So my group had such an epic battle yesterday that I just had to write about it. Let me tell you a tale of a near certain TPK that went in a very different direction. This is also a tale of why CRs and encounter difficulty assessment is almost worthless by mid levels
Background
My 9th level party are members of Taranya, the most powerful city in the multiverse. If you have ever seen Stargate, they are basically an SG team (known as Obsidian Squad)…. going on missions around the multiverse using gates that the city creates.
The city is currently at war with a large faction of Githyanki, and already have been in several battles.
The world of Greystorm has a very interesting phenomena. All planar effects (Gate, Plane Shift, Teleport, Banishment) performed on that world always goes to the exact same spot, a small island on the world. This makes the spot a very important tactical beachhead…known as a Planar Nexus.
Taranya is setting up an artifact at the spot that greatly increases the effect. Once complete, it won’t just be planar travel in the world that is affected, but across the multiverse. This would shut down the Githyanki’s greatest asset, their ability to plane shift when in trouble.
Session 1 – The Trap!
The party has been sent to Greystorm to explore some old ruins. It’s a cake run mission, mainly to allow the team’s super genius wizard to take a look at the artifact while they are there.
While the party is exploring the ruins, they get a distress sending from the fort set up near the planar nexus. A Githyanki attack!
Now I am assuming my party is going to move on back, see the Githyanki, and do some kind of guerilla attack, try to call for help, etc kind of thing. But oh no, the wizard wanted to try out his freshly minted Teleport Circle spell. That spell (like other planar effects) goes right to the Planar Nexus. So the party thought, what better way to get back to the site and offer help.
So they teleported in...and found themselves facing not a force, but an Armada. It’s a trap!!!
• 1 Githyanki Supreme Commander
• 1 Githyanki Psion (9th level caster, with force and psionic themed spells)
• 1 Githyanki Champion Fighter (actual champion fighter levels)
• 1 Githyanki Gish
• 15 Githyanki Knights
• 40 Githyanki Warriors
Further, the warriors were in the air on 4 Astral Skiffs. The rest of the forces were situated on a massive Astral Galleon, with eldritch blast guns as well as cannons that shoot fireballs.
The party was completely surrounded, facing the largest force they have ever seen (if you want to check the XP on such an encounter it is beyond deadly several times over).
As the DM, I think a TPK is now a given. What can they do against such reckless hate?
Btw, for those curious, I just threw the encounter in an XP calculator. Without even including the ships, it is 344,400 XP (a CR 30 encounter). So....yeah, pretty deadly
The Stand
I give the party a surprise round, the one bone I can throw them. The wizard casts wall of force as a sphere around the party, and used their emergency beacon to call the home base. And suddenly, we have a stalemate! No attacks in, no attacks out.
The Knights start coming off the skiff, and since all of them have Misty step, 3 of them cast it to move into the sphere (I ruled there was only enough room for 3 guys to port in).
The front line engage the knights, and take heavy damage. But as the knights become bloodied (half health for those that didn’t play 4e), they simply misty step out, and let 3 fresh knights step in (I had ruled a while ago that short range teleports like misty step and dimension door don’t trigger the nexus). So while the party has stopped the instant death of 40 warriors firing arrows at them, they have only delayed the inevitable.
The team setup a wall of sand around the barrier. It blinded the knights (preventing misty step) and blocked line of sight. No one could see in or out. The party engaged the 3 fresh knights, with the rogue the MVP, using some strong paralysis poison to instantly take out one of the knights. They beat the current 3, but the front line barbarian and druid were now exceptionally wounded. And the wall of force would not last forever…
This is where the session ended, giving the group a week to think of a strategy. I gave the 20 int wizard a lot of intel (to simulate a super genius as close as possible). And then the time came again….
Session 2 – Taranya Strikes Back!
A gate opened in their area, and Taranyan reinforcements arrive. Out comes a fellow squad, a 5th level wizard, 6th level life cleric, and 6th level fighter. Following them, 2 Ataridan (Taranyan elite champions, the special forces of the world)…which were a 14th level cleric and an 11th level rogue. And finally, their last squadmate, a 9th level paladin (the player couldn’t make the last session, so he now showed up for this one).
The group also came with an emergency kit against the Githyanki. Potions of healing and psychic resistance, a potion of Giant Strength and Heroism and a necklace of fireballs. Further, the party was granted special use of the Heart of Ixsus, a powerful artifact that could generate any 4th level spell or lower twice per day. And certainly not last, the Paladin was given a prototype weapon against the Gith, a psionic bane longsword ironically named “The Mind Flayer”.
