Thinking of doing an encounter with an assassin. My players are level 7/8 so should be able to deal with it in a straight fight.
However I intend for the assassin to ambush the players.
None of them have particularly high Passive Perception except one with 16. Now the assassin has +9 stealth so high chance of pulling stealth off.
My concern is that the assassin's ambush might kill a player without having them be able to do anything. Is this OK to do as a one off?
It probably won't. Even with assassinate it's only either 10d6+3+poison (62) or 2d8+8d6+3+poison (64), which might drop someone to 0 hp but isn't likely to cause immediate death.
So it's Ok to drop a player to 0 HP without them having a chance to respond (save passive check)?
What do you mean by ok? It certainly permitted by the rules. As pantagruel said, it will probably annoy the player, but you know how your players will react better than we do.
Personally, I’d suggest amping it up a bit, if you hadn’t thought of this already. You don’t get to be a high level assassin without knowing what you’re doing. They will spend some time studying the party, looking for patterns or moments of weakness. They’ll be savvy enough to know which character they might take down with that first strike (healers would be prime targets, if that doesn’t look like they’ll drop, wizards/sorcerer types). They’ll know they are outnumbered and will either hire some thugs to help after the initial attack, or plan to just hit and run with that bonus action dash. And if you want an ongoing villain, both; hit the weak target (From a rooftop with sharpshooter so they can be far away), hired goons hassle the party, they maybe take another shot once a goon is adjacent to someone, then run away with plans to do it again later and wear them down one by one.
So it's Ok to drop a player to 0 HP without them having a chance to respond (save passive check)?
What do you mean by ok? It certainly permitted by the rules. As pantagruel said, it will probably annoy the player, but you know how your players will react better than we do.
Personally, I’d suggest amping it up a bit, if you hadn’t thought of this already. You don’t get to be a high level assassin without knowing what you’re doing. They will spend some time studying the party, looking for patterns or moments of weakness. They’ll be savvy enough to know which character they might take down with that first strike (healers would be prime targets, if that doesn’t look like they’ll drop, wizards/sorcerer types). They’ll know they are outnumbered and will either hire some thugs to help after the initial attack, or plan to just hit and run with that bonus action dash. And if you want an ongoing villain, both; hit the weak target (From a rooftop with sharpshooter so they can be far away), hired goons hassle the party, they maybe take another shot once a goon is adjacent to someone, then run away with plans to do it again later and wear them down one by one.
This is exactly what I was planning though with a twist.
You could get an NPC cleric to cast spare the dying to help a character that's almost dead. The only thing you have to worry about are the people with d6 hp. But throw in a god to revive a character, make the assassin be cursed to never kill a mortal (half all of his damage if it's going to kill someone) but still increase his hp and ac.
I'd say careful who you pick for the assassin to go after. The player targeted will yes, probably be annoyed/unhappy. You don't want it to feel arbitrary.
One way you could handle this is, at the start of the session, pull out a deck of cards (or you could roll dice, but I prefer a non-dice method just because it will seem like a skill check or something). Say, "Everyone pick a card. This won't have any effect now, but it will later. Higher is better, with Ace best. Suits are better in reverse alphabetical order (spades > hearts > diamonds > clubs). Thus the best draw would be ace of spades, and worst would be 2 of clubs." (So they know, again, it was not arbitrary that you choose high vs. low). They'll ask best for what, worst for what, just smile and say, "You will see." Let them draw in the open. So they draw, and the lowest card is 3 of diamonds, and Janice drew it.
Later when the assassin strikes, you roll to hit and do damage and Janice's character faceplants. At that point you can say, "The card draw at the start of the session determined who would be shot first."
Janice won't love you for it, but she won't feel like you're picking on her. SHE drew the 3 of diamonds... not your fault she got shot first.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I'd say careful who you pick for the assassin to go after. The player targeted will yes, probably be annoyed/unhappy. You don't want it to feel arbitrary.
