Lord Il Palazzo
2011-12-07, 11:16 AM
Aira, Uial and Ginorbol, absolutely do not read this.
So, last week in my 3.5 game, my players fought an NPC who was supposed to give them a long, difficult fight. Thanks to some cunning role-playing they got a surprise round and a couple of critical hits later, it was all over before the bosses allies had a chance to kick down the door and start buffing the boss and summoning buddies.
Next session, there's a strong chance that the PCs will end up fighting an NPC several levels above any of them and I specifically want the PCs to lose. The NPC is a Yuan-ti pureblood with 4 levels in Fighter and 2 of Battle Sorcerer. The players have met the character but thanks to a magic disguise and the players believing a mistake made by another NPC, they believe he's a human ranger.
The PCs just hit level 6 and are as follows:
Wizard 6: Focus on buffing and debuffing (with a strong liking for Hideous Laughter and Color Spray) and a little blasting here and there.
Fighter 2/Ranger 4: Two weapon fighter with a focus on mobility (with Spring Attack and the like). Thanks to a collective misreading of the rules, she's been allowed to use each weapon on a standard action attack and this was recently codified as an alternate class feature in exchange for not getting magic (and generally taking a weaker build). Just got her wolf companion.
Druid 4 or 5 with major djinni bloodline 2 or 1: Typically rides a leopard companion into battle and goes melee with buffs from the wizard or with Shillelagh. If he skips his bloodline level to get wild shape sooner, bets are generally off. If he doesn't 'shape, he's small sized (a gnome) so tripping should be easy.
Rogue 4/Swashbuckler 2: A former PC running as an NPC until there's a good story chance for her to leave. Focused for now on ranged weapons with a quiver full of various magic arrows.
There's also a level 5 NPC cleric with the party, though he isn't very combat focused; they're escorting him to (and probably from) a magically charged location where he needs to be to brew a special potion/MacGuffin.
Here's what I'm thinking of strategically:
If he has a chance before the fight, the Yuan-ti will use his Charm Person SLA to try to charm the Fighter/Ranger. This will likely work as she only has a +1 to will saves.
As the fight starts, he will Entangle (via his SLA) as many PCs as he can and probably start taking shots with his composite longbow to try to take down (or at least damage) the wizard from range. When a PC escapes the Entangle spell he will switch to a gisarme (+1 and Merciful; he wants to take them down, but not necessarily kill them) and attempt to trip anyone who comes within AoO reach (with Improved Trip, he has a pretty good chance to succeed). He may specifically go after the Figher/Ranger (is she resists his Charm) to trip her with a non-AoO attack as she can avoid AoOs with Spring Attack. He can also make AoOs (maybe trying to trip) within 5 ft, thanks to spiked armor to threaten the area.
If he has a chance, he may take a turn to cast True Strike so he can power attack for his full base attack bonus (+9) the next turn and be relatively sure to hit (for +18 damage thanks to his two-handed weapon).
Ideally, I just want him to incapacitate the party (hence the merciful weapon) so he can interrogate them about some information they may or may not have. I'm not above having him charm the fighter/ranger and ambush the wizard and druid (and NPC cleric) while they're preparing spells (thus limiting them to what's left from the day before).
Does anyone have any suggestions for strategy on this fight? Like I said, I really want this fight to be hard for the PCs and ideally they should lose (non-lethally). Thanks much (and sorry for the long post.)
So, last week in my 3.5 game, my players fought an NPC who was supposed to give them a long, difficult fight. Thanks to some cunning role-playing they got a surprise round and a couple of critical hits later, it was all over before the bosses allies had a chance to kick down the door and start buffing the boss and summoning buddies.
Next session, there's a strong chance that the PCs will end up fighting an NPC several levels above any of them and I specifically want the PCs to lose. The NPC is a Yuan-ti pureblood with 4 levels in Fighter and 2 of Battle Sorcerer. The players have met the character but thanks to a magic disguise and the players believing a mistake made by another NPC, they believe he's a human ranger.
The PCs just hit level 6 and are as follows:
Wizard 6: Focus on buffing and debuffing (with a strong liking for Hideous Laughter and Color Spray) and a little blasting here and there.
Fighter 2/Ranger 4: Two weapon fighter with a focus on mobility (with Spring Attack and the like). Thanks to a collective misreading of the rules, she's been allowed to use each weapon on a standard action attack and this was recently codified as an alternate class feature in exchange for not getting magic (and generally taking a weaker build). Just got her wolf companion.
Druid 4 or 5 with major djinni bloodline 2 or 1: Typically rides a leopard companion into battle and goes melee with buffs from the wizard or with Shillelagh. If he skips his bloodline level to get wild shape sooner, bets are generally off. If he doesn't 'shape, he's small sized (a gnome) so tripping should be easy.
Rogue 4/Swashbuckler 2: A former PC running as an NPC until there's a good story chance for her to leave. Focused for now on ranged weapons with a quiver full of various magic arrows.
There's also a level 5 NPC cleric with the party, though he isn't very combat focused; they're escorting him to (and probably from) a magically charged location where he needs to be to brew a special potion/MacGuffin.
Here's what I'm thinking of strategically:
If he has a chance before the fight, the Yuan-ti will use his Charm Person SLA to try to charm the Fighter/Ranger. This will likely work as she only has a +1 to will saves.
As the fight starts, he will Entangle (via his SLA) as many PCs as he can and probably start taking shots with his composite longbow to try to take down (or at least damage) the wizard from range. When a PC escapes the Entangle spell he will switch to a gisarme (+1 and Merciful; he wants to take them down, but not necessarily kill them) and attempt to trip anyone who comes within AoO reach (with Improved Trip, he has a pretty good chance to succeed). He may specifically go after the Figher/Ranger (is she resists his Charm) to trip her with a non-AoO attack as she can avoid AoOs with Spring Attack. He can also make AoOs (maybe trying to trip) within 5 ft, thanks to spiked armor to threaten the area.
If he has a chance, he may take a turn to cast True Strike so he can power attack for his full base attack bonus (+9) the next turn and be relatively sure to hit (for +18 damage thanks to his two-handed weapon).
Ideally, I just want him to incapacitate the party (hence the merciful weapon) so he can interrogate them about some information they may or may not have. I'm not above having him charm the fighter/ranger and ambush the wizard and druid (and NPC cleric) while they're preparing spells (thus limiting them to what's left from the day before).
Does anyone have any suggestions for strategy on this fight? Like I said, I really want this fight to be hard for the PCs and ideally they should lose (non-lethally). Thanks much (and sorry for the long post.)