The gate only lasted 1 minute. The party wavered back and forth, once that gate closed they knew that escape was impossible. But if they left, and the Gith fortified the area, it was possible Taranya would never take it back, and the planar nexus would now be in Gith hands. They could not let that happen, and as the portal closed every member stood their ground, ready to fight!!!!
Plan A – Up and Away!
The group put up a fog cloud to ensure complete concealment (which would be useful later on). The wizard’s raven familiar Midnight was still outside the barrier and had remained hidden up to now. He flew as fast as he could towards the cannon, for the wizard had to confirm a key piece of information.
The familiar was STRUCK DOWN brutally! But not before gleaning critical intel…there was an open space behind the cannon.
And so plan A began! In groups of two, the party used their spells and the Heart of Ixsus to dimension door 6 of them inside the Galleon! As the supreme commander was near the sphere, I gave her an Arcane check to see if she could discern the spell, but it was at disadvantage due to lack of sight. A failure! So, the party was able to board the ship undetected. As the wall was still up, and the fog cloud covering everything, the Gith were none the wiser.
The party raided the control room, finding a pilot, and the Champion Githyanki Fighter. The pilot was immediately dispatched on surprise, and the Champion pretty hurt. Then the paladin steps up. And…..delivers a heroic speech about surrender?
The party was flabbergasted, some were even visibly angry. The paladin had just wasted a precious surprise action that could have been used for a big round of smites! But the paladin rolled his check. He was a paladin of redemption, and used his special +10 ability.
And ROLLED A 38 PERSUASION CHECK!!!
The Champion Gith had some beefs with the supreme commander, and with the war entirely. So while he would never turn Traitor, he decided that this was not his fight. So he gave some last few cinematic words to the group, and then leaped from the vessel.
Champion Gith down for the count!!
Abandon Ship!
The rogue had the actor feat and used it to perfectly mimic the Champion’s voice. It shouted on the “loudspeaker” to all of the Gith on board to disembark and head to the enemies on land.
The Supreme Commander knew it was a ruse, but before he could correct her troops the Gish disembarked. One less Gith to worry about on the ship!
Open Fire!
The wizard took the helm, steered the ship to broadside one of the Astral Skiffs, and opened fire! The blast bloodied most of the warriors on board and heavily damaged the skiff.
Meanwhile, two of the remaining skiffs moved towards the Galleon. The first one drew close, and the warriors on board misty stepped into the ship. Further, the knights from the top of the ship started misty stepping inside. A full on melee ensued!
The party traded blows back and forth, with the clutch moment when 4 of the warriors launched arrows at the Wizard. 8 attacks moved forward, and the wizard has a 9 AC (yes 9). However, he has an upgraded version of the Mirror Image spell, and those images saved his life, as he was missed every single time!
But the wizard realized he would not survive the skirmish at this rate, and decided on a new course of action. He dropped his original wall of force, and using a special item (a minor staff of power that was depleted but he has been “nursing back to health”), he cast one additional wall of force around just himself….AND THE CONTROL SYSTEM!
So the wizard was now invincible, and had full control of the ship. He could no longer help his comrades with spells, but with raw Galleon power!
Meanwhile….on the Ground
When the wizard let the wall of force go, the sphere on the ground ended, and the fog cloud kept inside spilled out. Team Beta, including the Druid, the second squad, and the 14th level cleric, activated.
They used the cloud to conceal their dead run to the fort that had been set up nearby. It was a small Daern’s Instant Fortress, with spell glyphs on the outside to hurt the enemy, and spell glyphs inside for buff spells. The wizard and druid start launching area attacks from the arrow slits.
So far things were looking pretty good!
The Supreme Comeback
The fort was warded against teleportation (it was designed against the Gith after all). However, the Supreme commander has a special ability, and used her phasing power to walk through the wall and engaged the group. She knew the group well, and the druid was the first target. She was already extremely powerful, but was further enhanced by buffs the Psion had laid upon her. She had a Bigby’s hand spell already set up, and started crushing the Druid with it.
Distracted by the commander, two knights were able to get in through the front door, though they took heavy damage from a flame strike spell glyph as they walked in. They moved to surround the Druid, even taking an opportunity attack from the cleric.
