What's a good CR 1/4 monster for an urban adventure, /tg/?
Level 1 party, all tier III classes.
>>44029892
Unless you want to edit templates yourself, I'd say your best bet is something like a lapdog... very pathetic really.
What edition?
>>44030049
3.5
>>44030033
Some kind of critter that CR 1/2 warriors might keep as a pet might be nice.
A pet with the "Shape Soulmeld" feat and maybe Dissolving Spittle or Blink Shirt or something.
>>44030138
Are you OP? Not sure but OP said urban environment, so the best I've got is lap dog or house-ruled pet cat, honestly.
>>44029892
Maybe a half-dead homeless man?
Keeping lvl 1s alive is annoyingly hard since a single bad roll means someone dies unless you have them whacking flies until lvl 2.
>>44030193
This is OP.
How about leveled up monkeys with ranks in Sleight of Hand?
Trained monkeys may be used by thieves.
Maybe this monkeys get Hidden Talent or Shape Soulmeld for feats?
>>44030258
Bad idea, anon. Did you not read that news article about monkeys in India stoning people to death on their own porches?
Jokes aside, the encounters don't have to be entirely combat related while you get the players comfortable and trained up. Reward XP for detective work, excellent use of navigating personal relations, succeeding in convincing VIPs to do things etc etc, finding alternate ways of completing objective without whacking shit on the head.
In my opinion, it's better than simply house ruling super weak stuff into the game to make it interesting.
Rodents of Unusual Size?
Like not dire rats, and not rat swarms, just some rats with a couple of extra hit dice.
>>44030342
Capybara.
An NPC hires the PC's to locate and safely return his beloved pet capybara.
It has a yellow bandana to differentiate it from all the other capybaras scurrying around the alleys.
>>44029892
House cat.
>>44029892
Urban? Rats. Birds.
Honestly, Level 1 is scrub-level, so really they could probably get XP by just attending a few classes or reading some books, or even just general practice over time.
>>44030527
I was afraid of that.
The party is going to include a swordsage and a psychic warrior. I know the players well. They are going to want to fight people.
I probably should just start this at a higher level but... they said they want the full experience of zero to hero in an epic 6 game so...
>>44030576
Have them do fightan' academy stuff? That way their "fights" are actually sparring bouts or against other level 1 scrubs.
>>44030622
Any suggestions for keeping WBL on point?
I was actually thinking of letting the party level up when they hit their appropriate wealth-by-level, instead of bothering with the whole XP thing. Maybe I should just give them some jobs instead?
Still, knowing PC's, combat is probably going to happen at some point.
>>44030576
>>44030622
A sparring match... or... encountering a frightening criminal precisely at the moment he escapes from a turf war outbreak and is injured (and thus comes down a bunch in difficulty), perhaps this could be the premise for the party to realize their ability to smush people under their boots if they so desire.
>>44030423
Actually I seem to recall that capybara's fucked New Orleans up so badly that the goverment had to put a bounty on them, so that's not the worst low level quest.
Of course New Orleans didn't actually solve the problem until they released recipes for free saying how to cook them with the slogan "If you can't beat them eat them!", apparently that's how you motivate cajuns.
>>44030739
The city is going to have fighting schools representing all of the martial disciplines from Tome of Battle.
Maybe the party gets instructed by their master to go around to all ten neighborhoods around the city and spar with representatives from each of the fighting schools?
The criminal encounter would be great for a complication.
>>44030739
Another suggestion, merchant hires the inexperienced group to transport a weapon to a discrete location. He uses the group because he needs, new, unsuspecting and fresh blooded people to avoid the discerning eyes of his competitors. They aren't suppose to the use weapon(s), but they inevitably do in order to tip the balance in their favor when beset by the competitions thugs, anyway. At the end of it, they are still required to give up said weapon(s). So their power level is temporarily increased, gives them enough boost to fight like level 3's or so and not be so stupidly limited to 1/4 CRs etc, but the effect isn't permanent. More of a teaching tool, really.
>>44030864
Oh and look at that, maybe this will tie in even more smoothly, a master (for reasons you can decide) needs to move a shipment of weapons or some such and presto!
Heck, have both of the suggestions in there! Make it an adventure.
>>44030576
Against anything with actual stats they are going to be at the mercy of the dice. You can fake a fight and just not use a statblock, but that's a careful art that not everyone can do properly (myself included).
goblins
>>44030837
Not capybara. Nutria. And they are a problem for Louisiana as a whole. No one really likes to eat them, not even the Cajuns.
>>44030945
The authorities do not allow weapons to be openly carried in the city, with a few exceptions:
You can carry tools of your trade through the city. (Such as huge knives for butchers, hammers for smiths, or harpoons for whalers.)
You are also permitted to carry ceremonial weapons.
When a master sends his students along to another school to spar, it is customary for him to send a gift along to be given to the master there.
