| manbearscientist |
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
The Party (names redacted to protect the innocent:
Wave 1:
Human Paladin/Grey Maiden 'The Tank/Healer'
Dwarf Druid 'The Blaster'
'Elf' Monk (not 100% sure) 'The DPS'
Wave 2:
Human Cleric 'The Mad Healer'
Dwarf Druid 'The Blaster'
'Elf' Monk 'The DPS'
Half-Elk Fighter 'Tridents!'
Rogue/Wizard/Fighter 'The Shank'
Wave 3:
Human Paladin/Grey Maiden 'The Tank/Healer'
Dwarf Druid 'The Blaster'
'Elf' Monk 'The DPS'
Goblin Rogue/Wizard/Fighter 'The Shank'
We ran this over a period of 2.5 sessions. Each session had different compositions due to scheduling conflicts, which likely inflated our total HP pool. Items were split among the original party members, except for ranged ammunition which was taken by the Rogue.
Overall, we took roughly 1500-2000 damage over the course of the session, ending as predicted in a wipe (though a few changes might have seen the party all the way through). The party used all the tools available to it: 4 channel heals, 10+ spell slots of Heal, 6 lay on hands, the entirety of the monk's resonance pool on Holy crits, every offensive spell of the Druid, every healing potion given, etc.
Preamble:
When it came to dividing up the items, the monk took the goggles of night, the holy rune, and the ring of climbing. The paladin took the slippers of spider climb, and the lesser ring of fire resistance. The rest went to the Druid except for consumables, which were split.
The party burned down the stable with Produce Flame. Party members made checks to determine that the stained glass windows would provide a benefit by passing the Religion check, but never realized what it did exactly and never actually utilized the benefit. They found the extra healing potions.
In the 10 minutes the party had to explore, they decided it would be best to use 2 Wall of Stones to cut off entrances and prevent easy access down the stairs. They did some scouting of the room, and decided that the climbing items and the high ceiling were tactically important (they were). I made the call that there were some rafters about 4" across near the top of the ceiling. The party scouted around the graveyard and discovered that it was desecrated. The Druid, who had not prepared Light, decided it was best to use a Searing Light to activate the stained glass, not realizing it would wear out (I allowed the use of the higher level spell to activate the glass's effect). The monk, who was a worshipper of Desna, did find the statue's benefit and the rest the party crowded the statue for the buff.
And then time ran out and the first event started.
Total Resources burned: 10ish Resonance, two 5th-level spells, 1 3rd level spell.
Event 1:
The Monk and the Druid did very good on their Perception checks for initiative. This was a consistent theme of the night, as both were Wisdom based classes with Expert Perception, items to benefit Perception, and even Incredible Initiative. The Paladin went last.
The Druid uses Stormwind Flight to avoid the demons. This is another recurring theme. Most of the demons lacked ranged weapons, and while they were effective at getting to the martials they lacked real options for dealing with a flying spellcaster.
The Monk was able to down their enemy very quickly with the help of critical hits and the holy rune/cold iron strike dealing consistent extra damage. Against the lower level demons, the extra 10-15 damage per hit and ease of critting made the Monk a consistent strong performer, especially as the night wore on.
The Druid a Tempest Surge on round one, dealing okay but not great damage. On the Paladin's turn, they used Automatic Knowledge to make a religion check and determined that the Slaver Demons were weak to Acid. The Druid spent the rest of the fight spamming acid flask, even getting persistent damage from a critical hit.
The Paladin spent most rounds going Blade of Justice > Strike > Raise Shield. As they were the only combatant the demons could easily reach thanks the the monks climbing and the Druid's Flight, they took a little damage as the demons swarmed the easiest target, but their ultra-high AC made that a bit of a trap. They didn't lose much health, and burned one Lay on Hands after the fight.
Total resources burned: 1 Lay on Hands, 3 SP
Event 2
The Treachery Demons were a very difficult fight, and the closest the party came to a wipe before the final event. The Monk and Druid again went first and the Paladin last.
The Treachery Demons each came in close to a melee fighter, on opposite ends of the church. This is a little bit of a misplay on my part; I read the Demons as Medium sized spellcasters but they likely could not have fit on the western end of the church as giant beetles. I realized that it is difficult to get an idea of size from reading the new text boxes, you have to pay attention to the traits box.
As one could expect, Reverse Gravity was extremely effective in this fight versus two martials. As the ceiling was 10' above the cylinder, the martials did not even fall all the way to solid ground, instead being suspended in the air unable to fight back. The Paladin near the rubble was able to Grab Edge with Acrobatics, but the Monk was essentially taken out of the fight.