All 3 of them laid into the druid. Further, the commander’s legendary actions really kicked in, giving even more attacks to the knights. The druid was knocked unconscious and looked to be a goner. The cleric started using his healing magic to keep the druid up. The wizard in the tower was an evoker, and used sculpt spell to blast the group while leaving his friends alone. A combination of clerical awesome, the raw druidic power of cone of cold, a few necklace of fireball beads, and a lot of luck….and the two knights were taken out. The commander was still well on her feat though, and now the Gish was walking in the front door….
Is that a Dinosaur?
So one thing not mentioned before. The rogue can speak with animals and had befriended a dinosaur on Greystorm many sessions ago. When all of this had started, she had called on her friend for help. And suddenly from the sea, she arrived!
There were a few knights near the beach heading towards the fort. The dinosaur grabbed them and tossed them into the sea! This gave precious relief to the fort, giving them time to deal with the commander.
Back in the Sky
In the sky things continued to get nuts. Now the Psion floated in from one of the sides, the side the paladin was on. He then cast his most powerful spell….Synaptic Static!!! And the paladin COUNTERSPELLED IT!!! (Yes redemption paladins get Counterspell, they are a really really good subclass).
Then the paladin challenged the Psion to a compelled duel, and it worked! So I got to enjoy a spellcaster’s worst nightmare. I was in melee with a Paladin, with godly saves, and I literally could not run from the fight. Oh yeah, lets not forget that psionic bane longsword he has. Yeah… the fight went about as well as you would expect.
Meanwhile the fight for the ship raged on. The two rogues were backing up the Paladin, Fighter, and Barbarian as they wrecked shop. The barbarian was the star here, with 25 strength from the potion, and he was also hasted, he mowed through warriors. He was a bear totem barb, and with a psychic resistance from the potion, he had achieved true half damage against the gith (a point he was very happy about, as that psychic damage had crushed him in previous sessions).
The wizard gleefully kept fireballing the other skiffs. One of them went on top of the Galleon to get to the other side and allow more reinforcements to join the fight. The wizard drove the galleon upward to smash the skiff. I did a roll, even gave the skiff advantage for being more maneuverable. Didn’t matter, the skiff went tumbling. Some of the warriors managed to misty step to the galleon. But the others fell to their death!
The Last Straw
The party had managed to do exactly as they hoped, break the fight up into smaller groups. They knew that the combined force of a large group of knights or warriors would kill any party member. But each party member was stronger individually than the knights or warriors, and so in small groups they could hold their own.
The Knight and Warrior numbers were plummeting at this point.
Back in the fortress, the cleric finally got to show his muster. As a war cleric (who was hasted by one of the glyphs from the fort), he got 3 attacks in on the commander, and started to deliver big pain.
The Gish arrived, but was drained of spells from the initial ambush (before the party arrived). Still a threat, but not nearly as dangerous as normal. The druid had finally been able to seek shelter further in the fortress, leaving the cleric to take the line. The commander was powerful, but no match for a 14th level cleric backed by fireballs and stacked with buffing magic.
As the knights outside screamed and died, the Gish bolted. Finally the commander did too, phasing through the wall, and jumping off the cliff. My last hope was stealth, as with “infinite misty steps” perhaps I could find a spot the party couldn’t find.
Alas it was not to be. The druid has the observant feat, nothing avoids his gaze. He found the commander near immediately, and the combined force of the group took her to the grave.
Epilogue
The last of the astral skiffs fell burning from the sky as the Galleon was brought down on land. A pile of Gith corpses were stacked on high.
What had started as a near certain TPK in my eyes, became a total victory. Every Gith was defeated, and not a single member of the party’s group had been killed (other than those who were in the initial ambush before the party arrived).
With the Supreme Commander of the Githyanki house destroyed, the war was over. The Battle of Greystorm would become legend (literally, it now appears in legend lore castings), and the members of Obsidian Squad renowned amongst the planes!
Behind the DM Screen
For the DMs out there, here are a few notes for you on scenarios like this:
• Learn to like Excel:
This fight was monstrous, with huge groups on both sides. It was critical that I run the monsters as quickly as possible, else the fight would turn into such a boring slog no one would enjoy it.