The PC's master has been trafficking in illegal weapons. He disguises the illegal weapons as ceremonial weapons, then uses his students to move the goods under pretenses of delivering a gift.
Along the way, the party ends up fighting an escaped criminal trying to steal the weapon they are delivering.
>tfw a duo or trio of properly-played Wolves with proper Wolf pack tactics and mentality can absolutely decimate a 4-man party of anything up to Lv 3.
>the same 4-man party can theoretically take on weaker dragons and small companies of 20 goblins.
Wolves are OP and a great way to bust balls on irritating players that like bragging in earlygame.
>>44029892
AREN'T THOSE THE CUTEST LITTLE THINGS
WHY MAKE EM KILL SOMETHING
I'LL HIRE 4 TO ACT AS PLUSHIES
>>44031133
Not bad, anon. Though be sure to tie in how the criminal knows about the weapons or why he is motivated to nick them.
And of course, start out with demands and attempts at negotiations and what not. Don't want to cultivate little murderhobos, do we?
>>44031206
Hmmm... a few possibilities:
The criminal is a former student of the master who was caught moving weapons by the authorities. He wasn't aware of what he was carrying.
The criminal is a disciple of the master's rival.
The criminal is a former customer of your master, but he lost everything when his gang was wiped out by a rival gang. He needs to steal armaments from your master in order to enact his vengeance.
>>44031384
I like the third one, except make the impetus about the master walking away without backing up the criminal, now the guy feels cheated and wants to slowly injure the master's little weapons smuggling empire on his way to vengeance. He'll take whatever weapons the master is smuggling.
>>44031447
Good one!
The criminals gang got into a war as the result of a gambling game that went horribly awry in the backroom of the same tavern the PC's meet in.
>>44030342
>>44030423
Have a dire nutria go on a rampage through a marketplace the PCs are in. Make it an encounter that they're encouraged to solve without straight up combat.
Like, absolute fucking chaos in the market, people running for their very lives, the dire nutria stampeding through lines of stalls and smashing them into splinters, knocking over fruit stands and eating the fruit, terrified merchants wringing their hands and begging for the PCs to save them. Maybe play some really energetic congo drum music for the encounter. Try to make them want to not get into a straight fight. Make it sound dangerous.
If they get in a straight fight, just run combat against a dire nutria (I'm sure there's a statblock for this somewhere) and let them get killed if that's how the dice fall.
If they make literally any attempt to neutralize it with some kind of creative scheme, roll some dice and make a failure count as only a very partial success. If they use terrain to their advantage, make it give them a really significant edge. If they attempt to pacify the giant dire nutria or capture it alive, reward them for finding a solution like this by giving them a half-tame but very affectionate dire nutria pet that occasionally goes on crazed rampages.
>>44031819
I guess. Not too keen on gang heads just strongarming their own organisation into a vendetta squad purely for his personal issues, especially on a poker game or what have you. And the 'very same tavern!' sounds like really convenient backstory fluff if you ask me. Suppose it's really up to the OP if the gang was taken out fatally or he means more of a corporate take over and them being forced out of their own turf to do business in. If the rivals are bloodthirsty for each other, it makes sense it's been that way for a lot longer than the time it takes to have a single poker game.
Or maybe this whole thing is hardcore mafia family type stuff and they slaughter entire families because the head got called a dried up prune or something...
>>44029892
>>44032217
Are kobolds nutria-people?
>>44032348
>>44031819
Yeah, you're probably right.
I'm probably going to need to sit down and draw up some convoluted web of relationships between the masters of all the fighting schools and the heads of all the gangs/guilds in order to work out some appropriate underworld politics.
Zak S's Vornheim book has some tables that should help me out with that.
>>44031144
What's the proper way to play a pack of wolves?
>>44032410
I've always been a fan of more free form relationships, or at the very least, lightweight passive-backstory elements that can be built upon if needed for the campaign. That way, I don't bother building the web of relationships, and rather I set out a few possible scenario relationships, and use them one by one when a PC asks a question about an NPC or it becomes a good opportunity to insert it there in any case, applying them to each NPC regardless of who they are. It gives it a really good efficient rogue-like feel.
In my mind, less is more in terms of describing all the NPCs around. Leave it to PC imagination if you can.
>>44032499
Off the bat, I'd say they are just a creature that has a measure of loyalty, compassion, and teamwork inserted into their motivations, that's all. So, whatever one wolf does, influences the other wolves to follow suit or at least adapt to it. Treat it like any other creature that has hunger, thirst, anger, and fear.
I suppose don't forget harrying and hamstring type attacks, flanking goes under teamwork. Using howls to communicate their position when not in immediate combat, etc.
>>44032499
Flanking the shit out of people, hamstring attacks. A proper wolfpack will usually skirmish a bit, identify the weakest link, and all jump that one until it's down, repeating if needed.
