We have a certain political leader who needs to be "taken care of". We can't outright kill the guy, too many guards. However, he's no commoner. The guy has 13 levels of rogue. So, we were thinking maybe a hit and run. The only plan we have as of now is to stealth in (huge stealth bonus) and poison him and coup de gras him after he's paralyzed and suffering several forms of con damage. But I'm looking for second opinions. The guy doing the killing is an unarmed monk. Poison choices we have so far are: Wolfsbane, as well as Tears of Death. Any poison or injury will be followed by Woundweal so the heal checks will bounce. Anybody got any more ideas? Lemme know.
Also need a way to get rid of the body, preferably disintegrated, so as to avoid the possibility of the leader being resurrected, raised by raise dead spell, or even True Resurrection. Pop me some ideas.
Monkey D. Dragon wrote: Also need a way to get rid of the body, preferably disintegrated, so as to avoid the possibility of the leader being resurrected, raised by raise dead spell, or even True Resurrection. Pop me some ideas. First of all what level is the party? What else do you have besides a monk? What intelligence do you have on the targets movements? What time frame do you have to prepare?
He's a 13th+ level political leader, so "a huge Stealth bonus" is not going to cut it. Ask the wizard of the party how he would protect himself from this monk, then plan to defeat those precautions. Expect 7th-level magic, starting with contingency, and medium-level magic items. Expect illusions, deception and imposture. Expect a bodyguard that can see the monk regardless of his Stealth bonus. Expect that your primary plan won't work and you'll need to do things the hard way. The stat blocks for a few different adult dragons should give you an idea what you'll have to overcome to get to him.
The guards will be on top of your assassin before he's landed enough hits to paralyse the guy. He won't have time for coup de grace by this plan. Any way to snatch the target away instantly to somewhere inaccessible to do the actual killing would help.
A lot of these problems arise because you're expecting to go front-on into the guy's prepared defenses and beat them down with your game stats. Do some research. Find (or make) an opportunity to get at him outside of his usual protection. Find out his habits, what's important to him and what can trigger him to do something rash.
As a political figure he will have some kinda of weakness.
Find it,exploit it and win.
Monkey D. Dragon wrote: Also need a way to get rid of the body, preferably disintegrated, so as to avoid the possibility of the leader being resurrected, raised by raise dead spell, or even True Resurrection. Pop me some ideas. Taking his head with you will defeat raise dead, but you're too high level for that to be enough. If you think his followers can afford true resurrection, trap the soul can prevent it, but you then have the problem of keeping the soul gem safe. If you have any favours owed by a helpful deity or demon lord, they might have some better ways to keep a soul imprisoned.
Without knowing the full scenario, I say you have to think big on this one.
No, bigger than that. :)
What skills/powers/spells/other do you have available?
Any scrying/divination abilities?
Does he have any public engagements coming up?
Does he have any known enemies? (The enemy of my enemy, etc.)
What's his raison d'etre? (Money, fame, power.)
Does he have any vices? (Women, booze, etc.)
Can he be blackmailed?
Does he have a family? Where do they live?
Where do his parents live?
Do the guards have families? Where do they live?
Does he care for the people he 'leads'?
If not, would the people be willing to take part in a revolution/riot?
Is, for example, poisoning the water supply an option?
Is burning down his house an option? (This to get him out in the open and occupy his guards.)
Is a siege out of the question?
We need more info. :)
I agree that a simple in-and-out assassination job is probably a suicide mission - even if you bring down your target. Keep in mind that in my campaign, at least, all politicoes wander around with nondetection on and periapts of proof against poison worn - and the big-league guys will probably have acquired even heavier defenses.
