Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="ThirdWizard" data-source="post: 6332066" data-attributes="member: 12037">I just ran a test 400 XP encounter. I didn't use pregens, I used some PCs I created. They were not optimized. They consisted of:Hill Dwarf Fighter (Defense Style) wielding a Battleaxe (14 hp; 19 AC; +4 vs AC; 1d8+2 damage)Wood Elf Cleric wielding a Longsword and Longbow (8 hp; 18 AC; +4 vs. AC 1d8+2 damage; 2 1st level spell slots)Human Rogue wielding a Rapier (9 hp; 14 AC; +5 vs. AC; 1d8+3 damage)Halfling Wizard (5 hp; 15 AC (mage armor); 1 1st level spell slot)The setup was an ambush on a trail. It consisted of 4 hobgoblins. Two of them stayed back with bows while two others charged in to melee. Their tactics were to always keep two hobgoblins in melee so that they could all make use of their +2d6 damage.The party's marching order was the fighter in front, the wizard in the middle, and the rogue and cleric taking up the rear.InitiativeThe party won initiative handily. Order ended up being Fighter -> Wizard -> Rogue -> Cleric -> HobgoblinsRound #1Hobgoblins rolled 16 Stealth. This was enough to beat all the PCs' Passive Perception. They waited until the PCs passed by and attacked the rear, all focusing on the cleric. Two Hobgoblins moved in and attacked, two stayed back and fired their ranged weapons. Only one hobgoblin hit the cleric's AC of 18, however, and the cleric "only" took 7 damage. This dropped the cleric to 1 hp.Round #2The party got to act. The fighter moved to the back and attacked but missed. The rogue hit one, dropping it to 2 hp. The wizard cast magic missile, targeting the 2 hp with one dart, and the other melee hob with the other 2. The first melee hob dropped and the second took 4 damage total, putting it at 7 hp. The cleric cast cure light wounds on himself to bring himself to full hp. The cleric took a risk and moved away, taking an OA and was missed.The hobs acted. One archer moved forward and attacked the rogue, dropping her to 0 hp. The other two attacked, and missed, the fighter.Round #3The fighter attacked the injured hob, dealing 4 damage, putting him at 3 hp. The wizard cast fire bolt on the same hob, but missed. The cleric healed the rogue back up to full with a cure light wounds.The melee hobs attacked the fighter. The two in melee missed, but the archer dealt a whopping 17 damage and dropped him to 0 hp.Round #4The fighter fails his death saving throw. The cleric moves in and hits the injured hob for 5 damage, dropping it. The rogue and wizard both miss their attacks.The archer hob moves in to join the other. At this point, there are two hobs left, and they're both in melee. Neither is injured. They attack, only one hits the cleric but rolls low, dropping the cleric to 3 hp.Round #5The fighter fails his death saving throw a second time. The rogue and cleric both miss. The wizard hits with fire bolt for... 1 damage.The hobs drop the cleric. One whiff and one hit for 14 damage. The cleric is dead.Round #6The fighter succeeds on a death saving throw. The wizard hits with fire bolt for... 1 damage. The wizard decides to be a hero and moves into melee range so that the rogue can sneak attack, but the rogue misses.The hobgoblins decide to squish the wizard. He takes 14 damage and dies.Round #7The rogue fights valiantly, but misses.The hobgoblins miss and then hit the rogue for 14 damage, putting him down to 0 hp.ThoughtsThere was a lot of missing, with the hobs' 18 AC being the real danger here, at roughly 40% hit rate for the PC party. The hobgoblins didn't fare much better in hitting, but when they did it counted much more. A more optimized party might have done better, for example if the fighter was Great Weapon, he might have dropped one of the hobgoblins earlier, which would have also made things very different. Overall, it seemed very swingy running the fight.Edit to Add: I didn't expect the PC party to win. They actually did better than I thought they would, and I'd say that had a chance to win, although it was a slim one.</blockquote>

Verification