Random Party Survival Challenge
Wandering_Ranger
Member Posts: 175
Note before starting: If you are an RPer, you will enjoy this. If you are a powergamer, you will not.
There are many challenges out there, but this one is unique in the sense that you use a randomly generated party (their stats are definitely not good) and do what you can with it. Its rules are designed to simulate the perils of adventuring in a realistic manner.
The RP potential is great. Imagine this "call to adventure" poster posted in various cities across Faerun:
"To all those of noble and steadfast hearts; the town of Easthaven in the Dale puts forth a call for hardy adventurers to join on an expedition in order to vanquish an unknown evil plaguing the town of Kuldahar. We leave in a month's time from the date of this notice, in early Mirtul. Own provisions required - potential (unguaranteed) treasure to be split between the expeditionary force."
Usually, when you make a party, you make a well-balanced one. But would this be so? Who would answer a notice like the above? Maybe a well-balanced party, but maybe not. The odds do seem random. Even more so when you consider that the survivors of the avalanche - your party - just happens to have everything it needs. Why should that be the case? Especially when you consider that this call to adventure - in the arse end of Faerun - would only be answered by the desperate, average adventurers down on their luck, who are looking to make a name for themselves. No well-to-do adventurer/mercenary would go tromping about in the North without a VERY good reason.
This particular challenge is how good of a survivalist you are, what clever tactics and strategies you can use in the frozen wastelands of the North with your random party, and what kinds of tricks can you discover to make it through. Make no mistake, this is meant to be (and is) hard. It is meant to simulate an actual perilous journey in an unforgiving environment, which I feel it does well.
RULES:
- Randomly generate your party here: https://bgautochar.com/ - No adjustments of any kind. What you roll is what you get.
- 6 characters (OPTIONAL: Go to random.org and simluate a number between 1 and 6 for how many party members will be involved)
- Once you have made your entire party, appoint the leader slot to the one with the highest charisma.
- Difficulty: Core Rules
- No helmets allowed except magical ones (gotta cop them crits - the enemies do!)
- You may resurrect characters, but if they perma-die, then they are gone forever. Survival is not guaranteed on this adventure. How many will make it through till the very end (if any)?.
- No reloads
- If you fail to scribe a scroll, too bad
- About weapons: If you get assigned a specific STYLE when your character is randomly generated, you must stick with it for the duration. After all, whenever you watch shows, read books, each character has their own flair, style of combat, etc. So, if for example you get "single-weapon style," then your character can ONLY use single weapon style - no shields, etc. Sometimes your randomly-generated character will get several different styles, in which case you can use either/or. If you get no weapon styles, you can put the pips into whatever ONE TYPE of style you want when you get to the appropriate level. Note that if you start off with a weapon style, you may NOT put points into any kind of specific style, and must stick with your assigned style for the duration. This adds to the "feel" of each character.
- You may not use any weapon you are not proficient with. If you want to use a weapon with a certain character, you must wait until you can put a proficiency with that weapon.
- Specialist mages must have at least 1 spell from their spell-school memorised in each level of their spellbook.
- No Max HP on level up. All random.
- "Rest until healed" option disabled, though you may rest several times in a row - as much as you want, in fact (adventuring parties would take months off sometimes, and there is no real time limit in IWD - it never feels like a rushed game.) This rule is so if you are resting in the wilds, you have to risk triggering ambushes several times as opposed to once, to reflect the real dangers of the tundra.
- If more than one member of your party is fatigued, you MUST rest at your earliest convenience (one voice can be ignored - two, however, would not be). No making 3 day, 16 hour journeys back to Kuldahar, either. That's just unrealistic with a fatigued party. Rest where you are.
VARIATIONS:
If you want to play a specific alignment party, then keep rerolling until you roll the first six characters of that alignment. I find it better to have random alignments because this rag-rag bunch of misfits wouldn't all be aligned. Professional adventuring parties would be the exception, if you want to RP that.
MY PLAYTHROUGH:
My first party was a disaster:
It consisted of:
Elf Fighter
Half-Elf Fighter/Cleric
Dwarf Assassin
Half-Elf Transmuter
Human Conjurer
Half-Orc Fighter/Thief
I was fortunate enough to get a well-balanced party - however I played it on hard difficulty, which means I got a total party wipe in the Ogre cave outside Easthaven. That is when I decided that for this challenge, core rules would be more than sufficient. It is already difficult enough. Two mages was painful, especially since I didn't take sleep with any of them. Lesson well-learned.
