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I'm currently running Way of the Wicked and I need some advice.

We're part way through Knot of Thorns. The party has infiltrated the Watchtower. They have eliminated all of the captains. They have poisoned half of the guards. They've killed another 20 or 30 guards. They've destroyed the crows and their master. They've framed the dwarves and sabotaged defenses. They did all of this but were not cautious and were discovered by Tacitus the Magister. Tacitus alerted Lord Havelyn and Father Donnagan. The three of them had time to buff and confront the party. The fight didn't go well for the party and they had to flee. Now the party are planning to whittle away at the remaining guards and maybe attack villagers outside the walls of the Watchtower.

What do you think the three head honchos of the watchtower would do at this point? There are only about 20 healthy guards remaining, along with Havelyn, Donnagan, Tacitus, and the Gestalt Archon. Would they bring all of the villagers into the keep for protection? Would they send some sort of messenger for reinforcements? Would they launch a counter-attack against the PCs even though they don't much about the party? The situation is dire for the tower defenders. The situation is also dire for the party now that they have been discovered. The party are crapping themselves because they feel that they're outmatched by the uber-paladin, priest, and wizard. What would you do if you were DMing this? If the developer sees this, I'd be interested to hear your take.

It's still a week before the bugbear horde will be in place to attack the tower.

We're loving this game and can't wait for the next adventure path from this publisher! This is the most fun we've had in years!!! I can't praise the game highly enough!

Why not cavalier? They are made for this.

Cavalier is not an option, apparently. I asked.

These are restrictions placed on me by the DM and the nature of the campaign. I am happy to play this concept. I just need to figure out how to make it fun and effective.

I appreciate your help.

The ability scores are: 16,15,15,14,13,12. The 16 must be in the Charisma slot. The others can be placed wherever.

I am limited to the following classes: Barbarian, Fighter, and Ranger (some combination, there of). I'm required to go into a "Captain" prestige class at some point in the campaign. It's basically a military leader who gives combat bonuses to the party similar to Bardic music or some of the Cavalier abilities. I believe it's from a 3.5 source.

We're starting at level 7.

I need to decide what base classes to take and what feats to take.

Have you read over the guides on the Inquisitor? That is the MOST like what you are trying to accomplish...I think everyone will echo the Intimidate based Inquisitor model that is out there.

All those classes you mention should almost all have Charisma as a dump stat, so you'd be taking a hit elsewhere just to Intimidate.

Go to the forum search bar and look up Guide to Guides, then go read over the Inquisitor one and let me know if that is what you are looking/striving towards.

That's a great suggestion. Inquisitor is not available to me, unfortunately. I should clarify that I'm going to be playing a full BAB class and I'm simply looking for ways to utilize a high Charisma. For my purposes, there is no ability score point-buy. The character has a high Charisma and is primarily a physical combatant. I want to take advantage of that high Charisma.

I'm trying to put together a melee or ranged character who specializes in using Charisma effects to demoralize his opponents and inspire his allies.

Bardic music is not an option in this case. I'm thinking of using some combination of Fighter, Barbarian, Cavalier, or Ranger. I'm wondering about feats and class abilities that help to inspire or demoralize. Anyone have suggestions? How does demoralize work? Do the effects stack like they did in 3.5? Are there other ways a high Charisma benefits a melee or ranged combatant?

I like the way the Pathfinder products smell. Am I weird? The beautiful glossy printing smells just like the instruction manuals for Zelda games did when I was but a wee child. Am I alone in this? Since discovering this I'm actually having to buy the printed products.

First and foremost, I apologize for taking so long to respond to you guys. I had a busy weekend, and this is the first chance I got to post.

For anyone who wanted to know how the fight actually went, here it is:
bard went first, playing his inspire courage song. Second, cleric fires a firebolt (fire domain power) and does 6 damage. Sorcerer goes next, firing an acidic ray doing 5 damage. Paladin moves forward, taking AoO from anklyosaurus (who missed), and he also misses. Fighter/Barbarian attacks, crits, does 60 damage. Dino attacks, hitting F/B, doing a little damage, and next round is killed by cleric.

For his actual build, i dont have his char sheet in front of me, so i can't give exact numbers. But when he rages and is large, i think he has 24 Str. And of course, he has power attack and other feats like that.

