Simplicity
Explorer
Again, spoiler warning. Don't read if you are going to play KotS.
Wow. I've finally managed to read through Keep on the Shadowfell. And that last encounter is one heck of a doozie. A level 8 elite plus skeletal soldiers plus a deathlock wight which hangs back and plunks away at the party's healing surges. A magic circle which heals the baddies. A thing in the portal which smacks around people who get too close. In order to get to the encounter, climb down 50 foot chains. Fall and you take 3d10 damage. You may have to fight through 2 earlier encounters to even get here. And there may be no time to rest between them since you may be chasing a scout and since a ritual is going on to open the portal.
This encounter is going to turn parties to paste.
I can see some helpful tactics already...
1) Bullrush the wight into the pit. Doesn't matter if it kills him. It prevents him from having any effect on the combat (including raising skeletons and stealing healing surges). Hopefully, you have a nice DM who makes this easy on you by keeping the wight near the pit.
2) Don't do the new skill challenge. Too hard (and takes too many actions). Virtually no gain. You'll need every last party member focused on the other baddies.
3) Use rogue abilities to keep Superman out of the magic circle and away from the thing.
4) Don't let that scout get there. If you do, you're toast.
One question I would have is do DMs let their party take a 5 minute rest before scaling down the chains? My guess is: probably not. The best chance is to kill the scout, take the 5 minute rest before area 17 and then take on 17 followed by 18. Ugh.
Wow. I've finally managed to read through Keep on the Shadowfell. And that last encounter is one heck of a doozie. A level 8 elite plus skeletal soldiers plus a deathlock wight which hangs back and plunks away at the party's healing surges. A magic circle which heals the baddies. A thing in the portal which smacks around people who get too close. In order to get to the encounter, climb down 50 foot chains. Fall and you take 3d10 damage. You may have to fight through 2 earlier encounters to even get here. And there may be no time to rest between them since you may be chasing a scout and since a ritual is going on to open the portal.
This encounter is going to turn parties to paste.
I can see some helpful tactics already...
1) Bullrush the wight into the pit. Doesn't matter if it kills him. It prevents him from having any effect on the combat (including raising skeletons and stealing healing surges). Hopefully, you have a nice DM who makes this easy on you by keeping the wight near the pit.
2) Don't do the new skill challenge. Too hard (and takes too many actions). Virtually no gain. You'll need every last party member focused on the other baddies.
3) Use rogue abilities to keep Superman out of the magic circle and away from the thing.
4) Don't let that scout get there. If you do, you're toast.
One question I would have is do DMs let their party take a 5 minute rest before scaling down the chains? My guess is: probably not. The best chance is to kill the scout, take the 5 minute rest before area 17 and then take on 17 followed by 18. Ugh.
