I trust them not to look.
I was planning out some adventure ideas to take place over the next few levels of the tabletop campaign I'm running. See the thread BBEGs, Curses, Swords, and You (or something like that) for some more info. I got the inspiration for this specific adventure by combining ideas from several rolls on the 100 random adventures in the DMG.
The pertinent stuff right now is that there is a monastery/tower high in the mountains where some clerics of Hextor are performing a ritual making bad stuff happen across the countryside (mainly powerful fires). After the party figures out what's going on, they head up to the mountains and go to the tower. I have a vision of a tall, red spire jutting up from the snow-covered rock of the mountains, surrounded by gray clouds overhead and the nearby black peaks of other mountains, and some very LotR-ish music playing in my head.
The party has to get to the top (roof) of the tower, where there are the following elements: several clerics of Hextor, a magical artifact doing all the bad stuff (fed by sacrifices staged within the tower, and a pair of wyverns with (classed hobgoblin) archers mounted on them. After fighting the baddies, the party "shuts off" the artifact, but this causes an earthquake (or some type of ground shaking that leads to the next scene).
So, now the party has to go back through the tower and make it out before the whole thing collapses.
The party should be 7th level during this adventure. The party consists of a halfling druid, human wizard, human warlock, and dwarven fighter going for dwarven defender. I highly expect the wizard to have fly by this point, this circumventing going up through the tower from the ground. That's fine, because it lets me make the rooftop fight even bigger since they don't have to wade through the mooks first. Additionally, it negates issues of the party trying to rest before taking on the big last encounter, as well as making me feel good for taking player spell selection into account and letting them use their abilities.
Thus, the mooks will likely be encountered while trying to run out of the collapsing tower (I also highly expect the clerics to use dispel magic to end the fly-boys' rides; I suppose it could fail and they could just fly safely away, but I'm willing to just have them watch the tower collpase, it's still cool. :P ).
Provided the party has to walk out, though, the mooks they face will mainly be hobgoblin monks, maybe a few fighters.
Now, I know I've got a bit of time between now and then (the group just hit 2nd level last night), but the way I'm envisioning this scene, it's one of the coolest adventure ideas I've ever had, so I want to stay with it and work on it and make it really good.
So, I turn to Paizo! What I'm mainly wondering right now is what would be some good level spreads for the mooks, clerics, and the wyvern-mounted archers? The party should have a good amount of offensive ability and endurace when it comes to handling encounters. Developing the cleric and archer enemies (spells, feats, etc.) is also something I'd appreciate thoughts on. Also, any additional ideas about the whole thing are welcome.
And, in part, I'm writing this here for reasons similar to those in Fatespinner's Evil Genius Syndrome thread. :)
Mmmmm...
Two wyverns by themselves are EL 8. Throw in two 3rd-4th level hobgoblin fighters and your looking at EL 9. Make them 5th-6th level each and it becomes EL 10 (a challenging fight for 7th level characters, though taking out the wyvern mounts might also deal with the riders).
Eight 1st level clerics are EL 7, but one fireball can take them all out. Four 3rd level clerics are also EL 7, but you still have the same problem. If the clerics are all going to be encountered at once (on the roof) and you don't want them dying in 1-2 combat rounds then four 4th level clerics or three 5th level clerics should do the trick (that's EL 8). Couple them with the wyvern riders and it becomes an EL 11 encounter (which might start to get a little tough).
The mooks should be along the same lines. Maybe six or seven 2nd and 3rd level fighters and monks (EL 8-9).
This is hard because you have to tailor encounters for the parties strengths and weaknesses and they are still only 2nd level. I mean by 7th level they could all be playing different characters and not have a single flying spell amongst them!
Check and check to both. Thanks! Yes, the wyvern poison had occured to me, and as practical as it would be for the wyvern mounts to swoop in and try to sting people, that would be a little too nasty and just invite a TPK. So, for whatever reason, that strategy will be out.
