Some of the adventurers annoyed a very powerful group and this group has naturally hired a powerful assassin to kill them in revenge. The thing is, I think as GM I might feel guilty if the assassin just sneaks up and kills one of the PCs. I was thinking of making it so as the assassin just has one attack and then runs off. He would have to score a critical hit on his sneak attack to kill one of them (about a 4% chance, I reckon) OR use poison and do a coup d-etat if they failed an easy DC14 Fort save and went unconscious (although other adventurers would undoubtedly rush to the aid of their fallen comrade). Does this seem fair? Of course I don't want a PC to die, but I do want to terrify them.
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Question: do the PCs suspect that this could be happening?
Because I think the best thing you could do is let them have some clues.
Maybe the assasin studies the PCs for a couple of days to learn their routines and they have a chance to realize someone might be spying on them or following them.
Let them prepare themselves, set alarm spells, make a vigilance, whatever.
Id they don't do it just make the opposed rolls so they have a chance of noticing the attack. If everything fails, the assasin might be able to kill one of tve PCs but you have given them many chances to foil the assasin's plans so you shouldn't feel guilty. Letting them plan in advance can make a difference in their survivality but you wouldn't be forcing anything as they will be the ones that define if they live or die.
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You could poison them with a deadly poison e.g. Kiss of Barbatos, cockatrice spit, tears of death etc. that would have killed the player/s if not for a flaw in its manufacture. Make the poison harmful but not deadly; give them the means to identify it and impress upon them just how deadly a properly functioning batch of poison would have been and the immense cost of each dose of poison.
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If the players know "A" threat is coming, then they should be on guard and an assassin in the night would be acceptable.
If the party believes they have no enemies right now, they might never suspect they are a target and then it become GM vs Players and the GM being a dick with an out of nowhere ambush.
Remember that you know more about NPC motivations and actions than your players ever could, and implied threats are not necessarily threats to the PC's, even not so subtle hints can be misconstrued.
That being said, a single assassin in the dark should never be a single turn death for a player, maybe the third night attack in a row, yes.
I would suggest some kind of extension to the attack.
Poison designed to weaken and hurt but not kill (Employers desired the party to suffer first for their sleight).
Maybe ranged attacks from the shadows for good single sneak attack damage, and this is kept up nightly to exhaust them.
Maybe have the assassin attack in broad daylight, pretending to be a beggar (opposed disguise checks), then strikes with poisoned blades as part of a surprise round. Attempting to hit everyone with a prepared (non fatal) poisoned blade at least once.
Maybe a failed trap, a bad batch of poison (as suggested above), or choosing an inopportune time to strike to add fear to the party (Maybe a drunken/salesman NPC keeps them up with minor annoyances).
Maybe have a very cheap assassin attack once, poorly, then once they find the note with the orders, send a much better one.
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An assassin isn't truly a combat encounter per se. Instead, it's a highly lethal social encounter.
In order to assassinate the PCs, an assassin has to find them. This usually means questioning people who have seen the PCs- unless the players are high enough level to be famous no matter who you ask, and live in a known location. Assuming this isn't the case, this is the first step where an assassin can be discovered- word could reach them that someone was asking questions about them (whether this is likely or not depends on the connections the PCs have made).
Next, they need to scope out the PCs, as Kileanna said. Only an arrogant assassin is going to attempt to do it without scoping out the PCs first, there's too much at risk.
Finally, they have to carry out the operation. If the PCs keep proper watches and have high Perception, there's so many ways this can go wrong.
That's two to three different places for failure to occur. Ideally, the assassin is not minmaxed and the party has a decent chance to discover it, at which point it becomes a game of cat and mouse between the two parties.
That said, if it's higher level, maybe it's not the end of the world if a character gets assassinated. After all, raise dead spells exist. This complicates the would-be assassin's job greatly. He has to kill the PC, ensure there are no witnesses, and ensure that the PC cannot talk or be revived, and not all assassins will be willing to go for that final step (they might not be used to dealing with higher powered targets).
At each point in this process, there's a chance for the PCs to figure out what's going on and launch a counterattack. If they don't, that's their problem.
Granted, this is mostly considering mundane assassinations. If the assassin is a wizard, all bets are off.
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Of course I don't want a PC to die, but I do want to terrify them.
I suspect what you want is for the PCs actions to have consequences. They pissed of the wrong guys and should, in some way, pay for that. That's fine. No, it's great. It's what RPGs are for, it's what they do best.
But theatening the PCs with dead, especially if you don't actually threaten them but rather roll dice secretly and then just kill them off, is often rather boring. There's a reason why save-or-die traps are out of fashion. And an assassin can play out much like a living trap. Not the most of fun, I believe your players will think.
Yet you don't want the PCs to walk away scot free. So you need to threaten them and hound them. More fun consequences than dying would be, for example, being forced to flee the city.
