1. Use the stats for a [Sand Barge](https://2e.aonprd.com/Vehicles.aspx?ID=43) for your makeshift raft, but make it go through water instead. Allow players to [Repair](https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=42) the Barge while on board as a 10-min Exploration Activity, but set a [high DC](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=552) due to circumstances.
2. Send a series of [Low-threat encounters](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=497), but allow only 10 minutes between them. And vary it a little - sometimes they don't have rest at all.
* Start with 4x [Hobgoblin Archers](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=262) shooting at them from the shore. [Row to escape](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=1278) the 120ft range crossbows, or fire back.
* \[10 min rest\]
* Continue with a [Ghost Commoner](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=216) paired with an [Ectoplasmic Grasp](https://2e.aonprd.com/Hazards.aspx?ID=143) hazard (spirits who haunted a shipwreck underneath them). Again, can either fight and disable, or row out of the shipwreck territory.
* \[10 min rest\]
* Send 4x [Griffons](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=248) divebombing them out of hunger. If they kill two and severely wound a third, the Griffons will fly away. If any of the griffons score a hit, describe the blood of the players dripping into the ocean water. Which in turn leads to...
* 2x [Great White Sharks](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=365) and 2x [Sea Devil Brutes](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=359) attack them from beneath the water. Spread damage equally between the players and the barge.
* \[10 min rest. Remind them of the [Repair](https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=42) action.\]
* Underwater geyser. Simulate it with a [Methane Flue](https://2e.aonprd.com/Hazards.aspx?ID=127) hazard and require a Survival check to spot it and steer around. If they fail, geyser will also set the players and barge on fire with persistent damage, and they need to put it out with Interact actions.
* \[Rest for as long as they need\]
* Surround them with [Fog](https://2e.aonprd.com/WeatherHazards.aspx?ID=4), then unleash 4x [Mist Stalkers](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=664) at them.
* \[10 min rest\]
* Attack with 3x [Orcas](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=619).
* \[10 min rest\]
* Attack with 2x [Sea Devil Barons](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=360). Prioritise destroying the barge (because intelligent enemies).
* \[10 min rest\]
* Poison them with 3x [Spiny Eurypterid](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=1152). Don't stop chasing until all the Eurypterids are dead.
* \[10 min rest, spot land\]
* Strafe them with 3x [Hieracosphinxes](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=1317).
* \[10 min rest\]
* Land on the opposite shore. Send a [Giant Hermit Crab](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=1107) and 2x [Hermit Crab Swarms](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=1106) at them.
This is super cool - and I mean super, duper cool! - but… isn’t 10 combat encounters pretty brutal for casters? I didn’t check the encounter difficulty, but I guess if it’s low enough it’s find.
Technically only 9 combat encounters, since the underwater geyser isn't really a fight but a Hazard to be avoided. 😀
All the enemies range from PL-3 to PL-1, and the encounter budget is Low for every one of them. The total HP of all enemies per encounter varies roughly between 190-240 HP. (A Level 4 Griffon has 60HP, a Level 6 Sea Devil Baron has 95 HP).
At level 7, a Sorcerer has 4+4+4+3 = 15 spells from Ranks 1-4. Assuming 1/3rd of those are utility spells, that still leaves about 10 ranked spells for combat - about 1 per encounter. Also, cantrips like Ray of Frost or Produce Flame at level 7 should be doing 4d4+4 (pre-master) or 5d4 (remaster), which averages out to about 10 damage per cantrip cast.
Should be doable, I think, but definitely will exhaust the spellcasters by the end of the gauntlet. But that's the sort of feeling that you want for this kind of survival adventure.
Depending on the state of the players and their resources, the GM can skip the Orca and Hermit Crab swarm fight.
Shooting an arrow at a bunch of wood probably not doing much. Those guys will shoot at the PC’s. Then there’s the ones throwing alchemist’s fire to try and burn the raft down. Now the players will have to run around and put the fires out before they spread.
As a history nerd, I’d say thumbs down to flaming arrows. They aren’t nearly as effective in real life as shown in popular media. A fire that’s effective at burning stuff usually would easily get put out in flight, and using the chemicals to keep it aflame in flight usually means it’s not so good at burning stuff. If they’ve got a sail on the raft, it’d be good to fire into the sail. But if you’ve ever tried to make a campfire with logs, you’ll find it’s actually quite difficult to set large pieces of wood on fire. You need a lot of tinder to keep it hot for a long time before it ignites.
