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When Fiends Attack: Are Balors, Pit Fiends and Ultraloths too weak?
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<blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 7007830" data-attributes="member: 6787650"><p>This is a bit off-topic, because I <em>do</em> understand your point about the fact that Strahd's abilities don't make him massively tough by default, but:</p><p></p><p>I understand your perspective, hence my caveat about "if you play him intelligently and ruthlessly." If he's just sort of standing in a room waiting for the PCs to make the first move, that isn't intelligent or ruthless. It can be plausible, but it's the plausibility of "I don't take you seriously as a threat so I'm just going to chat with you," not the plausibility of "I want you dead and I'm going to make that happen." In that case, it's a story of how four adventurers tricked Strahd to death--the "killing" part is actually incidental compared to the part where they got him to underestimate them and meet for a friendly parley. (The fact that he had bodyguards there is really incidental.)</p><p></p><p>Every time I've heard a story about Strahd dying ignominiously, it's been a story about a straight-up fight.</p><p></p><p>The only way for Strahd to "only get one action" when he actually gets thousands of actions in a day is for him to waste all of his actions except the one right before he dies, if you know what I mean. Consider for example what happens if Strahd simply conjures up a horde of chaff like wolves, orders them to attack the party from one direction, turns himself invisible with Greater Invisibility, and then attacks the party's rear while the front-liners are busy killing the wolves. Either charm someone or else grab someone (like the cleric) with your grapple and then use your extremely high mobility (thanks to Legendary Actions) to drag him out of easy support range of the rest of the party, e.g. behind the corner of a mausoleum. If the party reacts in an unexpected way (keeping a tight formation so that you can't conveniently isolate a PC; or responding instantly with ranged cantrips as soon as you grab someone) then drop that strategy and Hide instead; you can always come back later with reinforcements, possibly while the PCs are asleep.</p><p></p><p>Strahd's single greatest asset is his crazy-high Stealth, which combined with regeneration and mobility let him pick his moment.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="FormerlyHemlock, post: 7007830, member: 6787650"] This is a bit off-topic, because I [I]do[/I] understand your point about the fact that Strahd's abilities don't make him massively tough by default, but: I understand your perspective, hence my caveat about "if you play him intelligently and ruthlessly." If he's just sort of standing in a room waiting for the PCs to make the first move, that isn't intelligent or ruthless. It can be plausible, but it's the plausibility of "I don't take you seriously as a threat so I'm just going to chat with you," not the plausibility of "I want you dead and I'm going to make that happen." In that case, it's a story of how four adventurers tricked Strahd to death--the "killing" part is actually incidental compared to the part where they got him to underestimate them and meet for a friendly parley. (The fact that he had bodyguards there is really incidental.) Every time I've heard a story about Strahd dying ignominiously, it's been a story about a straight-up fight. The only way for Strahd to "only get one action" when he actually gets thousands of actions in a day is for him to waste all of his actions except the one right before he dies, if you know what I mean. Consider for example what happens if Strahd simply conjures up a horde of chaff like wolves, orders them to attack the party from one direction, turns himself invisible with Greater Invisibility, and then attacks the party's rear while the front-liners are busy killing the wolves. Either charm someone or else grab someone (like the cleric) with your grapple and then use your extremely high mobility (thanks to Legendary Actions) to drag him out of easy support range of the rest of the party, e.g. behind the corner of a mausoleum. If the party reacts in an unexpected way (keeping a tight formation so that you can't conveniently isolate a PC; or responding instantly with ranged cantrips as soon as you grab someone) then drop that strategy and Hide instead; you can always come back later with reinforcements, possibly while the PCs are asleep. Strahd's single greatest asset is his crazy-high Stealth, which combined with regeneration and mobility let him pick his moment. [/QUOTE]
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When Fiends Attack: Are Balors, Pit Fiends and Ultraloths too weak?
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