Can't touch the PCs! What's a DM to Do?

[Al]

Have them attacked at your pleasure, not at theirs. That should put them on the back foot. Too many DMs make the mistake of 'passive' enemies: bad guys that just sit in their dungeons and wait for the PCs to barge in and kill them. Take it the other way: bring the battle to them, especially at inconvenient times.

A few suggestions:

1. Have them accosted at a bar by a 'friendly' NPC (high Cha, good social skills, opposite gender? ) who wants to join their party. A rogue is perfect. Now, this nice young man/woman is in fact an assassin/bounty hunter/opportunist who wants their lives/equipment. After they begin to take him/her for granted, let him/her go on watch, and attack them at night. Or turn rogue in a tricky battle.

2. Have them get ambushed- the enemies are prepared, they are not. An enemy wizard, hasted and invisible, with some roguish minions can do some severe damage.

3. Plain old assassins. No confidence trick lark, just a good high-level wizard who teleports in while they're asleep and blasts the hell out of them. Or the simple high-level rogue who creeps into their room at night and slits their throats in bed.

4. Hostages. Take family members/friends hostage. Have the PCs forced to meet in a 'convenient' spot, and lay down their arms. Of course, it's a trap.

5. Corrupt Officials. Have them be attacked by some watchmen for various crimes and then try to get themselves out. Or they can attack, but then they face the whole guard establishment.

Hope these ideas help. Remember, active enemies are much more dangerous than passive ones.

 

[Darkness]

You can't hurt them?

Myself, I'd slightly increase some creatures' (or some groups of creatures' ) power without raising their CR, by giving them better ability scores (say, 25-point point buy instead of the 15 points - meaning three 10s and three 11s - that the sample creatures in the MM have) and somewhat higher hps (say, 5 or 5.5 per d8 instead of the usual 4.5).

 

[sword-dancer]

Carnifex: Unfortunately, one player takes home all the character sheets after sessions. He is really possessive about this, so I cant', say, take home the sheets and look them over or custom-tailor encounters for them. I will try to do so today, though.

~Chris

Nobody plays IMC before he hadn`t fill out my GM-Sheet, a list of the Important I need to know things, Stats , Skills, BAB, Armor, important Magi Items, Equipment.
And I want to have a copy of each Players SHeet for my Information and secret add ons.

As a default every good GM is a Sadist, as a default The Big Bad evil is intelligent, loyal(within reason) to his henchmen, capable and has no scrupel to use every dirty trick he had.


BTW Sniper, one Sniper mobile and hidden could be an Nightmare, where come thes arrows from!

 

[DM with a vengence]

A Ghost Rog5/Ass1. Sneak up behind them and hit them with death attacks.

If they have too many items, a pack of Ethreal Filchers can lighten their load.

A group of mounted warriors using Spirited Charge, Heavy Lances, and Rhino Hide armor. Taking 4d8+12 points of damage several times will put a cramp in their play.

Nightshades, they shouldn't fight him, but lossing all their potions would hurt.

 

[bret]

Have them fight hobgoblins, using a few cannon-fodder scouts such as goblins. Have a smart leader, about one or two levels higher than the party, and a couple of lieutenants of about equal level. For fun, you might consider a cleric and a sorcerer or wizard in the mix.

You need a reason for the hobgoblins to be there. For now, lets go with collecting new slaves for some giants or something.

The goblins are the initial encounter or two. They are supposed to harrass and disengage. Never go over three rounds. The idea is that the Hobgoblins interrogate the goblins to find out how the party fights.

Once they have a rough idea of how the party fights, have the hobgoblins plan a trap.

