A challenging encounter.

[Ranting Fool]

Hey there happy playground goers! I am currently making a load of possible encounters for those pesky Heroes and wouldn't mind suggestions on something a little more deadly :smallbiggrin:

*Spoiler Warning* Cloud, Wraith, Sir Hugh this is the point where you stop reading or risk ruining the game. I mean who wants spoilers :smallbiggrin:

Party consists of:

Knight/Fighter/Vassal of bahamut Level 16 total.
Wizard/plane walker prestige (Can't remember the actual name) CL 13/14
Druid/Turn into plant prestige. Level 16 full caster but little shapechange.
Duskblade Level 16

These heroic four are on their way to pissing off two different empires and will almost certainly cause one of them to send some form of attack against them.

What I'm looking for is suggestions on what sort of group would make a challenging fight/ambush vs them. The plan isn't to wipe them out but just give them more of a challenge then the last few fights have been.

Restrictions:
Class based NPC's rather then cool monsters (Though some lesser monster with extra class levels could work e.g Ogre/warrior :smalltongue:)
No full Wizard/Druid CL (Though Cleric could be done)
Lower level groups if possible. (Chucking a few higher level guys makes it problematic from a plot point of view)
Mostly PHB races.
Since these assassins are being sent from very very very far away most other things are rather open.


Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[Emperor Tippy]

Oh I was messing around with a down right nasty assassin earlier today.

Gray Elf Factotum 8/ Martial Monk 1/ Psion 11 or Gray Elf Factotum 8/ Wizard 1/ Psion 3/ Cerebremancer 8.

Feats to include Faerie Mysteries Initiate (Int to HP) and either Kung Fu Genius or Psiotheugist (dependent upon whether you go monk or wizard).

Other feats to be taken include Earth Sense, Earth Power, Persistent Power, and Practiced Manifester. Take all of the Font of Power that you can cram in.

If you go the monk route you should pick up another +2 ML from somewhere so that you can persist 6th level powers with your Torc of Power Preservation.

For items you want a Torc of Power Preservation and a scroll of Persistent Selective Invisible Co-operative Easy Meta: Persistent Arcane Thesis Anti-Magic Field.

Use a Spell to Power Erudite and Psychic Chiguery to end up with selected arcane and divine spells (Wyrm Wizard for the divine ones) onto your powers known list.

Buff yourself with such things as persistent Divine Power, Persistent wraithstrike, persistent lesser ironguard, persistent greater invisibility, and personal Mind Blank.

Now your assassin teleports to the area and then goes to town (starting with the wizard or druid and then using Cunning Surge or Synchronicity abuse to move onto the next one).

Make sure that he uses Thinaun weaponry so that the PC's souls are captured.

---
There you go, the kind of Assassin that Emperors contract to deal with high level threats to their empires.

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If you want something a bit easier for the PC's. A Rudimentary Intelligence Shadesteel Golem with 8 levels of Factotum and a feat spent on Permanent Emanation: Selective Anti-magic field. It's orders are to obey the Emperor and it's position is royal assassin.

Since that is only CR 15 you might want a few of them. :smallwink:

[Ranting Fool]

Ah Emperor Trippy you never disappoint when someone needs a nice multi-book scary high magic killer type :smallbiggrin: and since I'm not the most OP-wise DM I find builds like that very educational (After I spend ages going through books to find them) thanks very much for mentioning the Shadesteel Golem as I've missed that while going through the MM's and while not the best fit fluffwise for my planned assassin/hit squad they are VERY useful in another part of the campaign :smallbiggrin:

[Emperor Tippy]

With golems always remember Rudimentary Intelligence, pay an extra 8,000 GP and your golem gets an Int score without compromising its loyalty. Makes them infinitely more dangerous and capable, and able to take class levels. Most of which are non associated and thus you can give the golem 18 of them and its only CR 20.

18 levels of Monk on a Shadesteel Golem is fun. It gets a 150 ft. perfect fly speed and qualifies for nasty, nasty epic feats.

Five iterations of Self-Concealment for constant 50% miss chance, Infinite and Exceptional Deflection along with Reflect Arrows.

So much nasty nasty fun.

[Ranting Fool]

Where does one get "A Rudimentary Intelligence" do you mean Awaken construct?

[Emperor Tippy]

Where does one get "A Rudimentary Intelligence" do you mean Awaken construct?

No, Dragon #327. The golems creator can spend an additional 8,000 GP to give the golem an Int score equal to 1/2 the creators CL.

The last line of the feat is also " A golem that gains intelligence in this manner is still bound to the will of its creator as normal."

You should always pay the 8,000 GP to give your golems a brain. And pump your CL as high as possible first.

[Ranting Fool]

No, Dragon #327. The golems creator can spend an additional 8,000 GP to give the golem an Int score equal to 1/2 the creators CL.

The last line of the feat is also " A golem that gains intelligence in this manner is still bound to the will of its creator as normal."

