I'm trying my hand at some of those timed dungeon delve encounters like you see at conventions. I found them to be a lot of fun and I want to show some of my players what they're like.
Here's some thing I cooked up for a party of four 5th level players. I'd like to know how people feel the combat will go.
(Image might be a little blurry but if you click on it and go look at the full size that will clean it up. Blasted forums!)
Not sure. I'd want to know exactly where this smoke is. If it fills the entire street and the PCs have decent perception so they have a good idea where the monsters are then they should be able to move up say on the east side, only moving out of cover on about round 3 and wiping out the hellhound quickly, then focus on the spider. It will take around 2 more rounds for the iron defenders to move across to that side of the map and the party wizard can toss Big Stinky up on the roof and do for the minions (or any other controller/AoE striker can probably do for the majority of them in a round or two).
I'm a bit unsure how the party would move around to the west side if they wanted to go that way and in general how tough it is to climb the fence and what sort of cover it gives. After the smoke starts will it be possible to shoot the minions on the roof from the cover of the fence? Basically if the fence can be fired through and provides decent defense then it might well be best for the party to simply sit behind it, destroy the minions right off and then let the tougher monsters try to close with them while they pick at them from cover.
It seems like the party should be able to handle it, just depends on the details of how terrain works.
Thanks for your input. By the way the Iron Defenders are being reskinned as Gnolls. (there's a lack of Gnoll soldiers for early heroic)
I thought the encounter might need a few changes and clarifications as well.
- Smoke fills the entire street obscuring vision.
- Metal fence is open. And thus can be fired through. It provides cover against melee attacks. It is easy to climb because of a ascetic vine patern. DC 10 climb check four squares of movement to cross.
- You can cross under the bridge on the west side.
I'm thinking about making the following changes to the map-
Take two of the minions and put them on the bridge.
Create a door in to the garden through the fence near the tower door.
Have the smoke go down the street a as a zone 5 square once every round. Starting on the east and moving west.
Sounds like they'll do fine. The hell hound and the spider can be mitigated some by good tactics, but they will probably have to go head-to-head with them at some point. If all 4 regular monsters can manage to pile on and get some help from the minions it could turn into a pretty tough fight. OTOH if the players really work it they may get through it without a lot of trouble. Personally I'd want to have some ranged attack capability if I was one of the players. Even with the smoke I think they could use the terrain to keep out of melee for at least a while.