So a CR 9 should be a really tough fight for your PC's, so if you optimize it and have buffs up they might TPK the party. Just something to consider with this.
switch the bard out for a evangelist variant channeling cleric, you can get more buffs that way, quick channel and selective channeling. Then you can heal and buff your allies and still cast spells as a standard, all while singing like a bard. Or go negative and the same to damage and debuff the PC's. Go High on charisma, fullplate, con, enough wis to cast. Or High cha and wis for SoS spells, and fullplate.
Warpriest might be a better idea for you battle cleric, swift action healing and extra feats are nice, but you do lose out on lv3 spells.
Give the PCs a chance to approach the ship stealthily -- if they get detected on the approach, then the enemies start prebuffed. If they are stealthy, then the cleric or bard might be below, and 2-3 of the archers might be playing a dice game on the forecastle and not enter combat for a few rounds...
Have you considered using the warrior class for your archers?
You can get 4 warrior 3's for 1600 xp, whereas three 3rd level fighters cost 1800.
say you build them like this:
Hd: 3d10(16hp)
AC16, ff14, t12; CMB16
Fort+3
Ref+3
will+1
+2initiative, +0 perception
Attack: longbow +6 or +4/+4, 1d8+1(20/*3); or rapier +4, 1d6+1(18-20)
Important combat gear: 5*+1human bane arrow, 15 arrows. Remember to shoot those arrows at your party, preferring the humans as targets. If the party isn't predominantly human, pick some other enhancement.
Human Warrior 3
Str 12
Dex 15
Con 11
Int 9
Wis 10
Cha 8
Feats:
Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Precise Shot (can be ignored in favor of Deadly aim or weapon focus(depends on the average party ac) if some of your pc's won't enter melee.)
Skills: Climb 1 rank, swim 1 rank, proffession(Sailor) 1 rank.
Gear: 5*+1human bane arrow, masterwork chain shirt, masterwork composite [str+1] longbow, rapier, 29gp.
Spread them out over the rigging if they're aware the party is coming; you have a ship, have some of them up in the masts and stuff. That'll make them harder to pin down in melee & AoE, and also make the combat more exciting and memorable than just another dungeon fight.
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The will have chance to catch the them unbuffed but no chance of takeing them a few at time. That would be to easy.
Many a GM has gone into a pre-made encounter with the assumption that it will turn out the way THEY want. With the statement YOU make that there is no chance of taking them a few at a time, I must warn you that things never happen exactly the way YOU want. Also, you really don't give a reason for why they wont take them a few at a time, only that it would be to easy if you ever game them a chance to...
By drawing your line in the sand, you are setting in your mind that the encounter will not be easy for the pc's, thus, you are setting your GMing to fail. With the attitude that the encounter will be hard "no matter what" you are dooming yourself to bad gm decisions just to make it hard on the pc's.
I have seen it before so many times. A) pc's do something unexpected- possibly removing a combatant or two priot to the main battle. B) GM compensates by doing 'X' C) pc's end up dying because GM was to hard headed to let the encounter go 'as is' just because they wanted it to be hard.
All I see in your statement is - you don't care what the pc's do, you will manipulate the encounter (that is already a beast) in to something that does not reward pc ingenuity.
Go into this with an open mind and be ready for the unexpected. If you don't, it will be an encounter that has the potential to alienate your players because the GM god (YOU) decided there would be no way to take out a few at a time (even once).
And this is just a little side note, 6 lvl three archers that are just as good at melee as they are with archery is rare in non pc types. Think before you do this encounter Mathius. Don't count on a cr9 encounter to be hard. Just like you shouldn't think a cr4 encounter should be easy (even though 95% of the time both cases are true with a CR6 group)
For your players sake, don't go into this with your mind made up about how it will go. It makes you just like 90% of the other bad gm's out there that don't give their pc's a chance to shine.
