| Karuth |
As I was fooling around with classes and such, I made something interesting I would like to use against my players as cool encounter at some point. However I have a hard time estimating how dangerous/frustrating the encounter would be. Here is where you come in. What would you, as a player, think of this encounter?
You have walked through the narrow chasm for a while now as suddenly smoke begins to pour down from the walls obscuring all sight. You are sure this must be some kind of attack and grab your weapons. Suddenly someone screams... everyone screams. A figure appeared out of nowhere and attacks each group member once and then vanishes again in the blink of an eye.
While only a small cut the wound does not close and you bleed out.
The healer begins his work immediately but as soon as he treats a wound the stranger appears again just to cut new ones.
The enemy here is a Dimensional Dervish specialist with full BAB (Ranger, Horizon Walker, Fighter. He gets Dimension Door as spell-like ability at level 9 from Terrain Dominance "Astral Plane")
His tactic:
He wears an unstoppered ever smoking bottle which produces tons of smoke and conceals the battle field (none of my players have ever used wind spells so dispersing it will be unlikely).
He will have some method of localizing the players (either through class, race or item... don't know yet).
Then he uses his dimensional dervish feat to strike all PCs in melee as full attack (targeting those with the least AC first) using a wounding, heartseeker weapon (negates miss chance and causes bleed) and with the last jump teleports back to safety.
His actual damage per attack will be rather small, but since he can add a stacking bleed effect with every attack it will accumulate. And he can just sit back and wait till the PCs bleed out.
Assuming you have a good mix of classes (Arcane Caster, Divine Caster, Tank and Damage Dealer) but no one has any Wind Spells prepared.
What would try or how would you react to this attack?
You are in unfamiliar terrain and can only go back, forth and up (since you are at the bottom of a small chasm)
| Tryn |
My group would probably ready their action and as soon as he strikes, throw a fireball (which would also destroy the fog/smoke).
Selective Metamagic/Fire Resist Spells would negate the group damage.
Otherwise they will simply fly out of the chasm and attack from the air. :)
Also this is a "one enemy" encounter, which is always a bad idea vs. a group (combat action economy).
At least I have to say I don't like such "you're screwed" encounter. I think it's much more fun to design an encounter towards the players abilities, not against them (DMG example: horde of small enemies, so the Barbar can use his whirlwind attack). Of course this means you have to raise the ECL of the encounter a little bit to make it intresting, but so the players feel more like heros :)
| Karuth |
Why would a fireball destroy smoke? It's not an obscuring mist spell.
I don't want to screw them over. If I wanted to do that I would put dozens of CR1/3 goblins on the top of the chasm and let them cause a giant rock slide that squeezes the whole group to death.
My goal is to simply provide an interesting challenge with an unusual tactic.
They are used to solve most encounters through brute force (and rather successfully at that) and I wanted to rattle them up a bit, deplete resources and wear them down.
And yes I know one enemy encounters are not ideal. However if I get the impression from the comments here that this would be too easy I can simply add some helpers for this battle.
So your tactics would be:
Ready actions against the attacker
If that provides fruitless, fly out of the chasm
| MC Templar |
I'd counter with 3 things
1 - readied trips, attacks, hold person spells to disrupt the attacker's blitz
2 - a summoned air elemental to whirlwind the smoke away
3 - some rule lawyer'ing
plus one cleric channeling healing stops all the bleeds
| The Quite-big-but-not-BIG Bad |
1 - Dimensional Anchor
2 - Summon Earth Elemental (tremorsense)
3 - Beast shape INTO an Earth Elemental (again, tremorsense)
4 - Summon a buttload of Lantern Archons (touch attack lasers!)
5 - Area of Effect spells
6 - Ready a grapple
A lot of it rides on which kind of arcane and divine casters you have. A wizard with a bonded object and a decently filled spellbook would probably lock the DD down with a Dimensional Anchor.
pauljathome
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Battles in smoke, darkness, when blinded, etc can be fun if used very occasionally but can quickly get very frustrating and boring. Different players have very different tolerances for the kind of tactic.
They usually end up becoming very drawn out slugfests. Lots of missed attacks, lots of delaying, lots of in combat healing, etc.
