I am so doomed...Advice?

[Beowulf DW]

I've finally begun my first D&D campaign, and I think that I'm doomed. I'm playing with a small group of friends; there are four of us, including the DM. There were supposed to six of us, but the other two bailed on us and we had to postpone our first session by two weeks. We finally started our little adventure last week. Here's the thing: we created our characters when we thought that there would be a samurai and a paladin accompanying us, and I don't know if our DM has made the proper adjustments to account for our reduced tactical presence. Our party now consists of a human monk (that's me), a halfling rogue, and a chaotic good cleric who took a hit to his alignment one minute into the session by killing a squirrel because it was perched on a tree that refused to answer a question (he got a critical on the squirrel and ended up knocking down the tree in the same blow). The rogue has, on two different occaisions, attempted to disguise himself in the skins of the creatures we've killed. The first time he did that, he almost got himself killed by the cleric, who failed his spot check and ended up attacking what he thought was a zombie-wolf.

We started at level 1 (we're still there) and we probably won't get past level 5 in this campaign.

I've had a lot of fun, so far, but I worry about what the future holds. Our cleric has been poisened, and my monk has contracted some kind of disease. When the session ended, the DM commented that he hadn't expected ability damage this early, and that statement didn't exactly fill me with confidence.

Anyone have any advice? I mean anything that you think might help.

[Farlion]

I've had a lot of fun, so far, but I worry about what the future holds.

Enjoy the fun and don't worry too much about the future.

From the sound of it, all of you are pretty new to RPG, you will eventually find your style of play. Most of the people here will shake their heads about the decisions your DM made, but just keep on playing as long as you have fun.

Cheers,
Farlion

[Starbuck_II]

Don't worry, Clerics can cure ability damage with lesser restoration he learns it.

Can you explain this squirrel killing thing and the poison part?

I, rather, think squirrel killing is a good act after when they lived in my parent's attic (few of us got sleep till we dealt with them...sadly temporaily). We sealed up any entrances from outside.
Squirrel moses lead the squirrels back into the primised land ie the attic later, but that is another story.

Why did the rogue disguise himself as a wolf?

[Proven_Paradox]

Don't get too attached to your characters and take their inevitable deaths in stride? <<

Really though, other than playing more cautiously, there's not much to be done at this point. If you were still in the character building phase, there might have been more to say here. Once in play, if you're getting hammered, then try and be more cautious. Don't pick fights when you can sneak around or talk your way out, that sort of thing.

Your could also talk to the DM, and respectfully express your concerns that he has not compensated for the loss of two party members.

But really, remember that DnD is a game. Furthermore, at first-third level, it is very lethal. You're there to have fun; if your character dies, don't take it too hard, roll up something else, and see how long the new guy lasts.

[vampire2948]

If you're having trouble with the difficulty of the campaign, maybe you should try optimizing your characters a little better. Or else ask the DM to make things a little easier.

There're plenty of people on the boards who would help you with optimization, myself included.

[Tyndmyr]

If most of ya'll are new...there's going to be some adjustment. Knocking someones alignment around for killing one squirrel seems a bit extreme, but presumably the DM will adjust things to be more fitting as the campaign goes on.

Don't worry about it too much, and consider a backup character in case you bite the dust.

[Tequila Sunrise]

"PCs are like goldfish -- don't bother naming one until it survives a few months."

-- A very wise gamer.

[Irreverent Fool]

Repeated TPKs are a right of passage. There's a reason there aren't thousands of adventurers running around every game word.

obnoxious
sig

[mostlyharmful]

Great stuff, welcome to the hobby.

[Beowulf DW]

Don't worry, Clerics can cure ability damage with lesser restoration he learns it.

Can you explain this squirrel killing thing and the poison part?

I, rather, think squirrel killing is a good act after when they lived in my parent's attic (few of us got sleep till we dealt with them...sadly temporaily). We sealed up any entrances from outside.
Squirrel moses lead the squirrels back into the primised land ie the attic later, but that is another story.

Why did the rogue disguise himself as a wolf?

Squirrel killing thing: The cleric tried questioning a tree. The tree did not respond, so the cleric, Guy Fawks Fhwdgads the Oar-Rider, decided to punish the tree by killing a squirrel that resided in said tree. He rolled a natural 20 and pulled off the critical against the squirrel. So mighty was the blow that the squirrel exploded and the tree toppled over.

Poisen part: The cleric got poisened during a fight with some snakes. He was on second watch that night, heard the snakes, said "I'm goin' pro! Hard mode, baby!" and proceeded to engage the snakes alone, without waking up his two companions. After the first round, all three snakes had bitten him, one had poisened him and they were still unharmed. The cleric then called for help, leading to our victory.

Wolf disguise: He felt like it. He also tried the same thing with a dire rat we killed. This is going to become his "thing" isn't it?

[Starbuck_II]

Squirrel killing thing: The cleric tried questioning a tree. The tree did not respond, so the cleric, Guy Fawks Fhwdgads the Oar-Rider, decided to punish the tree by killing a squirrel that resided in said tree. He rolled a natural 20 and pulled off the critical against the squirrel. So mighty was the blow that the squirrel exploded and the tree toppled over.

