Building a Rogue Encounter

[Jacque]

Hey all,

I'm making an encounter for my players which unfortunately has some quite tight rules. It's a single opponent encounter and the opponent has to be a level 19 rogueish enemy who catches carrion crawlers and manufactures poison from them. The encounter is in his lab in a cave.

I dislike playing a rogue so my knowledge of them is very limited and more or less centered around flanking and adding sneak attack to the damage. A group of (5) characters would quickly and easily make my rogue trivial.

Does anyone have any good ideas how to make the encounter more unique and challenging? All book allowed.

[supermonkeyjoe]

The answer is in your post, carrion crawlers, and lots of them, have a few with templates on, advance some to huge size, the fact that there's a rogue running around in the carnage sneak-attacking people is just gravy.

[Downysole]

The answer is in your post, carrion crawlers, and lots of them, have a few with templates on, advance some to huge size, the fact that there's a rogue running around in the carnage sneak-attacking people is just gravy.

single bad guy loses on action economy alone. Carrion crawlers are a good idea for mooks. Could also have some other guardians for his full-time lab. Maybe whoever he is selling to has arranged protection.

For the rogue in this situation, mobility and deception are key. Anklet of Translocation = swift-get-into-flanking then STAB for sneak. Then move away.

Defending offhand weapon (you don't need to swing with it) for extra AC. Something that will initiate an alarm when the enemies get close, so you can buff up using items like Blur and Blink effects. Some one-shot items that will make him more difficult to see (greater invis) or hear (silence is your friend) and maybe some general nuisance effects like entangle and spike stones, but give him slippers of spider climb so he can fight from above the combatants.

The last thing you want to do is to allow the good guys to know you're prepped and ready for them, and if this guy is a 19th level Rogue, he's bound to have a lot of tricks...and, I might add, a way out.

[silverwolfer]

rust monster with druidic oath, so it only eats wood...

[Fable Wright]

I would say traps. Lots and lots of traps. And Golems. Here's how I see it working out:

The Rogue has the Dark template, giving it Hide in Plain Sight. Darkstalker, too, in case it matters. The party, at this point, is going to have True Seeing, so invisibility may not be the best bet. The actual Hide skill is completely mundane, so it would be difficult to find the rogue with that. Next, the rogue's lair is going to be filled with traps. Detect Magic-fueled Greater Dispelling traps, old fashioned pit traps filled with Fortitude Save or Coup de Graced machines (Carrion Crawlers), nasty AoE stuff, and so on. Next, Teleportation traps. I recommend Dimension Door traps, so that anyone who steps on one can go anywhere in the room. The trick is, though, that the destination of each Dim Door trap changes after each step on it. For example, the first time someone steps on a trap, it goes to landing area A. For example, the Rogue using it to shake some adventurers off his tail. The next time someone steps on it (The warrior hot on his heels), they get teleported above the water tank. The third time someone steps on it (Whoever's next), it teleports them to a completely different corner of the room, and so on. The rogue knows the cycles that the traps go through, and can use them easily. He probably keeps some Bags of Tricks around so that he can set them where he likes whenever he needs to get around and one of the devices is off. Next, place some barriers between segments of the room. Something that allows Spell Resistance, be that a wall-high sensor for a Dimension Door trap that teleports the person into another section of the room, or Gust of Wind traps, or whatever. Golems (Preferably Shadesteel) happen to be immune to such devices, and could stalk through the rooms with impunity, picking off separated party members and being a nuisance. All the while, the Rogue is teleporting through the room deftly, taking potshots and characters who can't see him, before dashing off and hiding again in another corner of the room, keeping all pursuit off his heels. The last bit you could add is having the floor being made of magical material, like painted Permanent Walls of Force, so that if a party member decides to cheat and walk around in an Antimagic Field, they fall into Oubliettes in an antimagic field with whatever beasties you want to add in there to take advantage of the opportunity. Oh, and give the rogue a (Greater) Anticipate Teleport. That way, when the Rogue teleports, they can do so freely. When a party member tries it, or walks into a trap, they're delayed for turns while the Rogue and Golems can get into position. All in all, a horrifying, memorable encounter that will make an impact.

[Jacque]

I would really really like to make him special by always having an extra trick up his sleeve, creating confusion while he (spring attacks?) darts in and deals a hard sneak attack blow.

The carrion crawlers are too weak to pose any danger. They require a 20 to hit, and the PCs require a 1 on their save to fail against the paralyzation. I could give him a few beefed up pets though - just enough so that the party can't afford to completely ignore them.

