When our group ran through this encounter we were 5 level 3 characters as well. We didn't really have much trouble with Yisarn, pretty much jumped him right out of the gate and even his immediate action attack couldn't keep up with the damage we were pouring on him. That spider though was just plain obnoxious. With Yisarn and the skeletons dead really quick, the DM had the spider (fairly wisely) simply rely on his invisibility attack. Invisibility + teleport + low damage meant that the fight just ground endlessly. The DM finally just said "Well, you'll kill it eventually."
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- Thread starter Uller
- Start date
Klaus
First Post
I'd remove the spider altogether and instead have Yisarn animate the Large dragon skeleton.
OnlineDM
Adventurer
I just ran this encounter tonight for my group. Now, my group is small - only three PCs - but they are 3rd level. If I'm understanding correctly, the Yisarn encounter is intended to be run with second-level characters, so this should be a little easier for them than intended for their level.
For the size of my party, I scaled things down a little bit by removing the pit traps and one skeleton. So, the battle was against Yisarn, one skeleton and the spider.
It quickly became clear that this was too much for my little party, and they retreated. They took the teleportation circles out of there (and the lightning damage from a failed Arcana check took away one character's last few hit points, requiring some healing on the far side of the circle before they could continue the retreat.
I had the party go back to Eriyel and explain that they had fought off the goblins but that Yisarn was too much for them. I had her be impressed with their level of dedication to helping the elves (they were down to zero or one surge each), so she agreed to provide them with some supplies (healing potions, a coating that could be applied to a weapon to make it deal radiant damage for a round). She also agreed to send an elf with them (the party has no striker, so I made him a simple Twin Striking ranger).
The next day, the party of four went back to the lab. This time, Yisarn was expecting them. He had three skeletons this time plus the spider and himself (no pit traps), but the party knew this would be their only battle for the day, so it was daily powers time.
This was a very, very hard battle for this party, but they ultimately won the day. I did change Yisarn's Necrotic Burst power into a recharge power, and I ultimately used it just twice - once when he was first hit in melee and then later when a melee hit bloodied him. I stopped checking for the recharge - it was just too brutal, even once per round.
The battle did end up with a nice flow to it, though. I used the whole lab area - both rooms - with the skeletons set up around the teleportation circles and Yisarn and the spider in the lower chamber, attacking from range. There was a step by step process of kill a couple of skeletons, kill the spider, go after Yisarn.
I had my cleric make a Religion check to realize that Yisarn was controlling the skeletons and that if they could drop him, the skeletons would be no more. He made it hard for them to get to him, of course, but they were able to at least ignore one skeleton to go after the boss.
In the end, the killing blow against Yisarn was struck by the cleric while she had just 4 hit points and two of her three allies were unconscious. It was a thrilling victory - but man, was it hard!
I like the way the necrotic burst played out as an encounter power that recharges when Yisarn is bloodied. That's how I'd use it if I ran this battle again in the future.
For the size of my party, I scaled things down a little bit by removing the pit traps and one skeleton. So, the battle was against Yisarn, one skeleton and the spider.
It quickly became clear that this was too much for my little party, and they retreated. They took the teleportation circles out of there (and the lightning damage from a failed Arcana check took away one character's last few hit points, requiring some healing on the far side of the circle before they could continue the retreat.
I had the party go back to Eriyel and explain that they had fought off the goblins but that Yisarn was too much for them. I had her be impressed with their level of dedication to helping the elves (they were down to zero or one surge each), so she agreed to provide them with some supplies (healing potions, a coating that could be applied to a weapon to make it deal radiant damage for a round). She also agreed to send an elf with them (the party has no striker, so I made him a simple Twin Striking ranger).
The next day, the party of four went back to the lab. This time, Yisarn was expecting them. He had three skeletons this time plus the spider and himself (no pit traps), but the party knew this would be their only battle for the day, so it was daily powers time.
This was a very, very hard battle for this party, but they ultimately won the day. I did change Yisarn's Necrotic Burst power into a recharge power, and I ultimately used it just twice - once when he was first hit in melee and then later when a melee hit bloodied him. I stopped checking for the recharge - it was just too brutal, even once per round.
The battle did end up with a nice flow to it, though. I used the whole lab area - both rooms - with the skeletons set up around the teleportation circles and Yisarn and the spider in the lower chamber, attacking from range. There was a step by step process of kill a couple of skeletons, kill the spider, go after Yisarn.
I had my cleric make a Religion check to realize that Yisarn was controlling the skeletons and that if they could drop him, the skeletons would be no more. He made it hard for them to get to him, of course, but they were able to at least ignore one skeleton to go after the boss.
