Any tips on Tidewater Rock?


Skull & Shackles


I don't think any of my players frequent these boards, but just in case...if you're playing Naesala, Sayyida, John B., Lynn, or Macoco, don't read any further. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE. :P

Anywho...

My party has just arrived at Tidewater Rock, intent on taking it. For a number of reasons (not least the fact that diplomacy and tact just...aren't really their thing), they're going for the full-on tower assault. I realize that this is going to be a challenge, but they've trounced most of the encounters up to now without serious difficulty. I'd like to check in with more competent GMs than I to see if the rough battle plan makes sense, and if there's anything else I should do to make it an appropriate challenge. (5 PCs, newly 5th level)

The Situation:
Agasta and Royster had a long view of the ship's approach (they sailed around the island to do some recon first), so the tower's on guard. A brief attempt at bluffing their way in just failed, and hostilities are about to commence unless someone does something quite unexpected. At the moment, Royster, Agasta, and at least three guards are on the roof. My figuring is that there are three more up there and two downstairs to guard the front door.

The Plan:
The water being high, the PCs are currently on their ship and will need to fight their way in. I figure that at the top, the six guards on top of the tower will work together to fire their ballistae each round (at individual people; a houserule being that if the shot misses by less than 5, the bolt will still strike the PCs' ship). Agasta and Royster will make as many ranged attacks against those they think to be the leaders of the PCs' crew as possible. Meanwhile, the two guards downstairs will attempt to reinforce the main door. If the PCs don't break it down within three (?) turns, it will be stoutly reinforced by timbers from the room, increasing its effective hardness by 3, hit points by 10, and break DC by 5.

If/when the the PCs do make it in, the guards will beat a fighting retreat up to the defensive corridors of the tower. The guards on the ballistae will head down to assist, and Royster may as well (though not if Agasta is in any danger). The last stand (if there is one) will take place in the fourth floor dining room.

Questions:
Based on the above:
1) Have you run this as a combat? If so, is there anything I'm missing that I should be aware of? Anything that was particularly useful to your defenders?
2) Does this plan make sense?
3) I'm wondering if there's anything fun or creative to do with the noncombatant NPCs...open to ideas here.
4) My party has sent a group of their pirates to attack the tower and attempt to scale it from the "landward" side. I don't want to spend much time on this, as we haven't focused on specific crew actions in any ship combats so far, but it's a clever plan. Any thoughts on a bonus or boon I can grant them for this?

Thanks for your thoughts, in advance!

Shadow Lodge

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I have some suggestions that might be useful to you.
My group just cracked the rock last night, choosing to take the Diplomacy route. It was great fun.

I have a group of 7 very experienced players (all talented GMs) who have powerful PCs, but not insanely min-maxed ones.
I had to beef up the tower or it would have been a cake walk had they chosen to fight.

Suggestions:

I would not reward them for #4.
Tidewater Rock is a 70' high tower with smooth stone walls and plenty of vantage points for defenders to cut down people attempting to scale it. If the PCs send a raiding party of NPC flunkies, have them watch through a spotting scope as their NPC crew begin their assault. Possible perception checks to hear screams. Definite Perception check to see the last one alive stagger back up the hill attempting to find cover. He is shot in the back with a crossbow bolt and collapses onto the hard, cold ground.

First, try to panic the PCs before they leave their ship by having Royster's guards launch flaming ballista bolts and crossbow bolts at their ship. A few rounds of this (assuming they're careless enough to anchor within range), and their ship will be on fire. No need to target individual PCs.
In my campaign, I mounted two huge catapults on the roof that were going to drill their ship with big rocks and possibly alchemist's fire shot.

Also, the guards could fire on the PCs rowboat from the battlements with heavy crossbows and ballistas. Sinking their ship's boat in the lagoon could be treacherous because of the strong tides (sidebar on page 31).

Go ahead and increase the number of guards in the castle. Note that they fight with spears and shields and all have the Shield Wall teamwork feat (it's in their stat block). This can be a nasty surprise for the group if, say, a formation of six guards is waiting for them in the kitchen. Their individual AC could be boosted quite high by that tactic.
For extra nastiness, give them the Lunge feat too, so that the front row can stab away or go total defense while the rear row stabs at the PCs from relative safety.

When my players got to the base of the tower, I had them roll a series of Perception checks to notice guards aiming heavy crossbows at them from the arrow slits, murder holes above them at the entrance, and to hear movement/preparations of the guards on the roof.

You could have them roll to notice thin wisps of black smoke coming from the roof, indicating to an astute PC with Knowledge: Engineering that the guards are probably preparing boiling oil to dump down on them through the murderholes if they try to break down the door.
Guards could also drop alchemist's fire, thunderstones, or even full latrine buckets on their heads.

While the PCs are outside, guards can take turns firing on them from the arrow slits so that there isn't a need to pause for reloading each round.

Increase the break DC of the front door each round after the PCs initiate hostilities. A +2 per round is probably a good number.
This can represent the guards reinforcing it with lumber from inside. Eventually, the PCs will have to chop it down instead of simply breaking it. Of course, they will have to do that while all manner of nasty things rain down on them from the roof.
Once they finally break it down, all the scattered broken lumber can turn the ground on the first floor into difficult terrain.

If someone gets clever and tries to fly up to the roof, Have about 4 guards waiting with heavy crossbows and readied actions.

Once the PCs gain entrance, the guards can retreat to the second floor and attack them while they're trying to climb up. There aren't rules for using that weird ladder, so you could have them roll climb checks (denied Dex to AC) or you could simply have the guards pull the ladder up behind them. That 5' square room (10' up to the next level) is a nice little spot to bombard the PCs with crossbow bolts, alchemist's fire, acid flasks, boiling water (the hot forge is right around the corner), more latrine buckets, rotten food, chairs, a raging house cat, live chickens, etc.

