pjacobs's page

Did you guys cast your buff spells?

Not the optimal ones in hindsight, but some.

The scene gives you plenty of warning about which room the encounter is going to take place in.

The PCs followed Pasha to the room, bypassing the guards out front. They had no idea where the armor was, or that the encounter would be in that room as opposed to another one in the mansion.

The PCs have situational advantage in knowing exactly where the encounter is going to take place

How do the PCs know this? It's a big ass house. Sure, the assassination takes place in one room, but the armor was not visible from the windows, implying it was or at least could be elsewhere in the house.

I'm not arguing to argue, just genuinely curious.

I love how he's such a stock version of his class, with nothing from all the splatbooks that players have access to.

-Matt

Give me 9th level, time to set up an elaborate trap (equivalent to say, I don't know, three different spells) that a group would have little chance of avoiding, already employed pre-combat buffs, etc., and there aren't many classes that wouldn't be able to take out at least one PC, without relying on splat.

It's not that this encounter is dangerous, it's that the BBEG gets so much situational advantage in a way that doesn't (to me) seem remotely realistic in-game.

Just my opinion, obviously.

One death at Tier 6-7, party of 5 (cleric, rogue, rogue/wiz, monk, and a fighter). Fighter died after being put down twice. No one in our party could touch Dalsine due to bad rolls and his 28 AC. Except the monk, who rolled terribly for damage.

The four living ended up retreating and barely making it out.

I wouldn't say that I had a bad time, and I don't at all mind player death, but I think the reason why this feels a little "cheap" is because so much of it is out of the players' hands. If they do everything right and the GM rolls even half-way decent, one or more characters will probably die. Which, okay, I guess. But the reason that they'll die is largely because of some pre-attack buffing that they have virtually (or in one case literally) zero chance to prevent from happening, and a hugely damaging attack that they have (due to the story design) a rather small chance of not triggering.

I am envious of the groups who managed to shut down Dalsine with stuff like Slumber and Color Spray, what with his beefy saves.

If our GM had rolled just a little better, it could have easily been a TPK or close.

Dalsine's crit threat in the higher tier is absurd.