Introductions and Balancing

Hey guys, DM in waiting here. I'm planning a homebrew campaign and have been doing so for a while. I'm trying to intricately weave this whole wonderful world they're playing in with plenty of rich lore and back story. I will be a first time DM and my players will mostly be new as well. It will be a big challenge. But so far I think I have it pretty good.

TL:DR: I homebrewed a world with some homebrew races, and some cool items and blessings and some original characters(with specialties) based around a tournament in an isolated kingdom to expand into a whole new world! The world was heavily influenced by LoZ and one Piece, pirates and swashbucklers. I'm looking for any and all suggestions to balance out my blessings/items, and ideas and recommendations for items/blessings/backstories that you think would be cool, and ultimately just some nitpicking questions at the end about CR, Introductions, and a couple other things. Also all of you who put TL:DR's at the bottom are the reason why I drink.

A little backstory of my world, and then I can ask you all about some of my issues.

My PCs will partake in the setting of Do'Rahl, an oceanic world that is flat and surrounded by a wall of rock. A battle of the goddess of nature and the sea, named Umbra and the God of storms named Talos took place over 1000 years ago and the result was a 100 year downpour that submerged all of the world except for the mountain tops which people soon rushed to. All history of magic and history even itself began to vanish as it was washed away with time itself. Now, what the PCs don't know is that Do'Rahl is actually the inside of a volcano. The world's largest volcano.

With one hundred years of rain it solidified the magma into small islands for all of Do'Rahl residents to flock too. They themselves forgot the origins of their own country through the downpour and the test of time. The under water magma pockets keep an even temperature across these islands and allow a suitable environment for the inhabitants. The only way for them to leave this volcanic, oceanic isolated kingdom is a small slip in the rock wall naked to the eye that is not looking for it. Rumors will inevitably float around the country that the world is not flat and that this world is the only one in existence but ignorance prevails.

For these islands, farming was hard at first. But through the centuries it has became easier, with a humid environment and a breeding ground for bacteria and over years of meticulously breaking down the soil and reaching a point where they could finally till the land and grow their resources. In the true world they call this kingdom of islands the isolated kingdom because there is virtually no way to get back into the kingdom, seeing as how the only exit is the passageway through the Rock wall and a downward stream to the ocean.

I plan to have them reach certain level caps when they exit each island and move onto the next in this isolated kingdom. Their goal is not a very structured goal. All the PCs have their own main quest tied in with their back story. The main story revolves around Ulfgar Ironcloak. An unknown prideful warrior, deemed the champion of Do'Rahl. He is also the expert map maker of this kingdom and the only one to have ever made it back from beyond the rock wall(no one except his apprentice knows this tiny detail). Ulfgar Ironcloak is holding a championship each year to determine the new champion of Do'Rahl and to carry on the world's secrets that he has discovered.

Upon leveling up and traveling through the country and coming face to face with Ulfgar Ironcloak they will realize he is not even a human,but instead a Goron. (taken from LOZ obviously) and is one of the original inhabitants of Do'Rahl. When the downpour started it quickly moved the Gorons from what used to be known as Mt. Do'Rahl, and their race has been dying off ever since. They need to live in extremely hot environments and eat rocks and minerals for food. With the downpour it turned their home upside down and the humans have been living there ever since. Upon defeating Ulfgar Ironcloak they will learn that he stayed behind to try to learn how to bring his volcano back alive for his race. While spelling trouble for the population of the humans that inhabit the island, they ultimately have other places that they can live, the millions of Gorons do not. Years ago Ulfgar decided to leave his homestead in search of an answer and left the isolated kingdom, leaving it in the hands of his apprentice. When he came back years later he held a single page with the dragon born letter D on it. He then told them of an ancient spell scattered throughout the land that can only be destroyed by performing the ritual.

DROUGHT was the name of the spell. 7 pages, all horribly tattered and burned but could never be destroyed unless performed. Each page a different letter. When all pages are brought together and thrown into the wind after being lit on fire after speaking the command word drought rain will cease for one hundred years. Basically reversing the downpour that happened over a thousand years ago.

