Superj3nius
First Post
This is my story of my Eberron campaign, where through a rather interesting chain of events the party ends up in what should have been a TPK, down right slaughter. However, they didn't die and instead killed everything, just thought I'd share.
So, I am currently running the "Shadow of the Last War" campaign in the Eberron setting for my party of 3 level two characters (Swashbuckler, Ranger, and Psionic Warrior) and a level 3 sorcerer. The party just got to part 3 the Rose Quarry. So this is my first campaign in the Eberron setting and this campaign is my players first times playing D&D (except for the psionic warrior, he's pretty seasoned). And through reading the adventure myself and reading many reviews online of other players and DM's thought on the campaign I have come to dread the EL 8 encounter that the players are supposed to avoid. Upon entering the area they originally decide that it would be a good idea to run into the camp head's first. I decided that as a DM it isn't my place to tell them how to play the game but I would HIGHLY recommend avoid that camp and their attention like it was the plague. So after convincing them that it wouldn't be wise to fight the camp and they should probably view this area like a stealth mission, they come across the glass covered zombies. They demolish the Zombies rather effectively however they did it SO grandly and so close to the camp it would be outlandish to not have a small scout party check out the the noise and spells in the distance. When I sent two gaurds they decided it would be funny to instead of hiding to try and intimidate them and used all their buff spells, the psionic warrior used his "enlarge person" psion power and yelled at them to run away.
At this point I remind them that drawing attention would probably end in the huge encounter that probably wouldn't turn out well. However they insist on letting them do this if they so please.
I figure this is a good example, they'll get taken down a few pegs, maybe get captured, maybe someone will die. Who knows, but this could be a good learning experience for everyone, maybe they'll realize they can't just fight their way through any scenario. I now get the excited to run this to see how it goes down and how the group reacts and learns from an EC8 encounter.
9 Human Warriors, 4 Skeletons, 1 2nd level Cleric, and a 2nd level Necromancer.
Set up: They are fighting in these ruins covered in glass. The Psionic Warrior (now Large size) puts the party's sorcerer and Ranger on top two buildings and the swashbuckler and the P.Warrior stick to ground fighting. For the baddies, the skeletons and human warriors split up to surround the group, and one human stays back with the clerics as they buff themselves.
The battle: It begins pretty quickly, the players allow the baddies to get in position because they want to stay close. The first two humans die quickly to the swashbuckler and the P. Warrior and his attacks of opportunity. And I think wow this may not go exactly as I planned. They may actually come out of this alive. The P. Warrior has an AC of 23 after full plate and the "shield" spell. So I had the necromancer fire magic missiles on him while the other enemies fought the other PC's to the best of the abilities they had. The P. Warrior has 14 hp and was constantly being put into negatives while all other players would spend turns healing him when he fell. over the next few turns The warrior took 40+ damage, getting hit then healed and repeat. Then the warrior finally kills a few skeletons and humans with his cleave feat and the swashbuckler doing some damage to various baddies. The sorcerer then uses his familiar to cast "burning hands" throughout all the different small battles that make up this huge encounter. Everyone failed their reflex saves 2 burning hands in a row, the Warrior died and the humans and a few skeletons are finished off. The Ranger rapid shots the necromancer to death and the sorcerer and swashbuckler take out the cleric and survive the 8th level encounter and only lost one player.
This was actually a blessing in disguise because I now realize that my party may be a wee bit over powered or lucky, and To be honest the players really enjoyed this encounter. They loved how they all worked, how they all were threatened a decent amount to their comforts and how they only lost one person. It was all in all exciting and fun
I apologize it's so long, and maybe dry(?) haha feel free to add a fun tpk or an almost tpk, they are so exciting!
So, I am currently running the "Shadow of the Last War" campaign in the Eberron setting for my party of 3 level two characters (Swashbuckler, Ranger, and Psionic Warrior) and a level 3 sorcerer. The party just got to part 3 the Rose Quarry. So this is my first campaign in the Eberron setting and this campaign is my players first times playing D&D (except for the psionic warrior, he's pretty seasoned). And through reading the adventure myself and reading many reviews online of other players and DM's thought on the campaign I have come to dread the EL 8 encounter that the players are supposed to avoid. Upon entering the area they originally decide that it would be a good idea to run into the camp head's first. I decided that as a DM it isn't my place to tell them how to play the game but I would HIGHLY recommend avoid that camp and their attention like it was the plague. So after convincing them that it wouldn't be wise to fight the camp and they should probably view this area like a stealth mission, they come across the glass covered zombies. They demolish the Zombies rather effectively however they did it SO grandly and so close to the camp it would be outlandish to not have a small scout party check out the the noise and spells in the distance. When I sent two gaurds they decided it would be funny to instead of hiding to try and intimidate them and used all their buff spells, the psionic warrior used his "enlarge person" psion power and yelled at them to run away.
At this point I remind them that drawing attention would probably end in the huge encounter that probably wouldn't turn out well. However they insist on letting them do this if they so please.
I figure this is a good example, they'll get taken down a few pegs, maybe get captured, maybe someone will die. Who knows, but this could be a good learning experience for everyone, maybe they'll realize they can't just fight their way through any scenario. I now get the excited to run this to see how it goes down and how the group reacts and learns from an EC8 encounter.
9 Human Warriors, 4 Skeletons, 1 2nd level Cleric, and a 2nd level Necromancer.
Set up: They are fighting in these ruins covered in glass. The Psionic Warrior (now Large size) puts the party's sorcerer and Ranger on top two buildings and the swashbuckler and the P.Warrior stick to ground fighting. For the baddies, the skeletons and human warriors split up to surround the group, and one human stays back with the clerics as they buff themselves.
The battle: It begins pretty quickly, the players allow the baddies to get in position because they want to stay close. The first two humans die quickly to the swashbuckler and the P. Warrior and his attacks of opportunity. And I think wow this may not go exactly as I planned. They may actually come out of this alive. The P. Warrior has an AC of 23 after full plate and the "shield" spell. So I had the necromancer fire magic missiles on him while the other enemies fought the other PC's to the best of the abilities they had. The P. Warrior has 14 hp and was constantly being put into negatives while all other players would spend turns healing him when he fell. over the next few turns The warrior took 40+ damage, getting hit then healed and repeat. Then the warrior finally kills a few skeletons and humans with his cleave feat and the swashbuckler doing some damage to various baddies. The sorcerer then uses his familiar to cast "burning hands" throughout all the different small battles that make up this huge encounter. Everyone failed their reflex saves 2 burning hands in a row, the Warrior died and the humans and a few skeletons are finished off. The Ranger rapid shots the necromancer to death and the sorcerer and swashbuckler take out the cleric and survive the 8th level encounter and only lost one player.
This was actually a blessing in disguise because I now realize that my party may be a wee bit over powered or lucky, and To be honest the players really enjoyed this encounter. They loved how they all worked, how they all were threatened a decent amount to their comforts and how they only lost one person. It was all in all exciting and fun
I apologize it's so long, and maybe dry(?) haha feel free to add a fun tpk or an almost tpk, they are so exciting!
