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Ok here's how you know what your enemies levels are...
Any Human/Demi-Human character that can attack more than once per round... is a 5th level or higher fighter,
The Veteran has 50+ HP... so he's 5th level Fighter as he will attack 3 times. He's two handing a Longsword for 1d10+.
The Bandit Captain has 60+ HP... so he's 6th level Fighter. He's one handing a Short Sword for 1d6+. So you may have accidentally overtuned your encounter without realizing it.
The "Spy" is a Thief with 27 HP... so he's 3rd level Thief with Constitution bonus.
The Thug is unknown, but with 32 HP... he's either a 3rd level Fighter or a 4th level Thief (Likely the latter)).
Guage their class and levels based on their hit points and number of attacks when selecting a Human or Demi-Human monster at present in the toolset as you cannot adjust their levels once you place them. Ergo, you can accidently overtune an encounter without intending to.
As an example...
Your Encounter in front of the Armory is actually...
4 1st level Fighters
2 1st level Fighters in Heavy Armor with 2 Handers (do more damage and harder to hit)
1 6th level Fighter.
So it may be a bit much for a 1st or 2nd level party, and would be a pretty strong encounter for a 3rd level party.
Just something people will need to know when tuning or placing encounter groups. There's more that I'll cover later. This is just a first observation in your first few minutes of Video 2.
Players will generally be moving in Cautious mode throughout the Dungeon, so try not to use the 4 Monster groups, except as monsters further back in an encounter group or room.
Place one or two sacrificial lambs out a little ways forward. When the party initiates a surprise round, the rest of the mobs will be too far back to be wiped out in a single round. When linked as an Indexed encounter the party will trigger the entire encounter but not be able to wipe out the entire thing in a single round.
Ergo you basically place a couple of door guards, with the rest all placed back further into the room.
A Hall guard like you've put out there will be wiped out in a single round in a surprise round if you use the 4 Mob group like that. so generally in a hallway encounter you want to place them individually with a few forward and a few back.
I'm just putting these in as things to note.
Your actual encounter design intents are right on the money. Especially your dialogue concerning 0 level fighters in the generic encounters, and how many there generally are.
Also your encounter design with regards to how leaders are placed vs the general populations in a D&D module for room placement and general dungeon organization for layout are right on the money.
So I don't want you to get the idea that I'm just trying to crap on your videos.
One note...
For doing in essence stone tables. Here's the key to making them look less like a crypt.
Use Tomb_A as it is the only one with a flat lid. Tomb_C is one with the cover missing so won't work... (but this one can be improvised into a old destroyed fountain).
Tomb_B has debris on top... so this one can be improvised into a collapsed area for a door block without looking like an actual crypt so long as you surround it with heaps of 4 square Debris Placables.
Now the real trick... there are Guardrail segments you can surround them with to get rid of the "Tomb" look. When you use a the 2x1 guardrail on either side and a 1x1 guardrail segment to cap it, (possibly adding the posts to the 4 corners, you get a realistic looking stone table... OR possibly an Altar if you want to use it for that purpose as well.
Example: Normal Tomb when placed is like this...
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2435971527
Example: Improvised Stone Table or Altar with guardrails and posts
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2466313494
But that's how you "improvise" tables or altars in the current Beta Toolset.
Nice job on improvising.
If you place the torches too close togather you can accidently end up making the area too bright. If you feel its too bright when making your dungeon, one of the tricks is to Alternate the pillars or side of the wall they are on.
When you pick up the Torch or lighting source in the toolset there is a small ring you will notice, and this is the area it will light up, so trying to only slightly overlap those rings will leave it just dark enough for a good feel... but not too close togather to give too much lighting.
NOTE: Make sure to rotate the fire side of your torches outward so it is not inside of the wall. That can be an accidental oops when designing.
I really like your mindset for design Jim, Its clear that as you design you have a logical and rational explanation for the way you lay things out which is a HUGE key for designing. As you go through, it is clear you weren't just thinking about placing things... but also the reason behind them.
I like, as an example how you talked about the officers not just wanting torches for light but also Braziers for Warmth. Again they are small touches like this that will bring dungeons to life.
There is also the mood or intent you want to set... We only have ONE current tileset in the Beta Utility, but that ONE tileset is incredibly versatile depending on how you use it...
Simple pillar changes can turn it from either a Crypt... to a Temple... to a straight up Dungeon Environment depending on how they're used... for example...
Temple:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2466312443
Dungeon
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2468199031
Crypt:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2468162115
Note how the different pillars vs normal pillars with chains can give it a completely different look, almost like its a totally different environment.
The Classic Mauseleum
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2435964434
The Improvised Underground city look.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2468183376
In the first screenshot we see the classic Mausoleum look, where you use both the Crypt Pillars and the Mausoleums faced forwards...
In the Second screenshot we see the Mausoleums faced backwards to give almost a back alley look like its an underground city of a sort.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2468164523
I added some doors, moved a wall, moved wall torches, moved statues. Yeah I liked the way the improvised tables turned out with the benches and all. That actually worked better than I had hoped.
Probably 4 1/2 to 5 hrs before it is prepped, uploaded and processed.
I'm not much of a design-oriented person, but I try to think of the logic of how things should unfold step by step. A couple of days ago I realized that placing debris is great because you can barely see it, but it forces the player to step on certain squares to trigger messages, for ex.
And the way you place light can really affect an encounter, so it's crucial to note that to set the right challenge, etc. For ex., if you give the players a well-lit entrance, but the enemies are in the dark, that makes it a good bit harder sometimes.
Two things I was thinking about the other day:
- I want to place a fair amount of messages for various reasons, but figuring out when and where, and how much is overkill, is a bit tough. It's hard to imagine how other players will respond to that, but I guess one key is to keep each message a little bit short. It's a shame those messages don't get saved in the journal so most of them can't be accessed again.
- I'm making a somewhat maze-like dungeon, but it's hard to avoid having dead space between the different rooms and walls. It's a bit of an eyesore that players can see during gameplay, but I can't see anyway of avoiding it, as the large map is a good size but it's not big enough either, so I still need to cram things in a bit. By dead space, I mean there are strange-shaped gaps that form between the walls when you combine a bunch of rooms and halls together. Players can't access them, and are not meant to access them, but since they are still visible, it's a bit annoying.
And one unrelated thing, why do Veterans get three attacks each round at around LV5? I've noticed that during random encounters too. Makes them tough on Cataclysm mode when they surprise a low level party!
My hallway encounters with the 4 man groups, are deliberate. They are for party XP and to hurt via attrition, the party's supply of resources/consumables. (Force you to not sit on 13 Pots of healing just in case you REALLY need 1 later. psssst, hey...you REALLY need to use it NOW! lol)
I just realized that I didnt play all the way through. I still had another Bandit Capt to deal with and then the warlord. lol That back wall in the officers qtrs, should have had a door in it, not a crawl space. That has been remedied.
Several pillars added for 'traffic control' purposes and ambience. I THINK, a 1st lvl party will be 3rd lvl when it reaches the final room with the warlord. I still have to run through it again after making some adjustments. I've also changed a bit, the stash in the armory and added a few things to the beginning stash. Gonna try it and see what I feel it shows now.
Those LORE tiles, are easy to over use AND easy to under utilize. Takes some awareness and deliberation to story tell with them, but it can be done.