Context
This occurs in a homebrew campaign setting in a megadungeon. More specifically, the combat encounter described here occurs in an ancient dwarven city, a fortress left in ruins after two conquests. I'm designing this megadungeon to be played with 5-6 player characters.
The point of this megadungeon is to be difficult but beatable. It's not a cakewalk and it's not Tomb of Horrors. I, as a DM, adhere to the same rules as the players and do not simply have traps that say "No save, you are dead," for instance. Consider that when answering questions concerning this encounter.
Long hallway in the upstairs of a dwarven inn. The party has presumably used up a few resources (but not too many) in the main room of the inn located on the floor below. Contested perception checks are made by the party against ghouls waiting for a signal behind closed doors leading to private rooms in this inn.
Their chief opponent is a ghoulish bard that has been taunting them with sing-song for some time. He is particularly difficult to spot (+21 Stealth thanks to small size and shadowed armor) and waits quietly for the party to reach just the right spot for the ambush. Upon his signal, the ghouls get a "surprise round" which involves them kicking doors open and moving forward; the bard uses his song. If the party notices the ghouls behind the doors, they can instead turn the surprise on the ghouls and get a first round advantage.
This is intended to be a boss fight.
The combat is arranged as follows:
1 Ghoulish Jester, specifically a Dread Ghoul Gnome with homebrew racial abilities (see below) thanks to being in a homebrew setting. He is at the end of the hall, away from the melee.
5 Medium Sized Ghouls that will be the melee combatants fighting the party, two in front and two behind. This assumes the party stands where I expect them to, which they may not.
3 Small Sized Ghouls (using the variant from the same page) which are wielding masterwork light crossbows and adding support fire from near the jester. They will engage in melee should the ghouls before them start to falter.
The Ghoulish Jester uses Satire to immediately put a large debuff on the party, then begins casting Scare and Cause Fear at the party to scatter them and cause AoOs. He uses his Ghostly Violin (homebrew item; see character sheet) in the first round to cast Chord of Shards at the party, too. His priority is on playing music, debuffing the party, too. The Jester only casts Scare once - he saves his other 2nd level spell for the day to cast Gallant Inspiration on any ally that gets an apparent near miss on their melee attack. The Ghoulish Jester only uses his crossbow and natural weapons when he is out of spells to toss.
The other ghouls focus on flanking the party wherever possible. Killing downed players becomes an immediate priority for them, too. If someone falls, they will do everything in their power to murder that person, eating them alive; they are incredibly hungry.
Gnomish Racials In This Setting
The gnome here uses the follow racial:
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+2 CON, +2 INT, -2 STR
Small
20 speed
Defensive Training - Gnomes have a +1 dodge bonus to their armor class.
Gnomish Resistance - Having descended from both elves and dwarves, gnomes have the better qualities of each. They have immunity to sleep effects and spells and a +2 racial bonus to all saving throws against poison, spells and spell-like abilities.
Keen Senses - Gnomes receive a +2 racial bonus on Perception checks.
Low-Light Vision - Gnomes can see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light.
Craftsman - Gnomes are naturally gifted craftsmen thanks to their dwarven nature. Upon character creation a gnome chooses one Craft skill. The gnome has a +2 bonus to skill
checks with that Craft skill.
Cosmopolitan - Gnomes can speak and read two additional languages of their choice. In addition, they choose two Intelligence-, Wisdom-, or Charisma-based skills. Those skills always count as class skills for the gnome.
Wordsmith - Gnomes are good at knowing the right words to say in a given situation. Upon character creation gnomes choose one of the following skills: Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate. The gnome has a +2 bonus to that skill.
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The Questions
What CR is this fight (factoring in the environmental factors and opponents' equipment)? Would it be a good battle for a group of six level 3-5 characters?
Do you believe this fight has an adequate feel for a boss fight? (This is not the end-game boss or anything, just a lowish level boss.)
Would you reduce the number of creatures in this encounter to make this fight easier for the players?
