D&D 5E Invisible murderhobos

[transtemporal]

I forget which one Albeorn became. Was it Nibenay?

Anyway, Albeorn has a bunch of clones so it doesn't matter if they assassinate him. Heck if he's a sorcerer-king you could say they were psionic reflections or parallel versions of albeorn from different dimensions or life-model-decoys or whatever you like.

 

[n0nym]

Albeorn is Andropinis, Sorcerer-king of Balic. Nibenay (whom I'm also using in this campaign) was Gallard, Bane of the gnomes.

Anyway, this "Albeorn" was indeed meant to be a simulacrum. But I wanted the PCs to win without directly confronting him, because that would certainly end in TPK. So far, they discovered that :

_he never sleeps
_he secretly buys large quantities of plants to southern merchants
_he drains the life force of these plants in order to fuel his magic (only way for a simulacrum to get his spells back)

They decided to attack the caravans that bring him the plants he needs to fuel his magic. This way, he will have to drain the city gardens and reveal his true face to the world. In the end, the PC will probably confront him but he will be greatly weakened and will eventually "melt" in front of them, as he's made of ice.

 

[discosoc]

I don't believe people like dictators and "evil masterminds" get much sleep at night, partly because the sheer paranoia that comes with being on top of a generally violate and evil group of people. Archbishop McDevious is probably far more concerned about being assassinated by his own "trusted" circle than some random adventurers, which means the difficulty of actually getting to him is kind of high.

Seriously, a guy who goes to sleep with the very real fear of getting knifed by a servant or guard isn't going to last long enough to be important if he can't figure out a way to ward off basic stealth assassination attempts. And that's not even going into the *other* crap feeding into that paranoia, like poisoned food and blackmail.

 

[MostlyHarmless42]

As mentioned, having guard dogs and guards posted in/outside of rooms is standard fair for nobles. An invisible pc is not automatically hidden, and still must make stealth checks. Likewise, I assume he would have locks on his doors/windows, and any sensible lord would keep the walls of his castle free from vines and other stuff to climb from the outside, or keep rotating rooms when sleeping. I don't think you need to outright stop their assassination attempts, but make them difficult.

Also, Magic user or not, if nobles keep getting regularly assassinated in their beds, word will get around. Each other minion would ideally start taking steps to keep it from happening, and likely the Sorcerer King would as well. He can't have all his underlings die on him. Low level spells like alarm are keep to buy from a spellcaster or provide for people, and rudimentary alarm systems/traps work wonders. For example, setting up a tripwire rings a bell when the door or windows are opened. I'd still keep it viable to attempt to sneak in, but make it realistic.

Also, if we are being strictly RAW, there is no "instant kill in sleep" move. Attacking a target while asleep is merely an advantage to hit and still requires an attack roll to hit. Even with a greatsword (which a warlock isn't likely to use), it'd only be 2d6+mod damage (potentially 4d6 if you'd allow it to be an autocrit). Even using a spell slot (which would be noisy and loud) he's not likely to 1-shot a higher level NPC at full health.

An assassin rogue *might* pull it off, but he is no warlock.

 

[tglassy]

I always include an "Instant kill while asleep" move. Let's be honest, if you pass your stealth check and get within arms reach of an opponent, you're going to slit their throat. No noise (beyond gurgles of surprise), no chance of failure. You just slit their throat. They're dead. That's for humanoid characters, that is. This obviously wouldn't work on an undead or some other kind of monster.

But thing is, I make this work both ways. If the party is asleep, and someone sneaks in to kill them and that person passes their stealth check to stay hidden, they're dead. It makes spells like "Alarm" and taking watch much more important.

 

[MostlyHarmless42]

I always include an "Instant kill while asleep" move. Let's be honest, if you pass your stealth check and get within arms reach of an opponent, you're going to slit their throat. No noise (beyond gurgles of surprise), no chance of failure. You just slit their throat. They're dead. That's for humanoid characters, that is. This obviously wouldn't work on an undead or some other kind of monster.

But thing is, I make this work both ways. If the party is asleep, and someone sneaks in to kill them and that person passes their stealth check to stay hidden, they're dead. It makes spells like "Alarm" and taking watch much more important.

It is certainly a reasonable houserule, but still a houserule none-the-less. If the OP feels as strongly about the realism of throat slitting then certainly another viable option would be to let him succeed once or twice, then have the sorcerer king show up and slit this warlock's throat while the player sleeps. Or perhaps meteor swarm his camp nightly from while they safely scry from afar (after all, he's met the king once in a botched attempt and likely left a hair or two in said king's bedchamber), or make a similacrum do the throat slitting with no risk to themselves. Many players would likely cry "unfair!" to such tactics though, particularly anyone of the ruleslawyery variety. Hence why I suggest a RAW and fair suggestion.

I myself would keep the throat slitting and just make it REALLY hard to sneak in. A stealth check doesn't help you avoid magical/mudane traps.