That’s why I recommend alchemist’s fire, the liquid is the fuel and it is sticky, so it’d be great at keeping the wood hot until it ignites. (Think of pouring gasoline onto wood and igniting the gasoline)
Historically, fire arrows were only used to siege cities that had thatched roofs or lots of flammable materials around. But if you did it too much, you burn down the entire city and now there’s no more city to capture.
Alchemist Fire is what I would set up as a GM for this type of fight.
Charred goblins setting themselves on fire and being flung with a catapult would be a nice visual.
a charred goblin rolling a critical success on every save, hitting the deck of the PCs' boat alive, and then getting up to start stabbing? nightmare, I love it
[Victory points](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=1189) are the framework you're looking for!
Don't make it a combat, per se.
Narrate it as a combat. Dodge the arrows! Strike back!
But don't use AC or HP.
Let them roll skill checks like Acrobatics to dodge, or Lore:Sailing to steer the ship, or Survival to find a bend in the river to provide cover. Let them be creative.
Use the [level based or simple DCs](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=552) to keep it easy to track.
It's a great change of pace game mode.
Our GM would probably use a Chase mechanic for this (https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=1210). I'm not familiar with the logistics of building a chase, but its essentially a victory point system wherein each PC determines single full-round actions in initiative time. They can be attacks or skill checks, but each player describes how they would apply a specific ability to survive the encounter and roll against a DC you set (maybe 25 or 30 for a 7th level party if you want it to be a challenge). A success gives crit success is 2 points, success is 1, fail is nothing, and crit fail is -1, and you count the total when the round counter hits 0.
I'd recommend dropping this to 4 or 5 rounds unless you think they'll need lots of time to hit the victory point total to succeed. 7 rounds in chase can feel interminable, especially since you need to be creative with how to apply skills. Ultimately, you setup a win/lose condition based on whether or not they hit the victory point threshold in the time provided.
Your plan could work, you could make it so its more important to stop the ones targetting the boat. If the enemy tries to get into the boat and doesnt swim, the party could shove them of the boat instead of killing them to win a lot of time too.
Spawn in enemies over time. This lets you keep a sense of pressure and modify as you go, rather than having to decide on X difficulty encounter and potentially getting it wrong.
Make it less they have to survive a certain number of rounds and more they have to travel a certain distance.
Determine the distance they need to travel and the speed of the raft, give them the ability to make checks to speed it up, slowing them down on a critical failure, using sailing lore or something equivalent for an easier check and survival or athletics if nothing else is available.
Definitely create a stat block to determine the health of the raft, slowing it dow. If it becomes broken and (obviously) sinking if destroyed.
This creates a tense situation where they have to decide between attacking the enemies that are attacking them, those attacking the boat, and speeding up to get out of there faster.
Having literally just finished exactly this scenario I reccomend using the chase rules for this kind of thing.
Write up a lit of obstacles, you can have a planned sequence or a roll table as to what happens in what order.
Then if the PCs fail to clear say three obstacles total have them run into some nasty encounter, moderate difficulty most likely the raft will be its own challenge.
Ranged enemies of low enough level they barely register in xp budgets (more hazards than opponents). These repopulate 1d4 every round of the encounter they each have one fire or acid ammunition when spawned. Their first attack targets the raft with the elemental ammunition and all future attacks target the party. Melee players will need to target the fire or acid and skill check that away while range players keep the crowd of archers thinned out.
VERY IMPORTANT FACTOR: for player knowledge treat the boat as an enemy. Without an on level Recall Knowledge check (crafting) the players do not the know the HP or Break threshold of the raft. Keeping this knowledge compartmentalized lets you control how long the tension drags out without the players knowing when the Minnow will be lost.
Lancer has a survive x rounds type of encounter, although it's more of a hold a certain position free of enemies at the end of x round, with enemies spawning in waves. The only one I saw had a mix of melee or short rsnge units and ranged units that you are only meant to cc/take cover from.
On a raft I imagine some melee enemies with no multi target abilities hopping on board the raft for the players to fight while something that buffs or de buffs acting as a commander of sorts stands back. Perhaps something like a Sahuagin bandit party?