It will be hard and it will be chaos for one hundred years. But the Goron will plead with the heroes to gather all 7 pages(that are scattered beyond the isolated kingdom) . When they do this and summon this spell then there will be a good chance of recovering all of lost history that hasn't been eroded, lost lands full of forestry and inevitably bringing the volcano back to life. A natural environment for the home sick gorgons. The humans might consider these people who plagued the land with the never ending drought to be evil even though they had good intentions but the Gorons will hold them in their hearts.

Of course the heroes can choose not to cast this terrible spell and lead to the extinction of the Gorons in an attempt to either seal away or destroy the spell. But that is for them to decide.

Now that that's out of the way I can get to some technical details.

I have thought this going either two ways. Either they get up to level ten in the isolated kingdom and move onto the real world for levels 10 through 20 afterwards. Or they get to level 20 in the isolated kingdom and then to level thirty in the outside world. (I found a good homebrew leveling system to level 30,for classes to get kind of complete mastery or just having the opportunity to fully max out one class and learning a bit of another. (max 10 levels in another class in that scenario))

In this world magic is also very rare. With the loss of a lot of history and magic there are only a handful of people who can even pass down magic skills and knowledge. Not to say sorcerers and wizards don't exist but they are just very rare and often cause bad attention or publicity when their skills are noticed. Magic items are more common often being salvaged from the oceans and being that one thousand years ago magic was used everyday then their were often a lot of items used with magic that can now be recovered today, i.e. it is much more common to run across a magic sword then a magic caster.

Now I have my campaign revolving around 12-15 individual characters. The four PCs who are a group(kind of misfits) , a group of lawfully good strict fighters and honored warrior NPCS(4-5 of them) And a group of 4-5 of the most psychopathic evil and most demented warriors that aim for nothing but complete annihilation of their fellow humans.

The PCs that I have fleshed out will be: a fairy(I found a good homebrew race of fey) whose background consists of black market dealers destroying her glade in an attempt to sell their wings at high prices. She aims to reclaim her fey ancestry throne and stop the menace that is still hunting her people in other glades to this day and save all her sisters, and eventually claim throne to the world of the fey.

A half giant named Tiny who was a protector for the royal guard of the giant kingdom. His kingdom was overthrown by a ravenous cloud giant hungry for chaos and an army of Ettin and Fomorians, due to being unable to get the normal Ordning of Giants to go against their own social caste. However finding solace in the beaten and battered Ettin and Fomorians they were able to lay siege to the storm giants kingdom and Tiny looks to the future where he can get strong enough to take back his kingdom and bring peace back to his people, leaving it in the hands of his former glorious king, and father.

A sorcerer named the Magician trained by an old wizard known as Errick. As a kid he was abandoned by his parents as a sacrifice to the demon town of Elben-Das and was rescued by Errick,who later brought the necromancer AKA deadboy under his tutelage as well. Being a spell caster in such a mundane world he hid from the countrymen hiding in the mountains and was Erricks apprentice for many years, until one day the residents of the country learned there was such a powerful sorcerer among their lands. Attacking his house in the middle of the night, he was able to place his apprentices into the sealed basement as the villagers burned him alive, thanking the gods that he was now gone. These are the three PCS I have for my party fleshed out so far. Among the twelve characters I designed, I have to put one more in which might be played by me as a thoughtless NPC just following the characters around on their adventure.

The NPCs I have developed, that I haven't fully developed a backstory on yet are: The Ranger- Hawk Eye(No backstory yet, kind of writer's block with him, will most likely be the fourth pc to my PCs campaign. A Light themed Sorcerer-Sunny (Kind of toying the idea with him being a brother to my holy healer npc, in the same gang.) The Humming Swordsman (obvi taken from one piece, swordsman) The holy Healer(a cleric) The Gladiator/The Golden Warrior(basically just a fighter/swordsman type deal but follows gladiator traditions and has MAD gladiator pride.) The Samurai - Tobias The Silent(a samurai/swordsman who has taken a vow of silence since the age of five as a testament to his people's faith.) A Druid-Mother Nature(still don't know on this one, probably already gonna change it because it SOUNDS cliche already.)

