Didn't want to change anything about who they are or how they operate. So Sap Adept made more sense than TWF. The class level stat adjustments got me close to the average monster stats/DC's/etc for this CR... only had to fudge Con a little bit.
Probably add a Lucky Horseshoe to the Leprechaun's loot, give the Leprechaun the Fate's Favored trait, and add a few Pugwampi to bump it up to CR 5... the Pugwampi do not even have to be aligned with the Leprechaun, just near enough by to affect the party with their Unluck Aura (which the Leprechaun would be immune to due to the Lucky Horseshoe).
What do you think?
Leprechaun Rogue CR 4
Source Bestiary 2 pg. 177; Ultimate Wilderness 2017
XP 1200
CN Small fey Sylvan Trickster UnRogue 4
Init +9;
Senses low-light vision;
Perception +18
Defense
AC 16, touch 16, flat-footed 11
(+5 Dex, +1 size)
hp 30 (4d8+8+4)
Fort +3, Ref +9, Will +4
Evasion; Danger Sense +1
DR 5/cold iron;
SR 13
Offense
Speed 40 ft.
Melee
+1 sap +10 (1d4+5 nonlethal), or
+1 club +10 (1d8–1)
Spell-Like Abilities
(CL 4th; concentration +8)
Constant—shillelagh
At will—dancing lights, ghost sound (DC 14), invisibility (self only), mage hand, major image (visual and auditory elements only, DC 17), prestidigitation, ventriloquism (DC 15)
3/day—color spray (DC 15), fabricate (1 cubic foot of material only)
1/day—major creation
Witch Hexes
(10 + 1/2 class level + Int)
At will--misfortune (DC 16)
Statistics
Str 7, Dex 20, Con 14, Int 18, Wis 16, Cha 18
Base Atk +3; CMB +0; CMD 17
Feats
Improved Initiative, Sap Adept, Stick Fighting Style*, Weapon FinesseB
Talents
Fey Trick (Witch Hex), Ninja Trick (Style Master)*
Skills
Acrobatics +9, Appraise +8, Bluff +11, Climb +2, Craft (alchemy) +9, Craft (traps) +8, Diplomacy +8, Disable Device +9, Escape Artist +12, Intimidate +8, Knowledge (geology) +8, Knowledge (local) +8, Knowlede (nature) +11, Perception +18, Perform (comedy) +9, Perform (dance) +9, Sense Motive +10, Sleight of Hand +16, Stealth +12, Swim +2, Use Magic Device +11.
Racial Modifiers +8 Perception, +4 Sleight of Hand
Languages Common, Elven, Halfling, Sylvan
SQ leprechaun magic; Sneak Attack +2d6; Wild Empathy; Resist Nature's Lure; Danger Sense; Debilitating Injury; Witch Hex
Ecology
Environment temperate forests
Organization solitary, pair, band (3–6), or family (7–10)
Treasure npc (mwk club, mwk sap, other treasure)
Special Abilities
Leprechaun Magic (Sp)
When a leprechaun uses any of its spell-like abilities to deceive, trick, or humiliate a creature (at the GM’s discretion), the spell-like ability resolves at caster level 8th rather than 4th. If a leprechaun uses its spell-like abilities in this manner, it has a bonus of +12 on concentration checks.
Wild Empathy (Ex)
A leprechaun can improve the attitude of an animal. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check made to improve the attitude of a person. The leprechaun rolls 1d20 and adds her class level and her Charisma modifier to determine the wild empathy check result.
The typical domestic animal has a starting attitude of indifferent, while wild animals are usually unfriendly.
To use wild empathy, the leprechaun and the animal must be able to study each other, which means that they must be within 30 feet of one another under normal conditions..
Generally, influencing an animal in this way takes 1 minute but, as with influencing people, it might take more or less time.
