D&D Sep-26-2003

[ralphmelton]

I was badly unprepared for the usual D&D game, and Lori was gobsmacked by grading. But Kevin and Mike were inclined to play something. So I tried a hypothesis: according to arithmetic of ELs, two 8th-level PCs should be roughly equivalent to a party of 4 6th-level PCs. So I grabbed a handy issue of Dungeon and found a 6th-level adventure to run for the two of them.

The advenutre was imperfectly written (I couldn't easily figure out where doors were, and area 5 was totally missing from the map), but we had a good time anyway. The high skill levels of the PCs compared to the gnolls we were fighting allowed a lot of cinematic stunts. We particularly liked Kyle leaping onto the armored wagon while it was moving, climbing to the top without being seen or heard, and then sneak-attacking the driver from the top.

The gnoll fights were generally very one-sided, since they could only hit the PCs on a 20. But lots of fun.

I've been looking more closely at the treasure tables, and it seems that my treasure concerns about 2 Nth-level PCs being the equivalent of 4 (N-2) level PCs are more or less accurate from that superficial estimate. There are still problems of specialization, of course, but this could work well as an alternate mode of play.

Comments

[mrpeck.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed the Indiana Jones-like themes. Also, not having spellcasters around creates an interesting game where skills are all of a sudden more useful.