The Dim Triad

[graymachine]

So, our DM recently wanted to take a break. This resulted in me running the Return to the Tomb of Horrors, since I have the most experience with it and the DM just wanted to play for a while. As somewhat of an exercise, I allow open access to the books, letting people build any twink fantasy they had as long as it was consistent and didn't make for an impossible resolution. Needless to say, there are some strong character builds in the party and I'm looking to challenge those builds. The Dim Triad (for those that haven't played the module, it is a threesome of vampires that go about fetching the needs of a necromancer city) seems to me to be an excellent area for improvement. As I recall (I don't have my notes on hand) the Dim Triad is made up of a vampire fighter, cleric, and wizard. All of them are ECL 16 (minus the 7 levels for the vampire template, meaning I have 9 levels to play around with) and the conversion guild I have suggests giving them basic builds in their respective specialties. I have a few ideas kicking around, but I want to get some input before putting a build to them. Basically, the first encounter that the party will have with them is that one of the Triad will sneak into camp and drain the "weakest" member in their sleep. The text suggests that the PCs won't notice the signs of a vampire attack and will bury the body, leaving that former PC to rise and torment the party there after. The second encounter, assuming that the party doesn't screw up and draw massive attention, is an all out brawl in some very confined corridors.

Essentially, what I am looking for at this point is to make three 16th level NPCs challenging for a group of 13th level characters, but more so in a frightening way; making the PCs lose their calm is somewhat more important than getting a maximum body count.

[Chronos]

Basically, the first encounter that the party will have with them is that one of the Triad will sneak into camp and drain the "weakest" member in their sleep. The text suggests that the PCs won't notice the signs of a vampire attack and will bury the body, leaving that former PC to rise and torment the party there after.I'm not sure I follow... Why would 13th level characters bury a party-mate, just because he happened to die? They're bound to at least attempt a Raise Dead. And when Raise Dead presumably doesn't work (due to the whole undead thing), they're going to get suspicious, and probably figure out why it didn't work (using Speak with Dead, if nothing else).

[Blanks]

Basically, the first encounter that the party will have with them is that one of the Triad will sneak into camp and drain the "weakest" member in their sleep.
Consider how this will be for the players.

DM:" You go to sleep. Next morning you wake up. Except you Jim, make a new character"
Jim:"..."

I would be superpissed off if my DM just randomly killed me to prove a point or set the mood :smallfurious:

[Khanderas]

Consider how this will be for the players.

DM:" You go to sleep. Next morning you wake up. Except you Jim, make a new character"
Jim:"..."

I would be superpissed off if my DM just randomly killed me to prove a point or set the mood :smallfurious:
Thats when you have a DMPC, a nice fellow who is hired to carry bags and guide. Let him tell alot of stories and be generally a nice guy.
Then he is dead.

[graymachine]

I'm not sure I follow... Why would 13th level characters bury a party-mate, just because he happened to die? They're bound to at least attempt a Raise Dead. And when Raise Dead presumably doesn't work (due to the whole undead thing), they're going to get suspicious, and probably figure out why it didn't work (using Speak with Dead, if nothing else).

I'm not saying that they would, but the module seems to assume that they will do so, given it's phrasing. I'm pretty sure that they will investigate further; I'm just trying to figure out a way of handling it without sending their player senses into overdrive.

[graymachine]

Consider how this will be for the players.

DM:" You go to sleep. Next morning you wake up. Except you Jim, make a new character"
Jim:"..."

I would be superpissed off if my DM just randomly killed me to prove a point or set the mood :smallfurious:

Not really to do either; it is a set encounter for the module. I'm not planning on simply declaring one or more dead in the morning; they will have skill checks. Furthermore, they are fully aware of the lethality of this dungeon.

[Azerian Kelimon]

Better idea: Have the vampees Dominate one of the team members, preferably a drama queen who will be happy to be a centerpiece of the plot. MUCH more realistic for munchkin players.

[FlyMolo]

Furthermore, they are fully aware of the lethality of this dungeon.

Ahahahahahaha. Best understatement ever. They will be woefully unprepared. Unless you've told them that every single object in the Tomb wants to kill them and they believed you, they're woefully unprepared.

The Tomb is unimaginably lethal.

[Blanks]

I'm not planning on simply declaring one or more dead in the morning; they will have skill checks. Furthermore, they are fully aware of the lethality of this dungeon.
If your players are used to posting guards and alarms when they sleep, fair enough, night encounters are to be expected. Im just saying, that if I was told "Sorry, Jim failed his spot check and now you are dead" would tick me off. That offcourse depends upon how much effort was put into the character. If you are running return to tomb of horrors, i guess they have already rolled up 4 backup characters and they "know whats coming" (but see the post above :)