This was not meant to be mean, its just that I have experienced gm's that think the same way you do and their 'in game decisions' are not rational, but are only made to insure the encounter goes exactly like they planned come hell or high water. Don't be like those...
From Gamemastering: 5 level 5 characters are considered APL 5 still. While APL +3 is considered 'Epic' difficulty, APL + 4 isn't even on the chart. Good luck to them.
CR 9 means a total of 6400 xp in your creation budget:
-A level 3 NPC with class levels comes in at 600 xp each
-A level 5 NPC with class levels comes in at 1200 xpTotal: 6000 xp
Okay, so you're on track to creating your CR 9 encounter.
The suggested stat spread for a ranged npc is:
Str: 11, Dex: 13, Con: 12, Int: 10, Wis: 9, Cha: 8
(Be sure to add the +2 to Dex for being Human)For gear, the table lists the following guideline for gearing:
Level 3: 780g (350g weapons, 200g protection, 80g limited use, 150g gear)
Level 5: 2400g (900g weapons, 1000g protection, 300g limited use, 200g gear)So, for example, a composite bows are 100g + 100g/str + 150 MW. In this situations, for a 'fair fight', they are being overgeared (In your example, over 700g just on weapons). Perhaps something along these lines:
Weapons (slightly pushing it, but not too bad, make it up elsewhere):
Longsword (15g)
Composite (+1 Str) MW Longbow (350g)
Protection:
Chainmail (150g)
Limited Use:
Tanglefoot Bag (50g) or Potion of Cure Light Wounds (50g)
Gear:
(Go wild here, it mostly won't be relevant)
Actually, A third level NPC with PC class levels get 1650gp, while NPC class levels net them 780. I read my table wrong when I proposed gp. They should only have what amounted to 780, as they're warriors. The level 5's should have 3450gp each, as they have pc class levels.
Suggested statline for archers is obviously bad optimization for one thing, and applies to NPC's with NPC class levels only for another.
12, 13, 11, 9, 10 8 makes more sense. They're sailors: proffession is an important skill to them. Also, they should be good at swimming and climbing, hence the str.
I was unaware that they gave out rules for how much of the npc budget you could spend on the individual bits. I've always overspent in consumables to avoid supercharging pc wealth.
On a 3pb I'd do 12, 14(16), 10, 8, 10, 8.
CR gets you 6400xp to fiddle with. This is the end goal, yes?
The warpriest and the evangelist cleric will each account for 1200xp(CR4).
This leaves 4000xp, or 10 archers. Suppose you added a bad-ass lookout who's an archery ranger who starts at the top of the mast? That'd eat 1200xp more, bringing us down to 7 archers, which is a bit more of a reasonable number.
Do you want help with the builds? Can do breakdowns if you tell me what point-buy you use for classed NPC's, and how hard you want the encounter to be (what degree of optimization you want on the characters)
Also, Cuttincurt has a nice point.
Consider the other approaches the party might take. At night, for example, one could concieveably put out all the light on one's ship, and row a small boat out to the larger ship and sneak onboard, silencing the archer's one by one. They're evil pirates, right? Do they keep poison around?
They could also use magic to swim or fly in invisible, if they wanted to expended some resources.
Two fly spells, two invisibility spells, and an ant-haul for a high-strength character might let them steal the loot without the other ship ever knowing any pirates were aboard. This is the sort of thing that someone who ships expensive cargo has thought through, however; perhaps there's a permanent "alarm"spell only for invisible creatures(That's an extant spell, by the by) in the cargo hold? Probably linked to a glitter-dust trap. If you set up a trap, that can account for some of your xp budget of the ship, making the fight a little bit easier, which might be a good thing.
Also, they could try to shoot at the other ship with cannons(do they have these?) or fireballs, make them surrender.
What's going to happen if they do one of the above?
Terrain advantage would be very useful for the pirates.
