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Care to share?Ranger/Horizon Walkers make the nastiest, nastiest snipers/skirmish/shoot-n-scoot enemies I've ever statted up.
Especially one that is a particularly Ustalavan breed of werewolf. Mhah.
It's very high level - when my players get done facing him down this weekend, I'll drop a link in here. <grin>
I would honestly say that more than anything else, having smart, coordinated enemies can really turn the tide of a middling encounter. To give you an example of a module that I helped to write for the living arcanis campaign (the 3.5 variety), my initial combat attack team was a group of gnolls with the equivilant of teamwork shield feats that formed a shield wall using tower shields to cover for their archer buddies behind them. I was eventually overturned, but I still like the idea of the wedge, holding a corner of a room with guys with shortbows shooting over their heads. Given that the scenario in question was written for low level PCs, I got overturned because the idea was deemed "too deadly".
Doing something like this would give them a great fight against a cr appropriate group of enemies that would still be a challenge without being overbearing. Plus I would love to see how that fight turned out =_
I wonder how it compares with the Slayer, or a Slayer/Horizon Walker. Some of those talents are dandy for this. Fast Sneak especially. You also get some sneak attack damage on top of the other perks, which may make up for the lack of gravity bow. Unfortunately the earlier you can pick up Woodland Stride is 10, so you lose some tactical freedom unless you can jack the level up higher.
So I rolled up a level 10 Slayer to throw at my party at some point. They just hit level 5, so I wasn't sure if they were ready for it. I went Slayer over Ranger so the thing could get fast sneak. Sniper archetype halves range penalties. Gave him a wand of Gravity Bow too.
Good lord... It starts to become too easy too snipe the PCs to death. And that's without using the freaking Assassinate Save or Die.
I'm thinking they may encounter a lower level Slayer who is this dude's little brother... then send the older brother after them once they are leveled a bit more.
So I rolled up a level 10 Slayer to throw at my party at some point. They just hit level 5, so I wasn't sure if they were ready for it. I went Slayer over Ranger so the thing could get fast sneak. Sniper archetype halves range penalties. Gave him a wand of Gravity Bow too.
Good lord... It starts to become too easy too snipe the PCs to death. And that's without using the freaking Assassinate Save or Die.
I'm thinking they may encounter a lower level Slayer who is this dude's little brother... then send the older brother after them once they are leveled a bit more.
If that Slayer has NPC wealth, that is at least a CR9 encounter. Since the slayer is able to snipe repeatedly, I can only assume the terrain is in their favor. That bumps it up to CR10.
If you throw a CR=APL+5 encounter at the party, then the expectation is that they will probably die. APL+4 encounters should have a 50/50 chance of wiping the party, and your slayer is actually more dangerous than that.
Introduce a new group of villains to the game:
Devil Worshipers.
Devilbound template, worshiping Asmodeus. It's only +1 CR but grants REGENERATION 5! Also stat boosts and 3 quickened fireballs per day (or invisibility, can be invisible at start of fight, open up with quickened fireball and still have one use left for during fight.)
Great template.
Fire resistance 30. They can fireball EACH OTHER and not hurt each other.
Even on level 5 commoners it is scary.
Makes for great unkillable, but easily drop-able mooks.
They just keep getting up. :D
Also, they can see in the dark (darkvision 60).
Check it out, it's the best template in the game, hands down.
Lots and lots of pugwampi, hidden in the woods in a magical minefield.
Runes of death, traps of confusion/[insert debilitating condition].
Pugwampi could be 1 lvl dual cursed oracle, to force them to reroll the (already rerolled) saves they actually do pass.
