RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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My group has some crazy ACs (all legal and above board) and the bad guys in ToD are not going to bother them much at the start.
The big snake and the big TRex will be okay, and the end battle to, but it's the rest I'm worried about - especially since they're only 8th level.
The first attack has all these pirates with a +6 to hit.
Basically, my players are just into the character tweaking while I'm more of a story/drama DM. The party has gone for the dex fighter approach (no armour at sea) and have high ACs. The pirates will need 16-20 to hit them, and 20s if they buff a bit. That's kind of embarrassing for a level 9 or 10 adventure. I know there's a bit (lot) of the splatbook powercreep in my game, but we're all having fun, and they have good characters, with fun personalities.
How far would you suggest tweaking the bad guys? I'm happy with their hitpoints and ACs, just want to boost their to hit. Just give them mysterious +3 or 4 and leave it at that? It's not like they'll demand the stats of the opponents and they like a challenge :)
Any tips to tweak the mundane encounters would be welcome - I'm thinking of a few sorcerors to magic missile them and dispel buffs with scrolls, maybe some summons - any more ideas?
Good tactics never hurt. Build a few pirates up with tripping in mind, or disarming, or whatnot. Being prone makes it a lot easier to get hit in melee. High ground never hurt either. Splash weapons won't hurt much on their own, but when combined with proper tactics you can still do a lot to hurt the PCs even at that point.
Simple "aid" actions can ramp up their AB's too, as can touch attack weapons (less effective, but a few points' easier adds up, 'specially when you're on fire ...). One flask or two of alchemists' fire among an entire crew gets ugly fast. ^_^
I find in these situations sticking a bard in with the bad guys can be really handy.
A low-level bard with Song of the Heart (Eberron CS) can give all the pirates a useful +2 hit/damage without the benefit of any magic items whatsoever, and he won't even be worth any XP when they kill him. Boost him up a couple of levels and give him the Inspiration Boost spell and you can easily get that to +3 or higher. It can really make a difference with low-level mooks - making them actually a bit more worthy of notice, if not actually dangerous.
Maybe some pirate with a human skin-covered drum or something. Or stick an Awakened parrot with bard levels on Slipknot Peet's shoulder...
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2011 Top 16
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Yep Flanking, Aid Another, Charging all giv e +2 to hit. Touch attacks like Grapple, Trips, Tanglefootbags, Alchemists Fire, Acid, Nets, and Bolas work well too.
Give your pirates a few skill tricks as well if you have Complete Scoundrel. There's a few that let you get a better shot at your opponents. I like Never Outnumbered and Group Fake Out (Demoralize and Feint multiple opponents), Spot the Weakpoint (make next attack a touch attack) and Acrobatic Backstab (tumble through opponent leaves them Flat Footed to your next attack).
The previous suggestions are better than the one I had in mind, but I'll share it any, just to give you another options.
If the pie-rats have some magic items that give them a to-hit bonus, that would do the trick. Of course, that gives the PCs extra goodies after the battle, but they may not be useful if they don't stack with stuff the PCs already have. Also, if the attackers have some really good, like +3 weapons that the PCs aren't proficient in (How many of your PCs took proficiency in cutlas, for example?).
This was just the simple off-the-top-of-my-head idea. Like I said, I think the others here are better.
There is an encounter in Stormwrack called The Sable Drake. It has tons of ideas how to make low-level pirates dangerous. E.g. throwing caltrops, attacking at night, using alchemist's fire, using oil to grease the deck of the enemy ship, attacking the rigging of a ship, etc.
These pirates have also rigged the deck of their own ship in some places (of course they know where the traps are). If they suffer too many losses, they order a fake retreat in order to lure the enemy onto their ship, especially to the spots on the deck where they have set traps.
Look at the "warchanter" PrC in Complete Warrior. It's a bard-based PrC that can really up the effective CR of an encounter with a large number of relatively low-level enemies by boosting HP, attack bonus, and so forth. I used one to great effect in two big battle scenes in Red Hand of Doom. The nice part is, even if your players target the warchanter, the effects last for 5 rounds afterwards, so you only have to keep him alive for a couple of rounds to make life uncomfortable for the bad guys. If you can keep one alive for longer, you can bring up the second wave of enemies and have them instantly buffed for battle as well.
