Bard tactics

[Artoomis]

Direct combat is NOT what Bards do.

Negotiation, disarming (whip, of course), buffing up allies, things like that.

Bards should carry items like Thundersticks, Tanglefoot Bags, Smokesticks and Caltrops.

Plus, of course, using Fascination before combat starts, if possible.

He should have a few allies for sure. They would likely be expendable.

At a minimum, the Satyr's pipes should use the Complete Adventruurer rule for masterworok pipes and give +1 to Perform Checks to Fascinate and +1 to Save DC vs. Suggestion.

Max out his perform and use all synergies. Give him the Versatile Performer feat to get an addiontal +2 when using pipes and voice together (assuming at least a 12 intelligence). His perform check ought to end up around +18 at least - maybe more if you give him some CHA boosting item.

 

[Shellman]

All bards should sacrifice themselves for the benefit of the party by throwing themselves in front of the BBEG!

 

[Oryan77]

All bards should sacrifice themselves for the benefit of the party by throwing themselves in front of the BBEG!

Well the best way to kill off all of the Bards is to do what I'm doing...run them as NPC enemies without backup

 

[Baramay]

I would imagine a satyr bard to not want to face a large group in combat. He would try to annoy them and then come back at night and use his low-light vision to cast spells on the watch. If there are only 2 or 3 people awake he could chase them off with a fear spell. I would say the best spell choices are confusion, fear, glibness, slow and summon monster. Expeditious retreat would provide him easy escape since he travels alone. Glitterdust, blindness help alot. Remember as a satyr he has excellent hide, spot, move sil and listen skills so encounters will most likely be on his terms. I hope this helps.

 

[Stormrunner]

With or without pipes?
This is 8 levels of bard plus the base satyr? Or a CR 8 satyr ( = pipes + 4 levels of Bard, or no pipes + 6 levels of Bard)?

I would recommend the "with pipes" option. Make Cha his highest stat (to power his pipes DC and Perform checks) and Dex his second highest (to dodge and run away if attacked).
Ability Focus to pump the pipes' DC. His 2nd-level spells should include Eagle's Splendor and Cat's Grace to pump his Dex and Cha even more.

The pipes effect is a spread, so he doesn't need line-of-sight, he just needs to be able to trace an unobstructed 60' path between himself and the target. He can stand behind a tree, around a corner, on a rooftop, or wherever. Sleep is useless against a party of this level, but does he know that? Probably his best bet is to use Fear to divide the party, then chase down those who flee and use Charm on them. (Those who resist the Fear become immune to the pipes for 24 hours, but those who failed their save are not immune!) At the very least, a Charmed character should be happy to discuss details of the party's abilities with his new "friend", giving the satyr knowledge of what spells and magic items the PCs carry, their general plans and goals, etc.

Even without pipes, using Perform and Fascinate he could do the Pied Piper bit, surrounding himself with an audience of local children. Makes it harder for the wizard to Fireball him - and even if the party restricts itself to "crowd-safe" spells like Magic Missile, the locals will not be happy about the PCs endangering their kids. (Imagine if a real-world villain was an elementary-school teacher, and the Swat team smashed in the door to the classroom and started exchanging gunfire with him. Even if no kids actually got hurt, the parents would not be at all happy about the "reckless endangerment".) If he has any time to prepare, Diplomacy and Charm can prep the townsfolk to react badly to the PCs. (Recently read a story about an evil bard who would stroll into town, spend a few days singing songs and telling stories about vicious evil werewolves, then commit a murder or two, and frame the local outcast or some passing stranger by using his magic to make them look like a werewolf.)

 

[Fishbone]

Cover all the bases. One of them is a fighting bard(with the right buffs like Alter Self and Improved Invisibility it can happen, easily), one of them is the buff bard with Extend Spell(Elation, Twinked out Inspire Courage, Displacement Haste and the like), the other is the Magic-Blooded Spellcasting Prodigy Cloak of Charisma debuff bard, and the rest are archers.
Don't forget charmed and bought minions, and a few of these bards out to have Leadership for Level 6, 4, and 1 lackies. Good luck!

