2nd Level Group Holds off Group of 6th level/9th level Clerics (Long)

AereonBlaze

First Post
What? Yes, you heard me. Last night, I ran an immensely fun game where a group of five level 2 PC's (actually - one was an NPC) held off a group of 7 level 6 Clerics of Bane and 1 level 9 Cleric of Bane. I don't think I've ever rolled so poorly in my life!

Ok, rolling poorly wasn't the only thing that contributed to this amazing feat. The parties ingenuity and the fact the clerics were trying to capture them unharmed for interrogation helped as well :p

Let me start from the beginning. As part of a trap, an NPC posing as a Paladin of Tyr lead the party to a Temple of Bane to avenge the destruction of a nearby town (they didn't actually have a part in the destruction of the town - - but ignore that for now). Now, the party consists of:

2nd Level Halfling Rogue
2nd Level Cleric of Garagos
2nd Level Elven Druid
2nd Level Human Wizard
2nd Level Human Fighter (NPC posing as a paly)

Now, the plan was for the vastly more powerful Clerics to quite easily subdue the party and interrogate them which would eventually lead into a chain of events revealing the Paladin as a fake. However, things went a bit differently.

The party got past a few unprepared guards (3rd level) - - I had planned for this possibility, it was tough but not above their abilities. They then entered an area that looked like the attached image (they entered a door where "x" is - ignore the rest for now).

Now, four clerics, including one whom everyone referred to as "the Boss" arrive at point C. These are three level 6 clerics and The Boss as a level 9 one. A fight ensues in the hallway. The Druids animal companion is slaughtered (his name was Goner, so it wasn't anything too surprising...) and the Paladin smashed with the flat side of a greatsword - knocked unconscious. The party for the most part hits their incredibly high AC and does a fair share of damage to the clerics. After about 3 seperate Hold Person spells by the clerics, finally one holds the druid. The PC's are making unusually high saves today, so I decide to throw in 4 more of the level 6 clerics who were elsewhere in the temple. They arrive at C2.

While provoking numerous AoO's, the party, minus the unconscious paladin and the held Druid manage to move just south of the clerics at C2. Miraculously, I roll so poorly for the attacks of the clerics, that only one person is hit out of all the AoO's - for 5 subdual.

The party, at this point thinks they'll go out fighting. All the clerics gather around point x, and the party is just south of point C2. The rogue stole a Necklace of Fireballs I earlier, and throws the whole thing behind the clerics. 3 of them take 33 damage, the rest half. Needless to say, they're pretty angry. The rest of the party throws caltrops on the floor, spills a flask of oil on the ground and light it on fire and do pretty much everything they can to block off the corridor. "The Boss" is peeved and at this point, so am I. :)

He takes damage from the fire but avoids the caltrops and walks straight up to the rogue and casts Slay Living. There goes the idea of capturing them alive. I didnt expect for the Rogue's AoO to hit, but he crits. He crits. Ok...the cleric still isnt injured that much, and succeeds at the Concentration check. He needs to roll a 3 or so to succeed at the melee touch attack to hit with the spell. He rolls a 2.

Sighing, the next turn most of the clerics cast Hold Person spells and everyone manages to make the saves. Except the Rogue. Finally, the clerics are picking up the advantage again. The Wizard and Cleric of Garagos run back to point R. They're screwed, and they know it.

Finally, I'm thinking this fight which was supposed to last a few rounds max will wind down. Or not. The hold person on the druid wears off, and of course all the Clerics are facing the other way so they dont notice. His last spell, he casts entangle. He gets 5 of them. The saves I rolled for that were horrendous.

Next round the clerics who tried to fight the druid started missing like crazy. They rolled 1's, 2's, 3's and 4's. I dont think I rolled higher than 15 in the entire fight. Finally, one lands with a blow, sending the Druid unconscious. One cleric (after several attempts) hits the Cleric of Garagos with a Hold Person.The wizard is all thats left. An Earth Elemental is summoned some 20 feet ahead of him. He decides that he might as well make a break for the door, provoking 2 AoO's (one from the elemental, the other from "The Boss"). He gets knocked unconscious. It's over, finally.

