Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Rood.Inverse Nov 05, 2014 13:04:28	Running it for my FLGS now, and I was wondering about people's experiences and expectations.   I've learned from past seasons to work with as light a hand as possible with the published material, but this season seems (despite having my table of 5-6 regulars) to drop someone every session. And people are ending up perma-dead every 3rd or 4th session.   Is it really supposed to be this rough, or are there things I've missed, having not been on these forums much, that would be good keys to not regularly causing failure on the players' part?
#2 biotech66 Nov 07, 2014 7:22:13	DnD Next is much deadler then 4e or even 3e.  That door swings both ways, and players need to learn that.  Play smart, and you can really mow down some orcs.  Play dumb, and you get dead quick.  Now, I'll admit I do tend to pull the last punch a bit.  Also, if you have a level 1 character in the level 4 part of the HotDQ, you will die quick!   The big bad in the temple at the end of stuff hes a pain, and I had a table of six and a table of four both play through that same scene.  Both parties ended with a mano-a-mano fight after all the other people went down.  Nice and tense!
#3 IxidorRS Nov 07, 2014 7:57:35	The only TPK I've heard about at our store was due to player mistake. "Are you sure you want to cast Thunderwave?" was asked twice, I believe.
#4 Kalani Nov 07, 2014 12:13:50	I have yet to kill anyone at my table (not for lack of trying in the cyanwrath encounter in ep3). This despite the fact that the party is underleveled - most were 2nd level in that fight with one 3rd level PC.    As far as dropping PCs go - I drop approx half the party each night but tend to pull punches when things are going sideways.    I dont pull pull punches against boss encounters though.
#5 Rood.Inverse Nov 11, 2014 14:23:34	Yea, my table was at-level (that is, 3rd) for the temple encounter during Chapter 3.   Cyanwrath called out one of the players to start combat, and the party thief decided he was going to go first, with advantage and sneak attack dice. Cyanwrath was obviously angry, and when 3/6 players got in a line, Cyanwrath disengaged, moved, and used his action economy trick (the "once after every short rest") and breath weaponed. Two went down, and one met perma-death.   We went into the next session with one of the downed players making an offer for the entire party's freedom, if Cyanwrath would give him a proper one-on-one. He obliged. And lost, via some very bad die rolls in the clutch, when it came down to "one last hit" territory.   It made for a good tale, actually.   But now everyone tucked tail and has zero idea what's going on, as they leave the cult's grotto to lick their wounds in Greenest, knowing only that the majority of cultists made the move westward, toward the coast.   It won't be too hard to carry on from and pick up the pieces... But morale isn't at its highest among either the players or the characters. Some of them do like how there's actually something at stake (they felt the last couple seasons, which I'd been running on 4e) since they feel more "mortal." Which is cool, because it leads to more creative players. But it also seems to be discouraging some newer players who used to come to the table, and don't because... I don't know? It's not "Oblivion" or something.   5e is something I'm having a hard time learning where and when to pull punches and when not to, and that's okay. Just have to make sure the players are still having some kind of fun, while I learn that.
#6 Mascle Nov 11, 2014 15:37:04	IxidorRS wrote:
#7 AlHazred Nov 13, 2014 6:20:03	I almost had a TPK last night in room 10 of the Hatchery. The way the encounter is set up, I believe if you run things as written killing at least one character is unavoidable.
#8 Kalani Nov 13, 2014 7:29:58	AlHazred wrote:
#9 AlHazred Nov 13, 2014 11:59:40	Kalani wrote:
(Reply to #8) Coredump00	Kalani wrote:
#11 Kalani Nov 13, 2014 22:30:49	My FLGS runs 6 tables of up to 7 players. My particular table averages 6 players (sometimes 5 or 7), and yes - I do increase the difficulty as suggested for larger parties. The Cyanwrath encounter for example, had an extra Berserker due to the party numbers - and it almost resulted in a TPK on several occasions due to the fact that every character save one was level 2 throughout the majority of the hatchery.   The party also chose the difficult route, and fought Mondath and Cyanwrath back to back with only a short rest between them.   My table composition is relatively stable as well - so that might also add into their success, as they are gaining familiarity with each others strategies and tactics. The table regulars consist of: Halfling Rogue (primarily ranged) Human Great Weapon Fighter (who has yet to make a Power Attack, and uses it primarily for the cleave) Elf Moon Druid Human Barbarian Human Valor Bard With the exception of the Druid (who hit L3 after the Cyanwrath encounter) and Fighter (who was L3 at the start of Episode 3), most of the party was level 2 until early in Episode 4.    Recently, the table gained the services of a stable Life Cleric, who showed up part-way through Ep3, but who has leveled quickly - thanks largely to the party defeating Area 9 and 10, and how generous Ep4 is with the XP awards (the party has gained 2100xp each in ep4 alone, as of day 14).   I would say it was the introduction of said Life Cleric which has saved the parties bacon on numerous occasions to date, as the party comes very close to the wire, only to be healed just enough to make a comeback - thanks entirely to her timely heals (the only offensive actions said character has taken to date have been sacred flame and most recently, guiding bolt).    In the Cyanwrath encounter, it was the Druid which single-handedly prevented a TPK, popping both of her wildshapes and tanking Cyanwrath while the party cleared up the berserkers (who dropped most of the party, some of which were later healed by said cleric).
