[PF] DDO-style raid (Help Wanted!)

[Gandolfi Feesh]

I'm looking to set up an assault based on a raid from Dungeons & Dragons Online. I'll give you a brief outline of my intentions, then everyone can throw their two cents at it.

They are the last remaining survivors of a former drow noble family. I've adapted 3.5's Undermountain to fit this setting since I've ran it a few times before. After the runestone encounter at the end of the book, they will find a tunnel which leads up to a drow house located within Menzoberranzen. This 'coincidentally' is the family which assassinated their house at the beginning of the campaign.

What would you say is the best way to go about this?
I want it to include multiple levels of the house, complete with puzzle, a mixture of minions & bosses and big fat loot (everyone loves a chest).
Loot has been handled, I'm more concerned with how to deal with moving minions and such like in a way that wont slow down combat; If I have to move 20 NPC's in between the player's go they will kick up a fuss within no time at all.

Any tips, tricks or idea welcomed.
Thanks

[Acanous]

Seperate minions by type. (Skeletons, Zombies, Drow, Slaves) and have each type take 10 on initiative. You should end up with the minions moving together on a reasonably low init, letting most of the party go first and thinning the herd, while still posing a credible threat. Basically, zombie horde moves like a swarm.

[Gandolfi Feesh]

Thanks for the input, I'll be sure to group the initiatives in that manner.
What is your thoughts on adding in one hit kill NPC's (party will be level 9-10 by this point)?

Any thoughts on a cool puzzle involving multiple rooms?

[Slipperychicken]

What is your thoughts on adding in one hit kill NPC's (party will be level 9-10 by this point)?


I assume you mean PCs one-shotting NPCs here, and not the other way around.

Depends on how much your players like rolling damage. If the baddies have so few hp it's an auto-kill, ask how much the minimum damage roll is on the PCs attacks, then declare it an autokill. As long as it doesn't get into a tedious "I kill the next one" routine. If the fight only has such trivial opponents, you can just say "Describe how you slaughter this group" and move on.

[Karoht]

Fun Puzzle/Boss encounter.

Boss sits in the middle room, with an adjacent room at the north, east, south, and west. The boss is flinging spells through a homebrewed protective shield, empowered by 4 pillars.
In the adjacent room spawns baddies. Constantly. Easy enough to kill, but tough enough that their numbers will become a problem if they aren't handled efficiently. In each room is also a bigger baddie. Killing this baddie shuts down the spawns from that room. Also, baddie is holding a mcguffin which will shut down the one of the pillars. We'll call the mcguffin a 'Core' for now.

So once a player has a Core, they just have to get it to the pillar. Easy right? Not so much.
Carrying the Core in any way causes the person to be rooted. If they are flying at the time, their flying effect is temporarily shut down until they stop carrying the Core. They are also dimensional Anchored to prevent teleportation. So how do they get the core to the pillar?
They have to throw it to another party member. Really short throwing range. Make the rooms pretty big. So the party has to move and position themselves and throw the Core and adjust.
The small adds attempt to intercept the Core whenever possible. Especially when thrown.

Once all 4 Pillars are shut down, the spell caster is vulnerable. Before the shield is down, the caster is using less lethal spells, relying on the waves of baddies to protect him. When the shield is down, the big guns come out.

If you want an example of this in greater detail, PM me.

My advice would be to make the bad guys not super hard. Not one-hit kill easy, but not hard either. This should be more about the puzzle/execution rather than about the number crunching of bad guys. Hence why I would call this a puzzle-encounter.