I've been playing rather than running of late, and not as much of that as I'd like. I'll see if I can dig up some more postable (ie not real campaign-specific or elaborately-mapped) encounters, but my stock's running a bit low. OTOH, I have been known to take requests, if you don't mind untested stuff.
Hmm, allright. I have a lvl 5 party of 3 players. a Fighter/wizard, Cleric/bard, and a Ranger/rogue (everyone multiclassed)
Now the problem is, the fighter with the Martial Power book is constantly gaining temporary hp... The Cleric is specializing in healing and the party is at full hitpoints for most of the encounters... Lastly the ranger dishes out some mean damage at a range and doesnt provoke OA's in meele.
How do I counter that? I'm looking for an encounter with some tactics involved. Enemies who are really skilled at what they're doing, which is mainly hurting PC's :p
If you can come up with that, i'll greatly appretiate it!
Hmm, allright. I have a lvl 5 party of 3 players. a Fighter/wizard, Cleric/bard, and a Ranger/rogue (everyone multiclassed)
Fighter/wizard? There's a multiclass you don't see every day.
Now the problem is, the fighter with the Martial Power book is constantly gaining temporary hp...
Hmmm. If he's a battlerager, you are playing with the updated version, right? If you're not, you ought to be. Broken build without the (fairly major) fix.
OTOH, he might be doing other things to get THP, so maybe that's not the issue.
The Cleric is specializing in healing and the party is at full hitpoints for most of the encounters... Lastly the ranger dishes out some mean damage at a range and doesnt provoke OA's in meele.
How do I counter that? I'm looking for an encounter with some tactics involved. Enemies who are really skilled at what they're doing, which is mainly hurting PC's :p
If you can come up with that, i'll greatly appretiate it!
Well, I'm not at my best with small-group encounters (the XP budget is pinched) but it seems like their weak points are lack of numbers and a dearth of AoE effects, which probably limits their minion-scrubbing ability even with a pseudo-wizard in the group. So maybe try this:
Down In The Mud
The Hook:
The PCs are exporing, and run into a demon-worshipping bullywug arcanist. Might be a sticky situation for our heroes.
Setup:
Battlefield can be in the open in a swamp, or in a damp cavern. Something around 20x20 should do nicely. Stick a 3x3 area of Blood Rock (from DMG1) slightly off-center away from the PC entry area, surrounded by several large, irregular patches of Grasping Bog (DMG2) and some less sticky shallow water and (if outdoors) some patches of reed, which grant concealment. The Bullywug Mud Lord starts in the center of the Blood Rock (which serves as a crude demonic altar). The Neldrazu starts in the middle of the battlefield, and the Rupture Demons start scattered around it within five squares. You could have some of them make stealth rolls to start hidden in Grasping Bog spaces, which they greatly resemble.
Monsters:
1 Neldrazu (MM2, level 8 lurker)
1 Bullywug Mud Lord (MM2, level 3 Artillery)
7 Rupture Demons (MM2, level 5 minions)
750 XP, a level 6 encounter for a three-man group of level 5 PCs. Might punch above its weight a bit. OTOH, if you want to be extra nasty, use the "Demogorgon Cultist" theme from DMG2 and give the Neldarazu Dominating Gaze and Threatening Reach, and the Mud Lord Dominating gaze and Dual Brain. The minions probably don't deserve any extras, although giving them all Lashing Tentacles might not be wholly unreasonable if you still think your party is going to breeze through.
Tactics:
The Rupture Demon's goal in life is to make sure at least five of them die within five squares of the Neldrazu, which will both heal it and grant a massive +10 to damage. If the PCs refuse to cooperate, you can arrange it via their restraining suicide attack or the Mud Lord's AoE attacks, with are boosted when they hit allies.
The Bullywug Mud Lord is there mostly as a distraction and to force the PCs to spread out. Use his distance attacks (preferably while standing on the Blood Rock) on whichever PC seems weakest, or the biggest clump if the do bunch up. Don't be shy about killing Rupture Demons with AoEs as long as the Neldrazu is getting boosted in the process. Try to bait one or two PCs into chasing you by moving around a bit, and remember that swamp walk makes the field's difficult terrain trivial to you.