#12 Tyranthraxus Nov 13, 2014 23:44:43	Id say the Roper encounter was the hardest 'encounter' Ive been in so far in 5e. It was nasty. We managed to take out the Kobolds pretty easily via a sleep spell but the Roper was a different matter. Due to a dm ruling I managed to park a flaming sphere just in front of the roper and it not only hurt the roper each turn it also hit the tentacles. So I was directly helping out our grunts who were Hurting big time (we lack a cleric). It was touch and go for a fair while there but after the combat, I said to the Warlock on the table... 'This was our kill!' and it was. We both did the heavy lifting that combat.
#13 Kalani Nov 14, 2014 6:52:54	The only reason my table managed to kill said roper was due to a combination of the Bear Druid tanking the beast, the life cleric healing the party, the fact the roper only gets one bite action/turn, and the barbarian getting 2 crits in a row....    It was a combination of luck and well timed actions on the player's parts. This is especially true once you consider the fact that the Roper at my table was a god-damn ninja. How many times can the roper roll above 16 on a Dexterity save I don't know, but my roper only failed one of 6 Dex Saves, in which it rolled a 3 (for a final check of 2). The rest were all 16 and above (after dex modifiers).    Retired 2E Adventurer: In my day, roper's weren't ninja's. You heroes today with your short rest mechanics, and your proficiency bonus, and your ninja ropers...... I don't know what this gameworld is coming to.   lol
#14 Coredump00 Nov 14, 2014 18:09:21	The roper can restrain 6 party members simultaneously.... and should successfully grab 2-3 per turn (4 attacks, +7 To Hit).  If running with 6-7 you can deal with a few restrained.... but if running with the 'standard' 4; I don't see how it isn't a TPK almost every time.
#15 Kalani Nov 14, 2014 18:54:00	Restrained does not prevent the characters from attacking however, only imposes disadvantage on the check.    Restrained A restrained creature’s speed becomes 0, and it can’t benefit from any bonus to its speed. Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the creature’s attack rolls have disadvantage. The creature has disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws. With that being said, I did miss the fact that the roper's tendril attacks restrain the character - so the battle was somewhat easier than it should have been. An oversight and a simple mistake on my part - it happens.
#16 Coredump00 Nov 16, 2014 12:22:09	Yep, disadvantage against AC 20, at lvl 3.....
#17 Dyndrilliac Nov 20, 2014 22:12:31	My group is about to finish Epsiode 3 and begin Episode 4. So far, the only enemy that has given us any particular difficulty is Cyanwrath. Everything else has pretty much been a cake walk.
#18 Kalani Nov 20, 2014 22:50:55	My table just finished Episode 4 last night. Just a friendly heads up, some of the encounters in Episode 4 are whack.   One encounter in particular "No Room at the Inn" involves 4 CR8 assassins. The way said encounter is written, if the party does not start a fight - one of the other members of the caravan "might".    I almost TPKed the party on the first round of combat with two characters being dropped, and a third being at 1HP - at which point I said "no - there is no way a APL (Average Party Level) 4 party could defeat this encounter as written)".  - FYI, I had 7 PCs at my table, and despite this - the encounter was likely to TPK the party.   I then retconned the first round of combat, and removed two of the assassins. This dropped the encounter difficulty to something that, while extremely challenging - was within the parties capabilities to overcome. By the end of said encounter, I had dropped 1 character twice, almost dropped a second character on two occasions, and had reduced a third to half HPs.   Again, this was with a party of 6 L4 PCs and 1 L3 PC... Against a party of 4 or 5 L4 PCs, this would still be a "deadly" encounter, even with my modifications.
#19 GTKA666 Nov 22, 2014 6:25:16	The assasins were probably the only thing to give our party any pause and actually threatened to break our formation. If the other guards of the caravan didnt intervine then we would have been a near TPK with the wizard and cleric living and trying to bring back the rogue and off tank. Had our tank been with us then it would have just been another cake walk. Note to self: dont have a noble in the party unless he doesn't knwo how to play it. They have too much of this "honor" thing.
#20 Dooflegna Nov 22, 2014 8:45:19	One table at my FLGS actually played smart with the roper and fed it meat found from the locker, thus avoiding the combat entirely. For my table, the ranger just decided to... shoot it. While it was completely unprovoked.   That was nearly a TPK.