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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celtavian" data-source="post: 6847409" data-attributes="member: 5834">They did fireball twice on round 1. It's in the description and noted on their resource list. The bard wasn't surprised and ran forward into counterspell range after activating her gem of seeing. I ran it exactly as you recommended other than moving one slaad up 60 feet to avoid being surprised.Even if you had ran it as you did, it would have happened exactly the same way if the bard won initiative.Bard wins initiative. Action to activate gem of seeing. She sees both invisible slaad. Move forward into counterspell range. Counter one fireball. That is how it would have went. You yourself know you you can't ready an action outside of combat. You discussed this with Hemlock. The slaad can't either. They don't get to fireball without rolling initiative. If the bard wins, she has enough time to activate the gem, move forward into counterspell range, and defeat one of the fireballs. That is exactly what she did.There were two fireballs in round one, one countered by the bard. As far as the rest of the encounter, i tried to have the slaad cast cloudkill, but by that time the wizard had moved up to counterspell range. Then I had the slaad move to kill the wizard. At 60 feet away, that is two moves to kill the soft target wizard and bard. By that time the cleric and paladin have closed on them and the EK has taken half their hit points. That's why I always wonder why so many DMs make it seem to easy to hit casters. Damage is fast in this game. You only have a round or two to try to close the distance and kill casters. Most monsters have to spend a double move when they start far away meaning no attacks while some ranged party members are destroying them with Sharpshooter, eldritch blast, and other spells.</blockquote>

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