D&D 5E My PC's and the Stirge Scourge

[Guyanthalas]

Playing Lost Mines of Phandelver last night with one of my D&D groups, and they got a random encounter of stirge. After playing this encounter, they have declared that stirges must be one of the strongest creatures in the game and are more fearful of them than any other creature to date.

For clarity, the encounter is 1d8+2 stirge, and they rolled an 8. This also happened during the night, with 2 characters on watch (one being the wizard). I have the watch schedule posted and have been ruling night encounters as a surprise round, with anyone on watch able to act in the surprise round. All players not on watch wake up on their turn (and stand up if they wish), but cannot take an action.

The first big problem I noticed is that a stirge does quite a bit of damage for a little guy. Also, providing that they hit once, don't need to hit again to do the same damage. The stirge won initiative and immediately attached themselves to the Wizard and Cleric that were awake. The stat block doesn't say how many stirges can be attached, so I ruled that 2 was plenty and didn't let the others attack a target with 2 stirges sucking blood. Even with this provision both the fighter and the wizard were unconscious in two rounds. I also had the stirges release their victims once they were unconscious rather than "dead". After everyone was awake they fought them off, but took quite a bit of damage in the process. The question came up of "do I have to pull the stirge off me before I attack it?" and we did some fuzzy ruling on that as well.

Now the running joke of the group is whether something is "stronger or weaker than a mosquito attack". A goblin does 1d6+2, and a stirge does 1d4+3. The goblin does more damage technically, but the stirge has a much higher average. The most depressing thing was that this encounter that resulted in a 40% party wipe was only worth 250xp. I think everyone at the table was glaring at me. It didn't help that this exact same encounter repeated itself 3 nights later, 10 stirges et al.

So I guess my questions to the community are: did I do something wrong? Is this just a fluke encounter which has a crazy difficulty curve under the perfect storm? Did I misinterpret some of the rules? Can a player have infinite stirges stuck to them? Any suggestions or thoughts are appreciated, even if its a "well, a smarter DM would have read this passage...."

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Isn't there supposed to be an XP multiplier for groups of enemies?

 

[Guyanthalas]

Isn't there supposed to be an XP multiplier for groups of enemies?

The XP multiplier (IIRC) is only for encounter building to judge difficulty. The multiplier doesn't get awarded as XP.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

The XP multiplier (IIRC) is only for encounter building to judge difficulty. The multiplier doesn't get awarded as XP.

Ah, alright then.

So, for the purpose of judging difficulty, how dangerous was the encounter? Should a party of that level have been able to handle it with no problem?

I mean, as a random encounter, they should just be thankful that it wasn't a dragon or something. It sounds like a bunch of weak enemies can be a threat to anyone, unless the wizard sees them while they're in a Fireball formation.

 

[jadrax]

After playing this encounter, they have declared that stirges must be one of the strongest creatures in the game and are more fearful of them than any other creature to date.

In my experience, that is perfectly normal.

 

[Rhenny]

I think the multiplier is only for figuring out the difficulty of the encounter, not officially for the value of the encounter. But, I only use xp as a rough guide for leveling up anyway.

Stirges are very pesky, and quite dangerous in the right situation - even in other editions. The automatic damage if feeding is what makes them so deadly.

Stirges are one of the reasons why wizards have Burning Hands. I'd rather waste a spell slot than let those buggers attach themselves to the party.

I would think that up to 8 or more could actually attack a medium sized creature if they could surround him. Remember that they can fly so they fill a 3 dimensional space not just the floor spaces. The MM entry does say that they will detach themselves after draining 10 hp.

Also, a PC can use its action to detach one of the little buggers. I let my PCs pull them off, throw them to the floor and try to squish them with a DC 14 Dex Check (medium and I use their AC of 14 as the target number just for the heck of it). It is more satisfying than just pulling them off. I also let other PCs attack them when they are attached to others without any penalty.

I remember running a playtest game and the rogue who had snuck ahead got surrounded by a bunch of stirge. After two bit and attached themselves to him, he ran back to the group Cleric screaming in panic.

(got ninja'd on the multiplier question)

 

[Cernor]

Stirges are one of the reasons why wizards have Burning Hands. I'd rather waste a spell slot than let those buggers attach themselves to the party.

And Thunderwave! As long as you don't mind everything within 300 feet coming to eat you...

 

[guachi]

The old B series modules are full of stirges. I swear every module has the little buggers in them. The Basic set had a limited number of monsters so you tended to see the same monsters over and over. Stirges are everywhere and they had bad treasure, too.

 

[TarionzCousin]

It didn't help that this exact same encounter repeated itself 3 nights later, 10 stirges et al.

I wouldn' t have allowed stirges again so soon. Repetitive encounters can be quite boring.

Other than that, it's just players learning that certain monsters can be tough to overcome, especially with a surprise round.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Not to get all nitpicky, especially over a tangential point, but it's gonna drive me nuts if I don't ask. Don't 1d6+2 and 1d4+3 have the exact same average damage (5.5)?