Well, it's not even that it's not prepared, it's not even on his spellbook! Or are there cases where he can prepare a number of spells (say 5?) but have more spells in his spellbook (say 10?)?
Reading more into the adventure, when the players get into the crypt under the Tresendar Manor, they can avoid fighting the zombies if they speak the password "Illefarn" but the adventure makes no note of how the PCs would even know of this.... have I missed something here?
In the encounter with the nothic, what exactly am I to do when the nothic knows one of the character's secrets? I feel like this should be useful to me as a DM but no idea how. One of it's actions is a Rotting Gaze but what is 10 necrotic damage? How is it different from just 10 normal damage? I'm hoping that my PCs parlay with this creature but I'm more expecting them to be fighting rather than talking so this will be an interesting and painful fight, might be one that the wizard can save them.
A Wizard will almost always have more spells in their spellbook than they can prepare. For instance, at 1st level you have six first level spells in your spellbook, and you can prepare a number equal to your INT modifier + your Wizard level. For a 1st level Wizard, you've probably got a +2 or +3 INT, so that's 3 or 4 prepared spells. At second level you add two more spells to your spellbook, so you've got a total of 8, and can prepare 4 or 5, and it just keeps going from there. Wizards are more complicated because they're the only class that has both a 'spells known' and 'spells prepared' mechanic.
For the password, that might be something they could learn from interrogating one of the enemies in the "Redbrand Ruffians" encounter. It probably should've been noted in the "What the Redbrands Know" sidebar.
For the nothic... it's kinda hard to give advice about the secrets, it really depends on the specifics of the PCs. For Rotting Gaze, necrotic is one of the damage types, just like how some weapons deal slashing damage and some deal piercing damage. It probably won't be any different than any other damage for your players. The nothic's stat block don't actually note that it has telepathy, but the encounter references it so one way of nudging them to not fighting is by having the nothic start talking to them before they see it.
Looking at my wizard, he can cast two 1st-level spells (two 1st-level spell slots) but he can prepare four 1st-level spells from his spellbook that contains six 1st-level spells. So if I understand this correctly, he can "bookmark" or prepare a selection of spells from his spellbook but he can't "bookmark" them all. Out of those prepared spells, he can cast two of them or one of them twice. Again, apologies for being slow here, most of my reading has been the adventure book and have yet to go deeper into the actual player's side of things.
As for the Illefarn, there's nothing there aside from that one mention of it so that's got me scratching my head.
As for the nothic, the adventure book does say "it communicates using telepathy, filling the characters' heads with foul murmurings and demands for food," although the monster page of the nothic doesn't say this. As for the secrets, I'm thinking this will mean the nothic will learn about a PC's traits/ideals/bonds/flaws but I'm at a loss how to incorporate it into dialogue. The same thing for necrotic damage. Maybe describe how the PC's flesh starts to turn "dead"? Goes numb and gray and starts to smell?
I think I'd rather the PCs do not fight the nothic, at the very least it'll show them that not all encounters have to be hack-n-slash, but on the other hand, the nothic fight can be epic; it seems like it's really the only real challenge in that part of the story, maybe aside from the bugbears.
Yeah, that's exactly how the spellcasting works. It can be kind of a weird system to get your head around, and more so for the Wizard than any other class.
I had the thought, if players reach the nothic before the room with zombies, the password could be something the nothic offers to bargain with them. And yeah, that sounds like a great way to describe the effects of necrotic damage.
Knowing the magic of an item: 1. Taking a short rest and get attuned with the weapon, if it requires that, will let the character meditate and know a bit of the weapon. Early game this will suffice, but later in the game I am planning to not let my players learn everything about the more complex items. Then they'll only know part of the items capabilities. 2. Identifying items is the other route to learn what an item can do. If it has spells that are the same as a certain class then they can check it with an Arcana or Religion check for example. Otherwise an actual Identify spell/ritual has to be used. Should no one in the group be capable of such a thing then there could always be an NPC somewhere who might be able to for some coin.
Learning Magic Spells: 1. They obviously learn the amount mentioned from leveling up 2. They can buy/find scrolls which they can analyze and copy into their spellbooks, or practice the chants for prayer. As DM you can then say the player needs a certain time of practice and perhaps some materials. 3. They can learn from priests/arcane practitioner NPC to study with for x amount of time for money or a task in return.