You should always pay the 8,000 GP to give your golems a brain. And pump your CL as high as possible first.

And this is why this forum is awesome, I would never have found that. Without going through all the Dragon Mags.

Though to be fair giving something intelligence and making it your eternal obedient slave is rather evil. :smalltongue:

[Azoth]

What are their general tactics in combat? Are they a paranoid bunch or rather relaxed in their travels? What kind of areas are they likely to be in for the near future?

[Ranting Fool]

What are their general tactics in combat? Are they a paranoid bunch or rather relaxed in their travels? What kind of areas are they likely to be in for the near future?

They tend not to be as prepared as they could be.

Knight always sticks with wizard blocking off problems and often growing big and tripping those who come close. High AC but only just getting miss chances cast on him (after fighting too many things that just smack him easy enough)

Wizard likes to buff party and lock down foes (Hold monster, Forcecage, dimensional anchor ect) so that the actual kills are more often done by others but has very little defensive spells on unless right before a fight.

Duskblade loves teleporting around or doing leaping power attacks with his greatsword. Has a bad habit of running off ahead (has gotten him killed once and almost a second time last week)

Druid is relatively new (Player re-rolled a character as his Warlock clashed too much with the groups ideals) so far seems to stick to rather standard summoning or turning into a big old tree and hitting stuff (his prestige class loses wild shape but makes him a plant/man/thing + wild shape into Treant, 3.0 book but it really isn't a powerful thing so I let him have it) though since he just found and fell in love with Baleful Poly I think he'll have that a lot more.

wizard has a bunch of permanent spells such as Arcane sight and Tongues but doesn't wonder around enchanted to the eyeballs like most the wizards suggested on this forum.

[Ranting Fool]

oh sorry, as for near future that's hard to say as they have been teleporting and plane shifting a lot lately but they are getting a whole load of civilian refugees coming through their keep (and gateway they control) means a lot of unknown people hanging around.

People they have pissed off:
High level cleric of Hextor (The old warlock used bluff as the priest was escaping last time to do the worst insult he could think of, natural 20 + very buffed bluff :smallbiggrin: ) and his whole cult of Evil.

Level 20 BBEG Wizard though I'd rather they go looking for him rather then him come poking at people he doesn't feel threatened by.

Two waring empires who the party have both helped out in a major way in the past and state they don't want to get involved in the war but still plan to meet with local leaders in regards to other quests (which could be mistaken for support of one faction over the other)

Two halfling Liches, one Necromancer Wizard, one Dread Necro.

High level Half-Demon insane Druid (They've been helping an enemy of his)

A whole bunch of Clone variants of another mad wizard Mostly human cleric clones of low and mid levels (up to 14) with some Hill-giant clone versions and some halfling versions.

Oh and a rather large Black Dragon who they tricked into getting cursed becoming ethereal (but without that pesky ability to affect the normal world) and then slaughter her offspring and looted all her gold without said Dragon being able to do anything about it.

Mmmm they really do have a habit of not tying up lose villains or getting distracted.

[John Longarrow]

You could go with an oblique...

Get a decent level Bard to go around spreading rumors. For fun, a changeling bard. Let tales of what they have done get told with a... twist. Have someone start talking up the parties accomplishments but cast them in a very negative light.

Once the players start having to face off against crowds of angry people who think they are being taken advantage of, the party should start having a major challenge to repair their image.

[Ranting Fool]

You could go with an oblique...

Get a decent level Bard to go around spreading rumors. For fun, a changeling bard. Let tales of what they have done get told with a... twist. Have someone start talking up the parties accomplishments but cast them in a very negative light.

Once the players start having to face off against crowds of angry people who think they are being taken advantage of, the party should start having a major challenge to repair their image.

Already have this going on :smallbiggrin: there is a bard out there who most the party hate (As he once tricked them out of 2000 gold or something minor and almost got them arrested when they tried to intimidate him in a very public place) who has a habit of giving speeches about the PC's actions in a light they don't like (not even lying) and pointing out their flaws. :smalltongue:

[Azoth]

Always wanted to do the whack-a-mole explosions with a necro enemy. Get them to make/rebuke a few good undead to serve as the real threat. Have them surrounded by a bunch of 1hd easily killable mook skeletons that were all crafted by a necro with the Destructive Retribution feat. It is an easy save to make (DC15), but with fire and forget players it will stack up quickly. Added bonus of healing your real threat undeads who can willing fail the save.

[Ranting Fool]

Always wanted to do the whack-a-mole explosions with a necro enemy. Get them to make/rebuke a few good undead to serve as the real threat. Have them surrounded by a bunch of 1hd easily killable mook skeletons that were all crafted by a necro with the Destructive Retribution feat. It is an easy save to make (DC15), but with fire and forget players it will stack up quickly. Added bonus of healing your real threat undeads who can willing fail the save.

Always liked exploding zombies but never really had the chance to fit them in :smallbiggrin: