Help me kill the pcs! (or just maim them)

[Dovahkiin62]

I am currently running an Eberron campaign with five players who have just reached sixth level. They are currently in the middle of defending and preparing a hamlet of roughly sixty people against an invading force of over 200, led by a Cyran patriot and ex-admiral - A martial adept and a brilliant tactical and military genius (think of a cross between Tywin Lannister and Kurtz from Apocalypse Now). The issue I'm having at the moment is that the party has been trouncing almost every encounter without breaking a sweat (in one session, our resident warblade went toe to toe with a hill giant on his own. At the time he was fifth level). I'm a little worried that the players will eventually become dismissive, so how should I better prepare encounters to up the ante?

The group makeup is as follows:
-1 shifter swordsage, specializes in homebrew style 'Cthonic Serpent'. Spiked chain user
-1 human druid, has a fleshraker animal companion... 'nuff said.
-1 human warlock, can pull off incredible powerful, single shots that could theoretically take down a giant. Can also fly and see invisible and ethereal creatures
-1 half-elf warblade. Stone dragon specialist. Tactics: If it's big, close in and use 'Bone Crusher'
-1 elf wizard. Built as a support/"Arcane Inquisitive", not much offensive power, but he can hasten his allies and reveal hidden enemies.

Any advice and suggestions are welcome :)

[rockdeworld]

If you're having trouble challenging them with regular tactics, mix it up a bit. Maybe the last group they fought were diseased, and now they all have Cackle Fever - a common tactic of brilliant military leaders. On top of that, some of the villagers' children got captured and are being used as hostages. They will kill the children at sundown if the PCs don't surrender. At the same time, the BBEG of the moment got his hands on a Clay Golem (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/golem.htm#clayGolem) and is using it as an advance scout against the hamlet. The Golem's objectives are: run in, see everything (people, layout of the village, supply sources, etc), kill as many people as it can while doing so, and escape.

And, of course, there's the prospect of 200 level 1 commoners being slaughtered by an invading force unless the PCs can stop them.

Basically, you can up the CR of enemies, up the action economy of enemies (by increasing their numbers), change the game (eg. with an escort or hostage rescue mission), change the environment (eg. with a fire castle or underwater location), change the baseline (eg. everyone is sick), and force the PCs to choose one of multiple missions that all require immediate attention (as in the above scenario).

[Sudain]

You've got 5 very strong people. Enchantment spells love this setup. Charm/suggestion/dominate: your party members are NOT your friends. In fact you'd be better off killing them.

Add illusion to taste. The spell polymorph for added awesome. Little known fact - while poly morph requires a 'willing' target; all unconscious(see sleeping) targets are considered willing. "What do you mean; I look like a mind-flayer? Ow, dude, stop hitting me! I'm a friend!"

Most of 2/3 people specialize in close combat; so don't do that. do ranged combat. Strike and move, strike and move. Toss in heaps of 1/2 to 1 CR cannon fodder to keep the melees from getting to the ranged strikers.

2/3 of the remaining party members have low HD. Ranged focus fire. If you get ~6-7 attacks coming your way from range they SHOULD dive for cover. If they value their lives anyway.

Also, make use of diseases and poisons.

Consider a fient; forcing the party to split up or loose one of their objectives(attack building A and B that are physically distant with small; but non-neglegent forces). Make the party pick which one they will protect; if they split focus and kill the ones you can. Consider a 3rd stealth party waiting to ambush.

Druids: They loose their spells and abilities if they carry metal around with them for too long(how long and how much is up in the air: DM call). So make him carry around a LOT of metal. Also; they are prepaird casters; make them prepair something not useful to your REAL attack plans.


General Advice:
If they are strong; do not engage so they may use that strength. If they are weak; strike hard there. If they are neither, change the situation so they must either be strong or weak.

People also don't generally deal well with complexity. People like simple; simple is easy. Simple is straight forward. Complexity is NOT. Make the situation complex for the PCs. This is causes death by a 1000 cuts. This is a double bladed sword as you have to manage all that complexity and you too are a person.

For example what would the PCs do if the got a hold of the invasion plans before the first strike? Only problem for them is they are false and supposed to get the bad information.

Assassins are great. Get a couple rouges to sneak in; dress like the common folk and strike while the PCs sleep or are guarding them. *grin*

Also, reading Sun Tsu's art of war will help, this is coming from someone who studies tactics for fun.

[Keldridge]

Play your bad guys as optimized and organized as the party.

Your attacking force could easily rip them apart if you work the tactics and builds right. Draw the players out of the town using archers with flaming arrows or catapults or something. Include your own casters that will curse/hold/charm/command/enfeeble/etc the party. Or maybe there are a dozen or two that can dimension door into the town after the party leaves. Is there a mole inside the city that can backstab someone at an inopportune time? Is there a group of people who don't agree with the current leadership and see this as an opportunity to rebel? Do all the guards move to do battle and leave prisoners with avenues of escape?

