Zardnaar
Legend
Over 11 hours or so my players have been playing through the Tallow Deep adventure from Dungeon 18. It is a 1E adventure with a 5th level party going into a Goblin lair. in 1E Goblins had 1-1 HD which is a d8-1 hit points so they averaged around 3.5 hit points each (5E ones are tough!!!)
This is the final encounter after they have been shot, boiled, stabbed, hit with rocks and two attempted drowning attempts on them and a game of PC chess in the Crush the Skull Arena where goblins use mechanical pulleys to drop rocks on the PCs. They have had 1 short rest and have depleted around 2/3rds of their spells.
Typical 1E Dungeon in other words. Normally I attempt to tweak 1E numbers to 5E levels to account for the changes in the rules. In this I did not because 1E did not have things like light clerics and radiance of the dawn to deal with. Or clerics packing fireball and spiritual guardians. So I got to throw 100 goblins at the PCs more or less all at once after a dungeon crawl through a trap infested dungeon where the PCs had several potentially fatal traps to deal with.
The set up.
15 Goblins + a small goblin sitting in a throne challenge the PCs to fight. PCs roll initiative and a bow shot drops the weak goblin on the throne. During this combat a portcullis drops down trapping the PCs i the rooms and a wardrum starts, followed by another, then dozens.
Every goblin nearby rushes to engage the PCs they have two rounds to prepare (read heal). They also find 3 concealed doors and focus defensive efforts towards them.
3 waves of Gobbos hit the PCs, in total 84 Goblins and 6 Worgs. AD&D had ways to deal with mooks (fighter cleave ability) and I import a rule from Dungeon 17 allowing PCs to gain cleave attempts. In a 5E translation to help the PCs all of them get to use the Hordebreaker Ranger ability. Our ranger gets an additional use of the Hordebreaker ability. Its something I thought I would ad hoc in because why not.
Concealed doors open there are 8 of them not 3. I stick 3 goblins behind each one with more incoming the PCs can hear.
They kill the 1st wave using multiple attacks and burning hands spell. Ranger is getting 4 attacks a round, the Monk can average 4 and can hit 5 attacks, the cleric is a light cleric, the Rogue is a mastermind with Greenflame Blade, and the Elven fighter is a Battlemaster with a Rapier.
They take some damage and the 2nd wave lands, the PCs can hear even more Goblins coming another 20+ Gobbos charge in.
I am the best D&D artist eva!!!! Throne+firepit as obstacles/cover. The map is straight out of the Dungeon 18. All the minis are from the 3.5 D&DM game.
Light CLeric= Cleric of Lathendar mini (Has bright yellow cape)
Shadowdancer Monk= Ninja mini
Elf with Rapier+Handcrossbow= High Elf Battlemaster Fighter
Hunter Ranger= Greycloak Ranger mini (grey cloak+bow mini)
Mastermind Rogue= Browncloak mini with Sword
PCs have a +1 dagger and Staff of Striking as magic items that matter along with a ring of spell storing (1E adventures kinda generous oh well).
Cleric casts spiritual guardians for this one and they win and they have 2 rounds for the rest of the goblins and 6 Worgs.
The Gobbos are supposed to wave them under with numbers so nothing brilliant in terms of tactics. They focus fire the cleric and even with warcaster she ends up losing the Spiritual Guardians (which ends up killing 20 odd Goblins anyway). Staff of Striking charges+ Hunter Ranger clean out the Worgs along with burning hands+ help from Spiritual Guardians. The Orc mini at the top is a big Goblin a Champion of Maglubiyet with more HD and medium size in 1E (used Hobgoblin captain stats).
Bears+Chuul= Worgs I only have a single Direwolf mini (it was a rare m'kay).
Well the PCs wn with the final few Goblins surrendering and a negotiated withdrawal from human lands was agreed on. The Goblin Shaman survived and lead the Goblin back to the underdark with a Staff of Healing left unclaimed.
The PCs were more or less out of spells at the end, 3 of them were down to single digits, all healing potions and scrolls were gone, all superiority dice and ki points used, Rogue sucked up numerous critical hits (at least 5), all items with charges had 1 charge left.
Nothing over CR 3 used mostly just Goblins and traps. Previous encounters had 30 goblins or 16 (Radiant Dawn got used twice they had 1 short rest). PCs leveled up to level 6 and a +1 longsword +3 vs reptiles I 50/50 it to a Rapier and made the dice roll so the PCs picked up their 1st finesse weapon that is not a dagger in a dex based party (1E did not have rapiers in PHB). I let the rapier in as is and the next adventure has lizard men and is in the Dread Dragon Temple so the rapier might be useful.
