Dungeons. (Maybe dragons)

[Spee]

Dnd Crap, dont read if you dont want.


Alright. So I have this campaign running with level 3 players, who are tasked by a royal order to find a resurrection spell. A cult of ethergaunts (think incredibly smart, incredibly skinny aliens/monsters that exist on a different plane) has found this, and they are trying to use it to empower themselves to immortality. It their job to go steal it.

Now, the ability to resurrect is pretty spiffy, so, I've drawn inspiration from a whole crapload of things, namely diablo 2 for the setting.

So, after arriving in the Ethereal plane, the players look at this door onto this massive temple-y thing. Its got a main Dais, with 3 rings surrounding it, that look like they should move, but they ar eout of order. Ooooh, Puzzle time. There are 3 other dungeons in the area. One marked with Fire, one with Water, and one with Earth.

Now, Im particularly proud of these dungeons, which is why Im posting them.

WATER - Players have to go to Altar, and move it forward, exposing a staircase under it. Staircase leads down, and exposes them to a ledge, with a 400 foot long incredibly deep pit in front of them, and no way to cross. However, if they investigate the landscape around them, they find a plate on the gorund that can be moved. Doing this, they discover a pump control room of sorts. Turning the pump control OFF results in tha monstrous pit flooding to the surface, meaning the players can swim across it. Once they do so, however, there is a trap that engages the pit's floor to begin moving skyward, pushing all that water out, and flooding the entire temple, slowly. Players have to rush to the opposite end of the hallway, and find another plate on the ground, which reads "FAITH IS YOUR ALLY." Lifting this, they see nothing but whirling, crushing gears beneath them. However, the water appears to be cleaved by something as it falls down into this room. If they jump down onto the middle, they find there is an invisible bridge over the gears(thank you, indiana jones) This invisible bridge extends over a great lot of nothing(and I mean nothing - All they can see is black, and the opposite end of this bridge) Upon entering, they are presented with a room with 4 daises - 3 on the walls, and one on the floor. The room reacts to each individual entering the room, but starts freaking out when the sorcerer enters. If he casts a spell onto each wall dais, it activates the elevator, which takes them down to the final level, which is guarded by a cult member, and posesses the crank to the outermost ring of the main door puzzle.

However, the crank representes .5 of the actual turn ratio. Meaning, a full turn on the crank is only a half turn for the outermost circle. Heehee.

FIRE - Upon walking in a room, there is a massive, endless, fiery pit, and, on the opposite wall, it reads "Pillar of fire, pillar of Ice, Pillar of Earth, Pillar of Ice". However, upon throwing something down there/jumping, they find it isnt endless at all, and its just illusion magic covering up the floor. Continuing down the hall presented to them, they are now in a fully enclosed hallway. There are 4 traps in this hallway - Each trap is a mechanism that releases one wall of the hallway, which immidiatly plummets into fiery doom. Because I like seeing my PC's succeed, the last trap in this hallway has a much lower "Hey, whats that? check than all the others. But, by that time, there should only be a floor. Upon getting to the other side, they are presented with 3 whirlign pillars of colored flame - Red, yellow, and blue. There is a dais on the other side which has 4 slots. There is 2 tokens in each of the columns of flame (which is simply for looks, it doesnt do damage or emit heat) and, depending on if they remember, they either get fireballed, earthquaked, or allowed through to the next side, which is essentially a series of pillars over a sea of fire. The door is to the right, but, further back, there is a smaller, more inconspicuous door. Door to the right involves much less risk than the door to the back, considering much more hopping and potential falling-to-doom. The back door posesses a magical weapon, which, in this particular campaign, is priceless, considering there ARE no magic weapons. Right door leads on to Red Cult memeber, and the crank to the second circle of the main door puzzle.

EARTH - Yet to draw up plans for this one.


So, what do you think? Do I have enough trouble in store for them for essentially, ressurect at will?

[Firefly]

The temple of Earth Wind and Fire sounds pretty bad-ass, no trouble imagining it at all. I'm curious how it develops and how it gets played.

