Help need adventure ideas

[Garthanos]

I am having a mental block, not sure if here is where to ask.. but I have two players, had them build their characters at 6th level to make up for lack of other pcs, figure I would use lower levels encounters, one of the pcs has read the adventures in the back of the dmg. One character is a warden and the other is a shamaness they are part of a single organization he is basically her body guard. Anybody got ideas to share?

 

[fba827]

you may not want to make the encounters less than a level lower than the PCs - otherwise the monsters will be too low to reasonably hit the PC's defenses and the PCs won't have as much of a threat at all.

Also, with 2 PCs they'll have more trouble with multiple targets, they'll quickly get overwhelmed. So try not to go for the hordes of minions theme as a recurring thing (but it could be an occasional thing).

As for adventure, since they are both part of the same organization, that makes a great place to turn for ideas.

Perhaps they are on a quest to retrive 'something' for the org.
Thus some adventures: a) track down the item b) get it c) figure out how to use it d) protect it d) get it back to the organization

Or, if you don't want there to be a 'home base' or easy patron for the PCs, perhaps the campaign can center around the organization members all being killed and one of the remaining few left. Thus, they have adventures to a) warn/protect other remaining members b) find out what's going on c) stop and/or avenge the murder of their friends

Or a combo of the two (they finally get the item but come back to find everyone has been killed in their absence, and the only reason they were safe is because they weren't there).

But, anyway, my point is, look to that organization that they belong to for starting adventure ideas. What is the organization, what would the organization be interested in, etc.

 

[Garthanos]

I was thinking that lower encounter levels, might make up some for the numbers... I might consider using some house rules to make up a little for the action economy. Like allowing the heros minor action to do another basic attack, and allow expending a healing surge if to grant an extra saving throw each round ( so they dont get locked down ).
The patrons are not... necessary sympathetic or the ones who are, are not known or at liberties to do much obvious helping I think.

The shamaness is a child prodigy "a unicorn priestess" so there is resentment over her capabilities and they are sending her on a mission at least some hope will excede her capabilities, her companion was picked by somebody sympathetic to her and is also seen of someone extraordinary potential though less obvious (he isnt a kid with adult capabilities).

Hmmm item retrieval might be better than a diplomacy mission.. I was considering sending them to a place with conflicting ethics to there origins ie the city state has organized monster battles and they have a religious anti monster attitude, ie monsters are supposed to be exterminated not played with.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I am having a mental block, not sure if here is where to ask.. but I have two players, had them build their characters at 6th level to make up for lack of other pcs, figure I would use lower levels encounters, one of the pcs has read the adventures in the back of the dmg. One character is a warden and the other is a shamaness they are part of a single organization he is basically her body guard. Anybody got ideas to share?

"Making the world a better place": A group of towns and villages is plagued with several problems. Each of these might be just a single encounter, or its own adventure:
- Villagers are found dead. They were always alone and show no injuries except self-inflicted ones. What killed them? (Fell Taints?)
- A group of bandits is harassing travelers along the main road. They might finance or support other criminals and rebels.
- Strange things happen in the Swamp (Bullywug, Far Reamls incursion?)
- Undead activity emanates from an ancient field of war and might turn into a direct threat.
- Goblin or Hobgoblin Raiders have attacked outlying towns repeatedly. (Is it a sign of a major attack?)
- A Young Dragon has occupied a village and is demanding its tribute.
- A Wizard and his apprentice have gone missing, exploring an old mine shaft.

Think of something tying this all together, for example:
- The Dragon might ally himself with the Goblinoids. The Bandits work for him, in fact they are members of the occupied village.
- The Wizard and his apprentice have uncovered an ancient treasure vault and been imprisoned or killed by its Eternal Guardians. The vault contains a valuable item of historical relevance and magic power, sought after by the Goblins. If the Dragon knew, he might want it for himself.
- The Undead react to ancient magic from the treasure vault. They might be a second defense line of the vault, or the source of their energy is stored inside the vault and can now "leak" out.
- The creatures in the swamp are Bullywugs that have stumbled upon a rift to the Far Realms. They are worshipping it, and their minds widen the rift, allowing Fell Taints and other abberant creatures to slip through.

