Yesterday me and four other people, we ran through "the Hive," a <i>Dungeon</i> magazine adventure for 5th-level characters appearing in issue 127. "Ability to speak dwarven a plus," I said. Other than that, I let everybody do their various things, no restrictions or limits on common sense, because hey, it's a one-shot.
* Thorgrim the dwarf knight 5
* Olga the dwarf cleric 5 (domains Luck and Strength)
* Golinda the dwarf dragon shaman 5 (green)
* 1274-A2 ("Dash") the warforged fighter 2/barbarian 3
I was really curious as to how well this group, with its lack of an arcane caster, lack of skill points to speak of, and enormous bucket of armor class and hit points (everyone's AC was in the 18 to 21 range, IIRC, and Olga had the fewest hit points at 36, while the other three were in the 60-65 range due to frighteningly high con scores and large hit dice). Answer: frighteningly effectively. That was in large part due to the choice of scenario, as "the Hive" features a large number of low-CR enemies and just a few that are actually significant level-appropriate threats. 5th level is I think probably the sweet spot for this kind of group, and especially the dragon shaman; at higher levels the ability to do area damage is less great, because you're less of the time fighting clumps of weaky things.
Golinda the dragon shaman was twinked out nine ways from Sunday (one feat that reduced the rounds between breath weapon uses from 1d4 to 1d4-1, and another that made her breath weapon cling for half-damage the next round that cancelled out the first feat, and mostly a Con of 22 meaning the breath weapon save DC was huge), because that is how that player rolls, and she'd have been pissed if her element had been anything but acid (the Hivebloods had cold resistance 10, fire and sonic and electricity resistance 5, but no acid resistance), but in a one-shot you have to make these allowances. Olga's player asked me during character creation whether there would be any undead, and I felt that I did the right thing by saying no, such that she did not go into an ant nest with an undead-slaying-optimized character. So that was a factor.
Another factor was the group's willingness in general to burn potions, which if it hadn't been a one-shot I dunno. They got 9000 gp apiece to equip themselves with, and that mostly included some potions and wands, and maybe if I had declared that single-use items cost 4x, and that multiuse items like wands had 1/4 the charges, things would have gone differently.
But there are a lot of breakpoints where things could have gone differently. The group, searching for the body of a fallen dwarven hero, stumbled across an ant nest contaminated with formians, and rather than move through the nest from its entrance tunnel to its end, skipped to the end (an old guard tower, all the doors and windows of which had been bricked over, and which was accessible only from the tunnels below) by battering through the wall of the tower. The Hive got plenty of warning they were coming, so when Dash the warforged penetrated, he got a faceful of <i>scorching ray</i> and had to make a save against the formians' <i>dominate</i> effect, which he failed. If the spellcaster had delayed, instead of readying an action, Dash would have had 34 more hit points with which to pound Thorgrim into the dirt, and things might have gone differently. If Golinda, rather than Dash, had been in front, then she would have joined the Hive instead of him, probably, and the Hive would have benefited immensely from her dragon shaman aura powers (just like the Paladin's aura powers in WoW, btw). If Dash had rolled a little better, if the Hive had installed a sally port so that all the hiveblood creatures and ants could have engaged the group at once, if Olga hadn't prepared <i>stone shape</i> and resealed the hole in the wall just after the vanguard of the Hive's forces emerged (essentially splitting their forces)...
Basically the PCs pounded on the dungeon, and some of the dungeon's worst monsters came out and engaged them, and then the entire rest of the dungeon bubbled out the main entrance and engaged them, and it was very touch and go and a gigantic melee, but the PCs were victorious, in that they survived. The formain taskmaster and the hiveblood queen (which was inhabiting the body the PCs were in the area to recover) escaped, and took their treasure with them, to eventually rebuild the Hive further from civilization. I'd call it a draw, really, neither side got their victory conditions.
So it was unusual, in that it was basically the first third or so of the adventure as-written, but then rather than go into the dungeon, the PCs spurred on a big melee, in two parts, so the the entire last two-thirds of the session were a gigantic fight. Usually I hate games where there's a gigantic fight and nothing else happens, but this was pretty interesting inasmuch as it was touch and go and interesting things were happening.
