Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Tevin Kevlak 03-25-07, 04:00 AM	In the campaign I'm running the PC's are about to storm in on a meeting of high ranking members of an evil guild whose plans the PC's are trying to foil. What my question to you all is if you think the encounter I've created will be too much for them to handle. The PC's, having infiltrated their tower undetected, will have whatever time needed to buff up and prepare for the fight but they have little idea of who exactly they will be fighting and what their powers/classes etc. are. The PC group consists of 5 level 7 characters: Elf Swashbuckler3/Fighter4 Elf Fighter4/Wizard3 Human Fighter 7 Halfling Cleric4/Ranger3 Tiefling Rogue1/Fighter6 As you can see the group is heavily non-magic combat oriented. Most of the group prefer to melee save for the Halfling Cleric/Ranger, and the Fighter/Wizard focuses mainly on buffing himself and allies over dealing direct damage. The enemy NPC's in the guild meeting out number the PC's and a few of them are close in power to them. All have PC class levels: Human Barbarian 6 Orc Barbarian 6 Human Cleric 3 Half-Elf Bard 5 Human Fighter1/Cleric1 Halfling Sorcerer4 Doppleganger Rogue1 I've calculated the experience by each enemies CR and they'll each recieve around 1250 XP from this one encounter but I'm not too sure on what the EL is and whether the PC's can handle it.
cog_n_taz 03-25-07, 08:10 AM	Something like 10, but I may be off, and it could well be 10. In any case, it'll be tough, but doable, especially with AoEs.
runestar 03-25-07, 08:27 AM	Seems like a fair fight. Your party does not appear to have access to any sort of area damage spells like fireball or icestorm, so it looks like it will mostly be a slugfest to the finish. What tactics are your opponents using?
cog_n_taz 03-25-07, 08:52 AM	I wouldn't count on that. There's AoE sor/wiz spells even at level 1, never mind 2, so it might just be the case.
ScipioX 03-25-07, 01:55 PM	That actually looks like a pretty easy fight to me. The party will be buffed, and have surprise? The council will presumably be seated with weapons sheathed. That means the PC's will get the surprise round AND a free round as the council members stand up and draw weapons. The PC's can probably kill several of them before they even have a chance to fight. I'd actually toss in a bunch of mooks to give the council members a chance.
Tevin Kevlak 03-25-07, 02:18 PM	The council is actually meeting for a short period of time, updating certain members of there goings on outside of the city. The council aren't meeting in a council chamber they're meeting inside of a merchant consortium and will be standing near a fire place in the suite that makes up the entire top floor. The council will have all their weapons on them, however they will be sheathed. As to whether the PC's will gain the surpirse round is yet to be seen. Only two of the PC's are even competant at move silently and they have a rickety wooden, winding staircase they must traverse to enter the suite at the top. As for the opponents tactics the two barbarians are sworn brothers and will likely charge into the first PC's who present a target (the Orc has leap attack) and try to stay about 5 feet away from each other to hinder their attempts to move past and attack the weaker members of the guild. The cleric will cast bless on the first round of combat, followed by bane on the second, while the Bard casts mage armor on the cleric the first round and then attempts to fascinate 2 of the most burly looking PCs (likely the Human Fighter and the Tiefling rogue/fighter). Both of the clerics are evil and do not have many cure spells prepared but the bard has acess to CLW and CMW and will only stop fascinating the two PCs if one of the two barbarians fall in combat so he can heal the other. The Halfling Sorcerer is focused on Evocation spells and will likely do nothing but blast the enemies with magic missiles or scorching rays until they close to melee with him when he will cast shield on himself and then rely on burning hands to take out any groups of PCs. The cleric/fighter will spend 2 rounds buffing himself with shield of faith and then divine favor before closing to melee and the Doppleganger rogue will drink his potion of invisibility in the first round of combat and then try and sneak attack the Halfling with his slam attack. After that he will attempt to grapple her and use his slam attack against her until she is unconscious. Edit: Oh, and the group really doesn't have much in the way of AoE spells, the wizard/fighter has burning hands scribed into his spell book but doesn't have it prepared today. The group does have a potent magical device that I created known as the Staff of Freezing Death which has 2 more charges of a CL 12 Polar Ray stored inside.
runestar 03-26-07, 01:02 AM	while the Bard casts mage armor on the cleric the first round and then attempts to fascinate 2 of the most burly looking PCs (likely the Human Fighter and the Tiefling rogue/fighter). Why isn't the cleric wearing armour which provides an armour bonus of 4 or more? He should be using banded mail at least, so mage armour would confer no benefits.
Tevin Kevlak 03-26-07, 01:13 AM	The cleric is little more than a guild figurehead and by no means resorts to actual combat since moving into such a position. It's for story reasons and nothing more so it seemed out of place that she would be wearing armor during a council meeting whereas the rest of the group are parts of the armed forces of the guild merely stopping by to tell her the ill news of the PC's last victory.