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So my campaign is coming up to the start of book three and I have begun planning ahead. From what I gather in the book, the three remaining black arrows come along to assist in retaking Fort Rannick along with the ranger girl from book 1. That brings my group up to a 10 man party, and I don't feel like I can/should go that route. I think it would be especially appropriate for Jakardros to come along since he seems to have a chip on his shoulder and a burning need for revenge that eclipses the others. So I want to at least bring him along.
I have a party of 6 fairly intelligent players who rolled for stats and all did exceptionally well (they are all probably 25 point buy equivalent characters. Big mistake I know). The only thing that troubles this party is DR and tricky spellcasters.
I have brainstormed a few options.
1.) Have Vale and Kaven go off to search for possible survivors of the attack, leaving Shalelu and Jakarados to come with the party to the Fort.
2.) Have Kaven sneak away before the assault on Rannick begins, and one of the rangers goes looking for him.
3.) Apply the advanced template to all of the ogers and increase the amount of them in the fort, then let my 10 man death squad try to wade through the place.
4.) Apply the tucker's kobolds method
5.) Some other method of decreasing the number of allies coming along in a way that doesn't seem obvious to the players.
Have any other GMs out there dealt with a high powered group of players going into Fort Rannick?
Give all of the Ogres 2 levels of Fighter. And go with Tucker's Kobolds as well.
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Don't use the extra NPC's. I did not use them.
Have Jakarados send them back to Turtleback Ferry or Magnimar to tell the mayor what is going on. I am sure Shalelu would want to come so maybe you can bring her, but if you don't want to bring her either then have him convince her to stay at Turtleback Ferry/Magnimar with the other rangers. He will promise to return. He explains he that he does not want her to die also like her mother did. She then gives an ultimatum of 3 days or she comes to look for him.
Alternately they could be in such a bad condition that they can not fight. Maybe have them be diseased or malnourished if they have been kept in filthy areas, and have the Shalelu stay behind to care for them while Jakarados goes with the PC's. I would not expect their captors to be all that clean anyway.
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For most combats we'd usually say the NPCs fought their own battle against enemies not shown on the table. Saves the GM a lot of dice rolling and still keeps the NPCs around for narrative moments. Remember to make sure to adjust your descriptions of the NPCs after combat (Jakardros pulling arrows from dead ogres, Shalelu using her wand to heal an injured Vale).
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My group of (6) PCs, sent the Black Arrows and Shelalu to create a diversion at the front gate while they went over the western wall, then into the caves behind the waterfall. I didn't have to worry about the NPCs while they were off-screen and just had them rejoin the PCs once the bulk of the fighting was over.
On the subject of Tucker's Kobolds: remember that kobolds are very clever at making traps and such. Ogres, not so much. They're big, dumb brutes for the most part. You're better off taking Tangent's advice and adding a couple levels of "smash stuff" to the rank and file ogres.
-Skeld
And of course reinforce them with Tucker's Kobolds, one of the nastiest demihuman mercenary bands around. ;)
I was going to suggest something similar to Skeld and Humphrey Boggard, split the group! I'll probably end up doing that, too since my group isn't particularly stealthy at the moment. I may have them snipe from the eagle perch to help them into the front gate, then when they get inside, they'll be all alone!
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Im running into this problem as well sorta. Like Skeld above Im thinking of having Shaelelu and the 3 provide a distraction so as to lure some ogres out of the fort (obviously ones additional to requirements so as to keep to the fixed number). My party seems pretty powerful /optimised and the Graul Homestead was essentially a cakewalk of sorts for them (only 4 characters).