D&D 5E What Am I In For With This Party?

Bacon Bits said:

I have no interest in psionics and only allow them in Dark Sun games, so I have not familiarized myself with the Mystic class.

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I feel the same way about psionics, but at least I'll get to comment on any Mystic threads once I see her in action.

Bacon Bits said:

Devotion Paladin and Necromancer Wizard can easily result in intra-party conflict if played conventionally.

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DMMike said:

Maybe it's the pessimist in me, but all I see is infighting: racial and professional. The elf doesn't like the dwarf, and the human sees the half-elves as half-breeds. Then the rogue of three levels is intimidated by the bard of six levels, the wizard makes the other magicians feel inferior, and the paladin wants to knock all their heads in for being less than perfect. But that's only if they're decent role-players.

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They are decent roleplayers, but intraparty conflict is not a concern.

discosoc said:

Make sure you're keeping the game balanced around 6-8 encounters per long rest, or your lock/rogue is going to feel very weak compared to the rest of the group. You mentioned overland travel, which is what usually triggers the issue in the first place (one or more days pass between encounters).

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Good point. The pace will be set by the PCs, but like all my games, the countdown timer is in effect - manage your time poorly and you will suffer for it. Overland travel will be either at the 1 mile or 10 mile scale depending on the situation.

Tonight's the big night! Any other words of wisdom for working with this particular group of PCs?

iserith said:

Tonight's the big night! Any other words of wisdom for working with this particular group of PCs?

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Kill 'em quick, before they can even roll for initiative! Drop the rocks from from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

The warlock/rogue died in the belly of the Wart Mama.

The paladin was nearly taken down by hobgoblins and hell hounds while he tried and failed repeatedly to hit a paralyzed greased up hobgoblin captain. Later, he was dying within the belly of the Wart Mama.

The mystic took a serious beating from the Wart Mama, but survived and later revived the warlock/rogue.

The necromancer was a hair's breath away from having his brains dashed on the ground when his zombie - the corpse of the hobgoblin captain - got the killing blow on the Wart Mama.

The bard was more or less unscathed and was clutch with heals and bardic inspiration.

Two combat challenges, two interaction challenges in the session on top of town stuff using my house rules for town scenes. The party had good Int and Cha, so they aced the social interaction challenges. The first battle at the start of the session wasn't too difficult for them despite being kind of split up doing their own things. The second battle was much deadlier and they were very close to losing 4 out of 5 PCs.

iserith said:

. . . they were very close to losing 4 out of 5 PCs.

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You would've been 5 for 5 if you'd taken my advice.

Satyrn said:

On second thought, there's a decent chance that it's the swashbuckler that's gonna be soaking up all the healing. That's actually the way it is for my swashbuckling, breastplate-wearing gnome battlemaster. The paladin with his full plate and shield is significantly longer lasting. What keeps me from soaking up his lay on hands is my second wind and lots of superiority dice spent to Parry.*

Your warlock swashbuckler doesn't have any of that damage mitigation, as far as I can tell.

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They have the bard with cutting word but yeah, unless the pally is tanky & sticky the roguelock is gonna get smashed. Not sure if the Immortal is a decent melee or not.

This party kinda looks like something my group would put together. Magic-heavy, full offense, minimal healing. Pretty strong but gets into trouble quick and has no plan b.

transtemporal said:

They have the bard with cutting word but yeah, unless the pally is tanky & sticky the roguelock is gonna get smashed. Not sure if the Immortal is a decent melee or not.

This party kinda looks like something my group would put together. Magic-heavy, full offense, minimal healing. Pretty strong but gets into trouble quick and has no plan b.

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Actually, we had insane Cha output, so we stayed out of trouble pretty well. I did take a good bit of damage, and died (later revivified), but I blame that on myself. Got cocky and went off alone, and forgot to take advantage of my Green Lord Gift invocation, so I wasn't getting as much healing as I should have. I actually think the Necromancer took the most healing, because I only got healed once before I died.

In all likelihood...
You're in for a fun time.


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It looks like the dwarf paladin is benched for Session 2 and a half-orc fighter (battlemaster) 3/rogue (mastermind) 3 is now on the front line.

What's a Wart Mama?