If an ally gets injured, keep 1-2 on the current target and have some other split off and play ass-covering with the injured ally and any aggressors.
Flanking + Trip alone will fuck up most low-level people, since most non-grappler characters will be poorly optimized for grapple attacks. With the Flank bonus, it's really hard for an earlygame party to actually defend against that.
>>44032672
You know that wolves have so-so initiative and get completely destroyed by Color Spray, right?
Now, for the actual sparring matches, it might be a little boring for the party if I handle it as strictly one-on-one deal.
The whole party is going to want to get in on the fight.
If I have 4 level one PC's, the encounter calculator tells me a couple of 1/2 CR warriors should be an appropriate match.
I was thinking of handling this with human warriors, tome of battle feats, and nonlethal damage.
Suggestions?
>>44032722
Not every party is packing a mage, and not every mage brings color spray to the party.
>>44032965
Or maybe use kobold with tome of battle maneuvers just so I can make it a straight four-on-four.
>>44030864
Keep thinking of this going like a martial arts movie where the PCs are members of one school protecting their district and fending off other schools trying to show that being under their school's protection would be better by beating some of the students of another school. It could be tied to something like the schools train the guards in the city and assist them, and get funded based on the size of the territory they protect. Promotes competition between schools during rezoning years, and could lead to some interesting stuff like unscrupulous rivals increasing crime in their area with payoffs, duels between adventuring groups, and some ambition if your group tends to be lacking.
>>44031133
Also, maybe the PC's master is actually a Rakshasa. Maybe he's even a Naityan Rakshasa from Tome of Battle. Definitely not a level 1 encounter, but something to keep in mind.
>>44029892
Cats are CR 1/4, as are weasels. You can fluff the latter into a raccoon or something pretty easily. You could probably drop a Dog's STR and CON by two and dump it to Tiny for a CR 1/2 creature as well. Ponies fit the bill too, for a loosely urban or old-timey adventure.
>>44029930
Is that a Skeltaur?
Does it go "NYEEEIGH!"?
>>44037449
Where can I find 3.5 stats for tanuki?
>>44037449
>the party is set upon by a mob of ferocious ponies, and a cat!
![Yorkshire-Terrier-2[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/tX9rtFm.jpg "Yorkshire-Terrier-2[1].jpg")
>>44037449
>You could probably drop a Dog's STR and CON by two and dump it to Tiny for a CR 1/2 creature as well.
Nothing quite like running into a vicious pack of Yorkshire terriers.
>>44039602
BBEG is guarded by a pack of pekignese.
>>44039602
I once had a party attacked by a vicious squad of attack corgis, they got a bit rekt, although in their defense i did give the corgi's shocking grasp each once a day.
Moral of the story don't try to storm Buckingham palace unless you're prepared to deal with the consequences.
>>44039602
I keep picturing a kobold gambling den with a few of these as guard dogs. Maybe the illegal weapons organization is being run by them, and the entire place is trapped. If your PCs don't think creatively and avoid them, start the campaign again from 3rd level or something where they won't die if you do something wrong.
>>44044104
An illegal weapons organization run by kobolds?
I'm sure the kobolds would like to think so.
However, I am planning on githyanki showing up frequently in my setting (there's a sizable gith population in the city I'm building).
Githyanki have a pact with red dragons.
Kobolds worship dragons.
Ergo, kobolds and githyanki should be allies.
>>44045176
Is this OP? The same OP who said it'd be an urban setting...?
>>44045264
Yep, this is OP.
>>44045289
I should probably include 'OP' in the name field on all my posts.
>>44045176
And while it is an urban setting, it's kind of an over-the-top urban setting in the aftermath of one thousand psychic wars.
Bits of Kill Six Billion Demons.
Bits of Planescape.
Bits of Vornheim.
>>44045320
So, urban yet still high/low fantasy?
>>44045337
High fantasy/low life.
"Magepunk", for lack of a better word.
>>44045384
Magepunk. I like it. I like it a lot.
In that case, I have an encounter premise all set up for low-ish level characters you might like. It involves a merchant/high power personality that hires the group to transport an extremely rare construct pet to another part of the kingdom/area. The pet itself is something like a celestial dog or a young manticore whatever you like, but the interesting part is that the NPC gives you a nicely palm-fitted gemstone that apparently controls the pet completely via verbal control. There's a bit of fluff about dire warnings never to let the gem out of your hands, not to lose it, because clearly the pet would be lost as well. The combat you generate from this isn't straight forward either, it's designed so that the party goes up against things slightly more powerful, but are suggested and inclined to play defensively and allow the pet to do the legwork. (i got the weapons smuggling idea from this).