Would you add more creatures to make the fight harder or empower the present creatures?
If you would add more creatures, what would you add?
If you would empower the present creatures, would you do so by turning them into Ghasts or by giving them character levels or better equipment (such as 1 level of rogue for the medium ghouls or giving the small ghouls +1 bolts)?
Does a ten foot wide hallway sound appropriate for this encounter?
If your DM threw this sort of fight at you while you were around level 3-5 as a party, would you feel challenged? Upset? Intrigued? Would you find the encounter too easy?
Thank you in advance for your thoughts on this fight.
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Looks like a little under CR 8 (4800 xp fight, 400 xp short to make it a cr 8), guessing you mean some characters are level 5 and others are level 3, so assuming the average APL of your party is 4 but since there are six people, bump it one more, so average APL of 5.
APL+3 encounter should feels a good fight, for a decent party. If they are optimized, might be an easy fight, depend really on what you think of your players.
Biggest issue in the encounter is the possibility of being paralyzed by a ghoul attack which can end the fight as soon as it started. Not sure if they come prepared knowing that they are fighting ghouls so would have scrolls of remove paralysis and the likes.
They'll fight ghouls before then. The trouble with this party is it lacks a cleric. The setup at the moment is:
1 well-built two-handed weapon power-attacking fighter (unofficial party leader, uses maneuvers pretty intelligently)
1 rogue/witch with Healing Hex (the player WAS a sorcerer, but they died to a different boss fight against a kobold witch wielding necromancy)
1 bard that's new to the game (not the best built, can control and buff but can't really do damage for the life of them)
1 hold-the-line style [url=http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/paladin/archetypes/paizo---paladin-archetypes/sacred-shield[Sacred Shield[/url]
1 decent-but-still-learning Magus (dervish dance and shocking hands grasp plan, at least)
1 bomb-focused alchemist with Construct racial traits
A player could die at any point and the party may be lacking a party member for a while as they try to find an NPC to replace the PC.
So, at the moment, they're not extremely well optimized as a whole, but about half of them know their stuff. The paladin, fighter and rogue/witch know the most about optimizing, but the rogue/witch's plans for a sorcerer were pretty well ruined by, well, death. This goblin NPC was your standard rogue when the player took control of the character.
The party isn't too well equipped with ranged attack power at this point, so they'll probably be clearing out ghouls so the meaty melee types can break through and attack the bard. I'm not sure what the alchemist will at this point.
I suspect they'll die in this run through the megadungeon (but not at this fight). If they do they'll play as members of a different faction interested in the megadungeon and start over from a different position. If they stay alive, myself as DM and the half-orc fighter are teaching the newer players all we can.
Since ghouls are really not designed as ranged combatants and they have a crippling rider on their melee attacks I think having 3 of them start of using crossbows makes the encounter easier.
That was my thought. It was another reason I toyed with giving them +1 bolts; it gives them a bit more punch before they engage in melee. Overall, though, I like the idea of the smaller ghouls not lending their own paralyzing attacks to the fight until later.
If they are level 3 they will find this very very hard since ghouls are quite tough for their CR. A level 5 party will chew through this pretty fast since ghoul HP and defenses are low enough that 1 or 2 will fall to each PCs standard action.
Since ghouls are intelligent undead, one thing I contemplated was tossing singular rogue levels onto the melee ghouls and putting some studded leather and chain shirts on them. Each of their 3 attacks would be potential Sneak Attacks, they'd have slightly more HP, and their armor would increase their survivability. Thoughts on that for a level 5 party (if the party reaches that point)? Perhaps only doing that for, say, 3 of the ghouls, and adding 1d3 more ordinary ghouls?
Biggest issue in the encounter is the possibility of being paralyzed by a ghoul attack which can end the fight as soon as it started. Not sure if they come prepared knowing that they are fighting ghouls so would have scrolls of remove paralysis and the likes.
