I'd like some ideas for this one.

[Tilla the Hun (work)]

I have an interesting situation developing that I'd love to hear suggestions for.

If you are from Houston and know what Questars are - read no further. This means you D, you C, and you M because I know y'all frequent here


That still means you, C.








What I have here is a party where individuals have suffered death previously, causing new characters to be created at level-1 and added to the party, as well as new characters joining who join at lowest party level -1 (again, a house rule).

This leaves me, currently, with a party as follows:

Lvl 8 Wiz7/Cle1
Lvl 7 Fighter
Lvl 5 Cle4/Rog1
Lvl 4 Monk

Total magic items in the party total less then 5000gp, something which I intend to correct in the coming mini-adventure.

The background:
As a form of law enforcement agents (think FBI special agents, in a medieval, magic rich, world), the team is dispatched to the east for (gasp: cliche alert) the purposes of discovering why caravans coming in from desert towns are dissappearing. They've just recently defeated a small band of evil, death worshipping cultists, at the near cost of TPK.

My original concept for this desert trip had to with two warring nations, one fomorian and one thri-kreen (yes, it's a home brewed world) that the players would get caught up in in any of about 16-20 ways that I was prepared for.

What I was not prepared for was this party mix. Outright fights are likely to lead to TPK (which I don't do unless the party is outright foolish), but I still want to fix the magic item sitch. If I fix the magic item sitch, then any fights they get into, they might easily overwhelm.

So two questions: 1) How should I fix the magic item issue given this background, and 2) What magic items should they get? They essentially have a few minor 1st level scrolls, potions, and maybe a +1 weapon (I think the gray ooze ate it off the now retired paladin...)

I'm thinking a pair of immovable rods (monk or rogue to use), maybe some wands/rods of metamagics for the wizard, but I need some good ideas as to what to give them and how to make them earn them.


And yes - they've had more magic than this previously, it just got eaten/used for the most part.

 

[MerakSpielman]

I take it they didn't recover any magic worth squat from the cultists... That was a missed opportunity.

You could railroad them into realizing they need more powerful magic: "rumor is that the X can only be defeated with the Sword of Y, but the owner disappeared doing Z over in a nearby cave/valley/mine/city and nobody has heard of him or his Sword since..."

Not very subtle, but it could be an opportunity for some detective work and a brief dungeon crawl, where you could insert a few items.

 

[Tilla the Hun (work)]

I take it they didn't recover any magic worth squat from the cultists... That was a missed opportunity.

You could railroad them into realizing they need more powerful magic: "rumor is that the X can only be defeated with the Sword of Y, but the owner disappeared doing Z over in a nearby cave/valley/mine/city and nobody has heard of him or his Sword since..."

Not very subtle, but it could be an opportunity for some detective work and a brief dungeon crawl, where you could insert a few items.

Heh - that'll work - I can add in some bandits to 'explain' the caravans. They seek out the bandits, get some loot, think they are done, and lo and behold, another caravan gets wiped out Since the bandits 'were' a problem with a few caravans, they should get some decent loot.

I hate not being subtle, btw

They didn't get any from the cultists because they accidentally let them get away. They nearly died invading the cultists lair, as the cultists had trapped it to the hilt. They retreated post haste, minus several magic items (gray oozes rock, in my opinion)

 

[MarauderX]

I would give the fighter and monk some extras to boost them. That way they might survive a brutal battle that otherwise wouldn't challenge the Wizard, and they don't get chewed up in the process. Right now the party has the backline power with the wizard so help the others with the front lines.

Give the monk and cleric something to boost their AC, and the fighter a nifty weapon that suits his PC. Let the wizard go for a while as far as magic items, perhaps a few scrolls to add to his spellbook to placate him until the others catch up a bit to him in a few levels.

 

[LostSoul]

So two questions: 1) How should I fix the magic item issue given this background, and 2) What magic items should they get? They essentially have a few minor 1st level scrolls, potions, and maybe a +1 weapon (I think the gray ooze ate it off the now retired paladin...)

1) You could have them stumble on some kind of ancient treasure cache, picking up some really handy items that level with the characters (ie. get better as the PCs spend XP on the items). This could lead into some adventure as well, as others want to get these items, cultists are upset their lord's stash was disturbed, and they woke something dark and dangerous when they took these things.

2) Give items to the Monk and Cleric/Rogue. Weapons, armour, skill-boosting items, etc. You want to balance out the lower level characters with the high ones, so consider the items that you give out "special powers" that the other characters are gaining. Eventually these low-level characters are going to catch up, so balance out the magic distribution eventually over the course of a few levels.

 

[pogre]

Instead of throwing the treasure cache at them why not let them encounter an eccentric alchemist/herbalist living out in the desert. He has a number of oils, salves, potions, and other creations no one in the "civilized world" has heard of:

Tortoise Oil - Applied to steel it makes it much harder - jumps up AC.

Mind salve - allows a caster to learn one more spells at their highest level.

Potion of Hardiness - Gives a PC a HP total of 55 for 24 hours. A way to help the lower level PCs.

You get my main idea - and you can buff up their next few treasure hauls to slowly make up the deficit. What would they have to pay or trade for such concoctions? Ah, now that is a source for numerous adventure hooks.