As it turns out, though the party is never told initially, the pet is only the guardian, and the gemstone is the real item of value they are transporting. You could put up some sort of final combat piece if you like that involves some guy who knows the true nature of the gemstone and actively attacks and attempts to steal it rather than superficial fights you might encounter on the road.
>>44029892
Cranium Rats
>>44045582
Good idea!
Maybe the pet could be some kind of incarnum critter, or a psionic astral construct, to work in some of the other themes I want to use in the campaign.
>>44032722
Depends how loosely knit the pack is. You're assuming they're all clustered in a prefect cone shape.
If they go for the addled old wizard who looks physically frail with his 1d4 hit die. He's fucked.
At level three that's about three wolf bites until -10 hp. Three is a pretty small number for a pack.
>>44045649
>>44045582
Better yet, the pet is a pack of wolves!
(Those poor NPC's.)
>>44045649
>>44045734
Lol. Liked the construct idea better. The premise was suppose to be about a singular rare pet, not just some standard wolf (or wolves), that could potentially be purchased or tamed in any old territory. But maybe the wolves have special personal value or something.
>>44032981
>>44045719
Wolves are pretty well known for circling their prey and coming in from different directions.
At least from what I've seen in entertainment, documentaries, and sayings.
>>44031144
While we're on the topic of assholish monsters that were stated by WotC without expecting DM's to play them how they're supposed to be played...
Let's take a look at 5e's hobgoblins.
Hobgoblins are extremely martial creatures and they're able to not only fully comprehend but are more than willing to execute complex military tactics and squad formations.
Take a micro-Phalanx of 5 Hobgobins, each have 2 hit die, and 1/2 challenge rating, making it a fair fight for your average band of 4 to 5 level 2 adventurers right? Wrong.
The five hobgoblins will line up in a row, the one netting the lowest initiative playing the squad leader. They will each, sans squad leader, delay their moment and attacks to follow those of their adjacent hobgoblin, assuring they all move simultaneously. At 18 AC they have a decent chance at not getting merked the first round. So they'll all march and attack in unison with the squad leader, able to dish out an average of 13 damage in a single hit thanks to being adjacent to another, leading up to 65 damage per turn on a single target, should they approach in box formation, flanking their target. As well ending all of their turns in box formation will effectively render themselves immune from flanking. Should the opportunity not present itself to divide and conquer, the squad leader will simply withdraw and fire longbows at key points in the enemy's formation with the squad following, dishing up to 28 average damage to a single player, which is still fatal at level 2, 3, and possibly 4 or 5 depending on class, fortitude and how good their Hit Die rolls are.
>>44046130
oh, and they're rendered completely, hilariously useless against any sort of aoe at all, due precisely to these 'military' tactics.
This is mostly a problem when PCs are level 3+, but it remains the case that 100 hobgoblins are not significantly more of a threat than 20, if they all sit in neat military lines
>>44046130
Though that's something I really enjoy about certain D&D creatures, they aren't just another block of meat with somewhat unique features. They can move and strategise like PCs and such.That kind of thinking takes me one step closer to a good old Dungeon Keeper aspect of playing the monsters and carving out your story in a living world, escaping and sometimes defeating bands of adventurers...
>>44046267
That's the key. You have to basically sneak your artillery character that range of 60ft between the range for sleep and the range for 5 longbows to merc a level 5 wizard. That's at least 2 turns. 510ft if they have a scout among their party that can identify you as a threat and mark the target of whoever is most likely to be a spellcaster. You essentially have to get the drop on them, or move at night.
It has it's legitimate counters, especially if your party themselves are able to identify the chain of command and kill him as the other squaddies are getting into position, they'll all basically lose their turns and then be forced to scramble.
>>44046130
>Take a micro-Phalanx of 5 Hobgobins, each have 2 hit die, and 1/2 challenge rating, making it a fair fight for your average band of 4 to 5 level 2 adventurers right?
I wouldn't, because I've read the book. That's a deadly encounter for a party of four level 2s, and a hard for a party of 4 level 3s.
Tiny rats
Cr. 1/8
Hit die 1d4
Attacks: plague bite 1d4-2
Housecat
Cr. 1/4
Hit die 1d4+1
Scratch 1d3 bite 1d4
Terminal hobo
Cr.1/4
Hit points 1d4-1
Movement 5ft
AC 1
Punch/kick/flail 1d3
Effects/abilities
Hobosense:can identify value of items, and divine the worth of an individuals inventory
Rattling cough, must rest after each attack for 1 round.
Terminal illness, crits do not effect the dying.
Infestation: can summon 1 tiny rats monster as a pet
On death: treat death as accident, authorities dont care.
Loot: dirty needle, assorted drugs, pocket change, half empty flask.deed to the royal palace of lordaeron
Feats: send 50 terminal hobos to heaven, or hell, bonus: grants hobosense
>>44045629
Was thinking of using the Fiend Folio version of these for higher levels.
