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 Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2007 11:43 pm
SO, I'm running a damn good game. I'm loving it, the PCs are loving it, hell the people in the bleachers are loving it. Here is the thing: My PCs are coming up on the higher level monsters. CR 10 and such. However, the AC bonus of many of my PCs is VERY small, compared to the attack of a monster, so the PCs ALWAYS end up getting hit. Every time. As in, every attack from full attacks and such. The PCs and my self are getting concerned about this, seeing as the PCs enjoy their characters.
What should I do? Should I lower the monster's attack? Find ways to beef up the PC's AC bonus?
Thanks in advance.
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 9:48 am
As DM, you have quite a bit of options in your lap, which is a *GREAT* thing.
First, look at your party. If you are able, choose monsters who may be a bit more vulnerable to their attacks.
Also, go ahead and dumb down the monsters if you'd like...fewer monsters, less intelligent monsters, lower level monsters, make your own monsters...
Don't forget effective character levels. Sometimes I forget about that and although my players, *should* be a level whatever, they actually are a bit lower. And also, sometimes I read the CR table wrong and give them higher monsters than should be given.
Make sure your players have added all their stats, points, bonuses up properly as well.
Have them 'find' magical items or potions that they can use specifically for their AC...don't be afraid to create something too.
Since you are DM, you can also award points onto players' sheets whenever and how ever you like! (I sometimes give extra skill points to players if they use a certain skill a lot. Practice makes perfect, no?)
Throw in an NPC here or there.
Award experience points for thinking things through. Experience doesn't always come from fighting and killing a monster, sometimes it comes from solving a problem, or finding an item that an NPC was looking for, etc.
Just because the players are *supposed* to be fighting a certain level monster, may not mean that they *have* to. Sometimes we just run into *LOTS* of kobolds or goblins at one time. You can meet the CR that they are supposed to be fighting by throwing in a number of lower monsters at one time (same or different...like a pack of kobolds, or a group of bugbears + goblins + gnolls).
Be thankful that you are the DM! We reign over the campaign...in essence *we* are deity!
Hope this helps some! 3nodding
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 11:09 am
Some damn good pointers. I've been throughing groups of 4-5 monsters at the PCs with the CR equal or just barly higher/lower than there level for some time now. I still need to give the PCs some better armor before the next upcoming battle though. The Magic Item Compendium has given me some fun ideas to toy with (Armor sets kick a**!).
And it will be FUN to see the players faces when I pull out my Monster Manual 5 selection of monsters twisted
But yeah. Thanks for the help. I usually don't like altering the character sheets unless it made some sence on the sheet itself.
DM: "What is this misc +4 to your armor?"
Mage PC: That's my Mage Armor. It gives me--
DM: I know what it does, but why is it listed in your AC?
Mage PC: Cause it's my armor.
DM: ...did you check the duration?
Mage PC: What? Oh... um... crap...
DM: Right, so that ogre with the great axe DOES nail you in the face.
Mage: Crap...
xd Ah, fun times.
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Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 7:41 am
blaugh Hey, don't forget about the set items too! Those can be pretty awesome...Though now I've forgotten what book they are in...I'm thinking either Magic Item Compendium, Complete Adventurer, or Arms and Equipment...I'll have to ask Rhesus as he would know right away (he was going to use them in one of his RL campaigns). And the sets can be an ongoing thing. Find a piece here find a piece there...
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Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 11:14 pm
Yeah, I'm way too use to the style of gameplay that our old DM has had since I started playing 6 years ago. We got a load of treasure and few magic items. Hell, our characters barly get any down time to make weapons, armor or enchant stuff. My level 23 character is STILL using a +1 Greataxe he got from the Sunless Citadel! So yeah, we're use to not getting much treasure to actually USE andsome of our player care less about selling stuff they've found.
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Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 9:01 pm
Well, I would post something but it would seem that Savindus has yet again beat me to everything that I would have thought of. pirate
But that only says one thing, Savindus is really good at being a mod.
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Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 8:00 am
nothing beats Bracers of Armor, They are light, provide a good AC depending on the type and also if you can cover the difference in cost between a lower set and a higher set then tou could upgrade your bracers to give you a better AC. Also I read in the Equipment and Arms Guide (at least I think it was that book, It was on my friends PC) You can apply Magical Armor abilities to Bracers of Armor.
For Example, You can have a +4 Bracers of Armor of light Fortification, Or you can have a +4 Bracers of Armor with a +4 magical armor bonus to them to make them +8 bracers total. The highest you can go with the Bracers before hitting Epic is either a +8 Bracers of Armor with a +5 magical Armor bounus or +8 Bracers of Armor with heavy Fortiification. Ofcourse doing this cost a LOT of Gold in the game But if I'm geting a +13 Bounus to my AC from just one of my items you bet I would be happy.
Another Good way to boost up your AC is to boost your dexterety from that Magical Manual that permantaly raises your stats. (I forget what it is called I haven't had much time to pick up my books lately) Another good way is to use Wish and/or Miracle since you can use those spells to permantly raise any of your stats up by 1 point without fear of the DM giving out a punishment and you can do this until you have raised a certain stat by 5. (However boosting all of your stats by 5 would require you to use 30 wishes and/or 30 Miracles, which is very hard to come by.
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Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 3:40 pm
*returns to guild*
*wanders in*
In Equipment and Arms Guide (which is amazing) they don't say that you can add magical armor abilities to bracers of armor, they add a new type of armor called a "Dastana". +1 to AC, takes up the bracers slot, very few downsides. You can magicify that if you want.
Talk about it with your players. I'd be careful about dumbing down monsters, cause sometimes those memorable battles seem less cool afterwards if you find out the DM dumbed it down.
PC: Man, it was so cool that one time we killed the red dragon! I just narrowly dodged his +11 to attack, then sneak attacked him for the win!
Other(mildly more rule memorized)PC: You do know your DM dumbed him down? That was supposed to be a +20.
(And yes, I know that conversation would never happen.)
(And yes, I also have players that have the MM memorized. It's kinda cool)
And they might also think of it as cheating.
Beefing up the PC's AC bonus? SO much easier. Litter the trail with lots of bonuses. Have people offer free armor as rewards for small simple quests. REMIND YOUR PCs ARMOR IS GOOD.
lol
Good luck.
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Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 9:04 pm
Hey, Darius again. Wandering back into Gaia again with the same problem as before. The PCs just don't seem to get the thing about upgrading armor with all that gold.
All they ever get is weapons or some magical item that does a cool magic effect besides armor. That's great and all really, but then they complain about the monsters being too strong when they have an AC of 18-25 at level 15. I've tried giving them Bracers or Rings and Amulets that give decent AC, but then they just sell or discard them for their Rings of Levitation or some such.
PC: Aww man, it's just more vendor trash.
Me: It's a +4 ring of fire resistance! You'll need it against the Red Dragon General!
PC: Phht, my Evasion is all I need against a dragon.
And then he wondered how he died when a dragon killed him with a tail sweep.
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Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 6:03 am
God I love 4th Edition. AC is so much easier now *does DM dance of death on the PCs*
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