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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dan Chernozub" data-source="post: 7290956" data-attributes="member: 6899046">Ugh man, I love complex encounters. First, I want to figure out what do you want, as an encounter designer, for your players to experience. So far I get the impression that you are spending too much effort reworking the old encounter to the new reality. My recommendation would be to scrap it and rebuild from scratch. Keeping the original in your mind, obviously. Also, I would suggest thinking about how those Duergar think - intelligent enemies should feel intelligent, IMO. Well if your players like slaughtering the monster zoo, it is another story, obviously. 1. Plan. How are the Duergar planning to defend? What are their tactics? Do they, using the invisibility let the attackers wonder in and then attack from advantageous positions? But to do this they have to be forewarned of the attack? What warrants calling the reinforcements? Do they have a fall back plan or do they fight to the last man? Do they prefer to kill, capture or drive off the attackers? 2. Terrain. Mechanical things regarding the staff the enemies are going to use. Not necessary to have the exact numbers by this point, but a general idea of the effects of staff and most likely interactions that the PCs can have with them (how climbing/breaking the wall works, can the invisible caltrops be swept away with some spell etc. - based on what your group has at their disposal). 3. Enemies. IMO fighting wave after wave of duergars#316 of various levels of eliteness is less exciting than fighting Duergar guards and their specialists/spellcasters/commander. It also feels logical for LE intelligent guard post to have someone in command. Special abilities and how are they going to use them is what is going to affect how the encounter plays out the most, so this should be put some work into before going to the next step. 4. Stats. With all the major things in place, we can go into the numbers. Tweaking HP, AC, DC and damage output/reach is the easiest part. I strongly advice using the guidelines from DMG. They are not perfect, but they are not meant to be perfect. They work well for me as guidelines. From what I read, I have a feeling that we are looking at 3-5 encounters of a harder variety (enemy is prepared and fighting on his ground). 5. Polishing. Introduce the details that connect with things past and future. Maybe get some ideas from PC backgrounds, or foreshadow the enemies to come. Look at the rarely use abilities/spells and make a sweet spot to use them to make your PC feel good. My take Entonces, this is a Duergar post serving the evil wizard and guarding the entrance. The guard is not on the high alert, but take heir duties seriously and use all means at their disposal, magic and mundane to stop any wannabe intruders from getting past them, laying their lives for it, if need be. What are their resources - they have a good position with a single entrance and defensive positions, they are well equipped and trained and have limited access to wizard spells. The front gate is not guarded - this is not a good position to be, all in the open and vulnerable. The active guard shift is in Area 1. There are three guard shifts, switching every 8 hours. The second shift is available as reinforcements on the short notice. The third guard shift and the leadership of the post only interfere if the situation gets serious and it takes time for them to arrive. The defense plan is as follows: There are guards visually watching the entrance to the barricade (I will call the spiked walls barricades) for the duration of the watch. However, every guard shift also has a low-level magic user that sets the mental -Alarm- to the entrance area (conveniently 20 feet wide). In case any of the alarms go off, all the guards on the shift go invisible and watch the situation develop. They will not attack right away. The barricades at the entrance can only be opened from inside and first, the attackers have to get over them. Climbing the 10 feet spiked wall demands an Athletics+Dex DC 12 check and causes some minor damage on a failure.The purpose of the first wall is, however, not to stop the intruders, but to make them split up. As soon as Duergars see part of intruders over the wall, they attack. They also send one of them to warn the rest of the gauntlet about the fight. Unless the PCs manage to take the guard shift on duty by surprise, the rest of the enemies will be ready. The areas above and bellow (on the map) the first wall are unreachable even for enlarged Duergar in the center, so, if I were them I would trap them. Invisible caltrops are nice, but I would add the good ol' pit trap for the good measure so that the enemy is forced to fight in the area between the two walls. The walls should have peepholes/arrow slits there so that the guards are not forced to enlarge to be able to fight. Also enlarging is very limited in time, so enemy falling back and waiting out the effect is a danger that the guards are aware of. If they fail to kill/capture whoever gets over the 1st wall before his companions join the fight (insert the party-appropriate checks to open/break the entrance), the Duergar will switch to fighting defensively, waiting for reinforcements to arrive. The arriving shift will -Message- the defenders to assess the situation before turning invisible and joining the fight. Depending on the situation, they either enter and directly assault with all they have, or the remnants of the defenders fake the flight and retreat to Area 2, luring the attackers into the Ambush by reinforcements. Here is where caltrops come handy - the guards know the safe route (check to notice the way by PCs) while their pursuers might take some damage and get slowed in the killing ground. In case the intruders do not follow, the spellcaster(s) will cast -Flaming Sphere- to damage those in Area 1 and make them decide - In or Out? After some time Commander of the gauntlet will arrive with the 3rd shift of guards in the final attempt to stop the intruders. We are looking at 4 encounters. 1. Traps at the entrance. 2. Guard Shift. 3. Reinforcements. 4. Last Ditch Effort. The encounters overlap unless PCs manage to overcome them on time. It is quite possible for the heroes to have to withdraw in the face of all the defenders coming together if they do not assault quickly. Not sure how the possibility of "losing" to NPCs sits with your players, but that is how I DM. In my experience foreshadowing that if the guarded gauntlet is not taken quickly, the Duergars are known to be able to withstand a very strong assault, helps a lot. The NPCs. I would probably make it as simple as I can - the invis/enlarge and spellcasting is already enough things to keep track of. For NPCs, I'd go with 3-4 CR1 Guards on each shift, a CR2 Conjurer, and a CR3 leader. Having more than one non-mook NPC per wave is important, else he gets focused and nuked before playing his part in the encounter. For Guards I'd go with the MM Duergar, improving the armor to Chain Mail, giving them halberds and an equivalent of Polearm Master Feat - OOA when leaving or entering reach. Stop movement on a hit.For Conjurers I'd say level 3-4 spellcaster with 3-4 extra HD is good enough. Cantrips: Blade Ward, Message, Shocking Grasp; Level 1 - Shield, Grease, Thunderwave, Level 2 - Flaming Sphere, Web. Focus on surviving more than anything else, especially with the first shift one. He hopes to hold on until reinforcements, not to become a hero.For Shift Leaders and I'd go for diversity, but you can keep it simple. Some ideas are a Priest (as per MM template) his spells are appropriate for the encounter, even Sanctuary. And Spirit Guardians can foreshadow the creatures of the Portal; a Warlock of Asmodey with Repelling blast to push PCs into those spiky walls and some debuffs or a Sergeant, modeled close to the Hobgoblin Captain (Leadership).Commander of the Gauntlet can be as tough as CR5. If you feel that this encounter warrants a magic item reward, he could be the one using it against the PCs. You can make him just a tough Veteran or a gish-type spellcater. He can also be the one who goes HUGE and swings for 3x damage dice.I hope this gives you some ideas,Best of Luck</blockquote>

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