need some tactics/prep help

My 3rd level PCs (a fighter, a ranger/rogue, a healer and a warlock, plus a trained dog) are in a dungeon. They've holed up, giving their foes 8 hours to prep a response to their first raid on the dungeon.

The foes are kobolds, with riding lizards (slurks). The physical situation is this:

PCs are in a room a ways away from the Kobold lair entrance room. The kobolds can find them fairly easily, and will attack near the end of the 8 hour sleep shift (which will be evening by upper-world time, a perfect time for the kobolds to start hunting them).

The PCs will then go back to the lair entrance room, and have to fight their way into the lair. The entry is a shaft in the floor with a block-and-tackle "elevator" formed of a huge iron pot that can be lifted and lowered on chains down to the lower level. The PCs left it with the pot sitting at the top of the shaft, but made NO effort to jam or dismantle the lift mechanism, so the kobolds can move it any time theiy want.

There's a largish empty room at the top of the shaft, and then a large open cave at the bottom. There are about a dozen kobolds and a half-dozen slurks. The kobolds are about 1/2 normal, 1/2 various leveled up versions, including a 4th level ranger. I'm presuming the kobold king, his sorcerer, his wife and his bodyguards will NOT be here, so no spellcaster.

I'm thinking that the kobolds will prepare an ambush by having a couple of their best hunters IN the iron pot, hiding, ready to stand up and throw javelins. A couple of slurk-mounted fighters will be hiding in a cave mouth that's filled with smoke (the PCs already killed the monster that lurked in the smoke, so the kobolds can now take advantage of it), and a couple more will be just below the pot, ready to shove past it and attack. There's really nowhere else for them to hide.

OR, I could have all the kobolds waiting at the bottom of the shaft for the PCs to drop in. Since the PCs lack any sort of ranged area attack, there's no risk of a single fireball ending the whole fight.

Am I missing any obvious tactics, given the situation?

(If anyone recognizes this, yes, I'm running Curse of the Kobold King).

Plan A, lay a trap at the "Elevator". Weakening the rope or jimmying the pullies is obvious. Less obvious is weakening the way the top of the black and tackle rig is fastened overhead. Strong enough to withstand someone pulling hard on the rope, but not strong enough to take that *and* the weight of one or more people in the cauldron.

Have missilers hide in high places, so the melee types have a hard time reaching them.

Honestly, from the way you described the Kobolds, with levelled members and all, you would hardly need an ambush for a TPK.

Plan B, have a way for the Kobolds to block the shaft partway down. A place to shove beams or metal rods across the way so the cauldron gets stuck in the middle.

Now Kobolds attack the upper room, while some or all of the party is caught in a tight place.

Plan C, hide. Evacuate the lower levels, taking women, children and non-combatants to a safe place.

Again, attack at the cauldron room. No special setup or sabotage, just wait until some of them try to go down, then hit them hard. If the member or members working the rope release it to defend themselves then whoever is in the cauldron gets a nasty fall. In any case the party is providing the "Divide" part of "Divide and conquer". It would be a sahme to let that go to waste.

Plan D, take advantage of Alchemy. Slippery oil on the rope, part way down, so it's suddenly harder to keep the thing from falling. Hurl Tanglefoot bags into the cauldron while people are in it, to make sure they stay in it, then start dumping Alchemical Fire.

One element common to most of these plans is to avoid close melee, if you can. Also familiarize yourself with the Assist rules. You don't need to set a flank to give an attacker +2 to hit. Have a lesser warrior Assist on the attack roll by engaging the PC in combat. The assistant never has any chance to actually hit, they're just aiming to hit the target's Touch AC. That gives the main attacker a +2 to hit.

Someone else with a shield can go full defense and Aid the main attacker's AC, effectively increasing it by 2.

In short, teamwork and swarm tactics.

Plan E: Set everything on fire.

Traps. Sticky icky traps that slow down and/or divide the party. Kovolds swarm... heroes die.


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