DM needs help with unusual party mix(Errat players stay away)

[pqpine]

Well my group rolled up a set of Characters for a new campaign last night. No one was allowed to discuss their class, alignment or race while creating the party. Each was given 4 rank in a Craft or Profession so that they could have some background before before they begin their adventuring career.

This is what we ended up with (all males):

1/2 elf Scout (rogue)
human Sailor (sorcerer)
gnome Alchemist (wizard)
gnome Leatherworker (ranger)
halfling Blacksmith (bard)

I have one other player that could not make it last night and needs to create a new character and I don't want to influence their decision so I have no idea what he will come up with. Not having a cleric won't be terrible as I allow adepts and alchemists to create non-magical curatives and antidotes (but they don't always work right hee hee hee).

The trouble is how do I approach designing adventures for this group? Most of my adventures are about 60/40 combat to interaction and I don't have a huge amount of time to create lots of detailed NPC's and plot twists to keep down the violence factor. Any body! HELP!!!

Pqpine,
DM World of Errat

 

[LightPhoenix]

This is what we ended up with (all males):

1/2 elf Scout (rogue)
human Sailor (sorcerer)
gnome Alchemist (wizard)
gnome Leatherworker (ranger)
halfling Blacksmith (bard)

The trouble is how do I approach designing adventures for this group? Most of my adventures are about 60/40 combat to interaction and I don't have a huge amount of time to create lots of detailed NPC's and plot twists to keep down the violence factor. Any body! HELP!!!

Well, looking at that set-up, your Ranger and Rogue are going to be primary combatants - my guess is you'll have a LOT of buffing going on. You could throw a couple of buffing scrolls their way to make up for their melee inefficiency. Also, you could try and make sure they have plenty of ranged weaponry available to them. A Wand of CLW might not be a bad idea for the Bard either.

On your side of the table, I think the best thing to do is try to emphasize the stealth factor. The Ranger and Rogue can scout ahead for dangers, the arcane casters can use various enchantments to disable rather than kill - especially the Bard.

If you don't want to go that way, I would emphasize long range combat. While this party isn't going to be too hot in the melee department, they should be able to do alright from a distance. Again, you'll have to play up the scouting - if the players know where the enemy is, they can get into a good position beforehand, and strike from a distance. Hopefully they'll be able to weaken enemies enough so that when they get into melee range the Rogue and Ranger will be able to deal with them quickly.

Keep in mind also you're going to have six people, whereas CR and EL is based off of a four person team. So they should be able to handly challenges of the appropriate EL without too much fuss, despite the lack of melee combatants.

 

[alsih2o]

take a combat you have run previously and run them through it. this will tell you a lot about how they are going to handle things.

with this group you can ave more knwledge based questing i owuld think. and therefore can getaway with knowledge based rewards

 

[pqpine]

take a combat you have run previously and run them through it. this will tell you a lot about how they are going to handle things.

with this group you can ave more knwledge based questing i owuld think. and therefore can getaway with knowledge based rewards

I have always been a keen believer in giving XP for non combat Role playing and interesting ideas and plans (regardless of whether they work or not). This group will definately have more of this kind of XP rewards.

 

[Mighty Halfling]

Well since you've posted this as with a Dungeon icon, I assume you are looking for Dungeon adventures that might suit this group.
Might I suggest "Racing the Snake" in Dungeon 105 (Dec. 2003), which I wrote
It's a little high for your party right now (6th level) but it definitely highlights all the areas your looking for ...
A bard's performance skills are needed.
A ranger's outdoor skills are needed.
A rogue's hiding/moving silently skills are needed.
A bard, wizard and sorcerer's abilities to cast disguise spells are needed.
A wizard and sorcerers long distance attack skills are needed.
----
The adventure could provide a suitable basis for an ongoing campaign.
----
Alternatively, I think you're team would do well in the Cauldron series that Dungeon has been assembling in the last year.

 

[Mark]

This is what we ended up with (all males):

1/2 elf Scout (rogue)
human Sailor (sorcerer)
gnome Alchemist (wizard)
gnome Leatherworker (ranger)
halfling Blacksmith (bard)

The trouble is how do I approach designing adventures for this group? Most of my adventures are about 60/40 combat to interaction and I don't have a huge amount of time to create lots of detailed NPC's and plot twists to keep down the violence factor. Any body! HELP!!!

Get some city books and just run a freeform campaign.

Or, have them opposed by another unusual party mix such as...

 

[takyris]

Well, without changing your style, there are a few other possibilities:

1) Describe the environment and encourage people to use it. For example, let your halfling duck under the table, and reward him by giving him cover that doesn't give him penalties to hit. Let people swashbuckle, swinging across the room on a rope as a charge, with a +2 bonus on top of the normal charge bonus. I usually allow anyone to get a +2 bonus to hit by using the environment, either by strategy or by making some kind of DC15 skill check.

2) Ranged combat. All about the ranged combat.

3) Bad guys who actually run away when they get injured.

 

[Skarp Hedin]

I haven't got any advice, I'm afraid, since other people have already given some excellent ideas.

However, I'm quite interested in how your experiment goes -- I had considered making all my players make their characters without any discussion between them, so we wind up with a more random-assortment party, and I'd definitely like to see how it goes.

In my experience, as things go currently, someone winds up getting stuck playing some class they actually do not want to play, because they believe they "need" a cleric, or must have a rogue, or you can't -not- have a wizard or whatever.

So I'd like to see how it turns out for you.

 

[Voadam]

Well my group rolled up a set of Characters for a new campaign last night. No one was allowed to discuss their class, alignment or race while creating the party. Each was given 4 rank in a Craft or Profession so that they could have some background before before they begin their adventuring career.

This is what we ended up with (all males):

1/2 elf Scout (rogue)
human Sailor (sorcerer)
gnome Alchemist (wizard)
gnome Leatherworker (ranger)
halfling Blacksmith (bard)

I have one other player that could not make it last night and needs to create a new character and I don't want to influence their decision so I have no idea what he will come up with. Not having a cleric won't be terrible as I allow adepts and alchemists to create non-magical curatives and antidotes (but they don't always work right hee hee hee).

The trouble is how do I approach designing adventures for this group? Most of my adventures are about 60/40 combat to interaction and I don't have a huge amount of time to create lots of detailed NPC's and plot twists to keep down the violence factor. Any body! HELP!!!

Pqpine,
DM World of Errat

Lower the average CR of your individual opponents but maybe increase their numbers. These guys have low AC and low hit points, don't expect them to do well against tough individual foes who will never miss and do massive damage regularly. However, a rogue and two weapon fighting ranger who come up against low AC foes are going to come into their own quite nicely.

In this scenario the bard is going to be more of a central warrior than he would otherwise have been.

Cure light wound wand is great treasure for either the bard or the ranger.

This will partly be influenced by this last guy, if he plays another low AC character will be different than if he plays a cleric or a tank warrior.

 

[DiFier]

Get some city books and just run a freeform campaign.

I totally agree. I like city stuff better than dungeon crawls with tons of monsters. The campaign i'm in right now is based in Freeport and Highgate (Bluffside). Sure there is the odd monster in a city but mostly you run into people. it makes it more of a thinking adventure than a, look a monster kill it, kind of thing. You can't just walk up to someone and kill them cause they looked at you funny. yes even in freeport, those stories are just that stories. sometimes it helps when you are members (or former members) of the City Watch.