Interesting Ways to Stalk/Track the PCs

[nakedonmyfoldin]

So a very intelligent and sneaky enemy would follow the players and attack them when they are most vulnerable. My question is, how would the DM go about stalking the players with one of these enemies.

ex) Assassin follows the players into a dungeon. The players are destroying and solving the dungeon, and the assassin stays behind waiting.

How often should he make move silently checks and hide checks? And how often should the players be listening or spotting? Wouldn't it be kind of obvious randomly saying, "ok make a spot check, 11, ok keep going".

This is oversimplified of course, I just want to see if anyone has any creative solutions, or very obvious ones that I may have overlooked

[Psyren]

Roll their spot and listen for them - you should be aware of their modifiers anyway.

(You can also just pretend to roll, if you want your mystery assailant to stay a mystery.)

[John Longarrow]

What level is the party and what level is your stalker?

If it is a rather low level party, odds are they won't be adventuring with a lot of stealth on their side. That means a ranger/rogue who's actually tracking them should have an easy time keeping within a few minutes of the party without needing to really be hiding all of the time.

If your party is over about 5th level it gets tricky.

[Red Fel]

Is this a typical stalker/tracker-enemy, or a BBEG monitoring their progress?

If the former, try making use of Scent. It's underutilized, and very effective.

If the latter, do it through minions. For example, give the PCs an escort quest; the escortee is in fact working for the villain. Alternatively, the PCs find an item that acts as a scrying device for the villain. Alternatively, layer upon layer, the escortee possesses (or unknowingly is) a scrying device.

I also agree with the "make their rolls for them" angle, if you want to avoid meta. Alternatively, have them make rolls all the time, even when there's nothing there, to create a sense of paranoia, particularly when extremely high rolls reveal nothing. After all, you're in a dungeon; why wouldn't you be on constant alert? And when they no longer trust the dice, what can your PCs trust?*

*Note that players might actually hate you for making them this paranoid. Your mileage may vary.

[Vin Robinson]

You should also let them know that someone or something is following them. Maybe they hear a pitched battle behind them, rush off to investigate only to find a group of X local common enemy completely slaughtered with precise, fatal wounds.

Another thing is to have the local wildlife be completely silent, as there is something stalking around them.

Or on a particularly high check from the party have them witness something out of the corner of their eye, a quick movement of shadow that they just missed. Really fosters a sense of paranoia!

You could also have him dart in and steal a personal effect or hair or something in order to scry on them later. Really creepy stuff.