The Druid made the decision to use their last 5th level spell slot to cast Elemental Form - Fire. As the monk chose a Ring of Fire Resistance, they were essentially immune to the damage of the form, and the speed allowed the Druid to head across the church to the eastern side and 'rescue' the monk with a grapple. The Paladin was able to keep the western Treachery Demon busy; thankfully they had Defensive and One-Handed Climber, so they dropped their shield and focused on holding on and readying an attack to disrupt movement/teleporting.
Again, the Paladin's Automatic Knowledge came into play. As you can guess from the choice of Elemental Form, they had called out in the first round that the Demon was an Envy demon, weak to Fire! The Druid and the Monk were able to kill the first Treachery Demon over 2-3 rounds; it managed to land one Rake that did a lot of damage, but its Confusion spells did not have a good target vs the two Wisdom-based characters.
The other Treachery Demon played hard to get, exploiting at-will Dimension Door and Mirror Image to attack and then get behind the Reverse Gravity cylinders. However, the monk and the druid were speedsters and in the church they could just barely keep up with the constant teleporting and get chip damage in.
Had the druid not spent a turn switching sides, it would have been likely been a very quick fight the other way, with the treachery demons picking off the martials at their leisure. Instead, after 6-7 rounds they were able to take this wave down.
The toad demon did not matter much in this encounter, as it was killed rather early thanks to crit. failing vs Tempest Surge.
Resources used: 4 SP, 1 5th level spell, 1 2nd level spell (Flaming Sphere), 1 3rd level spell (Fireball)
Event 3
The monk and druid go first again. The Paladin goes before most of the blood demons this time, who stream in 3 each on the left and right side. The Druid Cone of Colds the ones on the left, and Paladin begins to fight through the ones on the right, which begin by spamming a few fields of Darkness knowing the human Paladin couldn't see. The monk went outside to slow down the Slime Demon.
After a while, the Monk got tired of the Cloudkill damage and decided to head back indoors. This was probably good for the Slime Demon, as it really would have preferred a ranged weapon user to Slime trap or a melee user with a lower save DC to grab.
This is when the Monk discovered the side-effect of Holy. They were easily critting on the much lower level Blood Demons, making them easy ways to restore health. He finished off the ones on the left, and the druid used another Cone of Cold on the ones on the right. The Paladin had taken a decent amount of damage, but the two powerful cold spells had left this a 3v1 versus the Slime Trap, who was easily beaten down despite critting the druid (who responded by bringing the still up Flaming Sphere over; that thing has duration-concentration with no 1 min. qualifier).
Resources used: 2 6th level spells, 2 lay on hands, 2 resonance
At the end of the first wave, the biggest issue is that that Druid was not frugal with their spells. Though they sometimes maintained crazy efficiency, in the first and last fight they used almost the entirety of the high-power spells. At this point, none of the healing potions had been used, the Paladin still had 5-6 more SP to use to Heal/Lay on Hands, and the Monk hadn't dipped into SP yet for Wholeness of Body.
At the end of this wave the Monk was down 100 HP, the Paladin 125, and the Druid about 30.
Wave 2, Event 4
The Paladin went off during this wave to try to contact a local regiment of crusaders in case they needed aid. In reality, this was a week after Wave 1 and this was a retcon explaining where the Cleric, Fighter, and Rogue came from. During this event, the Paladin was out.
The Cleric used the time in between waves to cast Heal 3 times with Channel Energy. This mostly topped off the party before the event started.
When the event hit, the Wisdom-based classes again proved quick on the update. They decided to hit the wraiths at the graveyard, and struggled to get through their resistance without a ghost touch weapon. No one realized that the fight would be significantly easier in the church (the Cleric had Light, unlike the Druid).
While the church had the party acting quite tactical and exploiting the geography, this wave mostly consisted of the party brute-forcing their way through the enemies on desecrated land while taking many high level AoEs.
Other than the top-off heals, the party avoiding taking major damage or using resources against the wraiths, thanks to some timely critical hits by the monk.
Resources Burned: 3 Channel Healing Heals, 10ish Resonance (new characters joining)
Event 5
The party was still around the graveyard, having lined up in the hole near the eastern wall. The lich went first, critting on its Perception roll. It cast a Cone of Cold, catching 3 members of the party.
The Druid used their last 6th level spell, Dragon Form, to turn into a large Black Dragon. This allowed them to outspeed the Lich, and they got lucky on positioning several times with their Acid Breath. One ghost mage was crit by the monk, who healed off the blow with Holy. The trident thrower and rogue mostly kited around the edge of the graveyard, while Cleric spent the combat throwing up max-level Heal after max-level Heal (Healing Font/Channel Energy) to keep the party alive through 2 Cone of Colds and an Exsanguination).
