Author Topic: A tad bit of help with my Campaign please.  (Read 46457 times)

Maze

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Re: A tad bit of help with my Campaign please.
« Reply #30 on: April 23, 2009, 05:07:36 PM »
Don't give 'em to means to blow things up, I guess. Or why don't you turn it around and have a bunch of people want to kill them and attempt to kill them by blowing their houses or place to sleep.

clockworkjoe

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Re: A tad bit of help with my Campaign please.
« Reply #31 on: April 23, 2009, 05:20:40 PM »
No, it's okay to let them destroy the things if they understand the consequences. The slaves tell them that they are untrustworthy and too dangerous to live with them. The slaves treat them like unstable lunatics and fear and hate them as much as the people who enslaved them. Then, if your players are bent on destruction, let them find the slavers and wage a war against them.

But the players should know that their actions have consequences and they are NO LONGER HEROES IN THE EYES OF THE EX-SLAVES. This should be motivation enough to change.

dragonshaos

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Re: A tad bit of help with my Campaign please.
« Reply #32 on: April 23, 2009, 05:35:03 PM »
No, it's okay to let them destroy the things if they understand the consequences. The slaves tell them that they are untrustworthy and too dangerous to live with them. The slaves treat them like unstable lunatics and fear and hate them as much as the people who enslaved them. Then, if your players are bent on destruction, let them find the slavers and wage a war against them.

But the players should know that their actions have consequences and they are NO LONGER HEROES IN THE EYES OF THE EX-SLAVES. This should be motivation enough to change.

I plan to have their actions do just that.  Ive told them that every decision they make has an impact on everything.  The wizard was tackled by the slaves and forced to wear shackles again.  And he was told that he is not to use his magic unless otherwise stated while in the camp.  I asked a fellow DM-ish friend of mine and he told me to just let the guy get killed by the slaves to be an example to the others.

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clockworkjoe

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Re: A tad bit of help with my Campaign please.
« Reply #33 on: April 23, 2009, 08:17:55 PM »
And honestly if your players just want to wreck shit you should retool your campaign to reflect that.

dragonshaos

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Re: A tad bit of help with my Campaign please.
« Reply #34 on: April 23, 2009, 10:12:46 PM »
Oh, its definitely set up for them to just kill everyone.  Ive prepared for that.

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codered

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Re: A tad bit of help with my Campaign please.
« Reply #35 on: April 23, 2009, 10:22:47 PM »
is this an evil campaign?
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dragonshaos

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Re: A tad bit of help with my Campaign please.
« Reply #36 on: April 23, 2009, 10:37:25 PM »
Its a constantly changing idea with several endings depending upon the actions the characters take at this point.  Depending on who's side they ally themselves with, unite everyone, or kill everyone, will determine the kind of middle/end-game content.  for example, lets say they all kill the other species in the valley.  Only their village is left, Then what happens is in the middle one of the most helpful of NPC's will try to converse with the gods at a secret shrine in the valley (which was under the control of one of the species), however in doing so the sight becomes corrupted due to a trinket he picked up earlier in game and he becomes a demon.  He's sealed inside the shrine however and the End game is to kill him and end this unnatural undead attacks on the village.  That's one semi-rough draft of an ending.

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Setherick

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Re: A tad bit of help with my Campaign please.
« Reply #37 on: April 24, 2009, 09:48:17 AM »
And honestly if your players just want to wreck shit you should retool your campaign to reflect that.

I have never purposely wrecked shit in your campaigns...  ::)

This is actually the best advice about destruction heavy PCs that could be given. PCs need to learn that they are actually integral beings in the world they have found themselves in. That they have just as much freedom to do what they want and suffer the same consequences. GM God can't be saving them ever.
"Something smart so that I can impress people I don't know." - Some Author I've Not Read

dragonshaos

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Re: A tad bit of help with my Campaign please.
« Reply #38 on: May 08, 2009, 05:38:08 PM »
Well i've had another session and with only 3/5 of the people there it went really really really fast.  Game time they got through almost a week in 4-5 hours, whereas the previous week with 5/5 people they got through a day in 5 hours.  I believe I now know who my more troublesome players are.  Anyway, I wanted to know if it would be an interesting idea to keep a wiki recording all the things players do and the information they learn about.  I've started one here

http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/village-builders

And i've had alot of fun updating it, even if only 2-3 players look at it.  It's become a way for me to remember what has and will eventually happen.  But in your guys opinions, should information like this be available to players or should it be for them to remember/record all this?