A leprechaun can also use this ability to influence a magical beast with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2, but she takes a –4 penalty on the check
Resist Nature’s Lure (Ex)
Starting at 4th level, a leprechaun gains a +4 bonus on saving throws against the spell-like and supernatural abilities of fey. This bonus also applies to spells and effects that target plants, such as blight, entangle, spike growth, and warp wood.
Description
Leprechauns are small, fun-loving tricksters. They are most commonly found in forests and share the close connection with nature that is possessed by most fey creatures. Leprechauns love playing tricks on unknowing passersby—almost as much as they love a fine bottle of wine and a plateful of hot food in their bellies. They often steal something of worth from adventurers just to provoke a chase. Using their ability to disappear at will to its full potential, they wait until their victims appear to be about to give up the chase before reappearing once more to let the chase resume. They are not greedy creatures, and eventually drop what they’ve stolen, slipping away while their angry pursuers claim the lost property. The exception is gold—leprechauns love gold and often hoard it in secret, hidden places. It is rumored that a person who finds a gold coin in the forest and returns it to the leprechaun that dropped it will be granted a wish as a reward. Unfortunately, these rumors are false—likely perpetuated by the leprechauns themselves in order to trick others into bringing them gold.
Leprechauns prefer not to kill other creatures unless the ones attacking them are malicious or known enemies of the forest or fey. They often use their powers to befuddle and annoy evil folk, tricking creatures such as goblins and orcs into thinking a forest is haunted.
Not sure what your goal is with this Leprechaun but seems a little excessive for a CR4.
HP should be higher since the base creature has 4d6 and has another 4d8 from class levels. About 48 hp if its average.
The stealth and Initiative is pretty high so chances are it'll open up with 1d4+7+2d6 sneak attack, then hit again by going first. The average level 2 front liner only has about 19 hp.
I found an example of overall HD staying the same with class levels replacing racial HD... (Quickling is 4HD, Quicklkng Rogue 2 is still 4HD)... so I figured that was kosher.
Sure, HP is a little low, but everything else is about right. Keeping all 4 racial HD, and adding 4 levels of Rogue increases BAB, saves, justifies another stat bump, increases skills that matter in low level encounters. I am guessing it's CR 6 @ 8HD.
And I didn't want it CR 6, I wanted it CR 4... maybe 5. It's going to tag you with Misfortune, and blast everyone with Color Spray, then run away... it doesn't want to kill anyone unless provoked.
You have the party tasked to retrieve something the Leprechaun has... they start low enough level that he is a reoccuring boss. Eventually they will track down his lair and best him, sure. Until then, it's a fun encounter...
CR 4 is about right. It's designed to mostly cast with spells, and the damage output isn't really that good. It has a high attack bonus, but the AC isn't going to give the melee types too much trouble.
It'll start off pretty well with the high stealth and init modifier, but after the surprise round things will likely turn around.
Tigers are a CR 4, and if they get the jump on you in the surprise round it's going to hurt a lot more.
I didn't think it was too over the top. I really didn't go out of my way to optimize the Leprechaun for combat... only added +2 to Charisma, instead of +4... which only raised the DC of Color Spray by 1, instead of 2. Burnt a feat on Sap Adept to focus on nonlethal damage. Spent a Rogue Talent on Stick Fighting Style since shillelagh doesn't work with the Sap. Even after additionally increasing Con a bit, the HP and Fort saves are both still low. Didn't pick up the feat to use the one hex on the same target more than once. Didn't pick the Slumber Hex. Didn't trade out anything else to stack archetypes for wierd shenanigans. Keeping HD @ 4 instead of 8 limits the number of feats available... even if I had more feats available, the next one would probably be Nature Magic anyways.
It doesn't even take a highly optimzed party to reasonably handle this. A sidebar, just for fun, three person party I am in consisting of a Gnome Druid VMC Cleric, a Half-Elf Slayer VMC Wizard, and a Half-Orc Fighter/cRogue could have done this at level 4-ish.
