I'm planning an encounter with a boat load of level 2 goblin ninja complete with alchemist fire and goblin skull bombs raiding a compound the PCs are in. Six PCs, level 5. Sorcerer, Fighter, Rogue, Druid, Inquisitor, Armiger.
Open with a fire bomb attack on the stable to draw them out, deeper darkness to flatfoot them, Gang Up feat on all the goblins to maximize sneak attacks. I want confusion, chaos and pain without a TPK. There will be a Drow ninja 10 leading them, but he will be engaged with taking down a NPC the party is with and won't bother the group unless they interfere. He'll be wielding Str poisoned Shuriken and built to feint for sneak attack flurries of Shuriken.
Is there anything I'm overlooking? The druid will have Daylight, which she will hopefully cast at some point to negate the deeper darkness. The goblins should be 1-2 hit mooks that I'm thinking the PCs will have a ball splatting all over the place. I'm a little worried about the skull bombs, 5d6 can add up quick, but I love the image so I'm going to try them in limited quantities.
Ideas, comments, recommendations?
BTW, am I correct in thinking that with Improved and Greater Feint, if he succeeds in feinting his flurry of Shuriken will all do sneak attack damage? That's a potential of 4d2+20d6 in a single round, if all four attacks hit...
A level 10 drow ninja is a CR 9 encounter. That's very difficult for a party of five 5th level PCs, whose party level is only 5.6. Even though you plan to have that NPC killing another NPC and do not "plan" to have him encounter the PCs, what guarantee do you have that the PCs will not spot him and go after him? If it were my group, I could virtually guarantee that they WOULD spot him and go after him.
You don't say exactly how many goblins you have going, but even just six of them bumps that CR up to 10, which is overpowering for your party. Add to that that you have a major ambush going here, with lots of planning against the PCs, and the CR is technically even higher than that.
I recommend one of two things.
Just kill the NPC and have done with it without any hint the drow is there. When the party is done with the goblins, they can find evidence of a possible drow having been there, and that can lead them on the road to finally encountering him when they are powerful enough.
Otherwise, plan your encounters by balancing your most powerful foe first. In this case, I would start with the assumption the drow might be encountered, and make him a level 6 or 7 (CR 5 pr 6), and then plan out the balance of the goblins by staging their attacks as individual "mini-encounters" that make up the whole encounter.
Let me add real quickly that though seeing a swarm of a hundred goblin ninjas running up the driveway is a sensational thing, so is a constant flow of two or three ninjas at at time, jumping through windows, down chimneys, kicking in doors, springing out from beneath beds, etc.
One is a big, scary mass. But the other feels like it will never end, and there are merits to that dynamic, as well.
I'm thinking of starting with 20 or so in the compound and adding more as needed. The Drow ninja has an Improved Invisibility on him, so the party is not likely to even see the Drow, much less attack him, but I take your point. The Drow will be very wary and retreat quickly if discovered and attacked by the whole group. After all, he's trained the goblins and knows what large group of weak creatures can do. ;-)
What about the Shuriken question, though? With his opponents flatfooted from the invisibility, will each of those little babies carry a 5d6 sneak attack punch? The way I read it, I think so, but I want to make sure I'm not misreading it. That seems awfully powerful...
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What about the Shuriken question, though? With his opponents flatfooted from the invisibility, will each of those little babies carry a 5d6 sneak attack punch? The way I read it, I think so, but I want to make sure I'm not misreading it. That seems awfully powerful...
Assuming greater invisibility and ninja qualifies for a ranged sneak attack with each throw, then yes, each attack would get full sneak attack. Remember ranged sneak attacks must be from within 30 feet, barring a feat or rogue talent that allows otherwise.
Regular invisibility would give sneak attack on the first attack only.
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I believe you're forgetting the alchemist back at the ninja camp who has implanted bombs in the goblins that explode when they die.
I'm thinking of starting with 20 or so in the compound and adding more as needed. The Drow ninja has an Improved Invisibility on him, so the party is not likely to even see the Drow, much less attack him, but I take your point. The Drow will be very wary and retreat quickly if discovered and attacked by the whole group. After all, he's trained the goblins and knows what large group of weak creatures can do. ;-)
BTW, 20 level 2 goblin ninjas is still a CR 9 encounter versus your level 5.6 party. You still need to parse that out, else risk a quick TPK.
Yes, I was planning on only having half attack the first round. Of course, they will be focusing those attacks on only half the party...
Maybe I should run some sample rounds before unleashing this on them, eh?
