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<blockquote data-quote="Mustrum_Ridcully" data-source="post: 4451563" data-attributes="member: 710">Sometimes I think Bodaks must be excluded from discussions about deadliness of 3E, because they present the singular worst-case scenario. Bodaks have a low CR, but thanks to their Save or Die effect, they can be dangerous at higher levels (one bad roll and all, and you can - if using CR and Encounter Guideliens - use them in larger numbers, making that one bad roll more likely). The only defense against them is Death Ward, a single-target spell with a short duration. The alternative is closing your eyes, but that's the kind of thing your scouting Rogue or the party entering a room tends not to do. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> It is _really_ the absolute worst case scenario.Or that Age of Worms Dragon that didn't have a breath weapon, and instead dealt 2d6 constitution drain. Did you know that there are no core spells (and possibly even no non-core spells) that take less then a 3 round casting time to fix that? Well, nearly as bad as Bodaks, I suppose.But there are other, nasty monsters. I remember that our Ranger in Shackled City got killed by a Thunderbeast. I think he lost initiative and then was charged with a critical hit. There was just nothing we could to help him except maybe the entire party trying to fly away (which was a little hard to do for a party whose only arcane spellcaster was a Bard)And monsters like these exist a lot. There is nothing special you can do to protect yourself from a melee monster. You boost your AC with everything you got, but most of this is expected and required anyway. The only &quot;smart play&quot; is not engaging such a monster at all.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mustrum_Ridcully, post: 4451563, member: 710"] Sometimes I think Bodaks must be excluded from discussions about deadliness of 3E, because they present the singular worst-case scenario. Bodaks have a low CR, but thanks to their Save or Die effect, they can be dangerous at higher levels (one bad roll and all, and you can - if using CR and Encounter Guideliens - use them in larger numbers, making that one bad roll more likely). The only defense against them is Death Ward, a single-target spell with a short duration. The alternative is closing your eyes, but that's the kind of thing your scouting Rogue or the party entering a room tends not to do. ;) It is _really_ the absolute worst case scenario. Or that Age of Worms Dragon that didn't have a breath weapon, and instead dealt 2d6 constitution drain. Did you know that there are no core spells (and possibly even no non-core spells) that take less then a 3 round casting time to fix that? Well, nearly as bad as Bodaks, I suppose. But there are other, nasty monsters. I remember that our Ranger in Shackled City got killed by a Thunderbeast. I think he lost initiative and then was charged with a critical hit. There was just nothing we could to help him except maybe the entire party trying to fly away (which was a little hard to do for a party whose only arcane spellcaster was a Bard) And monsters like these exist a lot. There is nothing special you can do to protect yourself from a melee monster. You boost your AC with everything you got, but most of this is expected and required anyway. The only "smart play" is not engaging such a monster at all. [/QUOTE]

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