The TPK curse

Well, it happened again. My group should have something to brag about, but victory was taken from their clutches at the last moment.

We began the night with all new characters. The PC's had all come to a small, rich town in Furyondy. (The town is a tourist attraction with scenic lakes and rivers, a casino, mountains etc. The annual jousting tournament is held here as well) None of the PC's knew each other, but they were in town to compete in a contest, (known as an interview) to gain employment as hirelings for a local lord. The PC's were all thrown together into a group and allowed to compete against other groups for the coveted position. Each day of the contest brought forth a new task, and those who successfully completed the tasks advanced to the next day, while those who failed were disqualified.

Anyway, my group had done famously well. They had proven their work ethic was high, they had succeeded in posting the highest cumulative time in a very rigorous obstacle course, and they had displayed that they were a perty of integrity that knew how to cooperate with one another. They had earned some time for some R&R, so they decided to pay a visit to the casino in order to make a little extra cash. Three of them sat down to play blackjack, and fate was undoutedly on their side. The halfling rogue showed a natural talent at gambling. He quickly turned his 25 gold into 70 gold. The Sorcerer in the group raised his total from 9 gold to 35. He then quit to make sure he could procure the spell he wanted. The dwarven fighter lost all but three silver pieces at one time, but in the last thirty minutes, he converted those three silver into 10 gold. The group walked away happy.

Afterwards, they decided to sell some armor and weapons they had acquired from a group of bandits, so they paid a visit to the local blacksmith. The group soon learned that the blacksmith carried a torch for one of the barmaids in the local tavern, but his shyness and fear of rejection prevented him from making a move. The PC's were quick to realize that if they could win the favor of the lady for the blacksmith, they might get better prices for their wares, so they did their best to woo the barmaid for the blacksmith. It worked, and the PC's made friends for life, and got better prices from the blacksmith.

They then received a request to investigate sightings of a troll on the old road that leads to the capitol of Furyondy. A troll has been scaring people away, although no one has been attacked. Unfortunately, rumors of a troll harassing travellers could seriously hurt the town, which owes its existence to tourism. So, the PC's went out, attempting to find the lair of the troll. (They were low level, so there was no way they were going to defeat a troll, but all they had to do was find the troll lair and report back to the commander of the militia). What they found out though, was that the troll was nothing more than two juveniles, who were wearing a "troll-skin" suit. The two boys had lost their parents a few months prior, and they were scaring people from the old road, so that tourists would be more inclined to use the Kings Highway, which of course required a toll payment. The person who had set this all up was the city clerk, who was skimming off of the top of the tolls and paying a small subsidy to the boys for their work. This scam was not authorized by the mayor of the town. The PC's discovered the truth and found the proof to indict the city clerk, who was then punished.

This all made for some great role-play, which has not been my group's strongpoint. After all of this, thay had risen to 2nd level, and were well on their way to level 3. They then proceeded to the Tomb of Abysthor, where they encountered a group of ghouls and a ghast. By this time, the group was almost demanding combat. They spotted the ghouls about 300 feet away, on the steps of some abandoned temples. They decided to try shooting them with arrows from afar. Unfortunately, they missed every shot, and the ghouls and the ghast came running after them. The party rogue was the first to get attacked. He failed his fort save and was paralyzed. The dwarven fighter in the group trudged into combat, and he was able to take down one of the ghouls. He was relying on his AC and his higher fort save to keep him alive. He gambled and lost, and was paralyzed a few rounds later. The sorcerer tried to run, but received an AoO as he tried to flee, and he too was paralyzed. The elven ranger was the only member of the party to get away. Suffice it to say, the three victims are all dead.

Here's my dilemna: I fudged a number of rolls to help the party out. I continuously rolled 16-20 on my attack rolls for the ghouls, while the party kept floundering with 1's and 3's. I have never seen such a display of bad luck. However, as I said, I fudged a number of rolls and could have allowed ten or eleven additional attacks against the PC's to succeed, which would have meant they had no chance to survive.

In addition, I had explained to the group that a cleric would be highly beneficial, but when they created their characters, no one wanted to play the cleric. I tend to be pretty easy going, so I never dictate to anyone one the type of character they have to play. But, they did not heed my advice. Without question, the encounter with the ghouls would have gone much better, had they had a cleric to turn the ghouls. Had they succeeded, they would have earned a nice bit of experience. (I was hoping to get them to third level quickly, so that they would be better prepared to dace the challenges of the dungeon they are going to be entering).

Now, my players are a wee bit upset, particularly since they had spent some time actually role-playing their characters, and they were all now quite fond of the personas they had developed for their PCS. (This is actually quite a feat for me, because in games past, their characters have tended to be no more than stat sheets designed to be the most efficient killing machines)

I suppose I could have fudged every dice roll in the ghoul encounter, but then the encounter would have posed no challenge whatsoever, and the PC's would have had a false sense of security when it came to undead. Eventually, I realized that something like that would come back to bite them in the butt in the future. (As I said, I fudged 10 or 11 rolls anyway!)

In the end, I decided I'd have to tread a fine line. I decided to let the chips fall where they may. If the characters won the battle, kudos to them. If they lost, then I hope they learned something from the encounter. I hope they learned that not everything HAS to be attacked. I hope they learned that a cleric is almost essential. Right now, they are still tweaked at me, but I hope, when they roll up new characters, they will have calmed down a bit.

Make sure that one of them play a cleric
Cleric are incredible useful in 3 ed. Refuse to dm if none of them wants to play a cleric

Asmo

Good story. And you're absolutely right - any party without a cleric is going to struggle *a lot* more than a group that has one.

Pound it into their heads again - a cleric is not a luxury.

I disagree about the importance of the cleric. In my opinion, the players can choose whichever character they want, and it's the DM's duty to tailor adventures to their skills and abilities. I've been DMing a cleric-less party for two years now with no problems at all.

