Alright, so here was the last session I GMed in 5e. Of note:
1) This was an Epic Tier Aliens Invasion scenario with actual Far Realm "Grays", War of the Worlds type bio-constructs (like pilotable golems, but made of organics), and their mother ship. However, instead of harvesting bio-material, they were harvesting time, slowly turning back the clock of this prime material plane.
2) I didn't GM the preceding session or the climax of this session. The abstract that the GM gave me for the preceding session had it featuring 2-3 encounters. The climax of the session included the showdown with The Harvester; the alien entity that consumes the time that this world has accrued and assimilates it into its own consciousness, increasing its own god-like insight and knowledge. Again, I didn't GM it.
I'm curious was the total of this session plus that of the other GM's an adventuring Day? if not what were the encounter budgets for the below encounters? I ask because I'd be interested in knowing how many encounters and at what budget (difficulty) these were taking place at...
Here is how the gamestate was changed as play progressed until the session ended. Of note:
1) All enemies had Magic Resistance so Advantage on saving throws against the Wizard.
2) The Time Reaper - machine in the belly of the ship - caused local distortion that gave the PCs Disadvantage on attack rolls, ability checks, saving throws.
3) The Wizard had cast Foresight on the Fighter (their primary damage source) to offset Time Reaper.
Quick question what level were the PC's and what was the CR of their enemies... I'd be even more interested in the stats for the enemies if you have them...
Gamestate 1:
The 3 PCs are on the ground below the mother ship, having just defeated the initial welcoming party, which included single-man "hoverpods." Two hoverpods were intact after the encounter.
The Rogue fails one of the two rolls for his Disadvantage on his Investigation check (DC 20, Reliable Talent would apply, but wasn't sufficient to hit the mark as just Proficient, not Expert). The Diviner offsets it with the 1st of his 3 Portents and, due to the Wizard, the Rogue mans a hoverpod.
The Wizard fails his +11 Arcana at Disadvantage to start a hoverpod for the Fighter. So he just uplevels his Fly spell to 4th and the two of them fly up to the mothership.
Analyzation...
The wizard must have not used his portent whatsoever in the previous combat as it hasn't been 8 hours and he has all 3 uses. Perhaps the previous fight wasn't a taxing enough encounter?? Another curious thing is that this ability, which arguably deals with time and it's flow was not affected by the fiction that was presented for this encounter... even though every other roll was. Definitely a missed opportunity IMO but not a major thing.
Gamestate 2:
The PCs are attacked by the ship's defenses; a large number of small flying aberrations from the Far Realm.
The Rogue uses the flight, HPs and multi-attack of the hoverpod to engage them (which the Wizard enabled).
The Fighter has Fly and Foresight and wrecks them (thanks to the Wizard).
The Wizard (Warcaster, Resilient, and + Int for other two feats) uses Mirror Image and mobility (to ensure that Concentration isn't an issue for he and the Fighters' Fly), and Grease (his typical Spell Mastery spells) to effectively death spell several of the flyers (prone and they didn't have hover).
The Fighter uses his bow while the Rogue uses the hoverpods multi-attack and they win the day.
Analyzation:
Does the Rogue use his own initiative, to hit bonus... if so it's not entirely Wizard enabled.
The Wizard cast his only 9th level spell to enable Foresight on the fighter. So these characters have to be at least 17th level...
Did the rogue loose his sneak attack damage in trade off for being in the hoverpod with multi-attack (assuming at least 17th level that's 9d6 extra damage... did the hoverpod do more than this?)
How many creatures were there? I get the impression it was alot and that seems to favor pure numbers ending the wizards concentration on flight... seems strange that the wizard (even with the disadvantage cancelling out his warcaster bonus was able to continually roll high enough to avoid loosing concentration... again it would be interesting to see some actual stats here otherwise it's kind of hard to read what is going on here...
Again claiming the fighter wrecks them because the Wizard gave him movement and advantage seems a gross over-simplification...