Is this core-only Pathfinder?

How did he get large size and a strength of 24 at level 3? If he got those through buffs from another party member, then there's no problem. If it's from something else, that might be a bit of a problem.

He did crit, which isn't typical and won't happen often.

It looks like the rest of the party played competently but didn't do anything flashy, and were overshadowed by the fact that he did a crit. It actually sounds like a typical battle at that level against that type of opponent.

The Paladin will be right up there with him as a damage dealer and will probably eventually overshadow him. A blaster Sorcerer will do similar damage too. The Bard and Cleric tend to be in support roles and they're not going to match the flashy damage that the other three put out.

Please ignore some of the bad advice here singling out the Fighter player for punishment. You even got off on the wrong foot by titling this thread, "Problem Player." Shame on you. It's not the player's fault. LOL

Fix this by designing better encounters and tailoring them to individual party members to make them feel special. When you get good at this, you'll be able to design encounters that make the whole party shine. Jason Buhlman is really good at this in his published adventures.

It's tempting to fix this by saying that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of an individual player, and then going ahead and ruining the fun for that one player. Thing is, this player hasn't done anything wrong. He's made a straight-forward fighter with a big sword and a high strength. That's a character you'll find at any gaming table. The problem is that those particular encounters play to his strengths. You can't punish him for that.

My advice is to find a way to make sure everyone has fun, without ruining the fun for any single player. You can do it cuz other DMs do it all the time.

The party composition is as follows:

Level 11+.

Bard (underling)
Cleric
Fighter
Monk
Paladin
Ranger/Rogue
Wizard

Great ideas! Thanks!

Here's a compilation of all suggestions so far (for my own notes).

- Whatever tools the PCs use, are fair game for the NPCs.
- Monsters that aren’t what they seem (eg. Albino red dragon). Use illusions and mundane means to accomplish this.
- Take advantage of players’ overconfidence. Create situations that are more complicated than what they initially seem from a surface inspection.
- Play to the villains strengths. Play the villains intelligently. (eg. Use one force to split the players apart, draw certain players away, and then have another force spring an ambush. Don’t hesitate to focus all attacks on the weakest party members. )
- Use the environment against the players. Use settings such as storms, blizzards, the desert, burning or collapsing buildings. Consider battles on ships that involve balance checks, mountaintop battles with high winds, opponents with good mobility, opponents with high AC, opponents who regenerate. Have the players fight while fatigued, or without their gear, or under hot conditions, or really cold conditions. Have fights underwater, or in the dark, or both. Force players to fight and deal with distressing situations at the same time – such as racing horses or steering a raft through rapids. Force the players to protect someone or something, or force them to defend a precarious position against waves of enemies. Put the players under a time pressure.
- Combine monsters that synergize with one another, such as a monster with a fire attack with a monster that can debuff the players’ fire resistance.
- Twin BBEGs or clones.
- Create unusual enemies (eg. Stone giant monk, goblin snipers, graveyard dryad that behaves as undead).
- Create completely new creatures with which the players are not familiar or take creatures from sources not known to the players.
- Tie up the player casters by forcing them to debuff or deal with unusual opponents (eg. Creatures that fly, teleport, go ethereal and can’t be pinned down and attacked in melee. Casters are forced to use spells such as dimensional anchor, web, slow, etc.).
- Show no mercy. Be utterly ruthless, even against downed players.
- Use overwhelming numbers. Reduce and strain the players’ resources such as spells, potions, and charged items. Threaten the players’ ability to rest and recuperate.
- Advance normal creatures in levels and statistics. Do so on the fly, if necessary, in order to challenge the players.
- Combine traps, BBEG, minions, and a dangerous environment in the same encounter. If the BBEG has time to prepare, such encounters can be quite elaborate. (eg. Vendle’s post above.)

I'm looking for suggestions and ideas on how to challenge my players... Such things as foes, tactics, situational challenges, and traps.

We're using the Pathfinder Beta rules.

My players are quite crafty and full of themselves, and they don't resent a good challenge. Please don't hold back.

What are some of the best challenges you've used in your campaigns? Or that you've come across as a player?