Solo Paladin Campaign: Roll of Honor

[FireLance]

I'm going to try and do something ambitious in this thread. Some of you may know that I'm working on a solo campaign for a paladin character that will take him from 1st to 20th level. I've written out some stuff already, but I've kind of stalled and haven't done much work on it lately.

So, to challenge myself to keep working on this project, I've decided that every day, I'm going to work on something related to the campaign - an NPC, an encounter, a map, a piece of descriptive text, or just a rambling "behind the curtain" thought on how a fight should be run or how the campaign should go - and then post it here on this thread. I realize that in doing so, I might open myself up to some nasty comments, but hopefully, also to ideas, inspiration, and constructive criticism.

By the time I'm done, assuming I stick to it, the entire campaign - maps, NPCs, encounters, DM advice and all - will be here.

One additional point: I'm only going to use stuff that is both in the PH/DMG/MM and in the SRD. So, no psionics, and no yuan-ti either.

Right now, I'm going to start with something simple - reviewing and posting the stuff I've already written.

[FireLance]

This thread - and the planning for the campaign - starts with an idea of what the PC might be like. The following is what I consider to be the "standard" 1st-level paladin: stats based on 25 point buy, average starting wealth, and not really very optimized. Skill points are spread among most of the class skills, with a slight emphasis on what I consider to be the more important ones. Since the special mount is a key special ability for the core paladin, I started him out on the Mounted Combat feat tree, but his other feats will generally be things that improve his combat effectiveness without tying him down to a specific combat style.

The standard paladin is meant to be used as a reality check, to determine if a specific challenge is going to be too difficult for a solo PC to handle.

Darren Oaklund
Male Human Paladin 1
LG Medium Humanoid (human)
Init +4; Senses Listen +1, Spot +1
Language Common
-
AC 16 (+4 armor, +2 shield), touch 10, flat-footed 16
hp 11 (1 HD, 1d10+1)
Fort +3, Ref +0, Will +1
-
Spd 20 ft.
Melee [5 ft.] longsword +3 (1d8+2/19-20) or
Melee [5 ft.] morningstar +3 (1d8+2) or
Ranged [80 ft.] light crossbow +1 (1d8/19-20)
Base Atk +1; Grap +3
Atk Options smite evil 1/day (+2 to hit, +1 to damage)
Spell-like Abilities (CL 1st) at will-detect evil
-
Abilities Str 14, Dex 10, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 13, Cha 14
SQ aura of good (faint, as 1st-level cleric)
Feats Improved Initiative [HB], Mounted Combat [L1]
Skills [ACP -6] Concentration +2/1, Diplomacy +4/2, Handle Animal +3/1, Heal +2/1, Knowledge (nobility and royalty) +1/1, Knowledge (religion) +1/1, Profession (farmer) +2/1, Ride +2/2, Sense Motive +3/2
Possessions [150 gp] scale mail (50 gp), heavy wooden shield (7 gp), longsword (15 gp), morningstar (8 gp), light crossbow (35 gp), 20 bolts (2 gp), adventurer's pack* (19 gp), hooded lantern (7 gp), wooden holy symbol (1 gp), 50-foot hemp rope (1 gp), 5 gp.

* An adventurer's pack contains the following items: a backpack, a belt pouch, a sack, a scroll case, a flask, a bedroll, a winter blanket, flint and steel, two candles, two torches, two flasks of oil, one day's trail rations, a fishhook, a waterskin, soap, a small steel mirror, a sewing needle, a whetstone, a signal whistle and a piece of chalk.

[Nerfherder]

Sounds interesting. Can you expand on what you mean by "solo"? Are you DMing for a single player, or are you DMing and playing yourself? How are you going to avoid the problem of TPK (which is much easier with a party consisting of only one member)?

Cheers,
Liam

[Goblin Girl]

Yes, it does sound interesting.

If it were me, I'd use a point buy of at least 28, to help compensate for the lack of party members. Still, I think a paladin is the the most likely class of character to be able to survive in a solo campaign.

I've subscribed to this thread, and will be reading faithfully as you develop your ideas.

