Little background - I'm running a homebrew game, 3.5 with some houserules, and have 2 more characters that need to join the party. I figured a way to insert them in an epic battle mid sea.
Current party:
Half Silver Dragon (half human) bard, princess of a nation and just recently allied 3 human nations to begin a campaign against the drow.
Shadar-Kai cleric, priest of the god of death (precursor to the raven queen, same basic ideologies. hes also actually a demigod, but since he's on the material plane the only benefit it gives him is agelessness. otherwise hes entirely mortal etc)
hatchling silver dragon (just hatched during the last game lol)
human psion (psychokineticist)
the two new players are
shifter monk and elven ranger
the two new players already know each other from their character history. in a nutshell, about 11 years ago the rangers village was destroyed by a drow search party. he would have died had his animal companion not saved him. He and his wolf tracked the drow to a sacred place of the shifter's tribe, where the shifters mother was killed by the same drow. the elf was able to save the shifter, but the drow escaped.
recently, the shifter was exiled from his tribe because his holier than thou attitude conflicted with the primal nature of the other shiftrs. as he had nowhere else to go, he searched out the elf, and joined him in his quest for revenge against the drow.
conveniently, they decided to do this drow themed backstory before i had told them that the rest of the party was starting a war with them, lol...
now the drow searching parties i have decided are from the order of the black sun. in my homebrew, the drow have a nation where lloth, during her ascension, created an eternal tempest above their nation so that there is never any sun. the order of the black sun is a special knighthood of the drow dedicated to searching magical artifacts and knowledge that they could use to expand this storm to cover the globe
the order of the black sun has also been involved in the regular parties campaign - in their first adventure it was discovered that the princess's cousin had been manipulated by the order as they tried to weaken the political stability of the human nations surrounding them
the princess injured his cousin pretty bad during the encounter (necklace of fireball to the face, but she survived. her extra-marital lover did not fare so well). the princess decided not to kill her so that she could have a display of mercy (shes neutral evil but wants everybody to think shes kind and benevolent. shes really good at covering her tracks, so nobody sees any of the evil stuff she does (like assassinating the psions whole family to place him in a position of power, lol))
so, due to a rather high gather information check, the princess knows that his cousin left the country disguised as a traveler shortly after that encounter. she ordered two rangers to tail his cousin, and ordered 2 assassins to trail the rangers. she knows that she didn't go to the drow, but the encounter will occur before the rangers can report that she has actually gone to the teiflings, where shes been converted to a follower of asmodeus - an arch devil who is not a god yet, but awfully close. she has taken a couple levels in favored soul for him.
the converter is a teifling sorcerer/disciple of asmodeus, all of her spells being illusion or enchantment aside from one or two necromancy spells.
this disciple also has control over the order of the black sun, and strong influence among the drow via a ring of enslavement on the orders leader, a ce drow paladin of slaughter/rogue/blackguard.
the main party recently acquired an artifact that can be used to amplify magic effects, which they intend to use to destroy the storm and give a huge boon to their invading forces (the princess is actually trying to find a way to steal the energy from the storm, coupled with the power from the artifact, to ascend herself to godhood) they are now about to take a trip across the sea to seek the aid of the Oloresian spire wizards - the magocracy of another human nation of Olorr.
the disciple of asmodeus has learned of the princesses intention to enlist their aid (though knows nothing about the gem or her true plans) through her learn secret class ability, and is going to take the princesses cousin and the leader of the black sun with her to try and kill the princess at sea, so that they can make it appear as a shipwreck which keeps the tieflings apparently outside the conflict. to accomplish this, she is going to hire a pirate crew to attack the main party
the second party will hire a captain to pursue the drow (with the disciple and the princesses cousin). i rolled and oddly enough the rangers following the cousin asked the same captain, so the assassins trailing them will sneak aboard as well.
now, the actual game session will begin as the 3 way naval battle breaks out, and seeing as two of the combatants are pirates they will end up closing in to boarding range.
the ship that the disciple is on is going to be the one ship that doesn't sink, so it will eventually end up as a complete mess aboard the deck of that ship.
