D&D 5E CRs and what is going on?

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MontyKC1974

Villager

• Aug 25, 2015

• #1

I have a group of six 7th level adventurers. I put a Balor in a dungeon, so they would run away.

Instead they attacked.

They handily beat the Balor down.

I mean HANDILY.

They easily did 250pts of damage in 3 rounds of combat.

So I ask do the CR's mean nothing in 5th edition?

They dont have any sort of super powerful magic items, there stats are a little high but not dumb.

I dont understand how a CR 19 Balor got punked by this group.

I then put 4 Gristoros (SP?) and the Balor, and a Cleric and a Wizard.

They won.

So what am I doing wrong?

 

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L

lowkey13

Guest

• Aug 25, 2015

• #2

*Deleted by user*

 

S

Sunseeker

Guest

• Aug 25, 2015

• #3

Your party is a little big for solo fights. They simply get too many turns while the monster has too few. If you gave the monster a way to act more often in the fight it might even out a but. But otherwise simply put: the game is not balanced against a large party.

 

M

MontyKC1974

Villager

• Aug 25, 2015

• #4

The Balor got away the first time, the second time before he could Teleport the Paladin critical hit him and destroyed him.

Two of the party members were out of the blast zone, so they survived and revived the rest of the party.

I think next few adventures for these guys will be hoards of undead orc barbarians.

They just went at him with magical weapons. Which the Balor has no immunities or resistance to.

The spellcaster (Wizard) used magic missile. The cleric just healed and buffed.

I did make it so that the Balor dispelled there Protection from Evil in a 30ft radius. Which of course meant I could actually hit them.

I was doing good damage.

But I think Shidaku is right. I just need to give my creatures more actions per turn against such a large party.

 

L

lowkey13

Guest

• Aug 25, 2015

• #5

*Deleted by user*

 

M

MontyKC1974

Villager

• Aug 25, 2015

• #6

Dont get me wrong the Balor knocked the Cleric out, the Paladin out and even got the ranger down enough she ran away.

But the barbarian was just to much, as well as the healing they used from potions and such.

It sucks that such a powerful monster was taken out so easily.

They are all level 9 now. I think upping the ante is in order.

BTW The second fight I gave them help in the form of 4 pretty powerful NPC's.

Still they lost 3 of the NPCs, 4 of 6 party members went down.

They won, but it was a very difficult and harrowing fight.

EDIT: That doesnt make the fact that these monsters were 9 and 12 CR higher then the party any easier to swallow though.

 

Last edited: Aug 25, 2015

D

Dausuul

Legend

• Aug 25, 2015

• #7

A solo balor is just over the Deadly threshold for six 7th-level characters. If the players know what they're doing, that's not really out of band--player skill makes a big difference in 5E, and fights that are labeled "Deadly" are usually pretty winnable for an experienced group. Also, if the spellcasters went nova, that would have a major effect as well.

Now, if you throw in four goristros and a cleric and a wizard in addition to the balor... yeah, I'm not clear how they're beating that in a straight-up fight. What happened? How'd they win?

 

L

lowkey13

Guest

• Aug 25, 2015

• #8

*Deleted by user*

 

M

MontyKC1974

Villager

• Aug 25, 2015

• #9

I could very well be doing something wrong.

This is the second campaign Ive run for 5th edition. The first was the Temple of Elemental Evil. They rolled through that adventure without narry a scratch.

As for the fight itself. One of the Goristros rolled a 1 on its save vs Banish. One of the Goristros got hammered by the entire party, while the other two were held up by the NPCs.

The wizard sat back and freely cast spells on the party, which they saved against pretty much everything. The cleric healed the Balor and then got punked by the group when he got close.

The Balor jumped into the fight in the second round and him and the Paladin went toe to toe. With basically two clerics healing the paladin to keep him up.

As the three Goristros finally went down, so did the NPC cleric and paladins. The wizard finally got a spell through and dropped the party cleric. But by this time it was just the Balor vs the party. It died, exploded, and it was the barbarian and I party wizard out of the range of the blast. They got the party up and going again.

The enemy wizard teleport'd away.

 

D

Dausuul

Legend

• Aug 25, 2015

• #10

So, in the second fight, it was actually a party of 10 (six PCs plus four NPCs), and the balor didn't get to act on the first round, and 70% of the party went down before it was over? Doesn't seem too unreasonable. What level were the NPCs?