So I have an upcoming encounter for my group of level 11 PCs that involves a Child of Venom https://app.demiplane.com/nexus/pathfinder2e/creatures/child-of-venom, flavored to be ink instead of acid. The room that they are fighting in has a static effect of areas of Grease (as per the spell) around the map, as well as a lair action that will potentially blind my PCs. Children of Venom have a pseudopod attack that does Push, as well as a Sneak Attack against flat-footed enemies.
The idea is that the Child will Push the PCs into the Grease spots, triggering a Reflex save or fall prone...rendering them Flat-Footed and susceptible to the Children's Sneak Attack. To help with the difficulty, I've given the Child Weakness Fire 10.
Is this still too hard or will it be an interesting encounter? Also, what would you recommend for the DC of the Fortitude Save DC for the blind and the Reflex Save DC for the Grease?
Also, any helpful and interesting ideas would be appreciated!
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I haven't checked all of the numbers on that Child of Venom creature. I'm just going on the assumption that the numbers actually match up with what is appropriate for a level 13 creature - which is what it is listed as.
A group of level 11 players would mean that a level 13 creature is a level +2 - which means 80 XP for the encounter building rules. I'm not sure how to account for that 'lair action' that causes blindness. Probably a hazard. Running it as a hazard also works nicely because you can set the level for it and that will determine both its XP contribution to the encounter as well as giving a good range of DCs and other numbers for its effects. See Building Hazards.
The Child of Venom on its own would be a Moderate threat - meaning that the characters are going to need to break out some daily use or consumable resources in order to win the day. Throw out some Heal spells, Halfling Luck, chug some elixirs of non-blindness. Things like that.
If you add the hazard and it contributes 40 XP, that will put the encounter into Severe threat territory. Which means that the players are going to need to be fully rested, and given at least some information about what to expect and how to counter it before they walk into the fight. A 'surprise' Severe encounter is generally too much.
If you want the concept of the fight - with both the Child of Venom and the 'lair action' effects, but don't want to push the encounter up into Severe encounter territory, use the Weak template on the Child of Venom. That should put its stats lower to the point that the party will have an easier time of dealing with the attacks coming from the creature as well as landing their own.
Awesome! Very good advice. Thank you!