I think next month I'll try a one-shot where everyone is a primary arcane caster, and there's less fighting, but this was pretty cool.
* Thorgrim the dwarf knight 5
* Olga the dwarf cleric 5 (domains Luck and Strength)
* Golinda the dwarf dragon shaman 5 (green)
* 1274-A2 ("Dash") the warforged fighter 2/barbarian 3
I was really curious as to how well this group, with its lack of an arcane caster, lack of skill points to speak of, and enormous bucket of armor class and hit points (everyone's AC was in the 18 to 21 range, IIRC, and Olga had the fewest hit points at 36, while the other three were in the 60-65 range due to frighteningly high con scores and large hit dice). Answer: frighteningly effectively. That was in large part due to the choice of scenario, as "the Hive" features a large number of low-CR enemies and just a few that are actually significant level-appropriate threats. 5th level is I think probably the sweet spot for this kind of group, and especially the dragon shaman; at higher levels the ability to do area damage is less great, because you're less of the time fighting clumps of weaky things.
Golinda the dragon shaman was twinked out nine ways from Sunday (one feat that reduced the rounds between breath weapon uses from 1d4 to 1d4-1, and another that made her breath weapon cling for half-damage the next round that cancelled out the first feat, and mostly a Con of 22 meaning the breath weapon save DC was huge), because that is how that player rolls, and she'd have been pissed if her element had been anything but acid (the Hivebloods had cold resistance 10, fire and sonic and electricity resistance 5, but no acid resistance), but in a one-shot you have to make these allowances. Olga's player asked me during character creation whether there would be any undead, and I felt that I did the right thing by saying no, such that she did not go into an ant nest with an undead-slaying-optimized character. So that was a factor.
Another factor was the group's willingness in general to burn potions, which if it hadn't been a one-shot I dunno. They got 9000 gp apiece to equip themselves with, and that mostly included some potions and wands, and maybe if I had declared that single-use items cost 4x, and that multiuse items like wands had 1/4 the charges, things would have gone differently.
But there are a lot of breakpoints where things could have gone differently. The group, searching for the body of a fallen dwarven hero, stumbled across an ant nest contaminated with formians, and rather than move through the nest from its entrance tunnel to its end, skipped to the end (an old guard tower, all the doors and windows of which had been bricked over, and which was accessible only from the tunnels below) by battering through the wall of the tower. The Hive got plenty of warning they were coming, so when Dash the warforged penetrated, he got a faceful of <i>scorching ray</i> and had to make a save against the formians' <i>dominate</i> effect, which he failed. If the spellcaster had delayed, instead of readying an action, Dash would have had 34 more hit points with which to pound Thorgrim into the dirt, and things might have gone differently. If Golinda, rather than Dash, had been in front, then she would have joined the Hive instead of him, probably, and the Hive would have benefited immensely from her dragon shaman aura powers (just like the Paladin's aura powers in WoW, btw). If Dash had rolled a little better, if the Hive had installed a sally port so that all the hiveblood creatures and ants could have engaged the group at once, if Olga hadn't prepared <i>stone shape</i> and resealed the hole in the wall just after the vanguard of the Hive's forces emerged (essentially splitting their forces)...
Basically the PCs pounded on the dungeon, and some of the dungeon's worst monsters came out and engaged them, and then the entire rest of the dungeon bubbled out the main entrance and engaged them, and it was very touch and go and a gigantic melee, but the PCs were victorious, in that they survived. The formain taskmaster and the hiveblood queen (which was inhabiting the body the PCs were in the area to recover) escaped, and took their treasure with them, to eventually rebuild the Hive further from civilization. I'd call it a draw, really, neither side got their victory conditions.
So it was unusual, in that it was basically the first third or so of the adventure as-written, but then rather than go into the dungeon, the PCs spurred on a big melee, in two parts, so the the entire last two-thirds of the session were a gigantic fight. Usually I hate games where there's a gigantic fight and nothing else happens, but this was pretty interesting inasmuch as it was touch and go and interesting things were happening.
I think next month I'll try a one-shot where everyone is a primary arcane caster, and there's less fighting, but this was pretty cool.