That way the characters have in-game RP methods of learning more then just what they learned by leveling up. The spell slots for each level still determine how often a spell from a certain level can be cast. Which balances out how often they can cast. Only difference is they now have a larger pool, diversity for situation, to choose from. Meaning you need to separate the amount learned through alternate sources...and the ones learned through leveling up. If they decide to use a low lvl spell as a lvl 5 spell... then they just spend a lvl 5 spellslot and can cast 1 less at that lvl.
Preparing spells is something that differs per class I've noticed. Druids can do it with every damn long rest. Wizards once per day so you could say the morning when waking up. Scorcerers, warlocks and clerics I let them switch out spells upon leveling up should they find themselves unhappy with something they tried out. Not sure this is in the rules to let that be the case though. However the actually, daily prepared spells are always the same amount chosen from the larger pool. On the character sheet in PDF you can mark the little circles in front of the spell to know which ones you prepared and can cast only those at any given level. ================== Personally I use the milestone method of leveling up. Meaning I can state when they level up and also prep content accordingly. I know how long they'll be lvl 2, no matter if they go off-track for side content and random encounters. Its all lvl 2. You can go with the approach of only leveling up in town. Where you need to visit an NPC from which you learn your new skills/feats/spells. Its entirely up to you and your group on how you want to do this. However it means that you do have to adjust encounter difficulties for some dungeons then. If you're ok with that little bit of extra work then go for it. ================== Can't say anything about the Mines of Phandelver. I haven't even read it yet. Part of being the DM is reading the entire module at least once. Look at things that you want to adjust. Is the password something important enough that your players MUST know? Then add something that has a chance of providing them the information in one or two different ways. A lot of modules, even the modern ones, leave a fair amount of work for DM's to make adjustments. Some have elements that make no sense you need to "fix" and others are just elements you need to adjust to fit with your group and their playstyle.
Necrotic damage means basically burning away your flesh, draining your life essence. Very different to normal damage that delivers just cuts, slashes, pierces and bruises. In most cases its just a descriptive flavor thing. Later you get to work with immunities and resistances. At that point the type of damage you do vs their resistances becomes more important.
The password is an alternative way of avoiding the Skeleton fight in the crypt. Theoretically the party have decided to infiltrate the base after the Redbrands and will be under some form of disguise (i.e. stolen red cloaks from the combat outside the tavern or picking them up from the store room (area 2 on the map)) and so the skeletons won't attack you. The password is I figure another way of teaching players you don't need to fight everything you come across. In order to allow the players to find it out, have the guards in area 2 discussing it through the door ("as you climb down the steps to the cellar you hear a murmuring behind the door" should be enough to get the party to listen to whats being said!) maybe as one of the guards has forgotten what the password is and doesn't want difficulty "with those things" which is how they just happen to over hear this information.
The secrets the nothic knows are essentially things from session 0 and background related, or things that have happened on the adventure the whole party aren't aware of. As an example, if the party rogue found something in the goblin cave and hid it from the party maybe the nothic lets the rogue know it knows exactly what it "stole" and may let the rest of the party know about the misdeeds. The nothic could know that the champion goliath gladiator in the party actually was only winning predetermined fights and they were rigged in his favour and the nothic threatens to reveal this. Of course these threats and so on are only relevant if the players can roleplay around that sort of thing. The nothic is trying to avoid combat and doesn't particularly want a scrap, happy hiding away in its cave beneath the manor, it's why it negotiated with Iarno and is more than happy to betray him for a better deal. It should be quite a creepy and eerie encounter, the rasping sound of it's voice echoing inside the characters heads as it communicates telepathically. It's using blackmail and mental manipulation to avoid conflict. If they attack it perhaps it uses it's psychic abilities to call for help or issue a last warning to them, or lets Iarno know they're there and enabling him to escape. If it does come to combat, it can be surprisingly dangerous so the party need to be aware. A potential 18 slashing damage from claws or the rotting gaze a round of combat could very easily take down most adventurers at the expected level.
Going back to the password, I know that I can make things up so that the PCs will learn of it before getting to that room or wouldn't need to worry about it since they have disguises, but I was just a bit confused since the adventure talks about it but there's no mention of it prior to that, no mentione of it on the background, etc. so I was wondering if I missed it or if it was ommitted on purpose?
