So my group had another deadly session with a character dropping dead before Initiative was rolled after falling victim to a magical hazard. This set off a domino effect of a second character death and the remaining half of the party fleeing the combat after about 45 minutes of play. When you get together biweekly to play 2-3 hours, this isn't the kind of session you and your players look forward to having. To make matters worse, this is the third "Total Party Wipe" in six sessions (even though a couple characters survived, the mission-leader died, the party's guide died, and the remaining players will all have to re-think their character choices and possibly make new characters in light of the disastrous event). This is a big time sink in Pathfinder 2e, especially when considering we're playing online and characters all need to be updated with macros, a barely functional online character sheet, etc.
My players are divided. Most love the system, even if the AP is way too deadly for their liking. (And remember this isn't an OSR system when character death should be common and characters can be re-rolled in 5 minutes - character creation requires a major time investment.) They are of the recommended level, have the suggested amounts of treasure, access to Hero Points, and even an "extra" PC for whom I don't account in the encounter budget. They are getting tired of making new characters and just want to finish the adventure. Encounters feel like exercises in futility, when even minor, "level-appropriate" scuffles regularly turn into life-or-death affairs.
The TPK de jour involved a magical hazard that was very difficult to detect and that cast a spell with such a high spell DC that the triggering character had a 25% chance of critical failure - which was death. The magical hazard persisted each round - targeting other characters with death effects - while monsters (immune to the hazard) entered the fray, swarming and dealing sneak attack damage and others at range blasting with spells. This is listed in the module as "just a regular fight," on the way to the climactic showdown several rooms deeper in the dungeon.
Even with higher level characters, it would be unlikely the party could detect the hazard, disengage it, or have a reasonable chance to save against the death effect. And it's just not this fight, as evidenced by the three TPKs in six sessions. We discussed this at length after the session to try to determine what went wrong. The players, who are pretty good at game math and statistical probability decided it was extremely improbable they could've succeeded.
What does a GM do in these situations? Hand out multiple Hero Points at the start of a session? Increase the characters' level to several above the module's recommendation? Allow do-overs of battles that go badly when we already have limited play time? I don't have the system mastery to tweak numbers on the fly to make these encounters survivable. Everyone seems to want to continue with PF2 and the Adventure Path we've started. How do I make it less intense while still presenting a challenge?
My players are divided. Most love the system, even if the AP is way too deadly for their liking. (And remember this isn't an OSR system when character death should be common and characters can be re-rolled in 5 minutes - character creation requires a major time investment.) They are of the recommended level, have the suggested amounts of treasure, access to Hero Points, and even an "extra" PC for whom I don't account in the encounter budget. They are getting tired of making new characters and just want to finish the adventure. Encounters feel like exercises in futility, when even minor, "level-appropriate" scuffles regularly turn into life-or-death affairs.
The TPK de jour involved a magical hazard that was very difficult to detect and that cast a spell with such a high spell DC that the triggering character had a 25% chance of critical failure - which was death. The magical hazard persisted each round - targeting other characters with death effects - while monsters (immune to the hazard) entered the fray, swarming and dealing sneak attack damage and others at range blasting with spells. This is listed in the module as "just a regular fight," on the way to the climactic showdown several rooms deeper in the dungeon.
Even with higher level characters, it would be unlikely the party could detect the hazard, disengage it, or have a reasonable chance to save against the death effect. And it's just not this fight, as evidenced by the three TPKs in six sessions. We discussed this at length after the session to try to determine what went wrong. The players, who are pretty good at game math and statistical probability decided it was extremely improbable they could've succeeded.
What does a GM do in these situations? Hand out multiple Hero Points at the start of a session? Increase the characters' level to several above the module's recommendation? Allow do-overs of battles that go badly when we already have limited play time? I don't have the system mastery to tweak numbers on the fly to make these encounters survivable. Everyone seems to want to continue with PF2 and the Adventure Path we've started. How do I make it less intense while still presenting a challenge?
