Any of you NPC tweakers out there care to buff up this assassin strike to handle 14 characters of average 9th level?
I was thinking of doubling the assassin's numbers by duplicating each of the three NPCs, but I'm sure there are some of you out there who can do much better than that.
That session will run in about two weeks - after the party and it's new 'Sign of the Smoking Eye' winner takes on a pissed off Kaurophon (who threw an unconscious party member into the plasma to also gain the sign!)...
Let me know!
M
14 characters?!?!?! Holy. That's a small army.
Any of you NPC tweakers out there care to buff up this assassin strike to handle 14 characters of average 9th level?
Let me know!
M
I don't play 3.5, so can't give you stat suggestions. Here's some strategy suggstions, though:
1) forget the "confrontation in a bar" scene. These are supposed to be professional assassins. Would you wait until your marks are all together in a public place? Or would you pick them off one by one? Get them separated as they wander about selling off gear, re-stocking, whatever, and pick them off in a dark alley.
2) Remember that they have been informed of the characters strengths and weaknesses and will be prepared. Re-do the NPCs spells and equipment as necessary, and remember they have a higher level cleric backing them up. If your group has characters that have developed a standard battle strategy, the assassins should be prepared for them and should have put thought into how to quickly overcome them. Think about how your players fight, what defensive spells they usually have active, and most importantly what their weaknesses are. This is what the assassins would be spending their time finding out.
3) With a group that size, you don't have to have EVERYONE get attacked. As I said before, encourage them to wander about Cauldron, then pick one or two groups for your NPCs to strike. It will have your other players chomping on the table because they're not there and can't act. In addition, depending on how liberally you use Resurrection / Raise Dead type spells, you don't have to worry about a TPK in the group being attacked because some of the others can find their bodies and bring them back. Once one or two of the small groups have been attacked, the point has been made and you can move in to the "investigation" segment of the game.
Good luck!
1) forget the "confrontation in a bar" scene. These are supposed to be professional assassins. Would you wait until your marks are all together in a public place? Or would you pick them off one by one? Get them separated as they wander about selling off gear, re-stocking, whatever, and pick them off in a dark alley.
2) Remember that they have been informed of the characters strengths and weaknesses and will be prepared. Re-do the NPCs spells and equipment as necessary, and remember they have a higher level cleric backing them up. If your group has characters that have developed a standard battle strategy, the assassins should be prepared for them and should have put thought into how to quickly overcome them. Think about how your players fight, what defensive spells they usually have active, and most importantly what their weaknesses are. This is what the assassins would be spending their time finding out.
3) With a group that size, you don't have to have EVERYONE get attacked. As I said before, encourage them to wander about Cauldron, then pick one or two groups for your NPCs to strike. It will have your other players chomping on the table because they're not there and can't act. In addition, depending on how liberally you use Resurrection / Raise Dead type spells, you don't have to worry about a TPK in the group being attacked because some of the others can find their bodies and bring them back. Once one or two of the small groups have been attacked, the point has been made and you can move in to the "investigation" segment of the game.
Good luck!
You made a good point about not having to attack them en masse; however, the group dynamic of the game factors in here - If I mark just one or two characters and assassinate them, there will be sulking at the table for my singling out characters for death (it's human nature, anyone would...at least I play among adults, not whining teens)...
I may try to hit the party as a whole group, but have the assassins break off the attack after one character drops (or dies)...perhaps even something more subtle...I recently acquired a copy of a poisoncraft guide (an excellent and recommended DM resource) and may 'soften' the party by having their meal poisoned before the hit!
Yeah, Glassjaw, the group is a small army; you read about them already, remember?
Adventure Path Evil Variant 2005-present
M
i get the idea of not wanting to kill of one or two charters by themselfs... however think about where they rest if they all rest in the same building wait until they are "save a secure" and attack this could alow the players to be split and easyer to attack, yet still having everyone in the buiding and able to help each other... My recomedation is to match each player with an assasin... thinking of tactics strenths and weaknesses. This will give you a guidline to help keep in chanleging and alow you to easly adjust the difficluty if there are any players that don't show up (witch i would expect with 14 of them)
if you don't like that idea read http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20010824a and eye for an eye from the WOTC webpage and use some of these assasins with the others along with leveling them up a bit....
Hope this helps
My group had 7 in it and I got away with just adding one more assassin. But the one I added was a killer. If you use the complete worrier and have a good grasp of the combat rules, then this is your guy. I suggest you pay close attention to elusive target feat. You actually want him to get attacks of opportunity on him. Also remember that he will have all the buff spells that the other assassins have. Any spell that increases his speed is good. Also he gets a crit chance on any roll of 15 or higher and with power critical feat he gets a +4 on his confirm roll. On top of that both of his swords have the thundering ability (this doesn’t work in silence though). Good luck and kill some for me.
Tark Two-Fist: Male Human Ftr4/Rgr2/Sws1/Dvs3;
Medium Humanoid; CR 10;
HD 2d8+8d10+20; hp 78;
Init +4; Spd 35 ft/x4;
AC 23 (+7 armor, +4 dex, +2 misc), touch 16, flat-footed 19;
Base Atk/Grapple +10/+13;
Full Atk +16/+11 Thundering (1d6+6;15-20/x2, +1 Scimitar), +16/+11 Thundering (1d6+6;15-20/x2, +1 Scimitar);
AL N; SV Fort +13, Ref +12, Will +5;
Str 16(+3), Dex 18(+4), Con 14(+2), Int 13(+1), Wis 11(+0), Cha 8(-1);
Skills: Balance¹ +8, Bluff¹ +3, Climb¹ +6, Diplomacy¹ +3, Jump¹ +11, Listen¹ +8, Perform (dance) +11, Spot¹ +5, Swim¹ +7, Tumble +16.
