chaotix42
First Post
5 14th lvl PCs were done in by 2 pod demons and 3 13th lvl mezzodemons. Earlier they handily dispatched a 14th and 15th lvl encounter and came into this one, a 16th lvl encounter, with plenty of surges, dailies, and item powers. The pod demons each started the encounter with their 4 podspawn apiece, and the battle took place in an Underdark tunnel roughly 10 spaces wide - a few pools of black slime in the middle of the tunnel broke up the flat ground and patches of concealment-releasing mushrooms lined the walls.
The PCs were rushed very early by the first wave of minions while the mezzodemons stood watch ahead of the pod demons, who themselves didn't take long to get in and mix it up with their close blast attacks. By the 8th round everyone but the rogue was dead or unconscious at which point we called it quits. Only 1 pod demon and 1 mezzodemon were left standing. I think there were 3 minions or so at the moment too.
The constantly spawning minions were just brutal. They could hit quite easily and in groups just did tons of damage - 24 and 36 acid damage was a common number called out against single targets. My PCs were shocked that minions were actually deadly for a change, and that ignoring them caused a lot of pain.
The demons used their variable resistance powers to resist the only damage types they were doing (acid/poison), so could include all of their allies in their bursts and blasts without much fear of harming them. While the 3 mezzodemons and minion tide slowed the PCs down the pod demons managed to move around rather freely and lay down choice attacks on multiple PCs at once.
Some of my PCs felt they could have won the encounter with different tactics, but others felt the fight was just too much. Once again, the strength of the minions was shocking! If they had more ways to resist acid and poison I think it would have been doable. Perhaps starting the pod demons with their full compliment of podspawn was a bad move on my part, too.
The PCs were rushed very early by the first wave of minions while the mezzodemons stood watch ahead of the pod demons, who themselves didn't take long to get in and mix it up with their close blast attacks. By the 8th round everyone but the rogue was dead or unconscious at which point we called it quits. Only 1 pod demon and 1 mezzodemon were left standing. I think there were 3 minions or so at the moment too.
The constantly spawning minions were just brutal. They could hit quite easily and in groups just did tons of damage - 24 and 36 acid damage was a common number called out against single targets. My PCs were shocked that minions were actually deadly for a change, and that ignoring them caused a lot of pain.
The demons used their variable resistance powers to resist the only damage types they were doing (acid/poison), so could include all of their allies in their bursts and blasts without much fear of harming them. While the 3 mezzodemons and minion tide slowed the PCs down the pod demons managed to move around rather freely and lay down choice attacks on multiple PCs at once.
Some of my PCs felt they could have won the encounter with different tactics, but others felt the fight was just too much. Once again, the strength of the minions was shocking! If they had more ways to resist acid and poison I think it would have been doable. Perhaps starting the pod demons with their full compliment of podspawn was a bad move on my part, too.
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