[Jacque]

I consider making him a beguiler. But at these levels they either have mind blank or considerable bonuses to saves against all mind effecting/compulsion spells. Is the beguiler useless at these levels?

[Downysole]

I consider making him a beguiler. But at these levels they either have mind blank or considerable bonuses to saves against all mind effecting/compulsion spells. Is the beguiler useless at these levels?

I think that would defeat the purpose of him being a poison-maker.

[Jacque]

The whole poison thing is what justifies his presence in the compound. He produces poison from the carrion crawlers for a tribe of giants to use.

I am well aware that poison is useless against the group, so I don't presume to use it.

[Chromascope3D]

Yeah, no self-respecting evil rogue would go without traps in his evil hideout. How about, they walk into a cavernous room with him standing in the middle. Black smoke/darkness powder/etc. jets from the ceiling as he bolts out the exit in the back. While the party is fumbling about in the smoke, cages around the room open, releasing carrion crawlers/guard animals. Also traps in the room that will activate even while your resident trap expert is preoccupied with the smoke and monsters. I also like the idea mentioned earlier, with the random teleport tile. Say the bad guy runs into it and the all follow him, getting teleported all over his compound. As was stated earlier, he knows the intervals, so he'd know where they all ended up and pick them off one-by-one. Also, passages. Don't think concealed, that can be spotted with True Seeing, think mundane, like a grate or trapdoor leading to small air ducts or small tunnels that your rogue could easily slip through to get away, but your heavily armored fighters can't fit into.

EDIT: The point I'm trying to get at is to create chaos. A party cannot function in chaos, and a rogue cannot take on an entire functioning party. A good rogue would separate them and engage them one-on-one, in the darkness, where they'd never know what hit them.

Your players may not be happy to be separated in a castle full of traps, monsters, and a madman, but hey, it's D&D, what've they been doing this whole time? :smalltongue:

[Jacque]

I, too, really like the idea of splitting them up and sending them out on a chase. The adventure is prewritten and he originally only has a single room, but I should be able to expand upon it.

[yugi24862]

Another idea would be to make your rogue a factotum. At level 19, factotum can pick and chose (EX) abilities from any class, throw round 5/6th level spells chosen to interact with traps in the lair, pierce SR and DR easily, and shot them with a bow with a strong poison (there are poisons going up to DC44, if passing fort saves is a issue). Whats more, he can do all them in a turn thanks to cunning surge.

Also, traps, and lots of multi-layed ones. as recommended above.

[Curmudgeon]

Unlike the OP, I like Rogues very much, so let me share some of my expertise.

The Rogue has the Dark template, giving it Hide in Plain Sight. Darkstalker, too, in case it matters.
The standard Dark Creature template's Hide in Plain Sight is pretty sucky, because it requires cover/concealment and still has use restrictions (never in daylight). Only if your campaign is set in Forgotten Realms would I recommend this approach, because there's a Faerûn-only version of Dark Creature (Cormyr: The Tearing Of The Weave on page 152). That one is Supernatural (like the Assassin/Shadowdancer HiPS) and doesn't require cover/concealment. It's still +1 LA, and still has the "no daylight use" restriction.

If you're not going to go for a template, you should build your Rogue for a 1-2 level Shadowdancer dip. You'll need the Dodge and Combat Reflexes feats. Dodge is a feat tax. Combat Reflexes is useful because your hidden Rogue is going to get lots of AoOs. The Rogue needs the Mobility (Magic Item Compendium, page 13; grants the feat) as well as Greater Shadow Moves (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicArmor.htm#shadowGreater) armor enhancements. If the character has high DEX, avoid Maximum Dexterity Bonus limits on armor and instead get those enhancements added to Bracers of Armor for the normal armor improvement cost (Table 6-11: Adding/Improving Common Item Effects on page 234 of Magic Item Compendium). (You can go past +8 in total armor enhancement cost if the part of that which is actual armor bonus isn't more than +8).