The basic counter to this tactic is to try and even the playing field. If you're in darkness drop an obscuring must. If you're in smoke, drop darkness. Toss up an anti magic field. Etc.
Which just adds to the potentially boring nature of the fight :-)
In my opinion, this kind of thing improves if the enemies goal is NOT necessarily to kill the party. They're trying to drive them off, they're trying to get a favourable position for negotiations, they're Fay having fun, etc. If nothing else it gives you a good excuse to stop it if it becomes obvious that the players are getting very frustrated and/or bored.
Fake Healer
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If a player did this, how badly would you nerf it? A player doing this would be targeted mercilessly by a GM and called various things with words like "cheesy", munchkin, etc. coming to mind.
I wouldn't do it because I don't want my PCs using cheesy stuff so I try to follow the same rules.
If cheese is part of your particular game then have at it. To each their own.
| The Quite-big-but-not-BIG Bad |
If a player did this, how badly would you nerf it? A player doing this would be targeted mercilessly by a GM and called various things with words like "cheesy", munchkin, etc. coming to mind.
I wouldn't do it because I don't want my PCs using cheesy stuff so I try to follow the same rules.
If cheese is part of your particular game then have at it. To each their own
While I agree to some degree, the difference between a player and a GM doing it is that with a player it becomes a recurring tactic or even a one-trick pony that can disrupt almost any conventional campaign. If a GM does it, it's usually a onetime encounter that will never recur again.
Quite like the reason why in 3.5 the level adjustment of monsters was not the same as their CR or HD. Some things you can use as a GM but you really wouldn't want in the hands of players.| Karuth |
@MC Templar
You quoted the rule correctly, but the wounding property explicitly states an exception.
Wounding: A wounding weapon deals 1 point of bleed damage when it hits a creature. Multiple hits from a wounding weapon increase the bleed damage.
@The Quite-big-but-not-BIG Bad
I get most of your ideas, but why use lantern archons? Do they have a special sense as well? Their beams may be useful, but if they can't find the attacker I don't see the gain called those specifically.
The group is variable since it is an open round where people come and go in an RP club. But in general it evens out most of the time.
@pauljathome
I don't why people assume I do this on a regular basis. This is supposed to be an unusual encounter to break the group out of their established routine.
I don't know in what context the attack will happen. It could be to soften the group up before the boss fight or it could be the boss fight.
I like the darkness idea. Had not thought of that.
Tactics mentioned so far:
Ready actions against the attacker (spells, attacks or combat maneuvers)
Fly (or climb) out of the chasm
Summon Whirlwind Elemental
Using mass healing effects to stop the bleed
Dimensional Anchor spell
Detect enemy using Tremorsense (from summon)
Summon Lantern Archons
Cast Darkness to hinder the attacker as well
It's funny no one suggested a retreat and trying to find a better position to fight.
ryric
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Is it weird that my biggest problems with this scenario are phrases like "you grab your weapons" "everybody screams" and "the healer begins his work?" I don't like removing player agency even that little tiny bit.
As to the encounter itself, it really depends on a lot of unknown factors. This is a pretty high level encounter - the NPC can't start taking the Dimensional feat chain until 9th level, so he's what? 13th? when he gets Dimensional Dervish?
Trying to put myself in the mindset of a level 9+ party that doesn't have emergency wind spells, those go in my "must have" kit because fog effects are annoying...
Readied actions are the way to go here. AoE healing really shuts down the bleed damage. Readying a grapple means he has to make a huge DC concentration check to keep teleporting. If your damage dealer is "boards optimized" and relies on full attacks and has nuked his AC this could be a dicey encounter. If he's actually well built for a variety of situations this won't be so big a deal.
| The Quite-big-but-not-BIG Bad |
@Karuth
I mentioned Lantern Archons because I've seriously been able to use them effectively in almost any difficult combat from level 5-12. Two touch attack light rays that ignore DR? Yes please! Okay, they've got +3 to hit and deal D6 damage but that's just a numbers game.
Also: Aura of Menace (DC 13 Will save for every archon or get -2 to attacks, AC and saves), detect evil, aid and greater teleport self at will. Lots of ways these things could help deal with your (or any other) encounter.