Mob rules is one way to streamline such a fight, but I took it a step further. I put all of my guys in excel, using formulas so that I could immediately tell you how much damage 10 warriors would do with their ranged attacks against a character, I could instantly get a pass or fail when my wizard hit 5 knights with a fireball, etc. It was a lot of work, but if you want to do such a fight right, you really have to put in the effort. I was able to run that entire second session in 5 hours. If I had tried to do it more manually, probably would have taken double that time.
There is nothing wrong with being more handwavy and nebulous in your combats, but if you want to run a crazy big battle “by the numbers”, excel is the way to go.
• Githyanki are great midlevel threats.
Githyanki are very well-rounded enemies for 7-10th level parties. They have good defense and offense, and their short range teleports offer a lot of mobility around the various control effects party’s often have at that level. Further, the ability for your bosses to plane shift when hurt is a huge benefit to create reoccurring villains. I highly recommend them.
• Never forget the rule of cool
While I ran a lot of this fight by the numbers, I always gave in to the players when it was just too cool not too. When the rogue called on the dinosaur, was it realistic that the dinosaur would come? Not really…but it was cool
Did it make sense that the familiar made it that close to the Galleon, considering how many bows and eyes were on the field? Not really… but it was cool
• Don’t be afraid to be brutal
On the flip side, if your working with your group, they will understand more when you show your nasty side. I went my players way in nearly every scenario when things were close, gave them a little extra even when it was beyond the rules, etc.
But for example when I was attacking the Druid, they knew full well that I wasn’t going to “stop when he was unconscious”. They all knew the commander would attack until the druid was dead….and the party respected it because they knew I was being fair and giving them the benefit of the doubt whenever it made sense to.
By not holding back, they knew they really won an impossible fight based on their own skills, not “because I went easy on them”. They will remember that for a very long time.
• Challenge Ratings are garbage at mid levels.
I found by 7th level, and especially 9th, that challenge ratings just don’t matter anymore. My players routinely hit way way way above their paygrade. Now in this case, they got a lot of help, but the fact that they turned a battle that should have been deadly for 14th level characters, and they walked away with no deaths just shows that how your players play is so much more important than the numbers in the monster manual.
So don’t be afraid to take it up a notch sometimes. Every so often, you give your players a fight they will never forget.
• Surprise Round is the most powerful effect in the game.
There is nothing stronger in the game than surprise. 5e combats are so short, that getting that extra round just changes everything. If your party gets to surprisee, they will be x2 more powerful than normal, it really is that strong sometimes.
Background
My 9th level party are members of Taranya, the most powerful city in the multiverse. If you have ever seen Stargate, they are basically an SG team (known as Obsidian Squad)…. going on missions around the multiverse using gates that the city creates.
The city is currently at war with a large faction of Githyanki, and already have been in several battles.
The world of Greystorm has a very interesting phenomena. All planar effects (Gate, Plane Shift, Teleport, Banishment) performed on that world always goes to the exact same spot, a small island on the world. This makes the spot a very important tactical beachhead…known as a Planar Nexus.
Taranya is setting up an artifact at the spot that greatly increases the effect. Once complete, it won’t just be planar travel in the world that is affected, but across the multiverse. This would shut down the Githyanki’s greatest asset, their ability to plane shift when in trouble.
Session 1 – The Trap!
The party has been sent to Greystorm to explore some old ruins. It’s a cake run mission, mainly to allow the team’s super genius wizard to take a look at the artifact while they are there.
While the party is exploring the ruins, they get a distress sending from the fort set up near the planar nexus. A Githyanki attack!
Now I am assuming my party is going to move on back, see the Githyanki, and do some kind of guerilla attack, try to call for help, etc kind of thing. But oh no, the wizard wanted to try out his freshly minted Teleport Circle spell. That spell (like other planar effects) goes right to the Planar Nexus. So the party thought, what better way to get back to the site and offer help.
So they teleported in...and found themselves facing not a force, but an Armada. It’s a trap!!!
• 1 Githyanki Supreme Commander
• 1 Githyanki Psion (9th level caster, with force and psionic themed spells)
• 1 Githyanki Champion Fighter (actual champion fighter levels)
• 1 Githyanki Gish
• 15 Githyanki Knights
• 40 Githyanki Warriors
Further, the warriors were in the air on 4 Astral Skiffs. The rest of the forces were situated on a massive Astral Galleon, with eldritch blast guns as well as cannons that shoot fireballs.
The party was completely surrounded, facing the largest force they have ever seen (if you want to check the XP on such an encounter it is beyond deadly several times over).
