As some of you may know, I've been running a conversion of City of the Spider Queen. I've also complained that I've felt at times, 5e is too 'soft' at mid to higher levels. After last nights session, I can no longer say that.
The Situation:
My 13th level group:
Ronaldo Half Elf Paladin of Vengeance.
Sebastian (Ronaldo's brother), Half Elf Bard of Lore.
Soulafin, Drow Abjurer.
Posma - Half Elf Cleric of Light.
Thus far they had been fighting their way through the first part of the module with relative ease. I say relative because they have found it challenging, but I felt I have not really been bruising them as much as this module should. A lot of that has come down to a few factors:
In any case, the group was confident. They had been cutting through the drow like butter, they had formed a temporary non-aggression pact with a drow archmage who wanted power for himself, and they were going to do a bit more exploring before heading down to where they knew the main BBEG was.
The Battlefield:
The next area for them to explore was known to them as The Bazaar. This is where the drow conducted their trade, and they thought they could raid it for supplies and resources. Soulafin sent his owl familiar "Kenny" to scout the place out (with invisibility cast on him). Soulafin saw through Kenny's eyes that there was a number of creatures doing business in the bazaar. He could see:
A couple of drow sentries standing guard (CR2).
A couple of duergar merchants (CR1).
A mind flayer trader (Using the variant arcanist rule - CR8).
A group of three kuo-toa traders (CR1/2).
A couple of pack lizards, and a couple of off duty drow trading.
What he *couldn't* see was a drow mage (CR7) standing guard in an alcove near the rear of the cavern.
All in all this was a medium to hard encounter for a 13th level group.
They had a quiet discussion outside the cavern, the Cleric was low on resources, as was the Bard, but the Paladin and Wizard were in reasonably good shape. They decide they'd wall of force the mindflayer, two duergar, and one off duty Drow, splitting the battlefield in two, then destroy each group one at a time. They discussed the possibility of fireballing everything to death, but they were not sure whether or not the Kuo-Toa were evil, and the Paladin was against frying them just in case they were innocent traders. Besides, what he had heard of kuo-toa indicated to him they were not worthy foes.
The Bard cast greater invisibility on Soulafin, who put Kenny away, then poked his head around the corner to cast wall of force, as planned above. The party had gained complete surprise as Soulafin's wall of force boxed in the mind flayer, duergar, and one drow.
The Surprise Round:
Things looked good for the party as they stormed the cavern, and Ronaldo misty stepped up next to a drow sentry, smiling at him as the drow looked back in shock. However it was the drow's turn to smile as Ronaldo's swings went wide.
Sebastian sung an inspiring song, Soulafin maintained concentration on his wall of force, and Posma used on of her prayer beads to cast bless on everyone except Sebastian, who was out of range.
Then things started to get a bit chaotic.
Many of the drow panicked, they knew about this adventuring party already, so they filled the cavern with magical darkness. One sentry was chased down by Ronaldo and cut down by the Paladin. Another sentry in his haste and panic had his hand crossbow malfunction, while the kuo-toa and off duty drow fled.
Meanwhile, the drow mage in the back cast greater invisibility on himself and poked his head out of his alcove to see what was going on, the duergar went invisible, and the mind flayer cast blink.
Posma (The Light Cleric) threw up her Driftglobe, filling the cavern with bright light and removing all the darkness. Sebastian mocked the drow, and Ronaldo hewed down the remaining Sentry.
Then, things started to get bad.
The mind flayer noticed that three of the party members (Posma, Sebastian, and Ronaldo) were in a nice line. He cast misty step out of the wall of force, then mind blasted all three of them. Having -1 to +0 intelligence saving throws, but in bless and the Paladin aura, meant this was going to be a tough save. All three of them failed, and they were stunned.
Soulafin popped back into visibility as Sebastian lost concentration, and bless faded from the group.
The drow mage then started unloading fireballs onto the stunned group, who automatically failed their dexterity saving throws.
Soulafin was left on his own to try and combat an invisible drow mage, and a hungry mind flayer. He cast chain lightning in hope of catching both the mind flayer and invisible drow. Unfortunately for him, it only got the mind flayer, and despite rolling 50 damage, the mind flayer only took 25.
The three players continued to be stunned, unable to shake it off. The drow mage unloaded another fireball into the three stunned characters, dropping all of them to around 20-30 hitpoints.
At this point, Soulafin decided it was time to retreat. He broke concentration on his wall of force holding the duergar, and set up a new wall of force splitting the cavern in half, with the party on one side, and the enemies on the other. This only provided the party with momentarily relief however, as the mind flayer misty stepped across the wall and latched his tentacles around Ronaldo's head, preparing to suck his brain out. The drow mage also misty stepped across the wall, and fired off a cantrip, the cursed loudly (rolled badly on his stealth) so the party had an idea where he was.
