I am trying to reduce the difficulty of an upcoming fight in a combat scenario I am running for a party of 4 to 6 PCs. (The group size changes a bit week to week.) As far as I know, the party will consist of 2 Rogues, 1 Wizard, 1 War Cleric, and maybe a BMaster Ranger or two. Everybody is 3rd level.
The setting is a ranch far removed from the nearest town. The party is currently at a disadvantage because the two-story house they are considering exploring contains several armed humanoids in hiding ready to jump them as you try to find the ranch's missing owner. The humanoids outnumber the party by a ratio of 2:1. I'm trying to come up with some useful farming/ranching tools that they might be able to fashion into traps to even up the fight in their favor because the Cleric is out of spell slots and the Wizard is down 1 spell slot and the baddies already know what type of Familiar the Wizard has.
How will they create traps on people waiting to ambush them in the house?
what does the farm/ranch grow/produce? Animals? Wheat? Corn? Etc. what’s the topography outside the house?
is there a cellar? Does it connect?
if some arsonist sets the house on fire does it impact anything? Etc etc.
The baddies seem prepared for party, knowing the familiar, while the party isn’t for them.
might be best if the 2 rogues can successfully go “solid snake” and infiltrate the house slowly. Impersonating baddies. And pick them off u til the odds are better while the other people make some distraction elsewhere.
I don't know if they will create traps. I just want to have some implements available to them in case they decide to do something unconventional to reduce the high chance that one or more of them would get knocked to 0 hp if they just stormed the house.
There is a cellar. It's entrance is on the interior.
The farm has horses, pigs, and a cow or two. Most of them have been let go and are wandering around grazing.
There is a half burned out barn and a "shed" with smithing implements nearby as well.
Setting the house on fire at this point is a bad idea because they are trying to find the farm's owner, who might be inside the house somewhere still.
Sounds like the farm principally produces crops not animal products, however even with just a few animal you are likely to have hay and straw bales that could be used to create cover or obstacles.
Junk piles full of rusty, sharp, and broken stuff and rotting plant material.
Burlap sacks, crates, wagons, hand carts, wheelbarrows. Wooden pallets, piles of old blankets, leather goods, old plows and the like.
Present a rich environment and let the PCs figure out how or if to use it. They will think of stuff you never even considered.
I think you could greatly reduce the difficulty of the encounter and give the players the opportunity to be creative/smart about how they assault the farm house if you gave them the opportunity of an intelligence advantage ie have a two man patrol regularly doing a round about the farmstead, they could capture and interrogate them to find out the layout, numbers and location of the hostage
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“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Tayn of Darkwood. Lvl 10 human Life Cleric of Lathander. Retired.
Ikram Sahir ibn Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad, Second Son of the House of Ra'ad, Defender of the Burning Sands. Lvl 9 Brass Dragonborn Sorcerer + Greater Fire Elemental Devil.
Viktor Gavriil. Lvl 20 White Dragonborn Grave Cleric, of Kurgan the God of Death.
If I had to deal with that I would have to lay siege to the farmhouse rather than enter it and assault the occupants. Do they know they are in for a fight with an enemy party at least equal to theirs? Do the enemy occupants have bows or the ability to fight at range? The only thing I can imagine is using pitchforks to keep the enemy at bay while the rangers kill them with the bow.
I am trying to reduce the difficulty of an upcoming fight in a combat scenario I am running for a party of 4 to 6 PCs. (The group size changes a bit week to week.) As far as I know, the party will consist of 2 Rogues, 1 Wizard, 1 War Cleric, and maybe a BMaster Ranger or two. Everybody is 3rd level.
The setting is a ranch far removed from the nearest town. The party is currently at a disadvantage because the two-story house they are considering exploring contains several armed humanoids in hiding ready to jump them as you try to find the ranch's missing owner. The humanoids outnumber the party by a ratio of 2:1. I'm trying to come up with some useful farming/ranching tools that they might be able to fashion into traps to even up the fight in their favor because the Cleric is out of spell slots and the Wizard is down 1 spell slot and the baddies already know what type of Familiar the Wizard has.
