Hey guys I have a party of 5 player characters
- 6th Ranger
- 6th Wizard
- 6th Alchemist
- 6th Summoner
- 4th Barbarian/1st Rogue
The "boss battle" at the end of next session will be them vs an Elven Ranger - Archer inside a church. I want the fight to be a challenge but I know it can be hard when it's one NPC vs a whole party.
I'm hoping you guys can make suggestions on tactics, magic items or even tell me what level the Ranger should be?
Your help would be greatly appreciated and I'll report the outcome the day after the next session.
Thanks in advance
FDM
Is there a reason why it has to be a lone ranger(no pun intended) because I don't see this going too well? Even if you push him up to a CR 10 he will go down.
A CR 10 is a level 11 ranger. I would rather use a CR 10 ranger and give him PC wealth to and better point buy though which still keeps him at a CR 10.
Hey guys I have a party of 5 player characters
- 6th Ranger
- 6th Wizard
- 6th Alchemist
- 6th Summoner
- 4th Barbarian/1st RogueThe "boss battle" at the end of next session will be them vs an Elven Ranger - Archer inside a church. I want the fight to be a challenge but I know it can be hard when it's one NPC vs a whole party.
I'm hoping you guys can make suggestions on tactics, magic items or even tell me what level the Ranger should be?Your help would be greatly appreciated and I'll report the outcome the day after the next session.
Thanks in advance
FDM
Have him take advantage of his surroundings. Is the church two storied? Good he cna rain down death from behind cover on a balcony. Make it hard to impossible for the characters to get at him without the use of magic or tricks. Have a coupleof lower level archers with him and your party wll feel pinned down under a rain of pointy death. When he gets too low have him retreat out of sight for a round or two giving the party time to recover, reload, or cast vital spells.
Make the fight dynamic as possible, if there are inner light sources let the ranger start snuffving them out so only his low light vision is a factor making it harder for them to hit him, if there are hangings and things let him take shots and try to bring those down on top of the characters. Especially ahve him take advantage of partial cover making it harder for the characters to win in a straight up shoot out.
Hey guys I have a party of 5 player characters.....
make sure that he/she is not alone. a couple of dire bears to engage the ranger/barb & rogue.
and flying nasties for the spellcasters.
maybe a couple of undead (this is in a church)- shadows to suck strenght, if that could work with your concept of the bad guy?
is there a theme to this villain? just we can see what might be suitable freinds for him?
GRU
|
I have two suggestions:
1) If you have access to the first Legacy of Fire volume, use the idea presented in the sanctuary of the monastery at the very beginning:
2) Utilize your surroundings like Tark said. Specifically the pews. One of my players' ranged character used them to great effect in an encounter I ran in a church.
|
Trap the church. Have him ready dispelling arrows to fire at anyone attempting to fly. It'll force characters to climb up the staircase of horrible home-alone traps.
Have him fire an arrow at the rope supporting the church bell, causing it to crash down on a bunch of characters all at once.
Falling Church Bell
CR 4
Area: 20 ft square.
Effect: 4d6 Damage + Pinned beneath bell
Save: Reflex DC 15 Negates
Notes: The Bell is heavy and can only be moved with a full-round action and DC 20 STR check, or if a combined total of 29 Strength makes a full-round action to roll the bell off together.
If one unlucky player gets pinned beneath that, it'll by your archer some time picking at the PCs while they try to free their trapped friend. (If they don't try to free their trapped friend, have the archer shoot at the trapped PC, and call them out on their lack of camaraderie).
It's probably easy enough to make it challenging (have him sniping from a place that's hard to find or hard to get to and give him some way to see through darkness/fog/etc.), but making it challenging and fun is more difficult.
|
To really screw with the party, give him a few levels as Horizon Walker and get him the terrain mastery of the Astral planes so he can dimension door a bit.
Though when it happened to my party, it was under the 3.5 rules which was nastier IIRC, but in PF the 3+(bonus) times a day may still be enough for a battle. Though when it happened to my group it was on a larger scale so the dimension door really helped the single archer wreck havoc on my group by DD on either side of the group along a forest path. Still, depending on the size of the church, any character that gets close to the archer... he can just DD to another spot and keep up the arrow barrage. But it depends on
If there's lots of shadows in the church, maybe take some shadow dancer levels? The imagery of the archer flitting from shadows to shadows doing attacks on the poor pc's sounds neat. The shadowdancer by the time you have shadowjump will have darkvision and also summon shadows which would be of nice annoyance factor.