Here are the NPCs(evil group) That I have fleshed out:

A Human-hating Human Monk, by the name of Deadeye. Practiced meditation as a child, growing up in a monastery. He one day learned that his parents had given him up as an offer to the monks to keep protecting their village, worrying more about themselves then their child. When he turned 18 he began to travel the Vatti Isle(the island they start on) and witnessed , in his mind, just how despicable humans truly were. Growing hate for his fellow humans he vowed to wipe them off the face of the Earth. He sees his fellow humanity as nothing but Termites destroying mother Earth, betraying each other at every turn. He is not inherently evil, in the way that when he sees someone innocent and in need, he will always help them, but he does aim to one day extinguish the human race for their actions as a whole. (I know this one could be tuned up a bit. It's hard to figure out a bad guy that would help innocents but also aim to destroy all humans! Maybe just make him not even care of babies dying in the street and that sort of thing?(superdark))

The impartial Bard - The Dream Eater Growing up, truly, as a psychopath, he didn't develop feelings for anyone. He killed his entire village out of boredom, simply seeking a fun time. He made his way across the land, avoiding wanted posters because there would be no witnesses. He became a bard out of desire for an interesting tale. He was simply interested by Deadeye and his travelling gang, and without words being exchanged he followed them in their pursuit.(Might work on him a bit more, I am really attached to this NPC. He basically just wants to follow anyone he deems interesting. Might also be a good candidate for that evil book.)

The child necromancer - Deadboy. Kind of a cliche back story. His parents were killed, and Errick found him in the burned down village (before the magician mentioned earlier.) He was a natural talent for wizardry and spellcasting.(Might make him a sorcerer because of this, but made him a wizard following the path of necromancy for now) However, Errick saw a darkness in his heart and refused to give him more advanced spells, leading to more power. Out of anger and jealousy, he is the one who alerted the villagers of Erricks' presence, and lead to his death. After escaping unscathed with the magician, he shortly parted ways after meeting Master Venom and became his dedicated pupil. (Who is responsible for teaching him all the dark arts)

The poison Man - Master Venom, A wizard specializing in poison and acid spells. no backstory yet other than being the mastermind that influenced/put the nail in the coffin for Deadeye, and Deadboy to follow down the path of evil. While not being the leader of the group(Deadeye is) he is highly respected and the second in command.

The Antipaladin Immortal - The Black Knight. Originally a warrior in a long forgotted kingdom, he held to the principles of good and served the royal family well. Falling in love with the princess of the royal family, he was immediately sentence to starvation/exile in the woods. A gnasty magic awoke in him over time, awakening from his dark and unknown ancestry and he simply existed, failing to meet Death for years. Shortly after, the torrential downpour began to plague the kingdom for the next hundred years. His armor soon turned to rust and then pitch black over this downpour. The wood that held him began to rot, and free the angry monster. He began to wander, in search of a purpose, missing his one and only love knowing that she was gone. For one thousand years he had no contact except with animals. Until, one day, Dead Eye came across him, with Master Venom and Deadboy by his side, the bard trailing slightly behind. As their eyes met, Deadeye understood his mental torture, and welcomed him into his party. He unknowingly nodded, and bowed down before his presence, the presence of a mighty warrior in front of him and began traveling with him.

Now, you have the location, the plot, most of the main characters. (Sorry for taking this long to get here) My question to you is about this next part. I want specialized items and blessings for each of these members. I'm trying to figure out if these will be balanced or not. This will be more than likely mid-late game gear, and mid-to-late game blessings. I already have a good idea of gear to give them from the start. SOOOO here goes. (The Blessings aren't meant to be overpowered, just little things to help them out here and there. And obviously, the NPCs blessings will be a challenge to my PCs.) These blessings and items I've tried to make superbly balanced. Are they fair? Or not fair enough? (In which way, too op or not op enough) Im also thinking of having them get them pretty early to be upgraded at a later point.

