I have finally arrived (as DM)

[The Thayan Menace]

Rick Fu: The Legend Continues

"Billy Idol is a hell of a drug ...."​

 

[Rel]

Good on ya, ForceUser. Keep at it and they'll learn to love to hate you.

I was afraid I'd gone a bit soft after the TPK a couple months ago and the first couple sessions after that were a cake walk for the new PC's. But I've had two near deaths of PC's in the last two sessions.

Last night I knew I was back in the groove when I attacked the party of four 4th level and one 5th level PC's with 8 Skum and 4 Ogres, all armed with Long Spears. While the party was asleep. With the fighter on watch. He has a -1 Spot skill.

There is really nothing quite like having a player say, "Well now that I'm awake, I'll stand up." and having another player say, "Dude, you realize that that is going to provoke 7 Attacks of Opportunity?"

The party managed to win the battle with no PC deaths and they love overcoming impossible odds like that. And now I'm packing my RBDMness up to take to GenCon where I'll inflict it upon my fellow ENWorlders. Life is good.

 

[ForceUser]

I still don't think it was foolish, I was blind in that cavern. I just need to find a better way to see in the dark

OK, maybe it was a little bit unwise, but it'll stay famous for a long time....

I'm still dreading what the Captain will do when he finds out I got one of his precious spellcasters killed on an unauthorized mission. At least we accomplished the mission - I wouldn't be surprised with either a promotion or a demotion.

Hehe. Actually, what I loved is that Gabriel knew there were hordes of stirges, on account of his low-light vision, and Freddie knew there were hordes of stirges, because of his darkvision...but neither conveyed that information to the rest of the party. For Slick Freddie it was in-character to stay hidden on the far side of the cavern, but I think Gabe was just confused. Let's call the whole thing a team-building exercise in communication.

 

[KB9JMQ]

Congrats on finally making it

This past Sunday I finally got cussed at also
A druid and two warforged were fighting a gear golem forever and were down in the 20's for HP.
When they finally defeated it, the golem exploded for 12d8 save 1/2. They didnt save.
The player of the druid looked me square in the eye and said one single word.
"Bitch"

What a great game !

 

[the Jester]

breath weapons?!
stirges?!
you are a RBDM!

Ahem... actually, breath weapons that dealt both acid and constitution damage.

Story hour post here..

Grumble grumble.. damn epic parties and their incredible resourcefulness, anyway!!

 

[Tolen Mar]

Ahem... actually, breath weapons that dealt both acid and constitution damage.

Um...Whats the next level above RBDM?

Glad I'm not in your game.

 

[the Jester]

Um...Whats the next level above RBDM?

Glad I'm not in your game.

Heh... here's a repost of a footnote from the SH description of it:

*As tiny creatures, four stirges will fit into a 5’ square. The area in question was a 15’ wide passage 100’ long (60 squares), plus a section 15’x25’ (another 15 squares), plus a section 15’x190’ long (another 114 squares), plus another 15’x70’ (another 52 squares), plus a room 30’x50’ (60 more squares), yielding a total of 1204 bile-templated stirges, all capable of unleashing breath weapons that do a wee bit of damage and a wee bit of constitution damage. Sure, the DC is low, but if you’re rolling thousands of saving throws, you’re bound to fail a few, right?

Interestingly, by the book an encounter like this is worth NO XP to the party (because they’re so damn high level), but I ad hoc’ed it. It was a tactical challenge that, if mishandled, could have easily led to a tpk.

 

[Tolen Mar]

Wow...

Actually 'by the book' you could multiply it out. Every time you double the number of CR X critters, you're supposed to add 2 to the Encounter Level. A base Stirge is 1/2 CR, doubled is 1, doubled again is 3, and again is 5, etc...

if you wanted to go until you hit 1204 of them, you could, but at some point its easier to count groups of them in the same fashion...

So on a lark, I did that. Got to a cr 15 group of 256 Stirges. Then I divided your total by 256 to get roughly 4.7...so 1 group of 256 is cr 15, 2 is 17, 4 is 19...for the less than 256 left over, say round to 20. That doesnt even count the templates, with whatver they add to each individual stirge, and therefore pushes the number up higher. Maybe fudge a bit for the narrow corridors....Maybe 25? By the Book?

What levels are these guys anyway?

Of course, Ad Hoc is bound to be easier.

The fact that you conceived of such an encounter, however, is more than enough to confirm your status. I have a sea(space)faring game coming up...maybe I should flex my DM muscles and have the ship encounter a horde of space-born giant hamsters...with mind flayer riders...

 

[S. Baldrick]

Great job! Just remember, if they (the party) doesn't fear and loathe you, then you aren't doing your job.

 

[the Jester]

Wow...

Actually 'by the book' you could multiply it out. Every time you double the number of CR X critters, you're supposed to add 2 to the Encounter Level. A base Stirge is 1/2 CR, doubled is 1, doubled again is 3, and again is 5, etc...

Well, according to the dmg, you always figure xp based on CR, not on EL. Even templated they were about CR 2...

What levels are these guys anyway?

Hmm, at the time? I think something like 17th (lowest level) to 22nd or 23rd (highest).