Thank you, playground!

[true_shinken]

I'd like to thank everyone that helped me build my quirky miniboss squad for my last game. My party was thrilled, it was a very intense battle and everyone enjoyed it.
I look forward to helping you guys in your games as well.
Cheers! Thanks again, playground.

[aivanther]

Curious, what did you end up pitting them against in the end? And how did it play out?

[gallagher]

Curious, what did you end up pitting them against in the end? And how did it play out?

+1, i am intrigued

[true_shinken]

Curious, what did you end up pitting them against in the end? And how did it play out?

They fought a human OA samurai 6/iaijutsu master 5, a tiefling Truenamer 11/Examplar 1, a xeph Archivist 12 (gave up on Spirit Shaman/Shugenja), a hengeyokai (sparrow) Bard 6/Hexblade 5 and a human Fighter 12/Tactical Soldier 2.

The xeph archivist had used Craft Contingent Spell for Delay Death and Heal on all his fellow quirky squad members.

Game started with the hengeyokai bard entering the players' castle in sparrow form and making a lot of trouble via fascinate and suggestion. He even managed to plant a suggestion on one of the players to crashdive their flying ship into the castle, but the paladin's high Sense Motive allowed them to prevent disaster. After having to fight a few allies because of said bard, they eventually cornered him but he flew away without much trouble.
The group's artificer then used scrying to locate the enemies, and they went after them heavily buffed, including two silence spells active to help shut down the truenamer and the bard. The artificer had the paladin greatly, and I mean greatly enhanced. He attacked the fighter and even with full power attack, doubled damage due to a ToB maneuver, increased Power Attack due to action point and Leap Attack (from heroics)... they just managed to deal with the contingency. When the artificer realized his (heavily) metamagic spell triggered wand of scorching ray was ineffective, the party almost retreated.
The group's main damage dealer, the paladin, was completly shut down by the enemy fighter. The guy dealt AoO on everything and had Double-Hit and Sidestep (not to mention 20foot reach) so he was never at risk of taking damage from the paladin after the first round, while disarming/tripping him every single round.
The truenamer slowed the artificer, so even after he began using energy substitution, he couldn't hit. The archivist used baleful polymorph early on on the rogue, so she became a chicken and the fighter one-shoted her. The bard helped on battlefield control and debuffing, the iaijutsu master deal realiable damage and the battle looked completly hopeless for the party... until the glaivelock focused on the enemy fighter. A critical hit from an eldritch blast deals a lot of damage. After he fell, the paladin could move and attack again and the tide turned. The warlock was also instrumental when, even under the effect of doomspeak, dark companion and hexblade curse (total -14 to saves) he succeded on a Will save against the truenamer's daze effect (of course, natural 20)... twice in the same round.
Eventually, all enemies except the truenamer were defeated, but she managed to escape and will be coming back for revenge.
It was amazingly fun.

[Lycanthromancer]

<SNIP>

Wow. The truenamer is the one that survived?

[Morph Bark]

Wow. The truenamer is the one that survived?

I know, right. It should've been the Fighter.

Honestly though, it appears you had their tactics all really well-worked out and teamwork too. Gearing towards some of the players' weaknesses no doubt helped as well. Blasted lucky Warlock, but the luck was all in the dice.

Was the rogue the only PC to die?

[true_shinken]

Honestly though, it appears you had their tactics all really well-worked out and teamwork too. Gearing towards some of the players' weaknesses no doubt helped as well. Blasted lucky Warlock, but the luck was all in the dice.

Was the rogue the only PC to die?

Well, she didn't die, she was just knocked out.
I originally intended this to get at least two players killed, but no one actually died.

Wow. The truenamer is the one that survived?

Yeah, truenamer's get very little for defense, but she had the bard/hexblade and the fighter between her and the players at all times. Anyone trying to attack her in melee would be extremely punished. When the warlock, after disposing of the fighter, attacked her... she dazed him for 3 turns.
In the end, she was alone against a dazed warlock, an almost out of hit points paladin and an artificer with no infusions and no action points. I think if she stayed she might be able to take down two of them, but I find it hard to believe that someone with Intelligence 28 would be that reckless.
So she just retreated to their headquarters to gather an army of mooks and attack.

[Jyokage]

Quite nice! It would seem that you played your quirky band of misfit minibosses perfectly! I applaud your ability to entertain both myself and your players. But the question remains, what kind of crazy plan will the truenamer come up with for revenge?

[true_shinken]

Quite nice! It would seem that you played your quirky band of misfit minibosses perfectly! I applaud your ability to entertain both myself and your players. But the question remains, what kind of crazy plan will the truenamer come up with for revenge?

Yeah, I still don't know. ^^
The truenamer was the least versatile in the enemy party, along with the Iaijutsu Master (he mainly used a collar of umbral metamorphosis to hide and try to one-shot someone. I rolled pretty poorly on his iaijutsu damage, though... this iaijutsu master just happens to be the truenamer's lover, who broke her out of jail and all). She is, though, very very intelligent and has a lot of knowledges maxed up. I think she should come up with a very good plan to get her revenge... except I don't have Int 28 so it seems I can't come up with it myself.
It is stablished that the headquarter for the Falenia Blackthorns was a cave protected from scrying. Thing is, the group Warlock can probably Track her (though it might take some time). It is also stablished she has a few CR 7 soldier with them (phrenic feral elf Warrior 4, all of them) and that she has a lot of gold there as well. She has also a few rescued town residents (long story short, the Free City of Weissenacht were the players currently are is the subject of a slaad fever outbreak and the resident vampire mob decided to kill everyone infected, so it's kind of civil war in there).
Also, she has a Charisma of six so getting allies would be a bit... hard.