Hi I'm gonna run a session on Sunday with my group of players and I'll more or less start it with them attacked by an assassin.
The problem is that this is the first assassination that I have ever made and I don't want it to be too easy/hard.
The party:
Conjuration Wizard lvl 7
Wild-Shaping Druid (with animal companion) lvl 7
Witch lvl 7, this is a play that is new to pathfinder and playing caster.
Paladin lvl 7, is supposed to be the tank.
His basic tactics will be to cast Deeper Darkness on himself when the party in a secluded part of "the town". He will then use the darkness to inflict as many doses of poison on the frailer party members as he can using Swift Poison to "reload" faster. The poison I'm thinking about using using is Black Smear—injury; save Fort DC 15; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d2 Str cure 1 save. If that doesn't work he'll just go to stabby-town on em.
Right now I'm working on the exact stats, I can post them tomorrow if you want em.
Hi I'm gonna run a session on Sunday with my group of players and I'll more or less start it with them attacked by an assassin.
The problem is that this is the first assassination that I have ever made and I don't want it to be too easy/hard.
It depends on what kind of ambush advantages he has but I wouldn't think too hard will be your problem. If they have half a chance they would probably eat the guy for lunch.
I never like throwing just random assassins at the group. Has the fact that someone has hired an assassin reached the party's ears?
Generally, if I bring an assassin, it is to kill a single PC. Assassination is personal. Someone wants you dead.
Never do it as GM revenge, but rather that PC has done something in game to make himself a target (i.e. stole from the local crime lord AND boasted about it etc).
Assassins should never go 'stabby-town' rather they should get in, hit hard, get out. Nothing will get the players' hackles up faster than an enemy that mortally (or at least seriously) wounds a PC AND gets away. They will want to track him (and whoever hired him) down and get their revenge.
Stuff
APL 7 against a CR6 creature. Should be easy for them on paper.
However, in practice it should be a decent challenge unless they can remove Deeper Darkness, which makes the encounter easy. If a martial character has the Blind Fight feat, it will help.
If they can't get rid of Deeper Darkness, they can't target your assassin with spells. If they stand and fight, one or more PCs could go down. They can't outrun him either, but they could get behind a door.
This is assuming he doesn't attack in broad daylight.
So it will be challenging but it shouldn't kill them. imo
Hi I'm gonna run a session on Sunday with my group of players and I'll more or less start it with them attacked by an assassin.
The problem is that this is the first assassination that I have ever made and I don't want it to be too easy/hard.
The party:
Conjuration Wizard lvl 7
Wild-Shaping Druid (with animal companion) lvl 7
Witch lvl 7, this is a play that is new to pathfinder and playing caster.
Paladin lvl 7, is supposed to be the tank.** spoiler omitted **
Right now I'm working on the exact stats, I can post them tomorrow if you want em.
That is only a CR 6. It should take about 4 of those to potentially kill the party. With 3 casters and a pally I expect for them not even break a sweat.
I don't know how your group plays but we always have one radar(person with very high perception). If the assassin somehow still gets a surprise found in that gets him a free standard action. He will probably drop the deeper darkness SLA.
If he wins init he gets to sneak attack someone. One of your casters will probably cast dispel magic to get rid of the darkness. If flubs the roll another will try. Most likely at least one of them will roll high enough to drop the darkness. The pally and druid should be able to surround him. I see him dead by round 2.
I assume no PC has darkvision because you didn`t mention it.
If they do, there are several further means to bypass/weaken deeper darkness... (besides Dispel or the stated means in DD spell description - FYI I don`t know if most people would automatically decide to cast Dispel if Darkness instantly descends... but maybe some would). Starting with normal darkness conditions would be ideal, and the PCs may not even notice the introduction of Deeper Darkness until they try to brighten the normal darkness.
You can`t have him use Deeper Darkness on the Surprise Round.
That will just be a joke and play out like Wraith says.
He already needs to have it up, and have his Surprise Round (IF he gets it) free for something of substance.
I would seriously consider giving him some very low CR help which doesn`t change the encounter CR,
these can help by throwing items messing with sight and possibly creating difficult terrain, etc.
Remember that PCs can`t necessarily discern who/what is the strongest threat if you conceal attack/save bonuses.
As Wraith says, you really have alot of room with the CR, having a 2nd assassin of equal capacity doesn`t seem out of line... The thing to remember is, anybody going out of their to kill the party has SOME idea of the party`s capacity, so if they are serious about the assassination they are not going to send somebody so under-powered to take on the whole party. Playing the assassins as non-suicidal means they will likely retreat once it seems likely they have a good chance of not making it out alive if they stay in the fight, and this reduces their lethality.
Having an item to create illusionary opponents could also mess with the PC`s initial tactical reaction if they think there are more opponents... If necessary this could be a scroll via UMD, again this should be possible if re-building his skillset... Again something to use before the Surprise Round.
