So I'm running Serpent's Skull for a party of 4, and I'm going to be introducing a new set of castaways during the first book. These castaways will be coming from a ship that tried to rescue the PCs from the island they're stuck on, but ended up wrecking along with them. They were carrying a Jungle Drake with them to sell at the next port, but in the confusion of the shipwreck, the drake managed to escape onto the island. One of the castaways, an Ekujae druid, is going to ask the PCs to deal with the drake, as he doesn't want its sudden arrival to destroy the ecosystem.
Now I have to ask, is a Jungle Drake too much for a party of 4 level 3 PCs? I was planning on applying the Young template, just to make it a tad easier, and I was also going to send this druid, a level 3 himself, to aid the players in their mission. I just wonder whether I'm throwing too much at them. Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
What does the party look like in terms of stats and equipment?
It'd be pretty tricky for sure. Spellcasters would be annoyed at the saves. I would recommend the young template, and some other weakening template, and adding tinier minions. Multiple enemies in a battle is more interesting.
Well it depends on the optimization level of the party. But a CR 6 creature would be a pretty hard fight for a normal level 3 party. He has the home field advantage, but he is young, and the PCs know what they're getting into, and they have some help. I think it will be a tough fight but well within their abilities. Nobody should die unless the dice gods are angry.
The party consists of a Fighter, Alchemist, Swashbuckler and Magus, with an NPC Druid coming along to assist. As far as stats go, I've given the party 25 points to spend, so stats are quite high. Gear isn't brilliant thus far, but the fighter has full plate, and the Alchemist got his hands on a CLW wand.
I wanted to avoid a fight with multiple creatures, as the Jungle Drake was intended to be the primary target. It was quest given by the accompanying druid as a matter of great urgency. I'm not sure how the deake would manage to find friends.
For templates, I was definitely making it young, and I was considering applying the sickened condition as well. All the tranquilizers it's been shot up with, and all that. So it'd be CR5 with the Young template, and possibly less with sickened.
So I'll be applying the Young template, as it's still a juvenile, and then to weaken it further I'll slap it with sickened. Tranquilizers are rude like that. That should bring its damage output down to a more reasonable level. Thoughts?
Remember to recalculate the poison DC for Young.
Even with sickened, it will be a tough battle. The young template has the side effect of increasing Touch AC while keeping normal AC on this creature constant. This makes it harder for the alchemist to hit it. I'm guessing your top melee people will only hit it half the time at best.
Even with the young and sickened modifiers, it is going to hit the guy in full plate about half the time.
Give it a broken wing, so it can't fly. Do not give it surprise. Even with that, it is still going to be a tough battle.
I'll have them track the beast through a trail of carnage, only to find it munching on a boar and nursing its broken wing. That'll give the players a good chance.
Some idea of basic party stats and makeup would help us (and honestly, you) assess the situation.
What does the party have in terms of:
CR=APL+3 fights can be seriously nasty. They tend to be "party should win but will probably get kind of wrecked in doing so, with a chance of TPK".
The young template is a good idea, though careful as mentioned with the alchemist.
If you want to give it a disadvantage terrain wise, have the fight undergound to prevent it flying, or in a stone ruin, to negate the greensight.
So depending on how much you want to swing:
Young template gives
-2 fort save, +2 reflex, -14hp, lower flat footed AC, -2 Poison DC, attack becomes Melee bite +11 (2d4+5 plus grab), sting +11 (1d6+5 plus poison)
It should also decrease CMB by 3 and CMD by 1 due to size and stat changes.
Young template gives a few minor bonuses too:
+2 stealth, +2 fly, +2 touch AC.
If you stress how powerful it is, and then drop hints as to how to game the fight for the PCs to use on their own, you can turn the whole thing into an ambush planning scenario, and let the PCs take credit for coming up with a way to thwart the creature themselves :P
The druid NPC can also provide handy metagame knowledge of poison, greensight, darkvision and so on as desired. He can also probably summon cannon fodder for expendable tanking, so that's a bonus.
So the Magi took Eldritch Archer, and tends to favour direct damage spells, especially Shocking Grasp. She has 18 in both Int and Dex. She only has 10 Con, and I give average HP at level-up.
The Alchemist has 20 Int and 16 Dex, and has Point-Blank shot, so his bomb damage is quite high. He favours buff extracts, just to up his output, but also took Healing Bombs to keep the party up. He's got a CLW wand as well. I can't remember his Con value, but it's at least 14. He also took Construct Rider, so his companion is an absolute tank in its own right.
