This Campaign

I am tired of the same cookie cutter and min-maxed PCs I’ve been seeing for the past…since 4th Edition made point buy and standard array the norm instead of rolling dice for stats. (No this is not another entry of me blasting 4E. It’s a blast at making things so equal they’re boring.)

“It makes everything even and fair” you say.

Meh. Life ain’t even, and life ain’t fair.

And I miss rolling dice for stats.

So I thought about how best to allow dice rolling for stats, while not allowing things to go crazier with the min-maxing that can accompany that too.

After much deliberation, I decided that I would allow the “4d6 drop the lowest” method for all stats, but not allow the players to choose where the stats go. And I had to limit them to a reasonable number of attempts.

4d6 gives for a decent average, but a 3 is still possible (1 in 1296 chance). It also averages a better score than the standard array. But if they can’t pick where the stats go, they may not actually be better than the standard array.

So I decided to have the players make a 6x6 grid. The top of the grid is labeled the 6 stats, and the side of the grid is labeled likewise. Then they roll 4d6 into each box from left to right, then top to bottom.

The result is 12 possible characters with a wide variety of stats instead of the same-old-same-old PCs we’ve been seeing for too long.

Are they stronger than other PCs? Absolutely
Are they ridiculously strong? No

I don’t think anyone rolled an 18 for a stat. Several 17s, at least one 4, and several 5s were rolled. There were a few tough ones the players had to pass on.

Would you take a 4 on constitution but a 16+ in every other stat?
I wouldn’t, but it’s a rough thing to pass.

There may have been a focus on certain stats.
There were no dump stats unless the dice chose it.
The highest stat at level 1 was 19. It was dexterity that had a 17 rolled and wood elf race adding +2. And if you think that’s insane and broken, the wisdom bonus didn’t do much to help more than another +2 to AC. The monk’s AC was 16 at level 1. Probably the same as most other first level monks.

In the end, everyone was happy.

To my chagrin though, no one took any straight forward classes, unless you count a ranger.

But we’ll see how well a bard works as an arcane caster…especially if he multiclasses into paladin like he plans.

We’ll see how broken a monk can be if he’s not restricted to the standard array.

And we’ll see how well a ranger can tank without a dedicated healer.


Our next dilemma – we only have 3 players, and one has said he can’t make it all the time (darn school getting in the way of our gaming).

Could we just run 2 PCs per player? Yes, but no.

I’m the DM who wants most combats to be quick. And while 5E PCs are not as complicated as 3E or 4E PCs, they still require special attention, especially when the edition is still a bit new. And 2 PCs split attention and slow combats down.

So I’m setting up what I call 1/2 PCs.

The idea is simple; players make various PCs in their free time of varying levels.
They then send them to me and I simplify them down to fit into a 3”x5” note card and nothing more (unless it’s a super common spell like Magic Missile or Fireball).

The complicated things I take away, but replace them with something fast and easy to deal with.

You send me a level 5 invoker wizard and I’ll send you back a guy who can cast Magic Missile 9 times a day and Fireball once and not much more.

This way whoever is running the 1/2 PC, can make a quick decision rather than scan a 1-4 page character sheet before they’re ready to decide.

I’ve got the campaign set up for 4 PCs, so 1/2 PCs will probably be required.


As for the game world, I want to test and see if combats can be fast, so I’m bringing back random encounters and those won’t be using the battlemap. So hopefully these combats will last 5-20 minutes and the PCs won’t be tempted to rest in dangerous areas, thus removing the last vestiges of the 5-minute adventuring day (5mad).

(Battlemaps cause a huge time sink, so removing them for minor combats seems like a no brainer.)

For simplicity, gold is just going to be gold. There will be no silver, copper, gems, art, and so on. I’ll give X amount of gold after combats and that’s that. That’s just for this campaign. The players can still deck out their PCs in jewels and such; it’ll just be hand-waived.

Also for simplicity, identifying magic items is as simple as marking off 100gp from treasure. If this was a module-based campaign, I’d have the items kept track of by the room they were found in so I could just reference where in the module when the PCs got around to identifying their magic items.

“The oddly shaped sword you found in room N55Q of module ‘Weasel Stompers’ is a Sword of the Planes.”

But this campaign has treasure as a minor feature of the game, so I don’t want to spend too much time and effort keeping track of the items.

(I will note though, it seems as though over half the low to mid-level magic items the party gets seem like they’re going to be temporary ones, like potions and scrolls.)

I will be giving out quite a bit of gold I suspect, so I will be draining the PC’s coffers a bit through training levels. It will cost each PC 100gp per level and 1 day per level of the level they’re going to be. I may adjust this as needed.

There aren’t many uses for gold in 5E unless you sell them magic items, or get them to build strongholds and hire retainers.

Another idea is to have them learn extra skills. This won’t be as easy as “you spend 1000gp and a week to learn the best ways to sneak around”. It will be more than that, probably through doing quests and impressing the right people.

Races allowed: All except tieflings are allowed (the outer-planar breeding with mortals doesn’t happen here). Half orcs are allowed, but they would be unwise and likely to be attacked on sight.

Classes allowed: All, though warlock are viewed as people who deal with dark and evil magicks, so they’re often shunned or attacked.

After certain quests are completed, PCs may get some boon of some sort. If a PC permanently dies, or is abandoned, the PC that replaces him loses all these boons, but will otherwise be at the same level as the original PC.

This world will live and breathe whether or not the PCs interact with it. If the PCs decide to open up a mercantile and ignore adventuring, then they are going to be hosed when the goblin hordes are knocking on their door.

Rumors the PCs have heard:
- Dragons are rare, but when you see one, there are a hundred more behind it. And they're all greedy beasts.
- Comets bring doom.
- Magic is in everything, except the silver spheres known as magebane. They drain magic from the air.
- There is rumored to be a 4th huge continent. It is also hidden and protected from us...for our own good.
- Arcane is the language of magic. It is rumored that there are a few who mastered it so well that they could feel the magic of their words.
- Warlocks should be killed on sight. They turn into demons and eat your children.
- Humans are the first and favorite race of the gods! The other races are just plain inferior and should stay put in their own lands!
- It is said that glowstones are worth a hundred thousand gold pieces, to the right buyer...IF you can find someone trustworthy.
- My friend's cousin once explored the Dragon Desert. He got killed by dragons. Go figure.
- The Church of Arimu is doing a lot of good for the poor. You should check them out.
- Bah! There ain't no gods. You ever seen a god? Of course not. No one has. Priests don't get their spells from some invisible wizard. No, they're no different than wizards if you think about it.
- I swear, every time there's an earthquake, the stars move.
- The town of Newton is where we should go to hide from the goblins.
- I almost won 100 gold in the arena last week. But my back gave out.
- Don't ever fly near a dragon tower. They protect folks from dragons. They just sometimes get confused.
- Nothing ever good comes from volcanoes, just lava and fire monsters.
- Rumor is that there's an honest to goodness seer that the leaders of this land are hiding from us.
- I swear I saw a cloud with a castle in it! I ain't lying, and I wasn't that drunk.