Help Me Design an Arena Fight

[vartan]

I DM for a well optimized party of five people that just dinged level 6, and it makes sense for the story for them to end up in a gladiatorial-style bout in a sandpit arena next session- but I'm struggling with what to put them up against. I'm looking for suggestions from the Playground that would challenge a group that has:

1) A focused specialist conjurer that does very well at battlefield control (i.e. web, grease, the cloudy conjuration feat)
2) A spiked chain tripper that also does pretty well at battlefield control
3) Two members that don't even "bother" carrying a ranged weapon (the tripper and a monk, whereas the Scout is a longbow specialist and the cleric and wizard have spells and crossbows)

To lay it out the party composition is now: Cloistered Cleric/Church Inquisitor, Barbarian/Binder, Focused Conjurer/Mage of the Arcane Order, Scout/Ranger, and Monk (houseruled to full BAB).

Too many fights in this campaign have been against humanoids with class levels, so something monstrous is preferred greatly. Obviously a "solo" monster has to have awesome saves to contend with two casters- and hopefully more than two legs or an alternate means of locomotion. I also don't want the monster(s) to be too intelligent, since they are likely owned by the arena's management.

Lay your ideas on me.

Also: Forgotten Realms material is preferred.

[Lerondiel]

They don't seem to have much starch up front....some Cave Trolls could fit the bill as dumb and owned but be spectacular in an arena.

It's a tough encounter to balance though and will be won or lost in a couple of rounds. The mage doesnt have black tentacles, solid fogs or walls to block them with so you'll need to do the math on what their Pounce ability (with same reach as the spiked chain) could do to the PCs.

It might be a better idea to drop the number of C/Trolls but have them split, eg. the PCs come out a gate in the south wall and storming out the east & west gates come 1-2 cave trolls each.

[Demidos]

Half fiends have Darkness, unholy blight, SR, and fire resistance so they can light themselves on fire (Which is cool AND negates grease/web).

Toss that on, what, ankhegs?
You have stable, burrowing, flaming monsters with ranged attacks who can create cover for themselves to hide in and have tremorsense to see through everything.

CR 4 each, so you can toss in 4 and they would still be far below the party.

That sounds pretty awesome to me, even in a bog standard sand arena.

Technically, the ankhegs need a higher Int to be turned into half fiends, but there's no real reason for that, and if it bugs (see what i did there?) using Formians would accomplish nearly the same goal, albeit with less panache. Ankhegs are underutilized anyway.

[Brova]

Some ideas:

-Half-Dragon has lost a little bit of it's luster at this point, but Half-Dragon versions of dogs, cats, or rats get a 6d8 breath weapon (CR 3)
-Lantern Archons are a nice option, with solid defenses (hello, DR 10/nope) and teleport to get out of sticky situations - though that selfsame teleport makes it harder to keep them for fights (CR 2)
-Perhaps not as dangerous as some options, but Living Spells seem like a cool arena monster (CR Varies)
-An Umber Hulk is a solid option with burrow and tremorsense to gank the casters without getting locked down (CR 7)
-The original giant crab punches really far above its weight, I don't know how they stack up to your party though (CR 3)
-A bunch of pseudonatural kobolds can get in some damage with 1/day true strike and ranged attacks, though it takes them two rounds (CR 1/4)
-Shadows and Allips are nasty, but a party with a Cleric can potentially make short work of them (CR 3)
-Though it's not much of a threat on its own, a Rust Monster makes a nice supplement to another encounter (CR 3)
-A Spell-Stitched Skeleton can have two 1st level spells usable a total of four times a day - I recommend a combination of ray of enfeeblement, summon monster I, grease, and the odd 1st level teleport - better undead such as ghouls get more and nastier spells (CR 1/2)
-A Gauth puts out a lot of saves every round and flies out of melee range (CR 6)

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Regarding the Conjurer's crowd controls: A Web spell must be anchored on two opposite sides or the spell fails, which is very unlikely to happen in an open arena. A Grease spell on a sandy surface would not be very slick, and is most likely going to be completely ineffective due to the environment.

For their opponents, I would use a pair of Dragonkin from the Draconomicon. They're large size, flying, 7 HD, and only CR 3. The first seven class levels you add that aren't for improving physical combat will be nonassociated and only add +1/2 CR per level. If you make one a Sorcerer 7 he'll be CR 6, a Sorcerer 8 is CR 7. If it's going to be their only fight for the day you should over-CR them. A CR 7 and a CR 5 is an EL 8 encounter, which is only party level +2, so that would be appropriate. Let's make them a Sorcerer 8 and a Fighter 2, and remember that they automatically get the elite array for ability scores when you give them class levels. Have the Dragonkin announced and enter the arena first, to give them time to take flight before the PCs enter.