Scrolls aren't all that likely unless they visit the abandoned temple in the area first. Healing supplies and such will still be there, but it's an area of the megadungeon focused more on traps and riddles than on martial prowess. I've only got a single fight planned for it. So, it's possible, but it all depends on where they go first.
They will, however, know they're fighting ghouls by that point. There are ghouls outside the inn, some in the common room of the inn, and probably more lurking around as Random Encounters. The paladin's Detect Evil should ping quite a bit in the area, too.
The paladin should be very useful in this encounter thanks to Aura of Courage, and I suspect the Bard may try to Countersong against the Jester. That... or the bard will instead use Inspire Courage and cast a few healing / buff spells.
I suggest removing 2 ghouls and 1 small ghoul for a 3rd level party and adding 2-4 more ghouls for a 5th level party. If the PCs fall for the ambush they will be in real trouble but if they can prevent themselves from being surrounded they fight should be tough be fair.
I really like this suggestion. It's not that difficult to add that to my notes. I'll give that a shot, possibly doing what I said above and slapping a rogue level onto some of the uglies. (They'll also get a feat since they'll have 3 HD.)
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It's a CR 8 encounter. Considering that you have 5-6 players it's more appropriate to use multiple opponents. What you didn't mention is levels and classes of your little group which is more important then encounter details.
Be warned, ghouls maybe have 13 hp, +3 to hit and lowish Fort Save, but if dice start falling heavily in your favor, it might cause TPK. Ghouls in general are complicated and tricky to use as opponents. Ask yourself how much trouble would it cause you and players to roll new characters after the fight.
One thing you mentioned: "the ghouls get a surprise round," apparently automatically. If I were a player, I might wonder why my high-Perception character didn't get a sniff of them. Yes, undead can be absolutely silent, but there are other senses (like smell). What if one of the PCs has a pet with scent along? Do they have any chance to detect the encounter and get to act in the surprise round?
One thing you mentioned: "the ghouls get a surprise round," apparently automatically. If I were a player, I might wonder why my high-Perception character didn't get a sniff of them. Yes, undead can be absolutely silent, but there are other senses (like smell). What if one of the PCs has a pet with scent along? Do they have any chance to detect the encounter and get to act in the surprise round?
Their chief opponent is a ghoulish bard that has been taunting them with sing-song for some time. He is particularly difficult to spot (+21 Stealth thanks to small size and shadowed armor) and waits quietly for the party to reach just the right spot for the ambush. Upon his signal, the ghouls get a "surprise round" which involves them kicking doors open and moving forward; the bard uses his song. If the party notices the ghouls behind the doors, they can instead turn the surprise on the ghouls and get a first round advantage.
Yeah, they do get a chance. The ghouls are all waiting behind doors and being quiet, but they can still be heard or sniffed out.
I wrote that out as their plan for the surprise round. The party can, through their actions, either get the jump instead or force the ghouls onto more level territory.
You can have ghouls run if the bard dies early.
Definitely a thing that will happen. They don't have morale, but they ARE intelligent undead and can do simple math. If they flee, they'll come back at night and try to drag someone off while they're sleeping.
Alot of the witch stuff will not work on undead and rogue part will be low. Unless this character goes for buffing they will probably not be useful.
This is definitely something I've been thinking about. I let them last session without choosing their Patron, so they may choose something that will be useful in an area with undead. We'll see.
Be warned, ghouls maybe have 13 hp, +3 to hit and lowish Fort Save, but if dice start falling heavily in your favor, it might cause TPK. Ghouls in general are complicated and tricky to use as opponents. Ask yourself how much trouble would it cause you and players to roll new characters after the fight.
This is definitely a theme of this campaign. My players walked into the game knowing that if I run this campaign player deaths could happen, as could TPKs. I'm not even sure if they're going to wander off in this direction yet (the first floor of this megadungeon is pretty huge), but this is the fight that concerns me most right now.
By the way, thank you all for your advice thus far. I'm still reading and watching, so if any new comments are added I'll be reading them. The next session is Sunday, so I have time before this might happen.