It was at this point that Soulafin was seriously considering fleeing the battle. He was nearly out of spells, and things looked almost hopeless for the party.
Sebastian however finally shook off the effects of the stun, and during his next round cast True Sight on Soulafin. As a bonus action he put inspiration on Ronaldo. The mind flayer went to suck out Ronaldo's brain, which would have killed him for sure, but Sebastian used his cutting words. The mind flayer rolled a 21 to hit (with advantage), and Sebastian rolled 6 on his cutting words, which meant the mind flayer missed!
Soulafin then cast one of his last remaining spells, which would make or break the battle. One more fireball from the invisible drow mage would probably drop three party members, and Soulafin and perhaps Sebastian (if he saved) alone could not take down the mind flayer, let alone the mind flayer and drow mage. With true sight on him now though, Soulafin could see the drow mage.
He dropped concentration on his wall of force, and cast hold person on the drow mage and two deurgar. This was one of his last remaining spells.
The mage failed, as did one deurgar.
Sebastian cast circle of power and put bardic inspiration on Ronaldo, who finally managed to make his save against being stunned and broke out of the mind flayers grasp. There were cheers from all the players. The mind flayer was standing next to Ronaldo, so decided to misty step back and try and eat Posma's brain (who was still stunned). The deurgar broke free of hold person and moved into to engage the surface dwellers, while the drow mage still remained held.
Again, a cutting words from Sebastian prevented Posma's brain from being sucked dry, and then with holy fury Ronaldo moved up next to the mind flayer.
He hit twice, then rolled damage, burning spell slots on smite. This is what he rolled:
Not even the shield spell could save the mind flayer from Ronaldo's holy vengeance as he cut its head off, it's tentacles still wiggling and its dark eyes staring at him from the floor.
From there, the rest of the enemy were cut down and the party prevailed.
All in all this came *very* close to a wipe. At the end all the players where cheering. I was pretty impressed with how this combat went, and I was *not* expecting this at all, and my players finally have a healthy respect for some of the inhabitants of the underdark.
The Situation:
My 13th level group:
Ronaldo Half Elf Paladin of Vengeance.
Sebastian (Ronaldo's brother), Half Elf Bard of Lore.
Soulafin, Drow Abjurer.
Posma - Half Elf Cleric of Light.
Thus far they had been fighting their way through the first part of the module with relative ease. I say relative because they have found it challenging, but I felt I have not really been bruising them as much as this module should. A lot of that has come down to a few factors:
- They have great saving throws with the Paladin aura and Cleric bless.
- Arcane spell casters aren't as scary in 5e as they were in 3e, and this module is packed full of them.
- Ability to bypass and detect a lot of the traps using detect magic constantly.
- Difficult to ambush them due to alarm ritual spam, leomunds tiny hut, and other useful rituals (short rest under water, etc).
- Hold Person is very potent against humanoids once your DC starts hitting 16+, and they have been making good use of it.
In any case, the group was confident. They had been cutting through the drow like butter, they had formed a temporary non-aggression pact with a drow archmage who wanted power for himself, and they were going to do a bit more exploring before heading down to where they knew the main BBEG was.
The Battlefield:
The next area for them to explore was known to them as The Bazaar. This is where the drow conducted their trade, and they thought they could raid it for supplies and resources. Soulafin sent his owl familiar "Kenny" to scout the place out (with invisibility cast on him). Soulafin saw through Kenny's eyes that there was a number of creatures doing business in the bazaar. He could see:
A couple of drow sentries standing guard (CR2).
A couple of duergar merchants (CR1).
A mind flayer trader (Using the variant arcanist rule - CR8).
A group of three kuo-toa traders (CR1/2).
A couple of pack lizards, and a couple of off duty drow trading.
What he *couldn't* see was a drow mage (CR7) standing guard in an alcove near the rear of the cavern.
All in all this was a medium to hard encounter for a 13th level group.
They had a quiet discussion outside the cavern, the Cleric was low on resources, as was the Bard, but the Paladin and Wizard were in reasonably good shape. They decide they'd wall of force the mindflayer, two duergar, and one off duty Drow, splitting the battlefield in two, then destroy each group one at a time. They discussed the possibility of fireballing everything to death, but they were not sure whether or not the Kuo-Toa were evil, and the Paladin was against frying them just in case they were innocent traders. Besides, what he had heard of kuo-toa indicated to him they were not worthy foes.
