Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 GMFGD Apr 19, 2015 10:18:39	In my game the party was introduced to what was initially planned as a reoccuring evil NPC Vampire.  Just straight out of the book for the initial introduction with tweaks through out the campaign.  So he was a CR 13 and the party is 8th level.  The party is a ranger, paladin, life domain cleric, and a moon druid.  The paladin detected that he was undead and a vampire.  while everyone was talking.  So he initiated the fight which I thought would go with a round or two of show of force and vampire infecting one of them maybe and leaving. The paladin did score a hit and a smited for 4d8 +4 (3 str+1 magic Longsword) burned a 2nd level spell for the 3d8+wpn d8.  He hit for 23 damage and missed the second attack.  The Life Cleric cast spiritual weapon using a 4th level spell slot with a bonus action and crit so with that attack he hit for 6d8+4(18 wis) and 3d8 doubled because of the crit and moved up drew his warhammer and crit again and did 2d8 physical and 2d8 radiant +3(2str+1 magic warhammer).  In total he hit for 83 damage on 10d8+7.....83!!!!....2 hits and only 8th level.  So after 2 characters he was down 106 of his 144.  So i used the vampire's legendary move ability and got him the hell out.  I felt bad for not allowing the party to achieve such a monumental feat, but i had plans for the story involving this NPC.  I just didnt see 1 character in round doing 83 damage.  Did we get the mechanics right for the clerics turn?
#2 Tempest_Stormwind Apr 19, 2015 10:49:32	A one-in-400 chance of that happening, but yes, it looks like it was handled right. (Caveat: away from books. Not sure the exact wording on the spells.) My concern would be with trigger happy players, rather than the mechanics.
#3 GMFGD Apr 19, 2015 10:54:10	Yea the odds are extremely rare.  The paladin generally tries to solve issues with negotians and least violent outcomes, however undead he is blind hatre and attack.  Our healer who generally heals or using guiding bolt for offense heard vampire and did what he did.  It was definately  the surprise of the evening.
#4 EmpactWB Apr 19, 2015 11:23:03	To be fair, that sounds like the perfect time for an intelligent enemy to get the heck out of Dodge. Don't feel bad about not leaving him there, imagine how much fun they'll have going after 'the one who got away'.
#5 reddaemon Apr 19, 2015 12:02:03	Vampires don't actually die at 0 HP so he probably wasn't in any real danger unless the PCs knew where his lair was and were able to clear out his minions and get to him before he could recover.
(Reply to #5) CCS	reddaemon wrote:
#7 GMFGD Apr 19, 2015 15:04:08	EmpactWB wrote:
#8 BRJN Apr 19, 2015 16:52:32	Crits DO change things.  They are supposed to be an "and then the tide turned" moment in the story.  Multiple crits ... wow, the gods really want that Vampire dead for permanent.  Maybe now you could add to his personality that he's borderline paranoid about personal combat - but standing behind a line of minions and spawn he's still confident and full of himself?  And of course he has a personal beef with the Paladin and Cleric who ripped him up so.  And maybe with their god(s).  Time to "haunt" a temple maybe?   As a mechanical side note, only the number of damage dice is doubled when a crit is rolled, not the total damage.  Your post suggests you did both, which would explain the XL amount of damage.   As a DM, I would not mind a Cleric who is the back-line healer of the party except when Condition X occurs, when he "goes berzerk" and attacks stuff.  In your case, "Evil undead attempting to ambush party" - from HIS point of view.  Once I know what the trigger is, I can use it in my plans.
#9 GMFGD Apr 19, 2015 17:20:08	BRJN wrote:
(Reply to #2) transcendantviewer	Tempest_Stormwind wrote:
#11 Byakugan01 Apr 19, 2015 21:12:24	Crits happen.    1 in 400 sounds high to me though.   the odds of rolling 2 20s in a row, then  all 7s and 8s on 10d8 can't be that high.  He said the cleric did 83 out of 87 damage...   thats probably about as hard to roll  as Yahtzee 3 times in a row.
(Reply to #11) AaronOfBarbaria	Byakugan01 wrote:
#13 Byakugan01 Apr 19, 2015 22:47:40	Thats in the neighborhood of rolling character stats and getting 5 18s and a 17.
#14 bawylie Apr 19, 2015 22:54:11	The vampire is now scared of the PCs. He plans more cautiously, unaware theyre not as strong as they appear. The PCs learn this fact - it works for and against them. Bc now he won't be so fast at pursuing his goals, but he will be harder to detect. He won't stick around in a confrontation with them, so even finding him means thwarting him. There's some real good story stuff here.
#15 Tempest_Stormwind Apr 20, 2015 9:14:06	AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
#16 GMFGD Apr 20, 2015 11:22:51	~~ Tempest_Stormwind wrote:
#17 Primarchx Apr 22, 2015 7:49:34	A good trick the Vampire can use is to have Nystul's Magic Aura cast on him for 30 days to Mask his Undead status to Humanoid from the Paladin's Divine Sense ability.  This lasts until dispelled.