Be sure to find some way to keep the PCs pinned inside the building. Otherwise they just have to leave, go outside, burn down the building and be done with it right?
Also, don't put the bbeg where they can't get to him, just make it difficult to do so. It's essentially a gauntlet run. Survive the ranger's assault in order to do him in. Does the ranger have an escape plan? He certainly should.
For what it's worth I ran a low-level version of this for my PCs outdoors. A stealthed ranger was hiding in the branches of a tree (out of reach of anyone on the ground) with bear traps on two sides of the tree and a hidden 5' pit trap with poisoned sticks in it along his escape route (he could easily jump over it since he knew where it was). It provided an interesting little encounter for my PCs at the time. The monk in the group outflanked him and finished him off before he got too far away, but his arrows and traps did noticeable damage before he was finished off.
I like the idea of putting the ranger in the rafters. Perhaps he can have several dire bats to pester the party. I'd also make the church but the rafters in particular dark and hard to see into. Additionally, I like the idea of the dim. door ranger. Every time you fire on him he ducks into the darkness and reappears somewhere else. It reminds me of the three amigos.
You may also want to put a huge iron bound door blocking the stairs that led up. If your barbarian is like every other barbarian I've ever met he will try to sunder the thing. This will waste time and make him a sitting duck. Additionally nets, snares and traps. Anything that will slow the party down and make the fight seem more desperate.
Traps is good, difficult terrain is good. (pews would be difficult terrain) Give him feats that up his mobility (faster runner) and negate difficult terrain (like acrobatic steps).
Have him constantly move and don't design him around full attacks, this will muss up the full attackers in the party.
Have his animal companion be a nasty flying beastie that will hide and ready an action until the party wizard tries to cast, they it can swoop down and muss with him whilst casting his spell.
Have some chandelier traps, that can be set off by the ranger, so that when someone IS flying he shoots his arrow, cuts the trigger rope and bam, the flying character is bull rushed by a huge chandelier.
Maybe a potion of spider climb could be useful for him, or if you want to drop treasure a cloak of the mountebank for added mobility.
If you didn't want to make him a ranger, an arcane archer might also fit the bill, he could rain down things like silence arrows and the like on the party.
In fact an elven arcane archer with the above listed tactics and feats might be more deadly than a ranger. A summoned creature could sit in for the flying animal companion, and if you do it right, the pc's may never get a spell off!
Could be quite frustrating.
Lots of things for cover, lots of changes in elevation (stairs and balconies) lots of ways to interrupt spells and flying and lots of room to run around.
1 level of barbarian (for fast move) take fleet twice (for another 10) nimble moves, acrobatics moves (are there other ones like this?) enough levels of say witch to be useful, (some hexes might be nice) and arcane archer levels and you have a really decent elven sniper (that cackles)
|
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
|
I agree that mobility is important here. There also need to be traps, just to slow the party down. One suggestion: if there are dark rafters, the party will naturally assume he is up there. A mechanical arrow-firing trap hidden in the darkness will waste a lot of their attention.
As an elf, he might qualify for the arcane archer prestige class. If he can shoot arrows that cast images of himself in various places in the room, it might waste the PCs time running over and attacking those images. Silence cast on an arrow stuck in the wizard's shoulder is another good tactic.
While having allies / defensive linemen is a sound tactic, I think the encounter would be more memorable if he were to try to take down the party solo.
--+--
You want something for each of the PCs to do, to contribute to the archer's downfall:
Ranger - approach and attack
Wizard - cast wind wall to shut down attacks from one direction, forcing the archer to move.
If he's invisible, cast faerie fire or glitterdust or detect invisibility.
Alchemist - buff the warriors
Summoner - send summoned monsters to engage the archer as a delaying tactic, to keep him from shooting or moving. Several reasonable choices have enhanced senses.
Barbarian/Rogue - detect and avoid the traps. appraoch and attack.