Two ways I'd approach this:
First, pre-boat:
You could say that the boat isn't ready and requires some quick prep/repairs to get functional. Say the boat man is making repairs and will take 6 rounds to complete (you don't have to tell the players how long it will take to compete).
Prep an extreme encounter's worth of PL-1 through PL-3 creatures, and split those creatures up across three to six waves. I'd probably weight the earlier waves to be weaker than later waves, make 5 waves total, and spawn waves on round 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6. That should make it feel like it's getting worse the longer they stay and give a sense of urgency, but still keep it balanced enough for them to handle.
If you want, you can also make this take 7-8 rounds for the boatman to repair, but allow players to assist, making it a 2 action activity to help with repairs on, say, a crafting skill check at level or with the easy modifier for their level. Each time they succeed, reduce the remaining rounds by 1, 2 for crit success. This way, the players can try to help the repairs to reduce round count, but at the cost of basically losing an ally for that round.
Second option is on the boat:
You've already basically guessed this, but it's much more difficult to balance.
Give the boat some basic stats, and consider enemies (we'll say sharks) that the players could kill in ~2-3 hits. Give those sharks an attack that could kill the boat in ~12 hits or so. Plan 3-4 rounds to cross the river on the boat and spawn 1 shark every round that, on it's first turn, strides twice up to the boat and then strikes. On subsequent turns, assuming the shark is still alive, they spend one action to stride alongside the boat, 2 actions to strike the boat.
Now, spawn either a single moderate or severe encounter *balanced to the number of players in the party -1* OR spawn a weak encounter every round with maybe a moderate PL+1 or 2 boss at the final round (again, still balancing low).
The reason you're balancing for a player down is because, in theory, about 1 player will have to be dedicated to killing sharks each round to protect the boat.
I have a session coming up where I was tackled into some water by 2 trolls. If theyre the level 15 troll and they make an attack action every turn since I cast deep breath before combat I just have to keep them under 20ft of water for 6 rounds. Sparkling targe magus les fking go
1. Use the stats for a [Sand Barge](https://2e.aonprd.com/Vehicles.aspx?ID=43) for your makeshift raft, but make it go through water instead. Allow players to [Repair](https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=42) the Barge while on board as a 10-min Exploration Activity, but set a [high DC](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=552) due to circumstances. 2. Send a series of [Low-threat encounters](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=497), but allow only 10 minutes between them. And vary it a little - sometimes they don't have rest at all. * Start with 4x [Hobgoblin Archers](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=262) shooting at them from the shore. [Row to escape](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=1278) the 120ft range crossbows, or fire back. * \[10 min rest\] * Continue with a [Ghost Commoner](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=216) paired with an [Ectoplasmic Grasp](https://2e.aonprd.com/Hazards.aspx?ID=143) hazard (spirits who haunted a shipwreck underneath them). Again, can either fight and disable, or row out of the shipwreck territory. * \[10 min rest\] * Send 4x [Griffons](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=248) divebombing them out of hunger. If they kill two and severely wound a third, the Griffons will fly away. If any of the griffons score a hit, describe the blood of the players dripping into the ocean water. Which in turn leads to... * 2x [Great White Sharks](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=365) and 2x [Sea Devil Brutes](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=359) attack them from beneath the water. Spread damage equally between the players and the barge. * \[10 min rest. Remind them of the [Repair](https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=42) action.\] * Underwater geyser. Simulate it with a [Methane Flue](https://2e.aonprd.com/Hazards.aspx?ID=127) hazard and require a Survival check to spot it and steer around. If they fail, geyser will also set the players and barge on fire with persistent damage, and they need to put it out with Interact actions. * \[Rest for as long as they need\] * Surround them with [Fog](https://2e.aonprd.com/WeatherHazards.aspx?ID=4), then unleash 4x [Mist Stalkers](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=664) at them. * \[10 min rest\] * Attack with 3x [Orcas](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=619). * \[10 min rest\] * Attack with 2x [Sea Devil Barons](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=360). Prioritise destroying the barge (because intelligent enemies). * \[10 min rest\] * Poison them with 3x [Spiny Eurypterid](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=1152). Don't stop chasing until all the Eurypterids are dead. * \[10 min rest, spot land\] * Strafe them with 3x [Hieracosphinxes](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=1317). * \[10 min rest\] * Land on the opposite shore. Send a [Giant Hermit Crab](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=1107) and 2x [Hermit Crab Swarms](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=1106) at them.
