Need help with a boss

[Blackhawk748]

I will be DMing a game this weekend (if your one of my players you better quit readin naow!) and i require a bit of help making the "boss" they will be dealing with

Last session the players, a Kyton-Spawn Hexblade, a Lesser Drow Binder, a Lesser Aasimar Spellthief, a Lesser Aasimar Favored Soul, a Human Wu Jen, and a Rankki Hobgoblin Warlock just broke out of a Sentinel prison with the help of Techrikar Journeymen of the Winding Path, and are now on the run to The Shires, which are about 2 days away. They have horses and basic equipment and they are all lvl 1. Now Techrikar is no longer with them so they need to get there alone. They will be traveling through the Blasted Lands, which is an area filled with twisted monsters, so aberrations, maybe some undead, and just really aggressive animals. They will be chased by a Sentinel Hunter and his pack of hounds. Everyone in the group is lvl 1.

For the Hunter i was figuring a lvl 2-4 Ranger accompanied by several 1st lvl warriors and about 3-6 dogs (wolf stats). I would like the group to be mounted as my players are, and as i normally dont do much mounted fighting some help would be appreciated.

Thanks All

[Diarmuid]

"a lvl 2-4 Ranger accompanied by several 1st lvl warriors and about 3-6 dogs (wolf stats)." sounds like it could be WAY too much for a party of 6 level 1's.

If you were to take your high side (4th lvl ranger, 6 "wolves", not even taking into account the "several 1st level warriors) of all those things you're talking about a CR7.

Using the lower ranges (2nd lvl Ranger, 3 wolves) gives you a CR5. This seems much more reasonable, especially considering that the Trip ability of the "dogs" can wreak havoc on low level characters.

Even if your party is super optimized, there's just only so much level 1 PC's can do with their super low HP pools and lack of BAB, etc.

[Blackhawk748]

Ok, so maybe i made it a tab high lol but my party has the weirdest tendency to kill things that are REALLY high CR, though i think ill roll it back a tad.

So a 3rd lvl Ranger, 3 hounds, and 3 1st lvl mounted Warriors

The warriors will probably be 2 horse archers and one light horsewarrior, so a spear and shield.

Now they dont have a lot of crowd control but the Hexblade has a feat (i forget the name) that makes all enemies do a Will save of be shaken when she full attacks, so this may be a bit of a problem

[Know(Nothing)]

Low levels can suffer the same Rocket-tag syndrome as high levels. Every single attack is potentially fatal, every single time. If they're being hunted, that means the hunter probably won't attack until it's to his advantage, which means ambush, which means surprise round, which means a good chance that half your players die before they can react.

Now, obviously you decide when and how they meet, so make sure that if they confront someone much stronger than them, they do so on their terms. Maybe they get an ambush set up. Maybe they hide in dense woods or twisting caves, nullifying the hunter's mount, and possibly allowing them to split up his forces and pick them off bit by bit.

The surroundings are full of scary baddies, maybe the players lure the hunter into a fight with them, then strike when they're weakened?

You shouldn't just put them in these advantageous spots, but you should hint that they're possibilities. If they aren't veteran players they might not come up with them on their own, but they should at least be able to recognize a tactical advantage when there is one around.

[Blackhawk748]

These guys are vetrans, so they may think of this, and they are in a mountainous region covered in dead forest. I may have them catch a glimpse of the hounds or something as they are moving, that may give them a warning at least