Feats:

1: Education (Eberron Campaign Setting, page 52): all Knowledges are class skills for all classes
1: (Human bonus) Dodge (feat tax)
3: Craven (Champions of Ruin, page 17): +1/character level to all sneak attack
6: Combat Reflexes
Mobility (bought as an armor enhancement)
9: Spring Attack (because you'll have already satisfied the prerequisites getting into Shadowdancer)
12: Savvy Rogue (Complete Scoundrel)
15: Darkstalker (Lords of Madness, page 179): Hide from senses like blindsight and tremorsense
18: Knowledge Devotion (Complete Champion, page 60): +5 to attack and damage everything based on your 6 maxed-out creature-specific Knowledge skills
If you've got room for a flaw, I highly recommend Staggering Strike (Complete Adventurer, page 112): limit opponents to a single standard action for the round whenever you sneak attack them
Rogue Special Abilities:

Crippling Strike
Improved Evasion
Skill Mastery
You'll use Skill Mastery to master at least the following skills:

Knowledge (arcana): constructs, dragons, magical beasts
Knowledge (dungeoneering): aberrations, caverns, oozes
Knowledge (local): humanoids
Knowledge (nature): animals, fey, giants, monstrous humanoids, plants, vermin
Knowledge (religion): undead
Knowledge (the planes): outsiders, elementals
Hide
Move Silently
Tumble

Skill Mastery lets the Rogue master (3 + INT mod) skills. You'll want that number to be as high as possible. So making Skill Mastery last in order of special abilities gives the Rogue time to buy up inherent INT boosts. The Rogue will also want to start with their highest stat in INT for maximum skill points. (DEX should start 2nd highest, but increase faster from both inherent boosts plus pretty much all ability increments at levels 4, 8, ...) Finally, there's nothing in the rules which prohibits the Rogue from having a temporary INT boost active at the time they choose to master their skills, so getting an NPC spellcaster to add +4 from Fox's Cunning gives the Rogue 2 more mastered skills.

With Savvy Rogue turning Skill Mastery from guaranteed "take 10" on mastered skills to "take 12" instead, high INT mod for Knowledge skill checks, and lots of ranks in all 6 creature-related Knowledge skills, you can guarantee the Rogue will make DC 36 in all those Knowledge checks without rolling. That means a guaranteed +5 to hit and damage against everything in D&D. With maxed out Hide, +15 from Greater Silent Moves, and "take 12", the Rogue is also going to be very hard to Spot. That means any enemy who isn't sneak-immune is going to take sneak attack damage of +9d6+19 (losing +1d6 from the Shadowdancer dip, but getting the same back with a Rogue's Vest). Every enemy (even the sneak-immune ones thanks to Savvy Rogue) is also going to take 2 points of STR damage on every hit from Crippling Strike.

A high Tumble skill is going to give the Rogue a couple of useful combat options. With a DC 35 check the Rogue can stand up from prone as a free action. (They'll still provoke AoOs by doing so, but being hidden makes that irrelevant.) But the really nifty one is DC 40 to make a 10' Tumble adjustment in place of a 5' step; see Oriental Adventurers on page 58. The Rogue can make a full attack, then take a 10' tumbling "step" away and Hide with that movement. The PCs will probably assume only a 5' step and guess wrong when they blindly attack squares they think the hidden Rogue has moved to. Maximum ranks (22) + "take 12" means the Rogue needs a minimum +6 DEX mod for this. DEX 22+ by level 19 is easy, so that's a trivial task.

This Rogue would have several static bonuses to damage:

STR mod
weapon numerical enhancement (should be high to increase hit chance)
+5 from Knowledge Devotion
+19 from Craven (sneak attack only)
It's important to remember that only damage dice aren't multiplied on a critical hit, so sneak attack from Craven would be multiplied. This means the Rogue benefits greatly from a high threat range weapon. I recommend a keen rapier for its 15-20 range. The weapon damage die is really insignificant compared to all the bonus damage, and even more so on critical hits.

One Rogue ACF you're going to want is Lighbringer Penetrating Strike (Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, page 208). This trades trap sense for the ability to deal sneak attack with ½ the normal dice when the Rogue flanks a (normally) sneak-immune enemy. With a Carrion Crawler flanking a PC enemy, the Rogue can still hurt the PC despite their 100% fortification. The sneak attack dice are halved, but the sneak attack bonus from Craven is not.

If you go for level 2 of Shadowdancer, you gain some extra abilities:

60' darkvision
evasion
uncanny dodge
These last 2 would normally be duplicates of Rogue abilities, but that actually opens up some more useful Rogue ACFs to you.