[FireLance]

Hi Nerfherder,

By a solo campaign, I mean a campaign with a single player. As you have noted, when there is only a single player involved, a series of bad decisions or unlucky rolls could easily result in a TPK. One advantage of a solo campaign is that the challenges can be tailored to the PC's abilities. Apart from that, the usual methods of TPK avoidance apply: the PC should have the opportunity to realize the encounter is going against him and be able to flee, some encounters can have non-lethal consequences, an allied NPC could arrive in time to save him, etc.

[Joshuas Randallus]

Nit-picky, but I think using the eilte array gives an even more representative vanilla paladin than actually buying the stats. So:

Str 13, Dex 8, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 15

You could put the 8 in Int and 10 in Dex -- Pal's aren't really skill-users anyway. The Wis 14 is for access to 4th level spells, and for the bonus 1st/2nd level spells. Str 13 still lets you go up the Pwr Atk / Div Might chain or Pwr Atk / Cleave. All level bumps go into Cha, so you finish with Cha 20 at 20th level.

Also, I think Improved Init is really, really suboptimal for a Paladin. Going first is not that big a deal unless you need to snap off a key spell, or you have sneak attack.

However. As this is a solo campaign, you can tailor the encounters to the PC, no matter how sub-optimally he is built. In fact, you can make encounters that specifically take advantage of his feats -- have plenty of places where, by winning initiative, the paladin can do something cool. Like, slam the door in the face of the monster; or grab the Evil Widget before the other guy gets it; or pull the lever to open a pit dumping the kobolds into their own trap.

[FireLance]

Playing to the PC's Strengths

The paladin is primarily a fighting class, so he is best equipped to handle combat challenges. He also gets two significant class abilities at 1st level: smite evil and detect evil. In order to play to these strengths, the challenges he faces in his first adventure were designed to be overcome (or overcome more easily) by using them. In designing the adventure, I included plenty of fights with evil opponents, plus a few other types of challenges to break the monotony.

Pacing the Adventure

Despite having decent armor and fairly high hit points, a 1st-level paladin is still relatively fragile. Tactical errors or simple bad luck could leave the character severely weakened. To help mitigate this, the adventure was designed to give the DM the flexibility to pace the challenges, so that the character encounters each one when he is at or near full strength. Of course, if the player is quite experienced, it may not be necessary to wait for the character to recover completely, and this may add to the tension and excitement of the game.

[FireLance]

Hi GG, JR:

I'm not actually designing the adventure around the specific 25 point buy paladin I posted earlier. He's just there to help me when I need to have a sense of how likely a paladin of his level is to succeed or fail at a particular skill check, saving throw, or other d20 roll. There are 28 or higher point buy paladins, paladins that use action points, and paladins with better skill and feat choices, and who are more optimized, so he's probably at the lower end of the power scale. It's my way of erring on the less lethal side when it comes to designing challenges.

[Goblin Girl]

Firelance, that makes perfect sense.

So now I'm getting excited! Tell us about the first adventure, please.

[Joshuas Randallus]

An interesting encounter could be built around using detect evil not just to determine whether or not there is evil present, but the strength of the evil aura. For example, a room with a bunch of evil widgets in which the paladin has to identify the most evil one for whatever reason. Or, a crowd of mildly evil people, with one evil priest radiating an Overwhelming aura. Basically, something to force the player to actually use rounds 2 and 3 of the "detect" spell results.

[FireLance]

JR:

Another possible use of detect evil is to pinpoint the exact location of an evil aura .

[FireLance]

Setting and Opponents

I decided to set the first adventure in a small, relatively unimportant village for a few reasons. First, if the residents are mostly low-level experts and commoners, problems too big for them to handle by themselves can still be small enough that even a relatively inexperienced 1st-level paladin can deal with them. In addition, a smaller community should be easier for both the DM and the player to visualize.

As for the specific problem, the list of potential opponents with CR less than 1 (to be a reasonable combat challenge for a single 1st-level paladin) doesn’t yield many evil creatures. Fortunately, we can create our own by applying the fiendish template to animals and vermin. So, for the first adventure, the PC will be asked to protect a village that has recently been plagued by an infestation of fiendish animals.

