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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celtavian" data-source="post: 6844403" data-attributes="member: 5834">Resource Report: Encounter 1Rounds: 5Eldritch Knight: Hps: 120/106 Bolts used: 17 (1 recovered) Spell slots used: 0Bard: Bard: 107/107 Bard slots Used: 1 3rd Inspiration: 4/3 Warlock Spell Slots: 2/2 (2nd level)Paladin: Hps: 120/96 Slots used: 2 1st Channel Divinity: 1/1 Divine Sense: 5/5 Lay on hands: 60/60Wizard: Hps: 93/92 Arcane Ward: 31/0 Slots used: 1 4th/1 5th Arcane Recovery: 6/6 levels (requires short rest; used once per long rest)Cleric: 133/89 Channel Divinity: 2/2 Spell slots used: 0Resources used: 17 bolts, 1 3rd level slot, 1 inspiration, 2 1st level slots, Arcane Ward, 1 4th level slot.Damage received: 14 (EK) + 24 (paladin)  +1 (wizard) +44 (cleric) = 83Post-combat analysis: Terrain: The room was oddly sized given the description. It required a larger room to fit so many large creatures at the positions described by Flamestrike. I adjusted actions and movement to positioning described by Flamestrike using a grid map. The terrain wasn't particularly advantageous for either side. It was very crowded allowing the PCs to clear a back corner area that slowed FG advance for a round since they would have had to squeeze to fit amongst the party and wolves. Once the wolves were mostly dead by round 2 the giant had room to move and try to kill the EK who was doing the most damage.Tactics: After seeing the location of the giants, I switched hypnotic pattern use to them. given the location of the cleric and paladin and their movement rate, they would have had to be within the 30 foot cube to engage. I had the giant that was active wake his buddy in round 2 because fighting alone is a bad idea. He could have tried to throw a rock at the bard forcing a concentration check, but that wouldn't have been guaranteed. If the tactic failed, he's basically alone, getting focus fired, and his buddy is set up to die if he goes down. I felt spending the action on round 2 to guarantee FG 2 would be active was a worthwhile action.The wolves were much softer targets than I thought they would be. An EK archer even with bad rolls can do a ton a damage to AC 13 targets with Sharpshooter. The EK rolled poorly for the most part, but their ACs were low enough it did not matter.Flamestrike wants to know why no one landed a shot on the wizard to attempt to disrupt polymorph. The gnome throwing himself prone behind a large wolf corpse for full cover doesn't seem a hard to imagine action. A large wolf corpse would easily provide full cover for a 3 foot tall gnome that is prone. Fortunately, the initiative order allowed perfect timing for the wizard to  polymorph Dom the Cleric allowing him to attack in ape form on his initiative count. A huge ape isn't an easy obstacle to bypass. I feel a 9 intelligence giant would not ignore a king kong-sized monkey in his face to hammer targets that aren't attacking him and he can't easily see in the hopes of ending the spell in the short time he had to figure that out and close the distance while trying to get his buddy back into action. I leave that up to others to debate.This encounter was a pure brute battle set up so that the party couldn't avoid combat without the Giant tongue. The party executed effectively ending the fight in a little over 4 rounds. Opinion: Brute battles are generally easy and straightforward. This feels about appropriate resource use for a Medium encounter. The favorable initiative order for the giants caused the use of an extra 1st level spell. The inspiration for cutting words was a good use of an ability for hit point loss prevention. I'd like to hear how others might have run the battle or the PCS. I'll leave a little time to talk before  discussing travel and starting encounter 2. Encounter 2 will be much tougher and require more resources. The terrain advantages and abilities of Death Slaad will tax the party heavily. AoE damage dealers almost always tax a party more than single target damage dealers.</blockquote>

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