Feats: Combat Expertise, Dodge, Mobility, Improved Critical(Scimitar), Weapon Focus(Scimitar), Weapon Specialization(Scimitar), Power Critical(Scimitar), Elusive Target
"–– RACE ABILITIES ––
• Base land speed of 30 feet.
• Favored Class: Any
–– CLASS ABILITIES ––
• Proficient in all armor, and all shields(including tower shields)
• Proficient with all simple and martial weapons.
• Wild Empathy(Ex): You can make a check(1d20+1) to improve the
attitude of an animal. You must be within 30 feet of the animal, and it
generally takes one minute to perform the action.
• Bonus Feats: You gain a bonus combat-related feat at first level, and
another one at every even fighter level.
• Favored Enemy: You have certain types of enemies that you have
extensive knowledge about. Against these creatures, you gain the listed
bonus to Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, and Survival checks, as well
as weapon damage rolls.
¤ Undead (+2 bonus)
• Track: You gain the Track feat as a bonus feat.
• Combat Style-Two-Weapon Combat(Ex): You have gained Two-Weapon
Fighting as a bonus feat.
• Weapon Finesse(Ex): You gain the Weapon Finesse feat as a bonus feat.
• AC Bonus(Ex): You gain a +1 bonus to AC as long as you wear no or light
armor and are not carrying a shield. You lose this bonus if immobilized or
helpless.
• Dervish Dance(Ex): 2 times per day, you can take a single move action and
still make a full attack, but you must move 5 feet between each attack and
cannot return to a square you just exited. You gain a +2 bonus on attack and
damage rolls when performing the dervish dance with a slashing weapon.
• Movement Mastery(Ex): Your movement is not affected by adverse
conditions. When making a Jump, Perform (dance), or Tumble check you
may take 10 even if stress or distractions would normally prevent you from
doing so.
• Slashing Blades: You treat a scimitar as a light weapon for all purposes
including fighting with two weapons.
• Fast Movement(Ex): When wearing light armor or carrying no more than a
light load your movement increases by +5 ft.
• Spring Attack: You gain the Spring Attack feat as a bonus feat.
–– FEATS ––
• Combat Expertise
• Dodge
• Mobility
• Improved Critical(Scimitar)
• Weapon Focus(Scimitar)
• Weapon Specialization(Scimitar)
• Power Critical(Scimitar)
• Elusive Target
Items:
2 +1 Scimitars (thundering)
+2 Mithral Breastplate
Ring of pro +1
Cloak of res +1
Gauntlets of ogre power
Periapt of Wisdom +2
Potion of CLW x3
Potion of Enlarge person x2
Potion of Haste
~if you don't like that idea read http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20010824a and eye for an eye from the WOTC webpage and use some of these assasins with the others along with leveling them up a bit....Hope this helps
Thanks for the "Eye For An Eye" link, Molay; I won't use the actual assassins listed (too low CR for this group), but the strategies are useful to stretch out this opening engagement of the module...
Thanks also to Ace'o for the kickin NPC; adding him to the three hired guns will boost their damage output on the party for sure! I dropped 'thundering' off of the scimitars, but boosted them to +2; otherwise, I left him verbatim.
Setting them up well by having Ike Iverson arrange to have their dinner poisoned will also give them a big leg up...
I think 4 on 14 is much more doable with these advantages...
M
I figured that the CR would be to low however i really like that encounter and it gave me ideas for the assasin attack... i was acctualy going to add this to the campain at one point then i noticed this encounter i decited against it... Good luck 14 on 4 is still a crazy.... also god bless you for dming with 14 players i would have big issues with that
I figured that the CR would be to low however i really like that encounter and it gave me ideas for the assasin attack... i was acctualy going to add this to the campain at one point then i noticed this encounter i decited against it... Good luck 14 on 4 is still a crazy.... also god bless you for dming with 14 players i would have big issues with that
Trust me...it only works because all of us are in our mid-20's to 30's...and even then, it only barely works..!
...but we like that edge - it enhances the Evil-aligned feel of the game.
M
My group is all in our mid 20's too (however some of them do act like they are 13 some times) but we could never pull this off even if everyone is on their best behavior... Good luck to you..
Thanks also to Ace'o for the kickin NPC; adding him to the three hired guns will boost their damage output on the party for sure! I dropped 'thundering' off of the scimitars, but boosted them to +2; otherwise, I left him verbatim.
M
if your going to drop thundering, i sugest replacing it with one of the other +1 powers (perhaps spell storing with curse cast on them by ike) or one of the energy powers. with the 3.5 rules, +2 and higher weapons are just not worth the money IMHO.
if your going to drop thundering, i sugest replacing it with one of the other +1 powers (perhaps spell storing with curse cast on them by ike) or one of the energy powers. with the 3.5 rules, +2 and higher weapons are just not worth the money IMHO.Thanks also to Ace'o for the kickin NPC; adding him to the three hired guns will boost their damage output on the party for sure! I dropped 'thundering' off of the scimitars, but boosted them to +2; otherwise, I left him verbatim.
M
Great idea - one of my players got 'curse spewing' before...perhaps a little payback is in order, in the form of a stored touch spell... ;-)
M