I also didn't suggest retreating because you mentioned that the DD has a bottle of everlasting smoke and the chasm was quite long. Maybe a bit metagamey.
Plus, players are very reluctant to flee and it's hell to move through narrow corridors with an entire party without coordination if you're strict about the space needed to pass one-another.
| iammercy |
As to the encounter itself, it really depends on a lot of unknown factors. This is a pretty high level encounter - the NPC can't start taking the Dimensional feat chain until 9th level, so he's what? 13th? when he gets Dimensional Dervish?
Actually a Synthesist can start at 6th (well yes 7th).
| Karuth |
@ryric
The encounter description was for dramatic purposes only. Of course they will be allowed an initiative roll, perception checks and I roll the attacks against them.
I really should start copy/paste a disclaimer when I post stuff so I don't always get the same questions/assumptions.
To answer your questions.
He can have the feat chain by level 11. When he takes 2 levels of fighter directly after getting dimension door at level 9 he gets 4 feats (2 fighter feats + one feat at level 9 and 11)
But yes. It's a high level encounter.
Not every party plays optimized. As mentioned above the players variate. Sometimes I get a player that has never played Pathfinder, other times I get experienced old timers that know all the tricks.
It could happen that someone has a wind spell, but under most circumstances they won't. They also rarely use summon spells because I refuse to do the numbers for them and they are too lazy to research the stats for their summons themselves.
Some of the players that play most often are:
Paladin/Cleric, Necromancer Wizard, Magus, Sorcerer, Fighter
Sorcerer is blast only (lightning specialized)
Cleric is healing only
Necromancer usually uses lots of level 1 skeletons to fight (he stopped giving them names only numbers. He is at 38-42 by now)
Magus is a crafter specialist (and usually is more of a fighter than a caster)
Fighter is reach weapon specialist.
None of them are super optimized, but they are not horribly built either.
@The Quite-big-but-not-BIG Bad
Yeah, maybe I shouldn't have posted the whole behind the scenes stuff and just let the situation speak for itself.
| Snowleopard |
I'd think of casting a dispel magic used as an immobile antimagic field. As this would render any teleportation means unusable. I am not sure the antimagic field would stop the teleporter from arriving but it would certainly prevent him/her from leaving. After stopping the bleeding by mundane means getting out of the chasm would be next.
With a little luck both the smoke and the teleporting would be negated probably shortening the fight considerably.
| iammercy |
To answer your questions.
He can have the feat chain by level 11. When he takes 2 levels of fighter directly after getting dimension door at level 9 he gets 4 feats (2 fighter feats + one feat at level 9 and 11)
But yes. It's a high level encounter.
The Dimensional feats are not combat feats.
Summoners can get it done at 11th but pretty much anything else is min 13th.| The Quite-big-but-not-BIG Bad |
Ehm... how wide and straight is the chasm? If it's something like 5 ft and quite straight, the sorcerer could just start throwing lightning bolts down the chasm.
Also the Necromancer could use his level 1 skeletons to run down the chasm with something like 10-20 feet between them to flush out the DD.
| The Quite-big-but-not-BIG Bad |
Heh... if I'd do something like this encounter I'd probably use a teleporting archer who ties smokesticks to his arrows, or even carved arrows out of smokesticks. Good luck trying to find all of them when you're using manyshot.
Slightly off-topic: the encounter I've got planned to throw at complacent/arrogant players is simply a mounted archer with a focus on long-range shooting in a large open plain. Most parties I've even played with had no way to deal with it. They're not quick enough, can't shoot as well at long ranges and generally don't prepare the appropriate spells much.
| Karuth |
@Omnitricks
Heh. So easy, so obvious. Didn't think of that ^^
Even though he will have some option negate the smoke's penalty he still has to make his perception check.
@Snowleopard
Dispel Magic is instant. I don't think you can improvise an antimagic field from it.
@iammery
Ah I have overlooked this. But for the example at hand it won't matter as he will be higher than 13.
@adamantine dragon
Between 8-10.
@goblin with long name
Good idea with the skeletons.
