Deathjump Spiders - Too Tough?

[Badapple]

We just faced a Deathjump Spider in KoTS, as part of a second wave in a larger combat. It did not live up to it's fearsome reputation. It only got in two attacks before we killed it, one was negated by a Shield spell, the other simply missed the high-AC Paladin who marked it. If it had fled when bloodied per it's standard tactics it wouldn't even have done that much. I was a little disapointed, I was looking forward to using 'Pin the Foe' on a shift-happy Deathjump.

Tony was dissapointed? I was dissapointed. I'm Tony's DM and I can attest that the party pasted the poor spider. It's measly +6 to hit just doesn't stand up to a 21 ac paladin who marks him. The wizard is ac 18 normally, with shield spell up she is ac 22 so she was even worse.

I think multiple DJ spiders in the same encounter though could get quite brutal. For example imagine a party of 5 level 4 characters facing 5 DJ spiders? Ouch.

I was curious to see if our DM would rule that it could use 'Death From Above' without shifting at all. Opinions?

"Pin the Foe" or something similar that immobilizes a spider or prevents it from shifting would also nullify the "death from above" attack imo and restrict it to making its basic bite attack. My reasoning is that the extra damage and the prone status it inflicts comes as a result of momentum.

I think a DJ spider could stay in its original square and still use the "death from above" attack, but it would be in effect leaping into the air and down onto the opponent. So as long as it retains it's ability to shift, it can use the power. Almost all the time I would probably have it shift away somewhere else though if it could, simply because it's a cool, jumpy thing for it to do.

 

[Scribe Ineti]

In my last session, I paired one DJS with a dire rat and some giant rats and had at my group of 4 1st level characters (a tiefling warlock, a dwarf ranger, a dragonborn paladin, and a half-elf rogue).

The DJS smacked the warlock with 'death from above' and bloodied and poisoned him on the first hit. Second round the warlock got hit again and nearly died. Some heroics from the paladin was enough to stabilize the warlock.

I thought it was a pretty powerful opponent, and was surprised to note that it was 'only' worth 175 XP. I added some extra XP to the encounter after the fact since it turned out to be a greater challenge than I expected.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Hopefully I haven't just bought myself a ticket to a five-deathjump-spider encounter.

That was the ruling I'd have hoped for, of course. I like Pin the Foe, I should really use it more often instead of 'saving' it.

 

[Mengu]

Dude, using point-buy I don't think anyone should have an AC worse than 17 at 1st level.

That's some pretty terrible ACs. Our party is something like: Fighter (20), Wizard (18), Ranger (18), Warlord (17 or 18 I don't recall). This at 1st level.

Mark

It's not out of the realm of possibility to have: Human Great weapon Fighter AC 17, Tiefling Wand Wizard AC 14, Dragonborn Two-weapon Ranger AC 15, Dwarf Cleric AC 16, Half-elf Starlock AC 14, etc.