Spell Reflection (Complete Mage, page 35): reflect spells targeted at you which miss. If the PC spellcasters have some senses like Mindsight or Lifesense which are hard to hide from, you've still got an effective counter. Rogues have excellent Reflex saves, and Improved Evasion with Savvy Rogue boosts that save by another +2.
Uncanny Bravery (Dragon Magic, page 14): Gain immunity to draconic Frightful Presence, and a bonus vs. fear which more than offsets the vulnerability from Craven.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

1. Build
2. Environment
3. Other

1. He needs a guaranteed means of hiding. That will usually involve some sort of Hide in Plain Sight plus some sort of guaranteed concealment. Either a Shadowdancer dip or the Dark Creature template from Tome of Magic, which is either +1 CR/LA +1 or a 20,000 gp item from the same book, is the easiest way to give him Hide in Plain Sight. The Shadow Creature template in Lords of Madness (+1 CR/LA +2) or the Shadurakul creature listed under Canomorphs in the Fiend Folio (CR 5 + class levels; Outsider 4, +4 LA; basically a reverse-lycanthrope Shadow Mastiff that can shapechange into a humanoid) will give him Shadow Blend (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/shadowMastiff.htm) which is the ideal choice for outright avoiding attacks, but it doesn't enable Sneak Attack.

I'd make him a Shadurakul, and go something like Outsider 4/ Warshaper 4/ Ardent 3/ Swordsage 1/ Assassin 1/ Shadowdancer 2/ Swordsage 1/ Warblade 1/ Warlock 1. His Warlock invocation is Devil's Sight. Use the Substitute Powers (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070629a) ACF for Ardent, and be sure to give him access to the powers Vigor, Share Pain, and Empathic Transfer Hostile. Give him Practiced Manifester, Darkstalker, plus any prerequisites he needs. Try to include TWF, and give him Gloves of the Balanced Hand and Shadow Blade, and at least one of the Mongoose boosts. His Warblade maneuvers known should include Wall of Blades and Iron Heart Surge, his Swordsage maneuvers should include at least one Shadow Hand teleport boost.

He should have Psicrystal Affinity, and use Share Pain on his psicrystal to split any damage he takes with it. Its Hardness 8 will apply to every instance of damage that gets shared with it. He should keep it in a container on his person which is out of line of sight/effect to anyone but himself, as an attended object the container will benefit from his Shadow Blend and other effects. He can manifest the power Vigor and share it and other buffs with the Psicrystal. Note that his Warshaper abilities are not active in Shadow Mastiff form.

He should have max ranks in Balance, Hide, and Move Silently, a Cloak that grants a magical Competence bonus to Hide which is also a Masterwork Tool for another +2, and boots that grant a magical Competence bonus to Move Silently which is also a Masterwork Tool for another +2. He should use the Spring Attack line of feats from PH2 in Shadow Mastiff form to trip multiple opponents on each pass. I'd include Speed of Thought and the Freedom mantle.

Give him an Eternal Wand (MIC) of Deeper Darkness (Assassin 3), which he uses twice every day to have ten instances of that spell in place in the room where they encounter him. Each Daylight spell will cancel one Deeper Darkness, so it will take ten Daylight spells to revert the room back to whatever natural lighting is present. He should also have an Eternal Wand of Hound of Doom (CW), which anyone capable of casting arcane spells can use, to get a shadowy hound for a flanking partner/distraction.

2. He should be in a derelict building of some kind, preferably underground or on the basement level. The rotted floorboards give way easily, and underneath them is murky water that's shallow in some spots and unimaginably deep in others. The entire area is a slick uneven floor, per the Balance skill.

The Shadurakul is lighter than average, and doesn't carry much gear. Anyone whose character plus gear weighs 250 pounds or more automatically falls through the floor in several predetermined spots. There should be other predetermined spots where heavier characters will fall through, set in increments of 50 pounds. It should take a Reflex save, to which the victim's armor check penalty applies, with an additional -1 per 50 pounds above 200 of total weight, to avoid falling through the floor. Whenever someone falls through the floor, anyone adjacent to them must make a Balance check for a slick incline or be forced to make a Reflex save to avoid falling in as well.

At the entrance to the room the water will be extremely shallow and easy to escape. As they go further into the room there will be weak spots where the water is as deep as a hundred feet. Put a Monstrous Crab (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20040221a) down there, advanced to 21 HD at Huge size for a CR 8 distraction. The Shadurakul should also have large stones hanging from the ceiling, high enough that they should not be visible in the darkness (100+ feet up), which he can manually release to drop onto spots on the floor. He rolls a ranged attack roll when dropping one on an opponent, anyone he hits takes falling object damage per DMG page 303, and is automatically forced through the floor. They must make a Swim check to avoid being pinned underwater by the rock.

3. Much of his gear should be chosen from this list (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=187851) to cover pretty much anything the PCs can use against him. He should use Psionic Freedom of Movement, Inertial Armor, Force Screen, plus whatever other buffs he has available to fill in what would otherwise need to be covered by gear. He could use traps liberally, but at this level the damage from them will be insignificant and the poison DCs laughable, hence the rotting floor and manually dropped stones.