 

[Fishbone]

Have him scry and gather info and have lookouts. Before he fights he'll have Mirror Image and Displacement up or Improved Invisibility. Point is, he will try to make himself hard to hit. Next, those racial hit dice are treated as levels so use it!
Next, 15+1 level+2 racial+6 Charisma from a cloak =+7 Modifier to Leadership. Next, he's got a stronghold, rarely travels, he's fair and generous(just because you're evil doesn't mean you can't treat the hires right) the pipes are a special power, 8 levels of bard and 5 racial levels of Satyr=Leadership 26. Use your most devious ideas to maximize the effectiveness of these guys.
The Satyr isn't that big of a concern, but the loyal army he's got buffed and backing him is.

 

[Nail]

So I've never been a big fan of Bards. The group is probably going to be hunting down an 8th lvl Satyr Bard and I want to make it a tough encounter. The group consists of 5 lvl 7 PC's.

You still up for advice on this?

....and, BTW, are the PCs meant to just kill this guy? If so = "BORING!". If not = "An Interesting Encounter!"

Any chance of changing the PC goals to "capture, not kill"?

 

[Oryan77]

You still up for advice on this?

....and, BTW, are the PCs meant to just kill this guy? If so = "BORING!". If not = "An Interesting Encounter!"

Any chance of changing the PC goals to "capture, not kill"?

Well, we just played through it lastnight and I'm surprised at how well it turned out. All 5 of my players said they had a blast and one of them said it was the funnest session she's played in. I was actually worried that I'd blow the game since I barely had an idea on how I was going to run the encounter. I kept looking at my NPC's info thinking, "Man this bard is going to get his butt handed to him". Which is what I hoped, but I wanted it to be challenging.

The rundown of the scenario was that I am leading up to a short published adventure. In the beginning of the adventure there's 2 bounty hunters that hand over a human criminal to the local authorities. I actually have my own 2 reocurring bounty hunter NPC that I was able to use in place of the generic bounty hunters. Then I wanted to spice up the criminal npc by making him a Satyr instead. And to make this NPC more important to the PC's, I ran a "random" encounter in the woods where the Satyr woes the 2 female PC's in the group and robs everyone.

So the PC's encounter him and one male PC really hated the Satyr because he got charmed by him. Then they asked about him in a town they passed through. I told them he has an 18k bounty on his head. That just made the players excited and they made it a mission to capture this guy. So rather than steal their thunder by having my own bounty hunters bring the Satyr in to start the adventure, I let the players hunt him down.

They spent about 4 hours yesterday just trying to track him down. They finally encountered him in town and the encounter began. This encounter lasted at least 6 hours! They just could not kill this guy. They wanted him alive because his bounty was worth more alive, but they said they'd kill him if they had to. I used a few ideas I got from this thread (like caltrops, boy did those help out!). He used Ventriloquism to throw them off and managed to jump a PC with the Hideous Laughter spell and run away with his Expeditious Retreat. We thought it was over when the Sorceress got him with Evard's Black Tentacles. But then I remembered he has a great Escape Artist skill and got out of them. He was lucky too that he was within 1 square of freedom from the tentacles, so he got most of his movement to run away.

Then she hit him with a second Evard's Black Tentacles & the cleric got off a blindness spell which pretty much ended the bards chances. Funny enough, I rolled really good again and escaped the tentacles and blindly ran in a straight line out of them. They finally caught up to him and tried grappling him. And in 3 rounds, 3 PC's could not grapple this 10 Strength bard! It was hilarious. The encounter worked out perfectly for a fun time with such a non threatening NPC.

I learned something lastnight; players can feel like an encounter is extremely challenging even when they aren't taking physical damage and coming close to dying. After they captured him, they really felt like they overcame a huge obstacle....and I think I did a total of maybe 10 hp's of damage to one player

 

[WolverineJon]

Oryan77, thanks for taking the time to come back to this thread and post the story of how things worked out. It made for a satisfying conclusion to reading the thread!