So the party is expecting to have a major fight on Monday with one of the big bad guys. They pretty much know that this guy is going to come after them with everything he has, and his last good chance to do so is on their way cross country to the next city.

The PC group contains:

5th level Fighter / Mage with a 5d6 breath weapon
6th level Monk
6th level Rogue
6th level Priest (with no attack ability at all, but massive healing)
5th level Summoner (who can cast haste pretty much at will, and wand of lightening bolt)
6th level Barbarian
The Summoner has a companion that is about as good as a 4th level fighter.

The party has just received the help of a 9th level Sorcerer who is traveling with them, 4 4th level monks, and a 6th Archer.

The villain group that is coming up to attack them includes:

9th level Fighter / Rogue (4/5 respectively)
7th level Sorcerer
6th level Sorcerer
7th level Two Weapon Fighter
7th level Heavy Weapon Fighter
5th level Rogue (with Use Magic Device and a wand of Dispel Magic)

The Villain group is accompanied by a pair of 4th level Rangers and a dozen 1st level Ninja.

For the most part, the villain group has better magic items and stats.

________________________________________

While I normally hate miniatures, I'm probably going to have to pull out a battle mat because I never run combats this long or complicated. I'm not very experienced with it.

To make it run quicker, I've put the essential attributes of the bad guys on a few sheets of paper, 3 characters to a page. The rangers and ninja are clones of each other.

I'm also pre-rolling the bad guy's initiative and making a list with spaces to write in PC names so I don't have to at the game.

I'm going to limit myself to 10 second turns as best I can, and try to hold the players to it as well, though it is going to be hard.

I've also already marked off all of the buff spells and enchantments the wizards are going to cast before the fight, and made little charts on each characters sheet with the changes (Resist Energy, Enlarge, Shield, dah dah dah).

_________________________________

Two questions:

1) Anyone have any comments on the fairness of this fight? The party will have a chance to buff up before the combat starts as well.

2) Anyone have any suggestions on how to run this smoothly?

Two Sorcerers, Three Fighters, Two Rogues... No cleric, no buffs, no healing of any kind for them? I'd add an Evil Cleric to that NPC group. One with some heavy supporting shit, Spell Immunity, Wind/Stone Wall, Unhallow, Dismissal for the tough guy the Summoner brings, Healing bot, Bestow Curse, etc.

Do these NPCs know the PCs' group makeup, who's who, etc?

In any case, no matter your answers, the basic idea is to role play the NPCs in advance and prepare their actions during the first three-five rounds of the fight before you arrive to the table, in the form of a flow chart with Round 1 they do this this this, Round 2 that that that, etc. How they position themselves, who they try to take out first, how they combine their actions to be the most efficient they can be.

Also, if they actually are the ones who attack the PCs, and the PCs wait for them to attack, assume that the Sorcerers have used all their defensive spells already in the optimal order for them. So they don't start the fight by casting Invisibility or whatnot - that's ALREADY cast when they actually attack. When they attack, they've got all that shit going, and BAM! try to wipe out the group's support, most likely the Priest and Summoner first, then the Fighter Mage, then the Rogue, then the others. They concentrate their attacks on one guy at a time to take them out. Play dirty. This is not 1st level Kindergarten anymore. Welcome to the big boy's league.

Quote from: Benoist;424370Two Sorcerers, Three Fighters, Two Rogues... No cleric, no buffs, no healing of any kind for them? I'd add an Evil Cleric to that NPC group. One with some heavy supporting shit, Spell Immunity, Wind/Stone Wall, Unhallow, Dismissal for the tough guy the Summoner brings, Healing bot, Bestow Curse, etc.

Do these NPCs know the PCs' group makeup, who's who, etc?

Yeah, the 9th level guy knows the party's make-up. He captured them once before, a long time ago. He's also been watching them the last day or two. He's of course, most worried about killing the 9th level Sorcerer traveling with the party. I guess he will do that himself. He has a 350' +25 Stealth, so I don't think it will be a problem, hopefully.

