Kobold Esq
2018-04-21, 11:05 AM
(I don't think my players read this, but on the off chance Eric, Chris, Matt, Briana, or Shelly read this, I'd recommend stopping now)
Summary: Party I DM for is going to plan an ambush (and/or walk into an expected ambush, either way they are expecting a fight). The fight doesn't have to occur for plot reasons, but the party wants to have it. I want the "LBEG" (not a plot important villain) to survive the fight, so I'm looking to get some tactics hints or suggestions to ensure that happens without making it feel like I'm cheating.
Party Composition (level 4):
Arnold (human Barbarian) - First time player, really wants to kill the LBEG. Extra rage, power attack. Currently +1 battleaxe and shield
Tripp (human wizard) - Most experienced player. Loves web.
Rinn (half-elf rogue) - Second most experienced player. Not particularly useful in combat.
Freya (elf druid) - Very inexperienced, barely understands her spells. Wolf companion is a champ.
Keekster (elf ranger) - Inexperienced, just got his wolf companion, hasn't used it in combat yet. Archery ranger, but likes his great sword.
Story Background: Party found out about a shipment of religious relics of Pelor which had been hijacked by highwaymen. A priestess from a splinter sect of Pelor asked the party to go retrieve them. They successfully do so, and discover the crates the shipment were in had the crest of a local powerful merchant family. Party spends a few days asking around (gather information) in the city before deciding whether to bring the items to the merchants or the priestess. On the third day of asking around, two of the characters (Arnold and Tripp) are set upon by bandits. The bandit group has them seriously outnumbered, and the bandit leader demands the relics, threatening the lives of the characters' families (they are currently in the party's home town). Arnold decides to try to fight them, and as combat begins, they realize the bandits are wererats, with dire rat backup. A couple rounds of combat in, with a first round crit by the wererat leader, the players surrender and agree to bring the relics to the bandits the following night. Arnold has had some past bad experiences with dire rats, is pissed the leader got some quick good hits on him, and swears to kill the guy.
The next day, the party meets the merchant, who explains that he was funding an archaeological dig at a long buried temple of Pelor, and will pay handsomely to get the items back. The party agrees to turn over the items, and they get paid, making friends with the merchant (who is a son of a local lord/power figure). They also plan to still meeting up with the wererats to fight, because why not? They want revenge for their families being threatened, and they think the world would be better off without a couple other wererats in the world. The session left off right after the players got paid for turning over the items. It is approximately 10 AM, and they have all day to prepare for a fight at an abandoned warehouse (werehouse?) at midnight.
What the players don't know:
The merchant did tell the party he had also hired multiple other people to recover the artifacts (100% commission, no money up front). One of those people was Shyllus, a natural elven wererat Ranger1/Rogue4. He has two human afflicted wererat flunkies (MM standard), and four advanced dire rats (3 HD, still small, calling them CR1). Shyllus was using gather information the same time the players were. The players were not shy about the fact that they killed a semi-famous local highwayman gang, and Shyllus discovered that it was that gang that stole the items in the first place. So Shyllus correctly concludes the players have the items. He doesn't really want to kill their families (he is amoral, but he isn't bloodthirsty), and just wants to take the quickest way to get the items. Threats of force have worked in the past, so why not?
Shyllus is a semi-throwaway NPC. His game purpose was to just prod the players along, and show inexperienced players that plots advance if they don't act. This isn't a computer game where you can sit on a quest for months until you go back to finish it. However, due to the way they met, the entire group of players took an immediate dislike to him (which I thought was great!) and are hellbent on killing him off.
Shyllus is a high dex TWF rogue/ranger with favored enemy human (since he primarily operates in a human-centric area). He can deal serious damage thanks to three attacks (frosty rapier, masterwork shortsword, bite, +2d6 sneak attack if he can flank with a dire rat). He has good AC thanks to dexterity and natural armor. DR 10/silver means he will be quite the tank, since the party has no silver weapons. I don't think the party will think to research wererats before the fight and try to acquire silver, but I could be wrong.
Once Shyllus becomes aware the party doesn't have the relics any more (especially if they admit that they turned them over to the merchant already), Shyllus has no reason to fight them, and would normally leave without a fight, but I know the party WANTS to fight him.
What I want to happen:
I want the players to have a good fight with Shyllus and his gang, where Shyllus gets away. He'll swear revenge, but I don't plan on having him constantly harassing the players. It just gives me one of those non-plot specific recurring nemesis type villains that every party loves to hate. So what effective, low level ways can I make sure he can get away when the fight goes bad, but make sure the party has fun and doesn't feel cheated when he escapes? Main concern will be escaping from web, surviving glitterdust, and dealing with multiple trip wolves. The fight will happen in a very urban environment, so I'm not concerned about the druid entangling. I've already considered potions of invisibility and gaseous form, but anything else people can think of? I'd like to avoid teleport-like options.
I'm also looking for interesting ways the fight could be more dynamic and interesting. It is supposed to occur in an abandoned warehouse near the docks. Maybe rotten floors, stacks of old crates to knock down?