• A few hobgoblins go out and attack the party, retreating early. The idea is to get the party to follow these hobgoblins into a trap.
• Since the party seems to depend on potions for a lot of stuff, at the ambush site have the Hobgoblin Wizard cast Shatter. That should take care of the potions.
• Bows are the hobgoblin's friend. The hobgoblins will have superious numbers, use it with missles set up in a crossfire. About six groups of archers pop up and start peppering them with missle fire.
• Since the hobgoblins set up the area, no reason the archers shouldn't have cover. The bonus for 50% cover is pretty nice, especially when the enemy doesn't have any.
• Have the hobgoblins fight smart. Try and draw the group into pit traps and caltraps (directly in front of the archers), retreat and regroup. If you get a situation where the party divides itself, try and pick off the lone stragglers by having the groups on that side meet up.
• Have the villians plan their escape route. The party has proven itself to be dangerous (that is how they got to this level, right?), have the enemies treat them that way.
• The leader is safely tucked away in his hideout, waiting for the results of the battle. Don't overcommit your forces to this, start small so you get a feel for their abilities and then adjust.
• Since you gave the hobgoblins a cleric, any hobgoblins that make it back can be healed. The hobgoblins know this, make them use it.

That should get you started.

You might want to consider picking up some basic strategy books as well. I'm talking real world strategy books, not the stuff you find for CRPGs, FPS and RPGs. Thinks like 'The Art of War.'

 

[Rowenstin]

The Invincible Warrior - A massive, silent figure in full plate that covers his entire body will frighten the players greatly when he takes unimaginable damage without slowing down. Of course, under that full body armor he's a troll fighter.

Hey, I really like this one!

 

[Hejdun]

I don't want you to kill the party. That's too harsh, in my opinion, because I feel the mistake is mostly yours (not all, but a good bit). I can't tell for sure, but that's the way it seems. Now, I'm not going to play the blame game, I'm just pointing out that your players might get upset if you kill them outright, because they might feel (right or wrong) that this was your fault.

Now, you obviously need to restrict their power. How did they roll their stats? Was it 4d6? 5d6? Etc. If it was pointbuy, how many points?

I agree that you need to take a peek at their character sheets, and compare them to the charts in the DMG, for the average gold amount for their level. If they have a lot, possibly a LOT more than they should, then let me introduce you to my merry band of insane Chaotic Good thieves.

Basically, you have a wizard that stuns, sleeps, batters, etc. opponents. Anything non-lethal, but will effectively disable the PCs.

A rogue with a sap, make him a dwarf with an insane con so he survives for a while, have him dish out tons of subdual damage while he flanks PCs with the...

Fighter, also with an insanely high constitution, specialized with the sap, or you could make a larger version of it (there are rules for this in the DMG), perhaps a medium sized sap doing 1d8 subdual, etc. He's just clubbing PC's left and right.

Finally, their leader, a ranger, with a bow. No real reason for the ranger, but just another damage dealer. I personally have special arrows in my campaign that deal blunt damage, so you'll have to implement those somehow (or just leave him out all together, he isn't essential to the plan). Give him as many archery feats as you can, and let him loose.

Feel free to add more, as you wish. I would consider making them levels 8-9, if you keep it to these 4. Otherwise, maybe 6 enemies at level 7-8, etc. Enough to win.


Now, make them smart, and ambush them. Target the cleric first, then the wizard. Give the wizard shatter, and smash those healing potions. With no cleric and no healing potions, they should be shot pretty easily. Once you have knocked them all unconcious, rob them blind.

Their motivation? They basically believe that the wealth of the rich should be used to further the poor. So they rob the rich (and adventurers are VERY rich) and donate that to the poor.


After that, you'll need to give them a way to replenish their gear, so perhaps give them some gifts, and inflate their treasure a while until they are up to par. During this time, don't challenge them too much, since they will be much weaker than normal. Once they are at par with DMG standards, KEEP IT THAT WAY. Be VERY careful that you don't give them too much stuff, or you'll end up exactly where you are now.

There you go, a non lethal way to make your PCs normal. If your PCs have insanely high stats (total bonus is +12-20), you can find a way to lesson those, if you like.