One thing I want to address (my reason for replying):

Resurrect at will is a huge issue - on the one hand, no one likes losing their character. On the other, having that ability makes them essentially immortal and it authorizes a Rambo sort of attitude. Your PCs won't give a shit about potentially dying, they know as long as one of them survives they can get resurrected. No penalties except the downtime.

What I've done is every resurrection drops their Resurrection Fail down ten percent. You start at 99% - if you die, it goes to 90% (assuming you don't fail). If you die again it drops to 80% so on and so forth. If you fail at any time, that's it. Roll a new character. This applies to resurrect-like spells (there are loopholes if you have cagey, wily players). I also dock them a permanent Constitution point (and Charisma point, depending on how they died). That generally keeps the Resurrect abuse in full check.

[Spee]

The temple of Earth Wind and Fire sounds pretty bad-ass, no trouble imagining it at all. I'm curious how it develops and how it gets played.

One thing I want to address (my reason for replying):

Resurrect at will is a huge issue - on the one hand, no one likes losing their character. On the other, having that ability makes them essentially immortal and it authorizes a Rambo sort of attitude. Your PCs won't give a shit about potentially dying, they know as long as one of them survives they can get resurrected. No penalties except the downtime.

What I've done is every resurrection drops their Resurrection Fail down ten percent. You start at 99% - if you die, it goes to 90% (assuming you don't fail). If you die again it drops to 80% so on and so forth. If you fail at any time, that's it. Roll a new character. This applies to resurrect-like spells (there are loopholes if you have cagey, wily players). I also dock them a permanent Constitution point (and Charisma point, depending on how they died). That generally keeps the Resurrect abuse in full check.


I might use that Resurrect penalty. It'd keep them from dying, at the very least. I might not dock the Con point, considering they die a lot (mainly my fault, but I'm a big fan of "Incredibly-strong-opponants-until-you-find-the-weak-point)

I had originally planned to use a once/day kinda thing, But the percentile chance works much better.

[JetRaiden]

since I cant understand what you guys are talking about am I not a nerd?

[Spee]

since I cant understand what you guys are talking about am I not a nerd?


Considering I didnt really use that much DnD lexicon in my original post, it just makes oyu dumb :p


/joke

[Heavygain]

One question, is DnD like warhammer where you have to buy individual pieces? cause if not i may go out and start playing.

[Spee]

All you need is a PHb, which costs about 30$ to buy. Miniatures are optional, but useful. Dice are a necessity, but those are cheap.


With those, youre ready to PC. DMing requires a plethora of books, and a long time planning and tweaking. But youre God, which has its perks.


Key of DnD acronyms, for future reference.


PC - PLayer Character. You play the Game.
DM - You run the game. Youre god.
PHB - Players Hand Book.
DMG - Dungeon Masters Guide
*d4/6/8/10/12/20 - roll * dice of 4/6/8/10/12/20.
DC - Dice Check - A number that needs to be met in order to succeed at the task.

My advice, if youre going to start playing, PC a lot first. I played one game, and started to DM. It was reeeeally hard at first, but I'd like to think I dont suck as much anymore.

[Firefly]

It can be done, like Spee said, with a Players Hand Book and a good set of dice. Wizards of the Coast has stores in major malls (and non-major malls) where you can get this stuff. It also helps to know what sort of character you want to play, as they have source books and additional material. I still use a lot of 1st Edition and 2nd Edition stuff upgraded to this D20/3d Edition shit. Classic stuff in there, great adaptable house rules.

I have a lot of dice, in case I ever have players who are lacking. You only really need one full set, but it helps to have at least two in case you need multiple dice.

Figures - just about anything goes. I use Warhammer miniatures, old DnD miniatures, the 3d Edition miniatures, some of the stuff that comes with Reaper miniatures and a lot of other non-mainstream minis. It helps to have visual displays so your guys can see the action. I'm a big fan of tabletop maps, so I have one of those big butcher-board pads that came with one-inch grid on it... I make my maps on them with dry erase markers. I also have laminated campaign maps, dry erase boards, and my latest addition is a gaming table with one-inch gridsquares drawn and traced on it, with a sheet of clear plexiglass over it so we can draw with dry erase on it and not fuck the lines up. Very handy.