For the nothic, well, I don't think my PCs will be doing something in secret, especially not something that only one PC and the DM knows, most likely they'll be announcing their intentions over the game table so all players will know even if their character won't, but that's unlikely. I do know this can be a cool ability so just looking for ways to be able to use it. On a more experienced player group or when they're further into their adventuring career, it'll probably be easier to use but right now I'm scratching my head. As to fight-vs-parley with the nothic, I was more thinking that the nothic would want to attack the PCs for food? Is it too powerful for the PCs? The stat page of the nothic says it's Challenge 2 so my PCs would be 2nd level by this point. I'm thinking maybe an epic fight with two or even three adventurers down before the nothic dies?
However its just a guideline. Nobody truly knows. Not even you as DM knowing your party will fully know. One moment players can struggle due to many factors. The next when you think the encounter is a death trap they'll cruise through. Are there ways for the players to learn about some strong opponents coming up? Perhaps gain more detailed info through interrogation, rumors of someone spotting the nothic and just giving vague descriptions... whatever you can provide to help them at least prepare and have an easier time when the fight occurs. Other then that trust on their creativity on how to deal with adversity. If things get really tough and out of control you can let your wizard just flee the combat. The others will follow your example naturally. Then they can prepare, learn, overcome and be victorious in the end.
Statwise the Nothic doesn't seem that strong. However you might want to adjust its HP closer to 35. That should be sufficient enough for the players to kill it fast enough and thus have a few less attacks to worry about. That said the attacks, even the multi-attack with the claws doesn't seem that damaging. Especially if your party also has a few damaging scrolls on top of their own skills they should be able to tear the Nothic apart. I'd love to use the +5 stealth and harass my players that way to increase combat difficulty :P
Perhaps the other links can give you some ideas how to deal with a more "diplomatic" solution.
Thanks for that Giblix! It will be a 4-player party as the wizard will still be with them. I do know things can be affected by dice rolls as you can clearly see with our limited play experience!
The nothic-tactics page is quite useful as it gives me more info how to play the nothic especially when it comes to combat but I wonder where he got that from? The reddit page first response was quite interesting too. I guess I can still make the nothic interesting without having the party fight the nothic.
As for stats, I'm not very worried about it. At the moment, I'm rolling in secret (behind the DM screen) and I also don't tell the players the actual HP number of their enemies so I think I can stretch out the HP if the PCs are making quick work of it or insta-kill if the players are at their limit, but this is just a backup plan. I intend to stick to published stats if I can.
What exactly are you referring to with regards to the +5 Stealth?
Nthic stats: Skills Arcana +3, Insight +4, Perception +2, Stealth +5 So if you want it to go stealthy and hide you get a very nice bonus. Same if you want to check if your players are telling the truth or not the nothic can use "insight +4" to see if they're telling the truth.
What exactly are you referring to with regards to the +5 Stealth?
As with character sheets, creatures may have skills they are proficient in too. If, for some reason, a creature has a skin, fur, or scale coloration that closely resembles the terrain that they inhabit, one could say it's proficient in hiding in that terrain. So as with a character sheet, you'd add the DEX modifier of the creature to the Proficiency bonus and get = +5 Stealth.
Sorry, I didn't make my question clear. I know the stats for the nothic and I can see using that Stealth stat for an intial encounter to see if the PCs spot the nothic or if the nothic can catch the PCs by surprise. You said "I'd love to use the +5 stealth and harass my players that way to increase combat difficulty" and I was wondering what sort of scenario were you thinking about? I mean the nothic can't interact with the PCs and be in the PC's sight and then just suddenly disappear, right? Are you thinking making it run away into the darkness or behind a stone column and then have the PCs make opposed rolls to see if they can find the nothic again? Bascially, how are you going to use the +5 Stealth outside of the initial "do the players spot the nothic" that I know of?
While it may not have the freedom to do so like a with a Goblin's nimble escape, consider that it pokes it's head out from around the corner, and tosses a use of Rotting Gaze. It doesn't need to step out, so it could maintain 1/4-1/2 cover from a rock formation, and the players would have to cover up to 30ft to close ranks on it.
As the players close in on it's location you have the Nothic (on it's next initiative) scurry away into the caves and hide using that +5 stealth. It then becomes a game of cat and mouse, unless all of the players miss their Perception checks, then the Nothic (per chase description) escapes and combat ends. Only for the Nothic to show up later and cause more mischief.
Well, it's not even that it's not prepared, it's not even on his spellbook! Or are there cases where he can prepare a number of spells (say 5?) but have more spells in his spellbook (say 10?)?