The dragon managed to Grapple the Lich, and chose not maintain its flight, sending both of them to ground for 40 damage. The players avoided using a single spell on the Lich's Counterspell list thanks to spell list and having already burned through their higher level options.
Resources Burned: 6th level spell, 1 Channel Energy, 4 SP (Healing Font), 1 Resonance, 2 SP (Wholeness of Body) after the fight
Then came the Demilich ...
Event 6
The party's martials stayed in the graveyard through this fight, killing the zombies. The ultra-weak zombies mostly provided fuel for the monk, who healed 4 times throughout the fight with Holy procs.
The Druid decided to let the dragon form subside so they could cast their other spells after seeing the Demilich's telepathic storm and having used their Breath Attack.
No player decided to roll Recall Knowledge vs the banshees, deciding that every action was necessary to power down the Demilich. The lich began the fight with a Wail of the Banshees, which did remarkably little thanks to the parties high Will saves. Staying near the Demilich was a remarkably bad idea, and probably should have led to a wipe as they then got hit with ... two MORE Wail of the Banshees. This reduced the parties effective health by about 200, and resulted in the Cleric spamming heal every round of the fight.
The Druid used a critical Searing Light to help clear off the Demilich, who did take a decent amount of damage from the Heal spells and stayed in melee to get the most out of its telekinetic storm. It even bit for 3 damage once. It seemed like the intent of the Demilich was to use Trap Soul on a living creature, but no creature entered Dying (the 15d10 from the 3 Wails just wasn't enough, and the Drained was rather incremental); perhaps Trap Soul was intended to be usable on someone that wasn't dying. They picked up the Lich's Greater Staff of Fire after this fight.
The Demilich cast Polar Ray on the second round of combat, but missed on a 3 and then died. The Banshees took 4 more rounds of fighting to be cleared off, mostly because they had constant concealment and the party never used the resistance-halving off the church. Contingency did not matter in this fight, though that was a lucky coincidence.
The Rogue was not a good pick for this fight. They had dipped deep into Wizard for Invisibility casting, and Fighter for Combat Grab. Though they managed to make the Demilich flat-footed, standing in the storm most opened them up to being AoEed. They used their one True Strike early on in the fight. They picked up the Lich's dropped scrolls after this fight.
The Trident user managed to avoid most of that. They used Double/Triple Shot or Double Slice to effectively deal a lot of damage, though unfortunately it was heavily resisted.
Resources Burned: 4 SP (Healing Font), 6 SP (Wholeness of Body), 4 Resonance (Holy), 3rd level spell, 3 1st level spells (Heal), 2nd-6th level spell (Heal), 2 resonance (healing potions), 2 Hero Points
The Cleric had prepared a LOT of heals, and it helped. It shows the tremendous power of the Heal spell in this playtest. The party did things the wrong way, took a ton of AoE damage, and still survived thanks to crazy amounts of healing.
At the end of the day, the Cleric and Fighter were swapped for the returning Paladin, who had found no surviving members of the crusading group. We were down to 2 casts of Greater Invisibility from the Rogue, 3-4 SP from the Paladin, 2 SP and 4 Resonance for the Monk, and 2nd and 4th level spells from the Druid.
Wave 3, Event 7
The Paladin and Monk stayed on the ground. The Rogue, who had taken the cold iron bolts and explosive ammunition, was accompanied by the Druid in the rafters.
The Boar Demons continued a trend of Demons without good ways of hitting ranged combatants. The Monk/Druid went first, then Rogue, then Boar Demons, then Paladin.
The demons did not see the Rogue, so their Light of Avarice found very little to hit. They mostly went bashing on the wall of stone to try to enter the catacombs or mauling the Paladin. The Druid helpfully cast Wall of Fire on the Demon as near the stairway, hitting the Paladin as well.
The Monk, Rogue, and Druid laid waste to one Boar Demon relatively quickly, using cold iron, holy fists, and Acid Splash. The high saves, and CN + Evasiveness of the Rogue made the Boar Demon's sole ranged option (Divine Decree) rather worthless.
The Paladin however got to face the full brunt of a level 14 melee monster, and went into dying. In a wall of fire. The party did nothing, and so she died along with the parties second best source of good damage and major remaining healing.
Then the other 3 quickly killed the other Boar Demon and retreated back up to safety.
