Is this fair?

[reveal]

My game is set in Eberron. As it stands, the PCs (all level 8) are in a fort helping to clear it of pests. The fort is on the border between Breland and Droaam. The PCs are based out of Sharn and have made many enemies of bad guys they have thwarted. The bad guys, 3 distinct groups actually, have tried to ambush the PCs and take them down. So far they have failed. One group was actually disbanded in the last attempt.

Anyway, so it's plausible that one of these groups would hire a group that specializes in "taking out" problems.

The PCs, who will finish the fort adventure next session, will have to travel 2 days to reach the nearest town. My plan is for the hired group to have tracked them down and ambush them during an evening in which they are resting. 2 members of the group are assassins. They have access to scrolls of invisibility and, of course, Death Attack.

Now, Death Attack allows you to study a target for 3 rounds and, as long as they don't see you or know you're a threat, you can sneak attack them and, possibly, kill them.

So.... Knowing all this, is it unfair to have both of them, or just one, use their invisibility scrolls, sneak up to the outside of camp, study the person(s) on watch for 18 seconds (this is assuming the person(s) on watch fail their listen checks) and then sneak attack?

My PCs all have pretty good Fort saves but I can see that this could possibly lead to a TPK, even with high Fort saves and Action Points.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Is it reasonable that this would happen?

Sure.

Is it going to make for a fun game?

Probably not.

Which one is more important to you?

 

[Darkness]

Do they need to kill the PCs? They could capture them; death attack can be used to paralyze someone instead of killing them. Just a thought; dunno if it would make sense for them.

 

[Narfellus]

Well, no, i don't see any problem with your plan at all. The characters have made enemies, and sending assassins after them is plausible. They have a chance of noticing the attack to thwart it, and then another chance to survive the attack should it hit. Now, after a series of unlucky rolls on behalf of the character (s), yes, they could die, but they could die in other similar situations if they rolled very poorly too. Maybe your're questioning "how mad will my players be if i suddenly kill them per the same rules they have access to?" That would require knowing them better than I do, and not letting them think you're out to kill them all (you only want them to THINK you are. )

EDIT: if i were killed by a sudden sneak attack with no chance to retaliate i would be upset. Just to put it in perspective.

 

[reveal]

Do they need to kill the PCs? They could capture them; death attack can be used to paralyze someone instead of killing them. Just a thought; dunno if it would make sense for them.

Well, this is actually one of the reasons I don't like warforged. See, if I could, I would paralyze the big, bad-a$$ed warforged because the group knows he could easily take them out. BUT warforged are immune to paralyzation.

What I'm trying to do is get a happy medium; one where the players don't get pissed off, thinking they got screwed over and where I can throw encounters at them that make sense in the storyline. I mean, the bad guys want the PCs dead, dead, dead. Sure, the hired group could get the biggest guys out of the way first (hmmm... perhaps do that on the PC human wizard) but it's just not doable since the big guy is a waforged.

 

[Narfellus]

What you have here is a classic DM's dilemma. You want to play the villian as...well...villanious, and clever and a threat. A well-planned cohesive attack by experienced persons could easily destroy most parties to the last man. However, that is not fun gaming. That is "Find a New DM." A happy medium I would suggest, should you actually use the Assassin attack successfully, is to drop the PC to -1 hp and dying. Give him a chance to recoup. SCARE the players without mercy, but don't put them into a situation they can't fight out of, especially when they are asleep and not in armor. Although this is indeed the perfect time to attack, and the most likely chance of success, it's no fun as player to get canned like that. (Caveat: last week in CoC i opened two gatling guns on the party while they were asleep in bed and blew the brains out of the book keeper, that's CoC for you, they had it coming and the player didn't mind).

As for your warforged, i don't know Eberron but i'm assuming he has most of the rules for a construct. Could you mire him in a Rock to Mud spell? Entangle or Web him? Blind him? You're right though, you want to walk the fine line between finding a challenge for the players without ticking them off.

 

[reveal]

How about this? The PCs on watch think they hear/see something and, suddenly, a fireball is coming right at them and explodes in the middle of camp?

This would not kill all of them, they have enough hit points and it's a 6d6 fireball wand this guy is using. This would definitely "wake them up."

This begs another question; do the people who are asleep get Reflex saves? I know it's been asked before and, AFAIK, the technical answer is yes. Am I right?

 

[Darkness]

This begs another question; do the people who are asleep get Reflex saves? I know it's been asked before and, AFAIK, the technical answer is yes. Am I right?

Yes, but they are helpless - i.e., have Dex 0 and can't use evasion.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

So.... Knowing all this, is it unfair to have both of them, or just one, use their invisibility scrolls, sneak up to the outside of camp, study the person(s) on watch for 18 seconds (this is assuming the person(s) on watch fail their listen checks) and then sneak attack?

In the game I currently play in, I have a 10th-level paladin. He's been the target of an assassin's death attack at least three times, two of which were before 6th-level. Like your scenario, each time the assassin was invisible, then launched his alpha Sneak Attack + Fort Save or Die.

I was lucky. I made my saves (paladin, after all). The encounters felt deadly and scary, but not unfair, any more than an evil cleric's Death Touch, or a half-orc with his greataxe (which we saw at 1st-level). Instant death attacks are a part of the game.

That said, I'd be leery of using two invisible assassins in the same encounter. Killing off one PC through a death attack is life. Decimating the party through a series of bad saves in the surprise round is...unfun.

As far as realism is concerned, as others have said you need to make allowances for the fact that we're playing a game. After all, "realistically" why send only two assassins? If the baddies want the PCs dead, the might as well send a whole squad of them. Double Death Attacks for every PC...

 

[Darkness]

a half-orc with his greataxe (which we saw at 1st-level).

Agreed, I've seen a low-level orc barbarian with a greataxe (a PC) kill an 8 HD bearded devil with a single crit in 3.0. (Granted, the barbazu was almost dead already but the damage would have killed it even if it had been at full hp.)