the basic premise is thus: over tha past 300 years, Raajat has been using minor touchstone sites within the Black to send Simulicrums (as per the spell) of himself into the tablelands. These simulacrums are to intigrate into society and replace his former champions as the rulers of athas when the time comes. Because they are only simulacrums, however, they do not have enough power to defeat the Dragon Kings as of yet, so each goes about ammassing power in his own way.
The campaign begins shortly after the party returns to Urik (following Last stand at outpost three) and makes their report. ANy mention of the Rods of the Dead Mind attracts the attention of Hamanu and Rikudo (one of the Simulacrum) the Dragon of Storms. Rikudo has been trying to amass an army of Athas' dragons to attack Hamanu and take Urik as his own, but the vast majority of athasian dragonkind are unwilling to follow his rule. Over the past few years, he has established a cult dedicated to the necrolization of athas' dragonkind so that they may be easily controlled as undead, "The Cult of the Wyrm" (it's a cheap Cult of the Dragon rippoff, i know). The Rods of the Dead mind would be extremely useful to Rikudo in his endeaver, so he has members of the cult approach the adventurers with an offer of finding the remaining rods.
from there, as the party searches for the remaining rods, the run across the paths of other Simulacrums, not all of which are exactly friendly with each other. They get cought up in a power struggle between two simulacrums, must retrieve one from his self imposed exile, and finally fight a war against Pteppis, Dragon of the Graves, as he attempts to bring undeath to all of Athas in an attempt to rule it (he's a Gravewyrm). Somewhere along the line, the PC's figure out what these guys are and must make a choice as to what side of this war to be on, but we haven't gotten that far in the campaign yet.
I've just been having a few problems with the PC's though. Well, one problem, really. Psionic Focus. it completely breaks the classes. even if they have to Concentration checks to expend their focus, their crystals are holding a spare for them, and they can refocus as a move-action. I've been having to throw CR's way above the party's level at them just to get them to break a sweat.
Any suggestions from my fellow DM's? I'd really like to not have to scale up the stats of an already too powerful Gravewyrm by the time they actually reach him, you know?
Tossing more (not in the raw numbers sense, but more as instead of others) psionic-immune/psionic resistant creatures might throw a curve at them. Social encounters can be some of the most troublesome in Dark Sun, tick off the wrong templar and you can have an entire city's templarate come after you again and again with ever-increasing power. Templarate's aren't stupid, they lose one squad bringing in some "insurgents" and they will probably get it right the next time with overwhelming force... if the PCs aren't smart enough the flee the city immediately. And not necessarily with the intent to kill the PCs, because doing so might involve massive destruction of the city they are tasked with running, but with massive numbers enough to get the PCs to surrender...
... and strip them of their belongings and made slaves.
Sure, they can escape. But not if their items have been destroyed or impounded beneath the Dragon-King's sactum.
Doing it so that it isn't a big deus ex machina is important
I've just been having a few problems with the PC's though. Well, one problem, really. Psionic Focus. it completely breaks the classes. even if they have to Concentration checks to expend their focus, their crystals are holding a spare for them, and they can refocus as a move-action. I've been having to throw CR's way above the party's level at them just to get them to break a sweat.
How exactly is Psionic Focus breaking things? I've always seen it as a limitation rather than a blessing.
in response to another question, i'm using the magic and psionics rulings from Dungeon Mag, where psionics affects magic, and magic affects psionics, with some limitations.
I'd tried putting them in some tricky political situations, but about half the group is either former judges guilde writers or used to work for some company or other, so they're pretty skilled at getting themselves out of trouble. We're taking a break from the campaign at the moment and running some other stuff while i rethink my approach towards this party.
I've been thinking of incorperating the waste hazards (both natural and otherwise) into a "Terain by Encounter" chart, where, in addition to monster encounters, there would be encumberments or actual threats coming from the area they're fighting in as well.
it's a problem when, for instance, the soulknife expends his psionic focus while doing bladewind and ends up doing an extra d6 or so of damage to all the enemies he's hitting, then refocusing as a move action or just having his crystal on standby so he can do it again the next round... things like that, where extra damage or capabilities come from being able to expend a focus and refocus imidieately (or near imidiatly) afterwords.
Huh, bladewind is a full attack action. What is happening that he can do a full attack, and then a move equivalent in the same round?
Being a psicrystal, you could have the psicrystal make saving throws everytime the PC is targeted by a saving throw inducing effect. Eventually, it'll have to fail... It is technically a creature and it should need to save if it is, say, in the pocket of the soulknife when in a fireball's radius.
Full attack with bladewind, next round standard attack plus move equivalent to regain focus (to self or to psycrystal). Repeat. This doesn't seem so bad since to do it this soulknife really spent a bunch of feats to get this build. What is he spending his focus on to to +1d6 extra? I may just be brainfarting this...
Since the mindblade bladewind is only within his reach, creatures with longer reaches will help limit the tactic.
And he's moving before and after with the Spring Attack feat.
The Spring Attack simply allows a character to split his movement up. For example, a character moving 30 ft in a round can now split that movement rate - he still moves 30 ft, but can move both before and after his attack action. The catch being that he has to be able to move in the first place - ie, not performing an action that denies him of his movement action.
To simplify - A character performing a full attack action cannot also take a move equivalent action, and so has no movement action to split (to move both before and after).
Hoping that makes sense
Also, remember, a good DM screen is your best friend when you're having a tough time making things difficult for your players. It's your prerogative to roll all your dice behind a screen, if you wish, as well as keep all your creature write-ups out of view behind the screen. Be sparing in your bending of the numbers, though, because nothing infuriates players more than finding out they should have killed that super-tough Kaisharga five rounds ago..... in those cases, if they happen to DEMAND to see the monster sheet, make sure to have a power or spell that grants a potentially variable armor bonus in the creature's list.
and what do you mean by "dragons and other ABs", Terminus?