So yeah probably 8-10 encounters, 1 short rest and copious amounts of Goblins all up (over 150). Ye Olde 5E Dungeon hack using a 1E adventure almost as written I converted the traps into 5E equivalents. Ignored 5E guidelines on encounters.
This is the final encounter after they have been shot, boiled, stabbed, hit with rocks and two attempted drowning attempts on them and a game of PC chess in the Crush the Skull Arena where goblins use mechanical pulleys to drop rocks on the PCs. They have had 1 short rest and have depleted around 2/3rds of their spells.
Typical 1E Dungeon in other words. Normally I attempt to tweak 1E numbers to 5E levels to account for the changes in the rules. In this I did not because 1E did not have things like light clerics and radiance of the dawn to deal with. Or clerics packing fireball and spiritual guardians. So I got to throw 100 goblins at the PCs more or less all at once after a dungeon crawl through a trap infested dungeon where the PCs had several potentially fatal traps to deal with.
The set up.
15 Goblins + a small goblin sitting in a throne challenge the PCs to fight. PCs roll initiative and a bow shot drops the weak goblin on the throne. During this combat a portcullis drops down trapping the PCs i the rooms and a wardrum starts, followed by another, then dozens.
Every goblin nearby rushes to engage the PCs they have two rounds to prepare (read heal). They also find 3 concealed doors and focus defensive efforts towards them.
3 waves of Gobbos hit the PCs, in total 84 Goblins and 6 Worgs. AD&D had ways to deal with mooks (fighter cleave ability) and I import a rule from Dungeon 17 allowing PCs to gain cleave attempts. In a 5E translation to help the PCs all of them get to use the Hordebreaker Ranger ability. Our ranger gets an additional use of the Hordebreaker ability. Its something I thought I would ad hoc in because why not.
Concealed doors open there are 8 of them not 3. I stick 3 goblins behind each one with more incoming the PCs can hear.
They kill the 1st wave using multiple attacks and burning hands spell. Ranger is getting 4 attacks a round, the Monk can average 4 and can hit 5 attacks, the cleric is a light cleric, the Rogue is a mastermind with Greenflame Blade, and the Elven fighter is a Battlemaster with a Rapier.
They take some damage and the 2nd wave lands, the PCs can hear even more Goblins coming another 20+ Gobbos charge in.
I am the best D&D artist eva!!!! Throne+firepit as obstacles/cover. The map is straight out of the Dungeon 18. All the minis are from the 3.5 D&DM game.
Light CLeric= Cleric of Lathendar mini (Has bright yellow cape)
Shadowdancer Monk= Ninja mini
Elf with Rapier+Handcrossbow= High Elf Battlemaster Fighter
Hunter Ranger= Greycloak Ranger mini (grey cloak+bow mini)
Mastermind Rogue= Browncloak mini with Sword
PCs have a +1 dagger and Staff of Striking as magic items that matter along with a ring of spell storing (1E adventures kinda generous oh well).
Cleric casts spiritual guardians for this one and they win and they have 2 rounds for the rest of the goblins and 6 Worgs.
The Gobbos are supposed to wave them under with numbers so nothing brilliant in terms of tactics. They focus fire the cleric and even with warcaster she ends up losing the Spiritual Guardians (which ends up killing 20 odd Goblins anyway). Staff of Striking charges+ Hunter Ranger clean out the Worgs along with burning hands+ help from Spiritual Guardians. The Orc mini at the top is a big Goblin a Champion of Maglubiyet with more HD and medium size in 1E (used Hobgoblin captain stats).
Bears+Chuul= Worgs I only have a single Direwolf mini (it was a rare m'kay).
Well the PCs wn with the final few Goblins surrendering and a negotiated withdrawal from human lands was agreed on. The Goblin Shaman survived and lead the Goblin back to the underdark with a Staff of Healing left unclaimed.
The PCs were more or less out of spells at the end, 3 of them were down to single digits, all healing potions and scrolls were gone, all superiority dice and ki points used, Rogue sucked up numerous critical hits (at least 5), all items with charges had 1 charge left.
Nothing over CR 3 used mostly just Goblins and traps. Previous encounters had 30 goblins or 16 (Radiant Dawn got used twice they had 1 short rest). PCs leveled up to level 6 and a +1 longsword +3 vs reptiles I 50/50 it to a Rapier and made the dice roll so the PCs picked up their 1st finesse weapon that is not a dagger in a dex based party (1E did not have rapiers in PHB). I let the rapier in as is and the next adventure has lizard men and is in the Dread Dragon Temple so the rapier might be useful.
So yeah probably 8-10 encounters, 1 short rest and copious amounts of Goblins all up (over 150). Ye Olde 5E Dungeon hack using a 1E adventure almost as written I converted the traps into 5E equivalents. Ignored 5E guidelines on encounters.
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PCs have to deal with it.
