Boss balance help? (My skype players stay out!)

[WarKitty]

I have a party of somewhere between 4 and 6 level 4 characters for a minigame session. The plan I had was that a local town has been coming under attack by various creatures, and the PC's are ordered to investigate. The town is in fact being attacked by creatures being sent in by a sorcerer, who is using them to convince the townspeople to hire him to deal with the problem.

SRD only for sources

Now, my first concern is, is this too complicated a plot for a 1-2 session game? I'm hoping to try to make it clear that the sorc isn't all that powerful compared to the supposed monsters. I'm planning on having him demand an exorbitant fee as well. Are there any other clues that I could plant? Perhaps a rumor that he has a habit of showing up right after these attacks start?

Second question: Balance. Right now I have him as a level 6 sorc with the following stats

Race: half-elf

Str: 8
Dex: 14
Con: 8
Int: 16
Wis: 10
Cha: 18.

Feats: spell focus (conjuration), augment summoning, skill focus (diplomacy)

Spells known:
0: detect magic, read magic, dancing lights, light, ghost sound, prestidigitation, message
1: summon monster I, alarm, charm person, magic aura
2: summon monster II, minor image
3: summon monster III

Items: hat of disguise, rust bag of tricks, consumables (unpicked so far)

Combat focuses on a mixture of summons and illusions. The idea is that if they manage to trace him it shouldn't be an overly difficult fight, they'll just be picking their way through summons and illusions until they figure out who's doing it.

[Runestar]

With a con of 8, he is going to keel over the moment the fighter so much as sneezes on him. Is there anyway you can funnel some of those points from cha to con? Assuming you are using point buy, that could easily raise his con to 14.

I doubt it will be a tough fight, reason being that summons take so long to cast, so that is a free round the PCs have against him (unless he begins play with summons already in place or with a cohort tank).

Plot wise, seems fairly straightforward, it likely won't take the PCs long to realise that the monsters disappear after a while (at 6th lv, they only last half a minute!), or that they don't leave remains behind if/when slain. It also has a fairly short range, so it is very difficult for the sorc to disguise his intentions, since the SM spell line have verbal and somatic components.

You may want to use this critter instead.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20040905a&page=5

Basically the plot is that the ooze is causing problems by summoning random creatures to fly around and cause mischief, and the PCs have to find and defeat it. At caster lv20, it lasts for a more reasonable 2 minutes, and the cr6 version lets you use SM3 monsters and also increases the ooze's size to large, further improving its combat capabilities.:smallsmile:

[Lonely Tylenol]

I can understand making fighting him less pressing than the summons, but a level 6 Sorcerer with 8 CON has 5d4-2 HP (lit. 4+5d4-6), which has a maximum of 18. What's more, the sorcerer comes without battlefield control or abjurations of any sort. If your level 4 party has a Barbarian or Fighter with Power Attack, odds are they will carve through him like butter with a single well-placed hit, meaning you need to do an EXCEPTIONALLY good job of making good mileage of his summons, which minor image alone won't do.

What, exactly, did you have in mind for minor image? Keep in mind that minor image is a stationary effect that only reproduces visuals and (if I recall) some sounds, meaning you might not get as far with illusory people (as it's fairly easy to tell which are fake until you get Programmed Image) as you would with illusory walls (as a convincing-looking wall is a wall... How do you interact with a wall? Throw things at it? Run into it?). Since keeping himself alive through illusions is literally his only self-preservation trick, it'd do you good to get lots of mileage out of it. Round an unfamiliar bend and keep just enough time between you to minor image a side alley out of existence, or leave a trail to a false path. Something of that sort.

I'd really recommend making him strong enough to endure at least one hit, though.

EDIT: Also, keep in mind that your summon encounters are likely going to be dealing either with single versions of creatures that are CR-appropriate for smaller parties with lower levels (the fiendish ape is your best bet, but even that will get clobbered handily when fighting solo against a party of five) or multiples of creatures that are pitifully weak (1d3 fiendish wolves, for example, or 1d4+1 celestial badgers), which are... Well, they're things a group of commoners with pitchforks could take care of. I don't think a Summon Monster spell at or around the level of the adventuring party was ever meant to be a CR-appropriate encounter.