Reading more into the adventure, when the players get into the crypt under the Tresendar Manor, they can avoid fighting the zombies if they speak the password "Illefarn" but the adventure makes no note of how the PCs would even know of this.... have I missed something here?
In the encounter with the nothic, what exactly am I to do when the nothic knows one of the character's secrets? I feel like this should be useful to me as a DM but no idea how. One of it's actions is a Rotting Gaze but what is 10 necrotic damage? How is it different from just 10 normal damage? I'm hoping that my PCs parlay with this creature but I'm more expecting them to be fighting rather than talking so this will be an interesting and painful fight, might be one that the wizard can save them.
A Wizard will almost always have more spells in their spellbook than they can prepare. For instance, at 1st level you have six first level spells in your spellbook, and you can prepare a number equal to your INT modifier + your Wizard level. For a 1st level Wizard, you've probably got a +2 or +3 INT, so that's 3 or 4 prepared spells. At second level you add two more spells to your spellbook, so you've got a total of 8, and can prepare 4 or 5, and it just keeps going from there. Wizards are more complicated because they're the only class that has both a 'spells known' and 'spells prepared' mechanic.
For the password, that might be something they could learn from interrogating one of the enemies in the "Redbrand Ruffians" encounter. It probably should've been noted in the "What the Redbrands Know" sidebar.
For the nothic... it's kinda hard to give advice about the secrets, it really depends on the specifics of the PCs. For Rotting Gaze, necrotic is one of the damage types, just like how some weapons deal slashing damage and some deal piercing damage. It probably won't be any different than any other damage for your players. The nothic's stat block don't actually note that it has telepathy, but the encounter references it so one way of nudging them to not fighting is by having the nothic start talking to them before they see it.
Thanks for correcting me on that!
Looking at my wizard, he can cast two 1st-level spells (two 1st-level spell slots) but he can prepare four 1st-level spells from his spellbook that contains six 1st-level spells. So if I understand this correctly, he can "bookmark" or prepare a selection of spells from his spellbook but he can't "bookmark" them all. Out of those prepared spells, he can cast two of them or one of them twice. Again, apologies for being slow here, most of my reading has been the adventure book and have yet to go deeper into the actual player's side of things.
As for the Illefarn, there's nothing there aside from that one mention of it so that's got me scratching my head.
As for the nothic, the adventure book does say "it communicates using telepathy, filling the characters' heads with foul murmurings and demands for food," although the monster page of the nothic doesn't say this. As for the secrets, I'm thinking this will mean the nothic will learn about a PC's traits/ideals/bonds/flaws but I'm at a loss how to incorporate it into dialogue. The same thing for necrotic damage. Maybe describe how the PC's flesh starts to turn "dead"? Goes numb and gray and starts to smell?
I think I'd rather the PCs do not fight the nothic, at the very least it'll show them that not all encounters have to be hack-n-slash, but on the other hand, the nothic fight can be epic; it seems like it's really the only real challenge in that part of the story, maybe aside from the bugbears.
Yeah, that's exactly how the spellcasting works. It can be kind of a weird system to get your head around, and more so for the Wizard than any other class.
I had the thought, if players reach the nothic before the room with zombies, the password could be something the nothic offers to bargain with them. And yeah, that sounds like a great way to describe the effects of necrotic damage.
Knowing the magic of an item:
1. Taking a short rest and get attuned with the weapon, if it requires that, will let the character meditate and know a bit of the weapon. Early game this will suffice, but later in the game I am planning to not let my players learn everything about the more complex items. Then they'll only know part of the items capabilities.
2. Identifying items is the other route to learn what an item can do. If it has spells that are the same as a certain class then they can check it with an Arcana or Religion check for example. Otherwise an actual Identify spell/ritual has to be used. Should no one in the group be capable of such a thing then there could always be an NPC somewhere who might be able to for some coin.
Learning Magic Spells:
1. They obviously learn the amount mentioned from leveling up
2. They can buy/find scrolls which they can analyze and copy into their spellbooks, or practice the chants for prayer. As DM you can then say the player needs a certain time of practice and perhaps some materials.
3. They can learn from priests/arcane practitioner NPC to study with for x amount of time for money or a task in return.
That way the characters have in-game RP methods of learning more then just what they learned by leveling up. The spell slots for each level still determine how often a spell from a certain level can be cast. Which balances out how often they can cast. Only difference is they now have a larger pool, diversity for situation, to choose from. Meaning you need to separate the amount learned through alternate sources...and the ones learned through leveling up. If they decide to use a low lvl spell as a lvl 5 spell... then they just spend a lvl 5 spellslot and can cast 1 less at that lvl.