Another thing you can do is once the PCs have dispatched a few guards, have the kitchen staff take up arms and fight to defend their home and Lady Smythee. One is a simpleton, one is a teenager, and two are an elderly couple. They could put on ill-fitting helmets, wooden shields, and fight awkwardly with cooking knives or even short swords. Maybe the PCs will struggle with how cruel it would be to simply kill them. Maybe they will delay their progress by trying to capture and tie them up.
Anything they do will give the guards more time to prepare the defenses on level 3.

Guards could pour cooking oil all over the stairs to create a hazard. Acrobatics checks and non-lethal damage from falling down the steps would be tricky. They could also wheel the big butcher block over and shove it down the stairs at the PCs, creating an obstruction and even more difficult terrain.
A shield wall guard formation with 20+ AC and pointy spears at the top of the now oiled stone stairs could be a nasty fight for them.

Royster himself is no slouch in combat. I'd have him positioned with a couple of guards at the top of the stairs on level 4 in the dining room.
He would focus his efforts on protecting Lady Smythee at all costs.
Perhaps if things are going poorly, Royster and the guards could barricade the stairs with that giant dining table and the chairs. Royster could dramatically break the big window and escape down a rope holding Lady Smythee in his free arm.

For laughs, you could have them steal the PCs' rowboat (if it's still intact) or take their own rowboat that was cleverly hidden behind some rocks nearby.
Royster is a 6th level Fighter and Lady Smythee is pretty decent in combat too. The duo could conceivably commandeer the PCs ship while they are all busy fighting their way to the top of Tidewater Rock.
Be sure to have the last few guards on the roof disable the siege weapons before the PCs get up there.

"Congratulations! You have successfully captured Tidewater Rock! The guards are all dead or tied up, everything's broken, the cat ran off, and the place is a total mess. You look out the broken window in the dining room and to your horror, you can see Royster on the main deck of your ship, cutting down your NPC crew with his greatsword. Lady Smythee appears to be at the helm, waiting for him to finish. What do you do?"


I would be curious to know if you are already up-scaling the encounters in general to account for the 5th player?

Spoiler:

The defensive corridors are good: just make sure that your people are in a position to get to them, if you have an angry PC barbarian guarding the ladder before you decide to retreat there, you might be out of luck.

Royster is a fairly nicely built fighter: so he's definitely your main threat in the fight.

Make sure you have him on hand to defend the lady, but in a position where he can chop people up.

I actually ended up holding the door between B2/B3, which forced the PCs into single files basically. But it depends on how hard you are making their lives if they try to climb the ladder.

The B2/B3 door allows you to:

GR|
A_D

G-Guard
R-Royster
A-Lady Agasta
D-Doorway
_-Empty space for focus fire, allowing one PC to enter at a time.

However: your party might have some nasty AoEs that might discourage this, so your mileage my vary.


Thanks for the advice, all. I played it out pretty much as suggested; it went pretty well (they won, but it was a grueling fight).

I haven't been doing much to account for the 5th player--do you find that that generally makes a substantial difference?

Shadow Lodge

Cool! I'm glad I could help a little.

A 5th player can make a difference.
There are a lot of factors that influence the how much of a difference they will make:
Skill level of the players
Their ability to coordinate (in combat and social situations)
Party balance
Strength of character design
Amount and type of WBL/magical loot

You said they have been able to manage encounters without serious difficulty. This is different from saying "It's a cakewalk for them."

APs are written for a balanced party of 4 players.
Adding a 5th can make it easier.
Fortunately in S&S, it's pretty easy to increase the difficulty level of encounters by adding additional troops/guards/sharks and stacking templates on the monsters.


Although too late for the OP, our party did face some additional problems.

More troubles...:
The ladder was pulled up, and a trap door was closed, hiding the hole from below. The only sign was wear spots left by the ladder. Had my character not run in invisible when the door was on fire and finally broken through, he would not have seen them close the trap door.

To get up to the second level, with no help, was a serious climb check. My character had a high acrobatics check, but not a great climb check. So I jumped up & made it. [Haste added +12 (+3') to the check.]
And still more...:
I also remember having to get past the dining table. It forced the party into single file to get past, while leaving them open to ranged attacks from the next room. Too much stuff on the table to use it to cross, and no one thought of it at the time.

And a Get-Out-Of-Jail card...:
The final battle had the lady flee via a secret passage to the roof while her friend defended the hidden portal. Following her up revealed she and another servant had rings of Feather Fall and were escaping from the tower into the main part of the island. My character, thanks to Haste, was able to run them down, and prevent their escape.

/cevah


The Norv wrote:


I haven't been doing much to account for the 5th player--do you find that that generally makes a substantial difference?

It entirely depends on the group as has already been said.

I've had to toughen up most of the adventure, as my group has found it rather easy: This is with running a 5th character and 20pt buy (instead of 15).

It really depends on how hard your players want to work to get where they are going: if you are happy with how hard they are being pushed so far, leave it as is :).

I tried upping the HP to max, increasing numbers of enemies, and finally settle on both max HP with advanced templates, but no extra foes.

If I could go back, I'd change it back to 15pt buy, and not max the enemy hp, but them's the breaks :P


Knowing my players as I do, even though we don't start play until January, I fully expect:

Spoiler:
that they will probably use Diplomacy, etc. to charm their way into "breaking" the Rock. Possibly, one of the cuter male PCs might be offered the marriage approach. ;-> Now all I have to do is prevent my hubby from thinking Lady Smythee is River Song from Doctor Who (you gotta admit: frizz the hair out a bit, and she's a dead ringer, pardon the expression) and freaking out... ;->

LB

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