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Hey All, Is This Encounter A Reasonable One?
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<blockquote data-quote="BoldItalic" data-source="post: 7134549" data-attributes="member: 6777052"><p>Okay, thanks for clarifying. That simplifies things.</p><p></p><p>Decide how many rounds you want the combat to last before all the duergar are killed. Enough so that the players feel like it's been a good fight, but not so long that they start to get bored with it. You know your players, so decide on that basis. Then give the duergar enough hit points and enough healing to last that long, assuming the PCs deal out damage the way the normally do (again, based on your knowledge of the players). We can't really do those calculations for you, so we can't judge how tough is tough enough in terms of CRs and HD and so on, but you can.</p><p></p><p>Now do the same thing the other way around. How much damage do you think you should inflict on the PCs? Decide that, and give the duergar the ability to inflict that much damage in the number of rounds you have decided above.</p><p></p><p>Of course, it won't be that simple but it will give you a rough feel for how balanced the encounter is, as a straight fight.</p><p></p><p>Now introduce the tactics. The two duergar that arrive from behind to seal the trap - you can hasten or delay their arrival depending on how the encounter is panning out. If the shield wall is crumbling fast, they can arrive early as reinforcements. If the shield wall is holding, they can wait back. You don't have to spring the trap immediately. You could make a rule such as - they arrive one round after the first duergar is killed, or the round after that, or ... you get the idea. But you can adjust it on the fly according to how the players handle the encounter initially. The duergar would have though about that, so you should think about that, because you <em>are</em> the duergar.</p><p></p><p>Now terrain. Give the duergar places to take cover. Columns holding up the roof, statues, fallen rubble, doorways and whatnot. Let the players imagine that there might be more duergar hiding behind them, than maybe there actually are. A stairway up to a gallery where there <em>might</em> be more duergar will keep the players guessing without increasing the numerical difficulty of the encounter in terms of hit dice and so on. Will there be archers up in the gallery, or spell-casters, enfilading them? Do they need to fight their way up there to clear it? Or is it just a blind? <em>They don't know</em></p><p></p><p>Do your players make clever use of cover themselves? If so, put the cover in the middle of the room so that the duergar can initially get behind it but the players can't use it so well because they are being attacked from the rear.</p><p></p><p>There's a lot you can do to make a combat encounter <em>interesting</em>, without needing to make the monsters tougher.</p><p></p><p>Good luck, anyway <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="BoldItalic, post: 7134549, member: 6777052"] Okay, thanks for clarifying. That simplifies things. Decide how many rounds you want the combat to last before all the duergar are killed. Enough so that the players feel like it's been a good fight, but not so long that they start to get bored with it. You know your players, so decide on that basis. Then give the duergar enough hit points and enough healing to last that long, assuming the PCs deal out damage the way the normally do (again, based on your knowledge of the players). We can't really do those calculations for you, so we can't judge how tough is tough enough in terms of CRs and HD and so on, but you can. Now do the same thing the other way around. How much damage do you think you should inflict on the PCs? Decide that, and give the duergar the ability to inflict that much damage in the number of rounds you have decided above. Of course, it won't be that simple but it will give you a rough feel for how balanced the encounter is, as a straight fight. Now introduce the tactics. The two duergar that arrive from behind to seal the trap - you can hasten or delay their arrival depending on how the encounter is panning out. If the shield wall is crumbling fast, they can arrive early as reinforcements. If the shield wall is holding, they can wait back. You don't have to spring the trap immediately. You could make a rule such as - they arrive one round after the first duergar is killed, or the round after that, or ... you get the idea. But you can adjust it on the fly according to how the players handle the encounter initially. The duergar would have though about that, so you should think about that, because you [I]are[/I] the duergar. Now terrain. Give the duergar places to take cover. Columns holding up the roof, statues, fallen rubble, doorways and whatnot. Let the players imagine that there might be more duergar hiding behind them, than maybe there actually are. A stairway up to a gallery where there [i]might[/i] be more duergar will keep the players guessing without increasing the numerical difficulty of the encounter in terms of hit dice and so on. Will there be archers up in the gallery, or spell-casters, enfilading them? Do they need to fight their way up there to clear it? Or is it just a blind? [i]They don't know[/i] Do your players make clever use of cover themselves? If so, put the cover in the middle of the room so that the duergar can initially get behind it but the players can't use it so well because they are being attacked from the rear. There's a lot you can do to make a combat encounter [i]interesting[/i], without needing to make the monsters tougher. Good luck, anyway :) [/QUOTE]
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Hey All, Is This Encounter A Reasonable One?
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