DMG Adventure and Final Fight

[Evil DM]

Today we finished the kobold caves with the event that nearly the whole party got killed.

Is the White Dragon to hard to fight?

Does that solomonster do have too much hit points?

We had 5 players.

A human fighter, warforged paladin, dwarfen artificer, human cleric and human wizard.

The important stats at 16.

So, nothing optimized and on the other hand no whinies...

Was it just bad luck with the dice...?

Cheers, Evil DM

 

[Oompa]

Hmmm did youre players rest before the encounter?

 

[Dalzig]

Well, the dragon in the DMG has 32 more hit points than the one in the MM. That makes it a little bit harder. The rest probably comes down to how many daily/encounter powers landed and how well the party worked together.

 

[Evil DM]

They had a short rest before the fight and some daily powers had been spent already.

32 HPs more?

That makes it a little difference.

And yes, I think that the players could work better together...but since it is our second session with the 4th Edition.


But it seems that no ones says that the encounter is way to heavy for 1st level adventurers.

Cheers, Evil DM.

 

[Dalzig]

They had a short rest before the fight and some daily powers had been spent already.

32 HPs more?

That makes it a little difference.

And yes, I think that the players could work better together...but since it is our second session with the 4th Edition.


But it seems that no ones says that the encounter is way to heavy for 1st level adventurers.

Cheers, Evil DM.

Oh, it's definitely meant to be a ball-buster. Level 3 Solo Brute against Level 1 characters? That's brutal. IIRC, the encounter was actually designed for DDXP to result in a likely TPK. Wizards was surprised that people actually ended up beating it.

Now, is killing Szartharrax actually neccessary, or is he more of a bonus boss? It could be possible that it was designed to teach that it is okay to run away.

 

[Oompa]

The dragon holds an quest item..

 

[Dalzig]

The dragon holds an quest item..

So he does... but that doesn't mean you have to kill him. You ever Dine and Dash before? Apply the same thing to D&D. Grab the treasure and get out of dodge! If a party can't distract the dragon for a couple rounds, they're no good.

 

[D'karr]

Oh, it's definitely meant to be a ball-buster. Level 3 Solo Brute against Level 1 characters? That's brutal. IIRC, the encounter was actually designed for DDXP to result in a likely TPK. Wizards was surprised that people actually ended up beating it.

Now, is killing Szartharrax actually neccessary, or is he more of a bonus boss? It could be possible that it was designed to teach that it is okay to run away.

The encounter for DDXP was not with a White. It's with a Black, which is a higher level encounter. In addition, the one for DDXP had higher Hit Points, AC and defenses than it was supposed to have. If you look at the stats on the MM and compare it to the one in DDXP you'll notice that the one for DDXP was a killer. I imagine they modified it to make it challenging for a party with a 6th player.

 

[Evil DM]

Okay.

Thank you folks for your comments!

Cheers, Evil DM.

 

[Victoly]

Our group just finished the DMG adventure too, and we found it to be terribly, terribly easy.

Our party:
Dragonborn Fighter
Half-Elf Warlord (Tactical)
Eladrin Rogue
Elf Ranger (Melee)
Human Wizard

Most of our party beat the dragon on initiative, thanks to the Warlord's +2. The Rogue and Ranger went off to one side sticking near the wall and behind a pillar for cover to launch some preliminary (and useless) ranged attacks, while the Fighter marched into the middle of the ice away from everyone else and used his Dragon Breath to mark whitey. The dragon rushed out, used its dragon breath on the biggest clump (the two strikers and the Warlord), but managed to miss the Rogue and Warlord with his breath weapon due to being marked by the Fighter. It used its action point for fearful presence, which hit everyone but the Wizard, who just magic missiled from a distance the whole fight anyway. The dragon rushed up to the side of the room to try to take out the rogue, but rolled a 1 on one of its attacks and thus couldn't use its bite as well. Then the Ranger and Rogue delayed until the Fighter and Warlord moved into position behind the dragon, to take advantage of flanking positions. The whole party failed a round of saves against the -2 to hit, but succeeded on the following round, in which the party really opened up. The Warlord opened with Lead The Attack, netting the party a nice +4 to attack rolls for the rest of the encounter, and dished out some healing with Inspiring Words. Then the rest of the party (except for the wizard, who used sleep in the previous encounter) opened up with their daily powers, and after a couple more rounds the dragon was toast.

The fight would likely have been more difficult if the dragon had managed to keep the fight on the ice, but the Fighter's anticipation and attempt to counter that tactic by placing himself in the middle of the ice right off the bat seemed to pay off. Even if the dragon had fought on the ice, it wouldn't have been that hard for the rest of the party to surround it and bring it down in much the same way.