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

[Guyanthalas]

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)?

Heh, fair enough. I didn't actually do the math. The Goblin damage is more variable, I suppose is probably what I really meant.

 

[Riley37]

I remember a flock of stirges wiping out a low-level party in 1E or 2E. One of the survivors contracted a lethal disease.

 

[Lidgar]

I have to agree with your players. We had a similar experience in LMoP and with similar results. The dragon was a breeze compared to those bloodsuckers.

I have hated those buggers ever since the room on the first level of the Temple of Elemental Evil. Only finding the Ring of Shooting Stars with a very lucky search roll made up for the carnage they caused.

 

[Tormyr]

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.

I don't know how many PCs were in the OP's party or what level they were, but for the standard 4 person party: at level 1 is very deadly, level 2 is hard, level 3 is Medium, and level 4 is Easy. Now, since there was a surprise round, that shifts the difficulty level up 1. So very, very deadly for the level 1 party, deadly for level 2, hard for level 3, and medium for level 4.


And for the [MENTION=73919]Guyanthalas[/MENTION]: Encounters easier or harder than a mosquito attack? Awesome. Bummer for your players though. Feces occur.

 

[Guyanthalas]

I don't know how many PCs were in the OP's party or what level they were, but for the standard 4 person party: at level 1 is very deadly, level 2 is hard, level 3 is Medium, and level 4 is Easy. Now, since there was a surprise round, that shifts the difficulty level up 1. So very, very deadly for the level 1 party, deadly for level 2, hard for level 3, and medium for level 4.

Well, the math is a little weird. 10 creatures at CR 1/4 (25xp) comes out to 250xp. Since there are 10 of them we use a 2.5 multiplier on top of it, for a total of 625xp budget.
At level 1, this would be a deadly encounter without the surprise round.
Level 2, medium encounter.. add in the surprise round and we can say hard.
Level 3 is an easy encounter. (This is the level the party was at the time of the encounter).

Not that I disagree with the level of deadliness. I honestly like the party shaking in their boots from time to time. But this "easy/medium" encounter would have probably killed two of them if I had not instituted the "only two stirges per person" rule. I did miss the part about them flying away after sucking up 10 HP, but that's still 100 HP drained at full steam. That's pretty darn close to a TPK!

I like the Dex Check that [MENTION=18333]Neechen[/MENTION] mentioned, but I'd probably modify it some. <=5 and Stirge stays on, <13 stirge falls off, no damage, >=13 kill stirge. I just like there to be a bit of a risk.

 

[the Jester]

The most depressing thing was that this encounter that resulted in a 40% party wipe was only worth 250xp.

Wait, I thought nobody died? If a couple of pcs fall unconscious, that is NOT a 40% party wipe. That's two pcs unconscious. If they actually died, then yes, it's a 40% party wipe- but the difference is absolutely not insignificant. Not to split hairs or anything, but yeah.

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...."

I don't think you did anything wrong (although I think a maximum of two stirges per person is an awful generous ruling, I believe Basic and 1e specified that stirges generally spread out amongst available targets fairly evenly, and I still keep to either that rule of thumb or "random targeting on!" methods of stirge allocation).

Stirges are infamous and always have been. The little bloodsuckers have killed many a pc in my game over the years.

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)?

Yes it is.

 

[Roger]

I am in favour of this development, for obvious reasons.

 

[Guyanthalas]

Wait, I thought nobody died? If a couple of pcs fall unconscious, that is NOT a 40% party wipe. That's two pcs unconscious. If they actually died, then yes, it's a 40% party wipe- but the difference is absolutely not insignificant. Not to split hairs or anything, but yeah.

If it were not for the 2 stirge per person rule, they would have been dead. 5 damage to latch on, then drain 10 per stirge... the 20 hp wizard would go down really fast. I agree that it was a generous ruling, but I'm not about to kill a group of PC's that fast over a fluke. But agree to your point, that was more hyperbole than fact with how I played it... but I felt I had license with what could have happened.

The reason the two fell (and damage was not spread out) was that the party was sleeping in a large tent, with two people standing outside to guard. There was some debate about whether a stirge could open a tent flap... but I just had them delay waiting for the "prey" to come to them. Again, this was a generous ruling... but I'm siding with keeping my party alive at least until they hit level 5.

I know there is plenty of debate on PC's and "tough lessons", but I'm still a bit of a softy towards newbies. Give them another D&D adventure after this one, and they are fair game.

 

[CapnZapp]

As soon as my Sorcerer heard something up ahead, before we could see anything, he cast Sleep.

Instant win, with eight Stirges dropping to the floor.

Your Stirge-Fu is weak

 

[Guyanthalas]

I am in favour of this development, for obvious reasons.

After the session, my girlfriend* and I decided to look up stirges online to see if there was something we had missed. I'm going to misquote here but I think I heard something from her like: "There is a whole BLOG about how much stirge's suck! ...oh. its just the title. Well, they still suck."


*Hopefully this resolves any debate about why I've chosen not to kill the party on a whim... yet.