D&D 5E What do you do?

[Mathilda]

This actually happened while playing in Adventure League but the situation is applicable to home games as well..

What would you do?

You are part of a six man party in the process of clearing out a pyramid dungeon. The first couple of combat encounters were stronger than what you are normally accustomed to but nothing you could not handle. You and your party continue to explore when you come across a group of ritualists in the middle of their ritual. You initiate and engage in combat only to fail in stopping the ritual allowing a big monster to materialize. The big monster hits a party members with an obscene amount of damage and puts a player down in roughly 2 rounds and is working on a second member and 33% of the party immediately call for a retreat.

Facts:

1. A tier 4 party
2. 2/3 of the party including yourself do not have any damage or very little
3. 2 members are up but way down in hitpoints
4. In addition there is still 6 to 8 ritualists with at least 150 hitpoints each

 

[Guest 6801328]

So out of six players:
1 is unconscious and making death saves
2 are badly hurt
2 are essentially uninjured

What about the 6th? You said that the big monster is working on a second victim...is that one of the two badly hurt members?

Which two voted for retreat?

 

[RulesJD]

Windows to the Past I take it?

Depends on how attached people are to their characters and what character I'm on.

Personally, I say stop being a bunch of pansies and unless hell. Go to town. Why is there no ta Meteor Swarm to bring down the Priests? Or Shapechanging into a Dragon Turtle/Balor to tank up for a while? Or a Raging + Action Surging Fighter/Barbarian doing 120+ damage/turn?

The "correct" answer depends on a lot more facts than you've given.

 

[Mathilda]

To clarify One player went down and was immediately healed by our cleric, who then got hit heavy but was not down. The other four characters including myself had very little damage if any. So to reply to Elfcrusher... technically all the players were up and fully functional. The two players that wanted to immediately retreat was a pure rogue and a barbarian/paladin.

The first 3 rounds of combat was that the cleric and druid monk closed to engage the guys doing the ritual... I used a staff twice via action surge to engage the ritualist as well... the other 3 engaged the guys coming at us.

At the end of the third round the big monster materialized.

To answer JDs questions... we had only one caster which was the cleric, then we had a pure rogue, a rogue ranger, the druid monk, barbarian paladin and me a paladin/warlock/fighter.. so none of those suggestions were available... I could have engaged the big monster in melee and probably survived a few rounds but before I could do that the party was already in a discussion of leaving.

The two that advocated a retreat was the pure rogue and the barbarian paladin

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

I can't say with absolute certainty because I've not been given enough details on either the mechanics of the situation, nor the story of it. This could be a seriously bad situation that forces me to weigh the consequences of choosing between staying and probably dying, or fleeing and definitely not saving some untold number of lives/worlds.

But I can say that I tend to play characters that are arrogant enough not to realize they are overmatched, valiant enough to never back down, or pragmatic enough to know a retreat benefits from a cover, so there are seriously good odds that no matter what the rest of the party is doing, my character will be staying to fight even if it means death.

 

[Lanefan]

Strikes me as odd that a Paladin would be voting to retreat...

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Strikes me as odd that a Paladin would be voting to retreat...

What does class have to do with it?

 

[Delazar]

In a home game, I would say retreat, rest up, scout/scry and fight another day.

Not sure if this is feasible in AL.

 

[Imaculata]

If there is a way to evacuate the whole party, I'd say "run awaaaaay!". Survive to fight another day. But otherwise, I would go down in a blaze of glory. It would kind of depend on the character and class I was playing though. If I were playing a barbarian, then he would proudly give his life for his friends. Same with a paladin. If I were playing a spellcaster, I'd at least consider the option of using an illusion spell to provide a diversion, so we can all flee.

 

[CydKnight]

It seems apparent that the party was surprised by the nature and/or power of the summoned monster. They may also have been surprised that it was summoned at all if they were unaware of the nature of the ritual they attempted to interrupt. To me it seems folly to engage such a monster further if it was able to do that much damage in a matter of 2 rounds of combat. The party can then regroup and discuss what they just encountered. Compare notes and assess strengths and weaknesses. Then decide if the monster is worth re-engaging after developing a strategy. So, if it were me I would call for a retreat and then head for the exit and see who appears to follow. What I do after that depends on what happens in the next round.