A triple encounter? oh yes indeed!

[Quickleaf]

Our group is going into paragon tier soon, and I'm laying the foundation to kick off the game with a bang: 3 level-appropriate encounters, back to back, no rests. I would looove feedback

There are 5 PCs: artificer, invoker, paladin, rogue, sorcerer.

The PCs are big damn heroes after defeating the TYRANT years ago. They pay a visit to the young king (who they put on the throne). In the dead of the night, the king gets abducted; the PCs are alerted by sounds of fighting. The Knight Commander, a grudging ally, fills the PCs on what's going on. Hot on the heels of the kidnappers, the PCs enter the "Road of Kings", a secret escape passage from the castle. They're in for a hell of a fight.

Here's what I'm planning. What do you think? Too lethal?

Part One (3,550 xp)

Entering the Road of Kings, the PCs are just about to enter a large hall when one of them hears a click beneath their foot. Ahead, a group of crossbow-wielding blackcloaks move into position, led by a fearsome warrior in black plate - some are manning 2 large ballistae.

Behind the blackcloaks the PCs catch a glimpse of the unconscious king being carried by an ogre. A cadre of villains falls back deeper into the tunnels with the king: a cloaked rogue, a tiefling spellcaster, a deep gnome, and the king's own court mage!

2 Svirfneblin Explosives (13 minion warder) 400 xp
Perception DC 34
Target: Knight Commander & whichever PC fails check the worst
Attack: Close burst 2; +16 vs. Reflex; 3d8+5 fire damage, prone & dazed (save ends); Miss: half

The Knight Commander and one of the PCs step on trapped plates. If one steps off, the other’s plate explodes. If both step off at the same time, both plates explode…before next initiative count. Either way, the passage crumbles, cutting off support from king's guard.

Poison Gas (11 obstacle) 600 xp
The poison gas is triggered the same time the plates are stepped on, creating an urgency to resolve the explosives trap above. Not exactly sure what it does, probably slows PCs and inflicts ongoing damage.


2 Ballistae (10 minion blaster) 250 xp
Initiative: same as attacker's
Attack: +14 vs. Reflex (or a PC's Dex+1/2 level vs. Reflex)
Hit: 3d8+5 damage and push 1 square + knock prone
Jamming: 20% cumulative chance jam with each attack; repair DC 18 Thievery

16 Blackcloaks (9 minion) 1,600 xp
Homebrew based on streetwise thug/dwarf thug
They're divided into 2 waves, and some man the ballistae

Human Blackguard (12 soldier leader) 700 xp
Ex-guard captain lost everything (status, lands, family) when tried for treason after TYRANT executed, released from prison by noble benefactor, swore himself to shadow powers, seeking vengeance, still sends gold to his family, would prefer to kill the king

Part Two (3,300 xp)

Running after the villains the PCs witness the court mage complete a spell, taunting them as he does "Let's see just how many you've killed in the king's name!" Bursting forth from the shadows a huge specter appears before the PCs, barring their way, a composite of enemies they've killed.

Realizing a dracolich is among the monsters the PCs killed, the mage gets nervous and falls back with other villains. The tiefling spellcaster cockily advances, "Let me handle them." She unleashes an burst of arcane fire which shakes the ruined columns - already damaged by the explosives before. Shuddering, the entire chamber begins to pitch and heave!

6 Wretches of Kyuss (13 minion) 1,200 xp
This is the aggregate illusion of enemies the PCs have killed in the past. Basically it's 6 Wretches of Kyuss occupying the same area, starting as a huge enemy but shrinking as minions are killed. Area/burst attacks only effect one minion at a time.

The Wretch of Kyuss is an "explodes upon death" type minion, but I'm building in a way for PCs to circumvent this (it is an illusion after all). An Insight DC 20 check to disbelieve (minor action) destroys one minion without triggering its "explodes upon death" feature.

Crumbling Ruins (12 elite hazard) 1,400 xp
I'm picturing something out of Indiana Jones or the Prince of Persia movie, but not sure how to design it yet.

