Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
I am officially less confused.
I actually quite like the high-lvl approach of dragging specialist NPCs along, if for no other reason than extra cannon fodder.
D&D 5E A Glimpse Of High-Level Play
I actually quite like the high-lvl approach of dragging specialist NPCs along, if for no other reason than extra cannon fodder.
Chocolategravy
First Post
I am officially less confused.
I actually quite like the high-lvl approach of dragging specialist NPCs along, if for no other reason than extra cannon fodder.
It is especially effective in 5E where bringing even a 1st level along to bless the party works extremely well. Someone needs to carry a torch and haul the loot, may as well be an apprentice cleric.
aramis erak
Legend
You get a taste of such at low level in DDEX14: Dues for the Dead... the Employer sends along an NPC spellcaster.
Flexor the Mighty!
18/100 Strength!
I am officially less confused.
I actually quite like the high-lvl approach of dragging specialist NPCs along, if for no other reason than extra cannon fodder.
I'm really going to emphasis my players in the new campaign to use resources like henchmen and hirelings.
the Jester
Legend
Yeah, I'm simultaneously running a 1e game, and the players seem to be importing the notion of henchmen into the other games they're involved in (both 4e and 5e).
MortalPlague
Adventurer
I am officially less confused.
I actually quite like the high-lvl approach of dragging specialist NPCs along, if for no other reason than extra cannon fodder.
Yes me too. Cannon fodder let's me impress people with my dungeon's lethality without murdering PCs. Also, it gives me people who can inject some flavour into the rp. I greatly enjoyed playing up how Gunter never spoke more than three words at a time, while my elves were brilliant singers.
My PCs bring along NPCs because they can, not because they need to. The elves in particular have been useful, with pretty good ranged attacks. It also gives me the RP opportunities I mentioned above, which bolsters the world around the PCs.
Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
In tonight's high lvl game: I'm partnering a low-level monster (reskinned harpies) with a high-lvl monster (wheat divers, ankhegs crossed with vastly tuned down mariliths) that only attack when the PCs are separated. My hope is that a flock of harpies will draw PCs out in many different directions, at which point the wheat divers will attack.
We'll see. The paladin's save bonus may thwart my plan.
We'll see. The paladin's save bonus may thwart my plan.
Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
The fight was phenomenal. Three PCs got separated from the group, all dashing in different directions, and they had to do some fast thinking and use good tactics to pull it out. Best moment: one rises from the earth and claws the wizard for 64 damage. The paladin crits while smithing, doing 78 damage... And then the wizard announces "I've had just about enough of this" and casts Disintegrate. POOF. Dust.
Oh, and the wild Mage rolled a 01 and got a random surge effect each round for a minute. He was bright blue, regenerating, flying and polymorphed into a dragon 120 feet up when the wild surge summoned in a unicorn… a very angry unicorn that promptly fell 120 feet straight down. We laughed until we cried.
The PCs have a tricky scenario to negotiate next game. There's a faerie knight who's partnered with a succubus to seize the human empire's vast breadbasket of wheat (thousands of square miles of farmland) and magically bring it all into faerie. If they do, the human empire starves. There's some awkward negotiations ahead, possibly at the tip of a sword...
(Note this is the Grey Guard group, which isn't the Merchant Prince group noted in the next post. Two different campaigns in the same world.)
Oh, and the wild Mage rolled a 01 and got a random surge effect each round for a minute. He was bright blue, regenerating, flying and polymorphed into a dragon 120 feet up when the wild surge summoned in a unicorn… a very angry unicorn that promptly fell 120 feet straight down. We laughed until we cried.
The PCs have a tricky scenario to negotiate next game. There's a faerie knight who's partnered with a succubus to seize the human empire's vast breadbasket of wheat (thousands of square miles of farmland) and magically bring it all into faerie. If they do, the human empire starves. There's some awkward negotiations ahead, possibly at the tip of a sword...
(Note this is the Grey Guard group, which isn't the Merchant Prince group noted in the next post. Two different campaigns in the same world.)
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Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
For folks interested, the Merchant Prince group played last night. Because we've switched from 4e to 5e at 15th level, people are getting used to their characters, and I've been gradually ramping up monster difficulty.
[My players: spoilers within. Please don't read.]
Tonight they fought three formorian giants in the first encounter. Two PCs got cursed with the evil eye (these formorians are tied to gnolls, so instead of the PCs getting lumpy they started to turn into hyenas instead. Same effect, different appearance, although they wouldn't have gotten disadvantage on attacks if they'd chosen to devour their own allies instead). The first formorian had fear cast on him by the bard, and it took him eight rounds -- EIGHT! -- to make his save. Already damaged, he got sniped by the party warlock using eldritch blast from hundreds of feet away. The second and third formorians managed to flank the party bard, but both were killed before they were able to smack her. In one case, the other warlock used blight to destroy his tree club (seemed balanced, cool but slightly sub-optimal to me to let the spell destroy a plant-based weapon instead of doing damage); in the other case, the rogue hopped from a tree onto his head and sneak attacked him. In this fight the battle master fighter made good use of moving people around and triggering extra attacks, and a phantasmal force kept one formorian suitably distracted.
