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Nich_Critic
2010-02-11, 01:52 PM
My players, if you're reading, stop.

I'm planning my first few encounters for a pirate campaign. At the start, they're going to be attacked by pirates (who guessed it?).

Spoiler for long, and to keep it hidden.

First encounter:

Originally, I was planning on having 4 1st level orc warriors (CR 1/2), 3 1st level elf swashbuckers (Also CR 1/2, The first level is not much better then the warrior), and a 2nd level orc crusader (CR 2). The crusader takes the stone power feat, letting him negate up to 10 damage by sacrificing accuracy. When he doesn't need to do that, he uses his healing aura and maneuvers to keep his allies up. The warriors stick close to the Crusader, while the swashbucklers team up and try to gank anyone trying not to get involved in the melee (archers, spellcasters). That was all fine.

Then I had the idea that instead of harassing with swashbucklers, who might just get crushed, it might be more effective to replace them with a ninja, who can hit and run them with sudden strike damage.

The problem is that the ninja must be at least 2nd level to use the invisibility stuff. It also must have lots of dex, because it can't wear armor, and lots of strength so it can hit. I ended up making it a ninja 2 swashbucker 1 for finesse as a bonus feat. I also wanted it to make some use of poisons. The new tactic would be to climb up to the crows nest, disable whoever's there, and then snipe important people with drow poison.



Second encounter:

The next battle takes place if they decide to push a counter attack on the enemy ship.

The plan is a 2nd level ogre bard (CR 4, because of the unsuited class) with the inspire awe feature. He will be chained to the deck, but if he's reduced below half he'll break the chain and go rampaging. Accompanying him will be 3 1st level adepts, who will use sleep or cause fear on the debuffed PC's to disable them, and 4 1st level warriors to clean up.

The bard will try to get as many foes shaken as he can. Then he'll cast lullaby targetting the shaken ones. This should give a total of -4 to will saves against sleep. After that, he'll either bust out cause fears or sleeps, or attack with his "drumsticks" (clubs).

The adepts will attack the most debuffed enemies with sleep or cause fear, or heal the ogre. They will stay in a position where if they're attacked, the ogre can attack the person who hit them.

The warriors will just act as meat shields. They will hog tie any sleeping characters to take them out of the battle more effectively.

I want this to be a pretty tough fight, since it's entirely optional. If the first raid fails, the other ship will try to flee.


The party:

3rd level bard/marshal/something. - I haven't seen the build for this one. Uses dragonfire inspriation, and is aiming for a diplomacy build. The extra 1d6 he adds to every attack kind of scares me. He'd be the main target to shut up with the swashbuckler or ninja

3rd level figher/scout - Pretty standard, Combat reflexes gives him lots of AoO's, and the skirmish damage is nice. Kind of concerned that with dragonfire he's almost rolling more dice then the warriors have hp.

3rd level monk - Headed for drunken master, but at this level shouldn't be too threatening. Flurry + dragonfire might be powerful, but I've heard bad things about it's accuracy

3rd level factotum? The person hasn't quite decided what they want to play yet.



Questions:

1) Is the ninja a fair substitution for the swashbucklers?
2) Am I correct in thinking that the swashbucklers probably won't be able to accomplish what I want them to do?
3) Can you suggest a low (1/2-2) CR monster/character that can act as a harasser for casters? Namely, I want to make the bard sweat a little. Last time he played a bard on a ship (different campaign), he stayed up in the crows nest and sang, and never got hit
4) Does the bard + adepts encounter sound too easy? Too hard? Just right?
5) Is it fair to give the ogre the extra bard level, since it has such a large cha penalty?
6) Overall, how difficult do you think these encounters will be?
7) Do you have any tips on adjusting the difficult on the fly, should it be too hard or too easy?


I should also mention that I'm trying a reduced magic campaign, so fullcasters are banned. The ships will have crews, but they shouldn't be tough enough to make a difference in the battle.

gallagher
2010-02-11, 02:00 PM
My players, if you're reading, stop.

I'm planning my first few encounters for a pirate campaign. At the start, they're going to be attacked by pirates (who guessed it?).

Spoiler for long, and to keep it hidden.

First encounter:

Originally, I was planning on having 4 1st level orc warriors (CR 1/2), 3 1st level elf swashbuckers (Also CR 1/2, The first level is not much better then the warrior), and a 2nd level orc crusader (CR 2). The crusader takes the stone power feat, letting him negate up to 10 damage by sacrificing accuracy. When he doesn't need to do that, he uses his healing aura and maneuvers to keep his allies up. The warriors stick close to the Crusader, while the swashbucklers team up and try to gank anyone trying not to get involved in the melee (archers, spellcasters). That was all fine.

