corwyn77 said:
Does anyone have advice for running the battle aside from what's in the book?
I loved running that encounter, altho it did give me a bit of a headache tracking everything.
When I ran it, the 4e version had not been published so I built the entire evil party from scratch. I also built Shalosa and Katrina as possible companion characters {DMG2 rules}
Initially the evil party is in full-on attack mode, albiet each faction tended to be slightly separate during combat.
Then, with some meta-gaming intro to make sure they didn't want to take on everyone, I let them know that the evil party is held together on tenuous grounds and social skills might be able to convince Katrina and or the Shahalestians to cease combat or possibly even switch sides.
The rules I used are:
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The Evil Party presents some non-combat options for defeating:
In combat skill challenges checks are a move action, so technically you can go for an action point and talk this combat into something else entirely. In both cases, this is more than only a skill check… the player has to provide a reasonable argument tailored to the NPC they are addressing.
Turning Katrina or Shalosha
Both these ladies are not sure of the rightness their place and can be convinced to switch sides (turning into companions for the remainder of the encounter). Mechanically, a diplomacy skill challenge with a DC of 36 goes as follows:
1 Success; target is marked by you and unable to attack you
2 Successes; Loss of conviction, Target weakened
3 Successes; Target becomes a companion
Katrina as companion will be lethally focused on slaying those she double-crossed as she knows her fate if they life to tell of her betrayal. (LE)
Shalosha as companion will prefer options of capturing or letting escape those she was with (LG).
Inquisitor Etienne can counter the successes with a Diplomacy or Bluff check of her own, vs DC 31 {needs an 11 or better}
Sowing seeds of discontent
- The key is the ‘Warriors of the Fourth Army’ vision, which shows Ursus battling Shahalestian warriors, and the presence of the monk acolyte. This foreshadows Pilus’ involvement in the in the upcoming battle, but also can be used as a wedge between the Shahalesti warriors {Nahrem, Rhiallis, Shalosha} and the Ragesian {Karedan, Ursus, and Etienne}.. possibly getting them to fight amongst themselves. Either approach of recalling the loss of the Shahalesti fleet ships at the hand of Pilus, or the blunt approach of Ursus battling their own.
Mechanically, this would be a Social skill challenge with Diplomacy as the primary skill. Again, the DC is 36 {Hard +5 due to being in combat}
2 success: No effect
3 successes: the two sides start treating each other as enemies for targeting purposes, but no active attacking… just accidental wounding. The DC reduces to 33.
4 successes: Split achieved! Shalosha becomes a companion, the others will choose based on location and recent activity on who to attack {the PCs could retreat at this point, or obviously side with one faction… but are still ‘enemies’ mechanically}
Again, Etienne can counter the successes with a DC 31 check of her own, {11 or better}
Katrina will side with the Ragesians, although she could still be turned.
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The PCs were 17th level at this point, so scale the DC's appropriately if your group is a different level.
I can provide {or post} the pdfs of my Evil Party... they are built for a group of 7 players who are pretty well optimized in the healing and striker roles.