The Bard cast greater invisibility on Soulafin, who put Kenny away, then poked his head around the corner to cast wall of force, as planned above. The party had gained complete surprise as Soulafin's wall of force boxed in the mind flayer, duergar, and one drow.
The Surprise Round:
Things looked good for the party as they stormed the cavern, and Ronaldo misty stepped up next to a drow sentry, smiling at him as the drow looked back in shock. However it was the drow's turn to smile as Ronaldo's swings went wide.
Sebastian sung an inspiring song, Soulafin maintained concentration on his wall of force, and Posma used on of her prayer beads to cast bless on everyone except Sebastian, who was out of range.
Then things started to get a bit chaotic.
Many of the drow panicked, they knew about this adventuring party already, so they filled the cavern with magical darkness. One sentry was chased down by Ronaldo and cut down by the Paladin. Another sentry in his haste and panic had his hand crossbow malfunction, while the kuo-toa and off duty drow fled.
Meanwhile, the drow mage in the back cast greater invisibility on himself and poked his head out of his alcove to see what was going on, the duergar went invisible, and the mind flayer cast blink.
Posma (The Light Cleric) threw up her Driftglobe, filling the cavern with bright light and removing all the darkness. Sebastian mocked the drow, and Ronaldo hewed down the remaining Sentry.
Then, things started to get bad.
The mind flayer noticed that three of the party members (Posma, Sebastian, and Ronaldo) were in a nice line. He cast misty step out of the wall of force, then mind blasted all three of them. Having -1 to +0 intelligence saving throws, but in bless and the Paladin aura, meant this was going to be a tough save. All three of them failed, and they were stunned.
Soulafin popped back into visibility as Sebastian lost concentration, and bless faded from the group.
The drow mage then started unloading fireballs onto the stunned group, who automatically failed their dexterity saving throws.
Soulafin was left on his own to try and combat an invisible drow mage, and a hungry mind flayer. He cast chain lightning in hope of catching both the mind flayer and invisible drow. Unfortunately for him, it only got the mind flayer, and despite rolling 50 damage, the mind flayer only took 25.
The three players continued to be stunned, unable to shake it off. The drow mage unloaded another fireball into the three stunned characters, dropping all of them to around 20-30 hitpoints.
At this point, Soulafin decided it was time to retreat. He broke concentration on his wall of force holding the duergar, and set up a new wall of force splitting the cavern in half, with the party on one side, and the enemies on the other. This only provided the party with momentarily relief however, as the mind flayer misty stepped across the wall and latched his tentacles around Ronaldo's head, preparing to suck his brain out. The drow mage also misty stepped across the wall, and fired off a cantrip, the cursed loudly (rolled badly on his stealth) so the party had an idea where he was.
It was at this point that Soulafin was seriously considering fleeing the battle. He was nearly out of spells, and things looked almost hopeless for the party.
Sebastian however finally shook off the effects of the stun, and during his next round cast True Sight on Soulafin. As a bonus action he put inspiration on Ronaldo. The mind flayer went to suck out Ronaldo's brain, which would have killed him for sure, but Sebastian used his cutting words. The mind flayer rolled a 21 to hit (with advantage), and Sebastian rolled 6 on his cutting words, which meant the mind flayer missed!
Soulafin then cast one of his last remaining spells, which would make or break the battle. One more fireball from the invisible drow mage would probably drop three party members, and Soulafin and perhaps Sebastian (if he saved) alone could not take down the mind flayer, let alone the mind flayer and drow mage. With true sight on him now though, Soulafin could see the drow mage.
He dropped concentration on his wall of force, and cast hold person on the drow mage and two deurgar. This was one of his last remaining spells.
The mage failed, as did one deurgar.
Sebastian cast circle of power and put bardic inspiration on Ronaldo, who finally managed to make his save against being stunned and broke out of the mind flayers grasp. There were cheers from all the players. The mind flayer was standing next to Ronaldo, so decided to misty step back and try and eat Posma's brain (who was still stunned). The deurgar broke free of hold person and moved into to engage the surface dwellers, while the drow mage still remained held.
Again, a cutting words from Sebastian prevented Posma's brain from being sucked dry, and then with holy fury Ronaldo moved up next to the mind flayer.
He hit twice, then rolled damage, burning spell slots on smite. This is what he rolled:
Not even the shield spell could save the mind flayer from Ronaldo's holy vengeance as he cut its head off, it's tentacles still wiggling and its dark eyes staring at him from the floor.
From there, the rest of the enemy were cut down and the party prevailed.
All in all this came *very* close to a wipe. At the end all the players where cheering. I was pretty impressed with how this combat went, and I was *not* expecting this at all, and my players finally have a healthy respect for some of the inhabitants of the underdark.
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