Two dwarves, a half-elf and no rogues: help me with this party!

[Inevitability]

So, the players I'm DM'ing for have decided to become thieves. Nothing wrong with that, but I am kind of lost on how to give them challenges, since the group has expressed a dislike for both combat and social interaction, preferring to create complex plans to get their loot. Well, that, and the fact that at least two of them have classes that aren't designed to work with a 'sneak in, get loot, sneak out' mentality.

The party (level 1):

Both dwarves are barbarians (they're even twins) with the outlander background. One is slightly stronger than another, but they are pretty identical otherwise. Both are TN, but have slight tendencies towards both Evil and Chaos sometimes.

The half-elf is a sorcerer with Fire Bolt, Ray of Frost, Minor Illusion, Mage Hand, Chromatic Orb and Disguise Self. Background is Urchin, so the party at least has someone who can use thieves' tools.

So far, they have raided a couple of warehouses, using both the sorcerer's Minor Illusion and Disguise Self as distraction and then sending the dwarves in to steal everything and kill any resistance.

So my question is: What would be a good challenge to the party? Are there any monsters released yet who encourage using elaborate tactics to beat them? Something I'd like to make is a dungeon crawl with (almost) no monsters, instead full of puzzles and traps.

[Yorrin]

So it sounds like you might want to reskin a dungeon as some sort of elaborate mansion with some artifact as a part of a private collection or something along those lines. Perhaps it's the classic "this is a high security noble's mansion, and he's having a party which might allow us to get in and try to steal stuff." Plenty of opportunity to stretch them a bit on the social side, plus you could have an animated hedge maze, plenty of armed guards patrolling about, and of course a vault filled with traps.

[illyrus]

Wait, they dislike combat but they made barbarians... okay.

I'd take ideas from ShadowRun and use mostly humanoid enemies of related stuff (conjured critters, dogs, etc). Have a shipment of gems that is going to pass through town that the party learns about. It is going to be guarded, then either stored overnight at the bank/barracks/mayor's house (whatever is the most appropriate for the setting) then be on its way the next day. Draw up how they'd guard it in transit and the guard setup for when it is secured in the night. If the PCs pull it off, they find thousands of gp worth of black onyx. Animate dead no longer uses it, but create undead does. Now they've made a spellcaster enemy though if they're smart about spending it they might not be tracked down.

Regardless of their actions let things cool off a bit and them forget about the black onyx.

After several unrelated sessions if they're tracked down (they leave a money trail pointed to them from spending at least some of it) have their hideout attacked (if they stay in town, the spellcaster hired some mercs to do it, if they're away from town, then skeletons and zombies). Ideally place this attack at the end of the session so you'll have planning time. Now do they want to try to run away, get revenge, make restitution, or what? Who knows.

You could change up the enemy easily, maybe it was part of a dowry or it contained diamonds for the church's use.

[TomPliss]

Also, between the dwarves athleticism and the half-elf mage hand, some tomb-raider inspired puzzles and traps could be fun.

[Ranting Fool]

So it sounds like you might want to reskin a dungeon as some sort of elaborate mansion with some artifact as a part of a private collection or something along those lines. Perhaps it's the classic "this is a high security noble's mansion, and he's having a party which might allow us to get in and try to steal stuff." Plenty of opportunity to stretch them a bit on the social side, plus you could have an animated hedge maze, plenty of armed guards patrolling about, and of course a vault filled with traps.

Rather then cat burglars they could be Bank Robber types "NO BODY MOVE! I'VE GOT A LOADED MAGE AND I'M NOT AFRAID TO USE HIM!" :smallbiggrin:

[MustacheFart]

It's funny to me that they dislike combat and social interaction, the two biggest elements of DnD. Are they sure they want to play DnD?

[MunkeeGamer]

Your first encounter sounds good. The group has the feel of a small mafia. The brains and a couple of hard hitting thugs. Are they only interested in theivery? Or is all organized crime in their future?

I suppose you'd have to get into their character's head and figure out what motivates them. Is it the thrill of stealing? Or is it easy, illegal money?

If they're interested in easy money via organized crime, then there's all sorts of gang related activity you could push towards. Turf wars, drug dealing, other heists, assassinations, prostitution etc. But it doesn't sound like this is the direction your party wants.

If it's strictly Ocean's 11 style elaborate heists, which it sounds like it is, then you could let them hire non-combat NPCs to fill the gaps with promise of epic loot (which is appropriate per the heist trope). Have a rogue NPC who is a skill specialist to quietly get through locked doors. Or have a caster NPC who can scry the layout of the building and make a plan before the action even starts. In this style, the main challenge is gonna be detection. You can still have fights but they have to quick and quiet so the main security isn't alerted. If security is alerted, the barbarians can buy some time, but they should never expect to clear out every enemy. That should be considered an impossibility or else the threat of detection isn't a problem.

But not liking social stuff and combat is going to feel limited no matter what. They're gonna have to concede some in order to keep their barbarians' talents relevant. Or, are they interested in changing their classes at all?

[Occasional Sage]

This sounds like an excuse to 'port Ocean's Eleven over to D&D.

[Felvion]

In the long run i'd make sure some archenemy appears to hunt them down. A local law-enforcer more powerfull than normal or a relative of someone they murdered that is driven to make them pay. Also bring up some other bandits in the picture, being territorial and the like.
Make sure they get the message that there are repercussions for their actions. If they're into thievery they'll have to face every aspect of it!

[GybeMark]

Adventure idea:
- Local known-bad-guy-noble is holding a set of games with the winner to be awarded some large amount of treasure
- The games are challenges of strength and endurance (not necessarily combat based, but... think "Highland Games" with less bagpipes, and maybe a bit more danger)
- The PCs find out that noble has the games rigged, so his arrogant and spoiled child will win (maybe the final challenge of the games is to lift an enchanted rock that can only be lifted by someone holding the enchanted gem-of-rock-lifting or something)
- The barbarians are to enter the contest and try to keep "in the game" and distract the crowd
- Meanwhile, mage tries to be a rogue and steal either the loot or the magic gem

[Fwiffo86]

Challenge them with either a competing team of thieves from the Thieves Guild, or have them captured and "lectured" on what starting an organized group of thieves means.