How do you question a tree?! I'm pretty sure trees have vows have silence.

Poisen part: The cleric got poisened during a fight with some snakes. He was on second watch that night, heard the snakes, said "I'm goin' pro! Hard mode, baby!" and proceeded to engage the snakes alone, without waking up his two companions. After the first round, all three snakes had bitten him, one had poisened him and they were still unharmed. The cleric then called for help, leading to our victory.

Wait, he heard snakes? Why were there snakes at the watch?
But yeah that while macho thing was a bad idea.

Wolf disguise: He felt like it. He also tried the same thing with a dire rat we killed. This is going to become his "thing" isn't it?

Huh, that seems like a bad plan without tellin you guys.

[Sipex]

Hey, it could be worse.

You could have a party of gamers who just want to play, while functional it's not very interesting. When people start bringing traits to the board (while remaining functional) things get a lot more memorable.

[Beowulf DW]

How do you question a tree?! I'm pretty sure trees have vows have silence.

He thought that he could question trees. His backstory involves being raised by Communist Catholic Codfish, so maybe he didn't know that trees can't talk?

Wait, he heard snakes? Why were there snakes at the watch?
But yeah that while macho thing was a bad idea.

Yes, despite how crappy his spot/listen checks had been, he was able to hear the snakes that particular time. Our current mission involves investigating why animals in a particular forest have become extremely aggresive, so that explains the snakes attacking us.

[Thane of Fife]

Anyone have any advice? I mean anything that you think might help.

This is just some general advice:

1. DON'T PANIC

2. Never forget your 10-foot pole. This is pretty much the most helpful thing an adventurer can have. Not only can you use it to trigger traps from a distance, to jump really wide pits, as a makeshift lever, and so forth, but, most important of all, when the monsters see you, they'll be all like "You sass that hoopy human monk? Now there's a frood who really knows where his 10-foot pole is."

3. If your party sticks you on watch, you have like a 50-50 chance of getting jumped by a displacer beast... or like 50 of them! (there's some foul language in that)

That's pretty much everything that you need to know. Much happy gaming to you.

[Beowulf DW]

This is just some general advice:

2. Never forget your 10-foot pole. This is pretty much the most helpful thing an adventurer can have. Not only can you use it to trigger traps from a distance, to jump really wide pits, as a makeshift lever, and so forth, but, most important of all, when the monsters see you, they'll be all like "You sass that hoopy human monk? Now there's a frood who really knows where his 10-foot pole is."

...I don't have a 10' pole...is it really that important?

[Kish]

...I don't have a 10' pole...is it really that important?

Indeed it is.

[Beowulf DW]

Indeed it is.

I forgot about that one.

[randomhero00]

You'll get better. Also, learn to like your character but not be attached. They will die permanently eventually, probably sooner than you think. Once you find fun in making new characters and don't worry so much you'll have even more fun.

[Beowulf DW]

Thanks a bunch everyone. My only real fear is that the campaign will end unremarkably (i.e. we get killed by a bear in the middle of nowhere, or something). My hope is that this will all end in one of two ways: in an awesome victory or in an utterly spectacular failure. I think the failure option would actually be pretty funny.

[Proven_Paradox]

Welcome to DnD. With that mindset, you're going to have a lot of fun.

[HailDiscordia]

It sounds like you have had a fairly typical introduction to D&D. Well done. Like everyone else said, don't sweat it to much. The people in your group seem fun and down for all sorts of adventure, what more could you want? And it seems like that squirrel deserved it.

And there is nothing wrong with being killed by a bear in the woods. Some day you will look back on it and laugh, which I think is the point of it all.

[Cisturn]

"PCs are like goldfish -- don't bother naming one until it survives a few months."

-- A very wise gamer.

i love this

[Shyftir]

For real fun ask your Dm that in a future campaign you play as an Awakened Bear that just so happens to have once killed a party of adventurers. See how long this character survives. Report back to us.

Also

Alas I never got that kind of fun, I knew enough before I played to avoid those great parts of the game. I wish I'd been a noob with a totally new DM. Instead of the guy everybody made read the books first so that I knew how to be the DM....

[Greenish]

And there is nothing wrong with being killed by a bear in the woods. Some day you will look back on it and laugh, which I think is the point of it all.

That just begs to be taken out of context and dropped somewhere at random.

[Beowulf DW]

For real fun ask your Dm that in a future campaign you play as an Awakened Bear that just so happens to have once killed a party of adventurers. See how long this character survives. Report back to us.

Uummmm...No?

I don't like being anyone's guinea pig...er...guinea bear.

[Sila Prirode]

Actually, you are doomed. Soon you will start realizing teamwork really does do wonders.
Then you start killing some stuff, and figure, hey, I can even kill that dude over there.
Then DM stops your insane rampage. So you start roleplaying well developed and rounded characters, and have the time of your life.

Then you go to Internet, and learn how to break games. Doomed indeed

[krossbow]

Fool! You killed a squirrel; thats a DEATH SENTENCE.


Soon squirrel girl will arrive and massacre your entire party, and you know there's nothing you can do about it.