When I ran this portion of KotS just two weeks back, the first hobgoblin battle was a good one, as the spiders arrived late to the party just as they were finishing the hobgoblins (despite their high AC), and the spiders immediately KOed two PCs. But of course the PCs eventually prevailed.
The next two encounters I combined into a single encounter. The PCs went south, and tripped the portcullis [sic]. They lifted it, and while holding it up (it wouldn't latch as they were standing on the trap squares), the hobgoblins from the South attacked. They couldn't decide what to do with the gate, but eventually decided to drop it with all the PCs on the north side of it. They then started fighting through the gate. But then the batch of hobgoblins from the north took them by surprise with the hobgoblin warcaster getting off its nice area attack, hitting nearly everyone (and there was a wizard and warlock in the back taking the brunt of the melee attacks). One of the players was quite tweeked by this and accused me of trying to kill off the entire party, to which I merely said that I thought that they were up to the challenge. They got off some great attacks on both fronts, and the battle was over in just 4 rounds with no PCs dead and only one KO. I thought it was a pretty exciting double battle, though I didn't tell them that I combined two encounters.
One interesting bit is that Splug (though we call him Splurg) has been running with them all this time, and I've been having players take turns running him, with little prompting from me as everyone understands Splug's motivations. Anyway, Splug was down to 3 HPs from the initial attack from the hobgoblin warcaster and immediately ran away. I'm of two minds what to do with him. He does add something to the party, but they've been using him basically as a free javelin attack (Splug won't enter melee as he values only his life more than money). I was hoping to use him as a traitor of the party, going over and warning Kalarel. However, I'm also tempted for them to hear a scream, and they find his dead body, killed in the statue trap room.
The next two encounters I combined into a single encounter. The PCs went south, and tripped the portcullis [sic]. They lifted it, and while holding it up (it wouldn't latch as they were standing on the trap squares), the hobgoblins from the South attacked. They couldn't decide what to do with the gate, but eventually decided to drop it with all the PCs on the north side of it. They then started fighting through the gate. But then the batch of hobgoblins from the north took them by surprise with the hobgoblin warcaster getting off its nice area attack, hitting nearly everyone (and there was a wizard and warlock in the back taking the brunt of the melee attacks). One of the players was quite tweeked by this and accused me of trying to kill off the entire party, to which I merely said that I thought that they were up to the challenge. They got off some great attacks on both fronts, and the battle was over in just 4 rounds with no PCs dead and only one KO. I thought it was a pretty exciting double battle, though I didn't tell them that I combined two encounters.
One interesting bit is that Splug (though we call him Splurg) has been running with them all this time, and I've been having players take turns running him, with little prompting from me as everyone understands Splug's motivations. Anyway, Splug was down to 3 HPs from the initial attack from the hobgoblin warcaster and immediately ran away. I'm of two minds what to do with him. He does add something to the party, but they've been using him basically as a free javelin attack (Splug won't enter melee as he values only his life more than money). I was hoping to use him as a traitor of the party, going over and warning Kalarel. However, I'm also tempted for them to hear a scream, and they find his dead body, killed in the statue trap room.