Copyright 2011 Wizards of the Coast.

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This is a new Vale-specific faction.

The Lore

Raven Roost is an old manor located about 10 miles to the southeast of Thunderspire. It used to be the home of a local lord back in Nerathi times, and got this name because the lord had a gallows assembled at a nearby hilltop and was in the habit of keeping the bodies of executed criminals on display there. This attracted a lot of ravens, and gave the property its name.

The lord and his household are long gone, and today Raven Roost is home to a fairly sophisticated bandit gang. Their proximity to the Trade Road allows them to regularly attack travelers and traders moving between Fallcrest, Thunderspire and Hammerfast. They’re helped in this enterprise by Barton, the cheerful owner of the Fiveleague House inn near Hammerfast, who sends them advance warning of juicy targets coming from that direction.

The book also mentions the bandits also attack the King’s Road to the south, but that’s pretty far from their home base and requires them to cut through a bit of Harken forest to reach it. Harken’s Heart or the Hunter Spiders might have something to say about that if they exist in your campaign.

Banditry was always common along that stretch of road, as the nearby Harken Forest seems to offer a nice source of shelter and concealment to the deserters, cutthroats and outlaws who tend to make up these gangs. None of them ever lasted for very long, though, eventually falling prey to infighting or incurring the displeasure of the forest’s inhabitants. This changed when the three shadar-kai, disgraced former servants of the Raven Queen, arrived on the scene.

Of the three, Samminel was a warlord, Erzoun his court witch, and Geriesh his chief spy. Erzoun once predicted that Samminel would never advance in prestige and station if he remained on his Shadowfell domain, so the trio crossed into the world. Their spectacular displays of violence unburdened by compassion earned the fear and respect of all the little bands that hid in the Forest, who decided to swear loyalty to them and beg for training and leadership. Thus were the Raven Roost bandits formed.

The three leaders don’t actually work together very well, since they have a tendency to undermine each other’s authority. They know this, however, and have arranged things so that each of them commands a separate force with little direct interaction.

Raven Roost itself is an excellent home base for them. It occupies a little hidden valley in the Old Hills that’s supremely defensible and cannot be seen from the road. It’s also out of Harken Forest proper, which makes the bandits much less vulnerable to attacks by angry druids. They hide in the edges of the forest while waiting in ambush, but Raven Roost is where they rest their heads.

The bandits’ initial attacks were shockingly violent, but they’ve toned it down after their reputation began to spread. They frequently spare the lives of their victims and accept surrenders, since they know that people fight back harder when their lives are at stake. Sometimes their reputation allows them to avoid a fight entirely. Eventually, they plan to capitalize on that reputation to move from banditry to warlordism, and try to conquer and rule their own stretch of the Vale.

The Numbers

We get stats for the three shadar-kai leaders, and for the rank-and-file bandits they lead. Bandits are usually human, though you could certainly mix things a bit and add other ancestries here.

The three leaders have the Shadar-kai Shadow Jaunt encounter power, which lets them teleport 3 squares and become insubstantial for a turn as a move action. The others have no common traits.

As usual, we’ll look at them in ascending order of level, with the leaders at the end.

Raven Roost Harrier

Trained by Geriesh, harriers are Level 4 Skirmishers with 53 HP. Their short swords deal physical damage and prevent the target from making opportunity attacks for a turn on a hit. Their Crossbows have no raiders, but are decent basic ranged attacks. They can make Moving Attacks that let them move their speed, attack with the sword at any point, and move away without provoking opportunity attacks from their target.

Raven Roost Cutthroat

Also trained by Geriesh, cutthroats are Level 5 Lurkers with 49 HP. They fight with daggers and garrotes. Garrotes target Reflex and grab the target on a hit. The escape DC is a surprising 22! While the grab lasts, the cutthroat has superior cover and both it and the victim are immune to forced movement. The bandit can use an Aterial Cut on its grabbed victim, an attack that deals both immediate and ongoing physical damage (save ends), and ends the grab on a hit.

If the victim escapes the cutthroat’s grab, it can use Quick Cut to make a free dagger attack against them.

Raven Roost Grenadier

Trained by Erzoun, grenadiers are Level 5 Controllers with 61 HP. They’re armed with a Shortsword and with a large assortment of grenades. They carry 8 Fire Bombs that deal fire damage in an Area Burst 1 and knock the targets prone on a hit. They deal half damage on a miss.

They also carry a single Smoke Bomb laced with poison, which attacks an Area Burst 1 and causes the targets to become dazed and to take ongoing poison damage (save ends). This creates a zone that lightly obscures its space until the end of the encounter.

Finally, they carry a bomb that can produce an Oil Slick, which can knock everyone in an Area Burst 1 prone and as an effect make them vulnerable to fire for a turn.

Once per encounter they can also use Grenadier’s Rush to move their speed with a minor action.

Raven Roost Sharpshooter

Another Erzoun special, sharpshooters are Level 6 Artillery with 55 HP. They fight with short swords and crossbows, and as expected of artillery the latter are more accurate and damaging.

Sharpshooters can spend their move action to perform a Careful Aim maneuver. This lets them pick an enemy they can see. If they can still see that enemy at the start of their next turn, their crossbow attack will attack the target’s Reflex instead of their AC, and will deal 5 extra damage. So not only will the attack be more accurate than usual, it will also target a lower defense (often much lower for heavily armored characters).

Sharpshooters can also deploy an Archer’s Decoy as a free action, which grants them a +2 bonus to AC and Reflex for a turn. This recharges when they’re first bloodied.

Since Careful Aim is a move action, sharpshooters are quite powerful when they can remain stationary. You can help them with that by deploying them behind good cover.

