Nebulous
Legend
Cool. I didn't know that.
My First 4e TPK!
- Thread starter chaotix42
- Start date
Cool. I didn't know that.
chaotix42
First Post
lol! Podspawn start as little wet-behind-the-blisters minions, until they TPK their first party. Then they get to grow big and strong... and hunchbacked.
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Another factor in this particular TPK is that the outcome of the encounter was always in doubt. It only lasted 8 rounds, and even though the PCs were getting knocked out and ressucitated halfway through they still felt they could win - I missed some crucial attacks that kept badly bloodied PCs conscious, so there was a feeling of luck and "we can do this!" going on. They've pulled through some tough encounters before, too. There was a moment when everyone was conscious and retreat was viable, but my group doesn't really know the meaning of the word.
I wonder how the other minions in the MM2 will be?
Slaad Spawn (level 17 minion skirmisher): they have a +2 to hit over the Podspawn.
But here's the cool thing about Slaad Spawn; as an at will power, they get to jump several squares and make a basic attack. If they miss, they explode - and attack everything around them in a close burst 1 for slightly less damage.
What makes this extremely nasty? There's a template that you can apply to other Slaad; as an at will immediate reaction, they spawn a slaad spawn.
Vael
Legend
I've one TPK to my credit. The Party (6th level):
- Human Orb Wizard
- Minotaur great weapon Fighter
- Dragonborn Inspiring Warlord
- Elf Archer Ranger
Monsters:
- Shadar-Kai Witch
- Shadar-Kai Chainfighter
- 2 Gricks (modified to have the Shadow keyword, so could benefit from the Witch's aura).
The Gricks just absorbed all the attacks the party poured into them, and they managed to flank the fighter several times, pounding the minotaur. The Chainfighter managed to recharge his dance of death three times in a row. Between these factors, the fully rested party was brought down, the wizard tried to flee, but was brought down by the chainfighter.
The TPK was the result of great monster rolls and poor targeting by the party. Concentrating on the Gricks, the Ranger and Fighter found their attacks had a lot of damage resisted, and their accuracy was limited by the witch's aura. The Chainfighter and Witch kept laying the hurt on all the party, and the Gricks managed to use expert Flanking to hammer the warlord and fighter. The Wizard and Ranger kept getting hit by beshadowed mind, forcing them to close into the witch's aura just to see their targets.
- Human Orb Wizard
- Minotaur great weapon Fighter
- Dragonborn Inspiring Warlord
- Elf Archer Ranger
Monsters:
- Shadar-Kai Witch
- Shadar-Kai Chainfighter
- 2 Gricks (modified to have the Shadow keyword, so could benefit from the Witch's aura).
The Gricks just absorbed all the attacks the party poured into them, and they managed to flank the fighter several times, pounding the minotaur. The Chainfighter managed to recharge his dance of death three times in a row. Between these factors, the fully rested party was brought down, the wizard tried to flee, but was brought down by the chainfighter.
The TPK was the result of great monster rolls and poor targeting by the party. Concentrating on the Gricks, the Ranger and Fighter found their attacks had a lot of damage resisted, and their accuracy was limited by the witch's aura. The Chainfighter and Witch kept laying the hurt on all the party, and the Gricks managed to use expert Flanking to hammer the warlord and fighter. The Wizard and Ranger kept getting hit by beshadowed mind, forcing them to close into the witch's aura just to see their targets.
Pseudopsyche
First Post
I apologize for being "that guy", but it may interest you to know two facts about resist variable. First, by RAW it can't be used against poison. Second, even if you do allow a monster to resist poison in this fashion, it can't use its variable resistance against two damage types simultaneously.
On the other hand, it looks like this rule would only have affected your combat insofar as the Pod Demon's Detonate Minion ability should always take out all the minions adjacent to the detonated minion. (The Mezzodemon's poison blast only targets enemies.)
Regardless, the combat sounds like it was an exciting one! I hope your players found the challenge engaging and fun!
Got it just an hour ago.
If you go into Books A Million and ask if they have it in the back (because they get their shipments late at night), the clerk will likely go and get you one.
But Yeesh! I paid $38 for it! Amazon, from here on out. I was just too anxious.
chaotix42
First Post
Ah, good points - thanks!
I should have re-read variable resistance in the glossary before running the encounter. Thankfully most of the damage being thrown around was acid and the mezzodemons already resisted poison. Playing the correct way would have resulted in some more minion deaths by friendly fire though. I'll remember you the next time I use variable resistance! @ Rechan - No Books A Million near me, but my FLGS just got their copies in and they're sneaky gits who sell stuff early! *does happy dance*
chaotix42
First Post
OK, so even though podspawn say "0 XP if encountered with pod demon" what they actually meant was "0 XP if spawned during an encounter." The sample pod demon encounter includes 4 podspawn and they contribute to the encounter's XP reward. I suspected this when I was writing up the encounter - what I thought was a 16th lvl fight was actually 17th lvl! Oh well... 
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