Running a 4th Ed 1st level campaign

[Halivar]

How would you run a 1st-level campaign? Assuming you don't want to use just kobolds, is there yet any place for community-created monsters n' things? I ask because, now that we have some basic monsters, can we yet extrapolate the information we need to create custom monsters? My gaming group is now very interested in running a 4th Ed. game, having run with the DDXP characters and finding them barrel-loads of fun. The characters were so fun, we realized that we could easily play a whole campaign with them and be satisfied with leaving them at level 1.

 

[yorik]

if you take a look at some of the other posts you can find around 17ish monsters that range from lvl 1 to 4 including a dragon

 

[Halivar]

Yeah, I'm trying to collate them now. I was wondering if anyone had started projects for new community-created 1st-4th level monsters to tide over extra-extra-early-adopters.

 

[whydirt]

Well you could probably take the kobold stats, swap out a few of their special attacks with powers from other monsters (or even from the PC ones), give them a fresh coat of paint, and call them some other type of humanoid without much fuss.

I doubt the players will pick it up.

 

[Celebrim]

I have good news and I have bad news.

The good news is that since NPC's no longer obey the same rules as PC's and are built with just a general template, you can create any sort of monster that you want. In particular, the attacks and abilities of a monster are likely to be unique to that monster. So, you can invent anything you want to and not have to worry about whether the numbers are exacting.

The bad news is the same.

 

[Henry]

...So, you can invent anything you want to and not have to worry about whether the numbers are exacting.

The bad news is the same.

According to Massawyrm's review, this isn't quite accurate; apparently when the rules get here there will be some baselines to follow by level and role (brute, skirmisher, etc.) and you can flex within that average number. (His example he gives is if a given creature role/level has 5 average damage, then it doesn't matter if the numbers are a solid 5 damage per hit, or 1d8 dmg per hit, or two claws for 1d4, etc. So you have room to improvise, but there are some guidelines to help keep you from accidentally screwing your players over.

(Or, to put a different spin on it, if you absolutely MUST screw over your players, the guidelines will help you hit the mark. )