Need advice on an encounter for group of six 9th level characters


Advice


Going to be running an adventure for a group of 9th level characters but my adventure is for only 4 characters of 8th level.

One of the encounters is for a NE Human Ranger7/Rogue1 weretiger. I want to upgrade this guy to a (no archetype) Hunter 11 with a Tiger animal companion using Boon Companion feat though. I'm wondering what level he should be to offer at least 3 rounds of combat before he runs away to attack again at a later night. With his Woodland Stride ability I should be able to jump into the jungle and haul-@$$ out of there.

I'm thinking at least 11th level and using natural attacks in Hybrid form, buffed and wearing Wild Rhino Hide armor. I'll utilize the Wild Rhino Hide Armor for attacking at night with him being in his Tiger form to Pounce. Stats for this guy unbuffed are STR 22, DEX 18, CON 18, INT 8, WIS 14, CHA 8. Other than the Wild Rhino Hide he'll have some wands/potions for healing/buffing/utility and a few masterwork items. My party hits hard when they do get their full-attacks going and they're pretty loaded with items. So what I'm in need of is a few rough ideas on the ambushes and what level to make the Weretiger Hunter and stats for his Tiger companion.

It'd be great if he manages to get away on both ambushes but I doubt his cat will. I've got 2 ranged characters in the group that would destroy him once they each get a full attack. I'll settle for him just coming back the 2nd time for a revenge ambush at night though.

The party will be in a foreign land, language barriers, and in a densely packed jungle setting for this encounter. Only 2 characters have Darkvision, 1 has low light vision and 1 is a Druid. Neither of the ranged destroyer types have Darkvison.


You have an APL 10 party (6x 9 PCs = apl 10) and a CR 10 enemy = 1 round combat most likely (not including the ambush surprise round). Get 2 CR 9s for an EL 11 and it would be more likely that the combat would go longer and one could get away. Then, the survivor comes back with more reinforcements (lots of lower CR enemies to mob the PCs) for 2 solid encounters would be my recommendation. Good luck!


Thanks Dosgamer.


Mirror image can often help a character linger for longer vs. sustained range attacks, although I'm not sure how this guy will get access to it in particular.

Hunters get druid spells, also, and there are a number of anti-ranged options there which you could use; obscuring mist, wind wall, etc. Ash storm blocks sight entirely.


What is your party like?

My first thought is, if you want him to actually escape, you better find some way to buff his Will save pretty monstrously. And perhaps a Ring of Freedom of Movement to boot.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Definitely use the cover (AC) and concealment (miss chance) rules.

I would include a pack (or pride or whatever your favorite collective noun is for tigers) of tigers and dire tigers for the first encounter, then lots and lots more for the revenge encounter.

Maybe a Rakshasa companion to cast buffing spells? They're tigery and magical.


I would make myself familiar with the Environment rules for the Jungle. Is it a dense forest?
If it is...

Undergrowth wrote:
Undergrowth: Vines, roots, and short bushes cover much of the ground in a forest. A space covered with light undergrowth costs 2 squares of movement to move into, and provides concealment. Undergrowth increases the DC of Acrobatics and Stealth checks by 2 because the leaves and branches get in the way. Heavy undergrowth costs 4 squares of movement to move into and provides concealment with a 30% miss chance (instead of the usual 20%). It increases the DC of Acrobatics checks by 5. Heavy undergrowth is easy to hide in, granting a +5 circumstance bonus on Stealth checks. Running and charging are impossible. Squares with undergrowth are often clustered together. Undergrowth and trees aren't mutually exclusive; it's common for a 5-foot square to have both a tree and undergrowth.

A dense forest is 50% light undergrowth and 50% heavy undergrowth. That means there are no squares without undergrowth. Some spells like Freedom of Movement and Feather Step might alleviate these effects, but these spells last 10 minutes/level at best, and your Ranger can attack any time, any hour.

