I'm new to GMing, and the last encounter I build for my group, of which I thought would be quite hard turned out to be far too easy.
So now I want to make it harder, but I'm kinda afraid that in my persuit of making it not "too easy" I go too far the other way and make it "TPK guarantee".
It's a party of 6, all are level 2, and 25 point-buy.
6 people raises the APL to 3, and I think most say that 25 point-buy is another +1 so it would be APL 4.
The group it not really too optimised though and consists of:
Invulnerable Rager Barbarian (uses shield and 1hd weapon mostly)
Sorcerer (mostly utility spells)
Hedge Witch (healing focused)
Ninja
Loremaster Bard
Magus
I was thinking of throwing a group of four rival adventurers at them:
Human Wild Rager Barbarian (greataxe)
human wizard (or summoner maybe)
halfling rogue
Drow Noble cleric (possibly normal drow) (negative energy)
I thought about making them level 3 with the heroic NPC array.
But I have a couple of concerns:
Wild Rager: can do 2 attacks/round with his greataxe, which against level 2 can be very very bad. However his AC will be so horribly he'll get hit alot.
Cleric: Drow Noble may be overkill, but normal drow should work too. His negative channel 2d6 may hit the party hard too. I might make this one level 2
I want it to be hard, and a few of the players may end up unconcious, but I don't want a TPK. So what do you think?
Sounds quite challenging.
I think it'll be okay. It all depends on initiative though. Also remember with that negative channel, it'll also hurt the NPCs. ;-)
If you want to tone it down slightly, do not make the wizard a summoner.
I'm new to GMing, and the last encounter I build for my group, of which I thought would be quite hard turned out to be far too easy.
So now I want to make it harder, but I'm kinda afraid that in my persuit of making it not "too easy" I go too far the other way and make it "TPK guarantee".
It's a party of 6, all are level 2, and 25 point-buy.
6 people raises the APL to 3, and I think most say that 25 point-buy is another +1 so it would be APL 4.The group it not really too optimised though and consists of:
Invulnerable Rager Barbarian (uses shield and 1hd weapon mostly)
Sorcerer (mostly utility spells)
Hedge Witch (healing focused)
Ninja
Loremaster Bard
MagusI was thinking of throwing a group of four rival adventurers at them:
Human Wild Rager Barbarian (greataxe)
human wizard (or summoner maybe)
halfling rogue
Drow Noble cleric (possibly normal drow) (negative energy)I thought about making them level 3 with the heroic NPC array.
But I have a couple of concerns:
Wild Rager: can do 2 attacks/round with his greataxe, which against level 2 can be very very bad. However his AC will be so horribly he'll get hit alot.
Cleric: Drow Noble may be overkill, but normal drow should work too. His negative channel 2d6 may hit the party hard too. I might make this one level 2I want it to be hard, and a few of the players may end up unconcious, but I don't want a TPK. So what do you think?
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Your job as the GM is to present challenges - let the PCs worry about how they'll get out of it. Six heads are better than one - as a committee they have more mental resources than you to draw on.
If you want to avoid a TPK, the easiest thing to do is have the Bad Guys withdraw after one or two of them go down. If they're still obviously winning the fight over the PCs, the baddies will be focused on getting their wounded comrades out of there so they can be healed, and they'll merely hold the PCs at bay while they drag their fellows to safety.
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Remember that the solution isn't always to do more damage and have higher AC.
Use things that A)take up action slots (instead of 1 big baddy put in 1 BBEG and 5 goblins/kobolds) B)use tactics C)are capable of maybe taking advantage of one PCs weakness to remove 1 or 2 of them from combat.
A group of 10 Goblins that use hit and run tactics in the dark and lead the PCs down tunnels set with their traps can be just as deadly as a small dragon at that level.
Sounds quite challenging.
I think it'll be okay. It all depends on initiative though. Also remember with that negative channel, it'll also hurt the NPCs. ;-)
Well it's supposed to be challanging.
And the cleric will have Selecive Channeling of course, so he doesn't hit his buddies. Would be too easy otherwise. "Cleric channels again - two of his friends die"
I'm aiming somewhere at APL+2 or +3, Hard or Epic challange, but I don't want to shoot too high.
The advice that they might retreat when one or two of them go down (when I see they would still win otherwise) is a good idea though. But knowing my guys they'll chase after them as soon as they can all walk again ;)
Sounds like a fun encounter, play them smart and in character as they wouldn't want to die either, so they may tactically withdraw if they start getting their butts kicks like players would as Wolfsnap has posted. If the players try to go after them then the evil group will fight to the death of course.
I agree with Piazza about making the summoner a wizard, sorcerer, witch, or bard instead so that they don't have to deal with a 5th opponent and then having things spiral out of control on the players.
A couple of things about the Wild Rager that might make it interesting. He has to do the full attack to get his 2nd attack while wild fighting, so he can't go charging in and get 2x attacks. The other thing is if he knocks someone down to 0 hp while in a rage he has to make a WILL saving throw or become confused and attack the nearest person (ally or enemy).
I may let them know ahead of time that they will be facing a lethal encounter and that you won't be pulling any punches, so that they can get a taste of danger. This will allow you to TPK them if the dice gods are too kind to you or evil to them w/o them getting too angry.