u/sdonald1991

Good day,

New to DMing wondering if this is an ok series of encounters for a party of four lvl3s using 2024 monster manual statblocks

Party is:
Eldritch knight fighter
Life cleric
Moon Druid
Aberrant Sorceror

They’re all fairly new players so want there to be a sense of danger but not looking to actually kill anyones character

The scenario is them heading to an old ruined chapel and then inside it

Encounter 1 - en route
1 x bandit captain
2 x bandit

Encounter 2 - outside chapel
2 x gnoll pack lord

Encounter 3 - inside chapel
1 x spectator

The hardest encounter according to the DMG should be the two gnoll pack lords but I’ve not had much experience in multi encounter days so just looking for some insight from more experienced heads

Good day to you,

I have an overall plot hook where it seems a king is this evil guy and that’s who the party is aiming to take down, but will slowly uncover that his top general/ advisor/#2 is actually pulling the strings at the behest of a patron/god/demigod to further a higher more evil goal that far outweighs the kingdom the PCs are in

- Think Grima wormtongue to theoden if wormtongue was actually a high level mage -

I’m using the greyhawk setting as it came with the new DMG and has regional info/plot hooks

I’m not very good at DnD lore though and coming up with scenarios that - say the PCs get a lead on some cultist activity, and they go to investigate/thwart that, and find clues to the overarching plot, but what would the cultists actually have been trying to do in that specific place before the PCs turn up that they are trying to thwart? A ritual of some sort? But what would the ritual be trying to accomplish that is small enough in scale that the PCs disrupting one isn’t such a big deal to the larger plot but plants the seeds for revealing the whole plot as they go

I wondered if it would work tying it in with the iuz plot in the greyhawk setting? Or if to leave that seperate

Apologises for the ramble hope it made at least a bit of sense what I’m asking

Cheers

New DM here:

Wondering about some insight into how much weight to give low CR monsters when building encounters using the 2024DMG xp budget system

The 4 PCs are coming to the end of their first arc at lvl3 and was planning an encounter against some guards

Was going to make it high difficulty and they’d reach lvl4 after

If the xp budget for 4 lvl 3s is 1600xp, and a guard captain is 1100xp

Where do you draw the line when padding out the minions (CR 1/8 guard is 25xp) between following the xp budget and the PCs just ending up being overwhelmed because of the numbers

Or is using a CR4 against lvl3s even a good idea?

Wondering if anyone has any tips or mechanics to use for planning a low level prison/jail break

Long story short the leader of a local resistance that the PCs have met is being held and interrogated in the town garrison/barracks/watchtower dungeons and the party need to get in and get them out

I have multiple entry/exit points planned, it’s more about how to work the encounter as far as guard’s patrols / if the alarm is raised / what to do if combat is started to just not overwhelm the party etc

It’s low level so wasn’t going to be a small surface area location but maybe with multiple levels to it

I tried searching for it but most things are about the PCs breaking out of prison themselves