Hawk7915
2010-02-22, 08:54 PM
So, I recently managed to score a used copy of Red Hand of Doom from my local bookstore, which is great since I offered to DM an "off-shoot" campaign to give everyone a nice, classic, highish level dungeon romp as a counterpoint to our high-intrigue E6 steampunk campaign. I've read through most of the module, as well as some of the useful RHoD threads on these very boards, and I'm very excited...there's just one problem:
My players already rolled characters, and I told them to start at ECL 11. Well, half of my potential players did at least. One has his character sheet 100% done complete with standard wealth by level, while the other has the framework. The rest (2-3 more players) haven't even started yet.
As I see it, I have three options:
1) Tell the first player (dwarven monk/drunken master with house rule that both classes have full BAB) to go down to level 5 or 6, and have the other (a goliath barbarian) do the same. Run RHoD "out of the box" or mostly so with a few changes here and there.
2) Level everything in RHoD up, and try to run the campaign at a higher level. Azaar Khul gets to be 20th level, everything gets nastier, the mooks all get a level or two and fighter levels, etc. I don't mind this as much since I am good at crunch but not at fluff, so long as the basic premise of the story still works at this level.
3) Don't do RHoD this run. Do something else entirely, and save the classic module for a day when everyone is okay starting fresh with a more balanced party at 5th level or even 1st level with a prologue.
What, playgrounders, is the way to go? Is RHoD even fun and exciting when the party has access to resurrection and teleport and polymorph from the get go, and is it even worth having them fight "mooks"? Do the npcs of the town need to be similarly leveled, or is it more cool to have the heroes and villains be impossibly strong, to make the battle seem even more hopeless? And do you have any advice on RHoD in general? Does the monk fix seem to strong compared to what the others in the party are going to be doing (the other players are looking at Warlock, Rogue/Nightsong Infiltrator, and unknown but most likely Druid, Sorcerer, or Bard)? Or even with such a fix, is this party going to die a tragic death against even an unmodified RHoD?
My players already rolled characters, and I told them to start at ECL 11. Well, half of my potential players did at least. One has his character sheet 100% done complete with standard wealth by level, while the other has the framework. The rest (2-3 more players) haven't even started yet.
As I see it, I have three options:
1) Tell the first player (dwarven monk/drunken master with house rule that both classes have full BAB) to go down to level 5 or 6, and have the other (a goliath barbarian) do the same. Run RHoD "out of the box" or mostly so with a few changes here and there.
2) Level everything in RHoD up, and try to run the campaign at a higher level. Azaar Khul gets to be 20th level, everything gets nastier, the mooks all get a level or two and fighter levels, etc. I don't mind this as much since I am good at crunch but not at fluff, so long as the basic premise of the story still works at this level.
3) Don't do RHoD this run. Do something else entirely, and save the classic module for a day when everyone is okay starting fresh with a more balanced party at 5th level or even 1st level with a prologue.
What, playgrounders, is the way to go? Is RHoD even fun and exciting when the party has access to resurrection and teleport and polymorph from the get go, and is it even worth having them fight "mooks"? Do the npcs of the town need to be similarly leveled, or is it more cool to have the heroes and villains be impossibly strong, to make the battle seem even more hopeless? And do you have any advice on RHoD in general? Does the monk fix seem to strong compared to what the others in the party are going to be doing (the other players are looking at Warlock, Rogue/Nightsong Infiltrator, and unknown but most likely Druid, Sorcerer, or Bard)? Or even with such a fix, is this party going to die a tragic death against even an unmodified RHoD?