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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 4788837" data-attributes="member: 3146">You'll need to be more specific than that to get a real answer.The bottom line is this: you can write up a whole bunch of good encounters that are completely different using that setup. The big question is which ones you want to use.Another question that you will need to answer: how defensible is the PCs' position? Give the PCs a highly defensible position and you can often make the encounter 2 or 3 ELs higher than you would be able to make it in terrain that equally favors either side.Another question: Does the palace have other defenders? If so, how many? How are you going to handle them? That would also figure into the EL.Another question: how large is this cult? Is this cult massive such that the cult attack is like an invading army? Or is the cult more limited, in which case the cult attack is more like a bunch of ninjas infiltrating a city? To use a historical analogy, are we talking the Tet Offensive where there are large numbers of partisans infiltrated into the cities and their attack is coordinated with a conventional military offensive with the intention of taking and holding territory (and the capability to do so if the defense folds) or is this more like Pearl Harbor where there is a sneak attack with the intention to destroy but no intention (or capability) to take and hold. Obviously these are very different scenarios and will lead to different encounters (the first scenario probably involves larger numbers and more than one encounter; the second scenario is probably only one encounter but that encounter is more difficult).One last thing: rethink the marvelously unhelpful tagline "all races and classes join this cult." For any good cult and any good encounter with them, you should have the encounter match the flavor of the cult. Is it a cult of Vecna? There should be stealth, sneak attacks, and magic. Are you ripping off Warhammer and have a cult of Khorne? There should be lots of beserkers and some carnage demons; the leader may be a marshal. Are you stealing from Indiana Jones and the temple of doom? The cult of Kali has a lot of mooks waving scimitars but there should be a powerful priest or two at the center of it. We could give you advice for a great encounter but if our great encounter has a dozen kenku sneaks and a faceless man who can shoot lightning bolts from his hands, but you have previously described the cult more along the lines of Warhammer's Khorne cults, it won't make any sense in the campaign.</blockquote>

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