I have been running a game of Kingmaker for months now, and my players have grown quite attached to their characters. Here they are:
Susquehanna: Dwarf Monk 13
Praedja: Aasimar Fighter 13
Inki: Human Sorceress 13
- Inki has the leadership feat and thereby has Bosco, half-orc Rogue 11 as a cohort/bodyguard
Jyoti: Garuda Wizard 12/Arcane Archer 1 (and yes I know garuda are LA +1, I wanted to make this guy competitive with the rest of the group)
They absolutely stomp all of the BBEG's. I build up to these fights and they barely last a round or two. They're getting arrogant and snide. The Ring of Freedom of Movement on the monk is especially irritating.
They have kept their kingdom small and have gone the magic item economy route, so their kingdom has no unrest and tons of money. I tried to send the Tusker Raiders at their town (with a storm giant leader controlling the weather to mask their approach) and Jyoti set up a wall of fire, then they one-round-killed the storm giant and started laying waste to 50 hill giants on 50 mastodons.
The fighter and the monk charge at any enemy while the casters decimate from a distance.
I understand that most combats with trash mobs last a round or two, and BBEG's maybe make it 4 or 5 rounds, but I at least want to whittle them down and get them worried about death (I've killed the sorceress twice and the monk once) but even then they have teleport to get out of a dire situation.
The sorceress crammed the Occulus of Abaddon into her eye socket (she was Lawful Evil anyway) and uses it to scry on enemies and teleport to them and kill them at their most vulnerable. I am going to start War of the River Kings soon, and I want for there to be a real challenge, some real hatred for King Irovetti, not just a dutiful murder since he's the obvious BBEG.
I don't have time to upload their stats or anything. Any general hints on how to make them quake in their boots and feel mortal for a second without being cheap?