Gamestate 3:
Puzzle challenge to open the hatch. PC build neutral.
Interesting were there any rolls made?
Gamestate 4:
The welcoming party. Mass Suggestion reduces the HUGE enemy force by 1/3. Forcecage cuts them by another 1/3. The rest are obliterated by the Rogue and Fighter.
They leave one alive to interrogate to attempt to locate The Time Reaper. They don't speak the same language (the Wizard doesn't want to burn a 3rd level for Tongues when he can...see below). The Fighter tried to pantomime what they were looking for and threaten the creature, but his Intimidate failed as he rolled really low (a 3 I think).
Analyzation:
How did the Wizard use Mass suggestion on them if they don't speak the same language?
Gamestate 5:
Wizard casts Locate Object. This saved them 4 random encounter rolls during exploration so, while they ended up having an encounter on the way there (a defense system - equivalent of a Trap - that the Rogue was able to successfully deal with), it saved them another resource-depleting encounter (obviously no Long Rests, but Short Rests were fine) on this ship.
Analyzation:
Was the object within 1000 feet of them when they cast the spell?
How did they find the exact path to the object? Locate object gives a general direction from the point at which you cast it... don't you still need to navigate to the object on an giant unfamiliar ship? In other words sensing it's below them or above them doesn't tell them how to get there.
Gamestate 6:
The Time Reaper and the General. A parlay begins with the ship's commander and engineer. Tongues + Geas + 2nd use of Divine Portent to deal with the Magic Resistance and he's charmed. Fighter fails to destroy the arcane machine via Athletics and a nasty Time Warp AoE attack ensues on the PCs. Rogue with Disadvantage fails to destroy it via Expertise Thievery, but the Diviner turns his low roll into a 13 with his final use of Divine Portent and The Time Reaper is destroyed. Now, no Disadvantage for the Rogue and Wizard and the Fighter's Foresight equals Advantage.
Due to the charmed commander, they (a) get some relevant mechanical info for the combat to come with The Harvester, (b) enable a Short Rest, (c) they don't have to use their resources to fight him, (d) they avoid multiple further potential random encounters with a Take Me to Your Leader scene transition.
That is where the session ended. I didn't GM the climax.
Analyzation:
Down all uses of Portent (so noting left for the big bad evil guy)... (1) 9th level spell, (1) 7th level spell, (1) 6th level spell, (1) 5th level spell, (1) 4th level , (1) 3rd level spell, (1) 2nd level spell;
Geas has a verbal component and takes a whole minute of casting... why did the commander allow the wizard to cast it after casting Tongues?
Geas can be acted against... it inflicts psychic damage but can inflict that damage only once per day... again hard to understand this fully without the stats but why wouldn't the commander go against whatever the geas was take the damage and proceed to make life hell for the PC's after this betrayal? This is twice a spell helped shut down an encounter because of how you chose to rule.
Arguably you made Mass Suggestion, Locate Object and Geas more powerful than they should have been. Something especially dangerous with spells.
It was a brutal indication of the disparate might of endgame Wizardry and Diviner's specifically (Portent is incredibly awesome in terms of thematics as an ability, brilliantly conceived, but unreal how powerful in terms of dictating or salvaging outcomes).
I'm sure people will decry this for bad scenario design, not "spotlighting the martial PCs", or not being adversarial enough against the caster PC, but I obviously disagree. This is exactly the sort of scenario that should be playing out in an Epic Tier game. All kinds of asymmetrical/multi-axis problems that, unfortunately as the system is constructed and as orthodox GMing dictates (orthodox insofar as the dictates of the regular GM of that game...which comports with the spirit of GMs I see on this board), martial characters struggle to deal with.
I agree portent is a powerful and thematic ability... My biggest issues are the Mass Suggestion allowance and the commander just accepting the Geas.
Also true Epic Tier in 5e is level 20+