Pandemonium in the Veins

[Trellian]

I don't know if you are familiar with this adventure, it was in the Dungeon issue 96. Anyway.. the heroes are gladiators taking part in a tournament for the team championship. In the first match they meet 3 brothers and their hell hound pet, and if they win, they will face 3 other gladiators in the final.. a yuan-ti and his two allies.

My dilemma is as follows... is this team contest supposed to be a team vs. a team.. or must it always be the same number on each side? As in most cases of pro wrestling tag team. And will the hell hound count as 1 gladiator, or not? My group counts 5 members, and as I see it, they will have to choose 4 of them for the first match, and 3 of them for the second match. Most of Dungeons adventures are set for 4 players, so maybe the team contest is supposed to be a 4-gladiator contest? Maybe Team Tongue must fight 3 vs 4? Any thoughts?

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

Definitely Not Tag- team!

The important thing to consider is how balanced the challenge will be.

I'd recommend trying to let all your players fight together at the same time. If you need to adjust the callenge, you can add another brother or another hell hound or whatever.

Or bump up the progression ( HD etc.. ) on the Yuan-Ti etc...

Whatever you need to do to keep the encounters challenging.

 

[Trellian]

Well, all the opponents are of a lower level than the pc's, so even if they are numerically even matched, the players have the advantage of levels. In addition, they have quite a deal of magical equipment, and the NPC's have not.

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

Never be afraid to modify a published adventure. You are really handcuffing yourself if you aren't willing to do make adjustments.

If you like the basic plot, you can easily make adjustments to the Encounter/NPC's/Monsters.

BY:


adding levels/HD,

better equipment,

increasing the number of opponents

providing the foes substantial cover

fighting while the PC's are wounded /resource depleted



There are dozens of ways a good DM can modify a published adventure without too much work.

If you wanna post your PC's basics, I'll suggest some adjustments for an encounter based on the module ( I have the magazine) to give you an idea of excatly how to do this.


We are running a less than regular Gladiator Campaign. Check out this thread for some Gladiators I have posted for the game:

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37102

 

[Trellian]

The group consists of the following:

Human Fighter/Rogue/Master of Chains 4/1/3
Halfling Rogue/Barbarian 1/7
Drow Rogue/Psychic Warrior 2/6
Human Cleric 8
Human Rogue/Harper Scout 5/3

The rogue/scout is not a good fighter type.. he excels at interacting with npc's, diplomacy, that kind of stuff. So he is the least likely to fight. If I choose to go with the equal numbers thingy, I reckon he will never fight, and that the drow will miss the match with Team Tongue.

I have already boosted the levels of the opponents to a certain degree (3-4 levels each).

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

OK, the first thing you need to do is figure out your party level:

Disclaimer: there are always exceptions to the below ( opponents with powerful items, broken CR's etc...) But these guidelines should get you close.

The basic rule is that, a party of 4 PC's should average their levels to get your party level. If you only had 4, that would be easy =8. But since you have 5, your Party level is really more like a 9. So you need to try and model encounters for an average of Encounter Level(EL) 9 - but not ALWAYS 9.

You probably want to keep your EL's for this group in a range of 7 to 11. Below 7 will be too easy, Above 11 may be way too hard, so therefore, either may not be very fun.

A common mistake is to think that an EL = Party Level ( an even fight ), but that is not the case. The game is designed for an even encounter level to use about 20% of the party's resources.

So how do you get to your EL?

One basic guidline is that CR=EL for an encounter with a single creature. Remember that Level is usually equated to CR too, although there are some exceptions. But close enough.

But what if you have more than one creature?

Having two opponents of the same CR/Level only increases the EL by 2.

So two Level/CR 7 opponents would be EL 9

Four Level/CR 7 opponents would be about an EL 11

Four Level/CR 6 opponents would be about an EL 10

Something more difficult:

2CR 6's + 1 CR 5 + 4 CR 1's = ?

About an EL 9 ( 2CR 6's =8 and together the CR 5 and 4 CR 1's add a little difficulty, but not much )

OK so lets look at the module: pg 41 : The Red and Yellow, Part 1- Bath (EL6) Assuming Alfonse sets the beasts on you: 2 displacer beasts (CR4) & Alfonse Drellus, Ftr2. {CR4 x2 = 6 (see above) + nothing for Alfonse as he does not add a significant additional threat, especially since the displacer beasts or Alfonse will not fight to the death.

Adding 2 displacer beasts makes this an EL 8, right?

2 displacer beasts = EL 6 ( add two to EL when doubling creatures) , So 4 = 8!

If you want this to be an EL 9 encounter, increase the number of displacer beasts to four, and make Alfonse 7th level or so, and give him a magic sword and a magic chain shirt, or some other gear appropriate for his level.

So - lets see - what do you think you should do to #10 on page 46 to make this a higher EL?