Tactical Advice for a high-level fight

[RangerWickett]

I've got a potentially high-powered battle coming up in the next one or two sessions, and I want to prepare for it well. I'm really hoping to make it a memorable battle, not just because of who they'll be confronting, but because of where it is and how the battle ends.

See, the thing is, the party is going after a shadowdancer/assassin who killed the Emperor and took his Big Magic Doodad. The party was friends with him, because the Emperor sorta had it coming, but now they need the Doodad to stop another nasty badguy, a badguy our shadowdancer/assassin is friends with. At the end of the fight, I'm thinking I'll try to make sure the party can't get the Doodad, and that instead the badguy will get it (perhaps by teleporting the dead/dying assassin to him). The badguy's pretty smart, so the party will have to both outfight the assassin and outwit the badguy in order to get what they need.

My problem is to make the fight satisfying enough that, even if they don't get what they want, the players will still have a great time. Also, I want to make it sufficiently hard to get the Doodad, without being a railroading-type problem.

Cast of Characters - Player Characters

• Lord Rantle of Innenotdar, wielder of the sword of dreams (he likes his titles), Fighter 9/Rogue 3. Fights with a big magical wooden greatsword, sings occasionally.
• Fayne Rawnbeck, Ranger 11/Barbarian 1. Dual-wielding damage dealer.
• Guthwulf, Minister of Pain (he also likes his titles), Cleric 12. A lawful evil cleric fond of defending himself with magic until he gets a chance to get in a powerful killing spell.
• Quill Kainen, Wizard 12. Classic everymage, who likes transmutations and evocations. He takes the direct approach.
• new PC, Druid 5/Shifter 7. This is to replace a dead PC; the player is a supreme power-gamer, but a nice one. He's giving me a list of all the forms he can turn into (like ethereal filcher) so I'll be prepared.
• new PC, Sorcerer 12. This is to replace a dead PC; she'll have bizarre wild magic and psionic powers.

The party in general doesn't use advanced tactics. They like to swarm at the biggest threat, or send in Fayne to cut through lesser foes while the rest of the group goes after whoever they like least.

Cast of Characters - Non-Player Characters

• Rhuarc Knightsbane, Rogue 7/Ranger 1/Assassin 10/Shadowdancer 3. This is our main target. He uses a lot of poison, and is self-serving. However, he used to kinda like some people in this party, so he'd prefer to drive them off first, only killing if that doesn't work. Rhuarc's sword can steal souls, and he actually has trapped inside the souls of a free of his old friends, whom he can call forth to fight for him (it's an assassin-ish twist on the Leadership feat).
• Quillathe Nailo, Fighter 10/Assassin 3. She dual-wields rapier and whip, with lasher-esque feats to let her use them in close combat. She's an ally of Rhuarc's, given to exotic fighting styles that unbalance foes.
• Yvonnel Oblodra, Fighter 7/Rogue 3/Assassin 3. Wielding just a quarterstaff, Yvonnel is actually more of a direct fighter than Quillathe. She'll usually team up with Quillathe, keeping foes occupied and taking the hits while Quillathe dea deals damage from distance.
• Pilus, big bad evil guy. He's not going to be here, but he'll probably be scrying rather often, and can send in air elementals and other air-based critters. Pilus is a high-level wizard, currently off destroying cities.
• Shalosha, Fighter 7/Sorcerer 8. She's an ally of the party, and Rantle's betrothed. She uses a lot of buff spells and enhancements, with only the occasional direct damage spell. Shalosha is the daughter of Shaaladel, an Elvish general whom the party only half trusts.

The Magical Doodad is a torch that, when activated, can teleport anyone who sees the flame to any part of the world where the sun is shining. The torch doesn't work now, though, because Rhuarc's sword, which can steal souls, stole the torch's soul.