For the fairy who is playing a rogue: Blessing:Ghost Form: For 300 seconds, can sneak without being detected. Form is invisible/ethereal and can not be detected. Can not move more than three hundred feet away from her body, and body is risk to physical damage. Can not loot or attack, can only eavesdrop and scout. Will not set off alarms or traps. Items: The Faerie Queen Artifacts: 1) The Faerie Bow: undersized, Shoots 1d6 radiant damage, does not take arrows. 2d6 if target is of evil alignment or undead. 20 charges, unusable if down to 0 for ten hours. Gains two charges per hour. 2.)The Faerie Gauntlet: undersized, while wearing this any weapon the user interacts with will become undersized and be able to be used without disadvantage. All damage except for magical effects will be taken down to 1d4 piercing. 3.)Golden Faerie Fork: undersized, 1d4 radiant damage and 1d4 piercing. 4.)Faerie Shield: Shield has two forms. In normal handheld form will add +1 to AC. In second form, it will create a dome that shields the user with a dome, and has 40hp. After the 40hp is brought to 0 it will explode doing 1d6 radiant damage to all creatures within a 25 ft. radius(nonfriendly) Will recharge 2hp per hour. 5.)Faerie Baton: roll 1d6 for a random affect against target 1. Target must make con save 10 or be charmed 2. Target must make con save 10 or be put to sleep. 3. All creatures within 30 ft. must make dex save 10 or be knocked prone except for the user. 4. Target gains 1d6 HP 5. Target takes 1d6 Radiant Damage 6. No effect. The Baton can be used outside of combat to change the direction of the wind.(kind of like windwaker from LOZ you busted me.)

The issues with any of the above would be that maybe they sound too weak by themselves. But together they can provide a lot of power. I was thinking of these being able to be upgraded at a later point so she's not so weak. AKA, keep ghost form normal but change faerie bow to 3 shot, change baton to you actually get to choose the effect, fork does 2x damage, or two attacks in one turn, etc.

For the Half-Giant Tiny who is a barbarian Blessing: Giants Gaze: Any creature within 30 ft(friend or foe) must make con save 15 or be knocked unconcious(NPC/PCs must be half the level rounded down of the user)(Creatures must be cr 5 or less) Have not figured out an item yet.

For the Human Sorcerer, "The Magician" Blessing or items haven't been figured out yet!

The human "Hawk Eye" who is a ranger" Blessing: Hawk Eye: instead of focusing on the target as a whole, he can target a specific body part from up to 300 ft. away. Only does 1d6 damage, instead of the normal output for the damage of that weapon. Target must make con save 10 or suffer a crippled appendage. (Unusable until after long rest) Must take on action to focus, one action to shoot and can only use once a day. No items either

The Human light themed sorcerer, Sunny Blessing: Bright Being: A warm glow emits off of your character and anyone who encounters you who is undead or chaotic evil immediately takes 1d6 damage when they are within 5ft of you. No items either

The Humming Swordsman Blessing: Humming Strike: Once per day you can pass through a target doing your normal damage ignoring their ac and passing through the enemy space.(Must hum a tune to pull off.) No items

The Cleric, The Holy Healer Blessing : Bright Helper: Each creature(friend or foe) that occupies a space within 5ft of you at the beginning of your turn will regain 1d4 HP, 1d6 if they are making physical contact. (This blessing might be a little OP, considering to change it to 1HP if close, 2HP if physical contact. Figured a good trade off would be the friend OR foe part.) no items

The Gladiator/Golden Warrior Blessing WHILE UNARMORED: Gladiator Pride: Gains +2 attack each time he is damaged(until end of combat) Natural AC of 10. I thought a fair trade off of not wearing any armor, would be that he has a natural AC, and while being more susceptible to damage, he gains a buff each time he is hit until he either ends combat, sleeps, is knocked unconscious, or dies. Now, still seems a bit OP when thinking about it. Might change it to +1 or something. No items

Tobias The Silent Blessing : Vow of Silence: 1d4 Additional Damage as long as the vow of silence is not broken. no items

The Human hating human monk, Dead Eye Blessing: immense Hatred: +2 damage to all humans and humanoid creatures. Fairly simple , could be OP, could not. no items

The Impartial Human Bard, The Dream Eater When target is asleep user can use a bonus action to inflict 1d4 'nightmare' damage and regain that number of HP Items: Horn of Wind: A Large gust of air erupts as you blow into the horn. Everyone in front of you within 100ft, within a cone, make a DEX save 15 or be knocked prone. (Also going to include a harp and a violin, just dont know what to add for him yet.)