Just to clarify things. I didn't want to get a perfect solution to this encounter. All I wanted was the see if people could think of something to counter the attack quickly or to see if I overlooked something easy and obvious that would trivialize the encounter. That's why I left it vague.
The things I got so far show that you could think of at least half a dozen things to do. This means my players will hopefully come up with at least one idea.
Secane
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Have everyone wear a Goz Mask?
Goz Mask -
A goz mask allows you to see through fog, smoke, and other obscuring vapors as if they did not exist (this ability functions underwater as well, allowing the wearer to see through thick silt and other aquatic precipitates). Additionally, you are treated as one size category larger than you are and gain a +4 bonus on all saving throws made to resist the effects of wind while wearing a goz mask. A goz mask allows its wearer to breathe water for 1 hour per day—these minutes need not be consecutive, but must be expended in minimum increments of 10 minutes each.
Then aoo him or ready action to strike? A Cleric can space out channels to kill off the bleed effect?
| Pupsocket |
His tactic:
He wears an unstoppered ever smoking bottle which produces tons of smoke and conceals the battle field (none of my players have ever used wind spells so dispersing it will be unlikely).
He will have some method of localizing the players (either through class, race or item... don't know yet).
He's an Ifrit, with the Firesight feat.
| Douglas Muir 406 |
I really should start copy/paste a disclaimer when I post stuff so I don't always get the same questions/assumptions.
I feel you, man. Whenever I make a DM-seeking-advice type post, I know in advance that I'm going to get a certain number of responses along the lines of "Why are you trying so hard to screw over your players?"
Doug M.
| Cap. Darling |
If he is acting in the suprice round he dosent get to use as it requiers a full attack and if he is not then the PCs get to act.
That is atleast how i think the rules is.
But generally i think you need more than a random mid-highlevel dude attacking out of nowhere to make it in to a good encounter.
The succes of an encounter like hangs more on who he is and why he does what he do(bounty hunter, Wanna be Hero that got it wrong evil cultist)
Random encounters using fun feats and item combos never did it for me.
And also he wont be going far since his speed is the limiting factor on DD.
| Cap. Darling |
And to adress the OPs question. It depends on class, level and personallity of my charcter. The one i have in front of me now have a spell storing armor where he usually have a frigid touch in store. I think that is a good solution to many things:)
Edit: it is a distant plan for my now level 5 Magus
| nate lange RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 |
unstopping an eversmoking bottle (ie activating it) is a standard action... that means either your baddy has already wasted his surprise round or the PCs have to be dumb enough to willingly wander into the smoke. if you have a bunch of noobs this might be nasty but all of my players would immediately ready actions to attack anyone who tries to attack them in the fog...
edit: also, remember that each round burns up a use of your DDoor SLA... you probably have 5-6 rounds, maybe 7 if you don't care about damage (or just give him better stats than the PCs got)... if he's not dealing much damage with each attack and he's spreading his attacks between as many PCs as possible, they could just absorb the 5-7 rounds of attacks (maybe even just take full defensive actions to limit hits) and then wreck him when he's out of jumps...
| eggplantman |
I have not read all the previous comments but I'll try.
First, I don't like the GM telling me what my actions/reactions are. Please tell me what is happening and maybe what I might assume from what I see but I want to be in control of what I do.
The ever-smoking bottle is a neat idea with a skirmishing character. I assume the villain has blind-fight or the improved version? Without that he has a hard time landing consistent hits.
The bleed damage can be stopped with any application of healing. It can stack but is stopped and has to restart when healed.
With all of that assumed, here's what I might try as a player.
Readied action of any kind whether a spell or sword or anything. The rogue cannot sneak attack because he cannot see him (there is a feat to get around this though. This would be most players immediate strategy. Only if it looks like the party will actually be killed in this manner will we think about running and that will take a long time as the healer gets to go as often as your dervish. I don't see the pressure necessary to make the characters run from the chasm early on if that is your goal. The party will eventually defeat this guy with readied actions unless he if far above their level.