There are many challenges out there, but this one is unique in the sense that you use a randomly generated party (their stats are definitely not good) and do what you can with it. Its rules are designed to simulate the perils of adventuring in a realistic manner.
The RP potential is great. Imagine this "call to adventure" poster posted in various cities across Faerun:
"To all those of noble and steadfast hearts; the town of Easthaven in the Dale puts forth a call for hardy adventurers to join on an expedition in order to vanquish an unknown evil plaguing the town of Kuldahar. We leave in a month's time from the date of this notice, in early Mirtul. Own provisions required - potential (unguaranteed) treasure to be split between the expeditionary force."
Usually, when you make a party, you make a well-balanced one. But would this be so? Who would answer a notice like the above? Maybe a well-balanced party, but maybe not. The odds do seem random. Even more so when you consider that the survivors of the avalanche - your party - just happens to have everything it needs. Why should that be the case? Especially when you consider that this call to adventure - in the arse end of Faerun - would only be answered by the desperate, average adventurers down on their luck, who are looking to make a name for themselves. No well-to-do adventurer/mercenary would go tromping about in the North without a VERY good reason.
This particular challenge is how good of a survivalist you are, what clever tactics and strategies you can use in the frozen wastelands of the North with your random party, and what kinds of tricks can you discover to make it through. Make no mistake, this is meant to be (and is) hard. It is meant to simulate an actual perilous journey in an unforgiving environment, which I feel it does well.
RULES:
- Randomly generate your party here: https://bgautochar.com/ - No adjustments of any kind. What you roll is what you get.
- 6 characters (OPTIONAL: Go to random.org and simluate a number between 1 and 6 for how many party members will be involved)
- Once you have made your entire party, appoint the leader slot to the one with the highest charisma.
- Difficulty: Core Rules
- No helmets allowed except magical ones (gotta cop them crits - the enemies do!)
- You may resurrect characters, but if they perma-die, then they are gone forever. Survival is not guaranteed on this adventure. How many will make it through till the very end (if any)?.
- No reloads
- If you fail to scribe a scroll, too bad
- About weapons: If you get assigned a specific STYLE when your character is randomly generated, you must stick with it for the duration. After all, whenever you watch shows, read books, each character has their own flair, style of combat, etc. So, if for example you get "single-weapon style," then your character can ONLY use single weapon style - no shields, etc. Sometimes your randomly-generated character will get several different styles, in which case you can use either/or. If you get no weapon styles, you can put the pips into whatever ONE TYPE of style you want when you get to the appropriate level. Note that if you start off with a weapon style, you may NOT put points into any kind of specific style, and must stick with your assigned style for the duration. This adds to the "feel" of each character.
- You may not use any weapon you are not proficient with. If you want to use a weapon with a certain character, you must wait until you can put a proficiency with that weapon.
- Specialist mages must have at least 1 spell from their spell-school memorised in each level of their spellbook.
- No Max HP on level up. All random.
- "Rest until healed" option disabled, though you may rest several times in a row - as much as you want, in fact (adventuring parties would take months off sometimes, and there is no real time limit in IWD - it never feels like a rushed game.) This rule is so if you are resting in the wilds, you have to risk triggering ambushes several times as opposed to once, to reflect the real dangers of the tundra.
- If more than one member of your party is fatigued, you MUST rest at your earliest convenience (one voice can be ignored - two, however, would not be). No making 3 day, 16 hour journeys back to Kuldahar, either. That's just unrealistic with a fatigued party. Rest where you are.
VARIATIONS:
If you want to play a specific alignment party, then keep rerolling until you roll the first six characters of that alignment. I find it better to have random alignments because this rag-rag bunch of misfits wouldn't all be aligned. Professional adventuring parties would be the exception, if you want to RP that.
MY PLAYTHROUGH:
My first party was a disaster:
It consisted of:
Elf Fighter
Half-Elf Fighter/Cleric
Dwarf Assassin
Half-Elf Transmuter
Human Conjurer
Half-Orc Fighter/Thief
I was fortunate enough to get a well-balanced party - however I played it on hard difficulty, which means I got a total party wipe in the Ogre cave outside Easthaven. That is when I decided that for this challenge, core rules would be more than sufficient. It is already difficult enough. Two mages was painful, especially since I didn't take sleep with any of them. Lesson well-learned.