Some of the archers can be under cover in the crows-nest or behind screens on either the forecastle or stern. Don't let the PC get all of them in one AOE spell. Tactics: someone could stand up (move action), shoot, and then drop prone (free action) behind the screen, meaning the PCs would have some difficulty targeting him. (Rigging might provide some additional cover.)
Put the bard below decks where he can sing to buff his friends, or cast other support sells, but the PCs can't target him directly without doing something.
Who has darkvision? What are the light sources? Don't forget the 60' range on darkvision! Someone on top a mast might be out of range from the deck.
Boarding nets rigged around the ship would give the PCs something to overcome before any of their melee types could get to work. There might be some traps scattered around to inconvenience the PCs and make them cautious, maybe a rope snare to hold them up where the archers get a free shot.
A dog or two, or other animal with scent, could serve to detect invisible attackers, and wouldn't take very much XP off your encounter budget.
Also, some of the terrain could be dangerous. Rope, pulleys, people are always cutting ropes and being towed up the rigging in movies.
Conveniently placed cargo, conveniently placed barrels of gunpowder, if someone uses a fire spell have it set fire to an area; You should have a map of the ship, with markings that show which parts does what; Difficult terrain for coils of rope, high ground advantage if you jump on top of cargo, or it could be used as cover; there's myriads of interesting stuff on a ship, at least according to pirate movies.
75-8000 xp is a lot.
I mean, if they go up against a party of five of their own level, it'll only add up to 6000 xp.
Maybe you should keep it there? enemy apl=party apl seems to me like a good policy not to exceed. As it stands, the team will probably be something like 3cr 4 mini-bosses & 7-8 archers. That might be a handily win-able battle though, I don't know how much your party optimizes.
Anyway, I'll help you with whatever you need. Designing characters entertain me.
Do you have an alignment in mind for the priests? A speciffic deity perhaps?
Otherwise you might end up with a warpriest of sarenrae who uses flurry of blows with a scimitar if you aren't careful :)
Ehh. I don't know what else I'd take along. Maybe 10 +1 arrows, oil of gravity bow (50gp), and then pool the left-over gold of all the archers for 3 oils of flame arrow. That can be splashed onto 50 arrows, last 50 min, and the arrows can be split up between the archers.
Then you have 1 flame arrow oil as loot and whatever arrows don't get fired, + their permanent ordinary items.
Working on a proposal for the warpriest right now.
NG Human Sacred fist Warpriest 5 of Sarenrae, CR4
Stats:
5d8hd (51hp)
+3 initiative
F+9
R+5
W+8
Attack: Scimitar flurry(Power attack) +9/+9 or +10std 1d6+11(+9standard action)+1d6holy+1d4fire Crit 15-20/*2
Active Spells:Bull's Strength, Bear's Endurance, Mage armor potion, Magic Weapon, Divine Favor, Oil of Keen Edge, shield of faith.
Additional resources: 5/5 favor, 1 cure moderate wounds, 2 cure light wounds. Using favor to swift-cast these is better than using favor to heal directly.
uses of blessing wont matter, but 4/6.
5d8hd (43hp)
+3init
F+7
R+5
W+8
Attack: Scimitar flurry(Power Attack) +6/+6 or +7 1d6+7(+5 1 attack) (18-20)
Additional resources: Oil of keen edge, potion of mage armor, 5/5 favor.
1 - CLW*2, Magic weapon, Divine Favor, Shield of Faith
2 - CMW, Bull's Strength, Bear's Endurance
Tactics: If it isn't in melee when it becomes aware of combat, eat a pot of mage armor and swift cast Bull's Strength. After that point, start slugging it out. Order of importance for favor spells are roughly BS>SoF>DF>CMW>BE>CLW.
Don't sacrifice a flurry to cast buffs.
+400gp of stuff, or actual gp.
X denotes consumables that will preferably be used 1 of before battle.
str 16
dex 16
con 14
int 7
wis 16
cha 7
Blessing 6/d
Alternate Racial Trait: Dual Talent
Feats:
Weapon Focus(Scimitar)
Power Attack
Crusader's flurry
There you have it. It turned out pretty scary, if I do say so myself.