Focus the firepower of the bad guys. Find a reason that the bad guys pick out a player as the most powerful and concentrate on him. (Maybe they are afraid of casters and always take them out first. Maybe they are most impressed with fighter types and attack that first. Whatever, as long as it makes sense from an RP standpoint. Should be different for different groups.)

Vary the attacks. Use up their resources over a series of fights. Don't let them rest.

If they have quirks, play against them. Put the party in positions where they don't agree about the best way to proceed, and they will get inefficient.

If all else fails, send bigger meaner bad guys.

Finally though... If they really are good players, reward their skill with giving them some easy encounters occasionally. (It might weird them out... ;)

[Tvtyrant]

Pile of Warriors equipped with Lassos, Bolas, Nets, and Whips that horrifically bebuff the party while the real enemies engage them directly. Lassos and nets stack, whips can be used to disarm and Bolas to trip at a distance. Other low level characters fling caltrops to ruin movement, and low level Rogues hit the party with acid and fire flasks. Harpoons are also amazing for pinning people in place.

By using spread out, ranged mooks you make it extremely difficult for the group to one shot the encounter. By using weapons with touch attacks you make the chances of hitting the higher level party much better, and softens them up for the bigger threats.

[Sudain]

If all else fails, send bigger meaner bad guys.


They are the biggest meanest guys on the block; that's the issue. :) That's why my mind instantly jumped towards making the party attack each other. :smallcool:

You are absolutely right; don't forget to reward their skill.

[docnessuno]

Star planning your encounter from a tactical viewpoint, examples:

- Small group getting stomped, retreating and leading the party into a big ambush (readied actions, traps, ranged weapons, a couple low level spellcasters)

- Groups with a dedicated spellcaster using invisibility and focusing into buffing them.

- Difficult terrain either used to the enemy's advantage or created on the spot.

- Charms, dominates, illusions. Mess with their mind and use their strenght against them.

- Some encounters SHOULD be unwinnable, but should also give the party the means to realize it before it's too late.

- Necromancy, someone eomplying undeads can inflict a big long-term toll on the party. Level drain, level loss, stat loss. Destruction retribution for suicide bombers and ethereal undeads coming out of the ground. and attaking the back lines.

- Grapple the casters, shutting them down and giving a difficult time to the melees trying to free them.

[Clistenes]

Give somebody on the bad guy's side a cursed item that allows him to cast create undead spells, and after they have killed the opposing army they will have to deal with a few Bodaks, Wights, Shadows, Wraiths, Spectres, Devourers, Huecuvas and Ghasts who will turn the villagers into undead of infect them with Ghoul Fever. Some of the strongest undead may even take some of your characters (the Devourer is CR 11, and has a few unusual mean tricks).

Even if they kill the enemies, it will feel like a defeat and they will have a problem that they will have to solve without using brute force (heal the afflicted by Ghoul Fever).

They find the cursed item and try to use it? The one trying to do it is cursed and becomes evil.

They are smart enough to not try to use it? They have to start a quest to destroy it, and they will be faced with dragons or high level spellcasters to do so.

They refuse to destroy it and just hide it? A new baddie steal it and uses it against them again.

A succubus would also be nice: She approaches a character under mortal guise, tells him he is oh, so strong and manly, seduces him, and when they are alone she charms him and forces him to join the other side. She fails? Well, she can still summon a Vrock that is very likely to kill a lone character.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Is your BBEG on a time-table? If not, I've got one word for you; siege.

[Clistenes]

The attacking army could send sneaky rogues and surprise attack them with poisoned arrows from within the village itself, using strike and run tactics; if they have poor spot ranks the rogues could be a problem for them.

Ambush them, sending a group of sneaky archers to atract them out of the village (throwing flaming arrows from a safe distance) and then ambush them.

Use flanking tactics and try to split the party attacking from several fronts. If they really want to save the village, they will have to fight both groups. Send an NPC to beg them to help if they try to concentrate on a single front. If they allow the baddies to burn the place, they have lost, so they will have to try to fight both fronts. Once they have split the party, send the meaner guys against the weakest member.

You could make the leader of the attacking army a really optimized, strong character, able to fight the group as an equal.

[Artillery]

You could do quite a few things. Lots of ranged creatures initially and more then far enough back to not be engaged in melee for sometime. Flame Arrows, torch the town.

Since your are effectively trying to siege a town you could do siege engines. Is the settlement on soft earth or stone? During the course of the battle have another force burrowing under the battlefield in the tunnels made by dire badgers. Force your way through and create more entry points from them as time passes. Heck you could poison the town water supply without telling them.

Dire badgers leave a tunnel behind them and burrow 10 ft/round. After some time they can have a direct outlet into town the PC don't see till there are already troops arriving and spreading. Works better then invisibility or dimension door.

[Kelb_Panthera]

A seige doesn't even really require you to do anything. You just wait until they run out of supplies and either surrender or attack your now heavily fortified encampment.


When the enemy expects you to hurry, make him wait. When he expects you to make him wait, hurry.

^that might be slightly paraphrased.

[Coidzor]

Since the wizard has apparently abdicated battlefield control and focused entirely on buffing and countering enemy buffs, one area that they're wide open to is getting some battlefield control used on them.