You could add extra pressure to this by giving your dervish some minions with the blind fight, dodge, mobility, spring attack feats. He comes in with the bottle, bleeds everyone and the minions sprint in and attack each party member as well. Puts some extra pressure on them that might be enough for the party to say "we gotta get out of here, we're being cut to ribbons!" Again, if that is your goal.
| SmiloDan RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 |
Use Selective Channeling and Versatile Channeling to hit him with some negative energy, drop some spike stones or acid fog or a lingering fireball so he takes damage each and every time he teleports in.
I would design the encounter so there were at least 2 dimensional dervishes, and a nearby healer so they can trade in and out of combat.
| Tom S 820 |
edit: also, remember that each round burns up a use of your DDoor SLA... you probably have 5-6 rounds, maybe 7 if you don't care about damage (or just give him better stats than the PCs got)... if he's not dealing much damage with each attack and he's spreading his attacks between as many PCs as possible, they could just absorb the 5-7 rounds of attacks (maybe even just take full defensive actions to limit hits) and then wreck him when he's out of jumps...
This should not be a boss fight but mid level guy. In 5 fight day this should be fight #3 with the boss fight at fight #5. This fight should last 5 rounds then leaves to add to the boss fight to make it toughter if the party dose not defeat him in the first 5 rounds. Because in stand up fight he will not add that much to the boss because most of feat and abilty will not add to the fight because it was use up.
This fight should bleed the the partys HPs and Resources.
| Adamantine Dragon |
OK, level 8-10. Just looking at some different classes:
1. Most melee classes would almost certainly ready an action to react to any attack with an attack of their own.
2. Most casters would figure out some way to negate the fog, either by removing it (gust of wind, etc.) or by getting out of it (fly, levitate, wildshape into bird).
3. Some casters with the ability to cast AoE spells that can exclude party members would probably drop effects that would hinder or damage any incoming attacker(s).
I concur with the folks who say that this tactic could be effective against inexperienced players or certain specific party make-up.
| Omnitricks |
Frankly I think it would be better to use this guy to set up an ambush/as a distraction while his minions/partners/whatever waits outside the smoke with ranged weapons or nets and bolas.
When the party runs out of the smoke or clears the smoke, they're going to say "oh @#$%^!!!"
Better if this was an encounter made not to kill them like catch them alive or something.
| Cap. Darling |
Heh... if I'd do something like this encounter I'd probably use a teleporting archer who ties smokesticks to his arrows, or even carved arrows out of smokesticks. Good luck trying to find all of them when you're using manyshot.
...
How does your archer ignite the smoke sticks and fire them witout just ending up standing in the smoke him self?
| Vicon |
How does a fireball dismiss smoke? I can give you a couple of reasons... If it's truly an explosion, the force if the blast should push the smoke away... Even if you don't see it that way, the sudden change in temperature would cause the fireball area's air to be much hotter than the surrounding air-- as the temperature equalized it would create a rush if wind outward, as the heat flushed out to dissipate. There's a reason why weathermen get hung up on hot/cool fronts -- they make for windy weather, and this is a microcosm of that.
| The Quite-big-but-not-BIG Bad |
The Quite-big-but-not-BIG Bad wrote:Heh... if I'd do something like this encounter I'd probably use a teleporting archer who ties smokesticks to his arrows, or even carved arrows out of smokesticks. Good luck trying to find all of them when you're using manyshot.
...How does your archer ignite the smoke sticks and fire them witout just ending up standing in the smoke him self?
That wouldn't be a problem with the aforementioned Firesight or any of the other abilities in PF that allow you to perceive enemies without seeing them normally (blindsight, tremorsense etc...), would it?
| EvilMinion |
He wears an unstoppered ever smoking bottle which produces tons of smoke and conceals the battle field
This part seems a bit suspect.
The bottle should be producing the smoke when it is activated, then again at the start of each of your turns. Since he is not by the players at the beginning nor at the end of his turn, they would not be inside the smoke at any point unless he's ddooring within 50' of them (ie: within reach of the players)
For what you're trying to do, the bottle has to conveniently dispense its smoke in the middle of his turn... which is not kosher, and opens up a whole can of worms if you start ruling things that way (bleed would never do damage if the players could decide it didn't trigger 'til after they did some other action (like fixing it) each round)
For this to work: on round one, he has to do nothing but teleport in, activate the bottle, then teleport out.
