Creating a Drow Hit Squad


Advice


Many many years ago (in game play) my players encountered a group of Drow nobles. Battle ensued and the end result was that the Drow were all slaughtered. One was questioned first and the Drow noble offered amnesty to the party if she were freed... She was killed with a "Burn in the Abyss you Dark-hearted scum" type quip.

Fast forward 6 years game play time. In almost every encounter my players have had in the past several months they have seen shadowy figures watching them. They know these spies to be Drow but are not sure what to make of it.

While the party is out on an adventure the Drow have made their move. Killing, attacking, burning, and generally destroying everything that the Party holds dear. Friends, relatives, known acquaintances, the bar that they own and operated have all be targeted with various degrees of success. (I rolled some random numbers for what lived, died, was maimed, etc.)

So the question becomes what do I challenge my party with? What would a Drow hit squad look like if they were crafted to deal with the following party:
- Magus
- Barbarian (Just big and mean)
- Witch (Scarred)
- Monk (master of many styles)
- Cleric (buffer/heal stick)

All the players are 13th level.

Note: All of my players are cool and seemingly excited about the idea of going up against characters that are designed to challenge them. We've spoken about it at length and they all thought it would make for a great story arch. I am not looking for specific builds but thoughts on what character class would be best to deal with each of the players...


I'll add my comments soon, I like the idea.


First, my own attempt at doing something similar:

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2qg3d?The-Furious-Five-Building-a-cadre-of-assa ssins#1

As for the individuals players, here are some mechanical notes:

Magus: I play a magus and I hate drow since they shut down spelltrike so effectively. Even with spell penetration, it's hard to get through a drow noble's spell resistance.

Barbarian & scarred witch doctor: target reflex saves. Under normal circumstances should be low. Cleric too maybe. Pits can be fun.

Monk: these guys are hard to hurt. Maybe "wall" spells to entrap, since most of them have damage problems.

For that, alot of characters builds can work. My own magus has a drow magus "rival" that tries to kill me. Maguses can be devastating.

Same for summoners. If their cha is high enough, and with spell focus "conjuration", their DCs can be ridiculous. If it's a master summoner, they can just send a ton of summons, good way to distract the party.

Ninjas fit very well with Drow, but their assassination tactics might have a hard time to work if your players use true seeing.

Liberty's Edge

It looks like the group lacks some decent ranged abilities, the witch may have some offensive and maybe the cleric but most of the group looks like melee. So an archer ranger with favored enemy (group members race) would be nice. By level 13 they should have a counter to most threats without too much difficulty. maybe a wizard with overland flight on him to harass the players from a distance, some spells have amazing ranges (400+40/LVL) so that way even an archer may have trouble hitting him.

Barbarian will be threatened by anything at a range, pick up clustershot to deal with his DR, depending on his build some spell could help if he has superstition then most magic attacks are out.
Magus will be countered by an antimagic field and put to near uselessness so a martial character with a scroll of antimagic field and UMD would help there. although that could be too difficult and just kill the magus which I imagine is not the goal here.
Throw some dispels down to knock out the clerics buff and make him recast them.

My suggested group make up: (Obviously all Drow, put them at level 12 or 13 with PC wealth and stats)

Sorcerer (arcane blood) get some blasting spells with metamagic, I would avoid dazing, nobody likes to spend their turn doing nothing)

Ranger (Archer FE group) (Deadly aim, rapid shot, many shot) thats your main damage, simple build and it can really hurt, maybe the trapper archetype or not.

Witch to throw down some curses and hexes on them to deal with the buffs
If not the witch get a summoner: A master summoner can be scary and flood the battle field to make up for a lack of melee on your part (and give the melees something to do while the mages are flying)

Cleric (dont focus on healing, go into the fray with as many buff as possible. Maybe pick Plane Shift and try to send one to the abyss "A friend in the abyss wants to speak with you"

Ranger: (Melee, have this guy run in with stone skin and start wailing on them, keep the distracted and have him wear that armor that casts breath of life "Oh you thought I died, I won't die until I crush your heart is in my hands!" of have the wizards familiar be stocked up on breath of life scrolls to keep casting whenever he goes down and a heal just in case.

These guys should have 6th-7th spells and tons of gold, don't have them be a one time fight if it goes south teleport away and come back later, all members carry a potion of invisibility to get away quick.

I hope this helps,

Silver Crusade

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Gosh, I'd have the Drow take a completely different approach.

I'd have them continue to get at the PCs through others, only get serious about it. I'd never have drow assassins attack them directly, while they are together as a team.