They got many of the clerics to less than half health, and staved them off for so long that I thought they might actually manage to escape. Now bear in mind that for the most part they were trying to capture the PC's alive and unharmed and that they werent loaded to the gills with magical equipment for the attack on the temple was a quick one, but still...the PC's did an amazing job (and I did poorly :p ).

So, of course...when they wake up in the dungeon cells in the morning and find The Boss there, the first thing he says is: "Would you like a job?". After all, the Clerics were quite impressed with the small group of ragtag adventurers.

Just thought I'd share that interesting game. Has anyone else had experiences as players or DM's where the highly improbably happened? :D
 

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Thats right! My cleric rocks. Even with the odds massively against us we half killed the 9th level cleric before he was healed, and I was untouched until the very end of the fight, after I finally failed my save. We're now the richest 3rd level party I've ever seen, thanks to a high diplomacy check from me. :D
 

Maybe now some of those clerics will take Spell Focus (Enchantment) :D. Though, I would have suggested a cleric or even a wizard with Subdual Substitution firing damage spells (A good Subdualed Searing Light or Spiritual Weapon will handle this).

You guys deserve some definet stuff.
 

They definitley received major rewards. They're now armed to the teeth but still rather inexperienced :D

Im realizing a bunch of things I shouldve done to better manage the clerics, but extremely poor rolls on my part and a lack of spells to bring the PC's down but not kill them caused problems :)

Though, if they had killed one of the Clerics, I wouldn't have held back anymore. Seven fiendish gorillas would have been promptly summoned, and the leader would have proceded in Flame Striking people immediately. :p
 
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AereonBlaze said:


Im realizing a bunch of things I shouldve done to better manage the clerics, but extremely poor rolls on my part and a lack of spells to bring the PC's down but not kill them caused problems :)


Next time, you may also want to consider Str or Dex poison next time.
 

AereonBlaze said:
Finally, I'm thinking this fight which was supposed to last a few rounds max will wind down. Or not. The hold person on the druid wears off, and of course all the Clerics are facing the other way so they dont notice. His last spell, he casts entangle. He gets 5 of them. The saves I rolled for that were horrendous.
Cast entangle on what, exactly? I thought they were inside a temple.
 

The Druid had a pack full of plants. He cast it on those (right in front of him), and was close enough to get some of the clerics. He succeeded at the Reflex save and avoided being caught himself. I'm assuming he just did that to buy some time for the others, and didn't expect to survive much longer.
 

We both left out one of the best parts of the whole night, in retrospect. Right when it appeared we were going to finally lose, we all petioned to roll for divine intervention. After the 4 of us failed our 1% chance, it was the "paladin's" turn. We begged the DM for a higher chance of intervention, because after all, he was a paladin of Tyr who'd fallen in battle on a mission for his church to avenge the attack on innocents.:rolleyes: So we talked him into giving a 4% chance that Tyr would help us. The first die was rolled, 00. We all got excited and the second die was rolled into the open, a 7. At the time we were crestfallen, but looking back we got incredibly lucky. A slightly lower roll would have had Cyric rather than Tyr intervene, almost certainly resulting in the death of everyone in the temple. We were literally begging for the DM to kill us all.:D
 

AereonBlaze said:
The Druid had a pack full of plants. He cast it on those (right in front of him), and was close enough to get some of the clerics. He succeeded at the Reflex save and avoided being caught himself. I'm assuming he just did that to buy some time for the others, and didn't expect to survive much longer.

Ah.

I see.

You allowed that, eh? I'm beginning to get a better idea of precisely how the party managed to survive. You'd better not run any battles with dragons, or else BADD is going to get your number.

Incidentally, why would the rogue get an AoO off of the cleric's Slay Living? He cast it and then moved 30', up to the rogue, right?
 

Forrester said:



Incidentally, why would the rogue get an AoO off of the cleric's Slay Living? He cast it and then moved 30', up to the rogue, right?

If you move 30 feet and attack, you draw an AoO. You either have to charge, or do a five foot step.
 

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