Different party, same adventure, big variation

[Bullgrit]

I’m DMing an adventure for a group who has changed up some PCs in the middle of it, and I’m seeing what a big difference a change in roster can mean for an adventuring party.

When I designed this adventure, the party I expected was:

Human druid 6
Human fighter 6
Dwarf necromancer 6
Halfling monk 6
Half-elf cleric 4

The druid, fighter, and monk have more magic than normal for their level, so might actually be considered equal to a level 7 considering that.

This group has worked together many times before, and a major thing the druid brings to their big fights is what we call his “wolf bombs” – summoning dire wolves (and sometimes regular wolves) to tank the big enemies. This allows the fighter and monk to spring attack in and out while the big monster takes out its fury on the larger, closer target – the wolves.

This adventure features some fire environmental hazards, but with the druid’s spells, they easily blew through them.

But the PCs had to pull out of the dungeon for a few days. During this time, the druid 6, necromancer 6, and cleric 4 were replaced with a human sorcerer 6, a dwarf fighter 6, and a fighter 4 (archer).

Going back through the first part of the dungeon, the environmental hazards are more serious obstacles. The PCs took much more damage getting through than they did before. And now they are about to enter a fight with a red dragon – they’ve already stepped into its lair and parleyed with the dragon – and they know it will be a very dangerous fight. (They knew the BBEG was a red dragon from the beginning of this adventure.)

I’m looking at the PC roster now, compared to what I expected, and I’m thinking, “This is going to be ugly.”

I run a status quo game. I’m not a DM who changes an adventure based on changes in the PC roster (especially when the Players have an idea of what they will find – volcano dungeon, red dragon – before going into it), so I’m not going to rejigger this encounter for them. I didn’t create this adventure tailored for the previous roster, but I did have their abilities in the back of my mind when I designed it.

They could have bought stuff to cover for the missing characters – potions of protection from fire, etc. – but they didn’t.

Now, I’m not really asking for advice or anything here. I’m just noting how interestingly different, and even drastically different, an adventure can be for a different party roster.

Have you seen a situation like this? Have you seen how big a difference party roster can make for an adventure?

Bullgrit

 

[Evilhalfling]

lets see they went from having 3 casters to having 1? and now they have 2 fighters?
I have one player who loved 3e fighters, and played a variety of different styles, but all my other players liked having more versatility.

this is 3.x i presume,
the sorcerers very limited spell selection and available scrolls becomes all important. If they are going after a red dragon, in his lair with none of the readily available fire protections....

Hmm actually I rarely had dragons breathe on well prepared adventures, unless the dragon is in a place of safety. He will know from experience that most people fighting a dragon will be virtually immune to fire.

If you have any encounters left to throw at them, have something burn them, and then remark, "You think that was hot, wait till you face our Master."

 

[Bullgrit]

this is 3.x i presume

Yeah. I often forget D&D4 is the default discussion now at ENWorld, and that the new edition is significantly different that it matters for discussions.

Bullgrit

 

[Doug McCrae]

Nerf druids!

 

[coyote6]

I think the largest change was they went from having two people that could cast healing spells, to no people. Plus they lost massive spell selection versatility (a cleric, a druid, and a necromancer, replaced by a sorcerer -- ouch!). That would radically change any party's capabilities in 3e (or 1e or 2e, IIRC).

 

[Bullgrit]

Hmm actually I rarely had dragons breathe on well prepared adventures, unless the dragon is in a place of safety. He will know from experience that most people fighting a dragon will be virtually immune to fire.

I usually have a dragon breathe first thing (or as soon as tactical) for two reasons:

It's classic.

It lets the PCs get value for their prep work -- if they prep for the breath weapon and it never gets used, they feel like, "Why'd we bother?"

Bullgrit

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

It lets the PCs get value for their prep work -- if they prep for the breath weapon and it never gets used, they feel like, "Why'd we bother?"

I totally agree with this reasoning. It's fun, as a player, when your prep work pays off. If I have characters who are immune to poison, I'll design in more poison, not less-- it lets the players feel cool and effective and costs nothing. If the players have prepped for a red dragon to breathe fire on them, letting them get the benefit of that prep is fun.

(Obviously, if there is a good reason for the dragon to behave differently-- say, the PCs are systematically hunting red dragons and the red dragon knows that they are coming and protected against flame-- that's different. But you need a high justification.)

Good luck with the encounter-- it should be interesting, at least.

 

[roguerouge]

Yes, we had: rogue, scout, melee ranger, warlock, warmage, cloistered cleric, paladin. We subbed out the rogue for a druid and the change was remarkable. We had options, we had summoned allies, we weren't dying all the time...

 

[Jhaelen]

This is a problem I have to deal with regularly. My group consists of nine players, but typically only 5-6 show up for a given session. So I do not know beforehand what party setup I'm going to have and it can and probably will change several times within the same adventure (we're dealing with missing characters by simply having them fade into the background).

What I _will_ adjust is the number of monsters in an encounter if the number of characters is noticably lower (or higher!) than what I expected when creating the encounter.

What I will not adjust is the nature of the encounter or the monster types. I'm always trying to have a good mix of all monster types. Right before the session starts, I'll point out obvious missing roles, like: "remember, you don't have anyone with rogue or skill-monkey today" or "today you gotta be extra careful: no cleric!". Then I expect my players to adjust their tactics accordingly.

And it works pretty well. It took them awhile to figure it out, but as of now, they've made sure they can replace any character in a pinch. They've bought a couple of potions, scrolls and wands and generally get more careful and creative.

I recently had great fun watching them struggle their way through a nasty encounter-trap without any trapfinding/disable device support.

 

[Bullgrit]

I just realized I never followed up on this.

The result of the dragon encounters was essentially a TPK. (Was encountered twice -- jumped in, got roughed up, retreated, regrouped, rested, went back in, got roughed up again.)

There were 5 character deaths against the dragon. 4 of them were killed by fire damage.

Bullgrit