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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dark Eternal" data-source="post: 786820" data-attributes="member: 7932">Actually, that was my point, Lord Pendragon - it was engineered to only kill off one or two PCs.  Circumstances went wildly awry after combat began.  I, too, despise TPK - I feel like it is a wholly unheroic way to end a story.  The reason I felt this was noteworthy enough to bring to the boards is this is the first time in my DMing career that I have had a TPK occur.  It rattled me enough that I came here hoping to find insight into why this tragedy had to occur, and how to make sure it doesn't again.  (Also, I came looking for catharsis.  I have that now.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> )Actually, given that he did have a Luck blade with one wish in it at the time, I set the EL for the encounter as 20.  So no, I never expected them to walk away unscathed - I was trying to deflate their egos just a hair, after all.  But I did expect them to walk away...The party consisted of one halfling cleric/divine oracle (total level 18), one human ranger/barbarian (level 17), one human rogue/monk (level 16), one dwarven fighter/cleric/dwarven defender (level 16) and one half-dragon sorcerer (level 14).  They were in the process of returning to a lair where they'd recently slain two dragons, with the intention of recovering the remainder of the dragons' hoards, which they had mostly left after nearly buying the farm the previous session.  Unfortunately, Ragu was in the process of looting the place when they returned, and rather than allow them to take more of "his" treasure, he decided to ambush them. (The arrogant bastard - attacking an entire adventuring party by himself!)  He caught the party completely off guard (I guess their bad luck kicked in before the combat ever started, now that I think about it - he wasn't really all that sneaky, but absolutely no one made sucessful listen checks to detect the ambush (listen DC 22, IIRC)).As for what he was carrying -Ok - here you go:Ragu: Male goblin ranger 3, fighter 6, Tempest 10; CR 20; small humanoid (goblinoid); HD 19d10+76 (198 hp); Init +7; Spd 40; AC 32; Attacks: Luck blade: +28/+23/+18/+13 (1d6+5, 17-20 x2) Blacksun Blade: +29/+24/+19/+14 (1d10+6, 17-20 x2); SA: none; SQ: none; SR: none; AL NE; SV: Fort +22, Ref +20, Will +12; Str 15 +2 (19 +4); Dex 21 +5 (25 +7); Con 18 +4; Int 13 +1; Wis 12 +1; Cha 9 -1; Skills: Balance +15, Climb +14, Jump +19, Listen +8, Move Silently +11, Ride +7, Search +11, Spot +5, Wilderness Lore +5; Feats: Ambidexterity, Two-Weapon fighting, Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, Weapon Focus (Shortsword), Weapon Finesse (Shortsword), Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack, Cleave, Improved Two-Weapon fighting, Great Cleave, Greater Two-Weapon fighting, Combat Reflexes, Absolute Ambidexterity, Improved Critical (Shortsword), Supreme Two-Weapon fighting; SQ Off-hand parry +6; Possessions: Belt of Strength +4, Gloves of Dexterity +4, Cloak of Resistance +4, Amulet of Natural Armor +5, Ring of Protection +5, Blacksun Blade +2 (Sun Blade, corrupted to evil), Luck Blade +1 (1 wish remaining).That's it, I believe - the version I'm reading this off of is my summarized stat block, not the full NPC stat sheet, so it may omit some details that I thought would be of no effective value in a combat situation.  But for all practical intents and purposes, this is the goblin in question.  A noteworthy point - he had used three wishes off the Luck Blade since he found it.  Two were used to enhance his Con score, the last to enhance his base speed - so these stats on the above statblock include inherent bonuses from the use of these wishes.</blockquote>

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