Stealth and Detection in a Forest wrote:

Stealth and Detection in a Forest: In a sparse forest, the maximum distance at which a Perception check for detecting the nearby presence of others can succeed is 3d6 × 10 feet. In a medium forest, this distance is 2d8 × 10 feet, and in a dense forest it is 2d6 × 10 feet.

Because any square with undergrowth provides concealment, it's usually easy for a creature to use the Stealth skill in the forest. Logs and massive trees provide cover, which also makes hiding possible.

The background noise in the forest makes Perception checks that rely on sound more difficult, increasing the DC of the check by 2 per 10 feet, not 1.

Even with a +60 on Perception checks, there's a maximum distance clause for Perception in a Forest.

And yes, I'm interpreting Forest as Jungle.


My thoughts so far have been this:

The party is being led by a skinny, low Caste young man named Toomai who's about 18yrs old and 80lbs wet. He's the guide for 1/2 the way (his bragging and bravado is hiding the fact he's got no clue where they need to go) and mainly there to translate and control the Elephants the party will be trying to ride.

During the trip which will take almost a month if the party doesn't make required Survival checks or get smart about scouting, they'll encounter a small, almost overgrown Shrine off a trail that has about a dozen busts of Gods placed around it. There'll be a hermit/holy-man type NPC there welcoming the party. Roleplay, Roleplay, Roleplay, the hermit guy will talk about never getting people to stop and offer tribute/prayers/information to him or the Shrine. He'll vaguely mention some things of interest to get the PC's attention, and it'll be about things the PC's need to know to get to where they're going.

The party will soon discover from information gleaned from the Hermit, that Toomai the guide is full of crap and has no idea about tracking/guiding etc... Toomai will get all embarrassed and will fill up with bluster like young men tend to do when being mocked or whatever. Before the party leaves, the Hermit (who's the Hunter-Weretiger) offers a blessing to ward of jungle predators like panthers/tigers etc..., the blessing will be a oily tar substance placed on their foreheads. This tar is actual a pheromone to help him and his tiger track by scent.

Toomai the guide will get all tough & boasting here about not needing the tar stuff because all cats are scared of him and his elephants. He'll go on to some length of how he hunts great cats for sport and other such tall tales, that will piss off the Weretiger. After this banter the Hermit-weretiger mentions another trick to ward off great cats is to bang 2 sticks together in 3 rapid strikes. He'll wink at the PC's while Toomai isn't looking.

Toomai will discreetly pick up some sticks when he thinks nobody is looking while the party mounts back up on the elephants. About a 400yds from the Shrine Toomai will start banging his sticks.

What Toomai and the Party doesn't know is this is the signal to the Weretiger's Tiger companion to KILL this stick wielding guy 1st and horribly.

Tiger companion will be hiding in the trees or something and spring upon the little whelp Toomai and break his neck with one bite pulling him from the elephant and dragged into the jungle all in the surprise round.

While the party will certainly almost all fail their rolls to control the exotic mounts they're riding, the elephants in fear of the blood they smell and the Tigers roar will try to throw them all off and run around in several directions.

Weretiger springs his surprise round attack at the same time. He got there by using his Druidic magic to increase his movement speed or something and also buffed himself up with Freedom of Movement. Weretiger will use his teamwork feats with his tiger as much as possible. Party will be most likely prone during this surprise attack.

After the party gets on their feet, the ranged attackers will only get 1 shot off with their bows on the first normal attack round. Weretiger has Deflect Arrows so this will help him survive a bit longer, deflecting 1 shot each round and the Manyshot attack on 2nd round.

The main goal here for the Weretiger is to bite as many different PC's as he can before they either die or he's driven off or they are driven off. Once the Bowmen get their footing the Tiger is most likely dead from their full attacks. Not sure how to handle the Elephant stampede though, maybe have everyone roll Reflex saves to avoid taking damage that the DC will be increasing everytime the elephants take damage AND give everyone a 20% or more miss chance on ranged attacks. Except for the guy with Improved Precise Shot.