Then start attacking round 2 on.
Not a huge deal, but important to do this sort of thing right. You're players are going to be crying foul enough as it is without giving them reason to.
Especially since he'll have a limited number of times he can do the trick (3 + wisdom / day), so having to use 1 of those rounds to set up the smoke is important.
And really, using the bottle is no more useful then a number of other options at that point.
| Cap. Darling |
Cap. Darling wrote:That wouldn't be a problem with the aforementioned Firesight or any of the other abilities in PF that allow you to perceive enemies without seeing them normally (blindsight, tremorsense etc...), would it?The Quite-big-but-not-BIG Bad wrote:Heh... if I'd do something like this encounter I'd probably use a teleporting archer who ties smokesticks to his arrows, or even carved arrows out of smokesticks. Good luck trying to find all of them when you're using manyshot.
...How does your archer ignite the smoke sticks and fire them witout just ending up standing in the smoke him self?
The smoke sticks only burn for one round. I cannot undestand hov he can ignite them and fire them from his bow in that round. I undestand that there are ways to see in the smoke but why put the smoke sticks on the arrows if all they do is smoke where he stands?
Edit: to make sense.
| williamoak |
To the OP: how are you attacking everybody at once? As far as I know, dimensional dervish still only lets you attack one individual at a time with your full attack. It might work with dim dervish+whirlwind attack. My understanding has always been you can only attack one individual. Again, unless you have whirlwind attack (cleave wouldnt work because you need a standard attack), you could only attack one dude at once. You could always houserule this, but make sure the players know they are allowed to do such things as well. You're the first DM I've heard allowing it to be used that way.
| The Quite-big-but-not-BIG Bad |
The smoke sticks only burn for one round. I cannot undestand hov he can ignite them and fire them from his bow in that round. I undestand that there are ways to see in the smoke but why put the smoke sticks on the arrows if all they do is smoke where he stands?
To be honest I had not given it too much thought. What I meant was that I'd try to find a way to keep the PCs in the smoke while the NPC is at a distance shooting.
Although I could imagine a few ways to pull it off anyway: you could ignite them if you had a continuous source of fire, like a flaming bow or a campfire and shoot them in the same round. Smoke pellets would probably work better though, as they go off on impact (I only just found out about them, haven't read too much into alchemical stuff since going from 3.5 to PF).The ideal way I'd do it would be with an Arcane Archer and the various fog spells or with a series of fog/smoke traps in the hallway, like hiding smoke pellets under floortiles.
| Rapthorn2ndform |
To the OP: how are you attacking everybody at once? As far as I know, dimensional dervish still only lets you attack one individual at a time with your full attack. It might work with dim dervish+whirlwind attack. My understanding has always been you can only attack one individual. Again, unless you have whirlwind attack (cleave wouldnt work because you need a standard attack), you could only attack one dude at once. You could always houserule this, but make sure the players know they are allowed to do such things as well. You're the first DM I've heard allowing it to be used that way.
Why would you need to just attack one target? If i teleport more than 5 feet, I can't attack my original target. I am not to familiar with the feat chain (this is my first time looking at it since UC came out) but it says you can teleport between each attack.
RELATED NOTE(may want this in the future)
Dimensional Assault allows you to use a full-round action to make a special charge and make the attack normally allowed on a charge. this would NOT allow for pounce, correct?
| Cap. Darling |
Cap. Darling wrote:The smoke sticks only burn for one round. I cannot undestand hov he can ignite them and fire them from his bow in that round. I undestand that there are ways to see in the smoke but why put the smoke sticks on the arrows if all they do is smoke where he stands?To be honest I had not given it too much thought. What I meant was that I'd try to find a way to keep the PCs in the smoke while the NPC is at a distance shooting.
Although I could imagine a few ways to pull it off anyway: you could ignite them if you had a continuous source of fire, like a flaming bow or a campfire and shoot them in the same round. Smoke pellets would probably work better though, as they go off on impact (I only just found out about them, haven't read too much into alchemical stuff since going from 3.5 to PF).
The ideal way I'd do it would be with an Arcane Archer and the various fog spells or with a series of fog/smoke traps in the hallway, like hiding smoke pellets under floortiles.