Post edited by Wandering_Ranger on
2
Comments
Also, perhaps significantly limit the use of kiting: a general limitation of the infinity engine's pauses between movement and attack animations is that you can generally avoid most attacks as long as you keep moving, even when an enemy is faster than you are. Put on boots of speed, and you're all but untouchable. For more realistic RP, assume you will either have to engage or flee (abandon the area altogether) once you are spotted (unless they are realistically much slower than your party members, e.g. slimes, certain undead creatures), rather than feeling you can get away with presenting your back to the enemy again and again.
I don't agree about the boots of speed. By your logic then having a monk or barbarian would already be 'op'. You'll never get 6 speed items so it's not that big of an advantage, especially with the huge numbers of enemies you face in IWDEE. A normal party of average adventurers would be able to use those boots to advantage the way they're arguably supposed to be used (scouting, getting enemies to chase you into an ambush, etc...).
No, by my logic the boots of speed are OP. Says it right there on the tin.
Monk and Barbarian have their speed as part of their class. Having other classes, like say clerics, who aren't supposed to be fast using the boots makes them OP.
But play however you want.
As to the weapons, well, you build up to it. If you get assigned two-weapon style, for example, and a two-handed sword as a proficiency, then learn some one-handed weapon when you get to the appropriate level.
Again though, play how you want. These are just my homebrew rules and the game is actually amazing with them.
I agree, play how you like. I'm just curious how you'd train in 2-handed weapon style but not be proficient in any 2-handed weapon. Shadow practicing?
If you run through it, let us know how it goes!
[/quote] I agree, play how you like. I'm just curious how you'd train in 2-handed weapon style but not be proficient in any 2-handed weapon. Shadow practicing?[/quote]
You, as a player, know that you will put pips into two-handed swords in a few levels time, to match the fact that you randomly got allocated 2-handed weapon style. So it's a "future point" that has been allocated to you. Your character, you can RP, just learns the two-handed style at the same time you put the pip into two-handed swords (or whatever 2h weapon you are going with).
It's just about increasing the theme and roleplayability.
It truly is a tough haul. Easthaven and its outskirts went smoothly enough. The Ogre cave, however. claimed three lives (one character died twice, actually), and there went a whopping 450 gold for resurrections.
Kuldahar Pass (the mass-goblin part) claimed two lives (another 250 gold for resurrections). So 700 gold has been spent simply maintaining the party. I was really questioning whether or not I should buy the ammo belt for 300 (I ended up buying it) because I was so short on cash.
As of right now, the party is still 6-person strong (no one has perma died, thankfully!) and is about the enter the Vale of Shadows.. With a dreary 273 gold to their name at the moment.
The life of an adventurer is certainly not easy.
It consists of:
Caesia: Elf Fighter CN - Str: 16, Dex: 13, Con: 11, Int: 14, Wis: 9, Cha: 13
She's the party leader as she has the highest charisma, and thankfully, I rolled maximum for her level 2 level-up, so she has 20 HP, which means she can now take a hit. She was the party member who died twice in the Ogre cave, and being an elf means it costs more to resurrect her since the ordinary raise dead doesn't work on elves. She is proficient in quarterstaff, longsword, dart, and club. As one of only two ranged users in the party, Caesia is a solid backbone and does a bit of everything.
Sister Qesthel: Half-Elf Fighter/Cleric CG - Str: 12, Dex: 14, Con: 15, Int: 12, Wis: 12, Cha: 12
One of two clerics in the party, Qesthel is limited in her use because of her extremely poor stats. She only has a +1 bonus from CON. That's it. Her middling wisdom means she is a poor caster and therefore she is a backup cleric and a third front-liner. She is specialized in quarterstaves, and sword+shield style (which will be useful for when she learns sling as soon as she can - making her a bit more defensive rather than a frontliner). So far, she is holding her own, though she is falling behind in the HP pool due to her multiclass leveling. Oddly enough, she has the second-highest kill count, after Meriman, so she is pulling her weight despite her average stats.
Meriman: Halfling Fighter TN - Str: 12, Dex: 14, Con: 17, Int: 13, Wis: 11, Cha: 8
The other main frontliner, Meriman can definitely take a hit due to his high con. Still, his AC is rather poor due to his low dex, so one must be careful. He is proficient in quarterstaves and katanas, and specialized with long swords. He will learn a ranged weapon ASAP.