Resources Expended: 3 Hero points (bad rolls), Paladin, 2 SP (Wholeness of Body), 4 cold iron bolts, 4th level spell (greater invisibility).
Event 8
The best cantrip in this playtest is Electric Arc, even if it is really oddly worded. Luckily both the Rogue/Wizard and the Druid had access to it, as the toad demons were all weak to it.
The Rogue exploited the remaining time with the Greater Invisibility to make good work of one Toad Demon. The Druid used their 4th level spell slot to Fly (they complained of the lack of good options in this slot a lot); the Toad Demon's again failed to have major ways to deal with this. They could grab melee fighters (and did do a number of the Rogue once they found them with Seek), but again the only ranged option was Divine Decree vs a party with strong saves.
Even with dimension door, they struggled to deal with the flying druid and climbing monk. It took a long time, but the party essentially played 'the floor is lava/swamp' and electric arced the demons to death.
Resources used: 4th level spell (Fly), 2 SP (Wholeness of Body), 4th level spell (Greater Invisibility), remainder of resonance thanks to chugging health pots after the fight
Event 9
Oh boy. So first off, some mistakes. We ran this late in the night and didn't have the mental energy to check our spells or the demon's reaction. So we thought Ray of Frost was 30' instead of 60', a major factor in this fight. We also thought that the demon's Tail Whip was a double plus Attack of Opportunity that triggered even on Step/Stand as they had the move trait.
This led to a fight where we had no higher level spell slots to hurt the level 16 demon, and struggled to land blows thanks to the level difference. We started the fight as good as we could; the Monk rolled great on initiative, the Mutilation Demon rolled a nat 1 on Reflex vs the 6th level Cone of Cold of the Rogue (scroll).
But the lack of healing or strong remaining spells, and the weakness-hitting cantrip requiring us to go into the demon's 30' quick/paralysis zone made this encounter impossible.
We did exploit the height difference again, but with one big difference: this demon flies. The board demons did as well, but this one more quickly exploited the party's tactic. It retreated outside the building, then Dimension Door'ed through the ceiling above where the party was climbing. It then fell on them, taking and dealing 50' of fall damage, but more importantly getting everyone in its kill zone but the rogue.
It then exploited its level difference on attacks and super Attack of Opportunity to prevent escapes, quickly killing the Monk. Funnily enough, the Druid did nearly 80 points of damage from Storm Retribution as they used the new Dying rules and Hero Points to get back up a few times and tanked quite a few critical hits before going down.
The Rogue decided that they weren't really all the keen on dying to the protect a group of heroes, and bailed hoping the demon would care more about the ritual below than their life. They were right, and were vindicated when the party below returned to the surface with the White Axiom.
Resources used: Monk, Druid, 6th level scroll of Cone of Cold, the remainder of our Spell Points, 4 hero points (given relatively liberally throughout the waves).
Takeaways:
* The party exploited physical geometry, but failed to take advantage of the resistance halving of the church in wave 2
* Holy healed the monk over 100 HP, mostly versus weak mobs
* Cantrips dealt the majority of the damage vs the demons
* The demons, minus the treachery and mutilation demons, lacked good ways to deal with high saves or a height advantage
* The Cleric had 13 6th level heals + 6 others. They could have healed north of 1500 damage, which was probably too much.
* The high wisdom classes meant the party reliably went first
* Assurance + Automatic Knowledge meant the party usually came into play with knowledge of weaknesses
* Had the Paladin stayed alive and the Druid saved the Dragon Form for the last battle (White) they may have beaten the Mutilation Demon thanks to healing, consistent damage from the monk, and rarely being truly challenged by earlier demons
* Persistent good/fire/acid made certain demons easy. There aren't easy ways to get persistent cold for later fights and no one picked a +2 weapon with frost, a big reason why the last fight was harder
* I could have seen a wipe at the Treachery Demon, the Lich, the Demilich, or the Mutilation demon, but we avoided the domino scenario till the end.
| Laik RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 |
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Lol, now I see why players might survive such fights :) Giving around hero points freely between fighhts looks like the key trick!
(A really broken, completely metagamey mechanic to never use outside the playtest).
| Mark Seifter Designer |
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Wow, sounds like they did amazingly well! Thanks for the blow-by-blow.
| Cellion |
Resources Expended: 3 Hero points (bad rolls), Paladin, 2 SP (Wholeness of Body), 4 cold iron bolts, 4th level spell (greater invisibility).
Seeing "paladin" as a resource to be expended had me giggling. Awesome writeup. Sounds like an intense fight that could easily have gone south in multiple locations.
Healing seems really good!