Sources allowed: almost any, but I'd prefer to stick to core+complete series+magic item compendium.
Summary: Party I DM for is going to plan an ambush (and/or walk into an expected ambush, either way they are expecting a fight). The fight doesn't have to occur for plot reasons, but the party wants to have it. I want the "LBEG" (not a plot important villain) to survive the fight, so I'm looking to get some tactics hints or suggestions to ensure that happens without making it feel like I'm cheating.
Party Composition (level 4):
Arnold (human Barbarian) - First time player, really wants to kill the LBEG. Extra rage, power attack. Currently +1 battleaxe and shield
Tripp (human wizard) - Most experienced player. Loves web.
Rinn (half-elf rogue) - Second most experienced player. Not particularly useful in combat.
Freya (elf druid) - Very inexperienced, barely understands her spells. Wolf companion is a champ.
Keekster (elf ranger) - Inexperienced, just got his wolf companion, hasn't used it in combat yet. Archery ranger, but likes his great sword.
Story Background: Party found out about a shipment of religious relics of Pelor which had been hijacked by highwaymen. A priestess from a splinter sect of Pelor asked the party to go retrieve them. They successfully do so, and discover the crates the shipment were in had the crest of a local powerful merchant family. Party spends a few days asking around (gather information) in the city before deciding whether to bring the items to the merchants or the priestess. On the third day of asking around, two of the characters (Arnold and Tripp) are set upon by bandits. The bandit group has them seriously outnumbered, and the bandit leader demands the relics, threatening the lives of the characters' families (they are currently in the party's home town). Arnold decides to try to fight them, and as combat begins, they realize the bandits are wererats, with dire rat backup. A couple rounds of combat in, with a first round crit by the wererat leader, the players surrender and agree to bring the relics to the bandits the following night. Arnold has had some past bad experiences with dire rats, is pissed the leader got some quick good hits on him, and swears to kill the guy.
The next day, the party meets the merchant, who explains that he was funding an archaeological dig at a long buried temple of Pelor, and will pay handsomely to get the items back. The party agrees to turn over the items, and they get paid, making friends with the merchant (who is a son of a local lord/power figure). They also plan to still meeting up with the wererats to fight, because why not? They want revenge for their families being threatened, and they think the world would be better off without a couple other wererats in the world. The session left off right after the players got paid for turning over the items. It is approximately 10 AM, and they have all day to prepare for a fight at an abandoned warehouse (werehouse?) at midnight.
What the players don't know:
The merchant did tell the party he had also hired multiple other people to recover the artifacts (100% commission, no money up front). One of those people was Shyllus, a natural elven wererat Ranger1/Rogue4. He has two human afflicted wererat flunkies (MM standard), and four advanced dire rats (3 HD, still small, calling them CR1). Shyllus was using gather information the same time the players were. The players were not shy about the fact that they killed a semi-famous local highwayman gang, and Shyllus discovered that it was that gang that stole the items in the first place. So Shyllus correctly concludes the players have the items. He doesn't really want to kill their families (he is amoral, but he isn't bloodthirsty), and just wants to take the quickest way to get the items. Threats of force have worked in the past, so why not?
Shyllus is a semi-throwaway NPC. His game purpose was to just prod the players along, and show inexperienced players that plots advance if they don't act. This isn't a computer game where you can sit on a quest for months until you go back to finish it. However, due to the way they met, the entire group of players took an immediate dislike to him (which I thought was great!) and are hellbent on killing him off.
Shyllus is a high dex TWF rogue/ranger with favored enemy human (since he primarily operates in a human-centric area). He can deal serious damage thanks to three attacks (frosty rapier, masterwork shortsword, bite, +2d6 sneak attack if he can flank with a dire rat). He has good AC thanks to dexterity and natural armor. DR 10/silver means he will be quite the tank, since the party has no silver weapons. I don't think the party will think to research wererats before the fight and try to acquire silver, but I could be wrong.
Once Shyllus becomes aware the party doesn't have the relics any more (especially if they admit that they turned them over to the merchant already), Shyllus has no reason to fight them, and would normally leave without a fight, but I know the party WANTS to fight him.
What I want to happen:
I want the players to have a good fight with Shyllus and his gang, where Shyllus gets away. He'll swear revenge, but I don't plan on having him constantly harassing the players. It just gives me one of those non-plot specific recurring nemesis type villains that every party loves to hate. So what effective, low level ways can I make sure he can get away when the fight goes bad, but make sure the party has fun and doesn't feel cheated when he escapes? Main concern will be escaping from web, surviving glitterdust, and dealing with multiple trip wolves. The fight will happen in a very urban environment, so I'm not concerned about the druid entangling. I've already considered potions of invisibility and gaseous form, but anything else people can think of? I'd like to avoid teleport-like options.
I'm also looking for interesting ways the fight could be more dynamic and interesting. It is supposed to occur in an abandoned warehouse near the docks. Maybe rotten floors, stacks of old crates to knock down?
Sources allowed: almost any, but I'd prefer to stick to core+complete series+magic item compendium.