I'm running The Ruby Phoenix Tournament for a group of four players, and after running the first day of the tournament, I'm fairly certain it's going to be a cakewalk for them. I'd like tips on how to make it more challenging.
The party consists of four, 15-point-buy characters of 11th level.
- Arcane Bloodrager – obscene to-hit and damage, haste and blur when raging
- Aasimar Dawnflower Dervish Bard – solid to-hit and damage, angel wings
- Halfling Ninja – greater invisibility, flurry of stars with 6d6 sneak on each shuriken
- Silksworn Occultist – arcane support
They wiped the floor with the four monks in round one. Honestly, I think the bloodrager could have solo'd them. We're using The Elephant in the Room feat tax house rules, so the monks had +14 to +16 to disarm, trip, etc. They managed to get one disarm and one attack off between them before all being permanently killed. The bloodrager hit one from 71 hp to around -40 hp in one full attack.
All three strikers are rolling 30+ on most hits, can fly, can haste themselves, and are magic item'd out the wazoo, so darkness, fog, terrain, etc, won't affect them.
They got trounced by the Shenzuzhou in the exhibition match, but that monster is crazy powerful, and worse than any of the tournament fights, as far as I can see. Even then, that only happened because all but one of them failed their save againt the Fear aura. I'm pretty sure they would have killed it in the first round, if they'd saved. The bard almost solo'd it, getting it down to 20 hp in two rounds.
What can I do to make the fights more challenging? I don't think they're going to enjoy wiping every fight in 1–2 rounds, taking almost no damage.