Whoops, that build is ilegal.
He isn't proficient with scimitars, and hasn't got bab+1 at lvl 1.
Easy fix though; Take a level of fighter at lvl 1. Or some other full bab martial class; I'll write up the adaptation tomorrow. Or you can just use the build as-is, the difference between one or the other is very small.
Legal Version:
NG Fighter1/Sacred fist Warpriest 4
1d10+4d8hd (52hp)
+3 initiative
F+11
R+5
W+10
Attack: Scimitar flurry(Power attack) +9/+9 or +10std 1d6+11+1d6holy+1d4fire Crit 15-20/*2
Active Spells:Bull's Strength, Bear's Endurance, Mage armor potion, Magic Weapon, Divine Favor, Oil of Keen Edge, shield of faith.
Additional resources: 5/5 favor, 1 cure moderate wounds, 2 cure light wounds. Using favor to swift-cast these is better than using favor to heal directly, (1d6)
uses of blessing wont matter, but 4/6.
5d8hd (44hp)
+3init
F+9
R+5
W+10
Attack: Scimitar flurry(Power Attack) +6/+6 or +7 1d6+7(+5 1 attack) (18-20)
Additional resources: Oil of keen edge, potion of mage armor, 5/5 favor.
1 - CLW*2, Magic weapon, Divine Favor, Shield of Faith
2 - CMW, Bull's Strength, Bear's Endurance
Tactics: If it isn't in melee when it becomes aware of combat, eat a pot of mage armor and swift cast Bull's Strength. After that point, start slugging it out. Order of importance for favor spells are roughly BS>SoF>DF>CMW>BE>CLW.
Don't sacrifice a flurry to cast buffs.
The main difference is more damage on a standard action, and +2 fort & will. Also, caster level dropped to 4, but no-one cares. The bonus feat made room for iron will.
If you fear the slumber hex, remember that you can wake up the target with a standard action. Have an archer stand near the warpriest if you're worried.
If you spend 1600xp on it, you can have a very young brine dragon defend the boat. It doesn't seem all that ooc to have an elemental dragon be paid for protecting the cargo: it's a win win all around, the dragon gets treasure without having to fight for it, and the ship gets the really scary reputation that a dragon is protecting it.
2 CR 4 makes 2400xp
a CR 5 very young brine dragon makes further 1600
and then 10 archers make us hit 8000, the intended mark.
That looks like one memorable fight right there. Personally, I'd give the dragon fly-by attack instead of improved initiative.
Other CR 4 creatures include: Sea Cats, Satyrs, Griffons, Giant Dragonflies, Hound Archons, pixies, Gargoyles & Sea hags.
If you pick something evil it's probably being paid to be there, but consider if they fit into the story, or if they might turn against the crew if contacted beforehand somehow.
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If you spend 1600xp on it, you can have a very young brine dragon defend the boat. It doesn't seem all that ooc to have an elemental dragon be paid for protecting the cargo: it's a win win all around, the dragon gets treasure without having to fight for it, and the ship gets the really scary reputation that a dragon is protecting it.
2 CR 4 makes 2400xp
a CR 5 very young brine dragon makes further 1600
and then 10 archers make us hit 8000, the intended mark.That looks like one memorable fight right there. Personally, I'd give the dragon fly-by attack instead of improved initiative.
Other CR 4 creatures include: Sea Cats, Satyrs, Griffons, Giant Dragonflies, Hound Archons, pixies, Gargoyles & Sea hags.
If you pick something evil it's probably being paid to be there, but consider if they fit into the story, or if they might turn against the crew if contacted beforehand somehow.
What is crazy about this idea is that brine dragons around water are bad ass. I gm'd the module The ruby tournament and my pc's went after the brine dragon in that module. lets just say it was awesome and I would jump on this idea in a heartbeat.