The Sorcerer 8 should have Draconic Heritage, Fell Frighten Spell, and Practiced Spellcaster, and should know Wings of Cover (RotD), Wings of Flurry (RotD), Fireball, Arcane Turmoil (CM), Summon Undead III (SC), Magic Missile, Mage Armor, and Shield. He'll prefer to use Firball the first round, then Fell Frighten Magic Missile targeting a different opponent with each missile the following two rounds, and always use Wings of Cover on himself and his brother if his Spellcraft check reveals an opponent's spell will pose a significant threat. He'll of course buff himself with Mage Armor and Shield as his opponents are being announced.

The Fighter 2 should have Brutal Throw (CV), TWF/ITWF, and Point-Blank/Rapid/Far Shot, with Gloves of Endless Javelins (MIC). They'll always try to stay adjacent to each other so they can both benefit from Wings of Cover. He'll try to focus on clear threats first.

[Demidos]

No offense intended, but I would steer way clear of the last suggestion posted.

1) That spell list is highly optomized, and its obviously ridiculous to have a CR 7 creature with 8 levels of sorcerer along with additional stuff. That is not what the rules were intended for, and there's really no purpose to it unless you are specifically trying to slow down your player's xp growth for some reason. If you aren't, you're just putting them in a hard situation and claiming its fair due to "the CR is right!". I have no problem with optimization, but for goodness sake, give them the XP they deserve and at LEAST set the sorcerer to CR 8.

2) You're specifically favoring the dragon kin by allowing them to exit first and begin flying, AND buff before the PCs even get a chance to act. Unless you are specifically going for a biased announcer/judge, the PCs should get as much prep time as the monsters.

3) Two of the players are completely useless in this scenario. The tripper and monk will contribute 0 in a fight with no ranged weapons, which leaves a "CR 7" and a CR 5 (emphasis on the air quotes) against 3 level 6s, only one of which is built for ranged combat. If you want to send an encounter at them to point out they should add ranged options, thats fine, but tell them that or send a reasonable encounter at them.



Just an additional note:
That CR 7 can deal 13d6 AOE in a single spell (Wings of Flurry). If it goes first, it could fly over your PCs, deal an average of 45 damage to every PC with a single spell, then use wings of cover to block the first incoming attack (note with the suggested buffs he will have very high AC).
Now let us assume your cleric rolled average HP with 14 con, and your mage has 14 con and rolled max HP. They're both dead without getting to act, your scout is probably dead as well (even if he isnt his attacks will be blocked for at least another round), and your last two are low.

Great, your "CR 7" just one-rounded/tpked your entire party. If you put it at CR 9 like it should be, that would probably make more sense.

Don't mean to come off as insulting to the last poster, i've just had similar things happen to my parties and the whole thing is no fun.

[ace rooster]

How about some elementals? A medium elemental of each element comes to cr 7, and you can have it as just the first wave. The second and third waves could be 2 large elementals, and depending on how they are faring you could throw 1, or even 4 waves of huge elementals.

My second thought was dinosaurs (Always a classic). 2 waves of 4 Deinonychus, followed by a megaraptor or even two depending on how the first fights have gone could be fun.

What about spiders? or scorpions? A mix of vermin culminating in a gargantuan centipede could be interesting.

Just a few thoughts, tune to taste.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

No offense intended, but I would steer way clear of the last suggestion posted.

Don't mean to come off as insulting to the last poster, i've just had similar things happen to my parties and the whole thing is no fun.

All very good points, and I will admit I was in a bit of a hurry when posting that and hadn't really considered the full capabilities of those opponents. However, if the PCs were standing a the ready to enter the arena as their opponents are announced, there would be nothing prohibiting them from buffing themselves just prior to entering the arena. The only real advantage of announcing them first would be taking flight prior to initiative.

On further review, a more fair encounter (considering the obvious flaws in the CR system) would be as follows:

Three opponents, each a Dragonkin Fighter 2, each has Brutal Throw (CV), TWF, ITWF, Point-Blank Shot, Raid Shot, and Far Shot, with Gloves of Endless Javelins (MIC), a Third Eye: Freedom (MIC), and a +1 Chain Shirt. They're still announced first and take flight before their opponents enter the arena, but someone passes out to each of their opponents a folded net and two tanglefoot bags before they're sent in. The nets shouldn't be difficult to hit with even with nonproficiency penalties. There could be pillars in the arena that someone can take cover behind, and the tops of the pillars would mark the height limit of flying combatants. Each Dragonkin would activate its Third Eye: Freedom the first time they're hit with a net or tanglefoot bag, and it would be obvious that that one is immune to further attempts to bring it down for the remainder of the round.

[vartan]

Some good ideas here for sure, but I'd be interested in seeing if there are more to offer. I've actually been wondering about large elementals (how many is too many?) and a team-up of devils (a Bearded one and a Kyton).