 

[Garthanos]

Another note my pc's are not necessarily massively optimized, attribute wise they are more diversified than focused.

 

[Garthanos]

"Making the world a better place": A group of towns and villages is plagued with several problems. Each of these might be just a single encounter, or its own adventure:
- Villagers are found dead. They were always alone and show no injuries except self-inflicted ones. What killed them? (Fell Taints?)
- A group of bandits is harassing travelers along the main road. They might finance or support other criminals and rebels.
- Strange things happen in the Swamp (Bullywug, Far Reamls incursion?) shaft.
- The creatures in the swamp are Bullywugs that have stumbled upon a rift to the Far Realms. They are worshipping it, and their minds widen the rift, allowing Fell Taints and other abberant creatures to slip through.

I like the mystery angle of that villagers found dead... do I have the players find them dead on the way to something else so they feel involved or find the villagers with there families weaping over them and insisting they would have never hurt themselves.... perhaps the pcs are sent to 'investigate the bandits' when at least some of the powers that be know there is much more going on...

 

[Rechan]

I ran a short campaign with 2 people (two strikers, for that matter!). Honestly, two monsters of equivalent level is a fine battle. Or one elite of equivalent level. Even one monster of level +2 if you're feeling cheeky. BUT, you have a defender that doesn't do a lot of damage, and a leader; they're not going to be killing anything quickly, and I don't see them moving around a lot. I'd definitely either use smaller hit points on foes.

Sprinkle in two minions and it works fine.

Since both are Primal classes, the Organization is likely a circle of druids or something equally nature-y. So the two could be tasked with trying to better the world: Help cleanse this Far-Realms blight over here. Protect these nature spirits over there.

For the mystery angle, perhaps nature spirits are dieing, and there's no evidence as to how they're being slain. A dead nature spirit means that whatever it governs is now out of control - a river without a river spirit means rampant flooding, clogging with predators, sick or dead fish. Not to mention that it's a power vacuum - either another, more powerful spirit needs to handle it (which means more work), or something ELSE (a demon, a vicious fey) might take it over, making it a much more dangerous situation.

Or the organization could be like frontier taming. The duo are sent out with colonists to make sure they don't mess things up in the new place they're going. The colonists might need to negotiate with the local primal spirits - there could be taboos and traditions that the colonists don't know, and so the PCs are there to be envoys to nature for the colony.

 

[Garthanos]

I ran a short campaign with 2 people (two strikers, for that matter!). Honestly, two monsters of equivalent level is a fine battle. Or one elite of equivalent level. Even one monster of level +2 if you're feeling cheeky. BUT, you have a defender that doesn't do a lot of damage, and a leader; they're not going to be killing anything quickly, and I don't see them moving around a lot. I'd definitely either use smaller hit points on foes.

Sprinkle in two minions and it works fine.

Its good to know that keeping the number of adversaries in check can atleast let the heros work... are you talking like some of the house rules to reduce monster hitpoints so things dont drag so much (because the party lacks strikers?).

Does increasing the number of adversaries make things too dangerous because the dice make it easy for things to be swingy, even if I build say a level 3 encounter... where attacks against the pc's will miss the majority of the time in a particular encounter they might get a set of bad luck.. and the pc's will tend to be reliable in hitting but dont get enough attacks to be really dangerous compared to the number of adversaries they are against?

Since both are Primal classes, the Organization is likely a circle of druids or something equally nature-y. So the two could be tasked with trying to better the world: Help cleanse this Far-Realms blight over here. Protect these nature spirits over there.

The organization is primarily lead by yup naturey priestesses (witch might be druids/wizards/clerics/avengers) with an attached order of Green Knight (Wardens with some Rangers) that focus around Gaia mother earth individual spirits are her servents.

