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View Full Version : Stats for my evil druid/ranger NPC?



Allis
2008-04-25, 07:04 AM
I am designing a campaign for some friends of mine. They will be questing in a group of four, looking for an artifact. The king has set them on the quest, but his half-brother wants to slow them down so his adventuring party (other friends) can get to the artifact first.

My idea is to have an evil druid/ranger track them down and fight them. It is not neccesary to kill them in this stage, the half brother has limited resources and happened to know a basterd in the woods who would fight them.

His name is Duruk. He's filthy, dressed in black, patchy clothes, fur and leather. His hair is tangled and fat and hangs close to his face. He is a thin, bony guy with a twisted look on his face. Possibly he has some kind of addiction that forces him to have contact with civilisation, otherwise he would have kept to himself in the woods. Now, he tracks down anyone he is paid for to track down, and kills, fights or scares them off. To do so, he keeps the company of 3 large, drooling and malicious dogs. He has two of them in chackles, the other one is his animal companion. He feeds them, they fight for him, an easy deal for all of them as they love to fight.

He will track the PC's until they set up camp somewhere outdoorsy. Then, surround them with the dogs. The PC's will get a listen check to hear the chains being removed from the spiked collars. First, Duruk will try to pick them off one by one, but that will probably fail. Then, he will fight them from all directions. He will take on the fighter while the dogs try to hamper the spellcasters.

Does anyone have a good idea for prestigeclasses, types of dogs, well, basically the works? I have some ideas myself but it is always nice to throw something new into the game! Do keep it relatively cores as that is a restriction I placed on the players as well.

Kol Korran
2008-04-25, 07:23 AM
- what level will the party be in? do you intend the druid to enagage the character several times? (escalating the intensity?) or just once? do you want the druid to be an easy challenge? medium one? tough?
- what do you wish to accomplish by the druid? what sort of an encounter? (a messanger of the lalf brother/ a master of wild forces/ savage combatant/ tracker and ambusher/ somthign else?)
- do you wish the stats to refelct mroe style and roleplay, or to be effective for combat?

Allis
2008-04-25, 07:49 AM
I knew I pressed the sendbutton too fast!

Duruk will be menacing the party once. He is a coward if he feels overpowered, and will make a run for it if threatened beyond his abilities. However, if some-one kills his dogs, especially his companion, I'll throw a dice to see if that would knock him off the edge and drive him insane. The dogs are the only things he really cares about beside his drugs. Then he will fight to the death.

the party is fifth level, possibly 6th, when encountering Duruk. It has to be exiting, but not that hard, as he's not the main villain and it's their first fight together.

I want Duruk to get the point across that: There are people working against the party, who know them, if not their goal. I want them to get some experience in battle together. The druid is sent to attack them and hamper their advancement. I might have him cast plant growth/entangle etc the day before the actual fight. He would have found them the night before, and slow them down and dwindle their energy and resources before attacking them. I think he needs a battle-effective build, as that's his only solution to everything.

They might bribe him off, sneak up on him, I don't know. So it might get twisted all around. If they kill him they'll find his drugs, and a crudely drawn picture of themselves. (that was sneaked out of the palace to the half-brother)

Epinephrine
2008-04-25, 09:04 AM
Oh - for the day before harrassment, consider Spike Growth? Plant Growth first, slowing them, then Spike Growth/Briar Web so that they hurt themselves/cripple themselves getting out. If you want to be nasty, put Decomposition on yourself, use Winged Watcher (become a bird for 1/round level), and fly over them into a tree and sit there watching them dig their way out. At 1d4 damage per 5' from the Spike Growth, 1 point of damage per 5' from the Briair Web, and 3 damage a round from the decomposition, it's a pile of damage started up - once they are all festering with wounds, fly back away and leave. Cost: 2-3rd level spells, 2x2nd level spells, 1x 1st level spell. Possibly cast entangle on them afterwards, since they may still be fighting their way out, and it has Long range. Chuckle. I love druids.

Use it several times on them? It doesn't deal a ton of damage (though not shabby), but since it cripples them it forces them to waste time treating people's feet to get their movement rates back (or sucks up healing spells). If it happened 2 days in a row it'd drive most players nuts.

How's the party's night vision? Attacks at night are pretty brutal.

Plant Growth is an amazing spell for battlefield control, especially as the druid ignores the effect. Is he a multi-class ranger/druid, or gestalt? You mention plant growth, so we're looking at 5+ levels of druid. Assuming say a level 6 Druid, with a bit of a wisdom bonus (say +2?) he'd have 4/4/2 spells, which is plenty.

Swarms can be nasty on players that can't move, especially if the other players can't see them. Using Plant Growth (3rd) and Obscuring Mist (1st), and possibly Cloudburst (1st) to make their Spot/Listen/Missile checks horrible. Then land swarms on them.

You can make it tough for the players to do anything much to you, while you have an active Embrace the Wild (1st) running, shared with the companion - allowing you blindsense. Summon a swarm of bats (or two? three? good use of the 2nd level slots?) onto the party members, they can sense the other enemies via their blindsight, and use Decomposition (2nd level spell) on yourself and move into range, hidden by fog, getting your dogs to pick on a caster (do they have the trip ability?).

Decomposition can be dealing 3 damage a round to all the enemy once they are hurt, and they are all separated and unable to see more than a few feet. The swarms deal bleeding as well, so it may be 4 damage/turn, plus swarm damage - swarms can work well on fighter types, since they're unlikely to have AoE damage.

Summoning wolves onto the casters is a good way to protect the dogs - they won't necessarily know who to target to upset him, and wolves hitting with their trip ability is a real pain. This can be done with the other 1st level slot, or via a 3rd level slot, giving you 1d4+1 wolves.

So:
1st level: Cloudburst, Obscuring Mist, Embrace the Wild (long duration, pre-buff), spare 1st level spell (Produce Flame?)
2nd level: Summon Swarm x 2 (3? Or maybe use one for wolves, or for a flaming sphere?), Decomposition
3rd level: Plant Growth, Call Lightning? (or summon wolves with that slot)

Sounds nasty enough? If he's really concerned about his dogs, summon wolves onto casters before sending dogs in after them. I'd let the swarms/decomposition/Call Lightning deal with fighter-types. Keep your companion by your side, share a Produce Flame with him if you have time, and if someone comes up to you the two of you can pound on him together. Or he can use wildshape, and he and his companion can go in and hit stuff, now that he's set a nasty chain of events in motion.

If he's got another wisdom bonus it frees up another 3rd level spell, which can be more summons. I think that he's probably best off trying not to get hurt, by using the night/the mist/mobility issues, and summons. Heal via potions, pull out of the fight if it's looking nasty. Even a single druid of similar level can be a nasty opponent if it's in the wild and he's calling the shots.

Allis
2008-04-26, 06:58 AM
Thanks! you have given me loads of good ideas, as well as good strategies for fighting with this druid. They'll be very messed up after I'm done with them!