3-Way Fight Help: Party Vs. Psionic Slavers Vs. Dark Overlords (My players, stay out)

[Vrylakos]

Thanks, Graf!

I do have a website, in my sig I think, but it's a year out of date and hasn't dealt with the Tleyans, psionics, or anything that's happened lately. I'm trying to gear up for a revamp of the site, get rid of frames, and so on... I'm glad you like it. Hopefully that'll inspire me to write some more stuff!

Vrylakos

 

[LuYangShih]

Ak! I forgot a party member: Keska Mekis is a Psychic Warrior half-breed Tleyan, level 12, I think. He's an axe and armor man, with a psychoactive skin of the troll.

Out of curiousity, you do have the parties character sheets, right? As for the battle, I would agree with earlier comments that offense is key. Attacking is almost always better than defending in D&D, so strike hard and strike fast.

 

[Vrylakos]

Out of curiousity, you do have the parties character sheets, right? As for the battle, I would agree with earlier comments that offense is key. Attacking is almost always better than defending in D&D, so strike hard and strike fast.

Indeed I do. I made folks give me a copy of their level 12-up, but I was at work when I wrote this and so didn't have all the sheets with me. Some folks have been held back a level recently, due to various things, but by now I believe they are all 12th.

One worry I have is... well, I read Piratecat's storyhour. The PCs there are a finely honed machine. They use tactics, work well together, and sound very efficient.

My players... they don't seem to think about their effectiveness as a group. They know this is going to be hard, but they never talk about contingencies, what to do if say, the Cleric/Party Leader goes down...

Ah well... We'll see how it goes. Now I just need to find the time to stat all these psions and so forth up by Saturday night for
The Assault on the Big Zig!

Vrylakos

 

[Nifft]

One last bit of advice for Psions: have a bag of GENERIC tricks, and a bag of SPECIFIC tricks. Every Psion should know Lesser Body Adjustment, Animal Affinity, Burst, etc. if he's high enough level to have more than 3 Powers at the given level. If you have 3 PsiWars in a group, they should share many Feats (all 3 could have the Up the Walls chain, for example, or the Stand Still + Reach Power pairing).

Then, give each leader a specific trick.

Secondly, pre-calculate skill checks for 5, 10, 15 and 20. Assume that NPCs in bad circumstances are "taking 5", and those in advantaged positions are "taking 15". This will save you a lot of rolling.

Finally, don't bother to fully stat out each Psion's power list. They're going to have taken some non-combat utility Powers, and those will count as "lost Powers" for the battle.

-- N

 

[Vrylakos]

One last bit of advice for Psions: have a bag of GENERIC tricks, and a bag of SPECIFIC tricks. Every Psion should know Lesser Body Adjustment, Animal Affinity, Burst, etc. if he's high enough level to have more than 3 Powers at the given level. If you have 3 PsiWars in a group, they should share many Feats (all 3 could have the Up the Walls chain, for example, or the Stand Still + Reach Power pairing).

Then, give each leader a specific trick.

Secondly, pre-calculate skill checks for 5, 10, 15 and 20. Assume that NPCs in bad circumstances are "taking 5", and those in advantaged positions are "taking 15". This will save you a lot of rolling.

Finally, don't bother to fully stat out each Psion's power list. They're going to have taken some non-combat utility Powers, and those will count as "lost Powers" for the battle.

-- N

Thanks for the advice! That will be a pretty helpful way to streamline things.

Man, if only E-Tools supported psionics... Grrr...

Vrylakos

 

[Graf]

Hopefully that'll inspire me to write some more stuff!

Please feel inspired.

My players... they don't seem to think about their effectiveness as a group. They know this is going to be hard, but they never talk about contingencies, what to do if say, the Cleric/Party Leader goes down...

Pkitty's players have been playing for years and several of them are DMs themselves. I think that being a DM really increases your understanding of tactics.

I found in my old game that the biggest step up in my players tactics occured when they started to get slaughtered by lower CR foes doing hit-and-run fighting. But there are always people who, no matter how much they play and how generally bright they are, just don't understand tactics. You may want to figure out who the most savvy player is and encourage that person to take a bigger role in making plans.

Good luck and let us know how it turned out!

 

[Vrylakos]

Please feel inspired.


Pkitty's players have been playing for years and several of them are DMs themselves. I think that being a DM really increases your understanding of tactics.

I found in my old game that the biggest step up in my players tactics occured when they started to get slaughtered by lower CR foes doing hit-and-run fighting. But there are always people who, no matter how much they play and how generally bright they are, just don't understand tactics. You may want to figure out who the most savvy player is and encourage that person to take a bigger role in making plans.

Good luck and let us know how it turned out!

Yeah, the cleric player is the most sensible, but he just seems to let the tactics slide off his back. The sneaky swordsman is all about the infiltrate and heart-stab. His tactical acumen is limited to figuring out how to line up flanking attacks so he can sneak attack.

I'll let you know how it turns out, but I just got word that Sneaky Swordsman is sick, and won't make the game. Sick might mean "hanging with my new girlfriend", but either way the psychic warrior can't make it - so I'll probably do a subplot dealing with the spy-NPC, and save the Ziggurat for next week.

This will actually be good, as I want to have plenty of time to prepare and digest all the advice people have offered. I'll probably post some stats of the villains for you all to look over!

Vrylakos

 

[Graf]

Stats would be an acceptable stubstitute for having to wait a week for an update....

I'm particularly curious about the blood-totems and the chaelgrata.

 

[Graf]

Not to be the guy who posts twice but...One appalling psionic combo I've seen recently involved a large sized psion with a reach weapon, and the Stand Still feat (requires Str 13). Combat Reflexes is optional but nice.

Basically whenever anyone within their threated area (reach 20 feet)takes a move, the psion gets an AoO. If they hit the opponet has to make a fort save DC 10+ damage dealt, or their movement is lost....

This can be unbeleivably aggrivating for PCs. Hypothetical example: Someone is injured in a fight and tries to move away and drink a potion. There is a large blood totem within 20 feet with the feat and armed with a large longspear (2d6 damage). The BT gets an attack, if they hit the character has to make a average DC 24 Fort save (assuming str 18), or else their movement is lost. If the BT has combat reflexes (and a dex of 12 or higher) if the character then tries to drink their healing potion they are still in range for more AoOs.

Basically people have to move around in 5 foot steps or otherwise be not giving opportunities (invisible, etherial, etc) to avoid AoOs.

As they make strong defenders, who can hold off a lot of people and really blunt assaults it seems likely the Witch Queens might have a bunch of these as defenders. As the totems can attack and then move five feet back on their own turns, they could make what was supposed to be a lightning charge over a bridge (or up the side of a ziggaurat) a painful, drawn-out crawl.
YMMV of course.

This assumes your game is 3.5. I don't remember the large creature/reach weapon rules for 3.0.
[edits = spelling, clarity and forgot that 1.5xstrength bonus is added for 2-handed weapons to damage, and thus the Stand Still DC.]