[Bighoss]

unless the players have like level 20+ (Can it go to 40 with the new rules?) characters the entire plot seems way way too out there.

Maybe its just my interpretation of how I played but I made my plots mostly involving the normal humans, dwarves, elves, gnomes etc. With a few weird monsters here and there. I also made any kind of magical weapon extremely rare, sometimes you could hire some skill blacksmith to do something to your weapon. The only magical weapon I think they found during the entire campaign was The dagger of Burning. Each succesful stab increased its fire damage by one point in that confrontation. The metal would slowly heat up the more blood it was exposed to. It maxed out at extra fire damage but I thought it was just kind of a cool concept for a magical weapon.

I made only a few campaigns. They were all geared towards the below level 10 characters though. My favorite involved having to help escort this guy who was transporting a doppleganger he found. On the way you get overwhelmed by some bandits and doppleganger turns into a chick and starts yelling that we've been torturing her and the bandits release her but than she turns around and kills a few of them and runs off. The rest of the plot took place mostly in a city where you had to figure out who the hell the doppleganger had become. I made him the head priest for the city of their major religion and the people get pissed when you start accusing him and you have to prove it etc. Was kind of cool.

[TheN00b]

Hell, my brother's spent more than $100 on DnD thus far, a real nerd :). He's got the PHb 3E, DMHb 3E, MMI 3E, MMII 3E, ELhb 3E, tons of dice, and a shitload of accessories :)

[Infernus]

Erm... I was thinking of trying to get into DnD just see what its like, but erm... with everypost I get more and more confused...

*bashes head on desk*

[TheN00b]

Here's a very condensed guide, written by myself, that should explain some thing to you, while also probably forgetting really important stuff. Read it at your own risk:

Creating a Character:

Step 1) Choose a race. The generally available races for your character are Human, Elf, Half-Elf, Gnome, Halfling, Dwarf, and Half-Orc. Each race has it's own strengths and weaknesses, as described in the Player's Handbook (PHb).

Step 2) Choose a class. The classes of DnD are as follows: Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, Wizard (Fotgive me if I've accidentally left anything out, I'm doing this on the fly). The following classes can cast magic: Bard, Cleric, Druid, Paladin, Ranger, Sorcerer Wizard (I do not consider Barbarian Rage to be 'magic' per se). Each class has abilities that are more important for them to get: See the PHb for more information on this.

Step 3): Roll for abilities. To roll for abilities, take 3 D6's (six-sided die), and roll them. Record the total value of the roll, and repeat this process until you have six values. There are six abilites in DnD: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma. Strength benefits your attack roll with melee weapons and adds a positive modifier to melee (weapon) damage, as well as improving your Bash skill and several other things. Dexterity improves your AC (Armor Class, which says how difficult you are to hit) and your Reflex Save, as well as adding to your attack roll for ranged weapons. Constitution improves your hit points (I hope you know what those are) and your Fortitude Save, as well as improving several skills. Wisdom improves your Will Save, as well as imroving several skills. Intelligence improves your initial and per level Skill Points, as well as adding to several skills, and Charisma improves several skills. Keep in mind that some abilities are more important to certain characters (e.g. Sorcerers will want a high Charisma). Having a certain ability number affects the ability modifier. An ability modifier is a number, positive or negative, that is drawn from your ability number. Below is a list of the number to modifier 'ratio':


18=+4
16, 17=+3
14, 15=+2
12, 13=+1
10, 11=+0
8, 9=-1
6, 7=-2
4, 5=-3


As an example of how ability modifiers work, having 14 Dexterity would increase your Armor Class by 2, as it's modifier can tell you.

Step 4) Pick Skills and Feats. Skills are abilities that can be increased, and are very useful for the game. Some examples include: Swim, Heal, Discipline, Lore, etc. Feats are abilities gained every two levels, that are either activated at the players' disposal or are automatic at all times. Some examples of these include: Power Attack, Cleave, Dodge, etc.


