Away 24th - 27th too. My brother rented a house on the Jersey shore so I'm heading to the beach. But I'm bringing my laptop and I would be stunned if my brother didn't have high-speed internet there.
Away from Fri to Mon inclusive, please ghost as required. Unless circumstances change, Jaliera will act as rear guard whilst using Whisper to scout slightly ahead of the group. If there are likely to be traps or locked doors, she is happy to move forward to try to deal with these, also to scout if needed. Thanks!
The bugbear is dead. No risk. Just a couple of spiders are left.
You don't "see" Chandan yet, just what might be Chandan, but Whisper is telling you that it's him. Let's play this out in the game. We'll do some back-and-forth there since I don't think you're getting an attack in this round.
There is some frustration about how things shaked out in the room with the Black Spider and it's legit. I don't want to belabor it (I will). I'll explain my own frustration.
Did I scale wrong? Based on the math? YES. I do have to scale encounters. They were all designed for 4 4th level PC's. You are 6 5th level PC's. All that I added were 2 spiders. Was that too much? There is math for all this in the DMG pg 82. It's not easy math but if any of you ever want to run a 5e adventure it's good to know how that's done. As designed, this encounter was 500 xpts per PC - a "Deadly" difficulty encounter for 4th level PCs.
Was I too tough? I could have been much tougher. For instance, if I really wanted to be nasty, the enemies would have focused fire. When the spiders first came after the party they climbed the walls to reach folks in the back. I did that to spread the damage around. A vicious DM would have the spiders focus on killing those in the webs immediately. Also, Chandan is alive because the Black Spider cast a suggestion spell on him. His orders were to play dead (he had no choice). A vicious DM would have had him believe that someone in the party was actually evil and needed to die. He would have taken out a party member instead.
After adjusting for size, the actual encounter was 358 xpts per PC. For 5th level PCs 250 is easy 500 is medium. I attached some of the chart. For this to be an equal CR, the average XPts should have been 1100 per PC.
What happened? Here are just a couple of thoughts.
1) I admit that I notched things up. I used the spiders to control the party. Freeing those who were bound was the most critical fail, I think. I was able to cut the party in half quickly. I would have used any method, including the flaming sphere, or even a simple torch to burn off the webs. Even if the bound subject were to take damage. They took more damage from the spiders because they were bound, had disadvantage and were targeted with advantage. The 2d8 damage paled to the 1d8+3 plus 2d8 that the spiders inflicted.
2) When the black spider threatened the dwarf, I would have used the time to maneuver into the room. You could have negotiated something with him but didn't try. I was sure that you would at least try to talk. Sure, he would have likely turned on you but your tactical position would have been stronger.
3) The darkness was tough but not everyone was in darkness. Whisper was reporting what she saw. And kudos to Ryssa for using that mace to fight the darkness! It was a key, legit move.
4) When the Black Spider fled, why didn't anyone chase? Were you afraid of taking opportunity attacks? Foes get 1 opportunity attack between moves. When the other Chandan raced after the Black Spider, he took opportunity attacks from both spiders that were guarding the exit. That left the exit wide open.
5) The problems started outside this room. The enemy was aware of the party and set up an ambush because of how you handled the big cavern with the river running through it. The effort to build a barricade and then to pick off the bugbears there was a mistake. You would have been served better by avoiding them. All you did was kill a few flunkies. Refer back this post. You didn't act at this time (good). But after you found the Forge of Spells, you went back and tried to pick them off with (mostly) range weapons. The drow and two bugbears escaped. They ended up in this room and were waiting for you. Oh, and you didn't stealth your way forward then either.
There are other tactical acts that surprised me but I think this short list explains a few tactics that you might want to consider in the future.
I want to add that you guys handled a lot of situations perfectly. One exampled is the Forge of Spells, which you dealt with magnificently! Negotiating with the Spectator (the beholder-like monster) was brilliant and the exact right move.