One trick (not suitable for good-aligned characters, though) would be to hire somebody else to kill the guy - expecting them to fail - and simply have a discreet observer on the spot when the assassination is attempted. Make sure that your patsies know exactly who hired them - by which I mean, frame another of your enemies as the 'employers' as subtly as possible. This way, you get a free look at your target's precise defenses and you just might divert the target's attention by making him think he has an enemy other than your group. In RL, of course, you don't want a 'heightened state of alert' around your target, but in PF magic means that the 'heightened state of alert' is 24/7 forever, so you may as well enjoy the benefits of this tactic.
In some ways it's better to abduct the leader than kill him, provided you cast nondetection (or mind blank if you've got it) on him almost immediately after the snatch to avoid a wizard-led rescue mission. You can then put him in storage while you decide if death is necessary - my personal fave is to petrify and bury the guy, since he can't be resurrected and scrying will only reveal that their leader is in "a totally dark place" that can't be teleported into.
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I agree with all of the above. Our party consists of myself a level 8 Ranger with a plus 3 bow and curved elven blade. A level 8 Druid, wildshape based. A level 7 Rogue/Level 1 Gunslinger who specializes in sniping. And the level 8 unarmed Monk. We also have a level 6 Sorceror who may or may not be in on the plan. We are leaning more towards a rebellion. I know of an NPC who would be interested. My DM told me if all went well we would prolly all get killed lol. The people are pretty pissed at him right now, so starting a rebellion shouldn't be hard. I will work on finding some blackmail, on him or his guards. I didn't think about there being any form of protection on him. I went for a direct approach of just kill him, I needed to think outside the box. Thanks to all of you, keep up the suggestions.
Mmm, a relatively low-magic but high-stealth group. Pass without trace will be your friend if (if!) you can get to the "escaping" part of the plan - I'd have it running going in. I think your best tactic with this party setup is to have your gunslinger focus on the bodyguards (I know giving up that first sweet shot against your real target will be hard, but incapacitating a bodyguard will make the melee crew's job a lot simpler!) Your druid or sorceror might want to lead off with dispel magic on the target to try to strip off whatever spells he'll have running (almost certain to have some). You, the monk, and the wildshaped druid are your melee crew - if I were you I'd assign 2 of your melee crew to bringing down the target and 1 to nothing but running interference. The rogue/gunslinger and sorceror can stay well back and provide support (hitting the real target or preventing assistance from reaching him, whichever they feel is more important at that moment.) If you decide to capture him, the monk may be able to grapple, achieve a pin and give somebody the chance to snap manacles on your target. Whether alive or dead, take the target's body when you go (the druid's primary wildshape for combat is almost guaranteed to have a generous encumbrance that'll allow him/her to carry the target away.) As far as the escape, that's where pass without trace and entangle will both prove very useful. So will caltrops, for that matter, if your escape route involves any fairly narrow passages.
Monkey D. Dragon wrote: We have a certain political leader who needs to be "taken care of". We can't outright kill the guy, too many guards. However, he's no commoner. The guy has 13 levels of rogue. So, we were thinking maybe a hit and run. The only plan we have as of now is to stealth in (huge stealth bonus) and poison him and coup de gras him after he's paralyzed and suffering several forms of con damage. But I'm looking for second opinions. The guy doing the killing is an unarmed monk. Poison choices we have so far are: Wolfsbane, as well as Tears of Death. Any poison or injury will be followed by Woundweal so the heal checks will bounce. Anybody got any more ideas? Lemme know. I think first of all, you need more intelligence, maybe pay for info on him... Use your animal companion to spy on him, hopefully have the sorceror use some divinations, even if they fail, that gives you more info in itself. A rogue is going to know how to fight to his advantage in a fair fight, you most likely will need a diversion, whether it's your sniper drawing off bodyguards with loud gun fire, or transmute rock to mud in their carriage's path etc. however, you may need to go one step further, using disguises to replace current bodyguards, or appearing to be the target yourself to draw a large portion of the bodyguards away. You have many options.
