To anyone else, my players are getting attacked by a returning bad guy in the next session. His current setup may not be fully optimized, but he fit the story needs.
He formerly traveled with the group, learning their skills, abilities, etc., and plans to sneak attack them. He is a long-range archer/hunter type. He will send in a few goons, then fire away invisible, at long range, and from a height advantage, in order to get all his bonuses.
Here is his info:
Gnoll (2 HD)
Ranger 2/FIghter 4/Cragtop ARcher 2/XXX
It was previously Rogue 3, until I remembered that the SA wouldn't work from that range anyway.
Right now, his relevant feats/abilities are:
Farsight
Strike from above
Rapid shot
PBS
far shot
Wpn focus (longbow)
Wpn spec (longbow)
Able SNiper
Mountain warrior
PLunging shot
Greater wpn focus (longbow)
Ranged weapon mastery
Improved initiative
Favored enemy (human) - most of the group)
He is using a +4 composite, shocking, +1 longbow with a 1d6 acidic augment crystal
He can shoot from a range farther than a fireball can reach, and if he does it from higher ground (i.e., flying while invisible), will have a ton of damage behind each arrow. The group is very effective and strong (all level 10-11), but not really geared toward fighting at range. All they ever do against ranged enemies is sit back and let the Sorc shoot fireballs.
Problem: whenever I plan these enemies, it's never enough. THey did within a few rounds and its a wasted fight.
So the question is, what would you add in terms of class levels, feats, abilities, etc. that would complement the build so far and make it stronger?
Give him a dragonbone bow (the material that increase the range of the bow, I guess.... AFB now). The splitting enhancement (Champions of Ruin) could help in the damage output...
And (even though it's 3.0) you could add some Deepwood Sniper (Masters of the Wild) levels to get some good benefits (increased crit multiplier is nice).
If you want him to have a couple dice of sneak attack, let him have it! Theres several precedents of letting precision damage from higher ranges. If you are keeping the number of dice to a reasonable level (probably 2-3) it won't be overpowered.
Or let him have ranged Power Attack. Its not overpowered for melee, and theres already a precedent for ranged with Hank's Bow.
And if later the archer character want to learn to do the same kind of stuff, feel free to let him take a feat that just happened to fit perfectly with the BBEGs set up.
Ranged Sneak Attack
-You can apply 1d6 of your Sneak Attack damage to ranged attacks regardless of range. You can apply an additional 1d6 of your Sneak attack damage for every 5 hitdice that you have.
That gets exactly 3d6 of sneak damage for a character in the 10-14 HD range, but only if they have the rogue levels to have 3d6 sneak attack damage to apply.
Ranged Power Attack
Prerequisites: Plunging Shot, Ranged Weapon Mastery
-You can take a penalty to your attack rolls of up to your base attack. You may apply 1.5 times this amount as a damage bonus with Ranged Weapons. This applies to all attack rolls you make until the beginning of your next turn.
Even with both of those, no focused archer character would really even begin to creep up on the power level of CoDzilla.
Dont stick to RAW when making BBEG's ?
I have to tell you, that is blasphemy [and not the level 7 cleric spell].
Now this might just be my, and please ignore me if you feel im full of horsecrap. But one of the most rewarding thing in DnD is when you as a player twart the BBEG's plot, or kill him in a fair fight. Hell sometimes a dirty fight is good aswell.
But one of the central premises of the game is that, anything the BBEG can do, you can do aswell. At least with the right training [read: classes and feats].
Now one of the things i find most frustrating when i am a player [and i seldom am, since i DM for the most part], is when you feel like the GM plays by a different set of rules.
I strongly suggest you keep it within RAW if you can, or as a alternative, you could make some custom prestige classes for your campaign where you NPC's and BBEG's could take advantege of, but make it with roleplaying/special requirement that makes it unlikely for the players to take them unless they change side.
Just my humble oppinion.
Either you give it to the race, and then players can access it thrue polymorph and the like.
Or you give it thrue classes/PrC's and then the players can access it if they pay the oppitunity cost of pre-req of the class and takes levels in it.
Either way, its there so the players can get their hands on it, if they realy want to.
LA - Is not the issue here, he is making a Gnoll, which is a race that players verywell can play. And we are not talking about adding racial abilites to a race to make it more interesting, but giving it free of cost to the NPC.
Either you give it to the race, and then players can access it thrue polymorph and the like.
Or you give it thrue classes/PrC's and then the players can access it if they pay the oppitunity cost of pre-req of the class and takes levels in it.
Either way, its there so the players can get their hands on it, if they realy want to.
Wow, your creativity is a little limited, huh? What about granting the specific individual a special power, the same way the Sharruhk does with Kobolds? Let's say the Gnoll BBEG did a special favor for some powerful ally, and he was rewarded with a unique talent that only he knows of. That's the kind of thing I'm talking about adding to the encounters to make it different.
I really like those two feats and they would accomplish my goal here. But I am typically of the same school of thought as noted by Lo77o: only use things the PCs can use.
At least insofar as feats, etc. are concerned. I can see a better argument for giving some strange ability, maybe one that was awarded by some higher power. This BBEG is a servant of the overarching BBEG, a semi-godlike being who could certainly grant such a power.
Maybe some spell-like abilities or some other unexpected power. Something to make the fight harder and/or more interesting, but nothing that annoys the players by appearing to be cheating.
Wow, your creativity is a little limited, huh? What about granting the specific individual a special power, the same way the Sharruhk does with Kobolds? Let's say the Gnoll BBEG did a special favor for some powerful ally, and he was rewarded with a unique talent that only he knows of. That's the kind of thing I'm talking about adding to the encounters to make it different.
Ouch
That was a little hurtfull
Usualy i like to think of myself as rather creative, and i pride myself on being able to express those creative ideas within a set of rules.
Maxxim there is nothing wrong with you making a template called "Minion of [instert evil entity]". Just make sure it is a possibility for the PC's to gain access to that kind of template aswell, if they manage to gain the favor or said evil entity.
All im saying, is that if you want to grant some powers not normaly given to a BBEG, just make sure you have the "how/why/when" sorted out before hand, and if at all possible, make it into something that can be explained within the rules [Templates/PrC's/Races/Magic Items/Spells].
That way you wont end up in a sittuation where one of the players asks after the campaign "Hey that cool gnoll dude we fought... how did he do that thing he did?" and you have to answer "uhmmm he did that becaurse i thought it would be cool".
Sorry.. i dont meen to rant, its just iv been in a few games with DM's where enemies could do thing that made no sense within the rules as given. And i never liked it as a player, and i decided i would never do it as a DM.
Ususaly it meens i have to spend 2-3 times as long preparing monsters and npc's/bbeg's, but i do that gladly.