Too many inputs! · Game Master's Laboratory

Shane K

May 5 • Advice

Too many inputs!

I am running a pretty combat heavy Old School Essentials campaign and last session was a real drag.

The zone had the following creatures

rust mosters - to frighten and weaken the tanks.
campaign specific carrion crawler like insects that act as "wood and leather monsters" to do the same for the ranged and thieves.
a mold based trap area to give combat and specifically casting debuffs
large numbers of undead fodder

all leading to the end encounter

4 ghouls and 1 ghast that appear to be maintaining a ritual

I thought it would be a fun evening with the preliminary encounters weakening the party enough to make the final battle a real challenge and making the party use out of the box cooperation. It was a disaster.

The party completely bypassed the rust monsters but had accumulated a mess of buffs and debuffs I had not anticipated. In the final confrontation:

One half the party had -3 to hit and +5 to AC for 300+ rounds

The other half had +3 to hit and -5 to AC for 300+ rounds

each had +1 or +2 to damage for 300+ rounds

Each had a -2 to hit for 2d6 rounds (ranging from 3 to 7)

The ghouls and ghast had a save vs stench or -2 to hit

A magical chaos effect had a d12 roll with special effects on 1 or 12 for the two casters and the cleric

The cleric accumulated a 10% chance of special effect on casting.

It was a disaster to track and manage.

It was like we were playing excel simulator for an hour.

I don't like the power shift of advantage and disadvanatage but it would be better than this mess. I might simplify buffs and debuffs to get rid of all this math.

2+ buffs = advantage

1 buff = +5

1 debuff = -5

2+ debuffs = disadvantage

My only concern is this is a significant power boost for things like bless to go from +1 to +5.

Any advice or feedback on my self imposed/created difficulties?

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