Defenses for the Black Academy

[James McMurray]

Alright folks, I'm sure my party will be reattacking the Black Academy this weekend, and would like some ideas on defenses they can have in place. Things tht take a truly long time won't work, as they've not got long to wait. However, anything else is fair game.

So far, I've thought of programmed images set to go off whenver someone shouts the name of a room. Each room would have its own image, color coded flames that strem through the area and seem to flow towards the room whose name was shouted. Then, to give the alarm, any defender can just yell the name of the room they're in "Antomy Lab!" or "Instructor Drake's Quarters!" and the entire place will be put on alert, and know where the breach is.

What else?

 

[Tortoise]

Magic mouth is useful in a similar manner.

 

[James McMurray]

You're absolutely right. I hadn't even thought about it. Its even lower level, so the students can set a bunch of those up. Plus its 15gp cheaper, which ain't much, but every penny counts.

 

[Nightfall]

Well if I knew the exact power level of your party, I wouldn't suggest this...but Beholders make good defenses. That along with a couple golems programmed NOT to let anyone that doesn't wear a particular badge, along with some mindless undead. That help any?

 

[Dougal DeKree]

Defenses.

Hi there,

since it is known that your pc's will reenter, how about setting up some good ol traps? like shelves with alchemists fire above the doors, which are held by some simple mechanism an apprentice could easily set off with magehand? if you have some undead (as i believe) use them in conjunction with some poison - always good as a nuissance. why not have some parts of the building unaccessible so the chars have to take a predefined way - then you could control that they cannot evade the set ambushes/traps? shooting holes are also always fun for the dm. lots of cover for the defenders, plus some spells only need visual contact! ...and can one add sneak-damage with a ballista?
How about letting some vermin drop at them? Or something smelly (so invisibility turns weaker)? Cantrops are also nice...

More?

Dougal DeKree, Gnomish Illusionist and "Magic-items-seller"

 

[Darklone]

Well...

One of the groups I play in attacked an evil temple lately... The last 6 weeks to be precise.

- Unhallow with silence is a must. Since the silence will only work for the players.

- We had enough problems with just one osyluth. Put icewalls everywhere to make a maze, as soon the players enter then, trap them between some icewalls. Does some nice damage each time they step through a break in a wall or lets them waste a lot of dispels.

- Small rooms or small passages caused by many walls of ice put the players close together. A few flamestrikes there are funny.

- Try to split up the players by icewalls between them and attackers from different directions. (no saves against those icewalls )

- A few fighting monks are funny. Let them jump up and down in the big halls and drop heavy things on the players (though those can fly I think)

- Boulder nets on the ceiling. Mage hand is enough to trigger a heavy steel chain net with heavy boulders on the whole room.

- Players caught in a room by a net or something similar... pour oil in the room and burn them. Especially nice if the room is lowered by some stairs towards the aisles around it.

- Illusions of zombies or similar crap. Can be cast by small acolytes and will make some players waste turn undead attempts or other spells or simple actions.

- Put a statue of the stoned rogue there. Or put him there disguised as a statue. Will be a HUGE surprise if they try to "rescue" him.

 

[Psion]

Is this to RttToH academy?

Anyway, there is one resource spell that any villainous wizard should cast if he or she knows an assault is coming: guards and wards. Take a look at it... it has a lot of effect to frustrate players.

 

[James McMurray]

Nightfall:
Golems and Beholders generally take more than a few days to recruit. There are 4 Venom Golems (R&R that will be moved to the foyer, but they'll basically be speed bumps for the party.

Dougal Dekree:
The shelves are a good idea, and easily made by a group of wizards. There's gotta be a few of them with alchemy, not to mention the Market in the city will have some as well.

Poison is worthless against my party, as they eat an extended Heroes' Feast every day, and the defenders know this.

Inaccessible how? Anything permanent they do will have to be brought back down, so massive walls of stone aren't going to be fun.

They'll have to add a few holes to the walls in the foyer as well, and let apprentices shoot magic missiles and operate spectral hands through them. Thanks!

...and can one add sneak-damage with a ballista?

Even if you could sneak attack with a ballista bolt (and I doubt it) there aren't a lot of rogues avaioable, and no ballistas.

Darklone:

Unhallow with dispel magic is more devestating to my party, due to the amount of magical buffing they do before battle. However, the academy's only cleric is out of action for a while as he was just raised from the dead. If it takes the party longer to attack than 8 days though, he'll be back up and ready for action.

An Osyluth would be useful as well. Ii had planned to use one with the giants the group just finished negotiating with, but didn't get to use him much.

There aren't any monks available to the Academy.

Boulder Nets would be nice, but how the heck do you hide them to keep people from just walking around them? Also, physical traps aren't very easily made by this group, since they are primarily arcane spellcasters. The city outside has some rogues, but none are very high level.

Illusions will definitely be used, since they can be cast through the aforementioned murder holes.

I've got to use the statue disguise idea! Statue lasts 1 hour per level, so the head of the academy can keep it up for almost the entire day with a single casting.

Psion:

The problem with guards and wards is that it also affects defenders, thus making it a nearly useless spell unless you're defending your stonghold all by yourself.

Thanks for all the replies folks! Keep 'em coming, there's still over 24 hours before the session starts!

 

[Darkness]

Hmm... Whereabouts or Plots? Hmm... Whereabouts...

 

[Tortoise]

Your question: "Inaccessible how?"

My suggestion: "teleport in and out only with a one-way portal in and a secret method to port out"

Make sure they can think their way out, but don't make it too easy.