Help with Choosing monsters or Encounters

[DJ_draken07]

The Party is LV 7

What will be some good enemies to have during a attack on a huge Military government palace?

A cult is attacking this palace because the Government proves a threat to them.

So can anyone help?

 

[Theroc]

The Party is LV 7

What will be some good enemies to have during a attack on a huge Military government palace?

A cult is attacking this palace because the Government proves a threat to them.

So can anyone help?

High Magic, Low Magic? What is the Cult about? Are the aberrations, worshipping Demons?

Most people who can help will want more information about the scenario than you've given. It'd help if you elaborated more on the nature of the cult and your campaign/campaign setting.

 

[DJ_draken07]

The cult worships a Demon named Morgan Kothar Loex.

Alot of different races and classes do join this cult.

They believe Morgan Kothar Loex will come to the Material Plane to enslave everyone and the worshipers will be rewarded.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

You'll need to be more specific than that to get a real answer.

The bottom line is this: you can write up a whole bunch of good encounters that are completely different using that setup. The big question is which ones you want to use.

Another question that you will need to answer: how defensible is the PCs' position? Give the PCs a highly defensible position and you can often make the encounter 2 or 3 ELs higher than you would be able to make it in terrain that equally favors either side.

Another question: Does the palace have other defenders? If so, how many? How are you going to handle them? That would also figure into the EL.

Another question: how large is this cult? Is this cult massive such that the cult attack is like an invading army? Or is the cult more limited, in which case the cult attack is more like a bunch of ninjas infiltrating a city? To use a historical analogy, are we talking the Tet Offensive where there are large numbers of partisans infiltrated into the cities and their attack is coordinated with a conventional military offensive with the intention of taking and holding territory (and the capability to do so if the defense folds) or is this more like Pearl Harbor where there is a sneak attack with the intention to destroy but no intention (or capability) to take and hold. Obviously these are very different scenarios and will lead to different encounters (the first scenario probably involves larger numbers and more than one encounter; the second scenario is probably only one encounter but that encounter is more difficult).

One last thing: rethink the marvelously unhelpful tagline "all races and classes join this cult." For any good cult and any good encounter with them, you should have the encounter match the flavor of the cult. Is it a cult of Vecna? There should be stealth, sneak attacks, and magic. Are you ripping off Warhammer and have a cult of Khorne? There should be lots of beserkers and some carnage demons; the leader may be a marshal. Are you stealing from Indiana Jones and the temple of doom? The cult of Kali has a lot of mooks waving scimitars but there should be a powerful priest or two at the center of it. We could give you advice for a great encounter but if our great encounter has a dozen kenku sneaks and a faceless man who can shoot lightning bolts from his hands, but you have previously described the cult more along the lines of Warhammer's Khorne cults, it won't make any sense in the campaign.

 

[DarkelvenSFi]

Your best (and easiest) bet would be to simply roll up some standard characters. Create a range of 'plebs' to work as the majority of the 'army'; make them versatile. Create a template for mid level spell casters and archers, to fight from a distance. And then can create a standard 'assault group leader' and high level spellcaster/rogue/bard/whatever suits, that appears within each group they fight. And maybe one of two high level 'rulers' for the cult that the group has to battle against to win the day.

If you wanted to include monsters, let me know what sort of cult. Actually, I could likely roll up some characters for you too.

I've created a database system that lets me instantly roll out full-fleshed characters from the base PHB (the skills are a little spread out, but it's too hard countering that). You choose a level, race and class, and out comes a character with a name, rolled states (with increases for abilities due to level; class specific), feats, spell lists (including memorised and known spells), gold, normal items, magic items (according to what would be expected for someone of that class/level), etc.

As for monsters, I've got a database with a good number of monsters inserted (more going in regularly) that allows me to specify qualities I'm after; such as CR, HD, environment, special qualities and attacks desired, etc, and it spits out suitable enemies; ranked according to how readily they meet my criteria.

If you wanted, I could spit out some details and post them in here for you. (I'm off to Uni soon and I've got a game tonight, but I will be home for a short while between the two, otherwise I can do it tomorrow)

 

[Piratecat]

One last thing: rethink the marvelously unhelpful tagline...

EB, I know you're trying to help, but maybe a little less hostile? That's pretty off-putting, and sounds condescending.

I would use a combination of encounters. Think of it this way: if you were leading the cult, how would you get in? I'd send a bunch of highly visible, hard to kill distractions against one entrance while my stealth teams went in another entrance during the distraction. I'd use shapeshifters and teleporters, as well as any secret passages I could find, to smuggle in my troops; I'd also bribe every official I could. Finally, I'd launch what appeared to be the assault, let it get defeated, and then after all the defenders went home and to bed I'd sneak in the real troops.

 

[Herobizkit]

I would suggest using monsters with Magical Beast, Aberration, Ooze, or Construct as its type. These types of creatures will keep players on edge as they tend to have the most unusual array of abilities or resistances. Demons/Devils seem like a great idea, but I would reserve these creature types for mini-boss/big boss fights. Instead, consider adding the Half-Fiend template to the above (you can't add this template to Constructs or Oozes as per RAW, but meh, you're the DM) and watch the PC's squirm.