BTW, what's the math on an encounter with three 7th level Drow and a CR6 undead? Because that's the encounter that leveled them to 5th and they pretty much cake walked it. I *did* miss a few tricks that would have made things more difficult for them, but they still walked away pretty much only lightly damaged from what I was thinking should have dropped at least 1-2 of them...
Ooookay, ran a test encounter just with the Drow noble ninja 10 and the human fighter 9 (intimidate build) that is his target. Fighter goes down hard during second round. Ninja using Invisible Blade and Flurry of Stars ninja tricks. With fighter's +5 perception vs ninja's +25 stealth, fighter didn't even locate ninja, never mind close with him.
Yeah, maybe I need to dial this back a bit... :O
I've looked at the rules and various items and it looks like there are few options for a fighter to locate and shut down an invisible attacker quickly.
I ran the scenario of Greater Invisibility ninja (+14 attack) vs fighter with 21 A.C. (adjusted) multiple times and fighter goes down round two 80% of the time, round one of all four attacks hit and damage is average.
So, here's the challenge: find an invisible ranged attacker as a human fighter 9th in one round. Attacker is using Shuriken, so is likely within 20'. Assume standard WBL for item purchases but no spellcaster support. Go!
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You might up the fighter's AC a bit, 21 is pretty low for level 9. Not sure if that will solve the shooting gallery you have set up, but it should move that direction. Granted my fighter has a dip in alchemy, but buffed for a fight he was in the low 30's at level 10.
That or have him insist on always standing near an invisibility purge due to a phobia from a previous run in with a ninja drow.
How smart is the fighter, will be on the look out for ninjas? Maybe give him a dirty trick feat, he kicks up a cloud of dust, revealing the ninja and hitting him with a debuff of his own.
If the fighter is aware of the ninjas, he could have brought a bag of flour with him, or packed some AoE things with him so he doesn't need to locate the exact target, just carpet bomb the area with alchemist fire. The fighter could try to intimidate the ninja once he notices something is amiss. This could be as simple as hurling insults into the shadows.
Of course, if the fighter is a BSF, he could just wander into the darkness looking for the ninja, but if he's smart he would find himself a nice narrow hallway, assume a total defensive posture and swing at the first thing that stepped through the door frame.
If you really want to get the effect of the Ninja killing the fighter but keeping the PCs out of the fight, maybe while the PCs are repelling swarms of ninja goblins, the fighter and drow square off high up on a parapet, or their NPC friend is on top of the wall shouting down instructions, they get a perception check to see if anything is weird, if they pass they see a shuriken strike the fighter from the west, if they fail they hear the fighter take hit after hit hit, then his dead body is tossed over the wall, falling into a heap at their feet, a couple shurikens embedded in his corpse. Ta da, now the fighter is dead, the PCs have a great scene to see, and they can track the shurikens to find the drow ninja for a plot hook. Assuming of course they can survive these goblins.
Sounds like a great scenario you have planned, I'd love to play it (but as a player who didn't know what was coming).
Battle is taking place in an open courtyard. Deeper Darkness has reduced light levels to Complete Darkness. (Forgot to mention that earlier.) That will likely be nullified on round two by the party druid though. And the rules on invisible ranged attackers is that the general area is identified, but attacker is not pinpointed. Since Drow ninja won't join the fight until the NPC fighter does, no surprise round.
So, the way the encounter is designed, no bottleneck and no easy way to locate the Drow. Hence, how does one find an invisible ranged attacker in 1-2 rounds without spellcaster support? (Party has almost no access to invisibility defeating magic, something I just discovered.)
I'm planning on reducing the ninja a few levels to get rid of the Invisible Blade and one Flurry of Stars attack, so he'll only dish out one sneak attack a round. That should balance the fight out enough, I'll run the numbers tonight after work.
So, goblin ninja swarm was a success! The PCs did well against the goblins and the ninja was appropriately nasty from his perch on a nearby building Flurry-ing the NPC fighter. The party healer kept bringing him back up into the fight, which kept the ninja focused on taking down the fighter while the rest wiped out the goblins. Last round everyone focused fire on the ninja who decided that getting out of there might be a good thing. They almost took him down as well, but the crit the party rogue put on him last shot before ninja's turn turned out not to be one after all. ( She missed by one, which brought damage down just enough for him to limp away with 2hp.) Altogether, a tense and enjoyable battle. The party got pretty worried when there were still goblins joining the party after 4 rounds of combat, but they enjoyed smacking the little mooks around.
Thanks to everyone for the help designing this! Making me take a second look at it saved the party from a TPK.