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woggy222
2009-12-15, 01:56 AM
So, I'm a relatively inexperienced DM, just starting a new Eberron campaign. I have four enthusiastic players, with fairly rich background and character concept. The thing is, they've picked classes that don't exactly fit the normal party balance. I'm assuming I probably need to fiddle with standard encounter composition to provide reasonable challenge, but I'm not sure exactly what to lean towards and what to avoid.

For the record:
Halfling cleric, Dwarf artificer, Shifter warden, Human fighter

The cleric wants to play as a melee cleric. The artificer has built her character around skill competence and the use of minor mechanical gizmos. The fighter wants to use a spiked chain as his primary melee weapon.

Any suggestions from the community? Thanks in advance! :smallsmile:

cupkeyk
2009-12-15, 02:02 AM
since they have three leaders and one defender, having them fight against controllers, lurkers and artillery lets them maximize their buffing ability. Avoid soldiers and brutes, and solos, as the party has no means of dealing the dpr to kill those things.

woggy222
2009-12-15, 02:07 AM
Two leaders (Cleric, Artificer), two defenders (Fighter, Warden). :smallwink:

Thanks for the advice, though. :smallsmile:

Saintjebus
2009-12-15, 02:08 AM
Having played with both a warden and a fighter, if those two work together at all, they'll be playing ping pong with AoOs.

Your party makeup is pretty standard- you have two defenders, one leader, and it sounds like your artificer is playing a skillmonkey. As long as someone has thievery trained, they've covered everything.

woggy222
2009-12-15, 02:11 AM
Oh, yes, the Fighter and Warden are already working out ways to make my job as DM an AoO hell. More ranged things! :smallbiggrin:

Artificer is definitely playing a skillmonkey - that's what she's comfortable with, and it really does make for a good character (especially given the rest of the party). I was thinking of including a fairly significant number of skill challenges to make her happy, but since the other three are not horribly great at most skills, I'm not sure how to do that without turning it into "The Dwarf Show".

Inyssius Tor
2009-12-15, 03:00 AM
A skill encounter... with stabbing! It looks like you've got the perfect party for "keep the vampires off the artificer's back while she tries to restabilize the falling skyscraper"-type encounters.

woggy222
2009-12-15, 03:08 AM
I... had not thought about combining skill challenge and combat encounter. How would I determine XP for that? Just add the two together? Obviously it would not be quite the same amount of combat or skill-ing as a pure encounter of either type, but that would definitely work.

Part of me is glad I have most of the winter holidays to plan this. Part of me wants to play tomorrow. :smallsigh:

Inyssius Tor
2009-12-15, 03:11 AM
I... had not thought about combining skill challenge and combat encounter. How would I determine XP for that? Just add the two together? Obviously it would not be quite the same amount of combat or skill-ing as a pure encounter of either type, but that would definitely work.

Part of me is glad I have most of the winter holidays to plan this. Part of me wants to play tomorrow. :smallsigh:

Well, Yakk would know way better than I would (I'd be tempted to just wing it), but looking at traps might help; they're basically skill-heavy encounter components, after all.