As the DM, I think a TPK is now a given. What can they do against such reckless hate?
Btw, for those curious, I just threw the encounter in an XP calculator. Without even including the ships, it is 344,400 XP (a CR 30 encounter). So....yeah, pretty deadly
The Stand
I give the party a surprise round, the one bone I can throw them. The wizard casts wall of force as a sphere around the party, and used their emergency beacon to call the home base. And suddenly, we have a stalemate! No attacks in, no attacks out.
The Knights start coming off the skiff, and since all of them have Misty step, 3 of them cast it to move into the sphere (I ruled there was only enough room for 3 guys to port in).
The front line engage the knights, and take heavy damage. But as the knights become bloodied (half health for those that didn’t play 4e), they simply misty step out, and let 3 fresh knights step in (I had ruled a while ago that short range teleports like misty step and dimension door don’t trigger the nexus). So while the party has stopped the instant death of 40 warriors firing arrows at them, they have only delayed the inevitable.
The team setup a wall of sand around the barrier. It blinded the knights (preventing misty step) and blocked line of sight. No one could see in or out. The party engaged the 3 fresh knights, with the rogue the MVP, using some strong paralysis poison to instantly take out one of the knights. They beat the current 3, but the front line barbarian and druid were now exceptionally wounded. And the wall of force would not last forever…
This is where the session ended, giving the group a week to think of a strategy. I gave the 20 int wizard a lot of intel (to simulate a super genius as close as possible). And then the time came again….
Session 2 – Taranya Strikes Back!
A gate opened in their area, and Taranyan reinforcements arrive. Out comes a fellow squad, a 5th level wizard, 6th level life cleric, and 6th level fighter. Following them, 2 Ataridan (Taranyan elite champions, the special forces of the world)…which were a 14th level cleric and an 11th level rogue. And finally, their last squadmate, a 9th level paladin (the player couldn’t make the last session, so he now showed up for this one).
The group also came with an emergency kit against the Githyanki. Potions of healing and psychic resistance, a potion of Giant Strength and Heroism and a necklace of fireballs. Further, the party was granted special use of the Heart of Ixsus, a powerful artifact that could generate any 4th level spell or lower twice per day. And certainly not last, the Paladin was given a prototype weapon against the Gith, a psionic bane longsword ironically named “The Mind Flayer”.
The gate only lasted 1 minute. The party wavered back and forth, once that gate closed they knew that escape was impossible. But if they left, and the Gith fortified the area, it was possible Taranya would never take it back, and the planar nexus would now be in Gith hands. They could not let that happen, and as the portal closed every member stood their ground, ready to fight!!!!
Plan A – Up and Away!
The group put up a fog cloud to ensure complete concealment (which would be useful later on). The wizard’s raven familiar Midnight was still outside the barrier and had remained hidden up to now. He flew as fast as he could towards the cannon, for the wizard had to confirm a key piece of information.
The familiar was STRUCK DOWN brutally! But not before gleaning critical intel…there was an open space behind the cannon.
And so plan A began! In groups of two, the party used their spells and the Heart of Ixsus to dimension door 6 of them inside the Galleon! As the supreme commander was near the sphere, I gave her an Arcane check to see if she could discern the spell, but it was at disadvantage due to lack of sight. A failure! So, the party was able to board the ship undetected. As the wall was still up, and the fog cloud covering everything, the Gith were none the wiser.
The party raided the control room, finding a pilot, and the Champion Githyanki Fighter. The pilot was immediately dispatched on surprise, and the Champion pretty hurt. Then the paladin steps up. And…..delivers a heroic speech about surrender?
The party was flabbergasted, some were even visibly angry. The paladin had just wasted a precious surprise action that could have been used for a big round of smites! But the paladin rolled his check. He was a paladin of redemption, and used his special +10 ability.
And ROLLED A 38 PERSUASION CHECK!!!
The Champion Gith had some beefs with the supreme commander, and with the war entirely. So while he would never turn Traitor, he decided that this was not his fight. So he gave some last few cinematic words to the group, and then leaped from the vessel.
Champion Gith down for the count!!
Abandon Ship!
The rogue had the actor feat and used it to perfectly mimic the Champion’s voice. It shouted on the “loudspeaker” to all of the Gith on board to disembark and head to the enemies on land.
The Supreme Commander knew it was a ruse, but before he could correct her troops the Gish disembarked. One less Gith to worry about on the ship!
Open Fire!
