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Heroes' Epoch Campaign: Threat Assessment for Players (Patreon)
Content
I'm continuing work on background material for the players in my Heroes' Epoch campaign, a Pathfinder 1st-ed game using my Start-11 rules.
Because the campaign begins at 11th level, players are going to be jumping into a more complex environment than normally exists in beginning games. When building a character it can be hard to know what range of numbers are going to be average and what's going to be exceptional or poor. Further, while the characters themselves presumably have 10 levels of adventuring experience, the players don't. So the players might not consider some of the types of abilities foes they face could have.
So assist with all those issue and help set expectations, I wrote up the following Threat Assessment for players, so anyone making a character for this campaign can refer to it when thinking about how good they want to be at various tasks, and what kinds of abilities they should be ready to face. I made sure this was available when the players did their Session 9 planning for their characters, so they could discuss it as a group.
THREAT ASSESSMENT
Average Monster Stats
For 11th-level characters, the “standard” range of encounters run from CR 10 (easy) to CR 14 (Epic). The lowest level creature likely to add XP to an encounter is CR 7 – creatures of CR 6 or less that appear are likely to be considered balancing factors for standard monsters that have not gotten other power-ups (and thus are unlikely to add to XP or have treasure -- I'll discuss monster balancing power-ups more in a later article).
Below are the typical range of Attack rolls, damage, ability DCs, AC, HP, and saves for CRs 9-14. These are not absolute ranges – monsters can and will fall well above and below these values. Also, at this level you should expect creature to have special attacks, or spells, or auras in addition to these baseline numbers. But when trying to decide if your character’s attacks, AC, saves, and spell DCs are “good” or not, these can offer some guidance.
Common Special Abilities
Foes at this level almost always have special attacks, ranging from things as simple as grab and rend, to high-level spells and special abilities
Given a leveled foe has a CR equal to their level -1, a 15th level wizard is within the range of what 11th-level characters can expect to encounter occasionally (as an “epic” encounter), meaning 8th-level spells are potentially in play. Limited wish is a realistic possibility, but far from the most concerning. Antilife shell, antimagic field, circle of death, contingency, control weather, create undead, deflection, disintegrate, ether step, ethereal jaunt, feeblemind, finger of death, flesh to stone, globe of invulnerability, greater bestow curse, greater teleport, insanity, mass charm person, mass fly, mass hold person, mind fog, mind swap, permanent image, plane shift, possession, reverse gravity, spell turning, symbol of fear, subjective reality, symbol of stunning, true seeing, wall of force, wall of iron, waves of exhaustion, and wither limb can all be considered possible even in a typical ‘hard’ encounter.
Ability damage, ability drain, afflictions (curses, diseases, and poisons), blindsight, DR (values ranging from 10 to 25 and more likely than most games to require multiple conditions, such as ‘adamantine and magic’ or ‘good and silver’), earth glide, energy drain, engulf, entrap, fast swallow, fear, flight, fortification, gaze, grab, immunities, incorporeal, natural invisibility, paralysis, pounce, rake, rend, smother, spell resistance, stench, strangle, swallow whole, swarms, web, and whirlwind are all possible even just for Typical encounters.
So, when designing your character, selecting options, and buying items, think about how you will react to these abilities! Do you have ways to enjoy yourself against foes that are invisible, or incorporeal, or flying? Can you find a way to be part of encounters occurring underwater, or with foes that can swallow you whole, or grapple and pin you? Can you recover from ability damage and drains? Are you vulnerable to control monster? The higher the CR of a threat, the more likely it is to combine special abilities, like swarms that drain Constitution. Not every character needs to be optimized for every threat, but do consider what your group of 11th-level characters can handle as a collective, and how you can contribute when a threat is not in your primary wheelhouse.
This list of threats is not comprehensive, just representative. Traps that do something other than deal damage become increasingly likely at mid and high level. With 7th and 8th level spells, there might be things you’ve never seen but make sense for the power level and setting, like mass bestow curse, or an ethereal monster pushing stone blocks into the Material Plane to drop on people, or a symbol of pacifism.
Support
Want a HUGE bundle of products, more than 1200 worth, for just $30? Well, you can get that for a limited time, as 26 publishers have come together to help me try to pay the bills I racked up fighting cancer.
Here's the bundle: https://legacy.drivethrurpg.com/product/493349/The-Beacons-are-Lit-BUNDLE
Oh, what publishers are involved, you ask?
Files
