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How do you prep/run stealth missions?
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<blockquote data-quote="Bacon Bits" data-source="post: 7826699" data-attributes="member: 6777737"><p>In my experience, infiltration types of missions are not difficult to prep for as long as all you do is what the NPCs themselves actually have to do. That is to say, set up rough schedules of what the guards will be doing, what countermeasures the NPCs will have, and what the numbers of reserves look like and what happens when the alarm is sounded. Then you treat the entire mission as one block of XP.</p><p></p><p>Simply put, trying to force encounters to go a certain way with stealth and infiltration will just often not work because the my players almost never do things the way that you think they will. They will come up with multiple ideas that you never even considered so you won't have any plans to address. One of them will have disguise or illusion magic and walk right past your guards. Or they'll use charm magic to make friends out of enemies long enough to get what they want. Or they'll split up with one party causing a distraction while the others get what they're looking for. Or they'll have a timed distraction. Or they'll make a coordinated strike and hit fast and hard.</p><p></p><p>Don't think about what the party can do, per se. Think about what kinds of things the NPCs would be interested or could feasibly stop. Sure, the PCs can teleport and use scrying. Do the NPCs actually have secrets that could be scryed? Do they have other enemies that are known to teleport? How paranoid are the NPCs What kinds of threats do they already routinely face? What simple things can they do? Do they have perpetual light spells? <em>Alarm</em> spells? <em>Arcane lock</em>? <em>Glyph of warding</em>? <em>Guards and wards</em>? <em>Symbol</em>? <em>Forbiddance</em>? Note that many aburation spells are rituals. What kind of escape plan do the NPC leaders have? What do they care about the most? Who do the NPCs know that would sell or give them resources?</p><p></p><p>This kind of prep is when the <em>DM</em> gets to roleplay. You get to think like the NPCs and make plans and formulate them. Use your resources as best you can, and don't pull punches if the PCs walk into your preparations (but do have potential backups in mind if the PCs suddenly can't succeed). IMO, don't think so much about challenging the players as much as you are thinking about playing the NPCs correctly. You can always adjust the latter to fit what the former requires.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bacon Bits, post: 7826699, member: 6777737"] In my experience, infiltration types of missions are not difficult to prep for as long as all you do is what the NPCs themselves actually have to do. That is to say, set up rough schedules of what the guards will be doing, what countermeasures the NPCs will have, and what the numbers of reserves look like and what happens when the alarm is sounded. Then you treat the entire mission as one block of XP. Simply put, trying to force encounters to go a certain way with stealth and infiltration will just often not work because the my players almost never do things the way that you think they will. They will come up with multiple ideas that you never even considered so you won't have any plans to address. One of them will have disguise or illusion magic and walk right past your guards. Or they'll use charm magic to make friends out of enemies long enough to get what they want. Or they'll split up with one party causing a distraction while the others get what they're looking for. Or they'll have a timed distraction. Or they'll make a coordinated strike and hit fast and hard. Don't think about what the party can do, per se. Think about what kinds of things the NPCs would be interested or could feasibly stop. Sure, the PCs can teleport and use scrying. Do the NPCs actually have secrets that could be scryed? Do they have other enemies that are known to teleport? How paranoid are the NPCs What kinds of threats do they already routinely face? What simple things can they do? Do they have perpetual light spells? [I]Alarm[/I] spells? [I]Arcane lock[/I]? [I]Glyph of warding[/I]? [I]Guards and wards[/I]? [I]Symbol[/I]? [I]Forbiddance[/I]? Note that many aburation spells are rituals. What kind of escape plan do the NPC leaders have? What do they care about the most? Who do the NPCs know that would sell or give them resources? This kind of prep is when the [I]DM[/I] gets to roleplay. You get to think like the NPCs and make plans and formulate them. Use your resources as best you can, and don't pull punches if the PCs walk into your preparations (but do have potential backups in mind if the PCs suddenly can't succeed). IMO, don't think so much about challenging the players as much as you are thinking about playing the NPCs correctly. You can always adjust the latter to fit what the former requires. [/QUOTE]
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