There are six NPC elven archers traveling with the group right now. They're low level, but formorians have such a low AC that they were contributing about 40 pts of damage each round. Not too shabby.
The second fight was against a high level evoker and a high level rogue, both spies pretending to be someone they weren't. The evoker lead with an overchannelled cone of cold. Massive damage to everyone! I think two PCs made their save. Then the rogue (with poisoned blades) carved up the paladin, bringing him down to 8 hp.
Annnd... that's about as far as their luck held.
The evoker got locked into a forcecage and couldn't teleport out. He ended up committing suicide (or so it appears -- throat cut, blood everywhere, but he's still locked in the force cage so they haven't checked his body) out of a desire not to be questioned. The rogue took 50 pts of damage from three PCs, and she decided screw this, I'm running for it. She disengaged, ran, and hid. She didn't hide well enough (rolled an 18 stealth). The bard dimension doored the rogue to her vicinity and the rogue spotted her; one warlock sniped her through the trees, pushing her backwards and destroying her stealth; and the other warlock dimension doored the paladin to her vicinity and the paladin did almost 60 pts of damage to her with a smite. We ended the game with the rogue/spy unconscious and the warlock turning her into his thrall. Looks like the spy is about to turn sides...
Quote of the game, from the warlock: "I've decided that my most damaging spell is dimension door, because it lets me get the paladin close enough to smite things."
Overall, it was a fun fast triumph for the PCs. Even high-level NPCs don't last long against a team of 6 focused heroes. Next game in 2 weeks will be about questioning the spy, finding out how dead the wizard is (suicide was an illusion, and he's waiting for the force cage to drop to make an escape), and assaulting the place where the person whom the spy was imitating is being held.
[My players: spoilers within. Please don't read.]
Tonight they fought three formorian giants in the first encounter. Two PCs got cursed with the evil eye (these formorians are tied to gnolls, so instead of the PCs getting lumpy they started to turn into hyenas instead. Same effect, different appearance, although they wouldn't have gotten disadvantage on attacks if they'd chosen to devour their own allies instead). The first formorian had fear cast on him by the bard, and it took him eight rounds -- EIGHT! -- to make his save. Already damaged, he got sniped by the party warlock using eldritch blast from hundreds of feet away. The second and third formorians managed to flank the party bard, but both were killed before they were able to smack her. In one case, the other warlock used blight to destroy his tree club (seemed balanced, cool but slightly sub-optimal to me to let the spell destroy a plant-based weapon instead of doing damage); in the other case, the rogue hopped from a tree onto his head and sneak attacked him. In this fight the battle master fighter made good use of moving people around and triggering extra attacks, and a phantasmal force kept one formorian suitably distracted.
There are six NPC elven archers traveling with the group right now. They're low level, but formorians have such a low AC that they were contributing about 40 pts of damage each round. Not too shabby.
The second fight was against a high level evoker and a high level rogue, both spies pretending to be someone they weren't. The evoker lead with an overchannelled cone of cold. Massive damage to everyone! I think two PCs made their save. Then the rogue (with poisoned blades) carved up the paladin, bringing him down to 8 hp.
Annnd... that's about as far as their luck held.
The evoker got locked into a forcecage and couldn't teleport out. He ended up committing suicide (or so it appears -- throat cut, blood everywhere, but he's still locked in the force cage so they haven't checked his body) out of a desire not to be questioned. The rogue took 50 pts of damage from three PCs, and she decided screw this, I'm running for it. She disengaged, ran, and hid. She didn't hide well enough (rolled an 18 stealth). The bard dimension doored the rogue to her vicinity and the rogue spotted her; one warlock sniped her through the trees, pushing her backwards and destroying her stealth; and the other warlock dimension doored the paladin to her vicinity and the paladin did almost 60 pts of damage to her with a smite. We ended the game with the rogue/spy unconscious and the warlock turning her into his thrall. Looks like the spy is about to turn sides...
Quote of the game, from the warlock: "I've decided that my most damaging spell is dimension door, because it lets me get the paladin close enough to smite things."
Overall, it was a fun fast triumph for the PCs. Even high-level NPCs don't last long against a team of 6 focused heroes. Next game in 2 weeks will be about questioning the spy, finding out how dead the wizard is (suicide was an illusion, and he's waiting for the force cage to drop to make an escape), and assaulting the place where the person whom the spy was imitating is being held.
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