Preparing spells is something that differs per class I've noticed. Druids can do it with every damn long rest. Wizards once per day so you could say the morning when waking up. Scorcerers, warlocks and clerics I let them switch out spells upon leveling up should they find themselves unhappy with something they tried out. Not sure this is in the rules to let that be the case though. However the actually, daily prepared spells are always the same amount chosen from the larger pool. On the character sheet in PDF you can mark the little circles in front of the spell to know which ones you prepared and can cast only those at any given level.
==================
Personally I use the milestone method of leveling up. Meaning I can state when they level up and also prep content accordingly. I know how long they'll be lvl 2, no matter if they go off-track for side content and random encounters. Its all lvl 2. You can go with the approach of only leveling up in town. Where you need to visit an NPC from which you learn your new skills/feats/spells. Its entirely up to you and your group on how you want to do this. However it means that you do have to adjust encounter difficulties for some dungeons then. If you're ok with that little bit of extra work then go for it.
==================
Can't say anything about the Mines of Phandelver. I haven't even read it yet. Part of being the DM is reading the entire module at least once. Look at things that you want to adjust. Is the password something important enough that your players MUST know? Then add something that has a chance of providing them the information in one or two different ways. A lot of modules, even the modern ones, leave a fair amount of work for DM's to make adjustments. Some have elements that make no sense you need to "fix" and others are just elements you need to adjust to fit with your group and their playstyle.
Necrotic damage means basically burning away your flesh, draining your life essence. Very different to normal damage that delivers just cuts, slashes, pierces and bruises. In most cases its just a descriptive flavor thing. Later you get to work with immunities and resistances. At that point the type of damage you do vs their resistances becomes more important.
The password is an alternative way of avoiding the Skeleton fight in the crypt. Theoretically the party have decided to infiltrate the base after the Redbrands and will be under some form of disguise (i.e. stolen red cloaks from the combat outside the tavern or picking them up from the store room (area 2 on the map)) and so the skeletons won't attack you. The password is I figure another way of teaching players you don't need to fight everything you come across. In order to allow the players to find it out, have the guards in area 2 discussing it through the door ("as you climb down the steps to the cellar you hear a murmuring behind the door" should be enough to get the party to listen to whats being said!) maybe as one of the guards has forgotten what the password is and doesn't want difficulty "with those things" which is how they just happen to over hear this information.
The secrets the nothic knows are essentially things from session 0 and background related, or things that have happened on the adventure the whole party aren't aware of. As an example, if the party rogue found something in the goblin cave and hid it from the party maybe the nothic lets the rogue know it knows exactly what it "stole" and may let the rest of the party know about the misdeeds. The nothic could know that the champion goliath gladiator in the party actually was only winning predetermined fights and they were rigged in his favour and the nothic threatens to reveal this. Of course these threats and so on are only relevant if the players can roleplay around that sort of thing. The nothic is trying to avoid combat and doesn't particularly want a scrap, happy hiding away in its cave beneath the manor, it's why it negotiated with Iarno and is more than happy to betray him for a better deal. It should be quite a creepy and eerie encounter, the rasping sound of it's voice echoing inside the characters heads as it communicates telepathically. It's using blackmail and mental manipulation to avoid conflict. If they attack it perhaps it uses it's psychic abilities to call for help or issue a last warning to them, or lets Iarno know they're there and enabling him to escape. If it does come to combat, it can be surprisingly dangerous so the party need to be aware. A potential 18 slashing damage from claws or the rotting gaze a round of combat could very easily take down most adventurers at the expected level.
Thanks for the input guys! Very valuable!
Going back to the password, I know that I can make things up so that the PCs will learn of it before getting to that room or wouldn't need to worry about it since they have disguises, but I was just a bit confused since the adventure talks about it but there's no mention of it prior to that, no mentione of it on the background, etc. so I was wondering if I missed it or if it was ommitted on purpose?