Tools I've thought of so far:
Rope
Mousetraps
Shovel
Saw
Clay Jars
Branding Iron
Woven tarp
In my best Karl voice.......Some people call it a sling blade I call it a Kaiser blade!
also, a pitchfork, scythe, pick ax, whip, saws, axes, maul, and different kinds of chains.
I will probably come up with more later but, those are off the top of my head.
How will they create traps on people waiting to ambush them in the house?
what does the farm/ranch grow/produce? Animals? Wheat? Corn? Etc. what’s the topography outside the house?
is there a cellar? Does it connect?
if some arsonist sets the house on fire does it impact anything? Etc etc.
The baddies seem prepared for party, knowing the familiar, while the party isn’t for them.
might be best if the 2 rogues can successfully go “solid snake” and infiltrate the house slowly. Impersonating baddies. And pick them off u til the odds are better while the other people make some distraction elsewhere.
I don't know if they will create traps. I just want to have some implements available to them in case they decide to do something unconventional to reduce the high chance that one or more of them would get knocked to 0 hp if they just stormed the house.
There is a cellar. It's entrance is on the interior.
The farm has horses, pigs, and a cow or two. Most of them have been let go and are wandering around grazing.
There is a half burned out barn and a "shed" with smithing implements nearby as well.
Setting the house on fire at this point is a bad idea because they are trying to find the farm's owner, who might be inside the house somewhere still.
Sounds like the farm principally produces crops not animal products, however even with just a few animal you are likely to have hay and straw bales that could be used to create cover or obstacles.
Junk piles full of rusty, sharp, and broken stuff and rotting plant material.
Burlap sacks, crates, wagons, hand carts, wheelbarrows. Wooden pallets, piles of old blankets, leather goods, old plows and the like.
Present a rich environment and let the PCs figure out how or if to use it. They will think of stuff you never even considered.
The farm actually mainly sold butter before it got taken over.
I think you could greatly reduce the difficulty of the encounter and give the players the opportunity to be creative/smart about how they assault the farm house if you gave them the opportunity of an intelligence advantage ie have a two man patrol regularly doing a round about the farmstead, they could capture and interrogate them to find out the layout, numbers and location of the hostage
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Watch home alone.
I've seen it. Too many of the tools used in that movie don't exist in the typical Forgotten Realms setting of Faerun, so not very helpful.
Paint can/milk pail
rope is rope
wledig torch, glyph of some fire spell
you can easily do it
"I like dem french fried pertaders, ummm hmmm."
Tayn of Darkwood. Lvl 10 human Life Cleric of Lathander. Retired.
Ikram Sahir ibn Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad, Second Son of the House of Ra'ad, Defender of the Burning Sands. Lvl 9 Brass Dragonborn Sorcerer + Greater Fire Elemental Devil.
Viktor Gavriil. Lvl 20 White Dragonborn Grave Cleric, of Kurgan the God of Death.
Anzio Faro. Lvl 5 Prot. Aasimar Light Cleric.
If I had to deal with that I would have to lay siege to the farmhouse rather than enter it and assault the occupants. Do they know they are in for a fight with an enemy party at least equal to theirs? Do the enemy occupants have bows or the ability to fight at range? The only thing I can imagine is using pitchforks to keep the enemy at bay while the rangers kill them with the bow.
Could you please read my initial post fully before commenting?
The characters are 3rd level. Nobody has access Glyph of Warding.
I already wrote down rope and clay jugs in my initial post. I'm trying to get ideas for more variety of potentially useful objects here.
Is the farm area close to the woods? in that case, they may be able to find some bear traps and chain to use.
Additionally, butter or oil could be used as a monmagical grease substitute.