The wizard took the helm, steered the ship to broadside one of the Astral Skiffs, and opened fire! The blast bloodied most of the warriors on board and heavily damaged the skiff.
Meanwhile, two of the remaining skiffs moved towards the Galleon. The first one drew close, and the warriors on board misty stepped into the ship. Further, the knights from the top of the ship started misty stepping inside. A full on melee ensued!
The party traded blows back and forth, with the clutch moment when 4 of the warriors launched arrows at the Wizard. 8 attacks moved forward, and the wizard has a 9 AC (yes 9). However, he has an upgraded version of the Mirror Image spell, and those images saved his life, as he was missed every single time!
But the wizard realized he would not survive the skirmish at this rate, and decided on a new course of action. He dropped his original wall of force, and using a special item (a minor staff of power that was depleted but he has been “nursing back to health”), he cast one additional wall of force around just himself….AND THE CONTROL SYSTEM!
So the wizard was now invincible, and had full control of the ship. He could no longer help his comrades with spells, but with raw Galleon power!
Meanwhile….on the Ground
When the wizard let the wall of force go, the sphere on the ground ended, and the fog cloud kept inside spilled out. Team Beta, including the Druid, the second squad, and the 14th level cleric, activated.
They used the cloud to conceal their dead run to the fort that had been set up nearby. It was a small Daern’s Instant Fortress, with spell glyphs on the outside to hurt the enemy, and spell glyphs inside for buff spells. The wizard and druid start launching area attacks from the arrow slits.
So far things were looking pretty good!
The Supreme Comeback
The fort was warded against teleportation (it was designed against the Gith after all). However, the Supreme commander has a special ability, and used her phasing power to walk through the wall and engaged the group. She knew the group well, and the druid was the first target. She was already extremely powerful, but was further enhanced by buffs the Psion had laid upon her. She had a Bigby’s hand spell already set up, and started crushing the Druid with it.
Distracted by the commander, two knights were able to get in through the front door, though they took heavy damage from a flame strike spell glyph as they walked in. They moved to surround the Druid, even taking an opportunity attack from the cleric.
All 3 of them laid into the druid. Further, the commander’s legendary actions really kicked in, giving even more attacks to the knights. The druid was knocked unconscious and looked to be a goner. The cleric started using his healing magic to keep the druid up. The wizard in the tower was an evoker, and used sculpt spell to blast the group while leaving his friends alone. A combination of clerical awesome, the raw druidic power of cone of cold, a few necklace of fireball beads, and a lot of luck….and the two knights were taken out. The commander was still well on her feat though, and now the Gish was walking in the front door….
Is that a Dinosaur?
So one thing not mentioned before. The rogue can speak with animals and had befriended a dinosaur on Greystorm many sessions ago. When all of this had started, she had called on her friend for help. And suddenly from the sea, she arrived!
There were a few knights near the beach heading towards the fort. The dinosaur grabbed them and tossed them into the sea! This gave precious relief to the fort, giving them time to deal with the commander.
Back in the Sky
In the sky things continued to get nuts. Now the Psion floated in from one of the sides, the side the paladin was on. He then cast his most powerful spell….Synaptic Static!!! And the paladin COUNTERSPELLED IT!!! (Yes redemption paladins get Counterspell, they are a really really good subclass).
Then the paladin challenged the Psion to a compelled duel, and it worked! So I got to enjoy a spellcaster’s worst nightmare. I was in melee with a Paladin, with godly saves, and I literally could not run from the fight. Oh yeah, lets not forget that psionic bane longsword he has. Yeah… the fight went about as well as you would expect.
Meanwhile the fight for the ship raged on. The two rogues were backing up the Paladin, Fighter, and Barbarian as they wrecked shop. The barbarian was the star here, with 25 strength from the potion, and he was also hasted, he mowed through warriors. He was a bear totem barb, and with a psychic resistance from the potion, he had achieved true half damage against the gith (a point he was very happy about, as that psychic damage had crushed him in previous sessions).
The wizard gleefully kept fireballing the other skiffs. One of them went on top of the Galleon to get to the other side and allow more reinforcements to join the fight. The wizard drove the galleon upward to smash the skiff. I did a roll, even gave the skiff advantage for being more maneuverable. Didn’t matter, the skiff went tumbling. Some of the warriors managed to misty step to the galleon. But the others fell to their death!