For the nothic, well, I don't think my PCs will be doing something in secret, especially not something that only one PC and the DM knows, most likely they'll be announcing their intentions over the game table so all players will know even if their character won't, but that's unlikely. I do know this can be a cool ability so just looking for ways to be able to use it. On a more experienced player group or when they're further into their adventuring career, it'll probably be easier to use but right now I'm scratching my head. As to fight-vs-parley with the nothic, I was more thinking that the nothic would want to attack the PCs for food? Is it too powerful for the PCs? The stat page of the nothic says it's Challenge 2 so my PCs would be 2nd level by this point. I'm thinking maybe an epic fight with two or even three adventurers down before the nothic dies?
3 player lvl 2 vs nothic CR 2 is considered a hard fight. With 4 players a medium fight.
http://kobold.club/fight/#/encounter-builder
However its just a guideline. Nobody truly knows. Not even you as DM knowing your party will fully know. One moment players can struggle due to many factors. The next when you think the encounter is a death trap they'll cruise through. Are there ways for the players to learn about some strong opponents coming up? Perhaps gain more detailed info through interrogation, rumors of someone spotting the nothic and just giving vague descriptions... whatever you can provide to help them at least prepare and have an easier time when the fight occurs. Other then that trust on their creativity on how to deal with adversity. If things get really tough and out of control you can let your wizard just flee the combat. The others will follow your example naturally. Then they can prepare, learn, overcome and be victorious in the end.
Ok looking on google for more info:
https://www.aidedd.org/dnd/monstres.php?vo=nothic
http://themonstersknow.com/nothic-tactics/
https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDBehindTheScreen/comments/4l2313/lmop_nothic/
Statwise the Nothic doesn't seem that strong. However you might want to adjust its HP closer to 35. That should be sufficient enough for the players to kill it fast enough and thus have a few less attacks to worry about. That said the attacks, even the multi-attack with the claws doesn't seem that damaging. Especially if your party also has a few damaging scrolls on top of their own skills they should be able to tear the Nothic apart. I'd love to use the +5 stealth and harass my players that way to increase combat difficulty :P
Perhaps the other links can give you some ideas how to deal with a more "diplomatic" solution.
Thanks for that Giblix! It will be a 4-player party as the wizard will still be with them. I do know things can be affected by dice rolls as you can clearly see with our limited play experience!
The nothic-tactics page is quite useful as it gives me more info how to play the nothic especially when it comes to combat but I wonder where he got that from? The reddit page first response was quite interesting too. I guess I can still make the nothic interesting without having the party fight the nothic.
As for stats, I'm not very worried about it. At the moment, I'm rolling in secret (behind the DM screen) and I also don't tell the players the actual HP number of their enemies so I think I can stretch out the HP if the PCs are making quick work of it or insta-kill if the players are at their limit, but this is just a backup plan. I intend to stick to published stats if I can.
What exactly are you referring to with regards to the +5 Stealth?
Nthic stats: Skills Arcana +3, Insight +4, Perception +2, Stealth +5
So if you want it to go stealthy and hide you get a very nice bonus. Same if you want to check if your players are telling the truth or not the nothic can use "insight +4" to see if they're telling the truth.
As with character sheets, creatures may have skills they are proficient in too. If, for some reason, a creature has a skin, fur, or scale coloration that closely resembles the terrain that they inhabit, one could say it's proficient in hiding in that terrain. So as with a character sheet, you'd add the DEX modifier of the creature to the Proficiency bonus and get = +5 Stealth.
Sorry, I didn't make my question clear. I know the stats for the nothic and I can see using that Stealth stat for an intial encounter to see if the PCs spot the nothic or if the nothic can catch the PCs by surprise. You said "I'd love to use the +5 stealth and harass my players that way to increase combat difficulty" and I was wondering what sort of scenario were you thinking about? I mean the nothic can't interact with the PCs and be in the PC's sight and then just suddenly disappear, right? Are you thinking making it run away into the darkness or behind a stone column and then have the PCs make opposed rolls to see if they can find the nothic again? Bascially, how are you going to use the +5 Stealth outside of the initial "do the players spot the nothic" that I know of?
While it may not have the freedom to do so like a with a Goblin's nimble escape, consider that it pokes it's head out from around the corner, and tosses a use of Rotting Gaze. It doesn't need to step out, so it could maintain 1/4-1/2 cover from a rock formation, and the players would have to cover up to 30ft to close ranks on it.
As the players close in on it's location you have the Nothic (on it's next initiative) scurry away into the caves and hide using that +5 stealth. It then becomes a game of cat and mouse, unless all of the players miss their Perception checks, then the Nothic (per chase description) escapes and combat ends. Only for the Nothic to show up later and cause more mischief.