--+--
My advice is limited, because we don't know much about the nature of the encounter. Is he hunting the party, or vice versa? Is this his lair, or a convenient place to retreat to once the PCs flush him out of his actual headquarters? Why are they fighting? Do the PCs need to take him alive?
Have the Ranger carrying the appropriate Bane arrows (assuming he knows the party's racial make-up) an Efficient Quiver for proper access if he has several kinds. Or Bane + Unholy if applicable. One character won't last long in a direct fight between the whole party, so his early hits need to count if you want them to feel some urgency to shut him down. And unless he has some really solid ways to distance himself from the party, he'd better have a side-arm, maybe something Keen to play on the desperation factor.
Thanks guys, you've given me a lot of good ideas. I think the key tactic will be to have the ranger move around a lot and be out of reach. I'll have to look up some of these suggestions.
As for some backstory, the party are playing Masks of the Living God. The Ranger is related to the party's Ranger and she is working for the Razmirans as an assassin. So when she makes her Darth Maul-like appearance at the end of the session the party will have a dilemma - how to take her down without killing her since they have reason to believe she may be mind controlled.
Thanks again everyone
FDM
|
|
If the party has any flying creatures, a tanglefoot bag is a cheap mundane way to neutralize the creature (those with wings), ranged touch I think and then it's a DC15 Reflex save or the creature falls, something like that, it's in the description.
Also, another simple trap is to have certain beams/supports 'greased'. An alchemical grease costs 5 gp, though the only rules I see on the pfsrd is for personal usage... I'm sure one can find something similar to the grease spell in terms of mundane greased beams/landings.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
An elven ranger attacking from ambush can be a beast. Don't forget about the spells. Start with Gravity Bow, Longstrider, and Jump, also look at Stone Call cast at the start of combat.
Give him some Slippers of Spider Climbing, a Potion of Haste, And a +1 Seeking Long bow (STR +x) of Spell Storing (Stone Call ), Eficent Quiver, and some Bane Arrows.
Make him a switch hitter as per Treanmonks guide. so for archery feats he should have at least Rapid Shot , Many Shot and Deadly Aim.
Hide somewhere high where you can see the party coming. Cast Longstrider, Jump and Gravity Bow, Drink the Potion of Haste. Shoot the Wizard first which will also unleash the Stone call. That still gives you a full attack action to continue shooting. Depending on the Favored Enemy the Wizard may be down. Target the rest of the party probably taking out the summoner, followed by the Alchemest. Save the Barbarian for last. When someone gets to close jump to a new location and keep plugging away.
Assuming at least 6th level you should have 5 attacks per round doing at least 2d6 +(4+STR Bonus) each.
Increase his hit points by a factor of 5, one full "batch" of hit points per PC. If a PC drops, scratch off a "batch" of hit points, unless doing so would cause the ranger to become staggered, unconscious, or dead.
Arcane archer, black tentacles and web on arrows would peeve people off!
|
This guy's suggestions are awesome.
Trap the church. Have him ready dispelling arrows to fire at anyone attempting to fly. It'll force characters to climb up the staircase of horrible home-alone traps.
Have him fire an arrow at the rope supporting the church bell, causing it to crash down on a bunch of characters all at once.
Falling Church Bell
CR 4
Area: 20 ft square.
Effect: 4d6 Damage + Pinned beneath bell
Save: Reflex DC 15 Negates
Notes: The Bell is heavy and can only be moved with a full-round action and DC 20 STR check, or if a combined total of 29 Strength makes a full-round action to roll the bell off together.If one unlucky player gets pinned beneath that, it'll by your archer some time picking at the PCs while they try to free their trapped friend. (If they don't try to free their trapped friend, have the archer shoot at the trapped PC, and call them out on their lack of camaraderie).
Let's not forget the effectiveness of the oldies but goodies. LOTS of caltrops and lamp oil plus a single tindertwig can set up a pretty spectacular scene. Fighting in a burning building - which an archer ranger can by and large ignore - is pretty nerve-wracking. If the ranger makes his own traps, his traps can be intended to keep the characters inside the building while the floors burn out from under them while he's peppering them with nasty pointy death. His escape route (the roof access) includes a locking trap that he can trigger from the outside.
