Mark1733
Explorer
Okay, not sure if anyone would want to help me with a rudimentary post-mortem on my Peryton encounter that just occurred last night using TaleSpire fully for the first time. I don't DM too much, so any basic thoughts for improving combat tactics and "encounter variables" are appreciated.
Basic premise was that the party of six 3rd-lvl adventurers (Hu Clr, Hu Brd, Elf Ftr, Elf BlSngr, DB Bar, TF Pyromancer) were fighting 3 perytons in a mountain pass about 100 feet wide with a large 2-ft tall boulder in the middle of the pass. There was a fallen creature they had met earlier in the adventure who was the perytons' main victim. The creature was down and unconscious while the peryton were fighting each other for who gets to eat the creature. The party was able to encounter the three perytons with no surprise on either side. The party was at full capacity in terms of spells, abilities, etc. The combat was okay IMO, with the Elf Ftr having to use 3 of his 4 combat superiority dice, second wind, action surge, and his health potion, the DB Bar using breath weapon to no effect, and the spellcasters using up half of their spells outside of cantrips. Two other characters were moderately wounded. The Elf Ftr was the only PC being threatened with going down, which is how he used his superiority dice, luckily to decent effect, second wind, and potion. Normal ranged weapons had disadvantage due to windy conditions in the mountain pass. However, the spellcasters had very good ranged attacks, and the tiefling got to use a hellish rebuke to finish the last peryton. Everyone contributed, but the perytons successfully saved 4 vicious mockery attempts against the bard, which I am sure was frustrating for that player. That was probably the only "downside" of that encounter, based solely on lucky dice rolls for me. As the DM, I had really good dice rolls all the way around (all attack and saving throws were visible to the players and were mostly successful), but I hid my own damage but never felt the need to fudge any of them).
Just to recap the Peryton stats... medium monstrosity; generally above avg abilities; 60'ft Fly; dmg resistances against normal slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning; SA: flyby (avoid AoO when flying) and dive attack (for extra damage if flying at least 30' ft); Atk are Gore, Talons, and Multiattack (gore + talons).
My main strategy was to use the flyby and dive attacks as the perytons swoop down from the sides of the the mountain pass, staying aloft and generally out of range of melee attacks. I did not use multiattack at all.
Is there anything you can think of that you would have done differently to make the perytons more effective/dangerous, more interesting, etc.. I never used multiattack, and I wonder if there would have been more effective use of that ability...especially with the perytons damage resistance and no magic weapons in the mix just yet, beyond a moon-touched sword. Thoughts?
Basic premise was that the party of six 3rd-lvl adventurers (Hu Clr, Hu Brd, Elf Ftr, Elf BlSngr, DB Bar, TF Pyromancer) were fighting 3 perytons in a mountain pass about 100 feet wide with a large 2-ft tall boulder in the middle of the pass. There was a fallen creature they had met earlier in the adventure who was the perytons' main victim. The creature was down and unconscious while the peryton were fighting each other for who gets to eat the creature. The party was able to encounter the three perytons with no surprise on either side. The party was at full capacity in terms of spells, abilities, etc. The combat was okay IMO, with the Elf Ftr having to use 3 of his 4 combat superiority dice, second wind, action surge, and his health potion, the DB Bar using breath weapon to no effect, and the spellcasters using up half of their spells outside of cantrips. Two other characters were moderately wounded. The Elf Ftr was the only PC being threatened with going down, which is how he used his superiority dice, luckily to decent effect, second wind, and potion. Normal ranged weapons had disadvantage due to windy conditions in the mountain pass. However, the spellcasters had very good ranged attacks, and the tiefling got to use a hellish rebuke to finish the last peryton. Everyone contributed, but the perytons successfully saved 4 vicious mockery attempts against the bard, which I am sure was frustrating for that player. That was probably the only "downside" of that encounter, based solely on lucky dice rolls for me. As the DM, I had really good dice rolls all the way around (all attack and saving throws were visible to the players and were mostly successful), but I hid my own damage but never felt the need to fudge any of them).
Just to recap the Peryton stats... medium monstrosity; generally above avg abilities; 60'ft Fly; dmg resistances against normal slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning; SA: flyby (avoid AoO when flying) and dive attack (for extra damage if flying at least 30' ft); Atk are Gore, Talons, and Multiattack (gore + talons).
My main strategy was to use the flyby and dive attacks as the perytons swoop down from the sides of the the mountain pass, staying aloft and generally out of range of melee attacks. I did not use multiattack at all.
Is there anything you can think of that you would have done differently to make the perytons more effective/dangerous, more interesting, etc.. I never used multiattack, and I wonder if there would have been more effective use of that ability...especially with the perytons damage resistance and no magic weapons in the mix just yet, beyond a moon-touched sword. Thoughts?
