Encounter help needed (players no touchy, 3.5)

[Rosalinath]

I need help making an encounter for 3 lv. 5 characters. The storyline behind it is that the mini-boss (a lv. 5 cleric/lv. 1 Ur-Priest) is being protected by lizardfolk that are devouted to him. They are from a swamp in the middle of one of the worlds biggest forests.

What would be the most balanced build for these guys? I'm planning on making most of them barbarians with custom Longspears and sickles (+1 acid damage which damages every turn for 1d4 rounds). I need to work these into three separate encounters that aren't extremely difficult as they cannot rest in between fights because of a time limit.

[AslanCross]

Lizardfolk have natural weapons, so they don't actually need the sickles. It's hard to switch between a one-handed weapon and a two-handed weapon, but natural weapon to two-handed weapon is practically effortless.

If you're making them barbarians, they get martial weapon prof. Give them Glaives instead and put the acid on those.

What do you mean by balanced, though? What's the party makeup?

If you have access to Monster Manual III, it has the Blackscale Lizardfolk, who are quite a bit stronger than the regular Lizardfolk. Class levels are better than racial HD, so you could put those in and not have to advance them. They WILL hit a great deal harder, though.

[Rosalinath]

we haven't begun yet so Its still up in the air but it will probably be a Human Warlock, a Wild Elf TWF Ranger, and a Halfling Sorcerer who I'm assuming is going into enchantment (maybe just a generalist)

true. I found the blackscale lizardfolk from monster manual III. Is this a good monster? I may put this into the room right before the miniboss, a mini-mini-boss if you will. Story wise s/he could be the tribe leader.

does anyone have any advice? help? resources?

Edit: crud, you edited before I posted >.< meh

[AslanCross]

I've used the blackscales in several encounters in the past. The stock blackscale is pretty impressive, but versus a level 5 character won't be much of a challenge. My Lv 5 warforged warblade once insta-killed one with Emerald Razor + Power Attack.

On the other hand, giving him a single level of barbarian will make him incredibly deadly even with just the greatclub. I suggest trying to playtest this before you actually use it.

[Rosalinath]

alrighty, I will try that.

How exactly does a character level influence CR? I suddenly forgot D:

[tyckspoon]

Officially, an "affiliated" class level in a PC class increases CR on a 1-for-1 basis. What it means to be an affiliated class is never really clearly described, but giving a full-BAB class to a melee monster probably is meant to be affiliated.

[Rosalinath]

I see...that makes sense in a lot of ways. If I just add it on it would make the CR to high, so I might just replace one monster HD with Barbarian 1

[Human Paragon 3]

This is a little nit=picky, but you can't be a cleric/ur-priest. Ur-priest is not allowed to have any divine casting classes.

Maybe give one or more of the lizard folk proficiency with the net? An interesting battlefield control tactic to use against your players, especially if some of them need to be mobile, or casters who have middling concentration checks. It's annoying, but not hosing. Just make them work for it a bit.

[erikun]

You can have a Cleric/Ur-Priest, but they must have given up their Clerical spellcasting. The lv. 5 Cleric/lv. 1 Ur-Priest will only have 1st level spells available, although he'll be casting them at CL 3. (Ur-Priest adds 1/2 Cleric levels to his caster level.)

[Rosalinath]

which book for ur-priest are you referencing exactly? both book of vile darkness and Complete Divine say nothing against it, and actually says that a majority of the people who go into it were clerics.

yes I know he is weak, he is meant to die

I might give one of the encounter's lizardfolk some of them, the final encounter is hard enough as it is.

[averagejoe]

Officially, an "affiliated" class level in a PC class increases CR on a 1-for-1 basis. What it means to be an affiliated class is never really clearly described, but giving a full-BAB class to a melee monster probably is meant to be affiliated.

Also: favored class probably counts as affiliated.

The main thing is that the party doesn't have a really obvious frontliner. None of them are going to have very good AC or HP. The sorcerer might have some neat tricks depending on the build, but overall this party isn't going to have great staying power. Lizardfolk barbarians will have a decent enough to hit/hp that each one will probably be able to get off a few licks before being put down, again, depending on the sorcerer's build. She has some powerful options at that level, but won't necessarily choose them, and even so it seems very possible for this party to get drained of resources by the time they fight the boss, since it won't take many hits to bring down any one of them.

Edit: In the Complete Divine, under the "Requirements" section for the Ur-Priest entry, look at the "special" entry at the top of the page in the next column over. An ex-cleric can become an Ur-Priest, but not a cleric.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Dragonfang weapons in the Draconomicon are masterwork weapons crafted from the teeth of dragons. They deal +1 point of energy damage per hit, along with the standard +1 to hit for being masterwork. It costs 300 gp more than normal to craft Dragonfang weapons, plus the cost of making it masterwork and the weapon's base price. A Green or Black Dragonfang weapon would deal a point of acid damage per hit, and either type could be found in a forest/swamp. This is probably the closest existing item to what you want to give these lizardfolk, and they're already priced for when the PCs decide to go sell the loot. The Ranger will probably even want to keep a few, so be sure to throw in at least one of each type of weapon he typically uses.

I'd switch the miniboss to an Adept 5/ Ur-Priest 2, at least then he could pose a threat. Make the entrance to his lair coming around a corner, with a few lizardfolk between him and the entrance. He should start out buffed with Sign and Nightshield via Ur-Priest, and Bless on him and his allies via Adept. His other Ur-Priest spells prepared should be Hold Person and Cures. His other Adept spells should be Web, Scorching Ray, Burning Hands, and Cures. Give him Improved Initiative, none of his other feats should even matter. First round he should cast Web on the attackers, centering it behind them so his lizardfolk can still attack into it and hit them without walking into it. His second round he should cast either Burning Hands if he can hit all of them, or Scorching Ray if only one is visible, and then on the following round use whichever of those he didn't cast. He can use his familiar to deliver Cure spells to his lizardfolk, and he should cast Hold Person if one opponent appears to pose a greater threat than the others.

[AslanCross]

Officially, an "affiliated" class level in a PC class increases CR on a 1-for-1 basis. What it means to be an affiliated class is never really clearly described, but giving a full-BAB class to a melee monster probably is meant to be affiliated.

The only mention of an associated class description is in Monster Manual V, where the Elemental Mages (earth, fire and wind-themed ogre magi) are. Requirements for associated class levels are at least d8 HD and 3/4 BAB. You could use similar requirements.

[BooNL]

Most of the later (or maybe only MM5) have a section on advancing monsters with class levels. They give a short discription what classes would reasonably be associated.
You can work backwards from there. To be honest, I've never bothered with associated classes, I just eyeball the difficulty of an encounter and adjust accordingly.

[Rosalinath]

I'll probably grab the Adapt/ur-priest and dragonfang weapons just because they make sense.

I play tested an example battle between the possible party against a Blackscale (3d8 monster HD, 1d12 Barbarian) and three regular lizardfolk all with longspears. The problem with it though was the first two rounds. The three lizardfolk minions charged into each of the characters and took out about a third of their life right off the bat. The blackscale then immediately chopped the ranger in half :( the others soon followed on round two.

What should I do to water down these guys? I want them to be a staple monster for a bit so I need to have them be weak enough to attack in groups.