The Growing of a World

Well this campaign’s been going on for a mere 10 sessions, and I like what I’m seeing.

Liking:

Every single PC’s background is having some level of impact on the world. Even the ones that have been permanently lost down the gullet of a huge ankheg have created a few interesting concepts to follow.

I had originally intended the elven lands Maratheelia to be a simple footnote in the story, but thanks to Dale’s and Brian’s characters, it appears as though it will be taking a much larger focus than intended.
Although Allen’s PC, Caspar, is gone, and not likely to return, there is still a side quest for Allen’s new PC, Lindo, to inform Caspar’s mother of his fate. And of course something else might happen in the meantime.

Aaron’s original PC, Ian Cabatuan (not to be confused with Ian de Magi), had me rewrite several things about a southern continent. Nothing drastic, but enough to change some things and add a new potential storyline.

Aaron’s next two PCs were added with a kind of thrown together histories that more aided the then current plotlines rather than create a new one. But given his play style and the status of his characters within the group, there is no chance his characters will fade to the background.

Joy, being new to the game, had only an idea of what she wanted for her PC, a warrior/wizard. So I let her have that and threw in the whole princess idea. So far I believe the reward of being a princess has plenty enough drawbacks (free things mixed with ambushes and being on the run).

Justin’s PC history was more or less thrown together and given a quick back story, so Trebor’s effects on the game world will be a little more muted unless I add something.

My preparation for the game, although with a few hiccups in the beginning, has gone quite well. Combats tend to go quickly by comparison to the way they’ve gone before. Though I expect them to take longer as everyone increases in levels, but that just means I’ll have to work more on the game itself when the time comes or find a good work around (making stuff up on the fly is a good way to save a lot of time and it really irritates people who metagame too much).

The treasure distribution, although a bit light at the moment, is about right. The main reason for this is because creatures that roam the plains tend to have little treasure. If the party were to stop taking the road and head through the mountains, they’d probably get a lot more treasure. But I would think the PC body count would be higher as well. Red dragons tend to do kill PCs.
My expectation is that at higher levels the treasure becomes quite prevalent.
At some point the party might say something like “Does anyone want this dagger +3? No? Alright, we’ll add it to the pile of things to sell.”

I like the danger level where it is. You may think I’ve been a killer DM with a dozen or so PC deaths, but I say “So what?”
PCs are supposed to be danger-loving adventurers out to seek fame and fortune. If they run away the moment they get a nosebleed, then good riddance.
Early on I was a bit harsh to the group, but that was to show that this isn’t some land of happy little elves making toys for Santa. This is a world where Santa has to buy an AK-47 and dress like Rambo to keep those greedy red dragons away from his sleigh while he’s delivering toys.
(How’s that for a Christmas reference?)
Now this group has a better feel of how to work together and what to expect, they can take on tougher challenges. And now that I have a better feel of their skills I can better match the toughness of the challenges to them.

But not every single thing is going perfectly to plan:

The group is not tearing through the combats, getting from point A to point B quickly enough, and the stories moving along a little slow. My solution for that is to shut up and accept it. I was really naïve to think that the party would level every single session for the first few sessions.

Then there’s the issue of the power of the warmage.

In a combat heavy campaign such as this, the warmage class is incredibly strong. This is so much to the point that it has nearly made the sorcerer obsolete. The obvious solution is to make combat less important to your game. There’s no chance of that happening because I’m not about to cut out something that integral to the game just to reduce the effectiveness of a class.

The warmage is ultra-specialized in one direction to the point that it can be utterly worthless in others. But isn’t the barbarian the same way? Both deal lots of damage in combat, but once you take them out of that situation, they aren’t so fun. Sure that barbarian can dish and take the damage, but he’s not the diplomat you’re going to send to make peace. Ask a warmage to dispel the protective enchantments on that lich. Sure, both can work around those issues, but it takes some resources that could have gone somewhere else.

I’ve given thought to somehow reducing the effectiveness of the Orb line of spells to stifle the warmage a bit. I feel it is way too strong for there to be so many spells out there that have no save versus damage and are unaffected by magic resistance. The power of an iron golem is now nil as all you need is someone to hold off the golem for a few rounds while it gets melted away with real acid summoned by the warmage.

So what do I do? Remove the spells entirely? Take away the anti-magic resistance? Add a material cost?

I’ve talked to Dale about this, as this would affect him the most. He totally understands the issue as he’s had to deal with it before. His opinion is about the same about the power of the warmage, but he feels that any changes to the Orb spells would cripple his character and ruin his fun. He would rather not play Artemis at all if the warmage class were weakened. Personally I think he’s just overreacting on that part, but I’m not going to discard his opinion on it.

He argues that the warmages weaknesses are much more numerous than can be seen. The warmage’s primary weakness is that he can dish it, but he can’t take it. At level twenty warmage can toss a sudden maximized, sudden empowered Orb of Acid that deals about 140 points of damage. At average hit points, with a constitution of 16, a warmage will only have 123 hit points. If any of his spells are rebounded back to him, or he faces another warmage, things could end up very unfortunately. There is almost no middle ground.

My intention is to throw in a few challenges that nuking alone cannot defeat, or maybe an enemy warmage or two, and opponents who can rebound his spells back at him. If the power of the warmage is still too heavy after all of that, I might have to actually nerf something.

Now you’re probably thinking that I’m overcorrecting or being mean. I have no plans to sit and wait for Dale to do something simply to pounce on him and screw him over, but I do want to make him paranoid about his own spells. So before he tosses out his huge nuke of a spell, he has to “test the waters” to make sure that it won’t go to waste, or worse come back at him.

I want people to enjoy playing their characters. And I want them to not think that the DM is always out to get them. I am not one of those DMs who rarely give out magic, and when they do, it’s a cursed item. What the hell kind of fun is that? I want the players to get powerful characters, give them the opportunity to use them, and a memorable game.

But one thing I will not do is allow them to relay upon one tactic to win the day all of the time, as they have been with their warmage. That will lead the party down the path they had with Thunderclease – one large and powerful character with a troupe of other PCs that are there to back him up. What happens when that character is no longer there to do what they expect him to do? If they’re not ready, they’re dead.

Maybe I’m alone, but I kind of think WotC dropped the ball when it comes to creating core classes that are that narrowly focused.

I’m willing to listen to all opinions though.