The cats themself avoid fight, but they aren't beyond triggering traps in the PCs way.
How about that?
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Apply the swarm template to cats.
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Barbarian levels.
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What will be the primary dealers of damage the PCs will be facing? If the cats are distractions and hit-&-run mooks (mewks?), then maybe you might use something like cuttlemoggies? Or maybe add a template to the cats?
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I've always been fond of the old Tibbit race of catwere's and they would fit right in with your witchy theme. I played one once that I gave one level of warlock to and then described my arcane blasts as ranged cat scratches.
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I'm making a small one-shot dungeon themed around witches. Does anyone have ideas for making cats an actual challenge? This is for two level 1 characters (cavalier and alchemist).
A lower level version of this, inspired by the Star Trek episode Catspaw (in which a 'witch' grows her cat to giant size and has it stalk the away team), could be fun.
Alternately, apply the Mauler template to her familiar and use enlarge person (a spell that, IIRC, she can apply to her familiar through Share Spells, even if it is of a type not normally affected by enlarge person).
Swarms of cats are also a scary possibility, or the witch using various other spells through Share Spells, such as ear-piercing scream, or scare, so that whenever that darned cat appears, bad things happen.
Bonus points if you can find a way for the witch to use beguiling gift through the cat (via Share Spells) and have it deliver something dead (and yet still dangerous) to the PCs, like a dead rat (carrying filth fever) or something.
"Uh, I feel sick. Why oh why did I eat the dead rat that cat brought me?"
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iirc there's a oneshot module that has the players shrink to the size of mice for the duration of the adventure. the final boss is a house-cat sized wyrmling dragon.
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The cats are all baleful polymorphed former intruders that have been brainwashed into defending the place.
Then you can basically cherry pick their stats, based on what its original form used to be.
A troll would still have 13 Strength, 63 hp, and rend, for example.
Alternatively, just add a thematic template to them and chock it up to magical experimentation.
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Apply the swarm template to cats.
You could trap the PCs in a typical sealed room, but then instead of compressing walls, you could have a fountain of endless kittens (constructs) slowly fill the room...
Bonus points if one of the PCs later starts quipping: "Snakes Kittens. Why did it have to be kittens?"
Bonus points if you can find a way for the witch to use beguiling gift through the cat (via Share Spells) and have it deliver something dead (and yet still dangerous) to the PCs, like a dead rat (carrying filth fever) or something.
"Uh, I feel sick. Why oh why did I eat the dead rat that cat brought me?"
This is genius. Even without any disease, a PC realizing he/she has just eaten a whole raw rat/bird/lizard could have to make a Fort save vs. nausea.
Dex to damage.
Bite, claw, claw, rend, rake, rake, utter disregard.
When the PCs sleep, they get smothered by cat!
DC 10 Reflex save or step in a hairball.
DC 10 Will save or paralyzed when it sits in your lap.
DC 10 Fortitude save or fail to sleep from their yowling, become fatigued.
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burning skelelton cats as they would have stupid high ac and deal fire damage to those around them.
burning skelelton cats as they would have stupid high ac and deal fire damage to those around them.
AC 15 is stupid high?
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Have the cats attack as a swarm but as each one is cut down it polymorphs back to a (now dead) innocent villager.
I have to say I like the idea of having the cats be obviously undead or fiendish or somehow "not normal cats". A lot of people (myself included) don't really like RPG scenarios where the premise is "kill a whole bunch of cats/dogs/wolves/etc." but if you make them obviously *wrong* in some creepy way, that's less of an issue.
I'd have a lot more fun having my character gnawed to death by the likes of demon cats or undead cats than if they were normal cats.
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Cats are scary enough as it is. They are fully capable of eviscerating most commoners.
This is actually a common gag at our table.
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burning skelelton cats as they would have stupid high ac and deal fire damage to those around them.AC 15 is stupid high?
Clearly he also meant you should put some masterwork cat studded leather on them as well.
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No, the armored peeg airborne squadron is the second attack wave.
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I like the flaming cat bones idea. That would really put the hurt on low level adventurers.
I like the flaming cat bones idea. That would really put the hurt on low level adventurers.
Like it's really hard to put the hurt on 1st through 5th levels?
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Cats are scary enough as it is. They are fully capable of eviscerating most commoners.
Some of the old D&D encounter tables had
"You're attacked by 1d12 cats, roll initiative"
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For 1st level pcs?
Level 1 rogue cats with 5 natural attacks and pounce
What will be the primary dealers of damage the PCs will be facing? If the cats are distractions and hit-&-run mooks (mewks?), then maybe you might use something like cuttlemoggies? Or maybe add a template to the cats?
Good to have some free cuttlemoggie stuff for 2016. ;)
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Enchant the cat with Pup Shape. Now they need to make a will save to even attack. [Unless they are evil.] Now they look like kittens and seem week, but have better AC and attack capabilities.
/cevah
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Alternately, apply the Mauler template to her familiar and use enlarge person (a spell that, IIRC, she can apply to her familiar through Share Spells, even if it is of a type not normally affected by enlarge person).
You can't apply Enlarge Person on a medium sized Mauler familiar, as Battle Form is a polymorphism effect and, as such, doesn't stack with other effects that alter the actual size of the target.
I second the Mauler familiar idea and suggest the Beast-Bonded Witch archetype to give them feats: Skill Focus [Intimidate] and Persuasive to start, add Intimidating Prowess and Dazzling Display at higher levels. You can also take Evolved Familiar with the witch, select the +8 racial bonus evolution and apply it to Intimidate.
Otherwise you can go with Evolved Familiar and/or Figment familiar archetype and create a bunch of mutant cats with extra body parts to scare the s+%~ out of your players :P
Of course, in both cases, use them to deliver blasts or save-or-suck touch spells previously cast by the witches who, in the meantime, are hidden behind the scenes.