The Fighter has 18 Str and 16 Con, along with 22 AC. She's running around with a bastard sword, so her damage is great. Her Dex is 12, so she's got a bit of a buffer for the poison, if it manages to get through her save.
The Swashbuckler has 18 Dex and 12 Con. He tends to use his rapier to fish for crits, but also keeps javelins and daggers on hand to pepper things he doesn't want to go near.
The plan so far is to slap the Drake with Young and Sickened, give it a broken wing to stop it flying, and have the PCs catch it while it's eating, so unless they cock it up, they'll be taking on a sickened CR5 creature with a surprise round up their sleeve, and it can't fly. It'll be during the day, and the PCs will be fully rested, HP and all. Then there's the Druid NPC tagging along.
You can also look at nerfing the Drakes tactics so it doesn't use it's more potent abilities. This is often used in APs to bring higher class enemies within killing range.
So the Magi took Eldritch Archer, and tends to favour direct damage spells, especially Shocking Grasp. She has 18 in both Int and Dex. She only has 10 Con, and I give average HP at level-up.
The Alchemist has 20 Int and 16 Dex, and has Point-Blank shot, so his bomb damage is quite high. He favours buff extracts, just to up his output, but also took Healing Bombs to keep the party up. He's got a CLW wand as well. I can't remember his Con value, but it's at least 14. He also took Construct Rider, so his companion is an absolute tank in its own right.
The Fighter has 18 Str and 16 Con, along with 22 AC. She's running around with a bastard sword, so her damage is great. Her Dex is 12, so she's got a bit of a buffer for the poison, if it manages to get through her save.
The Swashbuckler has 18 Dex and 12 Con. He tends to use his rapier to fish for crits, but also keeps javelins and daggers on hand to pepper things he doesn't want to go near.
The plan so far is to slap the Drake with Young and Sickened, give it a broken wing to stop it flying, and have the PCs catch it while it's eating, so unless they cock it up, they'll be taking on a sickened CR5 creature with a surprise round up their sleeve, and it can't fly. It'll be during the day, and the PCs will be fully rested, HP and all. Then there's the Druid NPC tagging along.
With those numbers:
Most of the party's attacks should hit 50% of the time. The drake's attacks will hit the fighter's AC 50% of the time. Fighter will save vs poison 50% of the time.
Missing half the time, if they can churn through its 59hp in 2 rounds, or 2 rounds + surprise, they're golden.
Fighter will take average of ~9 damage per round(+25% chance of poison), but once the bite lands and the grab locks him down this will be ~14 per round.
3 rounds of tanking without respite will incapacitate your fighter, on average. So if you think they can get it done before the creature's 3rd round of attacks, you'll be fine (on average >:D).
Or they can heal the fighter to extend her lifespan.
Or they can just tank it with druid summons :D
Generally speaking, CR+3 APL means the party should win more often than not (that party would be a CR+4 if it fought duplicates of itself, and theoretically should win that fight 50% of the time, although quite possibly not without casualties.)
CR+3, especially if it is the only significant encounter in a day, should be quite winnable. The problem with that sort of encounter though, is that a few out of average rolls can make a huge difference, either making that fight terribly easy, or terribly deadly quite possibly resulting in a character death.
Unless you plan on making other encounters on their way to finding the drake, I wouldn't make it any easier though, adding on young and sickened would make this pretty much not a fight at all with a full days resource to spend.
What I would probably do though is change up the tactics. In a jungle, the Drake should have a pretty good mobility advantage, and heavy cover means it can attack and get away pretty quickly. If it attacks and retreats you can build a lot of tension into the encounter, but by not having it focus on any one PC you can greatly reduce the chance of a character death.
Knowing my players, and their interesting combat choices, an APL+3 CR would be too much, even with their resources. Once the fighter goes down, the party has no frontline combatant, and it will all go pear-shaped from there. A big thank you to Obbu, your advice has been invaluable.
Knowing my players, and their interesting combat choices, an APL+3 CR would be too much, even with their resources. Once the fighter goes down, the party has no frontline combatant, and it will all go pear-shaped from there. A big thank you to Obbu, your advice has been invaluable.
That's the key: know your players :D
Once you see how they take on your controlled CR+2 encounter, you can think about trying the CR+3 later on.