the drow with the disciple is the same drow that lead the raids against the two new players
so, after all that background, here is the advice i ask for
so far, my general idea for combat tactics will be
the pirate captains are going to basically ignore any sides goals and focus on not getting killed (as they'll be significantly lower level than the enemies - about equal level to the PC's who are level 6..except the dragon which is ECL 11)
the disciple is going to stay as far away from the party as possible. she will use her evil authority ability to surround herself with minion meatshields. shes very high level, but has no evocation spells so there should be no insta-gibbing the party.
she'll basically be trying to charm and use illusions to turn the party against each other and the attacking pirate crew.
once she hits 50% hp, or sees that the battle is going overwhelmingly against her, she's going to teleport away
what im not sure about is how to play the paladin of slaughter worshipper of lloth, as far as tacticts go. she is a dual wielder, heavy armor. do you think she would hang back and help protect the disciple? would she try to kill as many of the weak grunts as possible? would she try to take out the strongest enemy? her only option for escape is an ebony statue of a fly, which i expect the party will have some way of thwarting - which means the disciple will lose her sway over the order, since shes being controlled by that ring of enslavement
the princesses cousin will be effed. shes only got 2 class levels (but 4 levels of aristocrat). she'll end up using sanctuary to monologue before the party ices her, which will be fun lol. this is how the players will learn that asmodeus even exists, let alone is plotting to acheive godhood himself, and that they are manipulating the drow.
finally, how do iplay this disciple as far as role playing goes? she is a noble of her nation, proud of her people, faithful devotee of asmodeus (who has long promised the teiflings power in exchange for their servitude, which he is using to acheive his own goals)
the same goes for the drow, any tips on playing someone who devotes their life to wanton hatred of everything possible?
any other random tips to make this encounter more memorable?
edit: also, how do i balance this encounter? the 4 existing players are very experienced and rediculously good (their last encounter, at level 5, was an aristocrat/wizard/eldritch knight about lvl 9, a level 8 rogue/assasin, and a level 7 ranger/rogue, plus a few zombies. the party killed them in like 3 rounds, the only damage they took was a lucky fireball) the 2 new players are brand new to the game. so it'll be a royal navy ship and a pirate ship, vs a pirate ship and the level 9 blackguard, level 4 aris/2 fav soul, and the level 13 disciple, so i'll need a bunch of underlings to even it out - unless ya'll have a more creative idea)
Current party:
Half Silver Dragon (half human) bard, princess of a nation and just recently allied 3 human nations to begin a campaign against the drow.
Shadar-Kai cleric, priest of the god of death (precursor to the raven queen, same basic ideologies. hes also actually a demigod, but since he's on the material plane the only benefit it gives him is agelessness. otherwise hes entirely mortal etc)
hatchling silver dragon (just hatched during the last game lol)
human psion (psychokineticist)
the two new players are
shifter monk and elven ranger
the two new players already know each other from their character history. in a nutshell, about 11 years ago the rangers village was destroyed by a drow search party. he would have died had his animal companion not saved him. He and his wolf tracked the drow to a sacred place of the shifter's tribe, where the shifters mother was killed by the same drow. the elf was able to save the shifter, but the drow escaped.
recently, the shifter was exiled from his tribe because his holier than thou attitude conflicted with the primal nature of the other shiftrs. as he had nowhere else to go, he searched out the elf, and joined him in his quest for revenge against the drow.
conveniently, they decided to do this drow themed backstory before i had told them that the rest of the party was starting a war with them, lol...
now the drow searching parties i have decided are from the order of the black sun. in my homebrew, the drow have a nation where lloth, during her ascension, created an eternal tempest above their nation so that there is never any sun. the order of the black sun is a special knighthood of the drow dedicated to searching magical artifacts and knowledge that they could use to expand this storm to cover the globe
the order of the black sun has also been involved in the regular parties campaign - in their first adventure it was discovered that the princess's cousin had been manipulated by the order as they tried to weaken the political stability of the human nations surrounding them
the princess injured his cousin pretty bad during the encounter (necklace of fireball to the face, but she survived. her extra-marital lover did not fare so well). the princess decided not to kill her so that she could have a display of mercy (shes neutral evil but wants everybody to think shes kind and benevolent. shes really good at covering her tracks, so nobody sees any of the evil stuff she does (like assassinating the psions whole family to place him in a position of power, lol))
so, due to a rather high gather information check, the princess knows that his cousin left the country disguised as a traveler shortly after that encounter. she ordered two rangers to tail his cousin, and ordered 2 assassins to trail the rangers. she knows that she didn't go to the drow, but the encounter will occur before the rangers can report that she has actually gone to the teiflings, where shes been converted to a follower of asmodeus - an arch devil who is not a god yet, but awfully close. she has taken a couple levels in favored soul for him.
