I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only DM whose players are having a relatively easy time of it.
We have a Beguiler, and his special extra spell is "Ray of Diziness" from the spell compendium. I wish I'd said no - it nerfs just about anything that's vulnerable to mind-affecting spells. But dragons? Piece of cake.
When I was a player -
- Zyrxog (loooong fight, luck in the end)
- Augerric (half of the party panicked and disabled)
- acid wrath in PoR(we run)
- Darl Quetos' Gang (they wiped us for good - twice, end of campaign)(We avoided the alkilith, fully buffed druid did take care of the froghemoth *alone*, pitch blade was hard but didn't have enough staying power, harbinger fled, titan was freed > the rest was certainly doable)
Now, as a DM, so far -
- Acid beetle swarm
- TFoE: U-Shaped cavern (I couln't count the many times one of the PCs went sub-zero)
- TFoE: Ebon Aspect (4 out of 5 in the negatives)
- Zyrxog (one dead and several very close calls)
Now that the campaign has evolved for quite some time, I'd add:
- Champions Belt: Ulgurstata - ate two, the three others were seriously injured, and it was just about to breathe as one of the two inside it cut it way out, thus killing it. This fight has been talked about more than any other, I guess.
- A gathering of Winds: The (elder) xorns. They just weren't prepared for that. Three deaths in that fight alone. After that, they started a habit of really making sure that buffs are up whereever they go.
- Spire of Long Shadows: Harbinger (due to changed terrain and reworked spellist mostly). As a GM, it makes me proud that this lone caster made a lasting impression.
Past Prince of Redhand, it proved very difficult to put them in TPK danger. A kill here and a few there, yes, but thanks to healing and resources, they all are back on their feet soon. I *do* plan on changing that with Brazzemal (and Dragotha, and Kyuss).
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I would have to say it's a tie so far between the encounter with Darl's party in LoLR and the first fight with Brazzamel in KoTR. I greatly buffed and optimized the red dragon.
I ran the encounter with Darl as suggested, at a moment when you're party might be at it's weakest. Not only had they spent much of their spells but the group seperated in the Den of Harrowdroth, and in wind walked Darl and his (in my opinion) coolest NPC party ever! Things turned ugly very quickly, without my using The Hand of Vecna to his utmost potential. Darl took all of the items for the required quest, plus pretty much all of the parties best gear, and left them alive. They had a whole new respect for Darl that lasts even now into 21st level when he still plays a major role.
Love hearing others' experiences and comparing. My party's scariest/most difficult encounters:
Whispering Cairn: acid beetle swarm was quite hard (PCs had no good area attacks)
Three Faces of Evil: pretty much everything was hard - Battle Temple of Hextor (3 of 5 PCs incapacitated); Faceless One (battle lasted ~20 rounds, as he made a continuous fighting retreat through the maze back to the Black Cathedral); Ebon Aspect (high damage)
Encounter at Blackwall Keep: a random river encounter with 2 giant crocodiles was close to a TPK and resulted in the first PC death (due to drowning, of all things)
Hall of Harsh Reflections: our only TPK to date, against - of all creatures - Telakin (and a disastrous set of saves vs. _confusion_); Zyrxog and the advanced octopins was also difficult
Champion's Belt: the alkilith demon was quite tough, and scared the hell out of the PCs (especially when they didn't know how many Cones of Cold he could use); the Apostle came close to completing the prophecy, though they didn't fully realize how close it was until much later (for some reason, they chose not to read the Apostolic Scrolls until _after_ finishing A Gathering of Winds!)
Gathering of Winds: black pudding posed no danger of death, but it destroyed some expensive equipment!; oculus demon gave them a nasty scare before being crippled by a Feeblemind spell
Spire of Long Shadows: Swords of Kyuss (the party didn't have Death Ward, and a lucky series of saves against the first three Invocations of the Worm were needed to avoid death); Kelvos (the second time around, fully buffed and prepared; he _destroyed_ the party's mage, and did much other damage, and was finally killed by the favored soul who swung for the fences with a Bolt of Glory and made all three rolls: 1) touch attack; 2) miss chance due to invisibility; 3) spell resistance). The mage was killed for the second time in the same session by the Overworm, though the risk of party death was low and he was revivified.
Prince of Redhand: nothing...
Can I just say that I love that the nastiest encounter in Blackwall Keep...was a random encounter?
Truly the most brutal installment in the series.
For my current campaign:
The Whispering Cairn: Acid beetle swarm caused a stir (duh), though the party had an alchemist to keep things fairly secure. Still, the wizard dumping his/her Con and not casting defensively did end up with him/her falling into a swarm of hungry little beetles and getting chomped.
The ghouls (I added two) came close to causing trouble due to a botched diving maneuver, but were ultimately handled tidily as well. This is a good party, so the rest of the encounters made minimal fuss.
