Means of Thwarting an Assassination

[jbr712]

Wanted to consult the hive mind on this one. My party is currently plotting an assassination and I’m trying to think of ways that an NPC might use to either guard against assassination or how the plan might otherwise fail. This might help with developing contingencies so we can have a higher success rate.

Thoughts so far:

Body double - while unlikely to have access to simulacra or a changeling double, a simple double might mean we hit the wrong target. Distinct but related: unlikely to have access to clones. May have access to raise dead, unlikely to have access to other means of returning from the grave - so head removal/destruction becomes important.

Trapped ambush space: we are currently planning on being able to sneak into the target’s bed chamber through use of polymorph and invisibility. The target may have rigged an illusion and laid a trap to capture/incapacitate they party

Increased guard presence and/or alternative guard patrols: exactly what it says on the tin.

Hostages: they tried to have us assassinated first. They know they failed. They have reason to suspect we know they sent the assassins. They may try to take hostages as a security measure (we’re adventurers, not total monsters).

Guards and Wards: unlikely, but possible.

Simple alarm spell. While animals of sufficiently small size are unlikely to trip the alarm and may be able to avoid this, still a concern (particularly when leaving).

Magical item for teleportation or a teleportation circle: assuming we can’t successfully blitz the target and kill in one round, becomes a concern. No evidence of having these, but a lack of evidence could just mean we haven’t seen it yet.

Classic misdirection: make out Location A as likely place for target to be but actually have target at Location B.

I think this is everything I can think of. Can the fine folks in the Playground think of any considerations that may be worth taking into account (aside from the cyclical nature of assassination attempts)?

Thanks in advance.

[Willowhelm]

"An NPC" Is pretty open-ended. Could you give some idea of the scope of resources they can martial to protect themselves? Eg. Is this a paranoid Lich or the leader of some thugs? Time, Money, Locations, Magic, Personnel...What are the limitations?

[MrStabby]

You missed one option. They try and make peace. Assassinations are risky and expensive for everyone. Uniting to face an external foe might work for everyone.

Contingency is a good spell. Glyphs with dispel magic are good. Divination spells are very good for protecting against assassins; track known risks, see who they speak to, where they meet, and scry on them.

If you can reach a threat pay them for a job - use locate object on some of the coins you pay them with - reveals not only their location but also their support network as they spend their money.

Nystuls magical aura and other misdirection spells can create some asymmetry there. Add in non-detection for good luck.

[jbr712]

"An NPC" Is pretty open-ended. Could you give some idea of the scope of resources they can martial to protect themselves? Eg. Is this a paranoid Lich or the leader of some thugs? Time, Money, Locations, Magic, Personnel...What are the limitations?

Fair question. The person in question is a regent of a small castle town, with a larger family about a week away.

The demonstrated wealth of the target locally is relatively small for a noble, mostly going into infrastructure. A contingent of guards did recently arrive, though their precise number is not currently known (need to do some recon).

She is not known to employ magicians herself, though the local church did host the coronation for the regency so they may have offered some help in securing the castle previously (again, small castle town. No demonstrated ability above casting a 3rd level spell, but it is possible we just haven’t seen it).

It will have been about 1 day since the regent’s failed assassination attempt on the party, which is not generally enough time to prep many contingencies from the target’s perspective.

There has not been evidence of magical equipment, but they may have been able to bring something in during the last few days since we last visited her in the castle (she called us in for a job. We have worked for her previously. Hell, we put her on the regent’s throne back when the previous regent left it vacant - no, the group did not assassinate the previous regent).

We should have a more accurate idea of their resources in the hours prior to actually launching the operation courtesy of summoned Fey being able to scout the area. Unfortunately a lot of that is just info we don’t have yet.

[Unoriginal]

Why are you getting the data only one our before the start of the assassination?


Are you limited by the time, or...?

[Cikomyr2]

The spell Death Ward

[jbr712]

Why are you getting the data only one our before the start of the assassination?


Are you limited by the time, or...?

There are pressures involved, because someone decided it would be a good idea to flaunt the failure of the regent’s attempt to assassinate the party to the regent’s agent.

Realistically we have about 12 hours before we are particularly worried about things like the regent getting a sending off and their family gathering and sending reinforcements.

[Unoriginal]

The spell Death Ward

Also need to destroy 100% of the body so that the target can't be brought back without crazy powerful magic.

[Temperjoke]

Honestly, in that short of a time span they're likely not going to have anything out of the ordinary prepped. The worst case scenario sounds like the regent hides somewhere other than the castle, while waiting for assistance from family. It's going to be time-consuming if you don't have a fast way to locate them if they aren't where you expected them to be.

[MoiMagnus]

(1) Hiding in a bag of holding or a similar dimensional space. The bag could be carried by a guard or an animal. (Though you would need to have someone open it regularly to avoid dying out of asphyxia, though at least you can be raised from the dead after that). Catapulting through long distance is also a solution if the situation is desperate.

(2) Augury/Divination is quite useful to make classical misdirections much more effective.

(3) As a third level spell, Blink is somewhat useful to run away. It's only 50% chance to be in the astral plane, but it's still 50% chance more than nothing.

[Corran]

I'm not locked in here with you, you are locked in here with me!: The target is not what it seems. Demon possession, lycanthropy, and more, are things you should be paranoid about if you dont want to find yourselves way over your head when face to face with the target in a closed environment. Make sure you know as much as you can about your target before trying to take it out. Nasty surprises is the name of the game for a lot of DM's after all.

Secrets are a burden: Assuming you are choosing to assassinate not only because you cannot take on your enemy's full force, but also because you want to keep your involvement a secret, well, assume you wont. There are so many ways this knowledge can get out when your whole party gets involved in it, that I dont think it's even worth mentioning whatever few ways I can think of that would partially help with keeping it a secret (though if you are interested I could elaborate a little on that). So assume that at some point, someone will find out that you and your party were behind this murder. Think of how this knowledge could be used against you, and then think if taking out your target is worth that. Just because a problem hasn't occured yet, it doesn't mean you shouldn't take it into consideration when you are about to create it for your future sef.

Targets, baits and perpetrators: Try to make sure that you are not missing the bigger picture. If your target is not really a target but instead it is just bait, then you are the real target. Know all the players involved in this game. If for example your target is the minion of someone who has reason to be pissed off at your party, that's a great reason to check again if you are being played. Sacrificing an underling in order to neutralise (or even stall) a band of heroic adventurers is a deal most stereotypical villains would have liked to have taken in retrospect. Perhaps this greater villain (assuming one such exists in your case) is wise enough to know that already.

Threat removal or a transfer of power?: Killing an enemy does not always mean that a threat was neutralized. It could just as easily mean something else, the worst of which being replacing a threat with a bigger one. Know what will follow (if anything) at the enemy side when you kill that individual. If for example you are planning to kill the leader of the neibouring orc tribe which is threatening war on the nearby human settlements which you plan on defending,then killing Guthma the incompetent coward is not going to work in your favor if the replacement is Guthma Junior the merciless genius.