the converter is a teifling sorcerer/disciple of asmodeus, all of her spells being illusion or enchantment aside from one or two necromancy spells.
this disciple also has control over the order of the black sun, and strong influence among the drow via a ring of enslavement on the orders leader, a ce drow paladin of slaughter/rogue/blackguard.
the main party recently acquired an artifact that can be used to amplify magic effects, which they intend to use to destroy the storm and give a huge boon to their invading forces (the princess is actually trying to find a way to steal the energy from the storm, coupled with the power from the artifact, to ascend herself to godhood) they are now about to take a trip across the sea to seek the aid of the Oloresian spire wizards - the magocracy of another human nation of Olorr.
the disciple of asmodeus has learned of the princesses intention to enlist their aid (though knows nothing about the gem or her true plans) through her learn secret class ability, and is going to take the princesses cousin and the leader of the black sun with her to try and kill the princess at sea, so that they can make it appear as a shipwreck which keeps the tieflings apparently outside the conflict. to accomplish this, she is going to hire a pirate crew to attack the main party
the second party will hire a captain to pursue the drow (with the disciple and the princesses cousin). i rolled and oddly enough the rangers following the cousin asked the same captain, so the assassins trailing them will sneak aboard as well.
now, the actual game session will begin as the 3 way naval battle breaks out, and seeing as two of the combatants are pirates they will end up closing in to boarding range.
the ship that the disciple is on is going to be the one ship that doesn't sink, so it will eventually end up as a complete mess aboard the deck of that ship.
the drow with the disciple is the same drow that lead the raids against the two new players
so, after all that background, here is the advice i ask for
so far, my general idea for combat tactics will be
the pirate captains are going to basically ignore any sides goals and focus on not getting killed (as they'll be significantly lower level than the enemies - about equal level to the PC's who are level 6..except the dragon which is ECL 11)
the disciple is going to stay as far away from the party as possible. she will use her evil authority ability to surround herself with minion meatshields. shes very high level, but has no evocation spells so there should be no insta-gibbing the party.
she'll basically be trying to charm and use illusions to turn the party against each other and the attacking pirate crew.
once she hits 50% hp, or sees that the battle is going overwhelmingly against her, she's going to teleport away
what im not sure about is how to play the paladin of slaughter worshipper of lloth, as far as tacticts go. she is a dual wielder, heavy armor. do you think she would hang back and help protect the disciple? would she try to kill as many of the weak grunts as possible? would she try to take out the strongest enemy? her only option for escape is an ebony statue of a fly, which i expect the party will have some way of thwarting - which means the disciple will lose her sway over the order, since shes being controlled by that ring of enslavement
the princesses cousin will be effed. shes only got 2 class levels (but 4 levels of aristocrat). she'll end up using sanctuary to monologue before the party ices her, which will be fun lol. this is how the players will learn that asmodeus even exists, let alone is plotting to acheive godhood himself, and that they are manipulating the drow.
finally, how do iplay this disciple as far as role playing goes? she is a noble of her nation, proud of her people, faithful devotee of asmodeus (who has long promised the teiflings power in exchange for their servitude, which he is using to acheive his own goals)
the same goes for the drow, any tips on playing someone who devotes their life to wanton hatred of everything possible?
any other random tips to make this encounter more memorable?
edit: also, how do i balance this encounter? the 4 existing players are very experienced and rediculously good (their last encounter, at level 5, was an aristocrat/wizard/eldritch knight about lvl 9, a level 8 rogue/assasin, and a level 7 ranger/rogue, plus a few zombies. the party killed them in like 3 rounds, the only damage they took was a lucky fireball) the 2 new players are brand new to the game. so it'll be a royal navy ship and a pirate ship, vs a pirate ship and the level 9 blackguard, level 4 aris/2 fav soul, and the level 13 disciple, so i'll need a bunch of underlings to even it out - unless ya'll have a more creative idea)
