Help me with this encounter!

[Shazman]

I have planned for an assassain to ambush the characters next session in my campaign. The characters are in the lair of a dragon they recently defeated. While, they are looting and searching the lair, the assassain will try to get the drop (quite literally) on the druid of the party since he perceives her to be the most dangerous. He wants to take her out with a poisoned death attack, and then signal others waiting outside the lair to come in a start wailing on the party. Here is the plan.

1) Directly outside the lair cast invisibility, fox's cunning,and spider climb.

2) Move into the lair and climb up the walls while moving silently until directly above the druid.

3) Observe the druid for two rounds

4) Cast true strike

5) Drop down on druid via ring of featherfall

6) Full power attack when he reaches the druid as his surprise round action.

I doubt this will work because the druid has crazy spot and listen skills, and one of the PC's has scent because he has contracted lycanthropy. While feather falling the assassain wouldn't make any noise so he wouldn't ahve to move silently at this point, right? Would the druid not get a chance to notice the invisible assassain (spot DC 20) before the attack occurs, or would the extenuating circumstances preclude said spot check? How would you guys handle this?

 

[Kurotowa]

In the interest of not having a PC die at the hands of an invisible assassin (one of the top five least fun things for a player), I'd include several chances for the party to clue in to the danger. Since the assassin isn't using a Silence effect, everyone gets a Listen check (secretly rolled by you, if you want) against his Move Silently. The person with Scent will get another check, as might the Druid's animal companion. If all those fail, it's up to you how hard you want to be on the PC.

 

[domino]

Exactly what extenuating circumstances would preclude a spot check. As I understand it, spot assumes people are checking all around, even up above them.

Also, I think that the death attack is resolved before the poison, so if the death attack is the only serious point of this, then you might as well ignore the poison. If she survives the death attack, then whatever poison would still be helpful to the bad guys. But a con drain poison shouldn't make her more vulnerable to a death attack.

 

[Shazman]

I was going to use poison, but nothing too serious. This character has crazy spot and listen so I'm sure she'll make the check. I'll probably give her a penalty to spot. It's just that this scenario doesn't seem right. If the party has decent spot and listen skills or scent, it's basically neutralizing the assassain's death attack ability regardless of the precautions the assassain has taken. I guess that's just the way the rules work though. I'll just have to settle for an invisible power attack/sneak attack plus poison with true strike. I guess that's nasty enough.

 

[diaglo]

what lvl caster for the prep spells?

how far does the assassin have to travel? how many rounds to get into position with climb and other movement?

 

[Gomez]

Does the assassin have a plan to get out of there once he makes his first attack? Seems silly that he would try and kill somone only to be ganged up and killed by the rest of the group. How far away can the assassin use his death attack? Maybe a poisoned crossbow bolt would be a better attack than jumping into the middle of the group. Or I would have him wait and ambush one of the characters when he has to answer nature's call!

 

[Shazman]

Yeah, he would have a lot of ground to cover, and it is a bit suicidal. He'll probably just wait until he can get one of the PC's alone.

 

[diaglo]

Yeah, he would have a lot of ground to cover, and it is a bit suicidal. He'll probably just wait until he can get one of the PC's alone.

esp moving silently. his movement is reduced...

the amount of time to set up could cause all his spells to be gone.

 

[fafhrd]

What level are they? Beware the druid venom immunity at 9th.

 

[diaglo]

What level are they? Beware the druid venom immunity at 9th.

well the assassin is at least lvl 6 character level.

since minimum lvl 5 rogue/ plus lvl 1 assassin...