Playing the Game:

1) The general currency of DnD is the Gold Piece (GP). Also part of the standard currency are the Copper Piece (CP), Silver Piece (SP), Platinum Piece (PP), and Electrum Piece (ElP).

2) Fighting. Fighting is a crucial part of DnD, and one that is both easy to learn and impossible to master, if you'll forgive the cliche. To attack, you must be holding a weapon (duh). Pick up a D20 dice, and roll it. Take the roll value, add to it your pertinent ability modifier, add to it your base attack bonus, add to it any weapon bonus, and ypu have your attack value. If your total attack value is greater than your victim's AC, then you hit. Otherwise, you miss, it's that simple... Sortof.

3) The Round. Rounds are the process in which DnD orders important situations. When you're travelling on the open road, the DM (Dungeon Master, the one who's controlling the game) will not generally use rounds, but when you're chasing someone, or in combat, rounds come into plays. Rounds use the basic idea that there is a unit of time in which everyone will make their attack, or move, or use a skill/feat. During a round, every person gets one action. They can choose to move, or attack, or whatever. If you have a base attack bonus that gives you more than one attack, you attack twice, or three times, or whatever, for everyone elses's one attack.


There , that's it. Guys, please help me by including everything I missed.

[Kuraltai]

unless the players have like level 20+ (Can it go to 40 with the new rules?) characters the entire plot seems way way too out there.

Maybe its just my interpretation of how I played but I made my plots mostly involving the normal humans, dwarves, elves, gnomes etc. With a few weird monsters here and there. I also made any kind of magical weapon extremely rare, sometimes you could hire some skill blacksmith to do something to your weapon. The only magical weapon I think they found during the entire campaign was The dagger of Burning. Each succesful stab increased its fire damage by one point in that confrontation. The metal would slowly heat up the more blood it was exposed to. It maxed out at extra fire damage but I thought it was just kind of a cool concept for a magical weapon.
That's the deal though .. DMs vary from one extreme to the other .. something us PCs have to deal with. :p

Spee: sounds like a cool dungeon, let us know how this works out for them. I'm in agreement with Firefly though .. don't make it so they will do random acts of stupidity simply because they know they can be revived. Whether you use the percentage or penalty or both .. give them an incentive to stay alive and not use the ability too often.

[Happy lil Elf]

unless the players have like level 20+ (Can it go to 40 with the new rules?) characters the entire plot seems way way too out there.
Are you talking about 3rd edition as the new rules? If so then you can hit 40 yes but it is by no means a limit. In 3rd/3.5 there is no hard level limit although I really don't reccomend playing past about 30 as combat becomes a massive headache even in the upper 20s. Combat for a group in their 30s involves a LOT of die rolling even if you had a party of just fighters. Once you start to get into the mid 30s you can start taking on things like some of the nine princes of hell with little difficulty which is a pain in the ass for the DM because the players can start ripping the world apart.

[Firefly]

Let's not forget the Epic-Level Campaign Handbook.

[Happy lil Elf]

Well, yeah, you do need that if you want to play past 20. They do a pretty poor job on CRs in the eqpic level stuff too which is also a pain. Although at that point how you leveled/what classes you levele and what your equipment is can make all the difference in the world too.

Point being it's very possible to play past 20 now, but it's really almost more trouble than it's worth. I've found that starting a new party/campaign when your current one gets up there in levels (20-30ish) is much more fun in the long run.

[Firefly]

If you have to absolutely rely on the Epic Handbook then you're probably in need of some imagination. I don't use that sissy-ass Challenge Rating stuff. I take a guy, a bad-ass with whatever junk and shit he has on, maybe a few nice magic trinkets, whatever... the XP is only half the reward. The other half would be his items, armor, weapons, whatever... and some sweet intel (information). XP isn't the only reward- creatively finding new and better things also helps make it fun. After all - why settle for a mere 1000 XP when you can rip everything off and use it to get a few more levels?

[Spee]

As a joke, I was gonna throw a hecatoncheries at my gourp of level 3 PC's.


I scrapped the idea, thinking they wouldnt find it as funny as I would.