I would not have put them up against such powerfull undead at that level. Some zombies or orcs or somthing. Even ore so if they just wanted to bash heads. Not that you did anything wrong but the point of the game is to have fun. The paralysis ability is what killed them. Nearly any other low level encounter would have been better. No one should HAVE to play a cleric.

-d

Ah, yes. Whenever I hear TPK and low-level party in the same sentence, I think Ghoul/Ghast. Been near there, almost did that.

Four 2nd-level characters against multiple ghouls and a ghast? That's a slaughter, waiting to happen. That's what, a EL 4/5, even with a cleric? Rough. Not unbeatable, but rough.

That said, it sounds like your PCs may have just had a combination of bad luck, combined with possibly poor situational tactics. The ghoul/ghast paralysis is effective 'for the rest of your natural life' as we like to say in our game. They should have retreated sooner than they did, I'm guessing. At 2nd level, failing a DC14/15 FORT save, even for a high CON fighter, is a distinct possibility.

A cleric or paladin is handy, but hardly essential. However, the undead in particular become more dangeorus (I would posit +1 CR) without a cleric in the party.

If it were me, I would have found a way for the players to be possibly be rescued or at least raised, such that they are rewarded for their actually RPing, since that appears to be a desirable goal that you were working towards.

I think you played it right.

Sometimes the dice are just against the group. When this happens, they should cut and run. I would have run after all the misses with missile weapons.

I've got one question: Why did the Sorcerer get nailed by an AoO? If a character does nothing other than move during a turn, moving out of the space they start in does not cause an AoO.

This makes it possible to just flee without taking a parting shot, provided you aren't surrounded or something. See PHB 122, Provoking an Attack of Opportunity.

I wouldn't force the players to take a cleric. No one likes being forced to take a particular class.

On the other hand, you might take one of the players who likes to play fighters aside and talk about them playing a cleric. The cleric is a pretty good combatant all by itself. Make it a dwarven cleric and with it's high Con score it can become a really tough character. Point out that they can always multiclass to fighter if it doesn't work out. With spells like Divine Favor, Shield of Faith, Hold Person and Bull's Strength the clerics have a number of ways to bump their fighting prowess, or that of another group member if they want.

If they try a cleric, they may realize that it is one of the more overpowered character types in the game.

You might also suggest that it is a good idea to have at least one elven fighter in a group. That would help protect the group against ghouls and sleep spells.

I don't think you did wrong in fudging some, but finally letting them die. One of the few things my players (IRL) have complemented me on is the fact that I don't pull punches, but I don't TRY to kill them. You've got to just let the dice fall, man. IF it's ESSENTIAL to the fun of the campaign, fudge 1 or 2. I don't think THAT was your problem, though (See below)

the paralysis effects of ghouls and ghasts are things I don't really like, b/c they make it a very challenging encounter for lower levels.

BTW - How many PCs were you using, and how many ghouls were with the Ghast?

Assuming there were the average #(4) PCs, then 1 ghast and 3 ghouls together would be an incredibly deadly encounter for a group of lvl 2s (It would be a CR 5.. for Lvl 2 characters!)
Remember a SINGLE GHAST BY ITSELF is a CR 3, meaning without the ghouls it would have been a challenging encounter (Especially for a cleric-less group).

The mistake you made was not fudging dice, IMO, but overwhelming them with creatures they COULDN'T beat without a cleric (and even with one only a small chance of success). Either a Ghast OR a pack of Ghouls is a deadly encounter. Together, you were asking for massive character death.

Sorry if this sounds bad, I'm just stating something I've found from experience. I don't mean to sound like an @$$

Some Thoughts

1) Ghouls and Ghasts vs 2nd Level? What were you thinking? The most important number in the Ghouls stats is the Save DC vs Paralysis.

2) Players often trust their DM's not to throw in encounters that they cannot win, especially when it is not immediately obvious that they are screwed. At 2nd level, Ghouls, Ogres, Bears, Wolves, and Large Humanoid parties (10 or more) are a death sentence. They might have run from a Giant, Dragon, Beholder, or Huge Elemental.

3) I find that at low levels, it is safest to use enemies that arent necessarily out to kill every player. Wild animals should drag off one of the party to eat. Goblins and Kobolds will take prisoners for Ransom.

END COMMUNICATION

Everyone is saying that this was an OVERWHELMING ENCOUNTER in which the party had little chance -- let's note that that's just not the case. Four 2nd level PCs against a Ghast and three Ghouls is a pretty even matchup, especially when they get to take a bunch of potshots early on. It sounds like it was a die rolling problem on the players' part.

I don't think the encounter was unfair -- it was challenging, but not unfair -- I mean, the party could have always retreated. They, as PCs, knew what ghouls could do to them, right?

As a DM, you have two choices:

1) The Heartless Bastard approach. Death happens. Next time they'll be more cautious -- and one might even play a cleric (though the way they were rolling, it sounds quite possible that the Turning attempts would have failed). Problem with this is that it might push them away from RPville and towards Powergameville, and it doesn't sound like that's what you want to do.

2) The nonchalant deus ex machina approach. As the party is about to be eaten and/or killed, a mysterious NPC shows up and saves their sorry asses. Maybe it's a good-aligned cleric on a quest of his own, out to talk to the party about a little mission he needs them for. Or something like that. The point is that YOU need to act like it was All Part Of The Plan -- you didn't just make this guy up to save them, he was going to be a plot hook all along. (Yeah, right!)

In other words, wing it. The party lives, they don't think that you rigged the system to save their asses . . . the hitch is that you need to do some quick improvisation on the spot. Shouldn't be too tough -- just don't get into too many specifics -- you can figure those out after the session is over!