Surprise Attack within Party

[deljzc]

It's a hard combat to make balanced, because the rogue logically doesn't want to attack without the advantages (figuratively) in his favor. He wants to hit and run, so he's looking for an ideal scenario for that to work.

I mean, the guy has no armor and only a dagger or short sword given to him by the characters. He can't get into a one-on-five+ situation and live. But when you read the original module, his job is to prevent the characters from finding something up to and including attacking them. It's a fun roll-playing exercise that I don't want to devolve into constant perception and insight checks. I also don't want to make it a suicide mission or a one hit automatic PC kill or an automatic surprise attack (when I know the characters aren't going to buy him as 100% legit).

Obviously, the ideas above to change the NPC away from a strict, PC-style level 3 Rogue (Assassin) is a logical first step. Now I need to go through in my head a couple different scenarios of combat to make sure it's fair (and make sure I'm following the rules correctly).

I really appreciate all the feedback so far. This is my first post, so I'm finding all the involvement very welcoming. Thanks.