Instead, I'd get holds on them through friends, allies, lovers, family, et cetera. E.g. Don't kill the husband/wife and children of a PC. Instead, imprison and enslave them in a terrible situation. Then notify the PCs what was done, perhaps with some attached body parts, and offer to negotiate.

Drow are elves, and thus probably patient. Rather than have a team of assassins come at the PCs when they are together, observe them from a safe distance and attack them when they split up. Give them a long time to drop their guard, then strike suddenly. They must occasionally split up. The Drow should seek revenge when the PCs' guard is down. They must sometimes drop their guard ...

A team of ten 7th level Drow could be more effective than five 13th level Drow. The larger team could cause the PCs more grief over a longer time frame. Never confront the PCs directly. Instead, &^(*&^ with them from a distance.

For example, the Drow could work with a Doppleganger or three, or use illusion magics. Disguise themselves as the PCs then commit some vile acts of perfidy in front of many witnesses. For show, try to kill the witnesses, but let some go. Do this several times in several different places the PCs care about.

Have disguised agents spread subtle vicious rumors about the PCs. They will see disgust and hatred in the eyes of every civilian they meet. For most PCs the overall effect would be worse than death in battle. As such, this would be a better revenge, from the perspective of the Drow, than simple death.

Imagine this continues for a while. Sometimes the PCs can explain, but in some places this will not be possible. Eventually there will large bounties offered on their heads in some places.

Imagine mixed teams of Lawful Good adventurers keep confronting them and trying to take them down ...


I think given the previous history I'd have a story element that specifically ties the assassins to the pcs and the drow nobles as a story element.

Tactically, lots of pc spellusers, remember silence on an object carried by an opponent has no save, so how many of them have the silent spell metamagics?

Missile weapons certainly would expose any weakness in ranged combat but I also remember reading Treantmonk's god wizard guide and he suggested a nasty tactic involving an arcane archer and anti-magic shell.

Drow also may have 'underling' monsters, throwing in a nasty surprise like an Umber Hulk or two would certainly mean the Barbarian's Will Saves would be tested also a Drow enchanter specifically looking to dominate the Barbarian would be something I would advocate. Likewise there are 'good' races which could be coerced into helping the drow (e.g. Svirfneblin) which may restrict the pcs ability to area attack, if they have a conscience.

An enemy Bard could be quite viable as a means to provide group buffs (or pc de-buffs - I love court bards and one could be built to be quite a formidable enchanter - see above) and again pursue the enchantment route.

Against the monk I would place... another monk, nice 1-1 Ki Battle may provide some side colour.

I would certainly look at an anti-caster type fighter too, who can get close and cause the pcs problems casting defensively and with S.R.

I also think miss chances are a great leveller, so making a 'darkness specialist' type fighter may prove surprisingly tough to kill.

Lastly prepared casters may have contingency cast on them, this could lead to some unpleasant surprises if well thought out.

Good luck, let us know how it goes.

G


Because I scrolled down before reading, and somehow confused your party's line up for the hit squad line up, I ended up getting vaguely interesting ideas into my head, at least for some flavorful mooks/meatshields/cannon fodder that are sent in waves to back up the other, more challenging ideas I am sure this board will think up.

Anyway, to my point: Pain Tasters. It is a prestige class with fluff association with Drow due to their mastery of torture (and the idea came up due to its associate with barbarians and drow monks/clerics..again, the misreading thing), and it gives several advantages that could help, at least for pawns of a vengeful noble. They have decent BAB, they gain a couple bits of DR that stacks with other class based sources (a tribe of drow barbarians enslaved by the noble in her thirst for revenge?). They get a weird form of sneak attack that only works with slashing weapons and whips, which works well since there should be a handfull of them in each encounter, so they can gang up nicely. They have access to an enhancement boost to any stat you like, and if they have 5 levels in the pain taster (not hard considering the power level), they can get up to a +4 in a stat without actually having any loot that the party could use/sell.

Overall, I like this idea since it can allow a lot of room for a distinct and aberrant back story that can be hinted at through scars and rage. I have already mentioned ways for your noble to get her hands on such a force, and the Pain Taster allows you to hint at how she took out her frustration at the party which she in turn took out on the lowest members of drow society by forcing them into the dark rituals and torture necessary to join this PRC. At the very least, it makes an interesting encounter when ever the lowly cannonfodder mowed down by the dozens are more than "drow assassin #5-72", and it helps to paint a richer picture of your antagonist (admittedly, it is painted in blood and tears, but still).

