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[CAMPAIGN] Out of the Abyss [SPOILERS]
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<blockquote data-quote="Celtavian" data-source="post: 6801713" data-attributes="member: 5834"><p><strong>Session 9</strong></p><p></p><p>The fight with Droki continued. The powerful demon felled Eraxis with <em>scorching ray</em>. He concealed himself in darkness to protect himself from attacks. The party continued to fight desperately. The paladin smote the demon causing his concentration to break ending the darkness. The half-orc followed up with a critical axe hit. That was enough to cause Droki to fight another day. He plane shifted to The Abyss.</p><p></p><p><strong>DM Discussion</strong>: The fight with Droki was closer to what I want epic battles against powerful solo creatures to be like. Droki's <em>darkness</em> combined with his high AC managed to slow party damage enough that he was able to deal substantial damage to the party. His <em>traitorous delusion</em> ability wasn't quite as effective as I would have liked. Perhaps I used it in a less strategic manner than I should have. It did slow attacks on Droki some, but did not do substantial damage. Droki's high number of hit points made him durable enough to take hits from a six person party, while dealing substantial damage on his behalf. This is the fine line a DM walks when designing encounters. You want the monster to last long enough to deal enough damage to make the players feel threatened. You have a variety of tools to accomplish this task and you vary them so battles do not become monotonous. </p><p></p><p>I've found the hardest battle to gauge is the solo monster. Sometimes you want a powerful creature to be able to fight an entire party alone. Minions and environment are often used to enhance a powerful monster to make an encounter difficult, but I don't like to add such factors to battles all the time. I made Droki a demon capable of fighting several powerful heroes alone. The kind of creature that shakes entire cities with his presence. A creature that has slain countless heroes that dared to challenge him alone or with insufficient power. It wasn't a bad first attempt. I was worried a few times that I had designed a TPK. But as usually happens, a few lucky rolls by the players and a few unlucky rolls by Droki shifted the battle. A DM can never account for luck in a game adjudicated by dice rolls. Experience tends to side with the probability that six players rolling multiple attacks are going to have more than a few lucky rolls per battle. I tend to design monsters with that in mind.</p><p></p><p><strong>1.</strong> When using <em>traitorous delusion</em>, I suggest using small pieces of paper with the name of the PC Droki has them attack. It's more interesting if the players don't know who is being attacked. It's unfortunate that my players did not get in the spirit of what I was trying to accomplish often revealing who they were attacking. I had to let them know that I didn't want them revealing who they were attacking. Pretty annoying when players don't get into the spirit of a monster ability. I'm not the type of DM that likes to punish that type of behavior. I'll have to make sure to emphasize that I don't want the target revealed if I use a similar power in the future.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celtavian, post: 6801713, member: 5834"] [b]Session 9[/b] The fight with Droki continued. The powerful demon felled Eraxis with [i]scorching ray[/i]. He concealed himself in darkness to protect himself from attacks. The party continued to fight desperately. The paladin smote the demon causing his concentration to break ending the darkness. The half-orc followed up with a critical axe hit. That was enough to cause Droki to fight another day. He plane shifted to The Abyss. [b]DM Discussion[/b]: The fight with Droki was closer to what I want epic battles against powerful solo creatures to be like. Droki's [i]darkness[/i] combined with his high AC managed to slow party damage enough that he was able to deal substantial damage to the party. His [i]traitorous delusion[/i] ability wasn't quite as effective as I would have liked. Perhaps I used it in a less strategic manner than I should have. It did slow attacks on Droki some, but did not do substantial damage. Droki's high number of hit points made him durable enough to take hits from a six person party, while dealing substantial damage on his behalf. This is the fine line a DM walks when designing encounters. You want the monster to last long enough to deal enough damage to make the players feel threatened. You have a variety of tools to accomplish this task and you vary them so battles do not become monotonous. I've found the hardest battle to gauge is the solo monster. Sometimes you want a powerful creature to be able to fight an entire party alone. Minions and environment are often used to enhance a powerful monster to make an encounter difficult, but I don't like to add such factors to battles all the time. I made Droki a demon capable of fighting several powerful heroes alone. The kind of creature that shakes entire cities with his presence. A creature that has slain countless heroes that dared to challenge him alone or with insufficient power. It wasn't a bad first attempt. I was worried a few times that I had designed a TPK. But as usually happens, a few lucky rolls by the players and a few unlucky rolls by Droki shifted the battle. A DM can never account for luck in a game adjudicated by dice rolls. Experience tends to side with the probability that six players rolling multiple attacks are going to have more than a few lucky rolls per battle. I tend to design monsters with that in mind. [b]1.[/b] When using [i]traitorous delusion[/i], I suggest using small pieces of paper with the name of the PC Droki has them attack. It's more interesting if the players don't know who is being attacked. It's unfortunate that my players did not get in the spirit of what I was trying to accomplish often revealing who they were attacking. I had to let them know that I didn't want them revealing who they were attacking. Pretty annoying when players don't get into the spirit of a monster ability. I'm not the type of DM that likes to punish that type of behavior. I'll have to make sure to emphasize that I don't want the target revealed if I use a similar power in the future. [/QUOTE]
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