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One of the most harrowing encounters my players ever faced involved a lot of the stuff that's been talked about. Archers stationed on the tops of buildings, lots and lots of mobile derps able to swim around the battlefield, wolves tripping the PCs and low level witches de-buffing all the players...they had a rough time. All the things they were fighting were easily 3 levels below them or more, but there was enough going on that they struggled. Compound on this the fact that the leader showed up with reinforcements not too much later and the party had to flee. If you can't think of anything to do with an encounter, watch some good fantasy movies and pay attention to the fight sequences. Try to think of what would make that situation difficult for the characters. A great example of this is the flee from Moria in Fellowship of the Ring. Not only are they fleeing from the Balrog, not only are the bridges collapsing and they're nearly falling to their deaths, but there's goblins shooting arrows too. When you think about it from that perspective, you start to understand just how awesome it is that the fellowship escaped. Recreating that in your game will make for a great session
One of the most harrowing encounters my players ever faced involved a lot of the stuff that's been talked about. Archers stationed on the tops of buildings, lots and lots of mobile derps able to swim around the battlefield, wolves tripping the PCs and low level witches de-buffing all the players...they had a rough time. All the things they were fighting were easily 3 levels below them or more, but there was enough going on that they struggled. Compound on this the fact that the leader showed up with reinforcements not too much later and the party had to flee. If you can't think of anything to do with an encounter, watch some good fantasy movies and pay attention to the fight sequences. Try to think of what would make that situation difficult for the characters. A great example of this is the flee from Moria in Fellowship of the Ring. Not only are they fleeing from the Balrog, not only are the bridges collapsing and they're nearly falling to their deaths, but there's goblins shooting arrows too. When you think about it from that perspective, you start to understand just how awesome it is that the fellowship escaped. Recreating that in your game will make for a great session
Another example is the (second?) Narnia movie where the heroes launch a nighttime assault on the enemy castle, only to have half their forces cut off when the portcullis came down, ending in a slaughter.
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I put changes I am thinking of making to my adventure in the Modules forum after reading some responses here.
I read Ravingdork's post on the Tucker's Goblins, and one part reminded me of a favorite memory of mine: when my rogue was scouting ahead and got attacked by a caterpillar swarm. The other players decided the only thing to do was to cast burning hands on me, and throw some greek fire bottles on me for good measure.
...one part reminded me of a favorite memory of mine: when my rogue was scouting ahead and got attacked by a caterpillar swarm. The other players decided the only thing to do was to cast burning hands on me, and throw some greek fire bottles on me for good measure.
It just goes to show how terrified of swarms PCs can be.
Wizard: Oh my gods! It's got Magellen!
Paladin: F~+% Magellen! Bring out the wizard's fire before it's upon us too!"
;D
You could have a programmed image of BBEG or BBEG's important henchman, walk into a portal that leads to an utterly deadly plane.
You don't have to make the situation forced and feel cheesy. Try designing your enemies intelligently.
Classes that are marked “key” generally add 1 to a creature's CR for each level added. Classes marked with a “—” increase a creature's CR by 1 for every 2 class levels added until the number of levels added are equal to (or exceed) the creature's original CR, at which point they are treated as “key” levels (adding 1 to the creature's CR for each level added).Creatures with class levels receive +4, +4, +2, +2, +0, and –2 adjustments to their ability scores, assigned in a manner that enhances their class abilities.Feel free to also add templates you think would create an interesting enemy. These changes can make your vanilla encounter into something memorable and tough if you choose.
** spoiler omitted **
The golden rule. Monsters use the gold to buy magic weapons and potions.
If there are guns in your campaign, there are also kegs of dynamite hidden inside undead(such as mummies). Worshipers of evil gods of battle will turn their fallen worshipers into Hecuvas or something.
It's very high level - when my players get done facing him down this weekend, I'll drop a link in here. <grin>Care to share?Ranger/Horizon Walkers make the nastiest, nastiest snipers/skirmish/shoot-n-scoot enemies I've ever statted up.
Especially one that is a particularly Ustalavan breed of werewolf. Mhah.
This post has the pertinent stat block, look at "Alec". I didn't build him as a ranged skirmisher, but as a dimensional dervish full-melee-attack-with-nasty-nasty-poisons foe. He lasted 2 rounds. *le sigh*