Encounters without equipment?

[nerd-7i+42e]

In a campaign I'm planning, the adventurers are taken as prisoners, so of course their stuff will be taken away. They'll get it back later, but in the meantime I want to run a few encounters. Where can I find the rules for encounters in which the PC's don't have equipment?

Edit: Just want to clarify, they'll probably have some mundane items that they can scavenge, but it'll be much less than their WBL

[Inferno]

Probably best to go by feel. Just drop the difficulty by an amount you feel is reasonable for your party. I mean, a monk and sorcerer are going to feel it a lot less than the fighter and wizard.
This sort of situation is too dependent on your party for solid rules.

[Talonblaze]

Well, the PC's could use improvised if they really had to if such a thing was available to them as temporary weapons.

If escaping isn't a rush, they could always scrap the gear off any guards they knock off too.

Just needs a bit of PC tactics and a little less worry about taking a hit.

[Legendairy]

As far as set rules I don't think ive ever come across any, as stated previously go by the feel and the group. Another way to help is if say its the break out scenario then dont have so many NPC's/Mosters rush em let them fight one against the party get a feel if its too tough then "other guards heard the scuffle" if it was too much make the one some sort of leader of the guards and tone down the others. Note they will be stripping these characters of all the usefull goodies. So it would stand to reason if the NPC's see this as a risk they may be under geared as well say the 10th level warrior guard just carries around a club/nightstick to deal with prisoners and so on.

[Coidzor]

It really depends upon the levels involved how much losing WBL is going to gimp the party.

That, and the kinds of foes they'd be facing.

Fighting shadows/wraiths/allips/ghosts while naked and while the casters are low on spells is usually a guaranteed TPK, after all.

[nerd-7i+42e]

I'm planning the campaign in advance; characters haven't been created yet, so I can't tell you what the party's like. I'm thinking of having two encounters without equipment: one in which they fight some guards, and the other while they're on the road. For the first, do you think it would be fair for the guard to have a CR equal to the party level, but armed only with mundane items? And I suppose for the second, I could just have multiple possible monsters, depending on how well they deal with the guard?

[Legendairy]

I would think it would be fine maybe not even fully mundane, depends on how many are in the party, if they rush him and pin him and just beat for a few rounds that could be bad but who knows. As stated depends on tactics and classes, however if they stomp the one who's to say you can't add some more regardless of what you had planned. I have run this type of thing a few times and it's been great fun with some good memories like a rogue critting a called shot on a flat footed enemy using a fork. At high levels was a 10d6 sneak attack crit to the eye.

[Fizban]

I'm planning the campaign in advance; characters haven't been created yet, so I can't tell you what the party's like. I'm thinking of having two encounters without equipment: one in which they fight some guards, and the other while they're on the road. For the first, do you think it would be fair for the guard to have a CR equal to the party level, but armed only with mundane items? And I suppose for the second, I could just have multiple possible monsters, depending on how well they deal with the guard?

You've already got the right idea in fighting guards with generic equipment. I'm not sure how often people use the NPC wealth chart, but if you're equipping guards based on what you'd expect a city to pay and the guards are actually mid level, then they're probably under-equipped. NPC wealth is just like high monster stats, natural armor, and abilities, as is player wealth. If the players have no items then the easiest way to make sure they're not outmatched is to put them against NPC/PC classed people of otherwise appropriate level that also have no items.

I'd be aware that if the players know they're going to be captured they'll probably make their characters pretty self-sufficient, which will throw this off quite a bit. If you do drop hints, make sure to also drop that it'll only last for a very short time. Otherwise you could end up with a VoP squad :smallbiggrin:

[candycorn]

There's a reason most guards in a IRL prison don't have guns. They don't want prisoners to get guns.

Same philosophy. Don't let guards have more than simple undervalued things. Most valuable magic items should be potions.

Ideally, have a special support group to deal with insurrection, but it should be centrally located, and should only come out if there's a disturbance. Such a group should have nonlethal substitution for most of their spells, should focus on debuff/control effects, and should be more defensively focused with the beatsticks. Intimidate, Armor, tower shields, that sorta thing.

That should provide a significant challenge, without being overly deadly. After all, the goal is to quell the outbreak, not kill the prisoners. There shouldn't be more than one or two squads for an entire town/city, though... They're like SWAT.

[Karoht]

I mentioned this idea in a thread about escaping from a prison/gladiatorial arena.

The prison/arena doesn't have a cleric to just pop spells and have people be healed up.
Nope, you get the gross, grungy, nasty medic/scientist type to fix you back up when you lose. The cleric might be around to heal them when they're good, but most often not.

Now when they go to get fixed up by this guy, they can perhaps swipe a few things.
-Surgical impliments for improvised tools, lockpicks, and weaponry.
-Old dirty rags and gauze for something easily igniteable, for a distraction/smokescreen. Any oil they can get their hands on helps.
-Anesthetics and other such consumables for something to throw in the face of some guards. Heck, even just some rubbing alchohol or vinegar in the eyes is rather unpleasant.


As for the wilderness, they can do plenty of things to offset their lack of gear.
-Pit traps and simple snares and trip lines to slow/delay/damage the enemy or take riders off their horses.
-Dig trenches/build walls with rocks and logs and dirt for cover (+ AC and miss chance)
-Hand carved wooden caltrops are effective, and still work against horses, much less people. Area denial, or inflict damage, both are useful.
-A stick with a rock on the end of it makes for a remarkably effective weapon.
-Small fires of tinder and green boughs make lots of smoke, smoke can increase cover AC and even potentially break line of sight, among other things. Throw some herbs on the fire and watch things get funky.
-Keep range attackers in trees if possible, with a rope line secured to swing over to another tree for a quick and easy getaway.
-Melee need to have hit and run options. In the context of DnD, this is very hard, especially if the terrain is not in their favor. Good luck.

[Partysan]

Maybe you should look up the grapple rules, just in case. A high strength character might be tempted to use the possibility of keeping the enemy from using their weapon.

[Redshirt Army]

Maybe you should look up the grapple rules, just in case. A high strength character might be tempted to use the possibility of keeping the enemy from using their weapon.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?!?! :smalltongue:

Anyway, once the PC's have incapacitated a guard and taken his equipment, they shouldn't be completely unarmed - at the very least, their equipment will be on-par with equivalent guards. If you're really worried, let them gang up on one or two guards unarmed, then steal the guard's items for the beatsticks.