Dealing with my Party

[Azure Trance]

Most of them hit 4th level at our last session and I'm a little unsure of how to threaten them. Without giving gobs of XP away for each encounter at least.

1 Wood Elf Barbarian 4th
1 Human Psion 4th
1 Human Psychic Warrior 4th
1 Dwarven Martial Artist 4th
1 Elven Bard 4th
1 Half-Orc Fighter 3rd
1 Elven Ranger 3rd

Probably the two biggest offendors would be:

The Wood Elf Barbarians strength is 20, unless raging upon which it's 24 - a +7 attack/strength bonus. She usually only does one attack though, which gives a 1.5 STR bonus which makes it a +10. She is easily the most powerful fighter in the group. Though...

The Psion has the capability to MindBlast when things are getting desperate. I trust him with the Psi details since he's a good player, but the Will DC to avoid a mindblast is very high, in the 20s, which most of the monsters I give them can't even reach with a 20. The good side though is that it leaves him extremely weak afterwards ... but it's still a potent punch.

If they face many enemies, with things looking bad, it gets mindblasted within a 60 foot cone. If it's a singular, massively powerful creature it gets chopped up by the Barbarian, and to a lesser extent the Psychic warrior.

The former case was an attack by a swarm of stirges, the latter a minotaur. And a wererat now that I remember, which was doing quite well with it's DR 15 until it got mindblasted for 11 rounds.

What's the best way to deal with this combo? Right now their stuck in a labryinth, with 4 (used to be 5) minotaurs. There are various secret doors which lead to different places but only because the dwarf has unknowingly in his possession a key which does so. Any useful hints would be much appreciated.

 

[Buttercup]

I notice your party has no cleric. Throw heaps of undead at 'em. Many of them have damage reduction, and since there is no one in the party who can turn them, and undead are immune to mind effects, your party would have to come up with creative solutions to stay alive....

 

[Airwolf]

I agree with Buttercup, undead are a great way to go.

I would also suggest ambush tactics. Have the BBEG know they are coming and send out one or two raiding parties before reach his stronghold to soften them up. This should create a challenge for them in the final conflict.

I also think urban mystery adventures are very challenging (both for the DM and players if done right). There won't be much fighting but they will have to follow the clues to find out the 'who dun it'.


Good Luck!

 

[mmu1]

I could be wrong about this, but I really don't think your player should be able to use Mindblast... I thought there was a class level dependent limit on what psionic attack modes a character can use.

Regardless, there are other things you can try:

1. Take out the Barbarian. One Will save based spell, and she'll be standing there drooling for the rest of the ecnounter. It's not the nicest thing to do to the player, but it's how the game was designed.

2. Throw in encounters in which the enemies don't all come in from the same direction and use stealth. Low-level rogues can work wonders here. (sniping from the rooftops, or attacking from the trees, then running for it.)

3. Poisons that damage attributes other than CON are pretty inexpensive. Sounds to me like your bad guys need some STR and CHA sapping ones...

4. Misdirection. Throw 'fake' encounters at the players before the big finale, just hard enough to convince them to pull out the big guns, but not enough to really tear them up.

5. Start giving out less xp than the DMG suggests, and beef up your monsters. I've been DMing a party as large as yours (with TWO people with 18 strength and two-handed weapons) and the EL system doesn't do a good job at all in accounting for the decrease in difficulty caused by having 7 or 8 players.

 

[Azure Trance]

Your advice is much appreciated. Unfortunatly undead won't be an option for a while since I'm running an adventure, but it will be soon (if they ever get out of the caves of chaos). Though ambushing, will save monsters, and poison are all fortunately things I can implement in next weeks session.

And maybe a level or three of barbarian for those minotaurs, CR and high XP awards be damned. Perhaps even Minotaur *pinky to corner of mouth* SPELLCASTERS?!

 

[Bob5th]

As a player I hate any undead above a zombie or skeleton. As a DM undead are great. Shadows after the Barbarian will turn the hard hitter into jelly. Later on the psychic warrior will probably also be a pain. If you want to slow down the psion start throwing other psychic things against him. Psionic combat should eat up some of his PP.

 

[mmu1]

Shadows after the Barbarian will turn the hard hitter into jelly...

Which reminds me, oozes and jellies can be your friend. They're the perfect monster to design yourself, and a great choice for something that can have a heap of hit points, good immunities to certain types of weapons (piercing and slashing), but doesn't necessarily have to do all that much damage to the party, necessitating a high CR and xp reward. And they're immune to all mind-effecting spells and abilities.

 

[Azure Trance]

Thank you, thank you.

Oozes and slimes will make a reapperance, as well as a Shadow or whatever nifty undead I can find. Originally I said it would not make sense for undead to be prowling in a maze ... or would it? Same for the Oozes. I mean, Dungeon ecology and how this isn't the random encounters of 1st Edi-

-=-

Y'know, I figure if I just stop thinking about it and just do it, it's alright.

Sort of like Homer Simpsons, If I don't see it, it's not a crime [as he drives down a boulevard with his eyes closed]

 

[Azure Trance]

Seriously, it's nice to know other people know the glaring weaknesses of a party then me. This means that there will always, always, be ways to humble them. ;D

 

[Kyramus]

1 Medusa CR 7- tough fight, have the medusa stay far enough away and just keep peletting them with arrows. A running battle for the Medusa and the players will need to get in close or have alternate ways to tackle her gaze. Most likely a majority will turn to stone.

2 Giant Wasps with poison, target the Psion.
2 brain moles, target psion and psychic warrior.

1 kobold sorcerer level 3 with sleep spell and charm person, maybe even color spray.
5-7 kobold buddies. when players are stunned with color spray, they go nuts on them.

1 Brown Bear stuck in the dungeon and ticked off. give it a +2 circumstance to hit and damage for rage cause it wants to get out.

4 orcish shortbow men. Running battle. 1 shot, move 30 feet (or double move). Herding or luring them to a bigger group of enemies, maybe even into the charging sights of a minotaur.