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<blockquote data-quote="Brother MacLaren" data-source="post: 2693330" data-attributes="member: 15999">You don't get to be 14th level without doing an awful lot of something or other and killing several dozen powerful foes.&nbsp; You can't get there by just bumping off level 1 merchants and bodyguards.&nbsp; This holds true for the PCs as well as for the NPCs.&nbsp; Some research by the PCs *should* turn up some information about some of the opponents they're going to face.&nbsp; For the mightiest of assassins -- as Chainsaw above would be -- there will be at least a few whispers that there is a woman you can hire when you need someone killed and money is no object.&nbsp; A high enough Gather Information check will tell you that she moves like the wind and once carved up a cloud giant using only a pair of shortswords.I would advise you to rethink the permanent antimagic field, as that really sounds to me like an Epic enchantment.&nbsp; I guess one logical explanation could be that it was a pre-existing feature of the location and that's why the assassins grabbed this spot... but there's a serious EL boost for giving your NPCs what is essentially artifact-level magic to use against the PCs.[Edit] I suppose my point is that super-powerful NPCs don't exist in a vacuum and don't get there overnight.&nbsp; There's a finite number of them in any city, they have had an impact over a period of years, they have committed a fairly large number of significant missions (figure about 10 assassinations per level, since any smart assassin will never take a mission equal to his CR), and the PCs have a chance to find out about that.&nbsp; Likewise, the traps and features of their lair are not infinite; they are constrained by the resources available to the guild, and those resources are in turn constrained by the assassination commissions the guild has brought in.And the guild will have a LOT of very powerful enemies, from relatives of victims to potential victims to good-aligned churches; the PCs could undoubtedly rally a number of allies to storm their stronghold and wipe them out.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Brother MacLaren, post: 2693330, member: 15999"] You don't get to be 14th level without doing an awful lot of something or other and killing several dozen powerful foes. You can't get there by just bumping off level 1 merchants and bodyguards. This holds true for the PCs as well as for the NPCs. Some research by the PCs *should* turn up some information about some of the opponents they're going to face. For the mightiest of assassins -- as Chainsaw above would be -- there will be at least a few whispers that there is a woman you can hire when you need someone killed and money is no object. A high enough Gather Information check will tell you that she moves like the wind and once carved up a cloud giant using only a pair of shortswords. I would advise you to rethink the permanent antimagic field, as that really sounds to me like an Epic enchantment. I guess one logical explanation could be that it was a pre-existing feature of the location and that's why the assassins grabbed this spot... but there's a serious EL boost for giving your NPCs what is essentially artifact-level magic to use against the PCs. [Edit] I suppose my point is that super-powerful NPCs don't exist in a vacuum and don't get there overnight. There's a finite number of them in any city, they have had an impact over a period of years, they have committed a fairly large number of significant missions (figure about 10 assassinations per level, since any smart assassin will never take a mission equal to his CR), and the PCs have a chance to find out about that. Likewise, the traps and features of their lair are not infinite; they are constrained by the resources available to the guild, and those resources are in turn constrained by the assassination commissions the guild has brought in. And the guild will have a LOT of very powerful enemies, from relatives of victims to potential victims to good-aligned churches; the PCs could undoubtedly rally a number of allies to storm their stronghold and wipe them out. [/QUOTE]

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