Tactics class. Begin now.

Kichwas

Half-breed, still living despite WotC racism
Get them in town, in their sleep.

Grab one while she's out and go with it.

Or are you trying to catch the whole group? Same basic principle.

Ever see Seven Samuarai? There's a great moment when they discover the villagers have been storing the armor and weapons of slaughtered samurai.

It's also told as a tale by the peasant samurai, or may have only been in the tale...

The basic idea was that they welcomed Samurai (adventurers in DnD) into the villaige and then killed them in their sleep.

A villaige might do this to gain wealth, to protect their women and daughters, to protect livestock and crops, and whatever... It doesn't take evil motives on their part to do it.


You can simply twist that around and have them captured instead. They go to sleep at the inn, and wake up in cells somewhere under guard by whoever it was you needed to get the plot rolling.


Of course in my games, the mundanes are always the deadliest people. When you have power you rely on it, throw it around, and get complacent with it. When you're weak you think, and get resourceful.

That's why the modern terrorist is so much more dangerous than the eastern-western bloc ever was... Lacking in power and resources, they get crafty.

Most dangerous encounter I ever ran was a full party against 4 goblins in the woods. The goblins had one sword, one cloak, one bow, and ring of invisibility spread throughout them. The PCs were fully armed, magic'd up, and having three spell casters in their seven member group... The PCs lost horribly because they kept looking for a direct fight, trying to blast around, and eventually fell on infighting suspecting each other of the various tricks I pulled.
 
Last edited:

log in or register to remove this ad

Enceladus

First Post
Well thanks all for the great ideas! I think I have enough to go on.

Subdual is the way to go, I think. That fight to the death stuff should take care of itself. There will be nothing any of the other players will be able to do about the kidnapping but they will (or should) be able to find him in a search and rescue quest, scry and divination being what they are. Assuming they survive the red herring attack..:cool:


No matter what he's gettin' stuffed into that portable hole!

:D

If I play my cards right he'll still be conscious with mages waiting holding wands of grindage. heh.

I can't wait.
 

Kichwas

Half-breed, still living despite WotC racism
Squire James said:
Every D&D player I have played with simply prefer death for their characters to capture. So you might need to tell the PC's that their capture is necessary for the scenario you're running, and that their characters can be enriched by the experience.
This is why every group needs a player who's a fan of comics and supers gaming. :p

The whole point there is getting captured. If you don't let the GM capture you - how can you enjoy the death trap and villain speach scenerios? :D
 

Enceladus

First Post
arcady said:
This is why every group needs a player who's a fan of comics and supers gaming. :p

The whole point there is getting captured. If you don't let the GM capture you - how can you enjoy the death trap and villain speach scenerios? :D

Honestly I'm not too terribly concerned about my players getting the fight to the death at all costs mentality.

My group is a solid bunch of roleplayers that can handle pretty much anything. Heck I've done far worse to them and they've always come out smelling like a rose (for the most part, other smells have been known to happen :)) and they've never taken anything thats happened to their characters personally.


They trust me not to railroad them into a situation. Or at least that is they have this crazy delusion of free will. :D That and they've played with me as a DM for long enough to know a good plot thickening scenario when they see one.

To be sure, they will resist. Some crazy S.O.B. will most likely try to jump in and follow and maybe lose his life. But thats all part of the roleplaying experience and I would expect it. Matter of fact I'd be disappointed if it didn't happen.
 

Vurt

First Post
One of Wulf Ratbane's IronDM submissions had a phase spider whose poison that had been modified to do STR damage instead of CON. Phase in, free action. Attack. Phase out, move equivalent action. Do this repeatedly until one or more targets are helpless, then grapple them and carry them off. A trained pack of them might easily do the trick on a well-equipped party, and bring them back to their masters.

Cheers,
Vurt
 

Aaron2

Explorer
Re: Re: Tactics class. Begin now.

Originally posted by Grundle My advice, fait de compleat (my appologies for the poor spelling). If capturing the party is essential to the game, just describe the situation as you imagine it would go down and move on to the "real" gaming. Don't play it out. ;)

I second this notion. I having them captured is crucial to the plan, start the session with them already captured. All they can remember is that elven dancing girl or having a nice meal with the town burgermeister.

And for god sakes, let them find their equipment.


Aaron
 

Enceladus

First Post
And for god sakes, let them find their equipment.

LoL! You would be speaking from a bad experience I think. :)

Besides I've already done that, its sooo level 2.

I've upped the CR of a Ethereal Marauder to have the Etherealness ability rather than ethereal jaunt. the extra hitdice allowed for a greater to hit bonus and and couple extra feats. He should be able to pop in and get the PC and pop back to the ethereal. Where a handler will be waiting to aid in pinning and a portable hole.
 

Valiantheart

First Post
Piratecat said:

The important thing to remember is that its strength is in the hasted surprise round. Once the PCs have a chance to act, the chance that they'll think of something clever increases dramatically. :D

Common PC. You know there is no double action haste anymore. He'll have to add a couple more lackey Wizs or something.
 

Grundle

First Post
Piratecat said:
Such wands are given to the low level warwizards

:confused: Am I mistaken in thinking that a low-level wizard would need to make a caster-level check in order to use a wand containing a spell higher than he/she can cast?

If my recollection is correct, this technique leaves a chance for failure.
 

Zaruthustran

The tingling means it’s working!
You only need one kidnapee, right? Use bait-and-switch. Play upon the tendency of players to meta-game by introducing one type of adventure but actually going with something else.

Start the evening like a standard adventure: the PCs are hired by some guy to investigate a mystery. The guy's uncle has died, and while the guy was cleaning out the old man's house he found an old letter in a false bottom of a chest. Turns out that the uncle was once an adventurer, and the letter contains notes about the location of some kind of magical artifact (as well as a few pages of ancient paper with lettering in an unknown script). The guy wants to hire the PCs to decipher the letter and recover the artifact.

Chances are, the bard or rogue will say "I Gather Information on the uncle and his party" and the wizards will say "I go to the library to do research" and the clerics will say "I go to the temple and cast divinations" while the fighters say "I guess I go to the tavern."

All these things take time. The gather information skill, for example, takes an entire evening of wandering around and talking to folks. Give the Gatherer circumstance penalties if he brings along his burly surly pals, and you're practically guaranteed that the Gatherer will head out alone. And of course the churches and libraries don't take kindly to heavily armed and uncouth fighters, rangers, animal companions, and barbarians wandering about.

So, just like that, you've got the party split. And lone adventurers are very, very easy to pick off. Forget about Piratecat's mighty magic ambush--just use gangs of 3rd level human rogues. :)

Don't forget that according to the rules, getting hit with a bola is an automatic trip. Tanglefoot bags are also cheap and easy immobilizers.

It could go like this:

DM: Okay, bard, you go off to Gather Information. You've spent a few hours hitting the city's adventurer's taverns and hangouts. Make a Gather Info roll.
Player: Okay... 32.
DM: You're pretty sure you've talked to the people most likely to have heard of Uncle Adventurer and his pals. Funny thing is, no one's ever heard of him. Or that artifact.
Player: No one?
DM: Nope, no one at all. It's almost like Uncle Adventurer doesn't exist.
Player: (slightly nervous) Huh. Well, I guess I head back to my friends, the fighters. Once there--
DM: Hang on a minute. What's your flat-footed ranged touch AC?
Player: Uh oh.

-z
 

Remove ads

Top