Preserving the Fear Inherent in 1st Level

[iserith]

There are indeed a lot of ways to make failure matter and keep players invested, but in this case I am specifically looking for holding on to that 1st level feel of impending doom for as long as possible. I don't want to necessarily deny players their characters' cool toys, so i don't want to just be stingy with XP or liberal with level-drain, though. I am considering implementing massive damage, or maybe generally up the amount of creatures that poison or other wise force save or die stuff.

Try making death saves succeed on 15 or higher only.

Then switch from 6 to 8 medium to hard difficulty encounters per adventuring day to 6 to 8 hard to deadly encounters per adventuring day.

That ought to do it.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Oofta]

My suggestions, in no particular order:

• Up your XP budget now and then so that you risk a TPK.
• Wear them down. Don't give them short or long rests whenever they want. I find using the optional rules (short rest overnight, long rest several days) helps with this.
• Give your monsters a better chance to hit. I either just use a base +n to reflect a blessing of some power or give them advantage. I favor this over increasing monster HP because I don't want my fights to be slogs.
• Limit powerful magic items. Toys are fun but PCs don't have to glow like Christmas trees.
• Throw monsters in waves.
• Use ambush and separation tactics. Have one monster that does nothing but grab the wizard and run off with them. The ceiling opens up and a rope/tentacle comes down to pull one of the PCs up into the dark.
• Make dying riskier - either it's difficult to come back from the dead or there's some other penalty.
• Borrow madness from Cthulhu. He has plenty to spare.
• Threaten things they care about, not just their lives.
• Have genius level opponents now and then that know the party and their tactics. Leave weaknesses, of course.
• Feel free to customize monsters to make them more effective. Give orcs potions that change their stats to Ogres but have them explode when they die.
• When in doubt, throw a mob of tarrasques. [Kidding about this one. Probably.]

As a DM you can always throw more at the party, the trick is to switch up combats and to have varying tactics to keep them on their toes. Because you're right - people seem to remember that one time when it was just the wizard standing and he had one spell left to save the day.

Good luck!

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Oofta]

Mob of tarrasques?

An intrusion of cockroaches.
A cete of badgers.
A flamboyance of flamingos.
A bloat of hippos.

And a terror of tarrasques.

Almost as scary as a peck of paladins.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Cosigned. I’ve come to dislike any sort of advanced start. You just don’t get the same characters when they just get handed all their power.

As far as bringing a bit of fear and uncertainty to the game, I’d say to not be afraid to set them up with a fight immediately after another. If they’ve just finished a fight with the orc chieftain and his goons, well, right then and there is a great time for his dragon ally to show up. It’s not something you can or should do all the time, but many players aren’t always the best at budgeting their resources, and this can be a nice and dastardly move.

Another thing I’ve found, is that PCs fear uncertainty. My one group was utterly terrified of running into the vampire they had heard was lurking about, because they didn’t know what they were capable of.

Honestly: the most effective tactics I've found is just to start the campaign at 1st level. People who play characters that were once incredibly vulnerable play very differently than those who never had to deal with that kind of weakness.

I'm sure you've seen the posts absout how a DM should start a game with the character's at 3rd level or higher because at lower levels the game is too "swingy" or whatever. I disagree completely, for exactly the reasons under discussion here. The lowest levels are the most characyer-definong part of the game. Skippping them and going straight to superhero mode devalues the play experience for everybody.

 

[Satyrn]

My suggestions, in no particular order:

. . . Give orcs potions that change their stats to Ogres but have them explode when they die.

*yoink*

 

[pming]

I think you are missing an "-er" there.

"Almost as scary as a pecker of paladins"? ...*shrug*... Who am I to judge?

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Oofta]

*yoink*

Concerning exploding orcs, I used that in a campaign ... then the orcs figured out the smaller the creature that drank the potion the bigger the explosion when they died (something I kind of stole from an old original Star Trek show).

I had goblin "artillery" screaming as they were catapulted across the sky, kamikaze kobolds sending people running in terror. It was glorious.