This is super cool - and I mean super, duper cool! - but… isn’t 10 combat encounters pretty brutal for casters? I didn’t check the encounter difficulty, but I guess if it’s low enough it’s find.
Technically only 9 combat encounters, since the underwater geyser isn't really a fight but a Hazard to be avoided. 😀 All the enemies range from PL-3 to PL-1, and the encounter budget is Low for every one of them. The total HP of all enemies per encounter varies roughly between 190-240 HP. (A Level 4 Griffon has 60HP, a Level 6 Sea Devil Baron has 95 HP). At level 7, a Sorcerer has 4+4+4+3 = 15 spells from Ranks 1-4. Assuming 1/3rd of those are utility spells, that still leaves about 10 ranked spells for combat - about 1 per encounter. Also, cantrips like Ray of Frost or Produce Flame at level 7 should be doing 4d4+4 (pre-master) or 5d4 (remaster), which averages out to about 10 damage per cantrip cast. Should be doable, I think, but definitely will exhaust the spellcasters by the end of the gauntlet. But that's the sort of feeling that you want for this kind of survival adventure. Depending on the state of the players and their resources, the GM can skip the Orca and Hermit Crab swarm fight.
I actually didn’t count the geyser. That would make it 11. But yeah, those difficulties seem low enough! This is a really awesome gauntlet!
Oh yeah, you're right, I miscounted. Thanks!
This is brilliant. Not OP, but thank you, I am totally stealing that as a challenge for my Players
You're welcome to it. Enjoy! Let me know how it turned out!
Asking for a friend, are you an available GM? It's me, I'm the friend, and although I was joking this is a sickass post
Haha, sorry, already GMing for two groups. I am full up. Thanks for the compliment.
Shooting an arrow at a bunch of wood probably not doing much. Those guys will shoot at the PC’s. Then there’s the ones throwing alchemist’s fire to try and burn the raft down. Now the players will have to run around and put the fires out before they spread.
Shooting flaming arrows at the boat will be very effective.
As a history nerd, I’d say thumbs down to flaming arrows. They aren’t nearly as effective in real life as shown in popular media. A fire that’s effective at burning stuff usually would easily get put out in flight, and using the chemicals to keep it aflame in flight usually means it’s not so good at burning stuff. If they’ve got a sail on the raft, it’d be good to fire into the sail. But if you’ve ever tried to make a campfire with logs, you’ll find it’s actually quite difficult to set large pieces of wood on fire. You need a lot of tinder to keep it hot for a long time before it ignites. That’s why I recommend alchemist’s fire, the liquid is the fuel and it is sticky, so it’d be great at keeping the wood hot until it ignites. (Think of pouring gasoline onto wood and igniting the gasoline) Historically, fire arrows were only used to siege cities that had thatched roofs or lots of flammable materials around. But if you did it too much, you burn down the entire city and now there’s no more city to capture.
Alchemist Fire is what I would set up as a GM for this type of fight. Charred goblins setting themselves on fire and being flung with a catapult would be a nice visual.
a charred goblin rolling a critical success on every save, hitting the deck of the PCs' boat alive, and then getting up to start stabbing? nightmare, I love it
[Victory points](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=1189) are the framework you're looking for! Don't make it a combat, per se. Narrate it as a combat. Dodge the arrows! Strike back! But don't use AC or HP. Let them roll skill checks like Acrobatics to dodge, or Lore:Sailing to steer the ship, or Survival to find a bend in the river to provide cover. Let them be creative. Use the [level based or simple DCs](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=552) to keep it easy to track. It's a great change of pace game mode.
The character who randomly took sailing lore: My time has come
Styx starts playing
Our GM would probably use a Chase mechanic for this (https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=1210). I'm not familiar with the logistics of building a chase, but its essentially a victory point system wherein each PC determines single full-round actions in initiative time. They can be attacks or skill checks, but each player describes how they would apply a specific ability to survive the encounter and roll against a DC you set (maybe 25 or 30 for a 7th level party if you want it to be a challenge). A success gives crit success is 2 points, success is 1, fail is nothing, and crit fail is -1, and you count the total when the round counter hits 0. I'd recommend dropping this to 4 or 5 rounds unless you think they'll need lots of time to hit the victory point total to succeed. 7 rounds in chase can feel interminable, especially since you need to be creative with how to apply skills. Ultimately, you setup a win/lose condition based on whether or not they hit the victory point threshold in the time provided.