Tiefling Witch-finder (12 artillery) 700 xp
Crazy tiefling witch-finder turned mercenary, stole child from a PC's tribe in past, breaking free of witch-finder curse made her crazy, originally she was made a witch-finder because she had a sorcerer daughter she tried to hide from Archmage of Suleistarn , “better to kill mages than let them fall into Archmage’s hands”

Part Three (3,100 xp)

At last the PCs catch up to the villains with the king. The court mage smiles ruefully, "I see you bested my illusion." The deep gnome simmers glumly, "And my traps." The court mage continues, "The age of kings is at an end. You, who defeated the TYRANT, of all people you shouldn't be fighting us!"

Stepping out of the shadows the cloaked rogue advances with two ogres at her side - one with the king slung over its shoulder. The rogue pulls back the cloak, revealing her face: It's the king's mother!

2 Ogre cave hunters (10 lurker) 1,000 xp
These are leveled up versions. I'm going to allow the PCs to make Perception checks to unlock called shots against the ogres for massive damage or forcing them to drop king.

Doppelganger Abductor (12 skirmisher) 700 xp
The "king's mother" is actually a doppelganger, an ambitious mercenary, sister to doppelganger who tried to assassinate good prince but killed by PCs (she doesn’t hold PCs responsible, considers her brother a fool for having loyalties besides himself), nothing personal against king, was a double agent infiltrating Order of Chimera for king personally but now it’s ambiguous just who she is working for…playing sides off each other all to help her beloved who is at the center of espionage circle
> if defeated will propose PCs assume identities of the rest of her “party” in order to make the captain’s debarkation time, only chance to infiltrate organization, this is a ruse and she plans to sell them out

Court Mage (12 controller) 700 xp
The king’s court mage is an enchanter/illusionist, he sees frightening similarities between king & his evil father the TYRANT & domineering grandfather, wants to destabilize the kingdom’s leadership to encourage populist revolution – kings are the problem! He was a street performer who gained attention of King Arath 10 years ago and invited to court, soon becoming court mage with passing of elder court mage

Svirfneblin Sapper (12 lurker) 700 xp
A mad sverfneblin inventor, he needs gold to buy ritual to undo mistake which petrified his clan, he's enchanted by shiny metals/gems like most of his kind, bitter about human kings stealing deep gnome's inventions and best mines

 

[TheUltramark]

I would throw more at them, especially in part 1-maybe less minions and a lieutenant. Looking at the make up of the party, they kinda seem designed for minion-busting anyway. I like the traps though.
part two - again, me personally, I am not a fan of 1 boss and the rest minions...I like having at least one secondary bad guy...maybe a familiar?
part three should be the hardest, should it not? - I guess there is nothing written in stone that the adventure has to increase in danger as it goes, but the sense of building doom and each encounter harder than the one before is kind of an old tried and true standard. For example in your encounter, I would give the mage his own henchman (maybe a gnoll claw fighter bumped to level 8 ), separate from the alliance he has with the doppelganger and the deep gnome.

Looks awesome though, hope you have great fun!

 

[Riastlin]

Well, this is a bit hard to say honestly. I understand not making it much harder at the end considering that the party will have already gone through two encounters without a rest (meaning they may be down to just at-wills and dailies). The problem though, as pointed out, is that the minions are not likely to trouble the party all that much between the sorceror and the invoker, meaning that the first two encounters may not really be all that much of a challenge for the party and that when they come to the final encounter, they can really unload (on a relatively easy encounter).

The problem of course is that if you take away the minions and replace them with standards (or even just add a couple of standards) you run the risk of the PCs being stuck an at-will fest by the last part of the encounter. What might work better is to simply leave your list of enemies more or less undefined (i.e. "You see more lurking behind the ballistae") and just use that as an excuse to add more waves should your party start to breeze through the encounter.

You also need to consider your encounter areas. From a quick description, it sounds as though the fight at least starts within the palace. How then were the traps on the floor able to be set without being previously detected and/or set off? Certainly this is an answerable question, but be ready to have an answer at hand, otherwise it seems fishy.

All in all though, I like the idea as presented in general. I just think you need to be ready to improvise your monster numbers on the fly as minions tend to not really be equal to 1/4 of a creature in terms of difficulty. I particularly like the idea of chasing down the villain since it gives the party a choice. They might be gassed after the second encounter but realize that if they stop to rest, they'll lose the mage and the king. At that point they have to make the tough decision "Do we follow, or do we rest and try to find him later?"