The Last Straw
The party had managed to do exactly as they hoped, break the fight up into smaller groups. They knew that the combined force of a large group of knights or warriors would kill any party member. But each party member was stronger individually than the knights or warriors, and so in small groups they could hold their own.
The Knight and Warrior numbers were plummeting at this point.
Back in the fortress, the cleric finally got to show his muster. As a war cleric (who was hasted by one of the glyphs from the fort), he got 3 attacks in on the commander, and started to deliver big pain.
The Gish arrived, but was drained of spells from the initial ambush (before the party arrived). Still a threat, but not nearly as dangerous as normal. The druid had finally been able to seek shelter further in the fortress, leaving the cleric to take the line. The commander was powerful, but no match for a 14th level cleric backed by fireballs and stacked with buffing magic.
As the knights outside screamed and died, the Gish bolted. Finally the commander did too, phasing through the wall, and jumping off the cliff. My last hope was stealth, as with “infinite misty steps” perhaps I could find a spot the party couldn’t find.
Alas it was not to be. The druid has the observant feat, nothing avoids his gaze. He found the commander near immediately, and the combined force of the group took her to the grave.
Epilogue
The last of the astral skiffs fell burning from the sky as the Galleon was brought down on land. A pile of Gith corpses were stacked on high.
What had started as a near certain TPK in my eyes, became a total victory. Every Gith was defeated, and not a single member of the party’s group had been killed (other than those who were in the initial ambush before the party arrived).
With the Supreme Commander of the Githyanki house destroyed, the war was over. The Battle of Greystorm would become legend (literally, it now appears in legend lore castings), and the members of Obsidian Squad renowned amongst the planes!
Behind the DM Screen
For the DMs out there, here are a few notes for you on scenarios like this:
• Learn to like Excel:
This fight was monstrous, with huge groups on both sides. It was critical that I run the monsters as quickly as possible, else the fight would turn into such a boring slog no one would enjoy it.
Mob rules is one way to streamline such a fight, but I took it a step further. I put all of my guys in excel, using formulas so that I could immediately tell you how much damage 10 warriors would do with their ranged attacks against a character, I could instantly get a pass or fail when my wizard hit 5 knights with a fireball, etc. It was a lot of work, but if you want to do such a fight right, you really have to put in the effort. I was able to run that entire second session in 5 hours. If I had tried to do it more manually, probably would have taken double that time.
There is nothing wrong with being more handwavy and nebulous in your combats, but if you want to run a crazy big battle “by the numbers”, excel is the way to go.
• Githyanki are great midlevel threats.
Githyanki are very well-rounded enemies for 7-10th level parties. They have good defense and offense, and their short range teleports offer a lot of mobility around the various control effects party’s often have at that level. Further, the ability for your bosses to plane shift when hurt is a huge benefit to create reoccurring villains. I highly recommend them.
• Never forget the rule of cool
While I ran a lot of this fight by the numbers, I always gave in to the players when it was just too cool not too. When the rogue called on the dinosaur, was it realistic that the dinosaur would come? Not really…but it was cool
Did it make sense that the familiar made it that close to the Galleon, considering how many bows and eyes were on the field? Not really… but it was cool
• Don’t be afraid to be brutal
On the flip side, if your working with your group, they will understand more when you show your nasty side. I went my players way in nearly every scenario when things were close, gave them a little extra even when it was beyond the rules, etc.
But for example when I was attacking the Druid, they knew full well that I wasn’t going to “stop when he was unconscious”. They all knew the commander would attack until the druid was dead….and the party respected it because they knew I was being fair and giving them the benefit of the doubt whenever it made sense to.
By not holding back, they knew they really won an impossible fight based on their own skills, not “because I went easy on them”. They will remember that for a very long time.
• Challenge Ratings are garbage at mid levels.
I found by 7th level, and especially 9th, that challenge ratings just don’t matter anymore. My players routinely hit way way way above their paygrade. Now in this case, they got a lot of help, but the fact that they turned a battle that should have been deadly for 14th level characters, and they walked away with no deaths just shows that how your players play is so much more important than the numbers in the monster manual.
So don’t be afraid to take it up a notch sometimes. Every so often, you give your players a fight they will never forget.
• Surprise Round is the most powerful effect in the game.
There is nothing stronger in the game than surprise. 5e combats are so short, that getting that extra round just changes everything. If your party gets to surprisee, they will be x2 more powerful than normal, it really is that strong sometimes.
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