One way you could handle this is, at the start of the session, pull out a deck of cards (or you could roll dice, but I prefer a non-dice method just because it will seem like a skill check or something). Say, "Everyone pick a card. This won't have any effect now, but it will later. Higher is better, with Ace best. Suits are better in reverse alphabetical order (spades > hearts > diamonds > clubs). Thus the best draw would be ace of spades, and worst would be 2 of clubs." (So they know, again, it was not arbitrary that you choose high vs. low). They'll ask best for what, worst for what, just smile and say, "You will see." Let them draw in the open. So they draw, and the lowest card is 3 of diamonds, and Janice drew it.
Later when the assassin strikes, you roll to hit and do damage and Janice's character faceplants. At that point you can say, "The card draw at the start of the session determined who would be shot first."
Janice won't love you for it, but she won't feel like you're picking on her. SHE drew the 3 of diamonds... not your fault she got shot first.
That's a really good idea!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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Thinking of doing an encounter with an assassin. My players are level 7/8 so should be able to deal with it in a straight fight.
However I intend for the assassin to ambush the players.
None of them have particularly high Passive Perception except one with 16. Now the assassin has +9 stealth so high chance of pulling stealth off.
My concern is that the assassin's ambush might kill a player without having them be able to do anything. Is this OK to do as a one off?
(I note they've blitzed through all other encounters I've thrown at them and am looking at ways of making it more dangerous for them).
The assassin will take the character to 0 HP. Don't forget about death saving throws to avoid the actual dying part.
It probably won't. Even with assassinate it's only either 10d6+3+poison (62) or 2d8+8d6+3+poison (64), which might drop someone to 0 hp but isn't likely to cause immediate death.
So it's Ok to drop a player to 0 HP without them having a chance to respond (save passive check)?
It's probably annoying for the player, but it's generally pretty temporary.
What do you mean by ok? It certainly permitted by the rules. As pantagruel said, it will probably annoy the player, but you know how your players will react better than we do.
Personally, I’d suggest amping it up a bit, if you hadn’t thought of this already. You don’t get to be a high level assassin without knowing what you’re doing. They will spend some time studying the party, looking for patterns or moments of weakness. They’ll be savvy enough to know which character they might take down with that first strike (healers would be prime targets, if that doesn’t look like they’ll drop, wizards/sorcerer types). They’ll know they are outnumbered and will either hire some thugs to help after the initial attack, or plan to just hit and run with that bonus action dash. And if you want an ongoing villain, both; hit the weak target (From a rooftop with sharpshooter so they can be far away), hired goons hassle the party, they maybe take another shot once a goon is adjacent to someone, then run away with plans to do it again later and wear them down one by one.
Now, if you want to be unfair, have a Remorhaz get a surprise round, surface, bite, and then on its first action use swallow and submerge.
This is exactly what I was planning though with a twist.
You could get an NPC cleric to cast spare the dying to help a character that's almost dead. The only thing you have to worry about are the people with d6 hp. But throw in a god to revive a character, make the assassin be cursed to never kill a mortal (half all of his damage if it's going to kill someone) but still increase his hp and ac.
Hope this helps! 🙃
I'd say careful who you pick for the assassin to go after. The player targeted will yes, probably be annoyed/unhappy. You don't want it to feel arbitrary.
One way you could handle this is, at the start of the session, pull out a deck of cards (or you could roll dice, but I prefer a non-dice method just because it will seem like a skill check or something). Say, "Everyone pick a card. This won't have any effect now, but it will later. Higher is better, with Ace best. Suits are better in reverse alphabetical order (spades > hearts > diamonds > clubs). Thus the best draw would be ace of spades, and worst would be 2 of clubs." (So they know, again, it was not arbitrary that you choose high vs. low). They'll ask best for what, worst for what, just smile and say, "You will see." Let them draw in the open. So they draw, and the lowest card is 3 of diamonds, and Janice drew it.
Later when the assassin strikes, you roll to hit and do damage and Janice's character faceplants. At that point you can say, "The card draw at the start of the session determined who would be shot first."
Janice won't love you for it, but she won't feel like you're picking on her. SHE drew the 3 of diamonds... not your fault she got shot first.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
That's a really good idea!