FWIW ... I don't mind that we 'messed up' ... or that we 'got boned'. It is part of what makes this so much fun. If we just 'waltzed' through a mod, where is the fun, the challenge. Some of my favorite times GMing at GenCon were when I had a table of 'newbies' who were doing the most unexpected things <g>
FWIW, one of the main reasons I do not GM any more is because of 5th ed. It felt like it was designed to take all the 'fun' out of 'playing' and make it more of a 'video game' where you have to 'calculate' the next best move ... rather than being a game where you take what you are 'good' at and 'create' 'imaginative' solutions to the problems that you face.
From my perspective, the goal of the GM is to present a 'challenging adventure'. You have certainly done that <g> Of course, the problem is that sometimes what the GM expected to happen is not what the players decide to do <chuckle> Been there and done that more times than you can imagine <wink> And we =did= survive ... and are ready to carry on. The question for you is ... how to 'adjust' the mod to either ... get us back on track ... or present an alternative resolution that feels like a success ... =IF= we can rise to the occasion. Something else I have 'learned' ... sometimes the good guys =don't= win <sigh>
In your defense, I have noticed that ... especially in 5th, the 'calculations' are pretty 'impersonal'. They do not look at party composition compared to their foes. There are times when that 'generic-ness' can cause TPK ... even though the 'stats' say the party should 'cake walk' <shrug>
1.) Nothing wrong with that idea. The trick is to decide when you need to ... have a few bad rolls. But to be honest, I don't think it ever came down to that ... unless you felt the need to follow the 'letter' of the mod <wink>
2.) From the player perspective, I felt that was a bit 'rushed'. I don't see where there was a lot of time for the PCs to deal with that before he ... took off.
3.) That is another example of something that had ... unforeseen consequences. Nothing that can't be 'addressed' going forward. It just made the conflict more difficult and curtailed our chances to 'interact' with the drow.
4.) Well we had two members down to a hand full of hit points, one of which had to be saved from a 'near death experience'. Tends to slow a person down <g> Did we make the 'best' choice?? Hard for =us= to gauge <wink>
5.) Perhaps, but not being able to see the mod, we could not have 'known' that. Sadly no one 'guessed' that would be an issue <shrug> That is where the GM ... with a more complete understanding of =everything= has to 'adjust to circumstances'.
And just to be clear!!! I have been having a blast. And to be honest ... several of my favorite games ended with a TPK. As long as I am having as much fun as I have (so far <g>) I am happy to "keep on keepin' on" <g>
I thought the encounter went OK. Obviously I'd say that, because I was napping for most of it. I mean, sometimes you roll low, sometimes you roll high, same for the GM.
It's not a disasterous outcome. We still don't know where our dwarf rescuee is, and the Black Spider's on the run, having had his minions properly thwarted. Smells like we're halfway to victory to me!
Besides, we can catch up with the Black Spider in terrain more favourable to us. He must barely be three minutes ahead, that's nothing in a wilderness pursuit. We'll report the mine to the Lord's Alliance anyway, so even if the Black Spider escapes, by the time he returns to the mine, it'll either be out of commission and/or he'll have a formal welcoming committee, I reckon.
The entire reason that I brought this up was to underscore the fact that it's NOT over. While you were on the wrong path, I am trying to underscore the objectives.
However, don't anyone make the assumption that the next encounter, where ever it might be, will be easier. And your assumptions are probably wrong about control of the mines. It'll probably be the opposite.
Hind sight is 20/20 and I'm kicking myself at some of the choices I did for my character, but regardless of the outcome so far this is a fun and challenging game. Going forward, I am going to remind myself to use OOC and In Character to discuss options that our characters will face instead of just taking my best guess of what would work the best. And Neptune, I think you have been great at keeping the relevant facts and objectives with your posts in the "News, Quests, Rumors..." thread
For me, my first objective is always to play true to the character, to explore their growth and learning in an adventure setting. I am happy with that. Jaliera has grown.
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