We would have gathered information ahead of time, had known about and prepared for a Leprechaun's SLA's in advance, we would have avoided direct contact with it and tracked it to the best of our abilities, dealt with any traps they may have set, spread out and used ranged weapons to try stay out of range of any spells or abilities we are aware of...
It's still just a Leprechaun.
A single Half-Orc Zen Archer Monk can probably handle this at level 3...
A Zen Archer Monk is pretty high optimization(Good Will Save, Wisdom is a high priority) for this specific encounter so I wouldn't really base your expectation on that(Not to mention without cold iron arrows, would do very little to harm the Leprechaun). Your party *could* potentially do this at level 4, but the Leprechaun also has a high chance of murdering everyone while they are stunned by color spray. Tracking a Leprechaun is pretty difficult with it's stealth of 12 and can make a Major Image that can throw you off it's track 400 ft away.
Lastly and kind of funny, but the Leprechaun actually has very little to benefit from using Misfortune since the duration ends as soon as his turn comes up again(So no Misfortune then Color Spray). So unless he's just following them around invisible until they try to do something, but then he immediately becomes visible once he does use it.
I don't know what kind of houserules you are running though so /shrug. My assumptions are based on Fighter/Rogue(Unchained)/Cleric/Wizard. Average HP. Encounter opens up with the party spotting an image at a distance. Melee combatants would push forward. Cleric might as well. Wizard might cast a buff spell or fire off a magic missile. Despite his Will Save, the Wizard probably fails and so do the Rogue/Fighter so they believe the image is real. Leprechaun thumps the Wizard on the head and immediately drops him.
If the Leprechaun was ever dealt lethal damage at this point, he would probably Coup De Grace the wizard before going invisible and leaving. Fey are jerks.
For sure, it IS an encounter... however, it is also not far off from exactly where it "should" be for this CR... according to the table I found on aon, at least. I chose the Leprechaun BECAUSE they have Color Spray. I kept the CR low SPECIFICALLY to keep the party in the danger zone of Color Spray. I did this because the freaking CR 2 Leprechaun still has Color Spray 3/day with a 14 DC... which is absolutely GUARANTEED to drop everyone at level 2. Clearly the designers, umm, designed the Leprechaun to have a Get Out of Jail Free card (3 of them, actually). So I just kept that a thing, but it was ALREADY a thing.
It's not like I just randomly added Color Spray 3/day as an SLA to this low level creature just to be a d!ck... I didn't have to, someome else already did it for me. Now, within all rights of rebuilding this creature, I could have jacked their Charisma with a +4 instead of the +2 I did use for that key stat. I could have added Spell Focus or Ability Focus (whatever works for SLA's) since UnChained Rogue gives Weapon Finesse for free, opening up a feat slot that they had spent on Weapon Finesse.
No, this is not even an optimized rogue. It's not supposed to be... it's a freaking Leprechaun. They are fun-loving tricksters that prefer not to kill other creatures... it literally says so in their description, which I purposefully did NOT change. Thus, a focus on nonlethal damage.
Momma said knock you out... then run away! Oh brave sir robin, he bravely runs away.
All of it is based on guerilla hit'n'run tactics. Fey are jerks, not stupid, though. These are the strategies that keep you alive when you have pathetic HP...
I'm aware Leprechauns have Color Spray innately. They're also not usually encounters most PCs have to face. They're also unlikely to try to kill people unless dealt lethal damage first which is the main problem. PCs usually don't pull punches unless their character is specifically built to be able to do so which means the Leprechaun won't either in any subsequent encounter. That's without figuring in a Fey's blue and orange morality.
Part of the issue is that the set up is designed to make this Leprechaun an adversary so the moment things turn to serious blows, the Leprechaun most likely gets away and starts actually planning to kill the party. Which if it wants to, can very easily do so to a low level party. At Will Invisibility means he could just coup de grace everyone during a nightly rest out in the woods after thumping the lookout.
This is all without factoring in Pugwampis which turn this encounter to absolutely grueling since they likely shatter all the nonmagical stuff they have while everyone is stunned(Unattended items get no save so any nonmagical weapons the characters have get broken.