I would certainly be prepared for the party choosing the latter option. Perhaps if they go this route, they then engage a skill challenge to track the mage to the boat that is prepared to take them away. Of course, even if they are succesful in catching up to the mage, they find him at the boat where he has more reinforcements, meaning the encounter is now much harder than if they had simply followed him earlier and caught him before he got to the boat and his allies. If they fail the skill challenge, then the mage gets away with the king.

The only question I have at this point is "Why doesn't the mage just kill the king?" What are his plans for the king? Obviously he wants to remove the king from the throne but is not the easiest method to simply off the king? Especially when he knows he's being followed? I would have an answer for this ready as well. In fact, the answer should probably be something that foreshadows the paragon tier. A message from a new BBEG stating he needs to King alive in order to prepare him as a proper sacrifice, etc. At any rate, you want something that definitely invokes a feeling of "Crud, we've only just begun to scratch the surface." Sort of like the line at the end of "the Two Towers": "The battle of Helm's Deep is over, but the battle for Middle Earth has just begun."

BTW, I love the use of the party's previously defeated enemies in the encounter. Its a great way to show how far the PCs have come over the course of the campaign. In fact, I think it would be good to have the mage and the tiefling reveal appropriate looks of horror/shock at just how powerful the PCs are, sort of a "What have I gotten myself into?" moment.

 

[the Jester]

Huh. Pretty cool looking, but I have a couple of questions.

1. What's to stop the pcs from taking a short rest between encounters?

I would seriously not discourage this; they'll need to recoup their healing, and combats that come down to at wills get grindy.

2. What's to stop them from cutting off/ranged attacking/what have you the bad guys with the king from the very beginning?

I would expect this, at least the way you have the encounters written.

If you don't allow them a short rest between encounters, I'd let them recharge their second wind and one encounter power or something. SRSLY. Grind = teh suck.

 

[Quickleaf]

I would throw more at them, especially in part 1-maybe less minions and a lieutenant. Looking at the make up of the party, they kinda seem designed for minion-busting anyway. I like the traps though.

More? Well, you're right about the party, they are a lean mean minion-killing machine!

I'm using Riastlin's advice about "add minions to spice", so I can throw in a level 9 lieutenant of some kind, and if it's too tough just reduce the waves of minions. Maybe a protege of the blackguard, some kind of misguided cavalier/knight being led down a dark path?

part two - again, me personally, I am not a fan of 1 boss and the rest minions...I like having at least one secondary bad guy...maybe a familiar?

I'm actually considering turning that bizarre amalgam of minions into a homebrew level 11 elite. That way I can design it pull off tricks specific to the enemies they've defeated, but still have an illusory feel.

part three should be the hardest, should it not?

My thinking was the party would be worn down by the third part and so it should be prepared a little easier, but I'm rethinking that now.

Looks awesome though, hope you have great fun!

Thanks

What might work better is to simply leave your list of enemies more or less undefined (i.e. "You see more lurking behind the ballistae") and just use that as an excuse to add more waves should your party start to breeze through the encounter.

Great advice! "Schrodinger's minions": they don't exist until they're observed

You also need to consider your encounter areas. From a quick description, it sounds as though the fight at least starts within the palace. How then were the traps on the floor able to be set without being previously detected and/or set off?

It's actually an old tunnel network beneath the castle (I use 'tunnel' loosely since it is rather grandiose) based on ancient trollish construction before the monarchy. It's not really guarded because there's only a handful of people who know about it, and it hasn't been used in ages. While the doppelganger and some minions infiltrated the castle proper, the deep gnome was setting up explosives & poison gas traps.

I particularly like the idea of chasing down the villain since it gives the party a choice. They might be gassed after the second encounter but realize that if they stop to rest, they'll lose the mage and the king. At that point they have to make the tough decision "Do we follow, or do we rest and try to find him later?"

Totally. And then with the doppelganger there is another decision "Do we go along with this double/triple agent to infiltrate the kidnapper's organization, or do we rescue the king right now and worry about it later?"

The only question I have at this point is "Why doesn't the mage just kill the king?" What are his plans for the king? Obviously he wants to remove the king from the throne but is not the easiest method to simply off the king? Especially when he knows he's being followed?