The location will be in the Ycengled forest, a cold, snowy forest haunted with the ghosts of thousands of dead Elves. Over a century ago, Shaaladel (Shalosha's dad) lived in this forest as a general, and he killed many Elves that he thought were conspiring against the rest of their people. Rhuarc is hiding here because the ghosts disrupt divinations, and because this was his homeland long ago.

I'm trying to think of some sort of nifty Elvish ruin that would make for a good fight location, with lots of dynamism. I also want some tactics that these three assassins could use against the party I described. The assassins know they'll eventually get tracked down by somebody who wants the torch (the danged thing is an artifact, and they can't figure out how to destroy it), so they'll likely have some defenses planned.

Any ideas?

 

[Nifelhein]

What is the thing they are looking for? What does it do and so on? I would probably have them not completely unprepared for the attack, but the time being a problem, they stroke before they were completely ready.

Use carrion crawler venom or something that has paralysis on it too, helps the scene a lot and does not kill everyone.

I would also make the encounter take place at a meeting in some kind of abandoned building/deposit/dave or the like, where there would be different floors, places to hide, sneak and also, the chance for protecting one Npc while the others fight.

A good one would be to have the fight be not so far from civils, so they would be a little worried about that too.

Waiting for more info before adding more...

 

[RangerWickett]

I put some more info in the first post.

The location I was thinking of was an abandoned Elvish city, with treetop pathways that have become overgrown in the past century. The main lair of the assassins will be over a large river that flows through the city, so if they have great trouble, they can just jump into the river and be carried away. Also, I kinda want to have Rhuarc the shadowdancer vanish for a second, and then they see him plunge into the river. The party will scramble after him, but when they catch up, they find he just dumped a paralyzed PC or NPC into the drink with his cloak on.

The PCs need the torch so they can fix it and teleport an army to fight Pilus's giant star-destroyer-esque airship.

 

[Toras]

This won't be an easy fight for any of the NPC's, but with some prep this can be tough for the party as well. Your Assassins are outnumbered, (not accounting the souls), and decidingly lacking in terms of spell casting, and such. So a frontal assault or a direct fight out would be a bad idea.

Things I would bring in.
1. Traps-Party is lacking in the Roguish side, so I would suggest some mundane traps. Pungi Pits (covered over pit with spikes), Crossbows ringed to fire by some trips (bolts can have that poison), razor wire, hidden sniping position with ranged weapons, and trip wires. Feel free to rig out as much as you can.
2. Strike from elevation. You have the advantage of height, either as they walk along the ground
3. Rings of Mind Shielding and Amulets of Nondetection are your friend.
4. Decoys (Logs and Sacks wearing similar cloaks and such)
5. Guard duty, so they see them coming.
Hope this helps.

 

[Leopold]

Wraith with levels in rogue for supreme soul sucking sneak attacks!

 

[RangerWickett]

Well, one of the ghosts in the sword is going to be a PC one player had two years ago in a campaign that took place over 100 years ago. That ought to entertain.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

I've got a potentially high-powered battle coming up in the next one or two sessions, and I want to prepare for it well. I'm really hoping to make it a memorable battle, not just because of who they'll be confronting, but because of where it is and how the battle ends.

....
The location will be in the Ycengled forest, a cold, snowy forest haunted with the ghosts of thousands of dead Elves. Over a century ago, Shaaladel (Shalosha's dad) lived in this forest as a general, and he killed many Elves that he thought were conspiring against the rest of their people. Rhuarc is hiding here because the ghosts disrupt divinations, and because this was his homeland long ago.

I'm trying to think of some sort of nifty Elvish ruin that would make for a good fight location, with lots of dynamism. I also want some tactics that these three assassins could use against the party I described. The assassins know they'll eventually get tracked down by somebody who wants the torch (the danged thing is an artifact, and they can't figure out how to destroy it), so they'll likely have some defenses planned.

Any ideas?

This all sounds incredibly awesome. I love the Assassin Leadership feat twist.

First, I think I'd have the fight in the snowstorm. Let the environment add some cool factor, miss chances, need for Dex and Balance checks, etc.

