D&D 4E 4E Sample Combat: The Terrasque

[KarinsDad]

The problem doesn't seem to be saving against most things, but rather stun effect specifically. I could see automatically downgrading all stun effects to daze effect on Mr. T to keep him from being completely locked down like this.

This might be a decent house rule. All solos automatically change Stun effects to Daze effects (unless the solo is immune to Stun in which case, nothing happens).

 

[AllisterH]

But equal challenge means that it's supposed to be defeated without too much trouble. Just like an equal CR in 3.x is not supposed to be tough but merely something of which the PCs can handle a few before needing rest.

So if a party has not much trouble against an equal encounter, then this proves that the math behind the encounter was correct. If you want to put the party into peril you need an encounter that's not equal but above them

You know, I'm actually worried now that the Tarrrasque might be too tough.

Like you said, 5 30th level PCs should be able to handle the tarrasque WITHOUT using their big guns.

re: Solo downgrading stun.

On-top of the +5 saves? Not so sure about that...given how the +5 save pretty much means auto-succeed. THe tarrasque just got gangpiled by MULTIPLE big guns.

See how the 30th level party does against Orcus and how say a 27th level party does against the tarrasque.

 

[tomatoactivator]

Thirteen Baleful Stars Warlock (Star) Attack 25
Daily ✦ Arcane, Fear, Fire, Implement, Psychic
Standard Action Ranged 10
Target: One creature
Attack: Constitution vs. Will
Hit: 5d10 + Constitution modifier fire and psychic damage,
and the target is stunned until the end of your next turn.
Miss: Half damage, and the target is dazed until the end of
your next turn.

Since the Terrasque is immune to fear (and charm), does this meat that such skills don't work because of the fear keyword in the skill?

edit: by all accounts in the MM, it appears that this attack won't work at all. So, you would need to redo most of your test encounter.

 

[Makaze]

Since the Terrasque is immune to fear (and charm), does this meat that such skills don't work because of the fear keyword in the skill?

Actually because it also has the fire keyword it would still work. Look on pg. 55 where it says that immunity to one keyword doesn't protect against all the powers other effects. The T should have taken half damage from it but still would have been stunned.

 

[Doug McCrae]

They should've saved their dailies for Orcus. As other posters have said, an equal level encounter isn't very challenging. A hard encounter is +2 to +4. A typical dungeon might have 2-3 standard or easy encounters before 1 or 2 hard climactic battles.

If there's only going to be one fight in a day the DM has to ensure it's a good bit higher than the PCs level if he wants it to be significant.

 

[Simplicity]

We can rebuild it. Stick a template on it and the Terrasque can come back as the Lichesque! And then it will be invincible! Muahahaha!

 

[matthewseidl]

Actually because it also has the fire keyword it would still work. Look on pg. 55 where it says that immunity to one keyword doesn't protect against all the powers other effects. The T should have taken half damage from it but still would have been stunned.

My reading of p55 says that you split the damage across the types listed (fire, psychic) but neither of those are effects (the stun). The only effect keyword is fear, which big T is immune to. So I'd say he's immune. If he was also immune to fire (for example), he'd only end up taking half damage (the psychic half).

 

[Xorn]

Yeah, looks like it was fun to do, but that was a standard encounter.

Throw that Tarrasque at a level 26 party. My players had this scenario happen during Kobold Lair, actually. They got to the Big Boss room and started blowing dailies like they had an expiration date. Then they found that key and found themselves face-to-face with a pissed off young white dragon, with no dailies, and nearly out of surges.

They won, but it was a round or two from turning into a TPK.

A hard encounter for a party of 30s would be 33-34, maybe even 35 if you want an EPIC fight.

 

[DandD]

Yeah, it's mentioned that the damage is fire and psychic type. The stun effect could rather be coming from the Fear-keytype.

Of course, it would have helped tremendously, if the designers had written what exactly constitutes the fear-part of that warlock-daily power, so that we wouldn't be arguing about this.

That's my fear for 4th edition. That some things simply have mistakes in it because they didn't really proof-read all, or they forgot to specify some things they took for granted.

Oh well, an errata is always quick to come.

 

[Family]

Well, *dusts off hands*, you've reached the final level and defeated the boss. All before the game has been released. And now we're fiddling around with cheat codes and the level editor.

[Achievment Unlocked!]

Stick a fork in it, and let's move on to the next game...how long till 5e?