The Neldrazu is your heavy hitter, and should fight with reach until he's gotten all he can get out of the Rupture Demonsdying. Once that happens, pick a PC, isolate him, and tear him to pieces. 4d6+15 damage should do the job pretty quickly no matter how much THP and healing is out there, and even your basic melee attack will tag for 2d6+15. The easiest way to isolate a target is to use your abduction teleport power, but you can also achieve it by having the Rupture Demons restrain targets, or (if using the theme powers) via Dominating Gaze forcing people to run off on their own. Use difficult terrain to your advantage whenever you can. If your fight is indoors, take adavantage of spider climb, too. Don't forget your bloodied abduction ability either, which can easily set up another isolated target.
Aftermath:
Whatever fits your campaign best. The bullywug might have loot, might not. Thre could be more demons and/or cultists out there, or it could be a stand-alone fight with an outcast from froggy society (such as it is).
I really enjoyed the encounters you posted from the elemental chaos. If you could share any more of the things you used for that plane it would be great.
Any encounters with Slaad or some city encounters for the Brass City would be a huge help for me long term.
The party is playing bodyguard to an NPC VIP of some kind. Could be a sage, an aristocrat, a wealthy merchant, a patron, or even a relative of one of the PCs. I'd suggest using the companion character rules from DMG2 to build him, maybe using the MM2 Human Noble as a base critter. Bad guys have hired a disturbingly competent beastmaster-style assassin/bounty hunter to kill the poor guy, and the PCs need to do their best to prevent this.
Setup
This encounter can take place pretty much anywhere, anytime, but should take place while the NPC is travelling around, not at his (presumably well-guarded) home. The bad guys aren't especially stealthy, and will rely more on speed and hard-hitting attacks to get their target. Urban battlefields give the PCs better defensive options (eg ducking into a building) and may involve screaming bystanders who wind up as hostages or collateral damage victims. Rural ones should still include some cover from aerial ranged attacks, but are less likely to involve innocents.
Monsters
1 Half-Orc Hunter (MM2, 5 Skirmisher) - the assassin
1 Hippogriff (MM1, 5 Skirmisher) - his mount
2 Cockatrices (MM2, 5 Skirmisher) - his pets
800 XP, but the NPC companion is getting a share, so that's 200 XP per PC
Tactics
The bad guys attack from the air, preferably from diving from a rooftop, tree, or cliff.
The half-orc hunter concentrates his attacks on the NPC as often as possible, ignoring marks to do so. Remember his damage boosting powers, and use that half-orc racial ability ASAP. He'll stay mounted and airborne if he can, although once the hippogriff becomes bloodied he'll either land (if things are going well) or call a retreat (if they aren't) to try again another day. He's unlikely to flee if bloodied himself, but he does care about his ride's safety.
The hippogriff uses hit-and-run tactics on the target NPC as often as possible, although if the PCs really bunch up around him the half-orc will order it to start hitting targets that won't draw OAs instead. If bloodied and the hunter is dead, it will flee.
The cockatrices are ordered to attack the PCs, distracting them and threatening petrification. Their first priority will be to land and end the clumsy flight penalty, after which they'll skirmiround, pecking different PCs. They won't attack the NPC unless things are truly desperate, since the hunter would rather not complete his contract by smashing statuary. If the hunter is killed or flees, they will flee if bloodied.
Aftermath
Hopefully the companion NPC is still alive. The PCs may need to be making cockatrice-feather poultices to de-petrify one or more PCs. If the hunter fled, he may try again later, perhaps with a different mix of beastial allies (eg a Rage or Ambush Drake, or throwing some barding on his mount to make it a Dreadmount Hippogriff).
I really enjoyed the encounters you posted from the elemental chaos. If you could share any more of the things you used for that plane it would be great.
Any encounters with Slaad or some city encounters for the Brass City would be a huge help for me long term.
I've got a slaad encounter from an old campaign that could work, but I'll have to dig it up. Never did a City of Brass run as such. My PCs avoided the place because they were on really bad terms with the elemental fire types. They were toting a fey magic cold-producing McGuffin through Elemental Chaos to close a major fire-realm portal to the natural world. That didn't earn them any friends, even though the efreet really had nothing to do with the whole affair (mid-to-high paragon arc, so they were a bit out of the level range I wanted).
OTOH, the idea of urban encounters in the City of Brass is interesting in general terms, so here's some thoughts:
Local Conditions
The City of Brass is hot. Really, really hot. Most of its inhabitants are fire creatures, or have fire resistance, and the ones that don't will probably be carrying equipment or using rituals (eg Endure Elements) to compensate. Running into creatures that can't resist fire should be the exception, not the rule. PCs that voluntarily travel to the City of Brass without appropriate gear should pay for it. Enslaved PCs will want to make getting some fire protection a priority once they escape (and theheroes always escape).
