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D&D 5E Invisible murderhobos
- Thread starter n0nym
- Start date
A great problem to have, and good to see your characters taking the world by the horns and trying to make some changes. If you're worried about assassinations of your evil NPC's I'd advise you to take a look at the real world, because evil bad guys, and also nice good guys, have been having to deal with this problem all throughout actual human history. Please understand that I have no idea about Dark Sun since I've never played that campaign, but I'm assuming there is a fair amount of magic.
If I were a leader in that world, I'd take some pretty heavy precautions against magic by hiring whatever talent I could to defend against things. Spending money on forbiddances, hallow, and other such areas can protect a home base against most basic attempts to send in invisible and extraplanar spies. Inventive players will get around these however so a real paranoid tyrant might have a few other options for when they find themselves rudely awakened in the middle of the night by some righteous PC's with a knife to his/her throat.
1) I've left someone worse In Charge when I die: This of course assumes the PC's have a way of knowing this, but a wise person using this tactic will make it public information. Basically, the Tyrant has intentionally put next in the line of succession someone so much worse that anyone taking him/her out will be creating a situation even worse than the one being solved by removal of said Tyrant. If done correctly, the Plan B might be so bad that those who are otherwise enemies might find themselves well motivated to protect the Tyrant to avoid Plan B.
2) Chaos will result in my absence: Sort of similar to #1, except instead of someone really bad to take the Tyrants place, there is no line of succession at all, which will invariably result in the chaos of civil war as factions try to sort things out. This requires a leader who has managed to manipulate factions so precisely that all are strong, none are strong enough to be an obvious choice to win on their own, and they don't trust each other enough to carry out a prompt succession in case of a sudden need for one. He can also promise that he has agents in place at the various surviving factions to ensure that the strife will be extra strifey. If he/she can't rule, no one shall. Helps to inform the PC's, in an arrogant tone, that while they are individually very mighty, the nature of their work does not allow them to see the whole picture, and they do not realize how important Tryant's manipulations are. Some assurances that those who will rise to the top are no better than he/she also makes a good argument to keep him alive. Also perhaps an attempt to woo the PC's over for the Greater Good might be wise. "We shall bring order to the galaxy" and all that
3) Hostages: Most leaders in history secured themselves from betrayal by taking hostages from the various families of their "allies", and should they be betrayed, those hostages would be cruelly put to death. Let the PC's know that by executing Tyrant, they will cause such events to play out. Not fair, but hey, Tryant.
4) If I die the whole city blows up: This one is pretty extreme, but in a world of magic certainly possible, and best exemplified by a character from a book called "Snowcrash", a great cyberpunk book if your'e into that sort of thing. Basically, the head of the street gangs in a city rolled around on a motorcycle with a sidecar. In that sidecar was a 1 Megaton Hydrogen bomb. It was set to go off if the crime bosses heart ever stopped beating, which effectively ruled out a sudden assassination attempt for anyone that was withing 10 miles of him who wanted to keep on living. The local police spent a great deal of time making sure he didn't have to worry about such things. You get the idea. Again, best if this is the sort of thing that your BBEG doesn't keep a secret but has out there.
Again, I applaud your PC's for deciding to use their power to set right the wrongs of the world, but there are ways for those less powerful than them to protect themselves from random assassination by more powerful people without beating them in a street fight. Good luck!
If I were a leader in that world, I'd take some pretty heavy precautions against magic by hiring whatever talent I could to defend against things. Spending money on forbiddances, hallow, and other such areas can protect a home base against most basic attempts to send in invisible and extraplanar spies. Inventive players will get around these however so a real paranoid tyrant might have a few other options for when they find themselves rudely awakened in the middle of the night by some righteous PC's with a knife to his/her throat.
1) I've left someone worse In Charge when I die: This of course assumes the PC's have a way of knowing this, but a wise person using this tactic will make it public information. Basically, the Tyrant has intentionally put next in the line of succession someone so much worse that anyone taking him/her out will be creating a situation even worse than the one being solved by removal of said Tyrant. If done correctly, the Plan B might be so bad that those who are otherwise enemies might find themselves well motivated to protect the Tyrant to avoid Plan B.
2) Chaos will result in my absence: Sort of similar to #1, except instead of someone really bad to take the Tyrants place, there is no line of succession at all, which will invariably result in the chaos of civil war as factions try to sort things out. This requires a leader who has managed to manipulate factions so precisely that all are strong, none are strong enough to be an obvious choice to win on their own, and they don't trust each other enough to carry out a prompt succession in case of a sudden need for one. He can also promise that he has agents in place at the various surviving factions to ensure that the strife will be extra strifey. If he/she can't rule, no one shall. Helps to inform the PC's, in an arrogant tone, that while they are individually very mighty, the nature of their work does not allow them to see the whole picture, and they do not realize how important Tryant's manipulations are. Some assurances that those who will rise to the top are no better than he/she also makes a good argument to keep him alive. Also perhaps an attempt to woo the PC's over for the Greater Good might be wise. "We shall bring order to the galaxy" and all that
3) Hostages: Most leaders in history secured themselves from betrayal by taking hostages from the various families of their "allies", and should they be betrayed, those hostages would be cruelly put to death. Let the PC's know that by executing Tyrant, they will cause such events to play out. Not fair, but hey, Tryant.
