So, this is more of a question about the usage of the Blindness/Deafness spell - but in context to the first part of the LoF campaign.
For several months I have been running this with a boards group of 6 people, and they've just started the Xulthos battle at the end.
Group consists of :
Barbarian, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue/Bard, Sorceror, Cleric
of which both the barb and paladin have big nasty two handed weapons - the paladin especially with overhand chop + smite evil can dish out hellish damage.
In encounters with "difficult" boss mobs, the combat goes something like this - Sorc blinds them, the melee'ers wade in, and do horrendous damage. Combat quickly over !
In the Xulthos fight, in two rounds they have stacked up 92 hp of damage against it - and they are only 4th level, figuring they were punching above their weight, and there being six of them, I didn't worry too much about their being a level off of what its aimed at.
As there are six of them I up all the encounters, add in extra bosses and generally maximise the hp range of a creature rather than take an average. In some cases I also up the levels.
I am finding that the Blind spell has been extremely effective at taking out high status individuals, and basically halving their difficulty by making them blind. Kardswann got the same treatment in the battle market and fared badly - I had him turn invisible and fly away, to seek aid with a gnoll shaman ( an extra leader ) and the infusium to remove his blindness ( some GM hand waving ). But he was promptly blinded again during the full scale assault.
The PCs barricaded the stairs to the top floor of the battle market, and held it against all comers, 2 of them skirmishing on the balcony to remove any threats trying to fly or scale up to the level. 4 boss gnolls (2 fighters 1 ranger 1 shaman), a genie, a host of cannon fodder, gnolls, bugbears, and human bandits failed to crack the position. ( They had allied with Undrella earlier, who took her leave and left them to their messy fight once Kardswann figured out she wasn't helping him remove his blindness )
With Xulthos much the same has happened - the first round, some of the party succumb to the buzzing affects - no one is fooled by the confusing whirl of colours. The sorc blinds the demon. The bard strikes up countersong. Paladin casts protection from evil, cleric casts bless. The melee'ers - now including a reunited Haleen - charge the beast and beat the living daylights out of it, including a crit ( from Haleen of course ) which reduces it to only one (blinded) action next turn.
Half dead already, the demon takes to the air, blows out the sole source of light and everything plunges into darkness - the ranger crit fumbles previously and wounds his bow fingers, stopping him from using his bow for the next 4 rounds. A few passing blind attacks by the demon - to no use - and the magical lights go on.
The demon is in trouble. Blind, half dead, and no one has taken a hit yet.
Blindness. Its less showy than big flash bangs, but boy, it can instantly halve the difficulty of a creature.
Any thoughts or experiences with this ? Am I missing something ?
Everyone is enjoying the campaign, so its not a problem, its just beginning to dawn on me what a game winning spell blindness is...
|
Are you adjusting the monsters to compensate for 6 people? If not, that may play an even bigger part in why bosses are falling hard. I would have given both Xulthos and Kardswann at least a hit die or two each, maybe some extra mooks instead.
As for Blindness/Deafness... yeah, it's a rough spell. :) It's still a Fort save so I'm kind of surprised that Fort heavy guys like Kardswann and Xulthos are failing vs. it, but if they do, well, lucky for the party. :)
Are you adjusting the monsters to compensate for 6 people? If not, that may play an even bigger part in why bosses are falling hard. I would have given both Xulthos and Kardswann at least a hit die or two each, maybe some extra mooks instead.
As for Blindness/Deafness... yeah, it's a rough spell. :) It's still a Fort save so I'm kind of surprised that Fort heavy guys like Kardswann and Xulthos are failing vs. it, but if they do, well, lucky for the party. :)
I am not adjusting the monsters much other than taking their hp to the maximum indicated, and in some cases adding an extra feat. I think the melee heavy mass damage nature of the group is really making short work of those that mainly rely on their melee to kill the party - at the other end will saves across the group are pretty low for the most part. But Lady luck has been with them so far, and they tend to make crucial saves when they need it.
The sorc has her spell stats maxed out, so she's as good as she gets for her level - with all the hurly burly types around her, she doesn't ever really get threatened by anything physical. Whilst some boss saves are unlucky, it still means that when she does land blind, the melee fight becomes trivial in one quick step. Good for them that they are working well together - however it does feel odd that one well placed spell instantly halves the difficulty of an encounter - specifically those encounters that rely on one or a small number of high difficulty targets.Maybe thats what it is, I dont know - boss killer configuration, or massed minion killer. The party is adept at taking out high profile single targets - not so good with the masses, they need tactical savvy to bottle neck groups and turn the fight into a few against a few.
Thanks for the suggestions, I will add more hit dice to the bosses and consider throwing in some red shirts with them. Xulthos... on his last 20 hp, the party holding the door against him... and still without a single hit against a PC... ( although the barb just turned her confused axe on the sorc for a nasty hit ) is summoning in a group of lesser demons to help. I think the poor lad needs it.
|
Return the favor. I added in a 3rd level Gnoll sorcerer in the battle market. He kept reminding the warriors that they have low will saves and they kept feeling sleepy in battle. The tanks have thier own weakness that need to be exploited.
Consider a blindfighting feat. Maybe even carrying a potion of cure blindness.
I don't recommend penalizing the party for being creative, but everyone enjoys a good fight over a lopsidded one. Throw them a curve ball and see how they react. Hit the Barbarian with blindness a time or two.
Keep in mind, any intelligent foe that survives a battle or few, or who has minions who survive and can carry information, is going to learn from their fights. If blindness is a favored battle tactic of the heroes, by a certain point, it's not unreasonable for the bad guys to have figured this out and take countermeasures.
That said, I'm not sure what countermeasures there are against Blindness other than counterspelling, cure blindness, or blast the fork out of that sorceress! That should be a good start, though.
Adding the shaman gnoll in was my attempt at trying to inject some magic into the mix to give them something to think about - but he had trouble being effective, the group was too smart to let the odds turn against them, and made good use of cover.
Apart from chasing them around the locality of Kelmarane with a group of gnolls after the guard house alarm went off and the PC's panicked, he had a short attempt at trying to subdue them in the Great Guard Room Stand Off in the battle market - but to little use - ironically the only one he knocked briefly out was the sorceress.... the least likely to be affected. After firing a few spells off the barbarian got annoyed with him standing at the bottom of the stairs and leapt over the barricade to attack him... which he promptly ran away from.
Xulthos came crashing down at the end - without landing a single blow. His attempt to summon in a horde of dretch was thwarted by a well placed arrow, and a very nasty round of magic missiles which broke his spell concentration and ultimately killed him. The bard's countersong ran out eventually, but it was too little too late.
The gnoll shaman and ranger escaped together with a couple of surviving gnolls at the end ... so theres a possibility for them to come back with a better idea of how to thwart the PC's and "learn from their mistakes". I am toying with the idea of having them plague the PC's as recurring enemies.