I'll make the weretiger's escape with casting a Wind Wall maybe. Also during that use a Swift Action Burst of Speed spell and jump into the jungle to run away. Woodland Stride for the win here.

I'll come after them every night for 3 nights or until the party creates a trap for him, then he'll fight to the death in a rage.

Hopefully someone gets the lycanthropy curse. The full moon is roughly coming in a few days before they get to the temple. It's a sacred time for those temple guys.


Thoughts so far o my encounter plan? I will need to brush up ontracking by scent etc...

Thanks Voideternal for your big help on terrain rules etc.. You saved me a lot of research.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

I miss the 3.5 spell swift haste. It was a 2nd level ranger spell that lets a ranger use haste as a swift action on herself for 1d4 rounds.

It seems like the perfect spell for your weretiger.

Or the 3.5 Belt of Battle.


As a general rule, single enemy encounters have trouble lasting against a CR equivalent party of four, let alone six. A group of 6 level 9 characters is roughly equivalent to a group of 4 level 10 or even 11 characters. Thus, a single CR 10 monster (With animal companion, given) shouldn't be expected to last more than a single round.

Your best best with large groups is to increase the size of your encounters, rather than the difficulty. Single enemies just stop working when you have such large groups. In this encounter, I strongly recommend your weretiger comes with a couple of advanced dire tigers (CR 9). That will keep things interesting and ensure he does not get bursteddown in a single round.

Also, keep in mind your 'plan' is almost certainly going to go awry. Your dire tiger is 'hiding in wait': but you should be rolling stealth vs perception for this and your players will almost certainly notice (and if you don't let them roll, be prepared for them to get justifiably angry!)

I would also be highly suspicious of this character from the start, and would likely be rolling sense motive against him. I'm not sure how trusting your characters are or whether they can beat his bluff, but worth keeping in mind.

Remember: always assume your plan does not survive contact with the players. Always have a plan for what happens when a roll doesn't go your way, without railroading.


Yeah I thought about how to get the PC's to want to trust him as soon as they encounter him. So far I'm thinking of having them come into the clearing and seeing him sitting down healing an animal or something, maybe putting a Splint on somethings leg. Also having a decent sized source of water nearby and telling the party that they're welcome to it's healing waters. Maybe even have the elephants start drinking almost immediately. It will also help having some busts of Good Deities that the Weretiger is kneeling in front of for the party to instantly recognize too. Something to focus their attention on. Perception of the guy being a "Good Person" by letting them see "good things" being done.

Yeah I've got the rules down about the opposed bluff/perception/sense motive already. I'll have the party pre-roll a few perception checks ahead of time along with some sense motive checks. I planned on getting a list of everyone's modifiers to certain rolls and have them roll a few d20's ahead time to not arouse suspicion during the encounter or before the pending encounter.

I guess having a small pack of regular tigers burst onto the scene would help out the encounter a bit too. Mainly just for distraction and cannon fodder or whatever.


Other not so violent to the PC's encounters I've got planned are:

1. Coming into a very small grass hut village they see a group of skinny kids poking sticks at a very large Python who's in the process of swallowing a dog who's still alive and barking like mad. One of the kids is crying. Party most likely will kill the Python and save the dog. Only to have the dog drug off to a fire pit and their parents kill it and put it over the fire on a spit and congratulate their kids. All the kids will be cheering at this point.

2. Crocodiles in the water. Either the party or their elephants will have a close encounter at a watering hole with a Croc coming up out of nowhere.

3. Monkey swarm throwing poop/sticks/fruit.

4. Some type of "made up" sentient vegetation that just tries to reach out and entangle a random party member. Only thing that happens is they're entangled like the spell for a few rounds. Any damage drives the plant away.