As far as healing, it isn't much, but one of the sorcerers has cure moderate wounds. They also have several buff spells - Enlarge, Resist Elements (2nd and 3rd level versions), Shield, Mage Armor, Protection from Arrows, something else too.

Asides from the wand, they can't cast Dispel magic, and they don't have a cleric. The PC group is pretty sub-optimal, so I wanted to let the bad guys keep their weakness as a group. Real clerics are really rare in this world. Asides for Shugenja in the L5R setting which heal very poorly, they have only ever met one other cleric.

The ninth level bad guy, Kyodai-Ken, (; used the wishing stone to ask for a dragon egg. The party stole the dragon egg from him while his wife was hatching it, along with the gemstone, then managed to let the gemstone fall into someone else's hands, leading to the empire falling. He never killed the party in the past because he knew the Elemental Master of Void would want them to help retrieve the gemstone (as they can no longer make wishes themselves).

Sense the party has against refused to return the dragon to him (a dragon which if he could find and see, would be geased from birth to obey him) and they have been endlessly side-tracked, not doing the Void Master's bidding, he has finally decided to kill him.

The first time Kyodai-Ken was played, a friend of mine from out of town ran him in a one shot and opted to have him decide not to kill a kitsune that betrayed him out of poetic justice. I've been trying to keep him along those lines as long as I can but, at some point, the party has to be served.

They'll try to take out the healing bot first. The PC Cleric. One Sorcerer uses defensive spells like Walls to block the PCs' fighters, Summons creatures to threaten them etc. While the other uses area spells to take out the Cleric and the Summoner at the same time (the whole group if they stand next to each other). The Cleric then has to choose who he's going to heal the next round, and the enemy sorcerer then attacks again with a heavy damage spell on the one of the Cleric or Summoner that HAS NOT been healed. The NPC Fighters charge the Fighter Mage and try to take him out all at the same time. The NPC Rogue has had Greater Invisibility cast on him before the fight and tries to take out the surviving Cleric or Summoner or Sorcerer.

If the PCs are in effect staled, then defensive Sorcerer becomes offensive as well, and adds on the area spells the other sorcerer's using to combine the damage. Or lightning bolt to take out the Sorcerer on the PCs' side.

You see what I'm doing here?

Yeah, I got ya. The sorcerers are a bit less powerful than what you are thinking, though one of them can cast fireball 4 times. The other one was written up months ago as a side kick for the ninja and has Non-Detection and Resist Elements for her two 3rd level spells. They aren't the most awesome killers.

But still, yeah, they will definitely focus fire on the cleric first, then the major sorcerer (both at the same time), tie up the monk with mooks, and sick the two enlarged super samurai after the fire breathing fighter/mage.

The mook ninja are probably going to get cleaved and lightning bolted into the dirt in the first round, but fuck it, that's what they are there for.

Quote from: Cranewings;424375Yeah, I got ya. The sorcerers are a bit less powerful than what you are thinking, though one of them can cast fireball 4 times.

Give one a Wand of Fireballs, the other a Wand of Lightning Bolts.

They both Fly at the start of the fight, under the effect of an Invisibility Sphere. All the NPC Fighters are already Hasted (potions for them all).

If you want to make the PCs bleed for the win, you can.

Quote from: Cranewings;424375The mook ninja are probably going to get cleaved and lightning bolted into the dirt in the first round, but fuck it, that's what they are there for.

Make him be under an Invisibility effect as well, and he's the one who actually starts the fight by striking the first blow, Sneak Attack at the Cleric. Then the same Cleric is fireballed/bolted, as well as his friends.

(LOL maybe I'm going too much into gonzo territory but ha. Fuck it. It all depends how hard you want the fight to be for them. If the players know the rules, then by all means, make them shit in their pants - unless they are special snowflakes who think you are an Evil DM(TM) of course)