Hey everyone, trying to host a session soon and I'm kind of limited on prep time so I came here for some advice!
The players plan on trying to rescue a local NPC from wrongful imprisonment and I want the local guard to give them some trouble, but I don't want them to outright kill the players. Most of the guard actually believe the NPC is guilty after all and aren't evil murderous jerks.
The players are 3rd level and if it matters the party composition is human ranger 2/barbarian 1 (two weapon fighting), half elf paladin 3 (sword and board), Human rogue 3 (emphasis on ranged combat), and human fighter 3 (generic two handed build)
I want to keep the CR of the guards low so I can throw more at the players, the reason for this being I have a bad habit of running very few encounters with tough enemies, and I want more combat that isn't too challenging.
It seems like a lot of my sessions are "talktalktalk big fight talktalk" so I want to throw in some "talktalktalk little fight little fight little fight big fight talktalktalk" if you know what I mean.
Thanks for any advice ahead of time and thanks for putting up with the slight silliness of this post.
Use warriors as opposed to PC martial classes. They will have a lower CR while having plenty of hit points and just as good of BAB (albeit with lower statstics to back it up), and fewer feats means they are easier to both defeat and build/run. Saps are relatively low damage, but are non-lethal without incuring a penalty. Warriors are proficient, and they can even wield large sized saps in two hands with a -2 penalty, as opposed to the -4 penalty for wielding a more damaging weapon in a non-lethal manner. Tanglefoot bags are cheap enough to fit into NPC arsenals and can cause plenty of complications while being completely non-lethal as well.
Use warriors as opposed to PC martial classes. They will have a lower CR while having plenty of hit points and just as good of BAB (albeit with lower statstics to back it up), and fewer feats means they are easier to both defeat and build/run. Saps are relatively low damage, but are non-lethal without incuring a penalty. Warriors are proficient, and they can even wield large sized saps in two hands with a -2 penalty, as opposed to the -4 penalty for wielding a more damaging weapon in a non-lethal manner. Tanglefoot bags are cheap enough to fit into NPC arsenals and can cause plenty of complications while being completely non-lethal as well.
Why thank you good sir. All of that pretty much fits into what I had planned already (but take no offense, I should have said more about my ideas so far.)
I hadn't considered making the sap large or tanglefoot bags at all however. Any advice on feats that increase nonlethal effectiveness that have no prereqs or prereqs low level warriors can easily meet?
Improved Unarmed Combat is also an option, especially combined with either Two Weapon Fighting or Improved Grapple for a particularly Brawler-y Guard with a decent Strength score.
I was considering improved grapple until I saw the improved unarmed strike prereq, it seemed like a wasted feat to me but when I read your post I realized something I should have realized before... I can just use one set of ability scores and build multiple variants of the same NPC with the only differences being feats and equipment. Thanks for sparking that thought :)
You can always give the guards some magical back up. Nothing complicated, any low level spellcaster would add some variety to the opponents. How about a Cleric with spells like Bane, Bless and burning disarm?
I like to keep my NPCs simple, especially when I have a lot of them, so I usually gravitate toward Toughness and Improved Initiative for the little guys; always helpful and you can factor the bonuses right into the stat blocks. Goging first and living longer are always effective. As martials you could have them use Power Attack- basic. If your PCs have a good AC it might actually make the NPCs do less damage overall, which if you are looking for an easy fight plays right along, and if they have poor ACs it will increase their effectiveness, which again depends on what you are going for. While two-handing a large sap the benefit from it is -1/+3 at BAB +1 through +3. Alternatively you could have a couple of NPCs focus on intimidation to debuff PCs, maybe even with Dazzling Display, depending on their level; combined with the penalty from the shaken condition those tanglefoot bags just get better and better. Having them take Blind Fight and having a low-level spellcaster on hand to use Obsucring Mist and lower 1st level non-lethal spell tricks can be fun as well.
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A few ranks of Intimidate can go a long way, especially if the patrol captain has skill focus in it. Shaken is a good debuff at low levels and the DC (10 + HD + WIS mod) isn't unreachable by an NPC warrior. As a Houserule I usually add in any bonus to saves against fear, such as the fighter's bravery bonus
--Vrock & awe
Toss in a guard with hero levels. Just some guy who has never made Sargent but is still really good at fighting but with a high enough knowledge (local) your rogue will know that he's been stabbed fifty times over the course of his career and once took down an owlbear and passed up promotion. Tactically he can grapple/pin/tie up someone while his less powerful but equally ranked guard buddies fend off the other fighters. All the damage they do doesn't have to be non-lethal either. Or he could just wail on them with the flat of his blade. Could go sunder or disarm to debuff making his coworkers dangerous.
Gritty detectives are cool too, maybe have one of those reporting in. There are those really nasty sap feats out of ultimate combat he could have. Another knowledge (local) to toss in there.
Thanks for the advice everyone!
Just remember that any city guard with Int>5 will not restrict himself to fighting with non-lethal weapons if his opponents are opening up with full lethal force. If the PCs start swinging swords and slinging spells, the guards will either run (at least for backup) or fight for their lives (if cornered).
Presumably the guards have numbers, so let them use them. Delay like crazy and just follow the PCs until they have assembled sufficient numbers to control the situation.
Yeah if the players decide to outright kill the guards I'll have them return the favor but I'm thinking they'll try to use nonlethal means as well. They're trying to convince most of the citizens of this town that the NPC they're rescuing is innocent. Having all that blood on their hands probably wouldn't help this goal.
There is a Bludgeoner feat in UC that lets you do non-lethal damage with bludgeoning weapons. Arm the guards with maces, warhammers, lucern hammers, slings, quarterstaffs, greatclubs, shield slams, etc.
This feat also gives you the option of selecting some interesting tactical feats, like Combat Reflexes, Two-Weapon Fighting, Power Attack, etc., and not kill the PCs if they're TOO interesting.
There is a Bludgeoner feat in UC that lets you do non-lethal damage with bludgeoning weapons. Arm the guards with maces, warhammers, lucern hammers, slings, quarterstaffs, greatclubs, shield slams, etc.
This feat also gives you the option of selecting some interesting tactical feats, like Combat Reflexes, Two-Weapon Fighting, Power Attack, etc., and not kill the PCs if they're TOO interesting.
The human fighter with a greatsword and no backstory can definitely go ;)
edit* bludgeoner is a good one! thanks SmiloDan.