Sea Hag vs 2nd level party

[heirodule]

I have a second level eberron party that I'm sending on an undersea adventure.

I want to make my baddie a Sea Hag. (CR 4) so a tough encounter. They will have action points.

Sea hags have a DC 13 fortitude save-or-die effect. (you have to fail the will save that leads to 3 days of dazing first, if I read it right)

1) is this unfair

2) What should I put in the advanture to make it fair?

a) warning about the evil eye, so the party can prep
b) providing a darkness effect to protect the PCs?
c) providing access to remove fear to give a +4 on the save (evil eye seems to be a fear effect)

Access to a-c would rely on thorough investigation and roleplaying with the sea elves who need the PCs help to deal with the sea hag.

Thoughts?

anything else?

Evil Eye (Su)

Three times per day, a sea hag can cast its dire gaze upon any single creature within 30 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 13 Will save or be dazed for three days, although remove curse or dispel evil can restore sanity sooner. In addition, an affected creature must succeed on a DC 13 Fortitude save or die from fright. Creatures with immunity to fear effects are not affected by the sea hag’s evil eye. The save DCs are Charisma-based.

Am I reading that right?

 

[Slobber Monster]

Yes, that's right. A typical Level 2 human fighter would have a +5 Fort and a +0 Will save, So versus the DC 13 evil eye the fighter has a 60% chance to be dazed and a 35% chance after that to die, for a total 21% chance to die.

I don't consider that a particularly fair thing to just spring on a party unless they have some opportunity to plan. The evil eye's big weakness is its close range of 30 ft. So as long as the group has a chance to discover this and attempt to execute a plan which places the fight on their own terms outside of its range then things should be OK.

Of course that plan might get foiled or complicated, someone might die anyways, and that's OK. I would just try to avoid a situation where the PC's open a door, the hag is standing there, and BOOM, somone's dead.

 

[Rackhir]

Only use it if you are willing to kill PCs. When ever you toss save or die effects at characters, there is always the chance that someone is going to roll lousy and at 2nd level it's unlikely that they will have access to any sort of resurection magics. So anyone dead is probably going to stay that way.

If your players expect to loose PCs and you don't have any long term campaing threads tied to their characters then I don't see a problem. However a lot of campaigns aren't structured that way and the characters aren't disposeable.

 

[Gold Roger]

Don't think "Is this fair?" ask "Is this fun?".

I'd say a sea hag is a pretty awesome BBEG to set against a level 2 party, under the condition that:

-PC deaths in your group aren't considered a terrible thing

-Your group enjoys tough fights

-They have a reasonable amount of recources left when meeting her (If they have spend their healing and most spells, the encounter might pretty much suck)

- You give them a way to remove her evil eye effect Of course I immediatly misread the evil eye ability. They should be save from the evil eye, considering you have action points. Just make sure she targets rogues last of all and considers them the least significant thread. 3rd level rogues could easily die to this

I'd definitely spring this on my players (Hell, I'd spring it on a first level party, but I'm a vile bastard).

 

[smootrk]

It is fair. If you are concerned, make sure you strategicaly place objects that might help the party, but these objects must be found (and must be made aware of the object's helpful nature). A potion or two chosen specifically to help balance the fight might be all that is necessary to deal with a CR4 creature.

 

[LostSoul]

Sounds fair to me.

Actually, it sounds really cool.

 

[Roger]

The bardic ability Inspire Courage might help, too.

With action points, the characters are quite a bit less likely to fall to a bad roll, so have at it.



Cheers,
Roger

 

[Nyaricus]

Hags can do an Evil Eye 3 times a day.

So, send a NPC with the party. He steps into Sea Hags lair and gets blasted with an evil eye, screaming out, "ware the hags eyes!!" as he falls to the ground, shrieking and convulsing in pure agony, eventually stilling and silencing himself as his soul slips into the nether. Bam, now only 2 party members have a chance of dieing, since one of her Evil Eyes has been used up.

And I'd consider throwing my party against this critter, for my two coppers. Though I might lower the DC to a 12....

cheers,
--N

 

[Felix]

So, send a NPC with the party.

Been reading Nodwick, have you?

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Sounds fair to me.

Actually, it sounds really cool.

I'm with LostSoul. Hell, BBEG encounters are supposed to be dangerous. Sounds like a classic encounter with a witch that can kill you with a look. That's the thing legends are made of.