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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 8957294" data-attributes="member: 6801845">So everyone made high stealth checks?  How did they know the bandits were there and why did the bandits not have multiple guards posted?  If this is a camp, why wouldn't the bandits have some kind of traps set up, even just the typical "bell on a string"?   How does a group of 7 sneak up if it's completely barren desert? What were they hiding behind?  Even at night, unless it's cloudy, they should have been spotted.I agree that it's a deadly encounter assuming it's a normal encounter. But you stacked everything in the PC's favor.Nuke the Reverse Gravity wand from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.  This is an insanely overpowered item, far more powerful than any official wand in the book.  There are a couple of staffs that cast 7th level spells but they're legendary items (although admittedly they do other cool stuff too).Second, this is a picture of the desert just outside of the Phoenix area.  People greatly underestimate how much grows in most deserts, the Sahara is a very extreme example.  Sure there are other deserts that are as desolate as the Sahara, but most of the Southwest US looks much like this.  Not only would people be able to grab onto things (even if you're really going to regret grabbing onto that Cholla) there's also potentially issues with line of sight.An example from a picture I took a week or so ago:[ATTACH=full]277509[/ATTACH]By my calculation (I use an alternate calculator, see the attached) it comes in at 129% where 100% is deadly.  So only slightly lower, and given the OP nature of the party I'd calculate the PCs at level 8 or higher.  The problem with the calculation you're using is likely that it's counting the bandits as multipliers. The bandits are such a low level I'm not even sure I'd consider them in the calculation.But again, everyone getting a surprise round attack with a broken wand while having unlimited line of sight and I'm not surprised at the outcome.Again ... PC win initiative and all 9 lycanthropes show up in fireball formation?  They should have come from all, directions, in waves, several coming from behind total cover.  How many HP did the lycanthropes have?  A CR 16 monster should have a around 200 HP or more.  How did 2 fireballs take them down so far?  Even maxed out, a fireball will only do 48 points of damage assuming they all failed their save.In addition, this sounds like the only fight for the day, or perhaps the second?The wand of reverse gravity has to go.  Period.  But it still feel like we're missing something.   For example in the first fight the CR 8 wizard in the official rules has 90 HP, I don't know how they're being dropped to 4 HP in a single round by the ranger. For what it's worth, I give NPC wizards more useful spell like Shield, and frequently assume they have mage armor up at all times.  There's always maxing out HP of course.My alternate CR calculator is attached.  I'm sure you could do the calculations more easily, but it's something I downloaded long ago and it works reasonably well for me even if I have to adjust PC level up or down a bit depending on the group.</blockquote>

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