How to make 'being surrounded by enemy crossbowmen' deadlier?

[javcs]

Emergency Response Unit, I assume.

 

[KrazyHades]

Oh. Didn't know that acronym.

I guess every city would have to have units of powerful guards just to deal with adventurer types and the like. That's what I've been doing so far, but I was looking for ways for the regular people to be somewhat dangerous. I guess it is futile.

Hey guys, totally off topic, but I opened my mail right now and found out that I got into Carleton College!

 

[Aestolia]

Hey guys, totally off topic, but I opened my mail right now and found out that I got into Carleton College!

Grats! I finaly got back to school this year too, it'll be nice having a documented education.

 

[KrazyHades]

Well, I'm a senior in High School, so I'm not going "back" but it is really great to be able to go there.

Also: this thread is pretty much done. No need to fill up the rules forum with our tangents.

 

[frankthedm]

How to make 'being surrounded by enemy crossbowmen' deadlier?

Change systems

 

[KrazyHades]

Touché.

 

[IamTheTest]

Dont award XP because the players used metagame knowledge to react as characters? Congratulations on your acceptance.

 

[darthkilmor]

As a DM, I have a lot of trouble with this concept.

The PCs are surrounded in a surprise attack. They are wearing no armor, and their weapons are sheathed. Twelve crossbowmen have their deadly weapons trained on the hearts of the PCs.

So the 12 crossbowmen have readied actions to shoot if any of the PC's draw a weapon.
One of the PC's draws a weapon and all 12 shoot. I wouldn't feel out of sorts saying that the crossbowmen automatically threaten a crit in this situation. Really, there's no rules advantage for taking your time to target a foe ( unless you have something like death attack iirc). Or you could say for every round they're targeting they get +2 to attack and an extra 1d6 dmg when they hit, max up to their level. I actually kind of like that, hmmmmm

 

[Patlin]

Make the crossbowmen high level rogues, and rule that under the circumstances they win initiative?

 

[shilsen]

What the argument comes down to is the inaccuracy in hitpoints. But then, if health was done accurately, NOBODY would be a living adventurer for long. Few enough survive as is.

Gah.

What's inaccuracy in hit points got to do with it? You're dealing with 10th lvl PCs. These are not normal human beings any more. They're far more akin to epic heroes and comic book superheroes than to any human being on our planet. Would Beowulf or Hercules or Cuchulainn surrender because a dozen people with crossbows showed up? Nope. They'd kill them without breaking a sweat and go back to whatever they were doing.

You can make much lower level enemies dangerous to higher level characters with good tactics and forethought, but the NPCs will need a few levels on them. You're not going to be able to take down a 10th lvl group with 2nd lvl guards, and you shouldn't, since that's not the paradigm D&D works with.