DCC 13 - Devil Lich - PreGen questions

[Devilish]

Hi all,

I'm running DCC 13 in a couple of weeks and have a few questions.
I played in the Tournament in 2004 (team was 3rd place!) and have
questions about pregen:

There are 8 people running so we have to generate 2 characters but
I notice that the pregens are a little ... well, haggard. What rules do
I have to apply to the newly created characters to not have them
be more powerful than the pre-gens (% of spells, X% of standard equipment, etc.)

Or, should I just make them "copy" 2 other pregen characters?

Secondly, if we do use 8 characters as per the pre-gen, should
I still do the "add 3 levels" or is the challenge still there?

Anyone (who hasn't posted their story already) have any stories about running this in a campaign? Or with pre-gens?

Many thanks in advance!
-Dev

[fathead]

Hey Devilish! I'm probably not terribly qualified to answer this, but I didn't want your post to feel lonely...so...

I'd have to look through Crypt to read the scaling information (which I believe it had) for more players. Since you'll have 2 more players than normal, I would follow what the module says to increase the difficulty.

As for making 2 new characters, just use your best judgement on that. You could let the players make up 2 characters, and pick out their magic items for them. You are correct in saying that the pregens are a bit weaker than the average number cruncher would produce. The best way to control that is through magic items (or lack thereof). The only other thing to watch out for is spells. Let them create their own spell lists, and then peruse it beforehand (and mark off spells that you feel they shouldn't have).

As you suggested, the easiest way would be to have them copy two of the pregens. That is always another option (which takes less time for you and your players). When we run a gaming weekend (where we play one-shot adventures), we always use pregens (yeah...we're lazy).

Hope that helps.

[GnomeBoy]

If memory serves (and when did it start doing that, anyway?), the pre-gens are meant to represent heroes that have been on the road for awhile, working their way to the crypt. Hence, they aren't in peak form...

You could have two additonal characters created and then, as DM, 'rough them up a bit' to put them in-line with the pregens.

Mr. Head's suggestions about magic are also valid.

[Damien the Bloodfeaster]

One thing I noticed when looking over the pregens was a lack of certain utility spells, like the various "wall" spells (wall of stone, wall of force, summoning spells, etc.) that would have made some of the encounters much easier.

If you are running the adventure tournament style, I'd probably template two of the pregens and then change them enough to make them unique characters; I'd probably pick fighter types over spellcasters, to avoid inadvertently short-circuiting some of the encounters.

If you are running it as a regular D&D scenario (which means, for example, that clerics have access to the full cleric spell list, and PCs can rest before completing a level), then with 8 PCs I'd definitely scale the difficulty upwards. On the other hand, if someone is running the pregen wizard, I'd be inclined to give the player access to a few more spells in his spellbook to allow more flexibility.

[fathead]

One thing I noticed when looking over the pregens was a lack of certain utility spells, like the various "wall" spells (wall of stone, wall of force, summoning spells, etc.) that would have made some of the encounters much easier.

Yep. They were also missing some divination spells that my group is fond of abusing (augury, commune)...not to mention things like lesser planar ally (which, if you're playing pregens, the players are more inclined to use as well...yeah, a creature with magic missile at will and true seeing can tend to unbalance an adventure just a bit).