For the grell, the way I read it was that it's 10 tentacles are one attack. Even if that isn't the way you would normally interpret it, I would treat it as one attack for low level characters anyways. As you've said, it's deadly enough as it is.
The chains only get triggered if they decide to mess with the statue, and they stay just in that room. So if your players need to beat feet, it shouldn't pursue.
As far as Kazmojen goes, maybe leave something lying around as a clue to his half-troll nature. If the party has gone through Jzadirune thoroughly enough, they should have alchemist's fire and flasks of acid, which are touch attacks. Also, immobilization spells can be effective against him. An unlucky roll on a Tasha's Hideous Laughter spell can put him out for long enough to give the party some breathing room. He's a fighter, remember, so his Will save isn't tremendous.
|
I am unsure if you are using the magazines or HC, but I do know that the grell in Lords of Madness calls for only one paralyzation check, made at the end of its tentacle "barrage." Instead of up to 10 paralysis saves, the target simply makes one save with a DC 10+ 1 for every tentacle that struck after the first. Ex. DC 13 for 4 tentacle hits or DC 19 for 10 tentacle hits
The party needs to be somewhat cautious, and absolutely should avoid allowing the grell to get off a full round attack.. best to draw AoO then let it hit you repeatedly. Ranged attacks are vital against these aberrations.
Yeah, that grell is vicious. It outright killed the barbarian- although he didn't exactly do the most clever thing by going and standing right under it while it was floating 10 feet in the air. One free 5-ft. step and a full attack option later, there was one dismembered barbarian and a whole party going "buh....". I don't think it should be CR 3 either. Or at least, it shouldn't be able to attack 1 target with all 10 tentacles- maybe 3 per target or something. Comparatively they didn't have much trouble with Kaz, although I did pull a punch or two by having him not full attack people. Ray of enfeeblement takes a lot of the bite out of him.
Remember that the grell is scripted (in the adventure) to make flyby attacks in an attempt to grab a meal and fly to the ceiling. Therefore it only gets one attack when it does its scripted attack routine. My party had a character grabbed but one of them was on the balcony and heroically leaped out to grab his comrade. Because the jump check was made and the character was heavy, they all floated slowly down to where an enlarged fighter was waiting with his greatsword! The wounded grell tried to flee but was brought down by the rogue's crossbow. All in all a very enjoyable encounter, but my group dealt with it handily. (I suppose it might have been a different story if the heroic jump had failed, although the grell is only interested in eating one of them unless they come back or camp there or something!)
My group didn't fight the mass of chains, but the fighter likes power attacking 2 handed against DR creatures, so I don't think it would have been much of a problem.
Kazmojen (especially with Prickles-check his bite damage!) was tougher. If we didn't play survival until minus hp equal con score, one PC would have been dead. However, my group have dangerous melee damage output and took them down eventually (fast heal 5 is not THAT impressive if you knock out enough damage on a regular basis). Another area I think Kazmojen would be vulnerable would be to spells-an area my party is weak in, as we found out to their cost in Drakthar's Way...
When my PCs ran into the Grell it grappled one of the Striders of Fharlanghn. The party attempted to shoot the thing down but ended up taking out the Strider instead due to poor rolling. After the one strider disappeared in a puff of purple smoke (due to the bracers of friendship) the party basically let the thing grab them one by one until everyone was dead.
The second party they rolled up, ironically, was killed by the animated chain. After that they quit the Shackled City adventure path, and gained a lasting hatred for any monster that grapples...
Yeah, Kazmojen has fast healing, but his hit points are a little low and stuff. He went down pretty quick in my game.
CEO
|
1. The Grell. I could easily see this being a TPK, especially if they stumble across it at 1st level. Even at 2nd level it could kill the entire party. 10 attacks per round with possible paralysis on every attack. Flight. 10 foot reach. How can a 1st/2nd level party deal with this (it seems way under-CRed at CR 3)?
2. The mass of chains. With hardness 10, there's only one character in my PCs party that has any chance of doing damage to it. Plus it's a construct and thus immune to most spells.
3. Kazmojen. With his high AC, plus fast healing 5, the PCs are going to need a succession of lucky rolls to take him down. If they don't get them, I can't see them winning here.
We just finished Life's Bazaar and I had some of the same concerns that you did about the survivability factor. But my players were smart and a bit lucky and survived all of the above, though it was nip and tuck at times.
The Grell almost killed our druid, but our barbarian Corax raged and lept the ten feet between the two balaconies, as he landed, he crited the grell and slew it in one fell blow. The shouts and high fives of the players were pretty darn sweet. Cue up in the Indiana Jones music!
The mass of chains was probably the hardest for the players. They ended up all aiding the attack of Corax who was raging and power attacking for full. Eventually, he hit it enough to overcome the hardness, but it was a long, drawn-out battle with lots of cure magic consumed.
Kazmojen looked like he was going to mow through the group, when our marshall used improved trip to put him on the ground. The party surrounded him and he never did get the upper hand again. When Prickles fell in battle, Kazmojen was furious and lept up off the ground to kill the cleric who put his pet down. The oppys this incurred put him at low hit points, and one trip later and he never got up again.
