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Human Paragon 3
2009-01-22, 12:17 PM
I'm looking for encounter ideas to challenge a 6th Level Party. They are:

Human Fighter 2/Paladin 4
Elf Dread Necromancer 6
Human Ninja 6
Human Ranger 1/Scout 5 (Swift Hunter feat with Construct and Undead as favored enemies)

The campaign revolves around an army of constructs who are going to raze a major city. There's an obvious friction here due to the ninja, who will not be able to use sudden strike on the constructs. The party is also well equipped to fighting undead, except, again, for the Ninja who won't be able to harm them.

Any suggestions on making interesting encounters for this group are welcomed!

Egiam
2009-01-22, 01:51 PM
Just read the DM's guide. It is the most simple way to get a great encounter. Check for terrain, tips, and tricks, and especially the part on building encounters to entertain your players. One tip I would give you is to make some new enemies that they have not yet met. After a while of clay golems they get to know what to expect. DR or SR really shakes up the battle and gives a sence of unpredictability.

DiscipleofBob
2009-01-22, 03:02 PM
Is the campaign centered around defending the city from the oncoming horde or are there other options for dealing with the army? If the latter, you might have the ninja and/or ranger go on scouting missions or sneak into the opposing army's headquarters for some espionage.

If you're really that worried about the ninja being able to Sneak Attack, throw some Warforged in for the construct army. Similar fluff to constructs, but they can be sneak-attacked/sudden-striked. If that's not enough, homebrew up some constructs with exposed parts or something and house-rule that the ninja can sneak attack those parts.

Starbuck_II
2009-01-22, 04:18 PM
I'm looking for encounter ideas to challenge a 6th Level Party. They are:

Human Fighter 2/Paladin 4
Elf Dread Necromancer 6
Human Ninja 6
Human Ranger 1/Scout 5 (Swift Hunter feat with Construct and Undead as favored enemies)

The campaign revolves around an army of constructs who are going to raze a major city. There's an obvious friction here due to the ninja, who will not be able to use sudden strike on the constructs. The party is also well equipped to fighting undead, except, again, for the Ninja who won't be able to harm them.

Any suggestions on making interesting encounters for this group are welcomed!

Does the Ninja have any good magic items?

What kind of Constructs? Animated Objects, Golems, what?

AslanCross
2009-01-22, 06:55 PM
Cities are full of terrain that the PCs can use to their advantage, so provide them ample opportunities to get the drop on the constructs, which generally aren't intelligent. This would be especially useful against huge opponents who really can't get into tight alleys. With good application of terrain advantage, the players can take on encounters that are normally a lot harder than the DMG recommends throwing at them.

The flip side to this is of course, terrain hazards. Burning buildings, collapsing walls, shellholes, and the like. There could be a wrecked bridge or two that the PCs have to jump across to flee from an incoming attack.

Another general recommendation I always give for encounters: Medium enemies are not good solo encounters. Always, always, always have more than one medium opponent, because the sheer amount of actions the PCs have over even an over-CRed monster is going to overwhelm it. (My party of 5 PCs was able to almost kill a single 11th-level warblade when they were at 6th level in only about 3 turns.)

If the PCs are going to fight against a solo monster, it had better be at least large, or maybe even huge.

I'm going to agree with the suggestions to use Warforged. They're not immune to sneak attacks and sudden strikes (though they have fortification), and are intelligent enough to throw the PCs for a loop should they underestimate them. They can be wizards too.

If you need enormous tanks, the Warforged Titan is a good choice. It's CR 8 and huge-sized, so it's a good "boss" monster for your PCs.

Llama231
2009-01-22, 07:03 PM
You should get the ninja a weapon that can sudden strike constructs.:smalltongue:
How about a construct ninja fight or something, and have the ninja take the construct's weapon?

Prometheus
2009-01-22, 07:07 PM
Constructs are part of a distraction. The real plot is an assassination, kidnapping, or espionage that involves a lot of sneaking around on part of the ninja, while the rest deal with the very real threat of the constructs. Of course, the ninja still has to hide from the constructs and the two groups are still able to help each other out.