Protecting Sandpoint - Advice needed! Chapter 4 spoilers

[MaxTheDM]

Hey all! I’m running my group through chapter 3 at this point, and we’re coming up on the end (currently in the Hook Mountain Clanhold). I’m now trying to think of how to run the raid, and I have a few questions. (I’m also going to put below who my PCs are):

Halfling Fighter 10 (TWF Critical Kukris) (Might be multiclassing into ranger going forward)
Elf Wizard 9/Inquisitor 1 (Multiclassing into Anchorite of Dawn going forward, he took a level of inquisitor so that he could get an animal companion and some proficiencies)
Human Cleric 10 (Sarenrae)
Elf Ranger 6/Fighter 4 (Shalelu, who the group brought along so often that I’ve upgraded her to official party member and leveled her up).

Question 1: The way I’m setting it up, I want to give them a little time to prepare, and they may try to recruit allies. Did any of your PCs try to recruit help from Magnimar or the Black Arrows, and if so, how did it go? What did you do? I think Jakardos might be willing to come along to help his daughter, but they aren’t exactly in a position to reinforce anyone.

Question 2: Are there any NPCs who would help fight that aren’t the obvious listed ones? I plan on having Hemlock, Ameiko, Zantus and Orik (who has become a Paladin in our campaign, after being redeemed by the cleric) assist in the battle one way or another, (I’ve buffed up their HP and/or AC without altering their offensive abilities, just so they don’t get killed off without a fight, but they’re no higher level than before). Are there other NPCs in town who might volunteer to help fight?

Question 3: I’ve heard Teraktinus is kind of a pushover, and I’ve seen a lot of people say their raid was easy (for example, I’ve heard stories of Paladins wiping Longtooth in one or two rounds on their own). But my group has pretty low optimization (they focus more on Fluff than on Crunch, to the point where sometimes I have to force them to equip new magical items), so I’m worried they might not be able to keep up. How hard do you consider the raid to be?

Question 4: Last one! Sorry, this chapter is kind of stumping me. Chapter 3 was pretty odd for my group, because most of their friends in sandpoint (excluding Shalelu) have been absent for ~15 sessions, meaning they haven’t had a lot of RP opportunities. Should I send along some friends for them to hang out with when they go on the adventure? Shalelu will probably tag along, but she’s already fulfilled her character arc, so it might still be boring. Should I have a new NPC (Orik maybe?) who they don’t know everything about for them to get to know on the adventure?

Thanks for the help all!

[uafbum]

So, I was a player in this campaign. The group I was with wasn't really optimized but was a five player group (Rogue 10, Wiz (evoker) 10, Cleric 10, Fighter 10, Ranger 10 (archery)). Our group as also different in that the rogue (me) had been... consolidating allies for a *long* time and had leaned hard into Diplomacy/Bluff/Intimidate to do so. Vancaskerkin had been hired on to "train" the town guard and turn them into more of a militia. Our group didn't really have much interaction with Ameiko/Shalelu/Hemlock/Zantus outside of small RP moments, so they weren't really active in the battle. Instead it was more the groups we had built up in the previous chapters (for in character reasons).

While not a pushover, the raid for us was not *particularly* difficult, but we also had forewarning and time to prepare. Barricades and traps were setup, militia trained and moved to various areas. Judicious use of divination magic to determine who was coming for us and how best to counteract it. Our casters were well prepared with the most useful types of spells, and indeed, we had some interesting "mobility" ideas happen where the wizard cast fly on a high str char, and had that char fly them around where they could launch fireballs at extreme range against different groups of giants. Yes, we split the party, but with the right spells it wasn't much of an issue as dimension door, fly and haste allowed for more flexibility. Additionally, my rogue had also pumped skills into UMD and acted as a "secondary" caster of sorts (mostly buffs and mobility spells), which allowed our evoker to load up on AoE spells for crowd control.

For your party, I would give them the opportunity to prepare, maybe have Father Zantus offer to provide some "divination" advice in the form of visions, or even rumors from traveling merchants of a large force attacking everything in its path moving towards Sandpoint. Have the NPCs indicate that something *BIG* is coming and allow them to figure out how they want to prep for it (if at all). I can see it being a tough fight if they're not prepared, in which case it might be useful to have some of the other NPCs you mentioned to step up and show growth, pitching in at a clutch moment to save the party (and providing more RP moments... like, say Ameiko deflecting a potentially lethal attack on a PC with some pithy line about "repaying her debt" or "we adventurers have to watch out for each other!" or the like? I'm not sure how you're portraying those NPCs in your game). This could also lead into those PCs offering to tag along after 'showing their worth' as it were.

Hope this provides some inspiration for you :)