Trickster Spirit
Explorer
Hi ENWorlders, I'd like to pick the collective braintrust's, well, brain, about how to flesh out my plans for an upcoming session.
My player's' characters have found themselves on the wrong side of the law for a crime they didn't commit, and though the source isn't terribly reputable, the best lead they've got is that the chief-of-staff for one of the city's wealthiest and most powerful nobles is involved in the frame-job. Hoping to find evidence that will exonerate them, they've settled on pulling a heist come nightfall.
I've got the primary location (the chief-of-staff's office) all worked out - traps, treasure, skill checks, the works - but I could really use a hand sketching out the defenses and security measures made by the rest of the manor itself and the accompanying grounds. Alarm spells warding the perimeter of the grounds are a given, as are patrolling guards they'll need to evade if they want to get inside undetected, but pit traps and scything blades don't really fit with what I envision to be a lush estate frequently wandered by dilettantes during daylight hours.
The campaign's running in a relatively "low-magic, low-level" world; the PCs themselves are only 3rd level, and maybe the most powerful mage in the city is only 6th or 7th level. There's a wizards' college in the city, that I'm thinking the nobleman contracts his wards out to; the college likely sends out low-level apprentices periodically to top-off the alarm spells (I'm willing to inflate the spell duration given the repeated applications of the spell to the same area). But what other defenses, magical or otherwise, might be present?
Basically I'm looking for creative applications for low-level spells and not-terribly-powerful magic items that would prevent things from being a cakewalk, along with mundane security measures that are more interesting than just locks and a wandering encounter table featuring guards and hounds. I'd like to strike up an Ocean's Eleven style vibe for this, where a direct assault would probably going to end badly for them but casing the joint first would reveal a couple possible security flaws the could exploit. Can anyone think up some nifty complications I could throw in to make the PCs' lives more difficult? Any suggestions for skill checks beyond the obvious perception, stealth, climb and lock-picking rolls?
Thanks in advance everybody!
My player's' characters have found themselves on the wrong side of the law for a crime they didn't commit, and though the source isn't terribly reputable, the best lead they've got is that the chief-of-staff for one of the city's wealthiest and most powerful nobles is involved in the frame-job. Hoping to find evidence that will exonerate them, they've settled on pulling a heist come nightfall.
I've got the primary location (the chief-of-staff's office) all worked out - traps, treasure, skill checks, the works - but I could really use a hand sketching out the defenses and security measures made by the rest of the manor itself and the accompanying grounds. Alarm spells warding the perimeter of the grounds are a given, as are patrolling guards they'll need to evade if they want to get inside undetected, but pit traps and scything blades don't really fit with what I envision to be a lush estate frequently wandered by dilettantes during daylight hours.
The campaign's running in a relatively "low-magic, low-level" world; the PCs themselves are only 3rd level, and maybe the most powerful mage in the city is only 6th or 7th level. There's a wizards' college in the city, that I'm thinking the nobleman contracts his wards out to; the college likely sends out low-level apprentices periodically to top-off the alarm spells (I'm willing to inflate the spell duration given the repeated applications of the spell to the same area). But what other defenses, magical or otherwise, might be present?
Basically I'm looking for creative applications for low-level spells and not-terribly-powerful magic items that would prevent things from being a cakewalk, along with mundane security measures that are more interesting than just locks and a wandering encounter table featuring guards and hounds. I'd like to strike up an Ocean's Eleven style vibe for this, where a direct assault would probably going to end badly for them but casing the joint first would reveal a couple possible security flaws the could exploit. Can anyone think up some nifty complications I could throw in to make the PCs' lives more difficult? Any suggestions for skill checks beyond the obvious perception, stealth, climb and lock-picking rolls?
Thanks in advance everybody!