NPCs to capture party

[LadyLexi]

I've been DMing a group from lv 1 for about 6 months now. They recently murdered a bunch of city officials for trying to ask them questions. Aside from a "Guess we aren't going back there" the party hasn't given much thought on it.

The city of course is going to put out a bounty for their arrest and capture, but the problem I'm having is putting together a suitably non-good party that can disable and down my party without killing everyone. If the party wins, cool. If they are captured, Role-playing!

I could use some help putting together a band however, as my party does well in most encounters against NPCs and they gain a lot of treasure from any reasonably equipped NPC group. The party is level 10-11 and has two arcane casters, a divine caster and two melee characters. One melee has all the HP and the other has DR 5/cold iron and good saves.

Anyone want to toss out some good non-lethal builds that aren't Good aligned (as the offended city-state is primarily Evil)?

[Randomguy]

Well, "capture them alive" doesn't necessarily mean "do nonlethal damage".

Think of it this way: If someone has 100 hit points, then an attack that deals 105 damage is nonlethal (ignoring massive damage rules), since he's still alive in the negatives. Then just patch him up with a cure minor wounds so he doesn't bleed to death, and drag him back to prison.

Some recomendations for members of the capture squad:

The standard, rip them to shreds ubercharger, but with a merciful weapon.
A spellcaster that uses save or lose spells like Baleful Polymorph and Flesh to Stone, and possibly charm and dominate spells and other enchantments.
A trip or grapple build to lock down the melee characters.
A spellcaster to buff everyone else and counterspell.
A sneak attacker that uses a sap.

[Diovid]

There are a few prestige classes which fit the idea; the Bloodhound (Complete Adventurer), the Crimson Scourge (Cityscape) and the The Justiciar (Complete Warrior).

But as Randomguy said, Merciful Weapons and Saps do pretty much the same thing.

[LadyLexi]

I think I will build an Ubercharger with a merciful blade, I just have to watch myself with special abilities, I occasionally forget to include them while I'm running things. People generally play my games for the story and not because I'm the best at knowing the mechanics.

[GnomeGninjas]

You should have a pair of sneak attack based rogues. They stab your party with lethal weapons and then UMD them back to life with scrolls of raise dead.

[LadyLexi]

I love the idea GnomeGninjas but my party would flip out at me if I made them all lose a level. I make them work for those levels and they don't get to level often.

[docnessuno]

You should have a pair of sneak attack based rogues. They stab your party with lethal weapons and then UMD them back to life with scrolls of raise dead.

Wich probably costs you more then any bounty that could be placed by a city-guard group.

I could point you to this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=239633) thread, wich discussed a quite similar situation, and where i posted some NPCs you might find useful (just up the CR a bit)

[Water_Bear]

You should have a pair of sneak attack based rogues. They stab your party with lethal weapons and then UMD them back to life with scrolls of raise dead.

Raise Dead requires the consent of the person being brought back to life. Granted, the rogues might buy their scrolls from Good Clerics of <Generic Good Deity> and thus fool the PC's souls into thinking an ally was rezzing them, but it's a really expensive gamble.

Also, why not just use saps? They deal the same damage as a dagger but can also transform Sneak Attack damage into nolethal damage, and cost like a copper.

[Wookie-ranger]

I might be going a little heavy on the fluff, but:

If the bounty is high enough a mercenary band of Drow might want to take the job. They can specialize in hit-and-run tactics, use poison (including poisoning food and drink), and would be very well organized as a unit.

what about a necromancer? (my good old favorite :smallbiggrin:)
he/she can have the full corpse-crafter line of feats, and simply harass them with undead. Sometimes mind less sometimes not. I am sure the city would not mind giving the necro some spare bodies and perhaps even the bodies of the ones that the party killed (might be a good way to let them know who is trying to get even). you can use corpse/bone creature on those, that way they are not mindless, and have free will. I am sure they would not mind to kill the ones that murdered them. if you are worried about the PCs getting too much loot, make your bone creatures cast spells, or give them brilliant energy weapons (powerful? yes!, but utterly useless against undead)

speaking of undead.
what about the Utter-cold necro build? buffs/heals all undead, while harming everything that is alive. win-win!

[Slipperychicken]

Saps coated with Drow Knockout poison, wielded by guys who took Master of Poisons (DotU; makes application a Swift action and removes chance of self-poisoning).

Weapons (especially attack-spammers like bows) enchanted with Paralyzing (BoED, +2. DC 17 Will save or Paralyzed 10 rounds, every hit).

Sudden Stunning (+2,000gp, DMG). As a swift action after hitting, weilder can trigger Charisma-based Reflex save or Stun for 1d4+1 rounds. Slap it onto the weapons if the bounty hunters have 2,000 extra gp to blow.

End Result: DC 13 Fort/Unconscious, DC 17 Will/Paralyze, DC w/e Reflex/Stun.


Extra Mean Version:
+1 Spell Storing Sap, containing Shivering Touch.

Each attacker carries two or three +1 Spell Storing weapons, all filled with Shivering Touch. If they can land enough hits, the PCs are done.

[Randomguy]

Oh, I just remembered: Planar binding and friends can make the difference between a narrow victory and a crushing defeat. If the party escapes (or the party wins and the villains escape), then they can still bind a bunch of criters to pursue.

It works best if you've got a way to cast it spontaneously, either via sorcerer or runestaff.

Spirit binding is a decent alternative, if you use Wu-Jen as one of the enemy arcanists.

[Slipperychicken]

Oh, I just remembered: Planar binding and friends can make the difference between a narrow victory and a crushing defeat. If the party escapes (or the party wins and the villains escape), then they can still bind a bunch of criters to pursue.


Bind them before you go after the PCs, and have them help out in the battle itself.


If any of them know Teleport spells, tag them with Dimensional Anchor.

Also, Scry & Die Capture tactics are appropriate here. Use Divinations for information-gathering, at night use Silence + Invisibility Sphere to take out whoever's on watch without them alerting the others (ideally CCing him the moment he's in the Silence effect). Then it's just a matter of picking off the others while they sleep.

Have someone with Transdimensional Spell feat, because any party worth it's salt is sleeping in a Rope Trick at these levels.