For the mystery angle, perhaps nature spirits are dieing, and there's no evidence as to how they're being slain. A dead nature spirit means that whatever it governs is now out of control - a river without a river spirit means rampant flooding, clogging with predators, sick or dead fish. Not to mention that it's a power vacuum - either another, more powerful spirit needs to handle it (which means more work), or something ELSE (a demon, a vicious fey) might take it over, making it a much more dangerous situation.

hmmm these druids definitely leaders of their people... like the classic druidics...I have a place where nature spirits dying would be quite likely I do like your descriptors of the side-effects... perhaps we need some purification ritual to help out an area whose spirit is not dead just tainted and injured.

 

[Rechan]

Its good to know that keeping the number of adversaries in check can atleast let the heros work... are you talking like some of the house rules to reduce monster hitpoints so things dont drag so much (because the party lacks strikers?).

Does increasing the number of adversaries make things too dangerous because the dice make it easy for things to be swingy, even if I build say a level 3 encounter... where attacks against the pc's will miss the majority of the time in a particular encounter they might get a set of bad luck.. and the pc's will tend to be reliable in hitting but dont get enough attacks to be really dangerous compared to the number of adversaries they are against?

Usually "Swinginess" doesn't happen as much with 4e. A crit may bloody you, but that's it. Wardens in particular look very sturdy to me - more HP than fighters, and the dual saving throws let them kick many conditions in the teeth.

The thing you need to look out for are high defenses. Soldiers are going to slow things down (because soldiers have high def and low damage output). Brutes do the opposite - low chance of hitting, low def, high hit points and damage output.

Honestly, just play it by ear. Experiment. Use 3/4ths of a monster's hit points, and see how that works. If it's too fast or too slow, adjust.

hmmm these druids definitely leaders of their people... like the classic druidics...I have a place where nature spirits dying would be quite likely I do like your descriptors of the side-effects... perhaps we need some purification ritual to help out an area whose spirit is not dead just tainted and injured.

There are other things you can play with, too.

The nature spirit could be very unhappy. To use a river spirit again, maybe the locals who fish or travel up and down aren't giving respect to the spirit like they used to, or they're polluting. Or the spirit could be greedy - it wants more tribute, more power, sacrifices, etc - and the locals aren't willing to give that.

Maybe some humanoids have started to worship the river spirit, and are giving animal/human sacrifices in exchange for hampering the locals' travels/fishing - the spirit takes the sacrifices, and starts hampering the locals. In this situation, the river spirit is just siding with who is giving it more power; it has no morals and no loyalties, so from its perspective it's doing nothing wrong.

So the PCs' job is to go knock some sense into the offending party.

Or, the people who use the river want to expand the river - dig more. This is good for the River spirit. But for the forest or earth spirit, whose territory is getting dug up and flooded, isn't happy with this development. So the duo could be sent to broker a deal between Spirits and locals.

The PCs could be tasked with an escort mission. Perhaps there is a sacred ram that the Nature Priests plan on sacrificing during a great celebration - and someone has to bring the sacred ram to headquarters. The PCs are tasked with escorting the ram - and of course, things want to attack the ram - hungry monsters, enemies of the druids who want to disrupt the ceremony, etc.

 

[Doug McCrae]

A town is being plagued by rat and insect swarms. Turns out this is due to a tribe of goblins who have infiltrated the town and are living in ruined buildings, garbage dumps or the sewers. A goblin wizard has discovered an item or ritual which controls rats and bugs.

An NPC has inherited an old mansion. Trouble is the area is now overrun by monsters. He needs the PCs help to clear it so he can return to his family home. Or maybe it's a haunted house, the NPC is scared to stay there alone.

A thief has stolen a powerful item from the shadar-kai. If the item isn't returned they will invade. The item is causing the dead to rise in its vicinity.

There's a conflict between two powerful local families, one dragonborn and one tiefling, over a matter of honour going back many years. The dragonborn control mercenaries and the tieflings are involved in magic.