You've already got the idea of the abandoned Elvish tree city. Why not include some internal areas with narrow passages inside the tree trunks? Perhaps there are even little tiny pocket dimensions scattered about that the elves used for storage, waste disposal, or even just secure surveillance. Lots of little permanent rope tricks, essentially.

Second, would these assassins make a fake Torch? Or at least an illusion of one? Perhaps they have some horrible, evil cursed artifact that they've slapped this illusion over. Do people die when Rhuarc's sword takes their soul? Since he likes people, I could see him taking someone's soul and offering to deliver it back if they leave.

Knowing that they party might fly a lot (assuming that it's a high level group), I could see a lot of defenses being invisible webs. If you have Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed, you could use an invisible heightened eldritch web, which deals electric damage as well as webbing people up.

Would any of these evil bad guys challenge a PC to single combat? Isolate them into a force field or something? Then when the PCs are watching, the rest attack in violation of the truce?

Your group isn't afraid to use spells. I can see the evil bad guys (assuming some knowledge of the group) are going to want to ensure that they a) aren't facing high level spells and b) aren't going to face a group that will teleport out. So some sort of teleport block on the area? And lots of summoned monsters to use up the spells with? What about illusions or zombies covered with illusions of low-level minions? I've noticed that powerful casters like blowing off spells to take down tons of minions.

The shadowdancer might want to leverage his ability and make sure that there are plenty of small light sources around to cast shadows. Perhaps he'll summon up some real shadows to hide in them to surprise people with?

Anyway those are a few thoughts. I'll let this one churn around and try to post some more.

 

[Voadam]

The classic for assassins is to prepare traps and use poison. Even little things like caltrops under some loose snow, net traps or snares to set up for sneak attacks will help. Also some traps that are simply noisemakers to alert the assassins that company is coming can set the mood. Assassins buried in snow waiting for their prey to walk into a snare trap is a good image.

Perhaps the big assassin knows of special rituals or amulets to allow free reign in the haunted land without angering the spirits. When the party rushes in they are either beset with undead or subject to an ELVEN CURSE. Perhaps Shalosha can foreshadow that information when it becomes apparent where they must go.

 

[RangerWickett]

Well, due to the nature of the campaign, teleportation is normally difficult. The torch's fire magic has been drained away, so whenever you teleport, you freeze to death unless protected. So teleporting requires protection from cold, and it's only good for one use, so there'll be less teleporting than one might expect.

Fake torch. Very good idea! Ditto with snowstorms, but I can't swing magical nets; however, normal nets could work. Maybe a handful of giant spiders.

The sword can only take souls of folks who die, so no ransoming.

 

[Nifelhein]

I would take the snowstorn indeed, aside from that use the rogue skills to the npcs advantage, the narrow areas mght require a escape artist chck to get through or take tie to make a long way around, the snowstorm will require the balance checks, aside from spot and listen being harder.

I would also make situations where clmb would be needed, jump and tumble might come in game too.

For example, the main tree, where they actually meet the npcs, might be a large trunked one with 3 passageways out of it, the place they are is trapped, this trap need not be hard, the best choice is one that they can beat by more than 10, thus bypasing it.

The snowstorm also will require concentration checks fo spells and make it harder to hit those ranged things. The fake torch would be protected all the time while the real one would be standing right where none would look, one of the wall torches would be the real one, for example, if it is somewhat different in desing, all of them may be so or a simple illusion spell might disguise it.

I would also consider using some unique monsters, thus I would modify driders to make a unique group of ghostly dead elven souls that are tortured nowadays, they would eb responsible for the webs.

I would too add some scrolls to the mix, the rogues could use it with use magical device, for example. I would also consider having some kind of ghost effect on the whole place, like ghosts that scream and make listen harder or that follow the group al the time while speaking endlessly, make it a childish ghost that means no harm and let the players deal with it...

Well, I may stop before making what I would surely do in this kind of situation... turn this into a group of sessions instead of a single encounter...