I'm looking for some advice on how to handle Rigg Gargadilly's abilities. His Supernatural Speed (Su)grants concealment with his normal, everyday movement, right? Against most creatures, finding cover or concealment allows you to use Stealth.
When moving at a speed greater than half but less than your normal speed (120 for Rigg), you take a –5 penalty to Stealth. But if people are observing you using any of their senses (but typically sight), you can't use Stealth.
So, I see two options for the ruling here:
A) If the PCs have a readied action to attack as soon as he streaks into their melee range, he can stealth up to them at 115 movement, take a sneak attack (and thus no longer stealthed), receive an attack from the readied action, and then use the rest of his 115 movement to hide somewhere and do it all again next round.
B) As soon as he streaks out from hiding, he is being observed and thus cannot stealth. He can rush up and attack, triggering the readied attack, and rush away again as above.
Option A seems a little too tough since you're essentially giving one creature a permanent sneak attack to every hit without having to get flanking. But option B seems a little too weak since he may as well be standing toe-to-toe exchanging one attack for another.
Well, when I ran him, I used something close to option A. When he's moving up to attack, the target of the attack can make a perception check to spot him on the way in. If he's not spotted in time, he gets his sneak attack off. Once he's been spotted (automatic after attacking), he must achieve full cover or concealment before being able to repeat the tactic (based on the fact that you can't use stealth in combat). Of course, this isn't hard since he is invisible after spending a round not moving.
I'm sure this isn't exactly RAW, but it makes for a fairly balanced encounter, though appropriately annoying to the PCs.
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I had him attack on every other round, striking with sneak attack and zooming away to re-stealth. Since you can move half your maximum speed and still retain stealth it wasn't hard for him to find cover.
The PCs eventually formed a defensive circle, and used readied actions to throw things like tanglefoot bags, caltrops and the like in his path and charge to intercept. All it took was one spotting him to call out to the other party members.
After that it was all downhill for Rigg, but it was a tense encounter for a long while as they figured out how to deal with him.
I had him attack on every other round, striking with sneak attack and zooming away to re-stealth. Since you can move half your maximum speed and still retain stealth it wasn't hard for him to find cover.
This is what I did, and what I would argue RAW entails. That courtyard has so many nooks and crannies it's easy for him to simply go out of sight.
And my PCs were never smart enough to coordinate their defenses, which led to Riggs nearly killing all of them (and the Dancing Lady did kill two because they abandoned the battle with Riggs to explore on their own.)
I'm looking for some advice on how to handle Rigg Gargadilly's abilities. His Supernatural Speed (Su)grants concealment with his normal, everyday movement, right? Against most creatures, finding cover or concealment allows you to use Stealth.
When moving at a speed greater than half but less than your normal speed (120 for Rigg), you take a –5 penalty to Stealth. But if people are observing you using any of their senses (but typically sight), you can't use Stealth.
So, I see two options for the ruling here:
A) If the PCs have a readied action to attack as soon as he streaks into their melee range, he can stealth up to them at 115 movement, take a sneak attack (and thus no longer stealthed), receive an attack from the readied action, and then use the rest of his 115 movement to hide somewhere and do it all again next round.
B) As soon as he streaks out from hiding, he is being observed and thus cannot stealth. He can rush up and attack, triggering the readied attack, and rush away again as above.
Option A seems a little too tough since you're essentially giving one creature a permanent sneak attack to every hit without having to get flanking. But option B seems a little too weak since he may as well be standing toe-to-toe exchanging one attack for another.
I also think that is the one with the incorrect stats. Be sure to check them.
I had him attack on every other round, striking with sneak attack and zooming away to re-stealth. Since you can move half your maximum speed and still retain stealth it wasn't hard for him to find cover.This is what I did, and what I would argue RAW entails. That courtyard has so many nooks and crannies it's easy for him to simply go out of sight.
And my PCs were never smart enough to coordinate their defenses, which led to Riggs nearly killing all of them (and the Dancing Lady did kill two because they abandoned the battle with Riggs to explore on their own.)
Agree with the DM and the Archmage. Very fun battle that forces the party to think instead of just bashing away with their favorite tactics. In my game, he put the greatest danger to him down with his first sneak attack (the bow bunny Erastil worshipping ranger wearing Staggy's helmet with fey as her favored enemy), and then really tormented the rest of the party until they scored a lucky crit with a readied action, severing three fingers on his sword hand, forcing him to drop his sword and flee. He'll be back, though.
