Questions about my low level recurring villain

[hargoyle]

So I'm DMing a group that has now reached level 5. There are four PCs. Next time they are going to meet a recurring villain. Namely a goblin monk. Think 100 Eyes from Marco Polo or Thac0 from Goblins and you get the idea. Now I want him to be as annoying as possible. Say something cryptic, disarm and trip the hell out of PCs. Deal very little damage, if any, be as untouchable as possible.

So my first question is: how to make him as annoying as possible? He has to be a goblin and has to have most of his levels in some martial class, but everything else is negotiable.

And second: how can I make him disappear so that he can fight the PCs another day? I'm short on ideas. As a cohort to an evil queen he has minions under his control and some magical resources too. Few levels of ninja, turn invisible and run? Sounds too risky. Teleportation? Is it even possible at this low a level? How can minions help?

If it is of any concern, the first encounter with him is in a cave that favors him and his minions.

[Saldiven]

Magic item that grants dimension door?

What level baddie?

[Val'bryn2]

Snake Style martial arts, combined with a level or two in Swashbuckler. Snake Style allows your unarmed strike to be piercing, so all abilities work together, and have two ways to deny attacks. Make the goblin a brawler, and it works even better because now he can wear studded leather/chain shirt.

[Pizza Lord]

Tanglefoot bags and nets to be annoying. invisible caltrops dropped on the floor between where he expects the PCs to approach or charge him are also good. Spell lasts much longer since even though the caltrops technically make attack rolls on creatures that's not really an attack, just a mechanic, so they'll stay invisible longer and break up any charges and hobble the PCs.

Smoke pellets or something to vanish (or vanish).

If you want him to be really annoying, he visits them at one of their homes and has a robe of useful items with a few window and door patches. He leaves small (goblin-size) windows that a small creature (so any halfling or gnome PCs might be okay) can just hop through to get around the rooms and floors while bigger creatures have to slow down and climb through. He uses the door patches with readied actions when the front-liners try and charge or run through an arch, or doorway, even one with an open door, he just has it hinge and latch so it the new one opens away. If they're charging, they may be able to make a free burst attempt (I think charging gives a +2) but otherwise it likely disrupts their attack. If they are just moving they can stop and use their standard to open it, but that ends their round. Plus, when he's going, they've got all these odd open windows in their walls and floors to figure out what to do with.

He can also set up the mirror patch to be angled in a doorway or archway while he stands to the side, so it looks like he's in front of them in a hallway, but he's safely around the corner and wastes their attack, leaving glass shards on the floor in the doorway. Otherwise, just be more annoying, he can use the bullseye lantern to make a lit and full lantern which he just breaks and starts a fire in their basement, wardrobe, or tents. He can use a rowboat patch to barricade a door (and leave a rowboat in their house) they have to try and get out. Same with a mule, he can leave that in their bedroom or basement, pooping everywhere and let them try and Handle Animal it upstairs or outside.

[Ryze Kuja]

Skill Focus Stealth, Hellcat Stealth, Fast Stealth, Ledge Walker, Dodge/Mobility, Combat Expertise

Even if you can't get all these right this second, since he's a recurring villain, you can keep updating his feats.

Hellcat Stealth and Fast Stealth are must-haves for "annoying" though, in my opinion. Facing an enemy who can stealth while being actively viewed, and then move at full speed while stealthed... your PC's will rip their hair out. Fighting this villain basically becomes "There he is!" *poof* "Where is he!?" "Found him!" *poof* "AMG where is he!?!" "Gotcha!" *poof*

Give him some items like ring of invisibility and anything that can boost his Touch AC (like deflection bonuses). Give him some spell resistance too.

Dancing weapon enchants are also a pain. Since he's a monk he could use a Cestus and a Wakizashi to have access to all physical dmg types, but what if his Wakizashi had the dancing enchant? Or dancing quarterstaff?

Caltrops are ALWAYS annoying because they cut your speed in half.

Edit: Since he's a Goblin he's a Small-sized character. If you can figure out a way for him to reduce his size to Tiny or Diminutive, that can really send his Stealth skill checks through the roof because of the size bonus.

[hargoyle]

@Saldiven
I think he should be something like level 6 or 7 to give him a little edge over the PCs. Dimension door definitely at some point.

@Val'bryn2
Snake style sounds like a good option, I'll consider it.