My honest answer to this problem? Assuming equal optimization? Increase the level of the summoner. Better yet, something like Sorcerer 6/Malconvoker 3, which gets Summon Monster IV (meaning 1d3 fiendish apes, which is more of a challenge) and extended summons on evil creatures (though the Malconvoker, by RAW, must be non-evil, you're the DM; you can hand-wave that). Normally I wouldn't advise going this far above the ECL of the party (there's a thread called "Druids, Owww" that illustrates exactly why), but you're focusing on summoning spells being the only source of real danger for the party, and the summoner himself is pitifully weak as-is (adding 3 HD just means 3d4-3 more to the hit points; his maximum hit points, then, are 27). I would suggest Malconvoker 5 for the Fiendish Legion, giving you an extra summoned monster for every Summon Monster casting that gives you an evil creature (meaning Summon Monster V would give you 1d4+2 fiendish apes from the Summon Monster III list), but that, frankly, would be overkill.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I think you had a typo. I'm reading 'Minor Image' which it should say 'Mirror Image'.

Don't worry, though... lots of people make the same mistake.

1d4+2 images = good luck landing a blow on the RIGHT me...

So his plan is to Charm the tank so he doesn't have to worry about that one.

Scrolls of Invisibility would be handy for him. Poof, gone. Obscuring Mist + Invisibility = vanishing in a cloud of smoke.

Instead of Skill Focus (Diplomacy), you may wish to use Cloudy Conjuration to be rather annoying about debuffing while you are summoning.

So, Charm the Tank, Summon something obnoxious next to opponent casters. Now the skillmonkey has to decide if he wants to go to the rescue of his healer and caster, or if he wants to take down the source of the problem. Over the Tank's objections. Then he finds out hitting the right one is harder than it seems.

Oh, a Scroll of Blur might also be helpful to negate sneak attack.

[A4GraphPaper]

You could let him take the Rapid Summoning conjourer varient (which is strictly for conjourers, but it only requires trading in your familiar) which would let him use the summons as a standard action (which would help alot i think)

[WarKitty]

Erm...did people actually notice the part where I said SRD only? No online supplements, no malconvoker, no cloudy conjuration. Also rapid summoning is I think wizard-only - I could switch classes, but I really need him to have high charisma to work.

Regarding tactics: the alarm spell is on the list so hopefully the PC's don't get the drop on him. I'm planning on decking him out with defensive disposables - wand of mage armor and scrolls of various spells. Mirror image, fog cloud, that sort of thing - should all be on scrolls so I don't have to waste precious spells known from stuff he'll need multiple castings of.

[Aharon]

Lonely Tylenol's analysis is spot on. Just ignore the part about Malconvoker and instead add levels of sorcerer, and you're fine - as long as you don't give him battlefield control/debuffing spells.

[Munchkin-Masher]

Erm...did people actually notice the part where I said SRD only? No online supplements, no malconvoker, no cloudy conjuration. Also rapid summoning is I think wizard-only - I could switch classes, but I really need him to have high charisma to work.

Regarding tactics: the alarm spell is on the list so hopefully the PC's don't get the drop on him. I'm planning on decking him out with defensive disposables - wand of mage armor and scrolls of various spells. Mirror image, fog cloud, that sort of thing - should all be on scrolls so I don't have to waste precious spells known from stuff he'll need multiple castings of.

You HAVE to make him higher level, he's simply too squishy, 1 or two hits with down him, if your party averages at level five then you should make him at least level 8, and channel some charisma to his constitution, summon spells don't have a DC, so dumping his charima to 15 or even 14 shouldn't be a problem.

Also, if you don't mind me asking, why can you only use SRD? If you're the DM then why can't you use the resources you feel like?

[Lonely Tylenol]

Erm...did people actually notice the part where I said SRD only? No online supplements, no malconvoker, no cloudy conjuration. Also rapid summoning is I think wizard-only - I could switch classes, but I really need him to have high charisma to work.

I did miss SRD-only.

Give him Sorcerer levels instead of Malconvoker levels, then. Truth be told, Malconvoker was more to get the enemy to level 10 for HD purposes without giving him Summon Monster V anyway, so any 9/10ths PrC will do in a pinch.

Same solution, different sheen.

You need to introduce a higher-level villain not only because the villain himself is squishy, but because even with Augment Summoning, you'll never be able to drum up a serious, CR-appropriate encounter for a group of level 4 players with Summon Monster III. (Almost every creature you summon at that point has fewer HD than a level 4 player, and most of those aren't CR=HD in any case.) You need Summon Monster IV, even if for no better reason than to summon 1d3 monsters from the Summon Monster III list.

[WarKitty]

Ok. Upped him to level 9, added the spells summon monster IV, suggestion, and invisibility to his list. Spell focus (enchantment) as the level 9 feat. Suggestion and invisibility should do a lot to help his survival ability.