Gear for an infiltration run.

[TheThan]

Ok so my party has been given a mission should we choose to accept it:

Sneak into the evil army’s base camp (conquered human city, we know the layout), and assassinate their general. Sort of a “kill the head, the rest dies” situation. The problem is that we are a level 12 party and we’re a bit under geared for our level. But the DM has given us the chance to acquire some new gear at the expense of the general that has given us our mission. So its time to do some shopping.

Our party consists of the following: Bard, cleric, shape change druid, rogue, sorcerer, beguiler all level 12.
Aside from the few bits of gear we have, we’ve got a crap ton of unprocessed mithiral we’re going to get crafted into a suit of armor for the cleric. We also have a bunch of scales from a purple worm we’re going to get crafted into armor for the rogue (and maybe the bard too). We don’t know if we can get them crafted in the city we’re in but we’re going to try.

I’ve been tasked with putting together the list of gear we’ll need for our quest. Here’s what I have so far for the mission, as well as a few other pieces of gear that are wanted as upgrades for our party.




Wand of invisibility
Wand of silence
Wand of arcane eye
Elixirs of sneaking
Elixirs of hiding
Handy haversacks
Vest of escape (rogue)
Gem of seeing (sorcerer)
Celestial armor (bard)
Magical chain shirt (rogue)
Magical dagger (duel wielder)
Cloak of charisma (for the bard, the sorcerer already has one)
Animated shield (for the cleric)
Amulet of mighty fists (for the druid)
Deck of many things (rogue wants one)
portable holes
potions of etheralness
potions of gaseous form



I was wondering if anyone had any more ideas for gear we could possibly get a hold of for our little quest?

[deuxhero]

Do you know where the general is? Teleport+whatever+teleport. from the sorc. If the sorc hasn't taken Teleport for some reason, grab a knowstone (does pretty much what it say, same cost as a pearl of power from the same spell level, some issue of dragon)

If you don't, Scry+teleport+whatever+teleport.

Someone has to stay behind (unless you can get his CL up by 3)

[TheThan]

Do you know where the general is? Teleport+whatever+teleport. from the sorc. If the sorc hasn't taken Teleport for some reason, grab a knowstone (does pretty much what it say, same cost as a pearl of power from the same spell level, some issue of dragon)

If you don't, Scry+teleport+whatever+teleport.

Someone has to stay behind (unless you can get his CL up by 3)

Yeah, scry and die tactics won’t work, we already explored that option. So we’re going to have to do it the hard way.

[Vagnarok]

If your party isn't averse to it, I'd recommend trying some poison. There are a couple that induce unconsciousness upon contact IIRC. Slap some on a shuriken or something and go to town.

[Emmerask]

Do you know where the general is? Teleport+whatever+teleport. from the sorc. If the sorc hasn't taken Teleport for some reason, grab a knowstone (does pretty much what it say, same cost as a pearl of power from the same spell level, some issue of dragon)

If you don't, Scry+teleport+whatever+teleport.

Someone has to stay behind (unless you can get his CL up by 3)

I would be very VERY carefull with scry and die techniques chances are high the dm will use it against you some day if you use it first... I know I would certainly do that if my players stoop so low

[Shademan]

wand of cloudkill/stinking cloud
animated rope
several immovable rods

[Acero]

sorry, i'm a tactician, not an itemizer





Our party consists of the following: Bard, cleric, shape change druid, rogue,

are they all human? that's important.

if there are any mini races, (halfling, gnome, or even tiny dwarf) have the druid use bird form to paratroop them in to take out guards or even the general. (the falling gives you a +10 to your attack roll due to gravity)

use the bard's illusions to make armies outside and guide away some guards if they're good enough.

heavy armor will give away the cleric, so switch him to light armor, and make sure he keeps to Cure and Inflict [x] wounds, and get a mass version if possible.

thats my two copper

[Chrono22]

Potion of gaseous form + etherealness.
They might have air and waterproof sections, but chances are they won't on both the material and ethereal.

[Bibliomancer]

I'm surprised I'm the first one mentioning this, but:

PORTABLE HOLE/S

Put the entire party except for the rogue in it, and keep it a little bit open so the casters can buff/cast illusions from inside. That way, only one person to spot. Only let them out when you get to the general's HQ. Speaking as a DM, it's practically impossible to fairly find a 12th level rogue on an infiltration mission, especially if they're a halfling. And invisible.

[TheThan]

Lets see party composition:
Rogue: elf
Druid: half elf
Sorcerer (me): human
Bard: human (I think), maybe half elf
Cleric: dwarf
Beguiler: gnome


Lets see, we do have some immovable rods we’ve yet to put to good use, don’t recall how many we have total. I thought of the portable hole, which I don’t expect the Dm to allow us, but I’ll put it back on the list.

