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Foolster41
2008-04-26, 12:31 AM
So I'm a first time GM and I'm working on my first campaign. It's going to be a no-magic campain (W/ some magic artifacts at least but no PC casters) I have a general idea of the world and the main villan, and I thought I'd shoot it up here and get some feedback to see if it makes sense and isn't too silly.

I have players and characters lined up. I have a half-elf ranger (No magic varient), a dwarf fighter and a elvin rogue (Who also has a thief background). (Actually there my dad and two bros. Only the fighter has played D&D before.)

So basicly in the first part to get them all together a boat crashes on an island and there is a small quest there. on the island they find a sword (+1).

The world is pretty small and consists of two human kingdoms, a elvin kingdom, a dwarvin kingdom, a lizard-folk nation, a large orc nation to the northwest and a small halfling area (Though it has no real formal goverment and is more a series of tribes.) There was some war between the "four kingdoms" (Dwarf, Human kingdoms, elvin and even halfling) until there was a larger conflict where they joined against the Orcs. In present time, there is some racial mixing in the four kingdoms, but the Orcs is feared as a looming threat.

When they come back at one of the human kingdoms, they will find a warehouse on fire. Inside is a woman who says her name is Mallory and tells them that she was trying to stop someone from an orginization called "closed fist", which is a secretive human group dedicated to killing off non-humans. She then sees the sword (I would assume they still have it since it is a good sword.)and wants to join the group. If they do not let her join for some reason, she will follow them.

The truth is, she is not human at all, but an outsider named Xesh. She is working with her father, Xen (Who is known as Mallory) to overthrow the four kingdoms.

Mallory/Xesh tries to lead the party to her own means. The sword is a important artifact that is linked to a group known as "the cult of power," and is a tool for gaining control of the group. She tries to get them to assainate leaders of the kingdoms and blame the other kingdoms, (Though actually getting the party to do that might be hard, but if the chance presents itself.)
She leads them into attacking smaller segments of the closed fist, to get them angry without damaging them, or getting the orcs in their kingdom to the northwest angry. She leads the party in to getting a amulet, a artifact that will lead them to control of a hidden knowledge to open a portal to Xan's homeworld, allowing soldiers to come as part of his plan. Once they have the sword and amulet she will either try getting them to deleiver it to Xan/Candid or if not that, steal them.

The main plot basicly is, where there is war, Xan will present how if given power he can take control (with his own troops and the loyalty of the four kingdoms) to end the war, united under a magnanamous leader. (He needs to be shamoozing with the loyals of course, getting well known) then summoning an army to hold his control, plus the army of hte cult of power.

So, there it is. Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks!

FlyMolo
2008-04-26, 12:56 AM
I'm also a first time DM. My plots aren't nearly as well thought out as this. Bravo.:smallbiggrin:

My two main worries: Underpowered classes getting owned by hard CR monsters, and the players cottoning on. The players are smart (could be), and they might get it, and work out what's going on. Prepare for that to happen. The players might also just kill her. Prepare for that too. Players are weird like that.

But without magic, your fighter is going to be hard-pressed to keep up with hard CR monsters. And by hard, I don't mean higher. I mean things that have a very specific threshold of power over which they're easy, and under which they're a TPK. One example: hydra. With improved sunder or spotted far away= easy. Close to, no imp. sunder, and a hydra makes an easy tpk, unless you have really clever players. Also, no dragons. They're really hard for their CR, and your average low-level party fights a CR-appropriate encounter with a housecat-sized dragon. You're better off with draconic kobolds.

My advice: Throw out the CR restrictions. They don't reflect at all what you're doing here. Try lots of little monsters at the party, to try and gauge how tough they are. If they defeat your monster too easily, give them mook allies. Stomping through kobold Warrior 1's is gratifying and provides a distraction from the kobold fighter two with Combat reflexes and a spiked chain.

Without magic, all flying enemies are tougher, anything that's naturally invisible is likely to result in a TPK, ability damage is tougher, and wounding weapons are much scarier. You might want to homebrew a use for Heal that lets you actually heal damage. DC 20 heal check and 1 minute to heal 1d8+(amount roll was over 20, up to +5) might be good.

Foolster41
2008-04-26, 01:28 AM
Thanks for the feedback. Actually the island's going to have kolbolds.

A good point on the CR. I don't know about throwing it out but I'm going to try keeping it low to start (very easy to easy) abd build up if they look bored and try to keep things fairly mundane as far as enemies go. (Spectral, flying, dragons etc.)

EDIT: That is Spectral, flying, dragons etc. won't be used.