Keep in mind that the PCs may elect to fire the church unless there is a Macguffin of importance they need to get out of the place... (as earlier commented upon).
|
What might be easier than trapping the church to prevent the party from leaving and setting the place on fire could be to tie up some figures on the dias, and leave the impression that they are innocent civilians captured for whatever nasty fate awaits them.
The PCs would, theoretically, try to rescue the prisoners, only to find that they are manikins or archery targets, wrapped up in robes and then tied up, to appear to be wrapped up people.
Am extra layer of mean would be to place some sort of 'booby-traps' on the fake hostages (such as planting a pressurized tanglefoot bag on one, to detonate all over the person who turns that 'body' over to attempt to free them), but that's not necessary, as their purpose is to keep the PCs in the 'kill zone' until they figure out they aren't people.
.
The 'arrow trap from the rafters' idea is awesome. The PCs will likely expect the archer to be hiding there, and throw missiles or ranged spells up at the source of the arrows, wasting valuable resources. (Yes, you just hit the single-use arrow trap with two 4d6 scorching rays. It's very dead...) Putting hooded manikins up there as well could further encourage such wasted return fire, and having the ranger himself wear a hood, and a cloth mask that gives him the same manikin-look, could add to the confusion, as someone who does spot the real archer might mistake him for another manikin, as he stands there, blank cloth 'face' tilted and arms hanging limply at his side, until someone approaches close enough and he Quick Draws his blades and attacks.
The problem with one boss vs any party is the action economy. Six players plus any summoned, henchmen or companions means a lot of actions each turn vs the ranger.
The best way to do this is to attack the action economy. Make some of the player characters powers and/or abilities difficult or impossible to use. Also give the ranger some pearls of power and load him up with archery buffs, plus some good magic arrows. If he's a tenth level ranger he should have a companion and should be able to summon some critters. Have him use his animal handling to train some normal animals as his helpers. Give him some invisibility potions and allow him to trap some areas that he can lure the party into.
If this were my campaign and I somehow had to do a single ranger vs a party of PCs, I would have the ranger track and surprise them in their sleep. Perhaps sending a stampede of elk across their camp and picking off the injured characters, then disappearing into the night. Harass the PCs so they can't regain spells, and send animals in to use up their spells. Make it a multi-day campaign which becomes a war of attrition where the spellcasters can't regain spells.
Give him poison arrows which cause con, str or dex damage. Have him buff himself with cat's grace, and then cast entangle on the party and rapid shot/multi-shot entangled characters into oblivion.
The only reasonable way I see to make this work is to have the ranger just wear the party down.
But that doesn't sound like fun for the players, so I'd give the ranger a druid sidekick and a couple of fighter or ranger henchmen and slug it out with the party.
|
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
|
Nothing helps balance the action economy like slow.
I'd also recommend some false information ahead of time. If the party enters the fight believing that the ranger is an Assassin (prestige class), then they'll be wary about letting the NPC take a three-round bead on them. That means that they'll be moving and trying to find cover themselves, rather than frontally assaulting.
1. The BBEG should not be completely alone. Use critters of some kind.
2. Why is a ranger inside a church? - Noone in that party has WIS as a primary stat, he can probably hide from them without even trying.
3. Zen Archer 4, Barbarian 2, + Ranger to top off. This allows the BBEG to keep using his bow throughout the encounter, including in melee. It also boosts his base speed and thus jumping ability. With the Ki abilities on top, his mobility is amazing.
The Uncanny Dodge means he does not lose his Dexterity to AC while balancing. If the melee's try to follow him out there, they will be "balancing" and thus be easier for him to hit.
Zen Archer also gives a boat load of feats or feat-like abilities.
Do not use WIS as his "to hit" stat, stay with DEX as you need it for acrobatics and so on.
If you feel like making him a true ghost, spend three feats to grab two levels of Shadowdancer. He will now be impossible for them to flank and he will have Evasion on top, making the Alchemist much weaker against him. - Even his Touch AC will be pretty high due to the amount of DEX he will be having.
Going Shadowdancer will hurt his damage output of course, but will ensure that he can slink away almost no matter what.
