D&D 3.5 - Kobold Reverse Dungeon Crawl [THANATOS, STAY OUT!]

naporeon

SPOILER ALERT FOR THANATOS: This thread is for the game I'm running, so don't read it.

So, I'm running a game for my gaming group, and after a long time away, we're going back to the 3.5 well.

The concept for this game is fairly simple: the players' party consists entirely of kobolds, who live underneath a dungeon, adjacent to a dragon's lair. While this is a long-form campaign, with a story I've already planned out, the first bit is essentially what I called it in the title...namely, a reverse dungeon crawl. Parties of increasingly puissant adventurers, composed of "standard" player races (humans, elves, dwarves, etc.) will be invading the kobolds' home turf. I plan on throwing in some of my players' former characters as opponents, but outside of that, I'm facing some questions.

My main concern is level-appropriate encounters. The party consists of a sorcerer, a cleric, and a ranger/fighter bowman, with another player to be added tonight. Player level currently stands at 4. Out of the folks playing the game, one is an obsessive optimizer, and all are strategically and tactically competent. Needless to say, though, a party of 3-4 kobolds is at at least a slight disadvantage, so some cooking of encounter levels might be necessary. Suggestions?

My next concern is flavor. The story has them eventually leaving their home to confront a retired adventurer, a gnome, who is directing raiders to their dungeon. What sorts of encounters would you all suggest for kobolds? They obviously hate gnomes, and are no friend to dwarves, but outside of that, what strikes you as appropriate and/or interesting?

We have so far lodged one session, wherein the party wandered out to harvest guardhairs from dire porcupines, for use in molting brushes. There were only two encounters (both roughly CR3), and they never really seemed in danger, although to be fair, I was trying to calibrate, so I didn't really take full tactical advantage in either of the encounters.

I welcome any suggestions or advice. Thanks!

nefffffffffff

This sounds like fun.

Deussu

Nice idea. It holds a lot of potential for all kinds of neat tricks.

One thing I'd take into consideration is trapmaking. Kobolds are known to do all kinds of traps, and even the players should try to utilize those not only to ease their combats, but to win some as well. I would imagine from a kobold's view that defeating a huge golem - possibly built by dwarves and gnomes - would be extremely satisfactory. Trip it, make it drop into some bottomless pit or whatnot. This, after all, is just an example.

I presume you need to have these "pointless" (aka not getting on with the story much) sessions a few more, as you need to get familiar with the group's potential.

Are you playing vanilla 3.5, or do you have supplement books included? Kobolds in general would have a lot of untold goodies in the Races of the Dragon (or whatever it was called). Furthermore, the spell selection of the sorcerer has great weight, as in cramped areas web is far too powerful, and could easily end the combat right there. Regardless I always put APL+1 encounters against my groups, especially if they are competent and know their stuff. CR sums, unfortunately, are so abstract you better not follow them strictly. Even when playing as kobolds, the disadvantage isn't so huge it would make such a difference.

One thing most people forget is terrain, and weather. I honestly hope you use these rarely used elements in your game, it gives a much more tactical feeling to the game. In terms of flavor, it wouldn't always be a "nice, spring day with light clouds." Add up lots of rain when at the coast, and constant winds in mountainous areas.

Hope there's something of interest in that wall of text. 8-)

naporeon

Thanks for the response, Deussu.

To answer your question, I have allowed most of the "Complete" books, and am approving bits of Races of the Dragon, as they come up. In addition, I gave everyone the Dragonwrought feat (from Races of the Dragon) for free, at first level.

Also, you presume correctly: while the next session will have interactions that advance the story, the encounters are all basically more of the calibrating. I am "tuning from underneath", in that I am ramping up the difficulty with each encounter. My problem is that I want to stay true to the concept, so I want to stick mainly with creatures and beings kobolds would be likely to encounter in underground caves, densely-wooded surface areas and foothills, and lightly-populated rural holdings of mostly elves (plus some humans and dwarves).

This is very advanced group, as far as strategy and tactics are concerned, so terrain will definitely play a part. Environment in general will likely do so as well. I am definitely concerned with the issue of spell selection, which is one reason why I banned Wizards; one of my players has spent years learning to optimize them, and I wanted to limit his spellcasting options.

RTMaitreya

I am just putting together a Reverse Dungeon based on the official 2000 released module. I am greatly expanding the first level of the dungeon to include a tribe of kobolds in the caves led by a small but vicious gnoll family, and two tribes of goblins immediately nearby, including marsh, hill, and forest goblins. I am pre-generating 6 characters for each of the 3 regions, so each player gets three total characters of appropriately peon status. This way if one dies in an encounter, it's not a big deal, as there are two more available, and they become more fluid after the first few gaming sessions as the three tribes work closer together banding survivors and warriors to stave off the intrepid adventurers.

I am not allowing full first level characters. They are all generated as 3d6 drop lowest stat (average about 9) plus racial bonuses. Three types of goblins, kobolds, orc and crippled bugbear slaves, gnoll youth, and hobgoblin characters all available. We do implement cheese factor, so the higher powered characters have lower status (bugbear character is teh cheezbomb, but dude, he's a crippled slave. Sucks to be him). In game, fireballs always target highest CF first, whereas the hot green-skinned alien chicks always jump into the arms of the lowest CF character. It all balances out for the power gamers. . .

Oh, and i'm doing this all in Pathfinder, not D&D3.5. Our group wants the activity and support of the growing Pathfinder community for years to come, so we may as well learn the differences now.