ALTIN

Altin is a small village of scattered farmhouses. The village centre consists of a handful of buildings: the granary, a general store, the village hall (the offices of the Clerk and the Constable), and the house and laboratory of the village wizard, Geoffrey Laundanan.

Altin (thorp): Conventional; LG; Population 50 adult humans; 40 gp limit; Assets 100 gp.
Authority Figures: Kail Greenbough, male human Exp2 (prosperous farmer and village elder).
Important Characters: Joel Fleurman, male human Exp1 (Clerk of Altin, local representative of the Five Stars Trading Company and village healer), Sylvia Estarrion, female human Wiz1 (apprentice of the local wizard, Geoffrey Laundanan).
Others: 4 Com2, 3 Exp1, 40 Com1.

[Goblin Girl]

Sounds good so far, except for one thing. Why would a Thorp have a wizard?

If it were me, I'd take the wizard out of the mix and perhaps plug in a 2nd level Adept. Then I'd make Sylvia a level 1 sorcerer, or perhaps leave her out entirely.

YMMV, obviously.

[FireLance]

Hi GV:

You've made a good point about the presence of a wizard in Altin. To be frank, the only reason why I wanted a wizard in the thorp is because I thought a low-level wizard would make a good safety net (see next post): good enough to be able to get the PC out of trouble quite reliably, but not good enough to take on the challenges that the PC is supposed to face by herself.

My initial thought was that the wizard might stay there because he simply enjoys a quiet country life. However, it's not too difficult to come up with a possible professional interest as well. Maybe Altin is close to some unique magical phenomenon that he wants to study – for example, energies from the lower planes may be leaking into the area around Altin (this would explain the presence of so many fiendish creatures).

Anyway, a double update follows to make up for the CM's downtime.

[FireLance]

Important NPCs: Sylvia Estarrion

One of Sylvia Estarrion's main roles in this first adventure is to act as a safety net against PC death. For example, if the PC is badly injured in a combat encounter, Sylvia could show up to help defeat the opponent. In addition, she may be used as a source of information and advice. Sylvia has a raven familiar named Onyx.

Sylvia Estarrion (CR 1)
Female human wizard 1
NG Medium humanoid (human)
Init +2; Senses Listen +0 (+2 with familiar), Spot +0 (+2 with familiar)
Languages Common, Draconic, Elven; emphatic link with familiar
-
AC 12 (+2 Dex), touch 12, flat-footed 10; Dodge
hp 8 (1 HD, 1d4+1 plus 3)
Fort +1, Ref +2, Will +2
-
Spd 30 ft.
Melee [5 ft.] quarterstaff +0 (1d6) or
Ranged [80 ft.] masterwork light crossbow +3 (1d8/19-20)
Base Atk +0; Grap +0
Combat Gear acid (3), alchemist's fire (3), holy water (2), tanglefoot bags (2), potions of cure light wounds (4)
Wizard Spells Prepared (CL 1st)
1st-mage armor, true strike
0-daze (Will DC 12), detect magic, resistance
-
Abilities Str 10, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 12
SQ summon familiar (raven named Onyx)
Feats Alertness (if Onyx is within arm's reach), Dodge [L1], Scribe Scroll [W1], Toughness [HB]
Skills Appraise +5/0 (+3 familiar); Concentration +5/4, Craft (alchemy) +6/4, Decipher Script +6/4, Knowledge (arcana) +6/4, Spellcraft +6/4
Possessions combat gear plus quarterstaff, masterwork light crossbow, 10 bolts, spell component pouch
Spellbook spells prepared plus 1st–comprehend languages, identify, shield; 0–all
-
Physical Description 21 years old; average height (5' 3"); slim (115 lb.); fair complexion; black eyes; black shoulder-length hair.
Personality Traits calm, pragmatic and serious.

