[BoVD] Busted CR, the Babau

[Gizzard]

Does the Babau have a huge SR or something? I see a lot of talk about melee, but not much about Wizards lighting the guy up with spells. Thats exactly the opposite of what I'd expect from a mid-high level party.

 

[Aaron2]

Hmm curious IDHTBIFOM

10.) Creature emerges from darkness to sneak attack paladin, who goes down. More strength is lost.

I'm curious about this. How did the demon sneak attack the paladin? If it was in the darkness, it can't sneak attack, if it was out of the darkness then the Paladin keeps his dex bonus.

Also, my players are 6/7th level and have no trouble at all hitting AC25.

If a monster is immune to slashing weapons, just use your fists


Aaron

 

[Schmoe]

It sounds to me less like a CR problem and more of a realistic encounter.

<SNIP>

(although how your Cleric cast a teleport is beyond me. Magic item?).

He's a priest of the Travel domain. I don't know if Teleport is typically a Travel domain spell, but I've modified the domains slightly...

I think the CR is accurate in the same manner CR is accurate for Dragons.

Sounds like you had a lot of fun...

Well, you're definitely right. The encounter was a blast You have an interesting assessment of the CR, and I can't really disagree with you. I guess the difficulty of the encounter just surprised me somewhat. I definitely don't fault my players, though. I think they acquitted themselves well.

 

[Schmoe]

Re: Hmm curious IDHTBIFOM

I'm curious about this. How did the demon sneak attack the paladin? If it was in the darkness, it can't sneak attack, if it was out of the darkness then the Paladin keeps his dex bonus.

Also, my players are 6/7th level and have no trouble at all hitting AC25.

If a monster is immune to slashing weapons, just use your fists


Aaron

The paladin was closing his eyes to avoid the gaze of the demon, hence, no dex bonus.

And how on earth do your 6th level characters regularly hit AC 25? My party's main fighter has BAB +7, +3 strength, +1 focus, +1 enchantment. Add in +1 morale for the bard, and that comes to a +13 on the primary. That still only hits 45% of the time, which ain't too great. The ranger/barbarian can get to a +15 on the primary, but still, a main-line fighter hitting 50% of the time counts as difficult in my book.

Of course, most of the characters were using bows, and they aren't as optimized for ranged combat as they are for melee. Plus, several of the melee fighters had lost some strength early in the encounter.

As for our monk, well, he tried valiantly but just couldn't connect. His biggest contribution was providing a flanking bonus and being a cleave-enabler for the demon

 

[Schmoe]

Does the Babau have a huge SR or something? I see a lot of talk about melee, but not much about Wizards lighting the guy up with spells. Thats exactly the opposite of what I'd expect from a mid-high level party.

Actually, they only have one arcane caster, and he's a grig with a 5 strength. Within two rounds he was at -1 strength.

 

[Ulrick]

That Babau has always been a tough son of a gun...even back in 2nd ed. It's strange really, you'd think it isn't that powerful, but it is.

I used the "Whistling Demon" from the Van Richten's Guide to Fiends against the PCs. And it nearly killed them all despite the party consisted of 6 nine to 10th level character.

It'd go around whistling the Wal-Mart smiley face theme song just wreaking havoc on them impaling them with its pike.

 

[Wycen Adamantite]

Sounds like you and your party did fine. If it had been the game I'm giving up on, they would have had to fight the babua plus the retriever plus god knows what else. You are very conscious of CR's versus the party's abilities so you are ok.

 

[hong]

I think the CR is accurate in the same manner CR is accurate for Dragons.

What, you mean it's not?

 

[Schmoe]

I used the "Whistling Demon" from the Van Richten's Guide to Fiends against the PCs. And it nearly killed them all despite the party consisted of 6 nine to 10th level character.

It'd go around whistling the Wal-Mart smiley face theme song just wreaking havoc on them impaling them with its pike.

Wasn't that a cool idea? I remember reading that, thinking I couldn't wait until I got a gaming group back together. What a great book. I also really liked the Nalfeshnee that was re-writing history, or something like that.

 

[WizarDru]

What, you mean it's not?

Quiet, you.