The Party the Dice Built — D&D 4e Dungeon Crawler, Part 2

In the first post, I laid out a few modifications intended to turn D&D 4th Edition into something closer to an old-school dungeon crawler. The next step is to put those rules to work.

I'm approaching this as a solo game, beginning with five randomly generated adventurers. The idea is to discover what sort of party the dice give me rather than assemble a carefully balanced collection of character roles.

The results were rather entertaining.

An Unlikely Company

Using the racial and class tables from Playtest 1, I rolled five characters. Every one of them turned out to be Human.

And three of them were Rogues.

Character	Race	Class	Starting equipment
1	Human	Rogue	Leather armor, daggers, sling
2	Human	Rogue	Leather armor, shortsword, dagger
3	Human	Ranger	Leather armor, longbow, dagger
4	Human	Fighter	Scale armor, battleaxe, heavy shield
5	Human	Rogue	Leather armor, shortsword, hand crossbow

No Cleric. No Warlord. No Wizard. Not even a Paladin.

We have one heavily armored Fighter, a bowman, and three lightly armored Rogues. It is hardly the sort of party I would have assembled deliberately.

And that's precisely what makes it interesting.

The Party the Dice Built

The ability scores were generated using 4d6, dropping the lowest die, with the usual PHB1 safeguards against particularly poor sets. Starting equipment was also randomly determined using the class tables from Playtest 1.

The resulting characters are competent enough, but their strengths are concentrated in a few areas.

Character	STR	CON	DEX	INT	WIS	CHA
Rogue 1	12	14	19	7	8	13
Rogue 2	13	15	18	5	14	16
Ranger	13	13	17	12	14	10
Fighter	17	14	14	9	12	11
Rogue 3	11	13	17	9	12	14

Scores include Human racial adjustments.

The first thing that stands out is Dexterity. Four of the five adventurers are reasonably agile, and three are particularly well suited to the Rogue's usual business.

But there's an important difference between having several capable individuals and having a capable party.

A Tactical Problem Before the First Dungeon

The obvious weakness is healing.

Fourth Edition characters have healing surges, and they can recover some hit points without a dedicated healer. But this party has no Leader class to provide reliable in-combat healing. Once a fight begins going badly, its options for recovering are limited.

That changes the value of every encounter.

A conventional party might be able to absorb a few mistakes. This one may have to avoid making them in the first place.

The Fighter is our only genuine front-line defender. His shield and armor make him the natural choice to hold a doorway or narrow passage, but he cannot be everywhere at once. If enemies get around him, the Rogues may find themselves in trouble.

On the other hand, three Rogues present some intriguing possibilities.

They can potentially exploit flanking, concentrate their attacks, and overwhelm isolated enemies. The Ranger adds ranged support, while the Fighter provides a point around which the others can maneuver.

Rather than forming a conventional battle line, this party may be better suited to ambushes, narrow passages, and attacks against enemies whose positions are already known.

Exploration May Be Our Greatest Strength

Three Rogues also suggest an unusual approach to dungeon exploration.

Traps, locks, reconnaissance, and stealth could become the party's specialties. The Ranger contributes another potential scout and some useful wilderness skills.

There is a temptation to imagine the Fighter standing guard while everyone else sneaks ahead.

But separating the party has obvious risks. A scouting Rogue discovered alone might not survive long enough for the others to help.

The question becomes how far to scout, when to bring the Fighter forward, and whether an encounter is worth fighting at all.

These are exactly the sorts of decisions I want the dungeon crawler to produce.

What We Don't Have

The absence of a Wizard is particularly noticeable.

There is no convenient magical light, no broad selection of utility magic, and little capacity to solve unusual problems with spells. Torches, rope, equipment, and ingenuity will have to do much of that work.

Nor does the party have a divine character to turn to when supernatural threats appear.

And with the restrictions on extended rests from Playtest 1, a badly depleted party may face a difficult choice: press on, retreat to civilization, or risk losing the progress of an expedition.

The party's strengths encourage exploration, but its weaknesses make prolonged combat increasingly dangerous.

The Value of Random Characters

Had I selected five characters myself, I almost certainly would have included a Cleric or Warlord. I probably would have chosen a Wizard, too. And I certainly wouldn't have started with three Rogues.

But that would have answered many of the interesting questions before play began.

Random generation instead presents me with a situation I have to manage.

I don't get to choose the ideal party for the dungeon. I have to discover how to use the party I've been given.

The five adventurers already suggest a particular style of play: cautious reconnaissance, careful positioning, sudden violence, and a willingness to retreat when circumstances turn against them.

Whether they can actually survive that way remains to be seen.

Next Steps

The characters still need their remaining details: trained skills, powers, feats, and other choices necessary to make them playable.

Those choices will give each adventurer more individuality, particularly the three Rogues. Random selection among legal options may produce combinations I would never have chosen myself, which is part of the appeal.

Then we'll need somewhere for them to go.

And once they enter the dungeon, the dice will have another opportunity to make my life difficult.