ gaseous form/ tanglefoot bag) on the wizard types...
- in any case, the battle ground should allow the succubus to fly, this is a major advantage for her. the Medusa should hopefulyl be able to start the encounter fairly close, for shock value (hiding behind a curtain, pile of former victims, or such). you might have the medusa Elvated, behind some cover, peppering arrows. whomever tries to reach her must climb not averting his eyes (and face her stare), or averting his eyes (and suffering a minus toi his sclimb, and to spotting herrolling her coverto fall on him...
- have the place contain many intersecting and running tunnels. if things gettough for the lovely pair, they retreat, anduse their knowledge of the place to ambush the party (from the back? when they sleep?) maybe they use secret doors that can be easely opened jsut from one side (the rogue can open it, but it gives them time to escape).
- if the the succubi is aware of the party approaching, the succubus can do what she's famous for- decieving people, seducing some, and then kissing them goodnight... imagine the party about to rest, the succubus the nappears as a member of e acompetitor team, a vicimt of this place, something else believable (if you realy want them to believe have her fight on their side for a battle or two). then, when they stop to rest, she takes guard with a spell caster (best if he is allready sympathetic to her). she confides in him, asks for his comfort, bla bla bla bla (good roleplay sequence, the player might think this is a side quest, or a cohort requirting). then, as things get a bit tense (and the rest are asleep), she kisses him/ her, while grappling. several rounds later, the ruckus should be enough to wake the party, and the succubus escapes laughing or cursing (your decision), not revealing her true form. (gaseous form, though other ideas are possible). the player will surely remmber it, and the party might be daunted that the spellcaster can cast far less today. (or at least reuqires restoration). note: without atime pressure, this is utterly useless...
this could work with the medusa as well, with some ort of "alterself" spell, (she might play blind for the time being, until the sitation is in her favour.). the Succubus is better at it though.

again, there could be other complications:
- the patron told them a profecy part that forbade them to harm a certain person. they find he is in a competitor group. when they reach the medusa and succubus, the succubus is his form(or someone else the party likes), faking a fight against the heavily baricaded medusa. as the party tries to get the fake succubus to safety, while others start fighting the medusa, the succubus suddenly revelas her form, to devestating effect, aswell as splitting the party.
- the place orarea where the medusa and succubus residesalso hold many creatures (a community of humans/ other humanoids?) the party care for/ does not wish to see harmed. a large group ofthem are shackled and surroundign the medusa, and she threatens to turns them all to stone if the party doesn' retreat. if the party attacks, then themedusa either start transforming them all in mass (all had blinfolds tied to a rope?), or maybe the succubus drives them in fear and frenzy towards the group (see rules for mobs in the DMG2 i think.
- if they haven't been stopped, the competitors might intervene somehow, according to their agenda. their actions could be malicious, or accidental, but they should complicate things somehow. (a druid casts entangle while the party tries to escape. a cleric casting day light, when the party cast darkness over the medusa, an artificer who fails his use magic device, someone running after the medusa actually offers her cover againstthe wizards ray attack).

there are probalby many more ideas. these are but simple samples. allready too tired, so i'll go to sleep. hope your game, and encounters turn out challanging and fun. i think that was the point, no?

quotemyname
2008-03-03, 06:32 PM
yea man... those are some really great ideas! i think i can make pretty good use of them or at least some of them. esp the ones involving the seductive duo of the succubus and the medusa... with all of the effects that i think i have planned for those two, i think that just the two of them might actually be enough to challenge the party. it would be below ECL meaning they could take them out pretty easily, but i doubt they would be able to see through their guise! might even get the party to waste a healing potion on one of them feining injury! i think things are comming together quite nicely now!

EvilElitest
2008-03-03, 11:44 PM
World travel always helps in a setting like eberron
from
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