I should probably also state that using creatures with a ton of save or loses puts a bad taste in my mouth both as a player and a referee.
It is a Leprechaun that is twice the CR of the original... absolutely dangerous at low levels. However, if played in the true nature of the creature, the party shouldn't have much of a reason to shoot first/ask questions later... and if they do, they deserve what they get for attacking random midgets hiding pots under stumps, then creating hundreds of identical stumps. Leave that little guy alone, mind your own freaking business you murderhobo monsters...
But, honestly, it would probably be best to make use of skill challenges. Maybe they hear rumors someone spotted a Leprechaun out on the last full moon. Maybe someone else is talking about something of theirs has gone missing. Maybe they are accusing people of stealing it. Maybe someone else hires/offers a reward to retrieve some items from the Leprechaun...
Now you have to gather information on who seen it, where it was seen, what items are missing and whom they belong to, track down a Leprechaun!!!, follow it back to its lair, and either negotiate with it, fight it, or steal the items back from it...
That's like its own little Leprechaun adventure for a level 3-4 party... that can all be ended in a few rounds with ~5 of those aforementioned Cold Iron arrows and an Orc HornBow...
How does he lock in his Sneak Attack Damage?
It doesn't look like he does. Which is fine. Not everything is a race to 0hp using one of five different combinations of feats and classes. You certainly have a good grasp of mechanics and have made some strong characters, but every thread can't necessarily be linked back to Living Monolith + lead blades + Vital Strike or a monk/barbarian/cavalier-octopus druid or alchemists with exploding orc hornbows, tentacles and tumors with large crustaceans in them.
To the OP, this thread is in Advice, so...what advice are you looking for? You seem resistant to the idea that the encounter is too much and seem to think that some other possible issues are irrelevant. So, was this just meant for General Discussion and a way to showcase your latest creation? Or was there some kind of feedback you are actually looking for?
As far as I can see, it looks like a fun, effective creature to interact with. Definitely one of those that could be a lot more or less dangerous depending on how it's run, but that's pretty much any monster that isn't just a block of hp, AC, attack (damage) and saves.
I appreciate the feedback, sorry if I seem resistant to change even though I am in the Advice section. I just do not see where the idea that it is too much is coming from. Leprechauns can be deadly as-is at CR 2, too. I am not worried about balance or power issues... everything is right where it should be compared to the average monsters of this CR.
I was hoping for advice on how to run an encounter with this particular version of a Leprechaun. I have spitballed some ideas for the encounter upthread, but everyone was apparently more focused on how scary this little 30hp, CR 4 Leprechaun is.
What traps would they use? What other creatures would they pal around with? Anything fun and flavorful to add to the encounter, since Pugwampi seem to be in poor taste and are mortal enemies of Leprechauns anyways? What is a worthy and hopefully unique treasure/reward for this encounter?
I think precocious badgers are an easy fit in such an encounter; major image ye olde pot of gold over a badger burrow, fun ensues!
I'd do a lot of stuff like that; disguise a bee hive, then misfortune people against the distraction swarm save, create an illusion of a diving griffin whilst the party is traversing a slippery log over a chasm possibly causing some to jump/startle fall into the creek below, etc...
basically use him as a "force multiplier" on what would otherwise be pretty low-level encounters or skill challenges using his SLAs.
or
Perhaps a lost Monaciello has framed the group for taking the Leprechauns pot o' gold, giving him a reason to grief the party. But if the group can figure out he's been duped and they've been framed, perhaps they can join forces to find the real thief, or the Leprechaun tasks them with finding the real culprit, less he continue to harass them.
Disguising a beehive... I love it! I do love swarms, too.
I did choose the Misfortune Hex specifically with making people fail traps in mind. Making people fail against a swarm's distraction is legit.
O0oh, a pot of gold! Wait, that's not gold, it's... BEES!!!