In the end, the killing blow against Yisarn was struck by the cleric while she had just 4 hit points and two of her three allies were unconscious. It was a thrilling victory - but man, was it hard!
I like the way the necrotic burst played out as an encounter power that recharges when Yisarn is bloodied. That's how I'd use it if I ran this battle again in the future.
DJINNIMAN
First Post
I just ran this as well, and I changed it fairly significantly. I decided that Yisarn and the Spider together was a bit much, and wanted to spice the encounter up a bit by giving them an alternate objective than just "kill everything".
I told the group that Yisarn was protected by four skeletons instead of two. In the webs, they saw the dessicated corpse of a huge spider. Yisarn, who knew the PCs were coming due to a creepy eye that appeared on the wall of the adjacent room as they fought the goblins, was attempting to reanimate the dragon bones with his lightning energy.
I told the PCs that they could disrupt his work by doing damage to him. If they let him go three rounds without damage, the dragon bones would animate as a level 4 version of a skeletal dragon from the Monster Builder.
The group burst in the door, and the Knight promptly fell into the pit. He eventually got out, and the Thief jumped right over, but the skeletons moved up and bottlenecked them. The mage and shaman kept back behind the pit, too scared to attempt a jump. They helped whittle down the skeletons, a bit too easily, I think. I should have had the skeletons crack their own ribs and throw them as missile weapons at the casters or something instead of concentrating on the Knight and Thief.
The paladin decided to go around and try the other door. Sure enough, he fell in as well. He did get up eventually and took on Yisarn toe to toe. The necrotic burst was pretty strong here, but I found that the pushback actually helped the PCs stay alive somewhat. Yisarn only got one round without damage at all, so the dragon bones weren't animated. He eventually fell, but the release of his necromantic energies animated the spider. I took away the annoying blindness to speed the combat up.
To sum up:
+ giving the PCs the chance to affect the outcome was great. The spider was much easier than the dragon would have been.
+ Yisarn was really tough but keeping his attention focused on animating the bones for a couple rounds made it a more fair fight.
- Not enough significant output from the casters. I felt they were frustrated being stuck behind the traps. They didn't want to risk entering since their skills for that were so low.
- Way too easy to disrupt Yisarn. I wanted to deemphasize "kill everything" and I did that... by making them kill ONE thing. I could have killed two birds with one stone by requiring Arcane, Religion, etc. checks to counteract Yisarn's casting instead of doing damage. Thus the casters would have had a chance to shine.
I'm really learning a lot by running these pre-made adventures. I'm sure this experience will be invaluable as I attempt to make my own encounters soon.
I told the group that Yisarn was protected by four skeletons instead of two. In the webs, they saw the dessicated corpse of a huge spider. Yisarn, who knew the PCs were coming due to a creepy eye that appeared on the wall of the adjacent room as they fought the goblins, was attempting to reanimate the dragon bones with his lightning energy.
I told the PCs that they could disrupt his work by doing damage to him. If they let him go three rounds without damage, the dragon bones would animate as a level 4 version of a skeletal dragon from the Monster Builder.
The group burst in the door, and the Knight promptly fell into the pit. He eventually got out, and the Thief jumped right over, but the skeletons moved up and bottlenecked them. The mage and shaman kept back behind the pit, too scared to attempt a jump. They helped whittle down the skeletons, a bit too easily, I think. I should have had the skeletons crack their own ribs and throw them as missile weapons at the casters or something instead of concentrating on the Knight and Thief.
The paladin decided to go around and try the other door. Sure enough, he fell in as well. He did get up eventually and took on Yisarn toe to toe. The necrotic burst was pretty strong here, but I found that the pushback actually helped the PCs stay alive somewhat. Yisarn only got one round without damage at all, so the dragon bones weren't animated. He eventually fell, but the release of his necromantic energies animated the spider. I took away the annoying blindness to speed the combat up.
To sum up:
+ giving the PCs the chance to affect the outcome was great. The spider was much easier than the dragon would have been.
+ Yisarn was really tough but keeping his attention focused on animating the bones for a couple rounds made it a more fair fight.
- Not enough significant output from the casters. I felt they were frustrated being stuck behind the traps. They didn't want to risk entering since their skills for that were so low.
- Way too easy to disrupt Yisarn. I wanted to deemphasize "kill everything" and I did that... by making them kill ONE thing. I could have killed two birds with one stone by requiring Arcane, Religion, etc. checks to counteract Yisarn's casting instead of doing damage. Thus the casters would have had a chance to shine.
I'm really learning a lot by running these pre-made adventures. I'm sure this experience will be invaluable as I attempt to make my own encounters soon.
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