4) If I die the whole city blows up: This one is pretty extreme, but in a world of magic certainly possible, and best exemplified by a character from a book called "Snowcrash", a great cyberpunk book if your'e into that sort of thing. Basically, the head of the street gangs in a city rolled around on a motorcycle with a sidecar. In that sidecar was a 1 Megaton Hydrogen bomb. It was set to go off if the crime bosses heart ever stopped beating, which effectively ruled out a sudden assassination attempt for anyone that was withing 10 miles of him who wanted to keep on living. The local police spent a great deal of time making sure he didn't have to worry about such things. You get the idea. Again, best if this is the sort of thing that your BBEG doesn't keep a secret but has out there.
Again, I applaud your PC's for deciding to use their power to set right the wrongs of the world, but there are ways for those less powerful than them to protect themselves from random assassination by more powerful people without beating them in a street fight. Good luck!
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UnknownDyson
Explorer
Unbeknownst to the player characters, High Praetor Krull is secretly a powerful Wight Eldritch Knight who has a permanent illusion spell cast over him in addition to the 30 day effect of the Nystul's magic aura spell which makes his undead nature undetectable by low level spells and divine sense. Thus, Preator Krull does not sleep because he is undead. The player characters will be in for quite a surprise when he unsheathes his +1 necrotic great sword and opens the cellar door to let them deal with his personal zombie horde (made up of nosy adventurers, just like them).
Croesus
Adventurer
Um, how do the PCs keep from bumping into each other while invisible? This isn't a case of highly-trained special forces types using nightvision goggles so only they can see. The PCs are invisible to others, and each other. Pretty much guarantees someone will bump into someone, creating noise. If they keep close to one another, I'd probably give disadvantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks. If they keep far away from each other, I'd roll randomly to see if they can actually coordinate their actions - they declare actions individually before going splitting up, then roll to determine the order in which they act, are delayed unexpectedly, etc.
RangerWickett
Legend
The sorcerer king, after his right hand man is slain, recalls the sprite attempting to sneak up on him invisibly. In retaliation, he orders all sprites slain and bans the use of invisibility magic. His spellcaster minions denude the landscape of life as they cast divination after divination to locate people capable of casting invisibility. Those who refuse to pledge loyalty to the sorcerer king and have themselves marked by an arcane brand that shines whenever they are affected by magic (which, by the way, gradually defiles any location they spend more than a few hours in) have their hands sliced off. Those who resist are executed. Wizards rapidly begin burning the pages of their spellbooks that contain invisibility, so the divinations will no longer detect them.
The minions of the sorcerer king are constantly attended by trained hounds that will detect the scent of invisible intruders and set up a howl. Perhaps the party also has hide from animals, in which case good for them. They become enemy number one for they are seen as an unforgivable threat to the sorcerer king. Divinations demand the faith of whoever cast the spell, and followers of that faith are jailed and tortured until they name the one responsible.
The drought that has been gripping the land grows ever worse. The defiant rebels are, of course, blamed for this as well.
The minions of the sorcerer king are constantly attended by trained hounds that will detect the scent of invisible intruders and set up a howl. Perhaps the party also has hide from animals, in which case good for them. They become enemy number one for they are seen as an unforgivable threat to the sorcerer king. Divinations demand the faith of whoever cast the spell, and followers of that faith are jailed and tortured until they name the one responsible.
The drought that has been gripping the land grows ever worse. The defiant rebels are, of course, blamed for this as well.
MarkB
Legend
Very much this. Have them compare their own Stealth checks to each others' Perception checks in order to determine whether they know each others' positions. Anytime they get split up, take players aside individually to ask how they proceed. Allow them to talk out-of-character, but anytime they attempt to convey information about each others' position or circumstances, treat it as though they have spoken aloud in-character.
n0nym
Explorer
As always, some very good thoughts here.
I like the idea of having traps and / or having the NPCs ambush them. But I could indeed have guards in the corridors (even magical ones, since both the Archbishop and Krull are spellcasters).
I think I'll go with a bit of both. I'll have Invisible Stalkers follow the PCs and protect Krull. I'll put some glyphs along the way for them to neutralize, so that they don't suspect an ambush. And when they eventually enter his room, they'll be in for a treat...
I like the idea of having traps and / or having the NPCs ambush them. But I could indeed have guards in the corridors (even magical ones, since both the Archbishop and Krull are spellcasters).
I think I'll go with a bit of both. I'll have Invisible Stalkers follow the PCs and protect Krull. I'll put some glyphs along the way for them to neutralize, so that they don't suspect an ambush. And when they eventually enter his room, they'll be in for a treat...
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