He should use Bounding Assault in Shadow Mastiff form with bites to sneak attack and trip. Fighting on the run from the darkness he can whittle opponents down and possibly lure them toward weak spots on the floor to get them separated. Once there are two or fewer foes standing he should take humanoid form and jump out of the shadows with a flurry of attacks with two Swords of Subtlety with the Speed property on them and his Mongoose boost for nine attacks. Afterward he can slink away and recover everything and Fast Heal up only to repeat that on later rounds.

Expect this to be a very long and very painful session, with multiple PCs seriously fearing for their lives multiple times, and possibly even dying for silly reasons like drowning.

[Kuulvheysoon]

Another suggestion that's kinda crazy - an Adult Loredrake (DoE) Shadow Dragon Ninja 9 (CR 19). Toss on a Collar of Umbral Metamorphosis (persistent) for 22 000gp to get HiPS.

Shadow Dragons of at least Very Young age share the Shadow Mastiff's Shadow Blend ability, and Loredrake gives you a +2 caster level in exchange for a d10 HD, letting this dragon cast as a 7th level sorceror (access to 3rd level spells), including access to all cleric spells and the Chaos, Evil and Trickery domains.

Play it much as you would BF's hilariously amazing encounter (as described above), but have a handful of Greater Shadows as the distraction instead of an advanced Monstrous Crab, as the dragon is immune to their attacks.

With 27HD, you'd get more feats than normal, and could afford to blow one or two on metabreath feats (to enhance your DC24 breath weapon (3 negative levels, or 1 on a successful save) and Ability Focus (Breath Weapon).

Feel free, of course, to change around the class levels. I merely suggested Ninja for the ki pool (ghost step), sudden strike and poison use. Assassin levels might be interesting.

[GenghisDon]

What level are the PC's? What final EL can the encounter be?

as the others said, action economy kills him.

carrion crawlers (assuming he has some control over them) CAN be as tough as you like. The advancement rules are just guidelines. You don't even need to increase their size. none the less, these seem like the rogue's PREY, so unless coming out of or part of a trap, the don't seem likely much use. They won't help the rogue flank, for example, if they are not allied with him/her.

traps: lots of good potential there.

poison: useful, but I assume the game is pretty HL (at least L13?)

combat expertise, improved feint, tumbling feint, & adding greater feint (free action) give some HTH potential, combat acrobat can help there too.

The real winner on how to make the encounter a challenge is UMD & gear, however. Without changing it to some other encounter than a rogue L19, that is. The rogue can "steal" some spellcaster stuff pre & during battle to make things interesting.

What books do you use, rather than allow? How twinked out/optimised are characters (& monsters)?

does the villain have a race (or apparent race)?

[Jacque]

This level 19 rogue is, surprisingly perhaps, not the main bad guy. We're running through one of the last installments of Age of Worms and he's just another encounter to tax the party of their resources. I just feel he's way too easy compared to other CR 19 creatures out there so I want to optimize him and/or add mooks and traps.

The group is 5½ lvl 15 quite optimized characters (One of them has the leadership feat since noone wanted to play the healer. He then controls a lvl 15 healer). They might reach level 16 before they meet the rogue.

I think I will expand his lab and try and seperate the PCs so that some will meet his advanced carrion crawler pet, some will meet him (and he won't play fair), and some will meet.. something third. Golems perhaps. I like golems.

[Barstro]

Yeah, no self-respecting evil rogue would go without traps in his evil hideout.

Doors with locks to pick. But, the obvious locks don't actually unlock those doors (THOSE locks are hidden, hell, maybe the door isn't real, it only exists for this next part...) Picking lock or opening door is what actually activates a somewhat benign trap (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0098.html). This can cause the team to get separated or somehow be weakened.

As for final room; if trap was activated so that the PCs now attract those creatures, you can just have the Rogue keep bringing them in to attack the PCs.

I'll assume that the BBEG has had time to set up this chamber and is smart enough to know he might be attacked there.
1. He is immune to the poison after years of use (but, it sounds like the PCs are as well.
2. He knows his way around there in the dark, and will gladly kill light sources.
3. He has great acrobatics and the floor is covered in Grease.
4. He has magic items that make him immune to some sort of damage, and he has several traps, etc. that use that type of damage.
5. Weapons that do incredible damage on sneak attacks, and he has great ways to get it.

I really think the important part of this isn't that the PCs are fighting a Rogue, it's that they are fighting a Rogue when he has had time to prepare.

EDIT: this was really just a TL:DR of Biffoniacus_Furiou, but with less information.