Encounter One: Bandits at Oleg's Outpost

[LinkDead]

Okay so I've been running the game via Play by Post for about a month now and things have been slow, we've already had to replace one player and it looks as if we're going to have to replace another, but we've just gotten into the first encounter; the bandits 'robbing' Oleg's Outpost. My players get there the night before, make friendly with Oleg and Svetlana, talk tactics, get up nice and early to pray, prepare spells and prepare the battlefield a bit more to their liking.

Their Preparations:

So they Move one of the tables in front of the storage shed, put the wagon where the table was and put the goods the bandits are going to take, along with some of the money, onto the table so that the bandits will be drawn to the table while Oleg and a disguised spell caster (Wizard, Conjurer specialist), who has rolled a natural 20 on their disguise check, appearing as Svetlana wait for the bandits. The bandits wander over to the table and the other players wait for 'Svetlana' to signal them with an agreed upon Color Spray to the face and a knock on the door behind her (where a Cleric and Rogue await).

Wizard color sprays two out of three of the bandits as well as Happ, not one of them manages to make the save DC. We now have three out of four of the bandits unconscious on the floor (for 3,4&4 rounds) and the fourth one standing there with a bow, crossbow & Wolf-like Eidolon pointed at him. In traditional bullying bandit style the bandit drops his sword and surrenders, not knowing that the other bandits are going to wake back up soon.

Have my players actually managed to defeat encounter one without swinging a sword or firing off a shot from a bow? It's beginning to look like it... o.o; Now I bet they wish they had some manacles on them to secure the bandits! ...actually, I have a funny feeling the Ranger might have a pair or two on him.

Anyone else have an encounter like this? I just don't know what to say, when I rolled the WILL saves I just stared at them laughing. Even when the two bandits and Happ wake up they're stunned for 4,4&2 more rounds!

[Firstbourne]

Yeah - the first bandit encounter at Oleg's is pretty much a pushover.

My group consists of a Ranger, Witch, Cleric, and a Rogue.

The bandits enter, the Ranger and Witch are set up in the barn. The Cleric and the Rogue shut the doors behind the bandits as they dismount and begin to grab the goods.

The Witch drops a sleep spell in the middle of the group and all but one hit the ground. The remaining bandit tries to wake Happs. As Happs wakes, the bandit drops to 1hp from an attack and Happs surrenders.

Nice and neat.

[Jim Cirillo]

We just started the campaign last night and just substitute Color Spray with Sleep and the encounter went the exact same way. The party I'm running is a pretty ruthless bunch so they killed the lone standing bandit before he could run away and two of his sleeping friends were coup de graced. They kept Happs alive and let the two disciples of Zon Kathon in the party "question" him. It wasn't a happy ending for Happs.

[Caineach]

My group doesn't have an arcane caster, so there was no save or die. I also added 2 more bandits. They still pretty much stomped it. Its really designed to be like that.

[Azmyth]

LinkDead wrote:

Anyone else have an encounter like this?

Our Druid cast entangle on the whole group and the archers cleaned up.

Encounter over.

[Aberrant Templar]

LinkDead wrote:

Anyone else have an encounter like this?

Close. My party beat the bandits with a single throwing axe to the back of head.

They spent about two hours of real time setting up an elaborate ambush that involved rooftop snipers, lots of sneaking around, and the paladin staying outside the fortress "in reserve" to ride down anyone who escapes (they were very worried about the possibility of someone warning the main camp).

In the end, the fighter (who had hid outside the fortress downwind from the gate. Wind direction factored heavily into their planning) walked in and threw his throwing axe at "I don't care, whichever is the ugliest one".

One critical hit and the other bandits surrendered.

The party was so busy disarming and shackling their new prisoners that no one remembered to tell the paladin the fight was over. It wasn't until about ten minutes after they'd finished planning the size and location of their new stockade that the paladin finally stuck her head in through the gates and asked if she could come back now.

The only PC to suffer damage in the entire encounter was the cleric of Erastil, who got hurt when she hopped down off of the roof after the fight was over.

[J.S.]

I haven't done it yet, but this is one of the reasons why I was going to take the encounter at Oleg's as a "cold start" to the adventure. Game starts with narration about the bandits coming in, then have the archers spring out of the battlements and so forth in a fairly logical ambush layout, starting the game off with a bang. All the precursor information you can get in afterwards, with flashback if necessary, and since it is such a pushover battle it avoids wasting time on the excessive planning.