Onyx (CR -)
Male raven familiar
N Tiny magical beast (augmented animal)
Init +2; Senses low-light vision; Listen +5, Spot +7
Languages Common; emphatic link with master (Sylvia)
-
AC 15 (+2 size, +2 Dex, +1 natural), touch 14, flat-footed 13
hp 4 (1 HD)
Fort +2, Ref +4, Will +4; improved evasion
-
Spd 10 ft., fly 40 ft. (average)
Melee [0 ft.] claws +5 (1d2-5)
Space 2-1/2 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Base Atk +0; Grap -13
-
Abilities Str 1, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 6, Wis 14, Cha 6
SQ share spells
Feats Alertness, Weapon Finesse [B]
Skills Concentration +4/4, Craft (alchemy) +2/4, Decipher Script +2/4, Knowledge (arcana) +2/4, Listen +5/1, Spot +7/3, Spellcraft +2/4

[FireLance]

Important NPCs: Joel Fleurman

Joel Fleurman is an extremely busy young man. As the Clerk of Altin, he works in the village hall and handles administrative work such as the recording of births, deaths, and other important events. As the local representative of the Five Stars Trading Company, he runs the general store, co-ordinates the shipment of farm produce out of Altin, and arranges for the purchase and delivery of items needed by the villagers. As the village healer, he is often asked to visit the farmhouses to tend to the sick.

Joel's role in this adventure is to provide some basic support services to the PC. The PC may approach Joel when he needs to buy or sell equipment. In addition, he can use his healing skills to help the PC recover more quickly from injuries.

Joel Fleurman (CR 1/2)
Male human expert 1
LG Medium humanoid (human)
Init +1; Senses Listen +6, Spot +6
Languages Common, Halfling
-
AC 11, touch 11, flat-footed 10
hp 8 (1 HD, 1d6+2)
Fort +2, Ref +1, Will +6
-
Spd 30 ft.
Melee [5 ft.] masterwork dagger +1 (1d4/19-20)
Base Atk +0; Grap +0
-
Abilities Str 11, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 10
Feats Iron Will [L1], Skill Focus (Sense Motive) [HB]
Skills Appraise +5/4, Heal +6/4, Knowledge (local) +5/4, Listen +6/4, Profession (bookkeeper) +6/4, Search +5/4, Sense Motive +9/4 (+3 Skill Focus), Spot +6/4
Possessions masterwork dagger, healer's kit, antitoxin (2), magnifying glass, merchant's scale
-
Physical Description 19 years old; short (5' 2"); thin (128 lb.); freckles; brown eyes; short brown hair.
Personality Traits bureaucratic, excitable, often complains about how overworked he is.

Buying And Selling In Altin

As a thorp, Altin has a 40 gp limit. Thus, the PC can easily obtain any piece of equipment of up to 40 gp in value. More expensive pieces of equipment have to be specially ordered and delivered. Joel Fleurman, the local representative of the Five Stars Trading Company, can arrange for this at no extra charge, but the PC will have to wait about one week for it to arrive. If the PC wishes to sell equipment, Joel usually has 300 gp in cash, and can arrange for more to be delivered in about a week. This is in addition to Altin's assets of 100 gp.

[FireLance]

Getting the PC Involved

This adventure works best if it begins with the PC's arrival in Altin. This keeps player knowledge and character knowledge on the same footing, and avoids arguments along the lines of, "My character should have known this since he grew up in the area."

The standard assumption for the campaign is that the PC is not a generic adventurer, but a junior government employee responsible for protecting Altin, settling disputes in the village, and enforcing the law - sort of like a guard, policeman, and judge combined. He gets to introduce himself as the Assistant Constable of Altin, his salary conveniently covers his living expenses, and he gets medical benefits in the form of free healing from Joel Fleurman.

If used as a stand-alone solo adventure, the PC could be asked to help protect the village by his superiors, or by a friend who lives in Altin (such as Joel or Sylvia). Alternatively, he could simply be passing through the village on his way to somewhere else, and be asked by Joel to stay and help.

[TRACE]

Don't forget to define evil in your game and to work on the paladin code! I use the Boy Scout oath and laws which is an interesting take on it as it breaks it down into two parts; the oath is not big deal but the laws can be, as they could change based on in game events.

[FireLance]

Originally Posted by TRACE

Don't forget to define evil in your game and to work on the paladin code!

I'm planning to work it out as I go along. At low levels, at least, good and evil should be fairly clear-cut, so no worries yet.

The adventure kicks off with possibly the most cliched low-level encounter in fantasy RPGs.