Fiery hazards and terrain should be commonplace. Burning Vapor (possibly uplevelled) and Clouds of Elemental Steam/Cinders/Ash (both MotP) should appear regularly in encounters, as should magma rivers/pools/wells/fountains and raging open flames as terrain. Elemental windchurn (DMG2) is also fairly common, as efreets aren't big fans of flyers over the city. Natives are unlikely to be harmed by these effects, but PC resistances may not be quite as good.
Buildings and streets in the city should mostly be built to a scale that works for efreet and salamanders, both of which are large. That means 10' wide doors, streets 20' wide or more (often much more), double-height stories (even a 1-story building is likely to be 20' tll or more), and generally outscale furnishings. Most buildings are stone, many with metal plating. Some use metal as the main structural component, most often brass (obviously) but sometimes copper, iron, or steel.
Remember that the City of Brass will never be truly dark. You might get dim light or darkness indoors or underground, but outside even the lowliest neighborhood will be at least dimly lit by reflected light from the fire sea and canals. OTOH, smoke, steam, ash, and cinder "fog" are all commonplace, and may severly limit LoS.
Paragon-tier adventurers are most likely to be operating in the commercial, mixed-race residential, or slum areas of the city, eg Avencina, Ashlarks, Keffinspires, Marlgate, and Rookery. Actually encountering (much less fighting) an efreet should be rare at best. Epic-tier PCs are more likely to interact with the city's actual rulers and frequent the higher-class neighborhoods, although even level 30 types aren't likely to survive throwing their weight around in the Charcoal Palace.
A good potential encounter series for a paragon party would be entanglements with the city watch and local criminal gang. The watch spends most of its effort keeping an eye on the city's huge slave population, but small patrols in the streets still have time to hassle outworlders, hunt escaped slaves, and track minor criminals. Patrols will consist of a mix of salamanders and fire archons, with the occasional firebred hellhound (K9 unit!) or azer deputy. Azer would be more common, but as a "slave race" they aren't widely trusted in the watch. Salamanders will generally be patrol leaders, as the chaotic nature of archons makes them iffy policemen. Unmodified salamander firetails and nobles are common, while fire archon blazesteels will generally be downlevelled by 3-5 levels, as the watch tends to get the dregs of the archon population compared to the army.
For a level 16 party, shoot for critters between levels 14-17 or so, and try to avoid elites. Individual patrolmen (patrolthings?) should be weaker than a single PC, but they should have numbers on their side. Watch patrols should start at level N difficulty, ramping up by increasing numbers rather than quality if the party is being actively hunted over time. Fighting any patrol will probably require an evasion/escape skill challenge afterwards, or the PCs will find themselves facing reinforcements, pursuit, or even irate citizens.
Suggested encounter group for 16th level:
1 x Firebred Hellhound (MM1, 17 Brute) - police dog from Hell
2 x Salamander Noble (MM1, 15 Controller) - senior patrolmen
2 x Fire Archon Blazesteel (MM1, 19-5 Soldier) - beat cops, -5 attack/defense, -2 damage, -40 HP
2 x Salamander Firetails (MM1, 14 Skirmisher) - beat cops
7000 XP, level 16 encounter
Note that the watch will almost always choose to knock a PC unconscious at zero HP rather than strike to kill. They'd really prefer to take you alive, so you can be enslaved.
City of Brass thieves' groups are likely to consist of elemental and/or fire-resistant types. NPC tieflings, cambions, and ravasta are all good masterminds for a gang, while demons or elementals are decent thugs. Xorn deserve special mention, and are probably a common problem in the city. While they don't resist fire, their earth glide ability means that no stone surface is safe, and explains the fondness for building made of metal. Any vault in the city will at least be plated with metal, which can still be breached but takes time and (noisy) effort.
Ah, found that Slaad encounter. Late paragon, best used with a level 17 or 18 party. I originally ran this in the natural world, but it could work just as well with the portal leading out of Elemental Chaos rather than into it.
Slaad Portal
The Hook:
The PCs have found a portal between the natural world and Elental Chaos, and wish to pass through. A veritable rainbow of uppity frogs bar their way. A fights ensues.
