Looking for Stealth adventure ideas

[RealMarkP]

I have a bunch of low level PCs which are being tasked with reconnaissance at a meeting between two crime lords. The location is an old watch tower that was converted into a palace/crime HQ. It's a fantasy setting with limited magical abilities (we have a wizard, but his spell book is limited). The party consists of a Barbarian, Cleric, Ranger and Wizard.

I could use some help in filling this crime HQ with things they need to overcome. I'd like to avoid combat because the compound will be full of enemies. The layout of this HQ has not been set, so anything you mention here would definitely shape the way it looks.

Many thanks.

[ElenionAncalima]

It is going to be hard to rely on them sneaking past everybody, since odds are someone's stealth score with be in the nether regions...or will just get really unlucky with rolls. You could give them smaller patrols that they have to take out quickly, without being noticed.

I focus on giving the HQ multiple roots to get to the same place. Also include a lot of interesting elements that your players can use to hide with...like barrels, balconies and pillars.

[Psyren]

Group stealth rarely works well, especially when 3/4 of the party doesn't look like they'll be suited for it.

If you want to do a low-combat mission you'll have to be creative. Maybe the Ranger has to sneak in alone and open a side-door for the rest of the party, or maybe the Cleric and Wizard have to go to the front door as evangelists/salesmen while the Ranger and Barbarian slip in the back. But simply sticking all 4 of them together, making them roll and hinging the group's success on one character's failure is a recipe for frustration.

[Fabletop]

Oooooooo! A magic setting?

Ghosts.

This requires zero combat. The ghosts have their own city established. Something incredibibly complex and amazing even, but the PCs only experience it in non-linear pseudo-dream scenes. They explore areas and walking through doorways, enter the ghosts' world.

This ghost-world can even share scenes from the PCs private lives and memories. One second a ragged wasteland, the next, a PC's living room, with their family talking to them like they never left home.

The ghost appear as anyone you want them to. Precisely, anyone the scene/story needs them to be at that moment. It's head-trips for the PCs as they get lost in a haze of what's real and what isn't.

So, the PCs have to convince their sponsor that this is either a nightmare location, or, a workable site, if they can reach a compromise with the ghosts.

Something like that. Hope this helps.