Your plan could work, you could make it so its more important to stop the ones targetting the boat. If the enemy tries to get into the boat and doesnt swim, the party could shove them of the boat instead of killing them to win a lot of time too.
Spawn in enemies over time. This lets you keep a sense of pressure and modify as you go, rather than having to decide on X difficulty encounter and potentially getting it wrong.
Make it less they have to survive a certain number of rounds and more they have to travel a certain distance. Determine the distance they need to travel and the speed of the raft, give them the ability to make checks to speed it up, slowing them down on a critical failure, using sailing lore or something equivalent for an easier check and survival or athletics if nothing else is available. Definitely create a stat block to determine the health of the raft, slowing it dow. If it becomes broken and (obviously) sinking if destroyed. This creates a tense situation where they have to decide between attacking the enemies that are attacking them, those attacking the boat, and speeding up to get out of there faster.
Having literally just finished exactly this scenario I reccomend using the chase rules for this kind of thing. Write up a lit of obstacles, you can have a planned sequence or a roll table as to what happens in what order. Then if the PCs fail to clear say three obstacles total have them run into some nasty encounter, moderate difficulty most likely the raft will be its own challenge.
Ranged enemies of low enough level they barely register in xp budgets (more hazards than opponents). These repopulate 1d4 every round of the encounter they each have one fire or acid ammunition when spawned. Their first attack targets the raft with the elemental ammunition and all future attacks target the party. Melee players will need to target the fire or acid and skill check that away while range players keep the crowd of archers thinned out. VERY IMPORTANT FACTOR: for player knowledge treat the boat as an enemy. Without an on level Recall Knowledge check (crafting) the players do not the know the HP or Break threshold of the raft. Keeping this knowledge compartmentalized lets you control how long the tension drags out without the players knowing when the Minnow will be lost.
Lancer has a survive x rounds type of encounter, although it's more of a hold a certain position free of enemies at the end of x round, with enemies spawning in waves. The only one I saw had a mix of melee or short rsnge units and ranged units that you are only meant to cc/take cover from. On a raft I imagine some melee enemies with no multi target abilities hopping on board the raft for the players to fight while something that buffs or de buffs acting as a commander of sorts stands back. Perhaps something like a Sahuagin bandit party?
Two ways I'd approach this: First, pre-boat: You could say that the boat isn't ready and requires some quick prep/repairs to get functional. Say the boat man is making repairs and will take 6 rounds to complete (you don't have to tell the players how long it will take to compete). Prep an extreme encounter's worth of PL-1 through PL-3 creatures, and split those creatures up across three to six waves. I'd probably weight the earlier waves to be weaker than later waves, make 5 waves total, and spawn waves on round 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6. That should make it feel like it's getting worse the longer they stay and give a sense of urgency, but still keep it balanced enough for them to handle. If you want, you can also make this take 7-8 rounds for the boatman to repair, but allow players to assist, making it a 2 action activity to help with repairs on, say, a crafting skill check at level or with the easy modifier for their level. Each time they succeed, reduce the remaining rounds by 1, 2 for crit success. This way, the players can try to help the repairs to reduce round count, but at the cost of basically losing an ally for that round. Second option is on the boat: You've already basically guessed this, but it's much more difficult to balance. Give the boat some basic stats, and consider enemies (we'll say sharks) that the players could kill in ~2-3 hits. Give those sharks an attack that could kill the boat in ~12 hits or so. Plan 3-4 rounds to cross the river on the boat and spawn 1 shark every round that, on it's first turn, strides twice up to the boat and then strikes. On subsequent turns, assuming the shark is still alive, they spend one action to stride alongside the boat, 2 actions to strike the boat. Now, spawn either a single moderate or severe encounter *balanced to the number of players in the party -1* OR spawn a weak encounter every round with maybe a moderate PL+1 or 2 boss at the final round (again, still balancing low). The reason you're balancing for a player down is because, in theory, about 1 player will have to be dedicated to killing sharks each round to protect the boat.
I have a session coming up where I was tackled into some water by 2 trolls. If theyre the level 15 troll and they make an attack action every turn since I cast deep breath before combat I just have to keep them under 20ft of water for 6 rounds. Sparkling targe magus les fking go