What would you have done?

[Khime]

If this is the Keep on the Shadowfell encounter, its heavily modified.

[sblock]In the KOTS encounter, the blue slime is a far enough distance away from the jellies and the rats so that they shouldn't be encountered simultaneously. You should have finished off the jellies and rats before you encountered the slime. The only way you could be sandwiched between the two is if you had sneaked past the jellies and the rats without them noticing your presence, or if you had fled the jellies and the rats, but fled them the wrong direction- deeper into the dungeon. If you were sandwiched between the two, though, you're basically screwed. You're fighting two relatively difficult encounters simultaneously, one involving an elite and the other involving a solo.

Also, the blue slime's lair in KOTS doesn't look like that. It has distinct water features and an island, and the slime lurks until you touch the water.[/sblock]

[sblock]Plus, in the original KotS encounter, the Ochre Jelly is co-habiting with Giant Rats, not Dire Rats. While Dire Rats are Medium, Giant Rats are Small, making them two size categories smaller than the Large Ochre Jelly. Would that make a difference?[/sblock]Also, why can't you bull-rush an enemy through one of their allies squares? Allies can move through squares occupied by allies. And even if they were considered enemies, see my comment inside the spoiler about the "dire" rats.

 

[JesterOC]

Also, why can't you bull-rush an enemy through one of their allies squares? Allies can move through squares occupied by allies. And even if they were considered enemies, see my comment inside the spoiler about the "dire" rats.

You can move through but you can occupy the same square, so I think bullrush is still out. As for the size issue... I have no clue.

JesterOC

 

[Wolfwood2]

Plus, in the original KotS encounter, the Ochre Jelly is co-habiting with Giant Rats, not Dire Rats. While Dire Rats are Medium, Giant Rats are Small, making them two size categories smaller than the Large Ochre Jelly. Would that make a difference.

You're assuming that Raven wasn't just being a little loose with his language. I'd probably refer to them as dire rats too, unless I happened to check back in the monster manual and notice that "dire rats" are a separate thing. (Which i didn't, until your comment.)

 

[Khime]

You're assuming that Raven wasn't just being a little loose with his language. I'd probably refer to them as dire rats too, unless I happened to check back in the monster manual and notice that "dire rats" are a separate thing. (Which i didn't, until your comment.)

Well, it makes a difference in that a Large creature can be force-moved through a square containing a Small creature, but not through one containing a Medium creature. So what type of rats they are can change what you could do to escape the situation.

 

[Arbitrary]

An Ochre Jelly can only split when it is first bloodied during the encounter so if the DM split it on his own to trap you guys than he either made a DM decision to tweak the encounter that then killed everyone or he messed up. If it was bloodied by your team and then split each half would only have, at most, 25ish hit points.

If he also intentionally placed the rats in such a way to prevent escape, and then left them there to do no other action other than keep the Jellies from being bullrushed than that is some impressive tactical combat out of some of the lowest intelligent creatures.

The whole thing screams out that the DM was treating the encounter as a player versus player tactical minature game and trying to win the game.

Your best bet is to have the Gnome (because he is small) try and make it to the other side of the Jellies so he can move the rats out of position to enable a bull rush.

 

[Obryn]

First - what can you do?

(1) Why didn't anyone try to jump over the oozes? Assuming someone was trained in Athletics, they would only need a 21 or so to make the jump as a move action. Sure, they suffer an OA, but really - better that than death. (Note - on reflection, this is assuming your DM would allow something like this. I suppose technically you can't move through a foe, but it's a freaking floor-crawling ooze, so I'd allow it, myself. )

(2) The gnome is small and can therefore occupy the same space as the jelly. He can run around/through it, though he would suffer an OA. Sadly, reactive invisibility won't help with the tremorsense-capable jellies.

(3) Did the dragonborn have his breath? He could have fried at least 2 of the rats if so.

Really, though, as a DM, I think your DM screwed you over.

Specifically, I think the dire rats are acting a bit too intelligently!

Really, if the DM is playing them like animals, they should probably either have gotten the heck out of there and waited for scraps, or else rushed forward to attack the PCs through the corners. It's clear that they set themselves up as push-blockers, which is just not ratlike at all.

I mean, this would have been tactically smart for intelligent foes, but for unintelligent foes... well, it's too smart.

Assuming these were brainy oozes and cranium rats, I'd say they set themselves up pretty well to kill off your party.

-O

 

[Skyscraper]

I'd have negotiated with the oozes, since they're obviously not the typical eating machines you'd expect, or they wouldn't be using treasure to set up ambushes and working in concert with small fuzzy globs of food (i.e. dire rats).

Seconded.

 

[knifie_sp00nie]

There's another thing the DM probably did differently than how KotS words the encounter(s):

Spoiler

From the tactics section of the blue slime encounter:

The slime does not pursue PCs onto the stairs or out of
the water cave unless they continue to attack it from outside
the room.

 

[James McMurray]

There's another thing the DM probably did differently than how KotS words the encounter(s):

Spoiler

From the tactics section of the blue slime encounter:

The slime does not pursue PCs onto the stairs or out of
the water cave unless they continue to attack it from outside
the room.

It didn't.

 

[DracoSuave]

I wouldn't have retreated forward.

Looking at this situation, you decided to run away from a threat that was able to hurt you, and in doing so you ran forward into unknown territory.

Retreating Forward = Bad Tactics.

The pain you felt afterwards is simply you learning the lesson of that very true statement. Encounters tend to get harder as you go deeper, not easier.