Gnolls, lycanthropes and BBEGs - ideas please

[Snowy]

Ok this is a continuation of the savage elves game that I have posted for advice for previously, things are going swimmingly so far. But yet again I seek inspiration.

First things first we haven't had a real good fight for a while I'd like a chance for the paladin and the cleric to stand toe to toe and beat things up, the party has madea very good job of picking things off on their own (not complaining its good tactics but want to give the combat reflexes guy and the massive strength guy a chance to shine!)

Party composition:

ranger 1/paladin 3 - combat reflexes, sword and sheild (ambi s.swords soon)
barbarian 2/Cleric 3 - fangs and claws all about the fighting
fighter 1/bard 4 - uber buffing machine
Sorceror 1/Fighter 4 - basically a walking ballista, every archer feat he can find
Druid 5 - weak and frail, likes his poisons
Sorceror 4 - Scorching ray as 2nd level spell

The bad guys are a gnoll pack in fact the alpha pack of the gnoll nation the goal is to wipe out the leader (called alpha) and his seer. They know that the leader has two bodygaurds that have claws (possibly shapechangers/lycanthropes, or could have the same feats (takes 2) as the cleric/barb)

My plan was using (http://www.enworld.org/cc/fiend_factory/elc/encounter_calculator.htm) to work it out for arrangment as follows.

Alpha CR 6 (some sort of fighting class barbarian? favouring ambi as thats the gnolls flavour)
Gaurds x2 CR 4 (bit low to use lycanthropes?)
Gnolls x4 CR1 (furs and leathers, no sheilds, ambi handaxes though possibly another ambi weapon (handaxes was what the friendly gnoll tribe used)

then the seer as a separate encounter she hould be an equal sort of challenge and is either being conned by something or is a Derro in disguise as a gnoll (this is the cunning plot). I'm thinking that she'll have to be a caster to fake being a gnollish tribe seer they are spirit shaman (though again not hard and fast as the players have no idea)

Any suggestions for classes or templates for the Alpha, seer and gaurds? or maybe a coll encounter location my current plan for that is some sort of cave with hot springs and steam.

 

[Chimera]

Numbers, numbers, numbers.

Throw the Horde at them. All the 'lesser' packs get sent in first to soften up the party. That gives everyone a chance to shine. Lots of AoO opportunities for the Combat Reflexes guy, lots of targets for everyone.

Consider making the Seer a Doppleganger with levels in Cleric, Wizard or ??? The continuous Detect Thoughts allows her to read the minds of the people who come to her, so that she can easily "know so much without being told". Also puts her in the position of power by way of knowing people's secrets and being able to blackmail those around her.

If she gets away, she really gets away, as she can assume another identity very easily. The 'Seer' vanishes without a trace, unless they acquire magic (not real hard) to learn the truth.

 

[Nightfall]

Ideally,

Have around...5-10 1st level warriors for regular guards. The elite, have them have two levels of fighter or else ranger.
Their leader, give him levels in Warblade. Just kidding, barbarian or ranger levels are good choices.

 

[Kesh]

Gnolls like ambush tactics. Better to have your prey helpless, or at least at a disadvantage. If the prey gains the advantage, fall back and lure them into a new trap.

To that end, I've always thought a gnoll druid would be a terror. Using spells to call up nasty traps (entangle, transmute rock to mud), monsters (summon swarm, giant vermin) and cover an escape (fog cloud, wall of thorns) make them versatile. Not to mention being strong fighters on their own, having a few direct damage spells (flame strike, ice storm) and their shapechange ability.

Even more powerful is pairing them with a ranger, and a few warriors or a group of classless gnolls as a hunting party.

Gnoll clerics are the worst. Good fighters, strong saves, and nasty damage-dealing spells. Pick some of the nastier domains (War, Madness, Darkness, Destruction, etc.) and they can be a really nasty BBEG. Especially if they get the fiendish or half-fiend template applied.

Just remember: gnolls don't like a fair fight. They fight to win and would rather retreat than take a loss. Gnolls are excellent at fighting a war of attrition, whittling down their enemy and harrying them until they can overwhelm their opponent in a single, powerful strike.

At least, that's how I run 'em.

 

[Pinotage]

Reality Deviant Publication released A Touch of Evil III: Gnolls some time ago. That's got quite a number of good ideas in, some useful NPCs, and I believe lycanthropes as well. Might be worth a look.

Pinotage

 

[Evilhalfling]

I would certainly throw at least one lesser pack at them first, up to 10 normal gnolls.

Werewolf only adds +2 cr, so werewolf gnolls would still be CR 3, and still add a level of fighter,
or barbarian.
Claws can also be from a 1st level psi-warrior power

for the rest of the alpha pack, I would give them eliete stat array (you may need this anyway
as two weapon fighting req 15 dex instead of the 10 average gnolls have )

Gnolls in earlier addtions preferred big weapons (polearms) to maximize their size and strength.
Halberds with a 19 str? Whee!

I also have a gnoll pargaon class in HR forum. It gives them the powerful build feature, and other benifits, you can discard the chariot flavor, as im sure it does not fit your world.
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=89415

My players had a great time taking on charrotieers, stealing the first one they found, and using it to fight against the others

 

[Snowy]

many thanks to those of you who posted.

The ideas fed my overly mean and fertile imagination.

The end array was as follows.

First encounter was a bodygaurd sent north as a messenger with a small retinue.

Gnoll werewolf (elite array) with 1 cleric 3rd level and 6 other gnolls
(I did give a potion of enlarge person to the bodygaurd and the cleric bull strengthed him too) - scared the hell out of them. Giant clawed phenomononly strong were gnoll.

next encounter due to some good tactics was right in the gnoll sacred mountain (lets call it mount doom, that should provide the idea)

Two were gnoll bodygaurds (one coup de graced in his sleep one fought) then the seer, the alpha, and a mini gauth (mini mini beholder).

Seer - Derro with sorceror levels (decided to not over complicate the plot and leave derro as the minions of the big bad)

Alpha - Straight gnoll barabrian with a spiked chain, power attack and cleave. Mean. Gave him good stats as well 30ish point buy I think)

Mini Gauth - only damaging rays and only 4, 2 firable in any arc. I wanted to introduce an abomination as thats the big bad evil races desire to corrupt the westlands.

The fight was a little disappointing, Derro Sorceror cast blur, then every single miss chance rolled went aginst her. Every single one. Alpha laided out some smack down and put a party member in negatives. Was boxed in by summoned bears by the pary druid then whittled down.
The mini gauth was almost wiped out by a move and attack by the cleric barabrian that bust off most of its hit points. then taken out by an arrow soon after.

Still they now have a derro sorceror (disguised as a gnoll seer) to question, sweet sweet plot expose. And then the escape from Gnoll lands a weeks journey north to get friendly territory. depending on their actions they may make the volcano erupt or not.

I'm hoping they will have a gnoll hunting pack chasing them when they flee north so we can have some geurilla warfare in the trees before we leave this section of plot line for a little while and do some dungeon crawling.

I'll be back begging for ideas soon enough!

Thanks Guys you made my game run a lot better with more interst than it would have been otherwise.