Three Faces Of Evil: Hextor's Temple and the grimlock barbarian were both pretty nasty. The party let all the Hextorians gather, so it turned into a bloody massacre as commoners were mowed down like rows of wheat, archers were shot down like ducks (though these ducks were returning fire pretty well). Ultimately, the alchemist was killed by a spiritual weapon that didn't let up when she went down. The Hextorians never had too much of a chance since the party was smart enough to take the side entrance, but they dragged it out for a long time. Theldrick nearly got away, but ended up dying at the end of the 19th round.
The grimlock barbarian didn't kill anybody (mainly thanks to splitting her attention), but she did scare them a lot. This party has a brawler, though. The fight ended pretty quickly once he managed to get on the other side of the cave.
Other encounters—from Beast to the Faceless One to Grallak Kur—were mostly just slightly irritating. Beast ended up having to squeeze to fight, and even the Eben Aspect only lasted a few rounds due to that pesky action economy.
Encounter At Blackwall Keep: Obviously, the spawn of kuyss fight was the worst. I added a couple extra spawn in, and gave them grab, so they were a legit threat for a while. The bard got dragged into a room and infested, and the alchemist took a few worms as well. Ultimately, the cleric managed to get free, turn a bunch of them, and cure the bard (the alchemist was a surgeon and was able to cure herself).
Hall of Harsh Reflections: It would be easier to list what wasn't hard. The mimics weren't hard. The doppelgangers before the Hall weren't hard. The drow gave minimal trouble, even with a couple summoned demons added to the mix.
Good god. The invisible stalkers pulverized the cleric. They weren't even out for blood, but Astraden was annoying them, and a crit settled the matter.
The Hall of Deception killed the barbarian. He got hit by a Command from behind (I'd added a doppelganger cleric to the mix, impersonating the dead cleric's mentor) and was forced to walk into six AoOs. That pretty much settled the matter. Even after that, the fight was very rough.
Telakin was tough. He didn't kill anyone, thanks to some lucky rolls, but he definitely held his own.
The octopins. Dear god. They managed to catch the party by complete surprise, and then the party was surrounded. A well-placed Haste kept the gaze from being an issue, but they still nearly killed the slayer. Luckily, his Armor Class is pretty nuts, so he avoided the second rend that would have ended his career for good.
The chokers. Okay, okay, this one's on me. I added four chokers to the stone brain room as the brain's "crisis manager", to handle unruly captives. The stone brain didn't do much (for some reason, my players are a bit paranoid at this point, so they all had Magic Circles up) but the chokers...well, turns out, that Strangler archetype everyone says sucks? It's really good for chokers. The chokers brought the poor bard down very quickly (he has bad luck with chokers) and nearly killed him. The only reason they didn't is that they were doing nonlethal damage.
They're about to face the advanced octopin. I'm actually trying to not make it too nasty (I always run some modifications in addition to conversion to balance against a six-man party) but this guy could easily score a one-round kill. I think he'll open up without Power Attacking if he wins Initiative, just to make sure everyone gets a chance to act before Rend comes into play and potentially ends things.
The PCs have already had two deaths in this installment. And one of them was barely even my fault! If Zyrxog isn't a near-TPK, I'll be very surprised.
It's fun. I think I'll try to get these PCs some interesting story stuff soon to give them a breather, though. Sounds like the next installment ain't exactly a cakewalk either.
Ah, fun topic. Glad to see it revived:
Whispering Cairn: Wind Warrior guys the first time they encountered them. Had 2 PCs unconscious and the other 2 near death before they retreated. When they went back they were 100% prepared and had no problem.
Three Faces of Evil: Probably the crazy grimlock cliff room. I think the unusual topography threw them through a loop. We had one PC death and lot's of frustration.
Blackwall Keep: Nothing was terribly challenging. They were freaked out by the kyuss spawn, especially when the cleric got wormified. But they ended up removing it with a heal check before it got too bad.
Hall of Harsh Reflections: Definitely the toughest of the firs 4. Lots of difficult encounters but the Invisible Stalker & Zyrxog tied for the toughest. In the invisible stalker room they just couldn't get a good roll to balance on the beams and kept falling. Zyrxog killed 2 PCs, making him the most deadly encounter to date.
Champion's Belt: So far it was the Alkilith battle. All of the gladiator fights have had their moments but turned out okay. A suffocate spell killed Bozal before he could do much of anything. They were low on resources when they started against the alkilith and just couldn't keep up with his DR. One dead PC, and at the end the rest had a total of 16 HP between them.
Whispering Cairn: Acid beetle swarm and the wind warriors were very difficult. Wind Warriors had two PC's unconscious.
Three Faces of Evil: One PC was unconscious in the temple of hextor, the barbarian grimlock in the tunnel totally annihilated the same PC and I gave the kid a DM pass. The labyrinth was by far the most challenging it took them 40 rounds and frustrated them for almost 4hrs. My faceless one also hammered them dropping the rogue after rolling a 1 and a 2 on back to back Reflex saves vs his lightning bolts lol.
Blackwall Keep: With only the kyuss encounters left this has been a walk over, which is good since the previous two have been difficult and HoHR is going to be a hammer. It's good to give them a chance to flex their muscles and get over confident :)
Black wall keep: the pc's had three spawns turned upon them. They were smashed into bits while trying to defend from all the worms.