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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lancelot" data-source="post: 6868138" data-attributes="member: 30022">Oh, I totally agree. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":-)" title="Smile    :-)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":-)" />Played optimally, Old Bonegrinder is a TPK for any group of 3rd level characters, virtually guaranteed. Heck, I think it's a TPK for 4th and 5th level characters (played truly optimally). If the party doesn't have magic or silvered weapons, they have to chew through (effective) 700-odd HP of high-AC hags, with the added "fun" of magic resistance and counterspells. Meanwhile, at a minimum, they're soaking up 30+ damage from magic missiles every round... and almost certainly a lot worse from the coven spells.An inexperienced DM who picks up Curse of Strahd and just plays the hags as written is going to tear a typical party in half, which is why it's a bit of a shame there isn't a side-bar explaining alternate approaches to the encounter. An experienced DM knows how to modify a combat encounter on the fly to reduce lethality for the group, or provide appropriate thematic warning that this is a situation where the party must come up with a non-combat approach (or die!). It'd be nice to see that sort of guidance, maybe with some worked examples, in the text of the module. But, I guess, word constraints come into play. There isn't a lot of filler in Curse of Strahd. It may "only" be a 1st-10th level module, but oddly it feels even more content-packed to me than Princes of the Apocalypse or Out of the Abyss.Truth be told, there are a lot of very dangerous encounters in this campaign. The Amber Temple has some very nasty stuff, as does Castle Ravenloft itself. Heck, the Abbot in Krezk is going to cause some players to "drop bricks". He's rocking an average 50 damage per round from his melee attacks, and they could be bumping into him at 4th or 5th level. The warlock in my group is running Constitution 10 (yeah, I know...), so he'll have 23 hp at 4th level. If he gets into a scrap with the abbot, he'll be back-door'ed from max hp on an average round. If the abbot scores a crit on one of his two attacks, his average 47 damage from that one hit is taking out anyone in my group from max hp. Scary stuff for 4th-5th level PCs. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":-)" title="Smile    :-)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":-)" /></blockquote>

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