The steady rise in CR/EL

Quasqueton · Jul 8, 2004

How transparent or seamless is the steady increase in CR/EL in your campaign? Is there ever a time when the Players say, "What happened to all the goblins we used to run into all the time when we were 1st level?"

or "Wow, its a good thing we're now 10th level, so we can take on this new, rising danger in the kingdom."

or "So where was this massive, rampaging, monster of destruction before we reached 20th level?"

Quasqueton

Piratecat · Jul 8, 2004

Heard in my game: "That dragon's so old he's a first edition dragon! Let's get him!"

It's not unusual for me to have wussy monsters attack the group, quickly realize their mistake, and beat feet out of there. I'm also a huge fan of using organized and tactically sound low-CR enemies to challenge the group in ways that they aren't used to. It provides a change of pace and an easy victory, and that's often lots of fun.

Rodrigo Istalindir · Jul 8, 2004

I just throw a couple kobold arcane archers into the mix. Keeps the party on their toes. With the ability to add class levels to mooks, things aren't always what they appear to be.

the Jester · Jul 8, 2004

Well, just because the pcs are higher level doesn't mean the rest of the world is; it just means they have to seek out more difficult challenges and go to more dangerous areas. And low-level bandits and stuff still assault them from time to time, but they rarely have random encounters cuz they rarely just travel overland (it's all about teleport, wind walk, gate, etc).

wocky · Jul 8, 2004

I let players assume that they're still running into low level random encounters, but we just don't focus in them.

JoeGKushner · Jul 8, 2004

My playes sometimes pick up on the NPC's. "Man, I'm not fighting that. I've heard..." and then if they seek out those creatures, they die. Giants don't stop being giants because the players aren't high enough level to face them.

The opposite is also true. One demon warlord was using gates to move large numbers of troops around and the party wound up having an encounter with one troop (50) and wiped them out.

Aaron2 · Jul 8, 2004

Quasqueton said:
How transparent or seamless is the steady increase in CR/EL in your campaign? Is there ever a time when the Players say, "What happened to all the goblins we used to run into all the time when we were 1st level?"

Sometimes I'll mention low level monsters in passing, such as, "After you defeated the orc guards, you finally come to the temple door." I also make a point to specify regions that are more wild and dangerous. Early adventures take place near town in civilized areas. As the party levels, they go further and further into with wilds.

Aaron

Arnwyn · Jul 8, 2004

Quasqueton said:
Is there ever a time when the Players say, "What happened to all the goblins we used to run into all the time when we were 1st level?"

It's not really seamless, but no, they never ask those questions, either. Simply put, at higher levels they don't want to fight those little piddly goblins - so they simply don't bring it up because they don't really care. (To my players, asking the above quoted question would be like telling me they want to fight them again - and they most certainly don't.)

Further, the characters travel a lot in my campaign, so they never worry about where the "massive, rampaging, monster of destruction" was before they were 20th level, because they were likely in an entirely different place at that time. And speaking of "time", getting to 20th level takes a fair amount of it IMC, so that passage of time affects their expectations as to what they'll encounter.

reanjr · Jul 8, 2004

Quasqueton said:
How transparent or seamless is the steady increase in CR/EL in your campaign? Is there ever a time when the Players say, "What happened to all the goblins we used to run into all the time when we were 1st level?"

or "Wow, its a good thing we're now 10th level, so we can take on this new, rising danger in the kingdom."

or "So where was this massive, rampaging, monster of destruction before we reached 20th level?"

Quasqueton

My 10th level players are still fighiting orcs, kobolds, goblins, etc. What's wrong with yours?

You have to scale the adventure, sure, but you can do it in more plausible fashions than upping monsters.

Adding levels is the easiest way. The orc tribe that the players almost annihilated at 3rd level is now regrouped under a powerful charismatic leader who holds a grudge. He now has an elite force of barbarians and fighters and dedicated shaman.

Powerful creatures such as dragons can terrorize huge swaths of land. It is possible that the local dragon never noticed the area the PCs are from until just recently.

This is all the DMs job in making his world a living breathing place. Unless you just want to hack 'n' slash or simply don't care about consistency, which is fine too.

Cor Azer · Jul 8, 2004

Piratecat said:
Heard in my game: "That dragon's so old he's a first edition dragon! Let's get him!"

It's not unusual for me to have wussy monsters attack the group, quickly realize their mistake, and beat feet out of there. I'm also a huge fan of using organized and tactically sound low-CR enemies to challenge the group in ways that they aren't used to. It provides a change of pace and an easy victory, and that's often lots of fun.

Yup, I like doing that too. As the characters in my game are knighted advisors to a lord vying for a kingdom under civil war, they deal with the grunts of the opposing army fairly quickly... but they'll sound be discovering that the other lords vying for the realm also have elite knights.