So spoilers ahead! You have been warned as I don't know how to do those spoilers tag thingy's.
A little context I'm the GM, and My players play a Teifling Paladin, A Dwarf (mostly) ranged inquisitor, a human barbarian, and the teifling has a human Sage cohort, who is not that strong as I am handling his leveling, so he will never be weak, but never optomised.
So my PC's got to Atrosa, and they adventure a bit, then they get to the three forlaren alchemists. They use all their poison darts, except the one that goes down after a while. The cohort had like 3-4 points of drain, and was unconscious from damage, the barb had 4 points of drain and 5 damage, making his non rage str score 12 effectively (11 actually, but damage only works in twos. Even the dwarf had some damage and drain, though the paladin who is unhittable took nothing, but her horse had some drain and damage.
Now they decided the only option was to wait for the sage to become conscious and try to go to town. They arrived by using no less than 4 scrolls of extended fly (700 a pop), they did not want to risk climbing down with all the str drain, so they had the sage risk crafting a cursed item by making a scroll of spell knowledge feather fall. He succeeds with a natural 20, and they jump down. They get to town and they get restored (they had loot and stuff), they commission another 4 scrolls, and the Paladin who is tired of getting ignored in combat sold her heavy armor (oyori or however it is spelled) and got some darkleaf studded leather, and actually she only lost 1 AC, and now she wears it underneath her clothes, so she doesn't even look armored. But I digress.
Did anyone else have this happen with those guys with the poison darts?
Also they did not kill the boss from book 2, so I'm thinking of leveling her now, and throwing her at them now, instead of after atrosa, what do you guys think?
Ability drain is nasty stuff, although to be fair unless a wierd set of saves were rolled, they should only have 1 point of drain. Shadow Leaf Extract only does drain on the first round, and any extra hits just add to the ongoing duration, not start the count over. If they failed a first save, then made the save, then got hit again and failed, that would cause multiple points of drain. But that's a side issue.
My group has very limited healing capability as well, especially against conditions like ability drain. That said, they have worked to bolster their saves, going so far as to each drink antitoxin when going into the dungeon, so the triplets actually gave them very little trouble outside of a first round of sneak attack.
This sort of event is, in my opinion, just fine. Part of the fun and challenge of games like Pathfinder is the unique circumstances of the conflict. Party composition, gp limit of nearby towns, special abilities of the monsters, these can all interact to create interesting and unique encounters and events.
Here's the example from my game: a socially awkward druid ended up, through poor sense motive, going on a DATE with Caigreal in Artrosa. Which led to all manner of trouble and trauma for him and the group as a whole.
Characters live and operate in a world, not a game table, and that world is a living and vibrant as the DM wants. Actions have consequences. Consequences I could see at this point for your group after such a retreat: a certain centaur is much closer to gaining control of the dungeon, perhaps having summoned more demonic minions (and reducing his war funds appropriately). Perhaps he has even started being able to breifly open a gate to his master's realm. When they return, they might find many of Artrosa's original guardians slain or destroyed, replaced with the centaur's minions. You could use this to remove other creatures with abilities that might cause a similar retreat. Or not. The situation could be just as stable as it was before. All up to you.
I was not aware that drain was only on the first round, that was not clear. Could you show me where the rules say this about poisons?
Core Book, Glossary section, Poisons. The main text clarifies that additional doses simply extend the duration by 50% of the base duration, and add +2 to the DC.
SHADOW ESSENCE
Type poison, injury; Save Fortitude DC 17
Frequency 1/round for 6 rounds
Initial Effect 1 Str drain; Secondary Effect 1d2 Str damage; Cure 1 save
Note it specifically states on the initial effect that it does 1 Str drain. On subsequent rounds it does the secondary effect, 1d2 str damage.
Since Shadow Essence has no onset time, its initial effect occurs immediately upon a strike.
**Previous Material removed as I found the Paizo Blog Entry on Poison here, and realized I was doing some things in error.
I was correct regarding initial effects don't "stack" unless the poison is being repeatedly ended/restarted. Jason Buhlman confirms this a few comment posts down in the blog entry.
K thanks I was using ultimate equipment for ease, and this was not as clear there.
Do you think I should have them face the witch from book 2 again at this point or do you think I should wait?
Due to both the effectiveness of my group and the way I run intelligent NPCs, I'm having the big bad of the campaign assemble a massive rogues gallery, including a lot of otherwise fallen, defeated, or avoided foes (and some allies). The big bad has a huge amount of both personal power and resources, is an iron fisted tyrant, and knows how to hold a grudge. There is no reason for her to hold back.
So far my group is, at the end of it all, going to run into AT LEAST:
I haven't decided where to put them in, but I'll find places in the last adventure.
For you, she could certainly be sent or arrange to get to Iobaria. Guarding the Hut was her duty, and for her it would be better to die trying than to fail outright. A few more levels for her to effectively make the teleport jumps and you have a solid threat for your party. She's also not stupid, so perhaps she might make contact with a certain guardian of the hut who would like his freedom. She could easily use divinations and teleport to quickly invade Artrosa, snatch up the cookbook, and free him. She could potentially be the boss of the third book, waiting for the PCs inside the Dancing Hut when they return victoriously. You could foreshadow her via the encounters in Artrosa, with Jadrenka warning them of an intruder who came and went, specifically after one item.
Due to both the effectiveness of my group and the way I run intelligent NPCs, I'm having the big bad of the campaign assemble a massive rogues gallery, including a lot of otherwise fallen, defeated, or avoided foes (and some allies). The big bad has a huge amount of both personal power and resources, is an iron fisted tyrant, and knows how to hold a grudge. There is no reason for her to hold back.
So far my group is, at the end of it all, going to run into AT LEAST:
** spoiler omitted **
I haven't decided where to put them in, but I'll find places in the last adventure.
For you, she could certainly be sent or arrange to get to Iobaria. Guarding the Hut was her duty, and for her it would be better to die trying than to fail outright. A few more levels for her to effectively make the teleport jumps and you have a solid threat for your party. She's also not stupid, so perhaps she might make contact with a certain guardian of the hut who would like his freedom. She could easily use divinations and teleport to quickly invade Artrosa, snatch up the cookbook, and free him. She could potentially be the boss of the third book, waiting for the PCs inside the Dancing Hut when they return victoriously. You could foreshadow her via the encounters in Artrosa, with Jadrenka warning them of an intruder who came and went, specifically after one item.
Hmm, all that is good, except they killed Barbitor after a misunderstanding of sorts.
Well, at least they got the fun of fighting him!
Even then, you could easily replace her in as the boss of the adventure, where they return to the hut to find her having set up shop outside it, staying a safe distance from it but ready to intercept the PCs. She could have some charmed local life to help (since you can't teleport golems). Just don't make the 1 caster vrs party mistake, and the fight should be quite fun!
Depending on her resources, she might be able to figure out what the PCs are after and beat them to it. You could use this to really drive home her desperation to succeed in her duty. Imagine the looks on the PCs faces as
But thats just me. I am well known in my group for having actions have consequences, and playing the world and the NPCs that live in it as a vibrant, living thing that that reacts to the actions and inactions of the PCs.