What to do with 1st level orc barbarians

[irdeggman]

Try a barbarian with power attack, raging and a great ax.

Nope it is fine as written. The party should be cohesive enough to handle 1 or 2 of those suckers.

They have crappy saving throws (reflex and Wil) - an orc has a -2 to wisdom so the +2 morale bonus when raging isn't as beneficial as it would be to a human (or dwarf) PC raging barbarian.

Orcs have light sensitivity - so fight him during the daytime.

 

[Shin Okada]

Well, 1st-level characters die often anyway.

An Orc Barbarian may seem to be the worst nightmare against 1st-level adventurers.

But in my experience, against a well-balanced party, a group of four 1st-level Kobold Warriors with crossbows (CR 1 in total) is often much deadly. Worth if they have some alchemical items such as acid flask.

 

[pawsplay]

Does anyone in the party have a ranged weapon? A decent ranged damage spell?

Depending upon your party's size and tactics and the roll of the dice, the encounter could be a cakewalk or a TPK. Run it as is.

If you're really worried about the TPK or some such, as DM, you can always "fudge" in the party's favor. Deus Ex Machina works just as well for players as NPCs.

If I'm not comfortable letting the dice decide, I won't run the encounter. I haven't fudged a die roll in 25 years, probably not going to start now.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Fair enough.

Still, the point about ranged attacks and known party/gamer tactics stands. You know your players far better than we ever could.

If they're good tacticians and have the proper tools at their disposal, run the encounter.

If they're a bit rough around the edges, or the party makeup doesn't have a good long-strike capability or lots of HP, don't run the encounter.

 

[Jhaelen]

Were the 11th level party under funded in equipment?

I dare say I can't see how the orcs hit often if the party properly bought gear for their level.

They should have AC around:
26 AC (okay AC) to 31 (Good AC) to 36 (great AC).
26 for those who wear little armor like mages. 31 for skirmishers/ PC barbarians. 36 for heavy armored dudes.

They had equipment appropriate for their levels but their AC normally (i.e. unbuffed) isn't anywhere near AC 30. They had around AC 25, I think.

The orcs were using masterwork battle axes, had the alternative barbarian class feature Wolf Totem (+4 vs. flanked) and the following feats:
- Power Attack
- Weapon Focus (battle axe)
- Chaos Devotion (from Complete Champion: 1/day as a swift action for 1 minute roll d6 each round: gain +1/3/5 profane bonus to attack rolls or +2/4/6 profane bonus to AC)
- Heroic Spirit (from Eberron Campaign Setting: gain three action points)

So they had +13 to hit (when raging) before activating Chaos devotion or using action points (which on average gets them an additional +5).
They also had a couple of potions but I only had them use one of 'bear's fortitude' to avoid them becoming one-hit kills for the party's blasters.

 

[Noumenon]

They should have AC around:
26 AC (okay AC) to 31 (Good AC) to 36 (great AC).
26 for those who wear little armor like mages. 31 for skirmishers/ PC barbarians. 36 for heavy armored dudes.

Just for comparison, the 11th level NPC mage in the DMG has AC 16, the barbarian has AC 21, and the fighter has AC 25. Your group has really bent the curve.

 

[frankthedm]

Just for comparison, the 11th level NPC mage in the DMG has AC 16, the barbarian has AC 21, and the fighter has AC 25. Your group has really bent the curve.

After the first few levels, NPCs have worse gear than PCs. Plus AC tends to be cheaper than weapons and available from more sources. And if the players pool their gold to get a 20th level caster wand of greater magic weapon, they can thereafter focus all their loot on defense for a long time.

 

[Noumenon]

And if the players pool their gold to get a 20th level caster wand of greater magic weapon, they can thereafter focus all their loot on defense for a long time.

I know the game can easily be broken like that, which is why I didn't ask how he got his AC so high. I have no idea how you do that and I don't wanna know. It's like playing infinite combos in Magic: the Gathering. You can win on turn 3, but you'll have more fun voluntarily restricting yourself to the decks that play the game the way it was designed. All I was doing was pointing out to him that the way the game comes out of the box, winning on turn 8 is good enough. AC 25 is fine.

 

[Herzog]

In my experience, single monsters of appropriate CR/EL often lead to win-or-lose-in-one-round scenario's.

In other words, either the PC's manage to get rid of it quickly (and it doesn't get to use it's cool powers which allow for it's high CR) or not quickly enough (and it kills one or two PC's, and continues to kill the rest because the remaining PC's can't kill it)

The opposite is also true: large numbers of under-CR opponents lead to easy pickings for the PC's. The opponent's won't be able to hit their AC, and the party wizard will probably wipe out most of them with a single area spell.

When balancing encounters, I try to use a number of opponents equal to the number of PC's. Escpecially when I am scaling up or down for an existing adventure this becomes important.

When scaling down, reduce the number of combatants if the number of opponents is larger than the number of PC's.
Reduce the HD (or class levels, or replace with monster with fewer HD) when the number of opponents is smaller than or equal to the number of PC's.

When scaling up, increase the number of combatants if the number of opponents is smaller than or equal to the number of PC's.
Increase the HD (or class levels, or replace with monster with more HD) when the number of opponents is larger than the number of PC's.

Returning to the original question: Yes, an orc barbarian is a heavy encounter for a first level group. Use several kobolds instead. (mmm. kobold barbarians. With small greataxes.....)

 

[Shin Okada]

I know the game can easily be broken like that, which is why I didn't ask how he got his AC so high. I have no idea how you do that and I don't wanna know. It's like playing infinite combos in Magic: the Gathering. You can win on turn 3, but you'll have more fun voluntarily restricting yourself to the decks that play the game the way it was designed. All I was doing was pointing out to him that the way the game comes out of the box, winning on turn 8 is good enough. AC 25 is fine.

Well, while having AC 36 at level 11 could be a little bit on the higher side (especially if that number is not including bonuses from buffs), having lower AC than sample NPC is not usual also.

At level 11th a PC meant to have 66,000 gp worth of gears while a 11th-level NPC meant to have only 21,000 gp worth of gears. Even if you don't use any specific or complex "combo", simple +X armor, shield, ring & amulet will easily give you 30+ AC at level 11th.