Is this fair?

[reveal]

It will be unlikely to happen. Unless the PC party hacked a dungeon that day, spellcasters should still have most of their spells. And they can of course use scrolls and wands.

They may use some spells if they meet wilderness encounters. But so as tracking assassins.

Also, 6th-level assassins do not have much spells anyway.

They'll be fully stocked with spells. And the assassins are not 6th level. They're 5th level Rogues/1st level Assassins.

 

[Philip]

Well, if by "practically impossible" you mean "the 6th-level sorcerer traveling with them might want to cast the 0th-level spell Message"...then I can see what you mean.

I meant exactly what I said: "in the given scenario it is practically impossible for the two invisible assassins to strike at the same time, if they are unable to communicate (by telepathy or something)."

The message spell being one of those somethings.

And while message is certainly a useful spell (my Sorcerer uses it often) it is not a substitute for telepathic communication. First, all communication must go through a central point: the Sorcerer in this case. That kind of communication does not easily lend itself to split-second coordination between many different members. Second, as far as I can tell, whispered reply's by the target(s) can be overheard normally, possibly eliciting more listen checks.

 

[smootrk]

I am reminded in situations like this of a saying I tend to use when an argument comes upon me.
"You may be right, but you won't make any friends" - from the book by Dale Carnegie, How to win friends and influence people.
You may have a winning scenario, but will your players like you and your game? That is the real question. I would prefer for the players to have a good time, and that really does depend on their personal tastes. They may actually like being beaten down in a complex scheme to hit their weaknesses. My players don't like being exploited. Just have fun.

 

[MerakSpielman]

It could be worse.

He could be making the phase spider itself a rogue 5/assassin 1. Study for 3 rounds from the Ethereal plane... shift and attack... Death attack + poison....

 

[Plane Sailing]

Doesn't the party set up an Alarm? There are magical resources avalable designed to keep you from getting killed in your sleep...

Alarm is an astonishingly useless defence. It is a 20ft radius emanation, so any attack that doesn't need people to get right up close and personal (e.g. sneak attack with ranged weapon from 30ft range) and it doesn't help. Or in the case of my party the last time we used alarm to help defend our camp, two fireballs from 60ft away negated any benefit from the alarm. That plus the archers they had with them, I don't think the alarm went off at all!

Alarm is great against animals and some kinds of encounters, sure. Rubbish against assassins though. Might even lead you to a false sense of security.

Cheers

 

[ThirdWizard]

Various alarms spread around the camp? A sorcerer could drop 6 or 7 of 'em all around at random intervals.

 

[Doctor Shaft]

This might have been mentioned in the thread already... but besides all the more detailed responses that involve setting up characters "just so", have you considered, despite your want to have "intelligent enemies" (which I respect and personally enjoy when DM's play smart), that you could "fudge" the rolls?

Let your assassin's be as badass as they want, but you can always fudge or make up a part of how fate plays in the favor of the players. Like they kill the warforged due to having so much power, but somehow along the way they end up doing something they never do; like inadvertantly knocking over something or there's a loud noise outside that they have no control over, each time giving your party a chance to wake up and notice what's going on.

We can analyze the statistics and stuff and the encounter all day, and that's a good thing to do to make things "fit", but ultimately you could always just be a little creative and bend the rules a bit to make the event deadly but clearly something your players are able to "enjoy" instead of a big chance that either TPK's everyone before they even know what's happening.

 

[Whimsical]

The reason why is that saves are not just ability, they also include a measure of luck. And as most people will be going from a +x dex to a -5 dex, you have to be pretty lucky to make the save.
...

The best thing about action points imo is it allows a dm to include a "realistic" situation but at the same time gives the good guys that crazy luck that allows them to always survive when they realistically shouldn't

The best example of this I can think of is when James Bond went undercover as a Japanese (can't remember the movie). He was sleeping with his "wife" when a ninja assasin above him dripped some poison down a thread directy down into his lips. How did he survive this no-win scenerio? With cinematic luck! He rolled away right when the poison was at the end of the string, his hottie-of-the-week rolled into it and gasped into death which woke Mr. Bond up which allowed him to strike back at the ninja-assasin. In a cinemantic universe, the universe loves and supports cool badass heroes.

So, theoretically the bad guy could hire an army of assasins to attack the PCs. But maybe he can only get one because he can only afford one prestige-class-level "Assasin", or there was only one available, or he is a new client and the assasins are being cautious of this job in case it's a doublecross, or whatever. Any extra "assasins" are instead rogue or bard or ranger "assasins-in-training" assistants and don't have the Death Attack. But are all of the assasins perfectly loyal to the client? What if one of the assasin was a secret agent of another house or organization? One that has different use for the PCs? Or in the coincidence-common realm of cinematic plots, perhaps the assasin knows the PC that he is about to attack. Maybe he is a childhood friend...or rival...or lover...or any other sort of soapopera revelations.

But if you are a simulationist...whack 'em!

 

[Whimsical]

Message is good for silent communication. Our party uses it all the time as a Scry countermeasure (while covering our mouths to avoid lipreading). But keep in mind that hearing a whisper is a DC 15 Listen check (before distance penalties).

 

[MerakSpielman]

Alarm is an astonishingly useless defence. It is a 20ft radius emanation, so any attack that doesn't need people to get right up close and personal (e.g. sneak attack with ranged weapon from 30ft range) and it doesn't help. Or in the case of my party the last time we used alarm to help defend our camp, two fireballs from 60ft away negated any benefit from the alarm. That plus the archers they had with them, I don't think the alarm went off at all!

Alarm is great against animals and some kinds of encounters, sure. Rubbish against assassins though. Might even lead you to a false sense of security.

Cheers

It's only useless if the assassins have some reason to suspect it's in effect.

After all, the camp with Alarm active and the camp without it look identical.