Temporary lack of leader, beat up party in ambush

[Crazy Jerome]

I have to say, I still don't see much indication that you plan to respect this preference of theirs.

"At the time they made the decision they had a leader" should not enter into your consideration at all in a campaign where pcs poof in and out all the time.

Well, I may very well run it unchanged. It is certainly an option. Like many preferences, that one has limits. They generally don't want to get TPK'd because they misunderstood something I said, at a confusing moment. They like to be pressed, but they aren't masochists.

I'm respecting their preferences by putting some thought into this.

 

[Trebor62]

Since there was a lot of distraction at the close of the last session when the scene was set and the decision to rest was made and you have players rotating in and out would it be plauseble do a recap of that portion and see if on reconsideration the players decide to pull back and rest elsewhere.

 

[Blue]

Why do you think they can't take the fight without a leader?

You've got two defenders who should be able to soak up a load of damage, and probably have at least one self-surge triggering power in addition to their second wind. You've got a controller to help defeat them in detail and break them into manageable chunks, and three strikers to practice the best defense.

I remember reading recently on the WotC site about the conversion of the Lich Queen's Beloved 3ed adventure, and one of the results was that when the chips came down, the players got more creative and rose to the occasion. Let them rise.

Here's three cases I see:
First case: Players work well and have a spectacular and memorable session against very heavy odds.
Second case: The system works just fine and you have an average fight.
Third case: The foes already known for capturing do it again. With three more PCs still free, and you get the chance to run a escape scenario which is rare.

I see a best case among those, but no real worst case. You have little downside and some great upsides - go for it!

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=54877]Crazy Jerome[/MENTION]
Here's what I'd do: The ambushers have KOed the shaman and are dragging her off, but the party doesn't realize that yet.

Begin the session with those dreaded words: "Ok, you're 4 hours into the dead of night. Who is on watch?"

Let them realize that the shaman is missing; maybe she went to "commune with the spirits", but has been gone a while. Have some eerie distracting stuff happen (may or may not be a lure by ambushers), but also emphasize how the rest of the wounded party is resting soundly and really needs to recuperate. Let the one on watch decide what theyre doing.

Then let the sneak attacking begin. -5 Perception for being asleep (but +2 AC vs artillery).

The PCs will probably try to fight to rescue the shaman, and that may involve carrying her neurotoxin poisoned body as they retreat. Before she lapses into total unconsciousness, she grants her rescuer (or the entire party, depending on how generous you feel) a chance to use a healing surge.

In the other hand, if they're getting their butts handed to them and can reach the shaman, let her be captured; the monsters may have a special use for her that avoids being sacrificed for a while, frex luring a big group of victims to be sacrificed.

Provide some escape route on the off chance they decide to withdraw, like a tunnel in the canyon. I would have this be a "from the frying pan into the fire" moment. Eventually they'll start to wonde why the monsters didnt follow them...

 

[Crazy Jerome]

Those last three posts are all some good ideas--different ones, too.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Another option is to build PC healing surge triggers into your ambushers themselves as debuffs. If you fluff the healing surge along the lines of the warlord... more of inspirational recovery... it makes easy sense.

So for instance, the ambushers might have the following debuff Trait:

Emboldened: Your failings in the fight inspire your enemies!

Trigger: When a PC Bloodies an ambusher the first time in the encounter.
Effect: The PC may spend a healing surge as a Free action.

Something like this is easy to put in... is a nice surprise for the PCs when they trigger it and get rewarded... but also creates some interesting tactical decisions when they have to decide how to pass the enemies around so that the PCs that really need the healing are the ones who get to take that first Bloodying hit.

(Please bear in mind that I have not playtested this power, I am just creating it on the fly as an example of a possibility.)

 

[Crazy Jerome]

Just to let everyone know how it went:

At the last minute, the shaman's player made it after all. So we had 7 characters. And the barbarian player forgot his character, and ended up playing a bard pregen that I had handy. So we had 2 defenders, 2 leaders, 2 strikers, and 1 controller.

The ambush didn''t get into TPK threat territory, but it was a very tough fight. With what had happened the previous session, they were already down surges. And they didn't hit their resources as heavy as they probably should. But several characters were down into single digit hit points, and all spent some time below blooded. The sorcerer hit once in 7 tries.

The party then preceded to turn it up a notch, and waltz through the next encounter. By now, more than half the dailies were gone, and some were at zero surges. They got a little cautious at that point, but I gave it to them straight. I thought they had enough for one more tough fight, but that was it. They had enough information to think that one more tough fight might do it. So they turned it up a notch again. We ran through an ad hoc skill challenge that let them do a bit of divide and conquer, turning an encounter level +3 boss fight into three close but separate waves (no short rests in between). The shaman had to leave.

Then I started rolling under 5 for the foes abilities to resist bluffs, spot hidden characters, initiative, everything but hits. At one point, they had set up their own ambush such that when the rolls finally broke their way, man did it break. They all go a surprise round, perfectly placed. Even the warden with her 3 Stealth skill rolled a natural 20 and surprised the foes. And then they all won initiative. They thought about using action points, but by that time, we were clearly in the mopping up phase. To add insult to injury, the surviving foes all missed their first attacks.

So in the boss encouter, the party got three full rounds of essentially unanswered attacks, and seldom missed.

The only downside was that the wizard was a little put out that her plan to push monsters into a pit never came to pass. By the time they got to where she could push them, everything she hit them with killed them. So she did pile up some bodies in the pit.