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View Full Version : Large Party vs. Infiltrator



Thrawn183
2009-09-27, 08:34 AM
So we all know that some adjustments have to be made to encountes when a party is composed of more than the standard number of PC's. The PC's already often have an action advantage when there are just 4 of them, and this becomes more pronounced when there are more.

Now generally speaking, this can be countered with increased CR (to an extent), increased numbers, crowd control, and any kind of AoE will probably hit more targets the more of them there are.

But what about the classic enemy that infiltrates the party only to have a surprising reveal when the party least expects it?

Ostien
2009-09-27, 11:21 AM
Our group had this happen to us.

A character wanted to start a shade template and the DM decided that his character could go off to the city of Shade floating over the Anauroch desert during the two levels of that template and could bring in a temporary character, Nezbiet, a fighter type supposedly sent by Able to escort Alvera back to Neverwinter.

Now to set this up, our game started as the Expedition to Castle Ravenloft module. One of the characters, Alvera, developed a wonderful political intrigue back story where she was the daughter of the spymaster of Neverwinter but the spymaster was an incredibly corrupt figure who had started worshiping Gargoth and engaging in torture and other nasty stuff. The only people who knew Alvera was really the reportedly dead daughter, Kaspara, were her (obviously), Mathias the spymaster and Able, who was basically a retired spy and replacement father figure for Alvera/Kaspara. The back story was revealed to the party over the Ravenloft adventure in part to Strad and in part to a Zentarium Spy posing as a merchant who we had a few run ins with, and some investigation by the significant other of Alvera who only came along because they were suspicious of why Alvera had a journal written in a coded version of Auran. Now the goal become to get back to Neverwinter dodging Zentarium assassins and other nasties sent by Mathias, as well as bounty hunters who are being sent to capture up so we can stand trial for a variety of crimes such as treason to Neverwinter and killing a little girl ten years ago. There is a lot more to the backstory and such but this is a good enough set up.

Fast forward to outside of the Estate of one Mathias Tovar, where in a magical cabin a plot to assassinate a corrupt political leader is brewing. We are resting, waiting for the next day when we will launch out plot, and all the sudden our cabin is disspelled. Outside stand Mathias and his bodyguards. We roll initiative, Nezbiet's player hands over his character sheet over to the DM.

Riffington
2009-09-27, 12:00 PM
So we all know that some adjustments have to be made to encountes when a party is composed of more than the standard number of PC's. The PC's already often have an action advantage when there are just 4 of them, and this becomes more pronounced when there are more.

Now generally speaking, this can be countered with increased CR (to an extent), increased numbers, crowd control, and any kind of AoE will probably hit more targets the more of them there are.

But what about the classic enemy that infiltrates the party only to have a surprising reveal when the party least expects it?

They need to be sneakier the larger the party is - the more redudancy is built in, the less harm they can really do. But even a large party will leave something critical open at some point- the infiltrator just needs to bid her time or be a bit more manipulative. Or, of course, the infiltrator can have reinforcements waiting at the point of revelation.