Easy answer, the court mage isn't evil and despite his rhetoric against the monarchy, he has some respect for the young king (a bastard raised among commoners).

The 5 villains (court mage, tiefling witch-finder, human blackguard, deep gnome sapper, and doppelganger abductor) are basically "the bad party", each a foil to one of the PCs. They each have different motives and were assembled by a BBEG in the Order of the Chimera. Unbeknown to them, the plan is to compel the kidnapped king to train a shapeshifter to play his role perfectly. I'm not yet sure if the shapeshifter is a doppelganger or what.

How does that sound?

BTW, I love the use of the party's previously defeated enemies in the encounter. Its a great way to show how far the PCs have come over the course of the campaign. In fact, I think it would be good to have the mage and the tiefling reveal appropriate looks of horror/shock at just how powerful the PCs are, sort of a "What have I gotten myself into?" moment.

Haha, yes, exactly what I'm going for. Thanks for the extensive feedback!

1. What's to stop the pcs from taking a short rest between encounters? I would seriously not discourage this; they'll need to recoup their healing, and combats that come down to at wills get grindy.

If the PCs take a short rest the villains get away with the king.

I'm planning to treat each part as a separate encounter, so before part 2 and again before part 3, all encounter powers refresh (including second wind) but encounter-long effects end.

2. What's to stop them from cutting off/ranged attacking/what have you the bad guys with the king from the very beginning?

Range. The villains are pretty much off the map (~30 squares), and there's plenty of superior cover. Only the crossbow-wielding artificer can shoot that far, and I'm fine letting them take a few pot shots on a villain or two. The setup is flexible enough that no villain absolutely *needs* to be in a specific part of the running battle.

Thanks for keeping me on my DM toes

 

[TheUltramark]

also - don't be afraid to have your 'bosses' run

a fight at the end featuring 5 on 5 (or less depending on how many actually live or not)

 

[eamon]

I'm planning to treat each part as a separate encounter, so before part 2 and again before part 3, all encounter powers refresh (including second wind) but encounter-long effects end.

So you're not running them back-to-back after all? Or you are - except for encounter powers?

Note this may be a little screwy for the artificer - his encounter healing powers need to be "filled" with surges; that's normally a part of the short rest just like the encounter-power regaining, but you're running a modified short rest, so it seems.

 

[Quickleaf]

So you're not running them back-to-back after all? Or you are - except for encounter powers?

Note this may be a little screwy for the artificer - his encounter healing powers need to be "filled" with surges; that's normally a part of the short rest just like the encounter-power regaining, but you're running a modified short rest, so it seems.

Well the truth is I won't know until we play. My gut sense is to leave action points, dailies, and healing surges as resources to be managed; to prevent grind at the end, however, allow encounter powers to recharge between encounter areas. The trade-off being that powers which last for an entire encounter only last for one part, which makes sense given the running battle. Part of my intro is to show the PCs that they're up against a lot, which is a cue to think carefully about healing surges. That's all *I* can come up with in prep, anything else I'll just improvise in play.

 

[eamon]

Well the truth is I won't know until we play. My gut sense is to leave action points, dailies, and healing surges as resources to be managed; to prevent grind at the end, however, allow encounter powers to recharge between encounter areas. The trade-off being that powers which last for an entire encounter only last for one part, which makes sense given the running battle. Part of my intro is to show the PCs that they're up against a lot, which is a cue to think carefully about healing surges. That's all *I* can come up with in prep, anything else I'll just improvise in play.

Yeah, but my point is that this change is specifically bad for the artificer as opposed to other leaders; regaining encounter powers is usually synonymous with spending surges. I'd let him regain his encounter healing powers even though they cost surge to regain. Or make a short-short rest and let players choose between a surge and regaining a power (which you could even tie into speed of combat - the faster they are, the more they can rest...).

 

[Riastlin]

Another option to consider is having some sort of a terrain/dungeon dressing that can allow a character to regain encounter powers. Energy nodes for instance can be used to regain an encounter or recharge power. Putting a few things like this throughout the encounter area can make for a dynamic encounter as the PCs and their enemies move around and jockey for position to grab the beneficial effects.

Energy nodes certainly work, but so do things like magic pools, abandoned altars, etc.