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Cats aren't very scary. Mutant Advanced Giant Devilbound Half-Fiend Vampire Cats on the other hand...
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Well, these cats are pretty tough....
/cevah
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Cats aren't very scary. Mutant Advanced Giant Devilbound Half-Fiend Vampire Cats on the other hand...
For a little while my brain read this as Teenage Mutant Advanced Giant Devilbound Half-Fiend Vampire Cats . . . .
not just at yours.^^Cats are scary enough as it is. They are fully capable of eviscerating most commoners.This is actually a common gag at our table.
In 2E we always figured cat vs 1st level wizard was 50%/50% - depended on if the wizard got off his one spell (sleep or magic missile) and how the cat rolled for it's save or the mm damage roll before it got to claw/claw/bite at the wizards 1d4 hitpoints. The joke was that the Test of High Wizardry was to walk down a dark alley infested with alley cats with a couple of fresh mackerel in the pockets of your robes....
Have knee high grass or fog so that the cat's have concealment (the party may effectively have concealment too, but cat's know the ground, have scent and good stealth/hearing. (Or briars that give some cover and are difficult terrain for creatures of size small or larger).
Mix in plenty of regular cats to distract and soak up attacks with the fewer familiars or other intelligent/malevolent cats.
Force the party into crawling through tunnels or under buildings - cats are scarier face to face (e.g. squeeze penalties).
Have the intelligent cats have raked their claws through poison or the witches fitted them with Poison Caps (Source PPC:AA).
The most elite cats burst into a swarm of spiders or centipedes when killed...
One of the cats could be a Migrus (from the item Migrus Locker).
That slow motion kitten from that dream sequence on Buffy, Season 4's Finale....
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Just gonna leave this right here...
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As people say, cats are not naturally intimidating to most players. So if you really want to ramp up the drama of this fight, you need to build up to it.
On the way to this witch lair, and in the dungeon itself, have cats appear before actual traps and encounters. Arched back, hissing, yowling, hair on end--everything a cat does to scream "Don't mess with me!" In older times, cats could be interpreted as a bad omen; similarly, if you do this right, your players will become nervous any time a cat appears, because they understand implicitly that something dangerous is about to befall them. In game, you might say the witch is scrying through these cats for the PCs, and directing her traps and minions to attack wherever the cats find them.
Fast forward to the penultimate fight. All the cats have gathered back up at the witch's lair as a last line of defense. The players, who know that cat = bad times, walk into a room full of hissing, spitting, yowling, mangy cats. It should give them pause.
Now, for the actual fight, I wouldn't go full APL+4, since there are only two PCs and there is probably a witch to fight after these guys. Firstly, as has been said, use a swarm. If you don't want to build a cat swarm, the rat swarm should be about the same CR, and the cat's are probably filthy with disease anyway. If CR 2 is too low, you can add the advanced and giant template to beef it up, or add a second swarm.
Swarms alone are pretty nasty, but since you have an alchemist, a swarm shouldn't be a great challenge unless he's used up his bombs already (or rolls poorly). If you expect the alchemist to be well-stocked, then the first time he throws a bomb at the swarm, have a pair of giant, advanced cats (feral-looking Maine Coon buggers), leap out of the swarm they were hiding in and attack him. As a pair of CR 1/2 baddies, they should provide the cavalier with a way to feel useful while giving the alchemist second thoughts about throwing another bomb.
Don't forget, you can include the witch's cat familiar in this fight. If you give the witch the Animals Patron, you can also give her familiar Animal Speaker, letting it speak to others of its kind at 1st level. This lets it direct the cats to fight more intelligently. The familiar also teeeechnically doesn't raise the CR since its XP is baked into the witch's CR (If you aren't going to have the PCs fight the witch, then you should probably have the familiar count as the Witch's CR -3 or 4 for XP rewards).
Lastly, if this feels a bit less exciting in terms of rules, set the encounter in a room that the cats can just ruin in their fight with the PCs. Set it in the witch's potion brewing room, or her library. Now in addition to its normal abilities, the swarm can topple shelves onto the PCs, knock dangerous chemicals off of tables, and take cover from splash attacks behind larger pieces of furniture. More options mean less certainty about what the cats will do next and thereby a little more anxiety.
Just gonna leave this right here...
Wow...
Also gonna add that you can use this: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/creature-swarm- template
Some thoughts:
Use any combination of...
1. Give the cats some spell-like abilities. (e.g. charm person, levitate, detect thoughts, invisibility, steal breath, others as appropriate)
2. Give the cats the ability to grow in size to size Small, which allows you to apply the Giant template... and also allows them to attack without entering their opponents' squares, thus avoiding the AOO problem of size Tiny creatures.
3. Arbitrarily increase their Hit Dice and ability scores.
IRL, being attacked by a housecat can cause some serious damage!
Since the PCs are level 1 and don't have a lot of hit points, target their CMD and trip them, disarm them, etc.
Also apply conditions to them. "Cat scratch fever" can be the sickened condition, etc.
Cat vs Commoner . . . .
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Schrodinger's Cat
Schrodinger's cat, Pavlov's dog and Avogadro's mole walk into a bar...
Okay, now that we've got a link to a video for Schrodinger's cat, somebody has GOT to link us to videos corresponding to Pavlov's dog and Avogadro's mole . . . .
if one (or more) of the cats are a familiar, they could be the target of any number of spells via share spells and if the caster is 3rd level of higher, the familiar can deliver touch spells...
Schrodinger's CatSchrodinger's cat, Pavlov's dog and Avogadro's mole walk into a bar...
Is Wigner's Friend the bartender?