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Played this tonight with 5 players, no pregens. Three level fives, one level 6, and one level 7. APL worked out to 5.6, so we were pushed into high tier. Encounter with the howlers easy enough. Second encounter, didn't use the pass phrase at first and had a PC die. Carried back PC and had him raised. Returned and entered. At 2.5 hrs into the scenario, started the optional encounter. Immediately surrounded by six babau because GM had each summon another and each succeeded in the summons. Ended in a TPK. No where in the Tier 6-7 tactics does it say the babau summon more, while it the Tier 3-4 it does. Should the extra demons have been summoned? How closely should the tactics section be followed?
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OUCH! That's really running hard mode...
IMO, no the extra demons should not have been summoned. You are right that they removed the language about when extra demons would be summoned. They also spelled out what the round 1 tactics should have been, and that wasn't it. Sorry this one ended so badly for you.
Tactics should be followed, unless PC's change the baseline assumption of the encounter.
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I was the GM for the scenario in mention. What was glossed over was the fact that the closest town capable of raise dead is days away. So timeline wise, they enter the manor, have a loud ( and losing ) battle leaving dying bloodstains on the floor, and leave for four days. My call to have the enemy prepared for them was based on their not insignificant intelligence score and the fact the house had already been breached. The PC's got extremely unlucky on the summoning rolls as well.
And as Jeremy requested, this scenarios results are already under review by another VL.
And info like this could count as: "unless PC's change the baseline assumption of the encounter". The extra notice of intruders can be the thing that changes things, and would have changed some of my wording of the first answer above.
Please don't take what I've said as I'm saying that the scenario was "ran wrong". I was trying to answer his 2 questions as they were. Each GM is going to have a different take on what is an appropriate response, and what it takes for the PC's to change the baseline standard tactics. Personally, it was run different than I would have, but I don't view my way as the only way.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16
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I've run this one twice now.
Both parties have avoided fighting the gargoyles. One was concerned that they needed someone bearing the family's bloodline to enter safely, so they researched the family to find a distant relation or bastard son they could recruit to accompany them. (I allowed them to find a disowned "black sheep" cousin willing to acompany them for a fee. He wasn't a trained combatant, carrying a torch and generally taking flight at the first sign of danger.)
Without the gargoyle fight, the investigation of the manor tends to drag on a bit. To increase the tension, I had the demon from downstairs periodically check on the party as they explored. They heard occasional noises, sensed a vague brimstone stench at times, and caught glimpses of furtive movement. Since I had them preroll several Perception checks, they feared that the area was haunted.
I also added names of the victims awkwardly scrawled in blood on the walls of one of the upstairs bedrooms, with comments like "Galt Hanower has found peace, a smile on his face. Contentment has come to Dalianna Baline..." The player characters' names had been added, with comments like "Raxlenn will soon find the peace he seeks..."
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Did anyone require familiars and animal companions to recite the gargoyle password?
It is a little bit of a gotcha, but this is Cheliax and devil worshipers do like their rules. I do like the idea of the Kastners only permitting visitors to bring their familiars or hunting hounds into the manor if they are in the company of a Kastner. But on the flip side, how would the yeth hound/s have made it into the manor?