Probably the best way to handle him is not to lay a hand on him. Discredit him, bring down his career, reputation and fortune. Wage a war of terror and intimidation. Make him blow more and more of his money on protections against a threat that will never materialize. Expose his vices, corruption in his organization, whittle away at his reputation. Screw up whatever he does, further reducing his money and reputation. Figure out what he knows, who he can blackmail... and prevent it. Once he has no leverage, no reputation, no money... he is nothing. At that point, you can simply walk away with your victory... or end him.
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Dunno if it was suggested already, but I'll add this raw option, leaving the refinement to you.
Use some anonymous way (or someone external to the party) to publicly announce that the guy will be killed.
Then, be at the casting for bodyguard hiring. And after you get the job, "fail" at it.
Perhaps split the group in two: "the assassins" and "the bodyguards"; the former will try some fake assassination to make the target think that he really needs more bodyguards.
Lincoln Hills you have given me a ton of ideas. We have been thinking a lot lately about perhaps organizing a revolution, or something of that caliber. A little less direct, since likely he will have more protection since he recently has been making unpopular decisions. However both in character and out (he is based on a real pathfinder character) I have found out that the city, near the city he is in charge of, has a powerful leader that hates the one we're trying to kill. So we'll have some help perhaps. At least some sympathizers. We're thinking about hiring an assassin to make an attempt to test out his defenses, then perhaps send him some sort of message, scare him senseless. Then if his actions get much worse, we will definitely attempt a more direct approach. cough kill him cough
Astral Wanderer wrote: Dunno if it was suggested already, but I'll add this raw option, leaving the refinement to you.
Use some anonymous way (or someone external to the party) to publicly announce that the guy will be killed.
Then, be at the casting for bodyguard hiring. And after you get the job, "fail" at it.
Perhaps split the group in two: "the assassins" and "the bodyguards"; the former will try some fake assassination to make the target think that he really needs more bodyguards.
No one suggested this and it was a wonderful idea, will definitely be considered.
Talynonyx wrote: Probably the best way to handle him is not to lay a hand on him. Discredit him, bring down his career, reputation and fortune. Wage a war of terror and intimidation. Make him blow more and more of his money on protections against a threat that will never materialize. Expose his vices, corruption in his organization, whittle away at his reputation. Screw up whatever he does, further reducing his money and reputation. Figure out what he knows, who he can blackmail... and prevent it. Once he has no leverage, no reputation, no money... he is nothing. At that point, you can simply walk away with your victory... or end him. I concur. Some targets you can't just go 'Stab' and walk away from. Some require a certain amount of delicacy. The problem is that these tend to take significantly longer than the more... direct... approach.
One option for a route...
Ensure appropriate non-detections are cast on party.
Stealth into his manor / house / property of interest one night when he is out.
Draw giant pentagram (qv) in blood of your choosing on floor.
Place half burnt out candles at the cardinal points (Black / Red).
Exotic Skull in the centre (Infernal or intelligent creature)
Sprinkle area liberally with sulfur.
Put Red or black robe on the coat rack.
Leave 'Summoning demons for fun and profit' on the nightstand. Ensure that there's a bookmark in there that IS his.
Then cause a suitable ruckus that would get local authorities to bust in without stopping to ask the politics of it (eg. Set fire to something).
Fire department or equivalent bust open the door to put the fire out and get an eyeful of what looks like a demonic summoning rite gone wrong.
After that hits the local gossip circles, have an anonymous tip from a 'concerned citizen who can't turn a blind eye' come in about a shipment coming onto his properties or in one of his warehouses or whatever. Ensure that it's laced with not just illegal, but morally WRONG items. Stolen artwork. Meyh. Illegal drugs? Good Start. Cut them with something that makes them highly dangerous? Better. More sulfur and Candles? Oh, that's a nice touch and tie in. Be a dear and make sure that the order / invoice is written up in infernal as well though.
At this point even his allies are going to start asking some questions and his detractors are going to have a field day... Assuming that is that Demon summoning is bad for the town your in.
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