Geln: Gnome Cleric/Thief LN - Str: 12, Dex: 15, Con, 13, Int: 13, Wis: 16, Cha: 11
This guy is a little box of utility, since he actually rolled specialized in flail/morningstar AND got two pips in sword and shield style. He is the tank for all ranged combat since nothing ever hits him from afar. Up close is a different story, though, because he has poor HP. However, his high wisdom allows many casts of healing per day, and he is the party's main cleric. He is currently learning how to disarm traps as priority.
Zeli: Elf Fighter/Mage/Thief CN, Str: 15, Dex: 14, Con: 12, Int: 14, Wis: 10, Cha: 10
She is useful because of her classes, but gets no bonuses from absolutely anything due to her extremely poor stat roll. Right now, she is most useful as a "backline" fighter due to being specialized in quarterstaves (and proficient in longsword and club). She has spent most of her time in armor, whacking enemies over the head from afar with her staff. She is currently learning how to pick locks as a priority. She's a backup everything - fighter, mage, and thief. Is also BY FAR the luckiest member of the group, since she has been hit, reducing her to 1hp a whopping three times so far. Hasn't died yet.
Eliann: Human Illusionist NE - Str: 12, Dex: 16, Con: 12, Int: 15, Wis: 15, Cha: 11
She is proficient with darts; that fact mixed with her good dex means she actually gets a fair few kills from afar. Alongside Zeli, she is the only one who hasn't died yet, despite also being reduced to 1hp on one occasion. She has been useful, like Zeli, in putting enemies to sleep.
Lore: Hailing from the city of Waterdeep, the adventuring party known as the "Green Flame" was founded by Zeli. She had forged a strong friendship with Caesia while serving in the Waterdeep militia together. Zeli had left to become an adventurer and there she met Meriman, a rather sombre halfling who had taken on a contract to protect caravans making trades between Waterdeep and Cormyr, a journey she joined. On their travels one day, the caravan was ambushed by some undead who had crawled out of a crypt. They were aided in their struggle by two clerics - Geln, a fully-fledged priest of the Gnomish deity Baravar Cloakshadow, and Sister Qesthel - an acolyte of the little-known deity Sarula Iliene on a pilgrimage. They were both tasked to wiping out the undead and had met each other on the road. Soon finding they had enough in common with the two caravan guards, they joined on for the rest of the trip.
After their task was complete, all of them returned to Waterdeep and convinced Caesia to leave the poorly paid militia to join their party in a bid to adventure north. They officially formed their band, called the "Green Flame" - in honor of Zeli's mother, who had herself been an adventurer and druid; widely known for her green hair and fiery temper. The group had decided that their very first adventure together would be the journey North, in Icewind Dale. Notices had recently been posted for an upcoming expedition, and the Green Flame agreed that this would be a perfect way to make a name for themselves as a reliable group which helped others... for a fair price, of course. They joined a caravan heading North, which is where the mage Eliann joined their party. She too was traveling North, though it had nothing to do with the troubles in Easthaven. She was an apprentice mage and her mistress had bid her to investigate mythals around the Severed Hand; see if she could gather any information. A difficult task to be sure, but Eliann was promised a full membership with the local mage council and a hefty monetary reward. As her Illusiory magics were making her very little money, she accepted the task. She wasn't happy about joining a group, but the avalanche meant she had little choice. There was no way to go back now - and these people were her key to safety. If she ever returns to Waterdeep, you can be sure she will exact her vengeance for this horrid experience.
What will befall these adventurers? Are they heroes, or mere mercenary rabble, fated to perish in the northern snows? Will they find riches, glory, or death?
Only time will tell.
Comments: This is seriously tough because of the restricted weapon usage and such, though it gives the party so much flavour and personality! Right now, I would love nothing more than to buy some useful mage spells to help in the Vale, but since I can't afford both them AND a potion of genius (to make sure I inscribe it due to the unreliable intelligence of both mages), I simply have to go without. Also I have to have enough gold saved to resurrect anyone should they fall. Much planning is required and tactics are an absolute must.
It really does have a feel of a huge adventure with gritty survival. It is tense and hectic and has greatly invigorated the playthroughs of Icewind Dale.
As for the generator, I rolled up about 100 chars yesterday but not one time did I see someone with pips in longsword...do you know if it's a coincidence or if it's simpy been left out? Also, just saw one Druid (an Avenger). Saw lots of Halflings and Gnomes and plenty of characters with pips in club, staff, spear, sling...it seems like there's a tendency to come up with characters, weapons etc. that are normally not the most used...or is it again just a coincidence?