Protecting a small shoppe'

[Balor01]

I am making an NPC merchant for who I know my players will want to kill and loot. He is, however, a tough cookie, living in a small pirate town and has seen his share of problems. And had survived them. He may have been a fighter in his youth, but he himself can not pose a threat higher then CR 5 in this setup of mine.

Now! Yes, town will go mad and chase anyone killing their dear supplier of room and sex slaves (and armor, and nails and toilet paper), but stupid PC is as stupid PC does.

So!

I would like some suggestions of up-to CR 4 monsters who could be his bodyguards.

They must be:
- loyal
- tough
- able to hit air/fly
... anyway, be able to survive a party of lvl 5.

We can not use constructs (too complex to build and maintain). Undead may be an option, but I think rebuking undead takes resources and time (can it be made permanent?)

Goods must be in the same location, can not be transported to the shop. I was even thinking a tree house as Ol' shoppes location.

As for defenders I was thinking of a combination of mercenaries and loyalist troops. Even a small dragon maybe, who waits to be big enough to go out and explore the world.

That's about it.

Tnx

[Fouredged Sword]

6 or so Kobold adept 7's should give them pause. Kobolds with NPC classes are CR-3 so they are CR 4. It gives them 2nd level spells and some goodies. Fell drain low level spells useing versitile spellcaster to throw around some nice negative levels is nice. Expecialy becuse they can give the party precisely 4 negative levels in one round and demand they surender.

Fell drain negative levels are never permanant.

The owner should be a 8th level adept. That opens up a 3rd level spell. Pick something nasty, like animate dead, to get some zomblebies.

[2xMachina]

Kobolds you say? Need to do the Greater Draconic Rite of Passage (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060420a) at 6HD.

[Balor01]

@Fouredged Sword
"Tough cookie" means maybe 3 lvls of barbarian/fighter and 2 more of some other class. But I like kobold idea.

[Fouredged Sword]

barbarian 4 - HD 4d12 (27ish) - +4 BAB
Adept 7 - HD 7d6 (24ish) - +3 BAB

If you want tough for that CR, go

Warrior 7- HD 7d8 (31ish) - +7 bab, maybe goliath or half minotaur for extra strength.

Spells will get you further though.

Actualy a group of
4 Kobold Adepts 7 (Dracomic Rite of Passage for extra magic) - assistants
2 water-orc Half Minotaur warrior 6 - guards
1 kobold adept 8 (DroP for extra magic) - shopkeeper
2 Kobold rogue 3 - some around in hideing in the rafters with drow sleeping poison on arrows. - high spot and listen

That should throw enough weight around that the party is likely to loose.

[RndmNumGen]

6 or so Kobold adept 7's should give them pause. Kobolds with NPC classes are CR-3 so they are CR 4.

:smallconfused:

Why use Kobolds? Since each NPC level adds 1/2 CR for most races, a Tiefling Adept 8 would also be CR4, as would an Orc Warrior 8 or something like that. At low levels the Kobold's CR-3 means you can stack lots of class levels for low CR, but once you pass the double-reduction range it actually means equal level kobolds will have a higher CR than other monsters.

[2xMachina]

Kobolds are awesome.

Their Draconic Ritual basically gives them +1 Sorc lvl, as well as a 3/day SLA. And the web expansion makes them pretty good/decent.

[Flickerdart]

A CR4 monster, by definition, can't survive a party of level 5s. If it can, it's not really CR4, and then you're just abusing the system. Besides, think about it - if the shop owner is CR5, why in the world would he hire someone weaker than him to protect his store?
If you want to stick to your setup, your best bet is to make the fight short and sweet. Pixies are perfect for this - they can spam Sleep arrows to suppress the PCs (for best results, add drow poison), Dispel any offending spells, Detect Thoughts to pick out people planning to mess around, Entangle, create additional "guards" or phantom wares through Permanent Image - and their memory loss arrows mean that the PCs will forget they ever intended to rob the store! Each pixie is CR4.
A hive of pseudodragons (elite array for an increased Constitution and a feat switched to Ability Focus (Poison) gives them a DC17 sleep poison that has two chances to hit the PCs) is also a good idea. Each is CR1 (2 with elite array) so you can field a whole lot of them without any problems.

[Coidzor]

I would like some suggestions of up-to CR 4 monsters who could be his bodyguards.

They must be:
- loyal
- tough
- able to hit air/fly
... anyway, be able to survive a party of lvl 5.

A basic Mob (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=129179) of the smallest size made up of low levels, say, warrior 1s, is about a CR 3 if you're willing to use the homebrew version of the mob template. Can't remember the WOTC version offhand.

Don't think NPC-classed raptorans would have effective flight at CR4, but they should be able to glide well-ish.

Dire Bats (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/direBat.htm) and Hippogriffs (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/hippogriff.htm) are CR 2s and not half-bad as mounts, Giant Eagles (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/eagleGiant.htm)/Owls (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/owlGiant.htm) are CR 3, but smart, as are Pegasi (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/pegasus.htm); and Griffons (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/griffon.htm) are CR 4 outright.

I can't recall offhand, but Dire Hawks and Dire Eagles (Races of Stone and Races of the Wild respectively, IIRC) should be in the same general CR area as you're interested in.


We can not use constructs (too complex to build and maintain). Undead may be an option, but I think rebuking undead takes resources and time (can it be made permanent?)
Using rebuking to command undead is permanent until something happens to disable or remove it.


As for defenders I was thinking of a combination of mercenaries and loyalist troops. Even a small dragon maybe, who waits to be big enough to go out and explore the world.

Steel Dragon (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mm/20040328a) Shoppe Boy? Loredrake would give +2 sorcerer spellcasting levels. Though I believe the Steel Dragon has since been updated since it got posted online...

[Waker]

One small thing he could have access to would be an Elemental Gem. Costs 2250gp and when broken as a standard action it summons a Large Elemental that follows the commands of the gems owner. Not only is it cheap, but since it's consumed in the process, the party can't loot it.