There are various permutations of Init order, who can act on Surprise Round, etc,
but if he can it seems useful to Ready an Attack/Charge vs. Arcane Caster (his target anyways it sounds like),
who would likely be doing something about the Deeper Darkness as Wraith says, and thus disrupting them would both cancel their turn and attack the target he would have anyways. Having more than one assassin helps here.
I would consider rebuilding the Dark Stalker`s Feats... Spring Attack seems a viable tactic here,
in combo with terrain (e.g. allowing the DS who is familiarized with the ambush site plenty of movement options, but presenting various barriers whether difficult terrain or LoS blockages separating PCs who do follow it)
Also, as an assassination, it is reasonably going to scout it`s target and choose a time when they are weak,
e.g. after one or more (possibly un-related) encounters, with some spells depleted, etc.
With this CR vs. APL, it isn´t reasonable that he´s actually planning to take out the whole party...
It sounds like `the weakest PC` (probably Arcane Caster) is your target, so stick with that,
and keep his options open for escape... He should be able to heal up with CSW Potions for another day,
or re-engage the party in a short period of time in the same general area,
the PCs now with some warning but not sure if another attack is imminent, and having expended more resources.
Any assassination attempt should have advantageous terrain, timing, etc, which should probably be +1 CR, meaning an Epic +4/5 CR vs. APL probably will be a very succesful assassination... So you don`t need to amp it up that much. That said, I think you have quite a bit of room to explore the different aspects I mentioned above... Not ALL of them, but some of them should certainly be survivable, though the Assassins should have a decent chance to drop one PC, if not kill them outright.
Thanks for all the feedback.
Fist of, I made a big mistake in my fist post. I forgot to mention the ex-Gnome Tengu word-caster sorcerer lvl 7. I was bit tierd when I made the post I guess. Sorry about that.
I had a look at the players character sheets and nobody in the party even know dispel magic (except the druid, and he hasn't got it prepared). So I guess that the Deeper Darkness getting dispelled won't happen. Not that the assassin knows that.
From what you all have said it is obvious that the assassin needs to strike at night. My plan was for the party to meet up with the new witch in a seedy part of town, looks like that meeting will take place at night.
So with this in mind, do I need to make some changes?
PS This isn't about revenge as DM. The party pissed of a crazy cult and they wan't some payback
Thanks for all the feedback.
Fist of, I made a big mistake in my fist post. I forgot to mention the ex-Gnome Tengu word-caster sorcerer lvl 7. I was bit tierd when I made the post I guess. Sorry about that.
I had a look at the players character sheets and nobody in the party even know dispel magic (except the druid, and he hasn't got it prepared). So I guess that the Deeper Darkness getting dispelled won't happen. Not that the assassin knows that.
From what you all have said it is obvious that the assassin needs to strike at night. My plan was for the party to meet up with the new witch in a seedy part of town, looks like that meeting will take place at night.
So with this in mind, do I need to make some changes?
PS This isn't about revenge as DM. The party pissed of a crazy cult and they wan't some payback
Everyone can just take a move action to move out of the the darkened area. It is only a 20 ft radius. Pound the darkened area with AoE's.
The spell is not good enough to make a CR 6 fight into a CR 9 one. He will still get his butt kicked one way or another.
Everyone can just take a move action to move out of the the darkened area. It is only a 20 ft radius. Pound the darkened area with AoE's.
The spell is not good enough to make a CR 6 fight into a CR 9 one. He will still get his butt kicked one way or another.
The assassin will use Deeper Darkness, radius 60. Also this fight won't take place on a open field but on the tight streets of a medieval town. Still I see what you are getting at.
So what should I do about it, lower the assassins level by one and add another one?
Everyone can just take a move action to move out of the the darkened area. It is only a 20 ft radius. Pound the darkened area with AoE's.
The spell is not good enough to make a CR 6 fight into a CR 9 one. He will still get his butt kicked one way or another.The assassin will use Deeper Darkness, radius 60. Also this fight won't take place on a open field but on the tight streets of a medieval town. Still I see what you are getting at.
So what should I do about it, lower the assassins level by one and add another one?
That's an idea, and not a bad one. Alternatively, simply attack them in an rea and situation where they are left exposed makign the encounter much more dangerous.
Let the assassin pay off the guards to patrol another street while he silences the innkeeper with fear for his life. Then have him attack the PC's in there sleep. Then you can have the innkeeper have a change of heart and try to warn the characters only to get slaughtered himself. The PC's are woken up by the struggle. At this point the group will either err on the side of cuation and gear up before facing the assassin or rush out naked to see what's going on and get flattened. Essentially you let the characters kill themselves. Assassin's are smart after all and attacking a group of seasoned adventurers for the lone businessman is worthy of a darwin award.