[FireLance]

Challenge #1: The Rat In The Granary (EL 1/2)

Challenge Summary: On the PC's arrival in the village of Altin, he is asked to deal with a fiendish dire rat that is eating the grain stored in the village granary.

Challenge Objective: As the first challenge of the adventure and the campaign, this encounter is designed so that even an inexperienced player will be able to overcome it with straightforward tactics and minimal luck. Since it involves combat with an evil creature, it plays to the character's strengths and gives him a chance to use his ability to smite evil. This is also a relatively simple encounter, to introduce the basic combat rules to players unfamiliar with the d20 system, and to give them a feel for the character's fighting abilities.

Introducing the Challenge: The PC should arrive in the village centre of Altin in the middle of the afternoon. As he approaches the village centre, Joel Fleurman runs towards him.

"You must be the new Assistant Constable," he says, "Thank goodness you're here; we need your help right away! There's a giant rat in the village granary, and if you don't get rid of it, it's going to eat up all the grain!"

He points to a circular wooden building. Through the open door, the PC sees a three-foot-long rat feasting on grain spilled from an open sack.

If the PC asks Joel any questions, he replies, "We do have a rather urgent matter on our hands. Could I answer your questions after you have dealt with the rat?"

Evil Auras: 1 faint (fiendish dire rat)

[hongus]

I feel like I'm playing Baldur's Gate again.

[Xath]

Are you designing the campaign through 20th level before you start to play? How will you ensure that your player follows that path?

Or are you writing an adventure module?

[FireLance]

Hi Hong:

The difference is, this rat fights back and has a small chance of actually killing the PC, especially if he thinks that a quarterstaff and no armor is acceptable starting gear.

Hi Xath:

I'm trying to write something like an Adventure Path (similar to Dungeon's Shackled City and Age of Worms) for a solo paladin PC. Hopefully, there will be enough plot hooks to keep the player going from one adventure to the next.

[FireLance]

Challenge #1: The Rat In The Granary (EL 1/2)

Running the Challenge: The most straightforward course of action that the PC could take is to attack the fiendish dire rat with a ranged weapon, or move close and make a melee attack. If the PC declares that he is doing any of these, or any other hostile action, such as making an attempt to scare it away, the fiendish dire rat will decide to attack him. Ask the PC to make an initiative check to see if the fiendish dire rat manages to act first.

If the PC chooses to detect evil, the fiendish dire rat will not attack immediately as it is hungry and would rather eat the grain in the granary. However, it will be wary of the PC, and if he decides to attack it subsequently, it will not be flat-footed in the first round of combat. The PC will sense that the fiendish dire rat has a faint aura of evil after two rounds of concentration.

The fiendish dire rat uses simple tactics in combat. It attacks with its bite each round, moving or charging when necessary to do so. It uses its ability to smite good on the PC the round after it is injured, if it is still alive. It fights until it is dead.

If the fiendish dire rat manages to bring the PC down to negative hit points, Sylvia Laundanan arrives on the scene at the end of the round in which he falls unconscious and kills the fiendish dire rat with one bolt from her light crossbow. Joel then stabilizes him.

Fiendish Dire Rat (CR 1/2)
LE Small magical beast (augmented animal, extraplanar)
Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent; Listen +4, Spot +4
-
AC 15 (+1 size, +3 Dex, +1 natural), touch 14, flat-footed 12
hp 5 (1 HD, 1d8+1)
Resist cold 5, fire 5; SR 6
Fort +3, Ref +5, Will +3
-
Spd 40 ft., climb 20 ft.
Melee [5 ft.] bite +4 (1d4 plus disease)
Base Atk +0; Grap -4
Atk Options smite good 1/day (+1 damage)
-
Abilities Str 10, Dex 17, Con 12, Int 3, Wis 12, Cha 4
Feats Alertness, Weapon Finesse [B]
Skills Climb +11/0 (+8 climb speed), Hide +8/1 (+4 size), Listen +4/1 (+2 Alertness), Move Silently +4/1, Spot +4/1 (+2 Alertness), Swim +11/0 (+8 racial)
-
Disease (Ex): Filth fever, Fortitude DC 11, incubation period 1d3 days, damage 1d3 Dex and 1d3 Con.