Then I had the idea that instead of harassing with swashbucklers, who might just get crushed, it might be more effective to replace them with a ninja, who can hit and run them with sudden strike damage.

The problem is that the ninja must be at least 2nd level to use the invisibility stuff. It also must have lots of dex, because it can't wear armor, and lots of strength so it can hit. I ended up making it a ninja 2 swashbucker 1 for finesse as a bonus feat. I also wanted it to make some use of poisons. The new tactic would be to climb up to the crows nest, disable whoever's there, and then snipe important people with drow poison.



Second encounter:

The next battle takes place if they decide to push a counter attack on the enemy ship.

The plan is a 2nd level ogre bard (CR 4, because of the unsuited class) with the inspire awe feature. He will be chained to the deck, but if he's reduced below half he'll break the chain and go rampaging. Accompanying him will be 3 1st level adepts, who will use sleep or cause fear on the debuffed PC's to disable them, and 4 1st level warriors to clean up.

The bard will try to get as many foes shaken as he can. Then he'll cast lullaby targetting the shaken ones. This should give a total of -4 to will saves against sleep. After that, he'll either bust out cause fears or sleeps, or attack with his "drumsticks" (clubs).

The adepts will attack the most debuffed enemies with sleep or cause fear, or heal the ogre. They will stay in a position where if they're attacked, the ogre can attack the person who hit them.

The warriors will just act as meat shields. They will hog tie any sleeping characters to take them out of the battle more effectively.

I want this to be a pretty tough fight, since it's entirely optional. If the first raid fails, the other ship will try to flee.


The party:

3rd level bard/marshal/something. - I haven't seen the build for this one. Uses dragonfire inspriation, and is aiming for a diplomacy build. The extra 1d6 he adds to every attack kind of scares me. He'd be the main target to shut up with the swashbuckler or ninja

3rd level figher/scout - Pretty standard, Combat reflexes gives him lots of AoO's, and the skirmish damage is nice. Kind of concerned that with dragonfire he's almost rolling more dice then the warriors have hp.

3rd level monk - Headed for drunken master, but at this level shouldn't be too threatening. Flurry + dragonfire might be powerful, but I've heard bad things about it's accuracy

3rd level factotum? The person hasn't quite decided what they want to play yet.



Questions:

1) Is the ninja a fair substitution for the swashbucklers?
2) Am I correct in thinking that the swashbucklers probably won't be able to accomplish what I want them to do?
3) Can you suggest a low (1/2-2) CR monster/character that can act as a harasser for casters? Namely, I want to make the bard sweat a little. Last time he played a bard on a ship (different campaign), he stayed up in the crows nest and sang, and never got hit
4) Does the bard + adepts encounter sound too easy? Too hard? Just right?
5) Is it fair to give the ogre the extra bard level, since it has such a large cha penalty?
6) Overall, how difficult do you think these encounters will be?
7) Do you have any tips on adjusting the difficult on the fly, should it be too hard or too easy?


I should also mention that I'm trying a reduced magic campaign, so fullcasters are banned. The ships will have crews, but they shouldn't be tough enough to make a difference in the battle.

one thing you can do to help adjust on the fly is hold back a little, and have some extra pirates in the background that can come in and fight if they are having too easy of a time.
the bard+adepts sounds like it will be the lodestone of the encounters... that being it will be the hard part. if they dont win at that one, then you have a new campaign hook! captured by pirates, maybe they have to join or die, orr be sold into slavery... those are some realistic and fun ideas. i would go with the slavery one, it looks like that could be taken farther.

and swaashbucklers are a bit tougher than ninjas unless ninjas have that extra prep time, and have the ability to do the death attack. i dont know what level that comes in, but i doubt it is level 3, so you should be fine

Nich_Critic
2010-02-11, 02:26 PM
Ninjas have to be at least slightly better then swashbucklers, at least for npc's. At level 2, they can turn invisible giving them a free sudden strike. At level 2, swashbucklers have finesse, and a +1 bonus to reflex saves.

The limited number of invisibilities per day is a pain, but moreso for a PC who has to use them from encounter to encounter. The ninja only needs to survive (or otherwise) 1 encounter, so the limited uses is less of a factor.

PlzBreakMyCmpAn
2010-02-11, 02:33 PM
As long as your poor, poor PCs realize you are giving non-NPC class levels to monsters...

Nich_Critic
2010-02-11, 02:46 PM
And adjusting their CR's appropriately! >_<