You know where the players are walking the planks, shall I have the invisible stalkers do a charge/bull-rush to knock them off? The bonuses are considerable, as invisible stalkers are size L.
Seems like an odd question. Really only you can answer it. would this be against the 'spirit' of your game table or not?
If it were me I'd do it in an instant. If I'm smart and a bit lucky I can kill a character and that always makes my day. But not every DM plays in a style where their crossing their fingers hoping that, this time, they'll manage to kill one of the players characters.
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If you look at the Invisible Stalker's ability scores you will see they have an int of 14. That is above average. I would play them that smart. The smart move is to make the best attack you can. First round of combat it would be a good move for them. Knock two PCs off the planks and out of the combat breifly. Again, use their intelligence to determine which PCs. I would knock two off with out obvious ranged attacks, and then deal with them later (that is what I did actually).
Remember that a spot check of 20 or better will make the PC aware that there is an invisible creature near by. This could give the PCs an attack of opportunity on the bull rushing invisible stalker if he is aware and not flat-footed. So the bull rush may not be a good option in later rounds, but in the first round it is a good attack.
I managed to kill one PC this way. Then the wizard (invisible and with see invisiblity already active), caught them in a fireball and rolled 26 points of damage, which both stalkers failed thier saves. The next round the wizard got off his glitter dust spell catching one. Then, unfortunately for the other stalker, the PCs got real lucky with the 50% miss chances and the battle ended a lot quicker than I thought it would.
I am not one that cheers for the bad guys. I love seeing the PCs succeed, but they have to earn those successes. That is when it is truly gratifying. In this case, to only lose one PC was, in my opinion, is a well earned victory. This room is designed to cause a lot of TPKs.
Remember that a spot check of 20 or better will make the PC aware that there is an invisible creature near by. This could give the PCs an attack of opportunity on the bull rushing invisible stalker if he is aware and not flat-footed.
Well, such a check may make them aware that something is nearby, but IIRC that's not a good enough roll to pinpoint the square(s) they occupy, much less allow them to threaten the Stalkers - I'd rule no AoO on those bull rushes, personally.
To respond to the OP, there are 2 ways of looking at this:
1) pulling punches here may make them overconfident, causing more PC deaths later in the adventure when they get into the Doppelgangers' lair and Zyrxog's domain.
2) Go easy - they'll need every extra hit point and Cure spell they can conserve now, when they get into the Doppelgangers' lair and Zyrxog's domain.
FWIW, I had them bull rush. It was way less deadly than some stuff that's coming up sooner and/or later in this adventure.
Kang
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I eliminated the Stalkers entirely from the room. Instead, I had the dopplegangers from the cells (still pretending to be prisoners) reveal themselves and hit the party while they were trying to cross the planks. I even had them shift into the likeness of the party members they were fighting in order to add to the confusion.
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Remember that a spot check of 20 or better will make the PC aware that there is an invisible creature near by. This could give the PCs an attack of opportunity on the bull rushing invisible stalker if he is aware and not flat-footed.
Well, such a check may make them aware that something is nearby, but IIRC that's not a good enough roll to pinpoint the square(s) they occupy, much less allow them to threaten the Stalkers - I'd rule no AoO on those bull rushes, personally.
I tend to agree with you about the not being able to pinpoint the location, but a general area is good. Realisticly a 20 spot is relatively easy to make at the level the characters should be at. Once the general area is known, all the spells will be going off to find the invisible critter.
Any party with a mage that makes good spell choices is going to have Glitterdust spell or See Invisiblity at least. So my meaning was after the first round more than likely the characters are going to be aware where the stalkers are and not flat footed. Glitterdust wands area mainstay in my campiagn after fith level. At this point though, the mage only had a few scrolls of it.
The only round I can see the stalkers getting off a bullrush with any great success is the first round of combat. That is how it worked when my players travelled through this room. I got the first round and bull rushed the melee guy off the planks and then the glitterdust, followed by a fireball, went off and then it was almost a fair fight. The stalkers went and hid out of sight while the party recovered the dead scout from the water. Once the glitterdust expired the stalkers attacked again and it was a good dust up. A lot of fun.