Deadboy, the Human Child Necromancer Blessing: Natural Born Leader (Of the undead): When meeting any undead they must make a con save of 15 or pledge allegiance to him forgetting their old master. (Intended use for skeletons not much other, might tweak so it's not so OP) No items as of yet, maybe that evil book though. Or give that to the bard who knows. One of these evil guys deserves it!

The Poison Human - Master Venom Blessing: Acidic Touch: When anyone attempts to make physical skin on skin contact with the user they take 1d4 poison damage. Physical restraints will also not work to capture the user, must use magic restraints.

The Antipaladin Immortal, The Black Knight. (Forewarning I know he is OP with this blessing, but I kind of want him to be the BBEG(Dead Eye's ) Attempt at a trump card. An undead soldier that keeps rising up.) Blessing : Strong Will: Immune to bleeding damage ; When the black knight would be knocked unconcious or his HP hit 0 or below he has the ability to roll a d4. If it is 3-4 he is brought back to life or consciousness at 1 hp. immortal Warrior: He also can not be killed with normal physical attacks, certain requirements need to be met to cause his demise. Bringing his HP to 0 or under he will be unconscious instead. To kill, the user must perform a specific ritual that dispels his immortal soul. No item yet, thinking of a black longsword that might rust on contact with other weapons and turn foes weapons/armor to rust.

WHEW That is all I have so far. Thank you for bearing with me. Now for my explanation and some questions. I appreciate all your guys help from these forums and I love reading these posts. My campaign is a way away so if you're wondering why I'm planning so far ahead is because this campaign might not start until the next year. I've already been planning for about 4 months now. I am simply looking for suggestions, help, and advice with what I already have, not the typicqal "Ah dont worry about it, it's too far off to worry about." I like writing, and planning, and while My PCs might come in and ruin everything first glance, I just like to plan!

1. Is there any Items that you think would go well with the characters I have shared? Any cool backstories you can think of to tie into my other PCs?(for the ones that aren't listed) Any cool modifications to my story or ideas you think I can implement?
2. Do you think the Items/blessings I have prepared are balanced/too op/not strong enough? Any ideas for improving them or adding items that you think would go well where my Writer's block has failed.
3. How do I organically introduce my character to each other? As you can see, some of them tie into each other and will realize it along the way, but for first impressions how goes it? Other than having them all start on the Vatti Isle(where the story starts to take place) and in a tavern, I couldn't think of any reason why a bunch of oddballs would band together. Maybe the rogue fairy tries to pickpocket something, the half giant tries to stop her, etc. Maybe a barfight where they are the only ones not fighting introduces them. I want weaved connections in their backstories that are not blatantly obvious. They will have to RP and interact with each other to see the threads that have spun their destiny together. 4.CR Can be a bitch. I've started to map out small encounters, basically against small creatures (rats, crabs, and jackals oh my!) Basically sticking to weak creatures Until we start getting into lengthy combat and are able to differentiate what a group of 3-4 people can truly handle. Is there an exact formula for calculating CR against my PCs and seeing if the encounter would be easy/unfair based on that. (Might have missed it in the DM guide)
4. Also, how does the exact turn of combat go Begin -> Action ->2nd attack (if they have one) ->Targets Reaction?-> Bonus action? Is it something like that? That and CR is the only thing I have not fully grasped yet.
5. When matching my pcs against the NPCs I have listed, should I keep them on the same level or tone them down or increase their level? I was figuring to have them match their level, but Deadeye be one level ahead. Also, how do I systematically keep my PCs from killing these other NPCs? I don't want to Deus Ex Machina them each time, having Black Knight step in and whisk them away. Is having them simply escape (with no chance of them chasing) too unfair? I want them to be recurring (multiple encounters) All the way into the new world. And possibly they can either convert them, turn them into jail, or kill them.

For any of you who want to know more or use any of my ideas/concepts go ahead and I don't mind! I just hope someone on here finds it good enough to take from. I just got sick of worrying about all the deities, and made a simple oceanic wonderland where I could have my players live out their days as pirates and warriors.

Submitted September 08, 2018 at 03:33AM by Th3P3rf3ctStorm https://ift.tt/2wTArax