 

[Dark Dragon]

Hmm, for the potions...send some destrachans in a dungeon at them. IIRC, their sonic attacks can destroy crystalline objects (that's why a smart PC puts a potion in a steel vial). As an alternative, a destrachan can do a quite great amount of subdual damage (6d6, half on a reflex save, IIRC). If the monster attacks the group in a narrow passage, I'd deny the rogue's and monk's evasion ability (since there's no place to hide or get out of the affected area) and rise the save-DC. Let one destrachan strike once by surprise and retreat, while one other destrachan follows the group from behind and the last one hides somewhere near the dungeon entrance. Use this hit-and-run-tactic as often as it seems to fit. At last the PCs might win, but they should have lost HP and equipment (especially potions ).

The best thing you can do was already said: Take the sheets, write down the important stats (abilities, some skills like move silent, hide, listen, spot, disable device, the saves and the magic equipment) and calculate each PCs worth and compare it with the table in the DMG. If the players don't cooperate...wipe the PCs out and start a new game. As you mentioned, Diablo is a good hack & slay game. Ok, D&D can be good for this game style, but if you want more role-playing, it depends on the DM and the players. If there's no cooperation, noone will have fun.

 

[Darklone]

Hmm

They are diablo2 like. Know those bunchies.

Ok. First of all: Did they made enemies yet and how many of those got away? Allies will do. Now that villain will get some specialists to take care of the players. On the wizards homepage there is a minimodule called "Eye for an eye" or something like that with a nice bunch of assassins.

Another proposal: Did they clash with some barbarians? Your players are around lvl6? A barbarian strike team should look like this:

- Bbn1/sor7: Big boss kinda shaman. Give him invis, fireball, fireball, fireball and fireball (If your players don't have exorbitant fire protection). Fly is nice too. Make him a lvl8 sorcerer if you want Impr. invis.

- Bbn5/Brd1: Unflankable skald type. Will dish out quite some damage and that inspire courage will come in VERY handy for the whole bashers.

- 3 Bbn2/Rog3: Strike team. They always flank. You can let them fight twohanded or simply dish out damage with sneakattacking greataxes. Perhaps invis. Give them track.

- 2 Bbn6: Greataxes, greatswords. Whatever. Bash them. Those guys should have at least an Endure Elements(Fire) from the sorcerer. But usually they got enough hitpoints for anything.

- Bbn1/Clr5: Bless, Prayer... You know what a cleric can do. Divine Favour plus Greater Magic Weapon will let him dish out lotsa damage too.

This group should encounter the players outdoors, perhaps after the players spoiled a traditional attack on a caravan from some youngsters of the tribe (lvl1-2barbarians, waste them!) Your players will probably go for a kill rather than let most of them escape. The slaughter will call for revenge!

Outdoors: The scouts of this group are likely to find the players and follow them unseen. (Ok, you got an elven rogue, but this is hometown for those guys! Spot checks are nasty at long ranges. Let the scouts follow the group at 200ft and noone will notice them except perhaps some animal companions of the druid. Shoot those down with arrows far away from the camp.)

First thing the players are going to notice: Animal companions of the druid don't come back.
Second thing: Assault, perhaps even a roared challenge from the barbarians who ask for retribution. Well melee... I am sure you get the picture. Bard and cleric stay back and protect the sorcerer, the rest melees and the sorcerer drops fireballs at everyone. Let the rogues tumble around to flank, noone is going to have fun with a 5ft step and drinking a potion.

This encounter can easily waste a group without many magical items at the barbarians.

 

[Jezrael]

Death of a Thousand Cuts

You don't want to just summarily wipe them out because that's no fun.

Instead inflict the Death of a Thousand Cuts, destroy everything they hold dear.

They have to have ticked SOMEONE powerful off by now, have him/her torment them, never directly attacking them.

Kill the people that make their potions in gruesome ways.

Kill their families.

Burn down their favorite inn and hang the innkeeper.

Harass them relentlessly.

In short hit 'em where it hurts.

They'll froth at the mouth to take on this mysterious person...who may or may not be able to take them out. The point isn't to kill them, think Khan from Star Trek II.

"...I wish to go on hurting you."

Give 'em the villain they love to hate; it'll be more fun for all.