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Tadanori Oyama

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Re: A tad bit of help with my Campaign please.
« Reply #39 on: May 08, 2009, 05:56:37 PM »
My players like to be ignorant. At least I infer that desire from their apparently lack of modivation to understand anything regarding the setting outside the instantly applicable or in the effort to secure additional advantages.

I still record the games and they can have copies if they ask. I haven't done Obsidian Portal because my players don't use it. If they did I would. If your players use it, do it.

dragonshaos

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Re: A tad bit of help with my Campaign please.
« Reply #40 on: May 10, 2009, 04:09:30 PM »
The Warlock in my campaign, and also my girlfriend who is actually excited to finally play D&D, is having some issues with her character.  Given that the Warlock in 4E seems to have few spells and she tends to roll badly on her turn in combat is making her feel useless in a party with the Paladin and his 9+ powers and the Wizard and his AoE attacks and the Warlord who gives everyone bonuses to attacks etc etc.  She feels that her character doesn't contribute to the fights and is thus useless.

She came to me with this problem after a session and I explained to her that even though she tends to roll poorly in fights, she has contributed the the village building more than the other players and is in a sense more popular with the ex-slaves.  I am in no way a DM who plays favorites during a session.  However I do wish for her to feel more useful in combat without having to give her some powerful items or multiple items.  Resources are scarce after all.

So my question is, how can I make a Warlock more effective in combat w/o giving her items/weapons that make her more powerful, if there is a way aside from that.

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clockworkjoe

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Re: A tad bit of help with my Campaign please.
« Reply #41 on: May 10, 2009, 05:10:52 PM »
A level 1 warlock could have as many powers as a level 1 paladin. It just depends on build. What pact is she?

Unfortunately, if a player always rolls poorly, she will not be very effective. That's just a weakness of 4E. There aren't many effects that still do something on a miss.  Perhaps there are some better abilities in Arcane Power.

I would let her rebuild her character so that it can be more effective. Don't give her extra items or powers.

Tadanori Oyama

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Re: A tad bit of help with my Campaign please.
« Reply #42 on: May 10, 2009, 05:20:05 PM »
She needs an 18 in her primary attack stat and to take Weapon Expertise with her implenent (rod or wand, whichever), that's a +5 to attack at first level, +6 if she gets her prime shot. With a +6 at level one shoud should hit anything she needs to as long as she rolls double digits.

There's also attacking the right defense. Eldrich Blast attacks Reflex, most Pact tricks attack Fortitude or Will.

If she just isn't rolling high, than there's nothing to be done for her attack options. If she is considertantly rolling low on the same die she needs to check it to see if it has become rounded or planed and is more inclined to roll low or just get another die.

dragonshaos

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Re: A tad bit of help with my Campaign please.
« Reply #43 on: May 10, 2009, 05:50:35 PM »
Since these were most of my players first time playing d&d and mine too, I asked if they were ok using a standard build set or whatever (16, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10) and they agreed.  I did this because their first characters were either way too powerful (Wizard had 3 18's and his lowest stat was 14) or too low (Warlord's highest stat was 13...).  This way everyone just kind of started out similar and balanced.  Just for these characters however, if they wanted a new character after a few sessions they could roll the stats.

But looking over her stats as an Eladrin Warlock using the Infernal Pact, she gets a +2 bonus to Dex and Int, neither of which are really useful to a warlock at first level whose spells rely on Con and Cha.  Her stats are Str 10, Con 16, Dex 13, Int 16, Wis 12, Cha 13 and she uses Con as her major stat (As a quick note she is obsessed with WoW and plays a warlock on it, who needs alot of Stam/Con and is in a sense basing this character off that).  For whatever her reasons she took Jack of all Trades as her feat too.  She managed to find a staff of fiery might +1 which lets her reroll a fire damage dice, however since its a staff she can't use it as an implement.  Now that I think back the Wizard could sue the staff and she could use his wand he found...

So what i'm getting is she need an implement for sure to help, I know that I need some new dice because the 'extra' dice I have feel really light and everyone agrees that they roll low, which is the dice she has been using. 

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clockworkjoe

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Re: A tad bit of help with my Campaign please.
« Reply #44 on: May 10, 2009, 06:01:30 PM »
well of course she will be underpowered if the other players are cheating. Trade the staff and wand, get some new dice and make sure no one cheats. Force them to use the stat arrays.