We did befriend a rather angry bronze dragon that is fighting the evil army (lead by a flight of dragons, you can say he’s a rebel). We might be able to get him to para-drop the whole party for us. The Dm hinted at something along those lines.

The potions gaseous form and etherealness are good ideas, I’ll add them to the list

[Bibliomancer]

Here's a better idea:

Cast illusions (fool the DM) into thinking that you're paradropping and then, when you fall into the lava pit/army barrack/dire animal enclosure, say "on an unrelated note, would any guards have spots checks above +X."

"No. Anyways, you take XXX damage from the ____."

"OK. The illusions vanish. We snuck in the normal way."

[ericgrau]

Good gear so far. Add the shadow and silent moves enchantments to your armors, +5 or +10 or +15, possibly in place of the elixirs depending on how much you plan on using them in the future. Take 10s on all your sneaking skill checks, otherwise someone is bound to botch a roll. Remind the DM that guards on watch take 10s, and that anyone who's distracted (not focusing on observing) gets a -5 penalty. I also think that groups all share 1 roll if you roll, but I couldn't find that rule so maybe not. Probably in the DMG on encounter distances.

For the silence wands use them to tag every passage you don't go down, as you pass by.

Illusions or a wand of silent image might be good, depending on the scenario. Bear in mind that most illusions have a duration of concentration or so. You can still move, but you need a standard action each round to maintain them. Also good to note is that creatures typically don't get a save unless they interact with the illusion in some fashion: shoot at it, observe it closely, etc.

If you want to use poison then drow sleep poison is great on mooks, but any opponents near your level will probably make their save. Even on lesser opponents it'd be better if you can spam arrows to make sure they fail. The other issue is that poisons are typically illegal substances and purchased on the black market. Alignment-wise this is usually a law-chaos issue not good-evil, btw.

[lightningcat]

Aside from the few bits of gear we have, we’ve got a crap ton of unprocessed mithiral we’re going to get crafted into a suit of armor for the cleric. We also have a bunch of scales from a purple worm we’re going to get crafted into armor for the rogue (and maybe the bard too). We don’t know if we can get them crafted in the city we’re in but we’re going to try.

Always remember the wonderful little feature about mithral armor: most mithral armors are one category lighter than normal for purposes of movement and other limitations. Heavy armors are treated as medium, and medium armors are treated as light, but light armors are still treated as light.



* Deck of many things (rogue wants one)

Deck of many thing is an artifact, on the other hand a Deck of illusions is not, and is fun for distractions.

[tahu88810]

Allow me to introduce a little known item I found in the Magic Item Compendium once upon a time: The Vanisher Cloak. It has 3 charges a day. 1 Charge allows you to turn invisible for 4 rounds, by spending more charges at a time you can turn yourself and allies invisible for some time as well. Now for the low, LOW price of 2500gp!

[deuxhero]

Is the general going to be a wuss or subject to Authority Equals Asskicking?

[kjones]

Here's a better idea:

Cast illusions (fool the DM) into thinking that you're paradropping and then, when you fall into the lava pit/army barrack/dire animal enclosure, say "on an unrelated note, would any guards have spots checks above +X."

"No. Anyways, you take XXX damage from the ____."

"OK. The illusions vanish. We snuck in the normal way."

I can't tell if you're serious or not, but... I hope you realize why this can't work, right?

Otherwise, it would be pretty funny :smalltongue:

[TheThan]

Is the general going to be a wuss or subject to Authority Equals Asskicking?

don't know honestly, I personally suspect its the "authority equals ass kicking" side of the coin.

also thanks for all the suggestions, I'll see what i can come up with for a final list.

[Triaxx]

First of all, point out to the Rogue that if he's getting Purple Scale armor, he's not going to need the chain shirt.

I advise splitting into two groups and infiltrating from two seperate points at once. Sorceror, Beguiler and Rogue attempt to attack one gate, and then fall back when the enemy counter attacks. Back out to safety and Teleport to the rest of the group waiting around the other side of the city then go into the city.

Perhaps see if the dragon will wait for you to draw out part of the army from the first gate then swoop in and smash at them while you go in the other gate. Guaranteed to keep them occupied.

Alternately, there's always the bounty hunter trick. Have to party members disguise themselves as bounty hunters and have the rest in faked bonds. Deliver them to the enemy general then attack. Best if the casters are the fake prisoners, especially if they have still and silent spells. Use the Rogue and Druid as the Bounty Hunters, with PAO if you really need to not be yourselves.

[TheThan]

We’re not sure if we’re going to be able to get the scales made into armor. It really depends on the Dm at this time. The chain shirt is a backup item incase we can’t get it crafted.

As for the bounty hunter idea. I’ll run it by the group before we head in.