Those are all excellent ideas:) i will use the flaming bow i think.
Edit: and sorry to the OP for the tangent.| Karuth |
*sigh* Again we have the same questions and assumptions all over again. So here is my disclaimer.
-) I am aware of the action economy (single enemy VS group party) and I know how to handle it
-) No I do not want to screw my players over.
-) This will not be a random encounter out of nowhere. There will be a story and build up behind it. I just don't know yet what it will be. for now I thought it would be an interesting mechanic I have not used yet.
-) Just because I said it was only one guy does not mean I can't add some more minions once I realize that it will be too easy. I mentioned above that I won't know which level and classes exactly will sit on the table when I prepare the adventure. I will have to adjust it on the fly.
-) No, the text in quotes is not me playing the characters for the players. It was written solely to give you a hint of what feeling I was trying to convey to the players.
-) Since I bend the rules to allow players to make unusual characters (such as a divine archer or a neutrality paladin) I reserve the right to bend the rules for my NPCs as well. I would never give my characters abilities I would not also allow a player character.
-) Even with rule bending I take great care to make as few adjustments as possible.
Due to the number of replies I can't reply to every single person anymore.
Why can he attack everyone in the group?
The Dimensional Dervish feat allows you to split up your Dimension Door ability into as many mini-teleports as you like. Even between each and every attack.
This goes so far as giving yourself a flanking bonus once you also take the feat Dimensional Savant.
Since he uses two weapon fighting he gets a lot of attacks. Enough for every party member (unless the party gets really big).
Questions about the smoke:
The bottle creates 50ft spread of smoke in the first round (with a maximum radius of 100ft). In the spell descriptions you can find that spread effects pours down holes. Even if we ignore that the chasm is so narrow (which would result in a much wider spread) a 100 ft diameter cloud is still quite large.
And if you don't stopper it, it will simply create more smoke on the next turn without the need for another action from the guy carrying it.
Battle with smoke as I imagined it:
Surprise round. Bottle is unstoppered, double weapon drawn as part of the move action the character does as he steps to the edge of the chasm. Party sees puff of smoke above. Wonder what's up. If they can act in the surprise round they can cast buff spells and get into better position.
Normal round starts. Even if some heroes won initiative what are they gonna do? So far they only saw a puff of smoke above them. Could be a campfire. Unless they are really paranoid they will probably continue with defensive spells and similar preparations. If not and they teleport or fly up... they still only see a puff of smoke.
Then it's the guys turn. The smoke increases to a 60ft radius and the guy begins with his teleport assault. Since no one has seen him yet, the targets are all flat footed (except those with uncanny dodge of course... not that it matters much since he doesn't do sneak attack damage anyway). He ends his tele-jump at the top of the chasm in a different position (still in the cloud though).
And now the players finally know what's happening (their characters might still not know) and can react and form a battle plan.
One player will accuse me of cheating until I show him the feats in the book at which point he will take note for his next build.
Then people will discuss their next turn for 30 minutes, trying their best to bring their metagame knowledge into the game without making it too obvious.
One/two guy(s) will take a smoking break and when it would be finally my turn again the pizza delivery guy comes and we have to make another break or endure muffled responses from everyone.
1 hour after the attack started we are finally ready to start again, at which point the one guy that didn't pay attention wants everything explained again and then changes his mind about the action he took 1 hour ago.
Build of the teleporting character
I may have overlooked that the dimensional feats are not combat feats, but he still has more than enough levels to pull it off legally (around 14). And even it that weren't the case I could still say he can do it because I am the GM (if you don't like that please read the disclaimer).
What I want from this thread
I already got it. I was simply worried my players would not get any ideas how to counter this attack.
That's why I posted it here to see how people would react to this situation (in a more general sense, not specific tactics using specific feats or spells).
And this has already happened. I got several tactics they can reasonably could come up with (some of them I did not consider), so I am sure now that they can come up with something.
So thanks for that.
PS: I like the idea with the Ifrit and the Firesight. Originally I was gonna use Obscuring Mist and Terrain Mastery(Ethereal). But Rangers don't get that spell.