@Pizza Lord
Now this is good. Thing is the PCs have a base of operations. It's a small settlement in the making, in the spirit of Ars Magica, almost like a covenant. Up until now there has not been a serious threat to this base. But now with the goblin... Also this is good because he only needs one cheap magic item to annoy the PCs. Can you really cast invisibility on the caltrop bag to make them all invisible? Doesn't that apply to just one caltrop per spell?

@Ryze Kuja
Solid advice. What tricks should I be aware of that can counter his concealment at this level? Or a bit later too?

And caltrops. Thanks. Hadn't even considered them!

[RoseCrown]

You hardly even need to make caltrops invisible. Spread them in tall (2"+) grass and they're all but invisible to people not looking for them.

A small settlement you say, in the style of a covenant. Does it perchance have fields? Great places for nuisance-caltrops, fields.

[hargoyle]

Yes, yes it does :D

[Merm7th]

Give him parry and riposte which he uses to trip and disarm always followed by mocking and laughter. Give him access to the spell Mislead in a magical item.

[Ryze Kuja]

hargoyle wrote:

@Saldiven

@Ryze Kuja
Solid advice. What tricks should I be aware of that can counter his concealment at this level? Or a bit later too?

And caltrops. Thanks. Hadn't even considered them!

Glitterdust from a Wizard/Sorcerer causes -40 to a stealth check, or a character with extremely high perception can just spot the Goblin outright. If a PC casts any light spell in an area that your Goblin is trying to hide, it can reduce his bonus to stealth (even with Hellcat Stealth), or if a PC casts some type of light spell on anything the Goblin is carrying (it's hard to stealth with a big ol' beacon of light on you :P). So make sure your Goblin at least has a SR13 enchantment on his armor or shield.

Stealth is primarily defeated by perception, but there's some spells that affect it too.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/skills/stealth

So if you have both Stealth and Invisibility, that's just stupid sneaky.

.

Edit: Your PC's are going to do all kinds of weird stuff to capture him after the usual stuff doesn't work, so expect your PC's to find/throw nets and set traps (as the recurring villain becomes more annoying). You can counter this with Escape Artist, or the spell Freedom of Movement, or Dimension Door, etc.

[SmiloDan]

Add a few levels of warrior. They help with BAB and Hit Points, but are relatively negligible when determining CR. Use the extra levels in warrior to pick up Toughness and/or Dodge.

Recurring villains have to be super tough (since the PCs will be focusing on them) and elusive (since they need to escape so they can annoy, I mean fight, again).

Minions help. Teamwork feats can be really useful, like Swap Places or whatever it's called.

Also, the PCs aren't going to be looking at your character sheet, so you can "cheat" by "bending the rules" to make the NPC more fun for the players to interact with. Give it maximum hit points, bonus feats, racial bonuses to skills, CMB/CMD, AC, DR, etc. It's not really cheating if everyone ends up having more fun.

I've been playing a lot of 5th Edition lately, so I'm more "loosey-goosey" with the rules when I DM/GM nowadays. I used to really like the structure that PF NPCs and monsters have, but now I realize you can make more fun monsters if you take those structures as suggestions instead of hardline rules.

[Daw]

It's a lot harder to create a recurring villain that is Melee based, especially as levels go up.
Fairly quickly he is going to need to specialize in separating off party members, and taking the stragglers down. Problem is, this trick gets old fast. Actually, the goblin is going to learn quickly not to go directly at the party. Disrupting their resources and eliminating their allies would be a safer strategy. How do they know he's around, dead horses, destroyed equipments, inopportune fires.....

Traps are a thing too.

[SmiloDan]

5th Edition goblin bosses have an ability that uses their Reaction (Immediate Action) to switch places with a regular goblin.

You could make it so the Boss can use up an AoO to swap places with a minion whenever the Boss would normally get hit. That would preserve the life of the Boss while chewing through his minions.

[Bwang]

SmiloDan wrote:

5th Edition goblin bosses have an ability that uses their Reaction (Immediate Action) to switch places with a regular goblin.

You could make it so the Boss can use up an AoO to swap places with a minion whenever the Boss would normally get hit. That would preserve the life of the Boss while chewing through his minions.

There is a 3pp feat that does that.

A goblin cave is a warren to escape into, and should have scads of Goblins for ambushes, swarming, etc. Our GM made a Level 6-8 party of 6 rue a Kobold hunt. They were on edge for the next session and universally jumpy at chasing anything underground.