Raven Roost Outlaw Veteran

Led by Samminel, veterans are Level 6 Brutes with 86 HP. They fight with bastard swordS and can do a fair few things with them.

Aside from their basic attacks, they can use Mighty Blows, which do the same damage, push the target 1 square, and let the veteran shift 1 square to follow. Their Swath of Death maneuver lets them attack twice and keeps recharging as long as at least one of the attacks misses.

They can also use a Forceful Shove as a minor action to attack a target’s Fortitude and push then 1 square on a hit.

Raven Roost Highwayman

Led by Samminel, highwaymen are Level 7 Soldiers with 77 HP. They wield the classy bandit’s choice, a rapier and a hand crossbow.

Their basic rapier attack marks for a turn, and despite carrying 10 bolts for the crossbow they have no ranged basic attack! Instead, they have a special encounter power named Bolt to the Gut. It’s a ranged attack but does not provoke opportunity attacks. It deals heavy physical damage, immobilizes, and inflicts ongoing physical damage (save ends). Even on a miss, it immobilizes for a turn.

What do highwaymen do with the other 9 bolts once they use this? They wait for a marked enemy to make an attack that doesn’t include them as a target. That lets them use Stand, You Coward as a reaction, which lets them immediately recharge and use Bolt to the Gut on the offending enemy!

Geriesh

Geriesh is a Level 6 Elite Skirmisher (Leader) with 136 HP. His sneaky leadership takes the form of a Swiftshadow Master aura (5), which gives all enemies inside a +4 to Initiative and to Stealth. Willing Prey makes any enemy marking him grant combat advantage.

The spymaster fights with katars, which deal extra damage against targets granting him combat advantage. If the attack does more than 20 damage, the target falls unconscious (save ends). This is possible if he attacks with combat advantage, since his damage is 3d6+7 in that case. That’s about a 40% chance of unconsciousness, which of course also happens if he crits because that causes max damage. His version of Double Attack allows him to perform two attacks and move up to his full speed between them.

Geriesh replaces the standard Shadow Jaunt power with Shadow Leap, which doesn’t grant insubstantial but lets him teleport his full speed of 6. Once per encounter, he can also use Dagger Flick as a minor action, which deals physical damage, immobilizes, and inflicts ongoing poison damage. Even on a miss, this grazes the target and immobilizes them for a turn.

Erzoun

Erzoun is a Level 7 Elite Controller (Leader) with 152 HP. Her witchy leadership manifests as a Quickshadow Aura (5). Any ally who shifts while inside the aura can shift 1 extra square. While the bandits under her are fairly martial sorts, she’s a proper witch and fights exclusively with magic.

Erzoun’s basic attack is a Blackfire Touch that does fire and necrotic damage on a hit, and slides 1 square as an effect. She can attack at range with a spell named Beshadowed Mind that deals necrotic and psychic damage, and makes the target unable to see anything further than 2 squares away (save ends).

She also has a host of limited spells, starting with a fun one. Witch’s Prophecy is an attack against Will that does no damage, but has a very interesting effect. If Erzoun hits, she can choose an ally within 10 squares. The target of the spell is weakened when attacking anyone other than the chosen ally. This lasts until the end of the encounter, and recharges whenever she misses with it! She’s going to use this to set up the worst match possible between a PC striker and a beefy ally who can resist their attacks.

Erzoun can also create a zone of Deep Shadow in an area burst 1. This is difficult terrain to enemies inside, and deals 10 damage to those enemies when they enter the zone or end their turn in it. It lasts for a turn but can be sustained and moved 4 squares with a minor action. It recharges when bloodied, so Erzoun might have two of these zones in play at once.

Erzoun gets the standard Shadow Jaunt power, but she also gets a Shadow Augury reaction that triggers when she’s hit in melee while bloodied. It recharges Shadow Jaunt and lets her use it immediately!

Erzoun is hard to pin down and will wreak havoc on the PC’s formations with a Deep Shadow zone and a prophecy right at the start. Once bloodied, she stays mostly stationary to sustain her two zones, relying on Shadow Augury to avoid being surrounded.

Samminel

The overall boss of the Raven Roost bandits is a Level 8 Elite Soldier (Leader) with 172 HP. He’s the more direct and martial of the trio, wielding a halberd in combat. His leadership instills his underlings with a Deathshadow Fervor (aura 5) that lets them daze any target against whom they score a critical hit (save ends).

The halberd marks for a turn, and he can also use it in a Double Attack or in a Sundering Sweep, which doesn’t mark but hits a Close Burst 2 and inflicts a -2 AC penalty (save ends).

If a marked enemy tries to ignore Samminel, he can make a basic attack against them as an interrupt, scoring a critical on a 17-20. He also gets the standard Shadow Jaunt power.

Samminel is less gimmicky than Erzoun, but is a good enabler for the sort of direct henchman he prefers to lead.

Final Impressions

It’s easy to see the word “bandits” and immediately think of the sort of generic opponent that tends to grace each edition’s first Monster Manual. Fortunately the ones we get here have fairly interesting mechanics that elevate them beyond the generic.

They all work very well together, but the structure described in the Lore encourages a story where you face each “sub-gang” in order, defeat its boss, and move up the ladder. The likely order is Geriesh, Erzoun, and Samminel. Depending on how tightly you couple the bandit stat blocks with the leaders who train them, you might need to insert some generics in here to pad out your encounters.

We don’t get an exact headcount of the Raven Roost bandits. There’s enough to give the Hunter Spiders pause and make them avoid “hunting” the same routes, which means you can use however many you need for your own story. Unlike the drow, these guys can get new recruits from the constant influx of assholes who arrive at their territory looking to join.

A final stand should definitely involve the three leaders at the same time. If anything would force them to work together again it’s a bunch of heroes who have systematically dismantled the rest of their gang.