Also, while they are only second level, I do know the players' intents with their characters, and they're the same friends that I've always gamed with since starting D&D over three years ago. Barring TPKs, the wizard will almost certainly have fly and fireball, the druid will be focused on attack spells and then capable of wild shaping into something nasty, the warlock is a sniper (no hideous blow for him, just eldritch spear and other ranged-attack focused abilities), and the dwarf, as I said, is going for dwarven defender, in addition to pursuing some nastiness with his shield (Cometary Collision from the PHB2, the Shield Slam feat tree in CW, and Shield Specialization tree from PHB2 again; should be one durable little fighter!). He's actually got his whole build statted out already.
Thanks for the level spread and EL analysis. That's really what I was looking for. I want to make the NPCs as strong as possible without having an automatic TPK on my hands. Yes, taking out the wyverns will take out the hobgoblins (it'll be about a 200+ foot drop, so even if they don't die, which they likely will, it takes them out of the fight). That leaves the clerics. Clerics are tough enemies, but the party should be able to handle them.
The tower would certainly have more fighters and monks (mooks) than listed above, but if the structure happens to be collapsing around them, that should give a reason why the party doesn't fight more. Those are only the ones that the party both encountered and who decided to stand and fight. So, maybe encountered in groups of one or two, just a couple or so quick fights, and that'd be enough.
Thanks again!
Would the wizard really want to devote four of his 3rd-level spell slots to one spell?
Scrolls. :)
Good points, however, particularly about plotting out the "what if they do walk up?" and having modular enemies. I'm thinking about having the party know quite a bit about the tower and the inhabitants before hand so they can by the right potions/scrolls to allow them to handle the encounters more proficiently than the "standard party" assumed in EL/CR calculations.
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Thats a nice cinematic scene you are concocting! It is ripe with opportunity for tension, as the fleeing PCs get stuck under falling bricks, deal with newly blocked doorways and some remaining, very devout monks that are staying behind to witness the destructive power of Hextor firsthand and try to make the PCs stay as sacrifices. Or, as the PCs run through the final doorway to the outside of the collapsing tower, that crashes down directly behind them of course, they stop to watch it fall and tend to their wounds. They turn around to see twenty very unhappy monks of Hextor that, rightfully, blame the intrepid group of adventurers.
Watch out for surprising PC moves, though. They could leap off the tower after destroying the artifact and feather fall down, alter shape to a raptoran and fly down, etc. So have a lot of ideas ready. maybe the only way to destroy the artifact lies within the tower and the PCs have to seek it out. Then, after destroying it, the shaking starts and they have to decide to go down or up and out. And, gosh darnit, there's not one window for the PCs to jump out of. Sounds like you know what you're doing, though, and have a great, memorable encounter for your PCs. Love it.
Obviously we have a wizard, a druid, and a fighter for the “heroes”. What else is in the party and are the expected to live?
Regardless of the exact nature of the party for your big on top of the tower fight. I like the wyverns with archers on them and of course you have to have a few clerics. One compilation I would use for the clerics is most would just be piss ants that are easily expended. Have the last 1 actually be really good. Like with using 5 clerics, 4 are going to be 2nd maybe 3rd (side note the archers should be the same level as the rest of the “piss ant”) level. The 5th and final one should be about the same level as the party seeing how you expect them to be 7th he should be 6th to 8th level. I would roll him up now starting him off as the same level as the party is now. As your adventure goes on and the party levels up so does he. This way he’ll be right on schedule no matter when the party gets to him. Its also real easy to adjust the power of the rest of the idiots based on the exact power of the party. By either just adding or subtracting 1+ people as needed. Only change their levels if you really think its needed. For instance if party is somehow actually 10th by the time they get to this point not only is your main cleric 10th, but increase from 4 extra clerics to 6. You could also at this point add 2 more archers (unmounted). Then lastly give all the piss ants one more level.
2 other things for nasty surprises. 1 you could always surprise the party with a couple of the “clerics” are actually some kind of arcane spell caster instead. Whether it be a wizard or sorcerer or some other offshoot doesn’t matter.
The other is you could always give the “main” cleric some kind of device allowing himself to be teleported away to safety just in case things go real bad for him. Make it work either by him activating it and it self activates if he goes to negative hit points. The safe zone would obviously be no where inside the tower, and wherever it is he would get patched up. This would allow for him to be a reoccurring bady if you so choose.
And this is the stuff off the top of my head after being awake for about an hour.