5. Stirges or just a bunch of mosquitoes harass them for a few minutes.

6. Loud noises that prevent a few hours of sleep.

7. Harmless snakes slither across them while sleeping and head towards the campfire.

8. A worn out deadfall jungle trap that hurts nobody but scares the party. Obvious to anyone inspecting it that its been set and ready to go for years.

A few violent combat encounters and the rest is just to make them say "I hate the damn jungle" encounters.

Does anyone know what happens to a PC's alignment if they get cursed with Lycanthropy? Surely they don't turn evil right away IF at all? I'm not wanting that but I do want it to be pretty damn inconvenient for a few days for them if it does happen. Pretty sure no one in the group would want to be a weretiger. Pretty sure...

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Um, if the PC can still be a PC, OF COURSE they're going to want to be a weretiger! Heck, I bet the rest of the PCs will line up to be nibbled on!

If the player loses his character if he succumbs to lycanthropy, then I can see it being a threat. But if the player gets to play a weretiger PC, that might be considered the reward for the adventure. Stat boosts, AC, DR/silver, natural attacks, scent, low-light vision (darkvision?), lots of benefits.


SmiloDan wrote:

Um, if the PC can still be a PC, OF COURSE they're going to want to be a weretiger! Heck, I bet the rest of the PCs will line up to be nibbled on!

If the player loses his character if he succumbs to lycanthropy, then I can see it being a threat. But if the player gets to play a weretiger PC, that might be considered the reward for the adventure. Stat boosts, AC, DR/silver, natural attacks, scent, low-light vision (darkvision?), lots of benefits.

Hmmm, this could be a problem in the future for me... Might have to have the party (who may be jealous anyway) stage an intervention. lol.


The Bestiary recommends GMs to take control of afflicted lycanthrope PCs when they are in Hybrid or Animal form:

"Bestiary, Lycanthropic Player Characters wrote:
When a PC becomes a lycanthrope, you as the GM have a choice to make. In most cases, you should take control of the PC's actions whenever he is in hybrid or animal form—lycanthropy shouldn't be a method to increase a PC's power, after all, and what an afflicted lycanthrope does while in animal or hybrid form is often at odds with what the character would actually want. If a player wants to play a lycanthrope, he should play a natural lycanthrope and follow the guidelines for playing a character of a powerful race.

What I do in my home games is, after the PC rolls the knowledge check to determine lycanthropy, I remind them that succumbing to the Curse means losing control of the character while in a non-humanoid form. If the player still wants to become a lycan, I let them.


So Voideternal if the infected player transforms into a four legged animal yiu take control but if he stays humanoid or hybrid he runs it? That doesn't sound too bad.

I might do the same but maybe shift their alignment more neutral or chaotic but not evil while in hybrid to represent the beastful nature trying to break free.

Might have to give this some more thought soon.


Give them a dragon >:)


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Go with more enemies, rather than a more powerful single enemy. The action economy imbalance is bad enough with the standard party of four; with six, single enemies are even more outmatched.

A party of six generally can handle a +1 CR to encounters, so add a second creature 1-2 CR less powerful to the original encounter. Having to deal with more enemies splits the PCs' attention and usually makes for a more challenging encounter with less risk of a TPK.


Eigengrau wrote:
So Voideternal if the infected player transforms into a four legged animal yiu take control but if he stays humanoid or hybrid he runs it? That doesn't sound too bad.

The Bestiary recommends that the GM takes control of the infected PC when the PC is in either Hybrid or Animal form. If the PC is in humanoid form, the player controls the PC. That is also what I do. Other GMs might handle it differently.

Note that a lot of the Lycanthropy bonuses, like DR/silver, natural armor, extra attacks, and +2 Str/+2 Con, only apply in Hybrid and Animal form. When the PC is in humanoid form, the only 'bonuses' a lycan gets is a +2 to Wis and a -2 to Cha and gaining the Shapechanger subtype.

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