Scarab Sages

Why would the Drow kill them? I would imagine a more suitable course of action would be to poison them/maim them, then capture and drage the party back to the Drow city for justice. That would include public humiliation at the hands of the surviving family members of the dude they murdered back in the day.

That way you preserve the characters and make it memorable, while giving plenty of adventure opportunities in the Underdark.

Con damage the crap out of them, capture them, spells like Limp Lash while they are in combat to capture. Ranged blowgun/hand xbows from the shadows with poison darts/bolts.


I like the idea of capturing/torturing if the enemies succeed and having an escape the underdark story arc.

What sort of terrain are you thinking that the drow would choose to most take advantage of? I assume the idea of going after the party's assets is that now the party will come to them? If not, hostages all the way, yeah. (Use a slow acting poison on them before the encounter in case the drow fail to kill the party. Have them alive and on display during the fighting, in some kind of imminent peril to serve as a distraction if you're feeling cheesy and bond-villainy, and tempt the party into splitting themselves up. And no of course the drow don't carry any antidote)

If it was me I'd enjoy having a mix of levels. One or two level 13s or so with a bunch of lower level underlings chosen to best complement the big guys' skills. Maybe a summoner with a drider eidolon? If he's 13th level he could cast creeping doom for some swarms of spiders too.

A Grey Warden could make for a fun executioner type melee guy. I made one before that was part flowing monk for the redirection/flat foot chance thing.

I've had a surprising amount of success with lower level ranger enemies with the Falconer archetype. Those birds have been devastating with their swoop for the kill and death from above, fly-by attack antics. If this is a subterranean encounter you could reskin the animal companions to be those flying manta ray things that disguise themselves as stalactites? Mix in poison arrows and that at least still provides some nastiness that isn't completely avoided by a well placed wind spell.

I love the pain taster suggestion too. And definitely take advantage of lighting.

Really, just stack all of the debilitating conditions. My rogue friend still goes on about how he (very impressively) managed to kill an enemy spellcaster while alone, on a tower, surrounded by mooks, and blind, cursed and exhausted.


Thanks for the input. I think I have some really good ideas to work with now. If, and it's a big if, the players go down in this fight I might incorporate the slave/trial, prisoners component but more than likely they will eat the Drow for lunch.


ok so these two ideas I would probably not do b/c your players will cry and die.

5 level 13 drow priestess with extra channels and quick channl Negative energy. Each channel for 7d6 so 24 average damage. Even if all saves are made its 12 a pop and each one pops twice a round so 120damage to all.

5 level 10/3 10 levels of Freebooter the other 3 levels don't matter. If they ambush all 5 target clerick with Freebooters bane as there move action. Now all have +15 to hit and damage. The all should be archers. Cleric dies from full attack of 2 off them. Other 3 move action to switch bane and manyshot. You keep this up dropping one or two characters a round.


The real question now is -

Who's hunting who?

The heroes already know that there's drow lurking around + a number of their friends and establishments have been attacked, wounded and/or killed. These heroes probably want some answers and will go looking for them.
This might actually turn out in the Drow's favor as they could then leave a trail of bread crumbs (clues) leading to a trap/ambush for the PCs.


Matt2VK wrote:

The real question now is -

Who's hunting who?

The heroes already know that there's drow lurking around + a number of their friends and establishments have been attacked, wounded and/or killed. These heroes probably want some answers and will go looking for them.
This might actually turn out in the Drow's favor as they could then leave a trail of bread crumbs (clues) leading to a trap/ambush for the PCs.

This I like... Angry PCs demanding vengeance. Crafty Drow waiting with retribution of their own.


I'm playing a cat and mouse game myself with my PCs and a band of miffed Drow. They aren't even that angry at the party, they are kind of caught in the crossfire between a powerful NPC commander of theirs and the Drow seeking revenge on behalf of a disgraced priestess. But they are still getting a bit of the spillover.

They were recently attacked in their favourite inn by a Drow proxy, a fire-breathing(potion), goblin skull-bomb wielding goblin underling. Encounter was a one round, one hit affair, with the goblin getting a surprise round in, then winning initiative and getting a second hit in with the bomb before the PCs pasted his butt. But he did his job, which was kill a lot of innocents and cause a lot of terror, with the PCs squarely in the sights of a lot of frightened and angry commoners looking for a scapegoat.

They had no idea how to react to such an attack. It was wonderful... :)


Inquisitors are always fun as would be an anti-paladin. Which world are you playing in?


Shalafi2412 wrote:
Inquisitors are always fun as would be an anti-paladin. Which world are you playing in?

I suppose you could call it a homebrew but the initial levels were all from the Shackled City AP.

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