Use an assassin, but make him easily thwarted. Hint that the powerful organization will try again, make the players worry for the safety of their PCs. But always keep in mind that it's not actually about trying to kill PCs.
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Play Bane to your PC's Batman. (Sorry for the DC comics reference, but here we go)
In the comics, a villain, Bane, was determined to take down Batman. Bane was certainly strong enough to go toe to toe, perhaps even with Batman at his peak. But Bane wanted to *break* him.
So he unleashed chaos in Gotham City, forcing Batman to respond to problem after problem, exhausting him, trying to push him as hard as he could..
..*then* he broke Batman's back (don't worry, he got better, because Batman).
One assassin is unlikely to just walk up to a single powerful person with a group around them and try to kill them. They'd either try to weaken the group as a whole or try to split the target off or both.
And that could be the driving force behind a handful of seemingly random encounters with which you harass your PC's, pushing them to expend resources. Then a little misdirection (with appropriate chances for the PC's *not* to fall for it of course) before the assassin simply decides that now is the time.
I would still recommend having them use an indirect approach. Perhaps have them go along with them as a helpful NPC itinerant healer, which after a few ambushes, the PC's might assume is your attempt to mitigate how hard you are pushing them (yes, take advantage of their potential metagaming). Then when that last encounter ends and the target has taken damage, the helpful healer... oops... was that poison? Run!
Some of the adventurers annoyed a very powerful group and this group has naturally hired a powerful assassin to kill them in revenge.
How did they annoy a very powerful group ?
That very powerful group is Evil?
But the answer is Zero.
Of course I don't want a PC to die, but I do want to terrify them.I suspect what you want is for the PCs actions to have consequences. They pissed of the wrong guys and should, in some way, pay for that. That's fine. No, it's great. It's what RPGs are for, it's what they do best.
Of course it may be the players acting up/out rather than the PCs doing something.
If so, remember Rule -1: "Never try to fix a OOC issue IC."
Or you can just say: "Your actions have annoyed a very powerful group. Your characters wake up dead- or rather they dont wake up. Roll up new Pcs and this time dont be dicks. Or if you wanna be dicks, find a different DM."
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You could try a body hopping assassin. The heroes face a series of straight-forward encounters in which they are brazenly and openly attacked by strangers. Seems pretty simple, right? The guy they pissed off previously is obviously sending assassins after them. Only later do the heroes learn that there is only one assassin, and that he has been using possession magic. Not only is the assassin still at large, but the heroes are now guilty of killing several innocent people.
Though the law (and their collective conscience) might excuse them as a matter of self defense, the victims' families likely won't see it the same way. Not only will the adventurers' reputations be on the line, but other people with connections to the assassin's (heroes'?) victims may come for their heads as well!
Of course I don't want a PC to die, but I do want to terrify them.I suspect what you want is for the PCs actions to have consequences. They pissed of the wrong guys and should, in some way, pay for that. That's fine. No, it's great. It's what RPGs are for, it's what they do best.Of course it may be the players acting up/out rather than the PCs doing something.
If so, remember Rule -1: "Never try to fix a OOC issue IC."
Or you can just say: "Your actions have annoyed a very powerful group. Your characters wake up dead- or rather they dont wake up. Roll up new Pcs and this time dont be dicks. Or if you wanna be dicks, find a different DM."
The players haven't done anything wrong. The adventurers have annoyed a very powerful evil group, which is what adventurers are supposed to do. The assassin is part of the ongoing intrigue.
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Thanks guys. That's given me some promising ideas. I spent a long time organizing the latest scenario and used a lot of brainpower and time in doing so and my brain started hurting when I came to the assassin part, which is another layer on top of many others. This will enable me to write a more intriguing situation. Thanks!
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A couple assassin ideas:
- I rebuilt a high level one from Hell's Rebels to use disguise to beat a +52 perception inquisitor (the take 10 was a 60 with a race penalty).
- A cave druid who turns into an earth elemental and buries targets alive via grapple.
- A courtly hunter with a surprising animal companion.
- A magus that goes for the kill by isolating targets via illusions.
These all have very different applications depending on how you want to challenge your players. I hate to say this about what is likely a "fodder" encounter, but I think an assassin really requires a lot of design and personality over and above a typical NPC. That said, the threat of death needs to be apparent to the PCs when they finally do "meet up" with the assassin. As such, I'd typically build them as an APL +3 or +4 encounter, but as a single combatant, they're likely to be melted down quickly. Have part of that encounter be complicated by terrain, weather, or other conditions and keep the assassin closer in CR to the APL. Maybe the assassin has created distractions, such as starting buildings on fire or hurting civilians.
The old "he comes in the night to coup de grace you" trope is entirely too played out. These guys gotta have some flair.