Just ran this last weekend, and the entire area was also being affected by a heavy fog, thanks to random weather generation. He basically just dashed in, stabbed, and dashed out, and barely got injured. And then the bard cast glitterdust on him, and he lost his major advantage. He retreated immediately out of the courtyard rather than suffer a stand-up engagement, and had a 50/50 shot of coming back and being in the battle with the Dancing Lady. Fortunately for the PCs, he wasn't, as the Dancing Lady almost killed the PCs until the bard glitterdusted the two enthralled fighter types and blinded one of them, allowing them to get a warrior who was operating at 50%, rather than 0%.
But Rigg's probably going to join Hargulka's Monster Kingdom as their assassin very shortly...
I, too, had him attacking every other round, 60 ft in and 60 ft out, finding cover and spending a round going invisible. By the end of the encounter there were entangles going in half the keep to try and keep him pinned down. This was one of my favorite encounters to run thus far.
And if the encounter still isn't challenging enough, I suggest giving him a potion of Haste.
And having a harpy or two living in the keep.
Robert.
You're a mean man, Robert. I like that about you.
I remember that battle, it was one of the most fun ones.
It was pretty difficult to figure out a solution too, in the end my ranger cast entangle which pretty much covered half the keep, the summoner summoned a dire bat (for blindsense) and then the summoner readied glitterdust. It was really fun.
The dancing lady on the other hand was quite easy since the initiative didn't favor her and got a sneak attack from the rogue (who had a cold iron weapon) and then ate a critical from my +2 feybane falchion wielding ranger (i even rolled a nat 20 on the curse).
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You're a mean man, Robert. I like that about you.And if the encounter still isn't challenging enough, I suggest giving him a potion of Haste.
And having a harpy or two living in the keep.
Robert.
I have my moments.
I have seven players in my game and I use 20 pt builds, so i need to make things a little tougher - which I am completely okay with. That's our style.
I added a harpy and added another level of rogue to the quickling to make it 3d6 sneak attack, and gave him twin daggers as opposed to one short sword.
The two clerics and the wizard were the first ones in the keep. The gate closed locking the Sorcerer, the bard, and both fighters outside. The three inside, got accosted by the rats while the fighters tried to get the gate opened - easier than trying to remove armor and get over the wall, while the swarms of rats attack those inside.
The harpy charmed the two fighters so they no longer tried to open the gate, but couldn't move towards the harpy who was up on one of the towers. The bard used countersong to keep the fighters able refocus on the gate, but by that time the wizard had used Fly spell to get back outside away from the rats, and the dwarven cleric was charmed by the harpy and the human cleric of desna continued to fight off the rat swarms.
The dwarf walked towards the tower that the harpy was on top of, just as the fighters got the gate opened. The wizard flew back to the top of the walls to try to target the harpy with his spells - he hurt the harpy but didn't kill it.
The human cleric tried was the only one in a position to try and stop the dwarf from going in the tower. Gargadilly rushed from cover - spring attack/sneak attacked the cleric of desna who was already greatly injured by the two two swarms, failed his save vs the poison, just as the fighters entered the courtyard - slow movement w/ their fullplate.
You could have hear a pin drop when I described the quickling rush into the tower that the dwarf just entered, and the door closed behind him.
The bard was able to keep the harpy from affecting anyone else, a scorching ray took out the harpy the fighters took out the rats and by the time they got to the door, a massive pool of blood was flowing under the door. Smelled like dwarf-blood.
Quickling got away. Game ended there.
That was the second PC killed in the campaign.
Robert
Since the entire courtyard is difficult terrain, wouldn't that effect Riggs Movement as well?
I am running it soon and want to make sure i get this part correct.
That's how I played it, but it doesn't really do a lot to him. He still has more than enough movement to spring attack in and out to hiding.
That's how I played it, but it doesn't really do a lot to him. He still has more than enough movement to spring attack in and out to hiding.Since the entire courtyard is difficult terrain, wouldn't that effect Riggs Movement as well?
I am running it soon and want to make sure i get this part correct.
His +55 jump skill allows him to avoid actually moving over the underbrush as he can actually be jumping in and out for his spring attacks. With that modifier he doesn't even have to roll to make a standing long jump of 25 feet. He can average 30+ feet actually rolling.