Interestingly enough, it was the hammer automatons that caused the most grief and actually was our first death. At one point, I had 4 of the 7 characters at -5 or lower, and the remaining 4 had two players within one hit of dying.
-Lisa
One thing I do is when an attack incapacitates your for 1d4 rounds (or in the case of the Grell, 4 rounds) is that I have it affect the PC for one round, then on the subsequent turn the PC can make another save against the paralysis to remove it at the beginning of the turn. And another attempt next round if it failed, and so on. This keeps the player in the game, rather than "I'm paralyzed for four rounds? Ok, well I'm going out for some snacks now."
1. The Grell.
This was a tough, memorable battle for the players. Reading the other posts, I may have run the encounter wrong, but no one died. By the end, 1 PC and 2 NPCs were left standing with 2 PCs and 1 NPCs in negative hit points and 1 PC paralyzed.
The grell did the Flyby attack once and then dropped the PC after he went unconscious. I allowed two nearby characters to attempt to arrest the fall, which they did, saving the character's life.
After that, the Grell just stuck around and full attacked.
2. The mass of chains.
This was not particularly bad for the party. The hobgoblins in the room were dealt with quickly and the mass of chains wasn't hitting often or doing much damage. The party cleric enlarged the party's main fighter and Fellian grabbed Xukasus' large falchion for the fighter to use. It wasn't long after that that the chains were undone.
3. Kazmojen.
This was tough and it took my party 3 attempts to finally bring down the slaver.
The first time, the group did pretty quick work of the hobgoblins and Prickles, though both opponents got some licks in. The NPCs managed to stave off the second wave of hobgoblins (from the torture chamber), but one of their number went down. Kazmojen managed to get himself into a corner, so the group couldn't flank him. It was ugly. All but 1 PC and 1 NPC dropped at least once in the fight.
Finally, they decided that they were better off getting the orphans and getting out of Dodge, but once Kazmojen was onto them, it became more difficult. In the end, after almost 30 rounds and two night's worth of game sessions, the group fled with the orphans in tow, carrying Fario's corpse as a grim reminder of the battle. In the end, it was the lowly caltrop that saved them by slowing Kazmojen down just enough so they could get the elevator moving.
The second time, shortly after the first in game time, the group re-entered with a huge entourage. They had 4 new NPCs (a knowledge bard, a skillsy rogue, a monk, and a fighter) as the previous three (Fario, Fellian, and a ranger) left. I also allowed the players to bring in their secondary characters, so the group swelled to 11 characters.
The original characters were pretty tapped at this point and two of the NPCs (the bard and the rogue) were not well suited for combat. Kazmojen was taken down quickly (after the group disposed of his two hobgoblin flunkies and the two automatons) with a Tasha's hideus laughter spell. (Unfortunately, I goofed and Kazmojen should have saved against the spell because of the type difference bonus of +4.)
They tied him up, but then inexplicably left him alone while they took the prisoners they'd found upstairs. When they returned and saw his rope bonds broken, they fled with all due haste.
After two battles with Kazmojen, the players and I were both frustrated kind of burnt out on Kazmojen. I wanted the players to win out, but I didn't want to just give it to them and I wasn't going to change Kazmojen now to tone it down. I figured that Kazmojen was canny enough to pull up stakes, rather than face the inevitable, but I gave him a Wisdom check. He rolled a 1 and stuck around.
The third time was the charm. The party was rested and healed. I allowed them to take their secondary characters (putting the party to a total of 7 PCs; one player doesn't have a secondary PC), but all the NPCs were busy. It was still a tough battle, but the wizard's ray of enfeeblement and cause fear made a huge difference and Kazmojen was chased from the great room, surrounded on the bridge and slain.
The group could have used better tactics (aid another, et al.) in the beginning, but it was a learning experience. Kazmojen's Fast Healing, combined with poor tactics, average dice rolls (which weren't good enough to hit Kaz), and bad luck (low damage and/or stretches of no damage to allow him to heal) doomed the first combat.
Did anyone have to tone down these encounters at all? Or did you play them as written? If so, how did they work out?
I didn't give the grell all 10 attacks (just one per character), but it seems I may have done it wrong anyway. I didn't tone down Kazmojen, but I did forget to rend the rogue when both claws hit. (Because of cause fear, Kaz had dropped his urgosh.)
Remember that the grell is scripted (in the adventure) to make flyby attacks in an attempt to grab a meal and fly to the ceiling. Therefore it only gets one attack when it does its scripted attack routine.
Yeah, the grell tried that on the wizard, getting the paralyze off and floating down the room, but a couple of the other PCs ran after him, each grabbed one leg, and yanked him out of the grell's tentacle, at which point it became angry and started full attacking people. I rule that creatures behave according to their scripts until you piss them off by foiling their plans. ;-)
Interestingly enough, it was the hammer automatons that caused the most grief and actually was our first death.
My party ended up laughing at those things, mostly because I roll with cursed dice and never managed to roll high enough on their shadow consciousness, or what I call the "does it do anything or does it stand there and go click" check. I think the 4 automatons down there, collectively, took two actions.