Rewards: If the PC defeats the fiendish dire rat, he makes a good initial impression on the villagers. He gains a +2 bonus on Diplomacy checks with the villagers and a +2 bonus on Gather Information checks while in Altin.

[Nerfherder]

I hope you manage to work in temptation to break his Paladin code during several scenarios - after all, finishing the campaign as a Blackguard could be cool, too...

I think the dire rat is a good way of introducing the player to the Paladin's basic abilities, without great risk of him getting killed.

Cheers,
Liam

[hongus]

Originally Posted by FireLance

Hi Hong:

The difference is, this rat fights back and has a small chance of actually killing the PC, especially if he thinks that a quarterstaff and no armor is acceptable starting gear.

Oh, it's not just the rat. But you must have the female wizard be either

- a perky sidekick
- a romance option
- the BBEG in disguise who was watching the paladin ALL ALONG!

[Nerfherder]

Originally Posted by hongus

Oh, it's not just the rat. But you must have the female wizard be either

- a perky sidekick
- a romance option
- the BBEG in disguise who was watching the paladin ALL ALONG!

I like 2 & 3 - she uses kinky sex to lure him into becoming a Blackguard, bwahahaha!

Cheers,
Liam

[FireLance]

Hi Hong:

The perky sidekick and romantic interest options are definitely do-able, but are left for individual DMs to expand on by themselves depending on what works best for their players and games. As for the BBEG thing, how could you think that of sweet, innocent Sylvia?

Hi Nerfherder:

Yes, there will be tests of the PC's moral character, which will hopefully get more and more difficult at higher levels. As for the kinky sex , I'm keeping this adventure PG-13, thankyouverymuch.

[FireLance]

Challenge #2: The Armory

Challenge Summary: The PC has to solve a puzzle to open a vault in the village Constable's office where some useful equipment is stored.

Challenge Objective: This challenge provides a change of pace from the previous combat encounter. It also gives the PC a chance to use his non-combat abilities, e.g. logical reasoning or persuasiveness. In addition, it provides the opportunity to upgrade the PC's equipment so that he will have an edge in subsequent challenges.

Introducing the Challenge: Joel takes the PC to the Constable's office in the village hall. He explains that the current Constable, Gareth Schorde, was called away three days ago to help deal with an invading tribe of gnolls. Hence, the PC will have to assume his responsibilities while he is away. He also tells the PC that the previous Assistant Constable, who has retired and moved back to his home town, left his armor as a gift to his successor. This armor is stored in the village armory along with a few other items that might be useful in defending the town. The armory is locked with a puzzle lock, but the Constable left sealed instructions on how to open it. Joel hands the PC an envelope.

The envelope contains a piece of paper that reads:

"Farmer Kail of Altin is taking his dog, a white goose and a bushel of yellow corn to market. To get there, he has to cross a river. The river can only be crossed with a boat. There is a boat on the river bank that he can use, but it is small, and he can only bring one other thing with him each time that he crosses the river. The dog, the goose and the corn cannot cross the river themselves. He cannot leave the dog alone with the goose, as the dog might attack the goose. He cannot leave the goose alone with the corn, as the goose might eat the corn. How can Kail, his dog, the goose and the bushel of corn cross the river?"

The door to the armory is sturdy and made of hard wood. On the wall next to the door are four levers: one black, one white, one green and one yellow. All the levers are currently pointing up.

Intelligence Checks: The PC may realize some links between the puzzle and the levers on a successful Intelligence check.

Intelligence check result: (15+) the farmer, the dog, the goose and the corn mentioned in the puzzle relate to the levers; (20+) the puzzle describes how the levers should be moved.

The PC may re-try the Intelligence check once per day. He may take 20 on this check, but it will require 20 days. You could run other challenges during this time to break the sequential feel of the adventure and create a sense of urgency in the player by showing him that the PC will continue to encounter challenges even if he does not solve the puzzle.

Evil Auras: None

[Dire Wolf]

I really like the armory encounter. If I were running it though I would change the riddle I think because that one is very well known.