Setup:
Battlefield is an open desert of ash or sand, with a 15' wide twisted stone arch filled with bright but light. This is the portal, which is opaque and permanent but requires an easily-overheard password key and takes five minutes to reopen after being open for one round) in the center. An irregularly-shaped field of everflame (DMG1) partially surrounds the portal. Leave a clear path in the field at least 15' wide (preferably off to one side from the PC entry zone) and no square within 10' of the portal should be in the field. The ravasta (disguised as a gray slaad) and green slaad start adjacent to the portal, and the red and blue slaad start outside but near the everflame field, closer to the PCs.
Monsters and Hazards:
1 x Ravasta Observer (MotP, 19 Lurker) - disguised as a Gray Slaad
1 x Green Slaad (MM1, 18 Controller)
1 x Blue Slaad + Slaad Spawner template (MM1+MM2, 17 Brute)
2 x Red Slaad (MM1, 15 Soldier)
1 x Field of Everflame (DMG1, 18 Blaster)
12,000 XP, level 19 encounter
Tactics:
The ravasta observer maintains its shapechanged disguise as a Gray Slaad. Use mind lure to slide targets into the everflame or into dangerous flanked positions, and vanish for defense as often as possible. Set variable resistance for fire. Play smart and cautious, and flee through the portal if bloodied.
The green slaad uses its attack powers to slide or teleport PCs into the everflame, and tries to daze them within it if possible. It will flee through the portal if bloodied and the ravasta has been slain, otherwise it fights to the death.
The blue slaad spawner burns its AP eraly for an extra attack. Use fling to throw PCs into everflame, otherwise claw or rake. Try to arrange to spawn a minion each round, possibly by provoking an OA if need be.
The slaad spawn minions bite, or slam if two or more PCs are adjacent to one another. Flank with allies, but don't play them too smart. They may blunder into everflame by mistake.
Red slaad pounce as often as possible, otherwise biting. Croak to immobilize PCs in everflame, and remember that accidentally immobilized allies will still be able to teleport.
Red, blue and spawn slaad all fight to the death. They giggle a lot while they're doing so, too. Crazy as bedbugs, these slaad.
Remember to utilize those teleport speeds to maximize flanking, and annoy the PCs with chaos phage infections.
Aftermath:
The frogs are dead or fled, and the Pcs can use the gate, probably after a short rest. If the ravasta escaped, it may arrange an ambush on the far side of the gate, or cause other mischief.
Sigh. Planar Portal is an 18th level ritual, so let's revise those Watch and Criminal encounter groups for the City of Brass up a bit, shall we?
18th level:
1 x Firebred Hellhound (MM1, 17 Brute) - police dog from Hell
1 x Salamander Noble (MM1, 15+4 Controller) - senior patrolman, +4 attack/defense, +2 damage, +32 HP
3 x Fire Archon Blazesteel (MM1, 19-1 Soldier) - beat cops, -1 attack/defense, -8 HP
10,000 XP, level 16 encounter
or
1 x Salamander Noble (MM1, 15+4 Controller) -senior patrolman, +4 attack/defense, +2 damage, +32 HP
2 x Fire Archon Blazesteel (MM1, 19-1 Soldier) - beat cops, -1 attack/defense, -8 HP
3 x Salamander Archers (MM1, 15 Artillery) - with both edged and blunt arrows, for captures
10,000 XP
If you want to be mean, give the archers some magical ammunition from AV2, but be prepared for the PCs capturing it and using it agains you.
Note that the watch will almost always choose to knock a PC unconscious at zero HP rather than strike to kill. They'd really prefer to take you alive, so you can be enslaved.
City of Brass thieves' groups are likely to consist of elemental and/or fire-resistant types. NPC tieflings, cambions, and ravasta are all good masterminds for a gang, while demons or elementals are decent thugs. Xorn deserve special mention, and are probably a common problem in the city. While they don't resist fire, their earth glide ability means that no stone surface is safe, and explains the fondness for building made of metal. Any vault in the city will at least be plated with metal, which can still be breached but takes time and (noisy) effort.
Suggested encounter group for 19th level:
Cambion Hellfire Magus (MM1, 18 Artillery) - the mastermind
5 x Diamondhide Xorn (MM2, 16 Skirmisher) - housebreakers
1 x Salamander Archer (MM1, 14 Controller) - watchman on the take
