Helldritch
Hero
I only CaW at all times. I don't like whack a mole or fudging combat to ease things for the players.
Last session players 5th level, 6 characters and 3 NPCs, faced an illithid arcanist with its retinue. They littoral crushed it but it got away. Right before leaving, it left this message in the mind of one player:" I will be back. Prepared this time." They were quite proud of themselves.
The next encounter came with a group of orcs, a warrant, and the players were almost killed but prevailed through sheer luck and a good use of their skill. When a high AC fighter fell, three orcs immediately attacked him. Two hit, causing two failed death save. Not taking any chances thw last orc archer tried to finish the fighter but missed. The players won the initiative and healed back the character with their best spells. 3 cleric and a bard can heal quite a lot. But it also meant that they did not attacked that round. They finally won, but being outnumber 7 to 1 brought them to only a few hp each and all their ressources were spend. They were particularly shocked when the four orcish clerics rose a few of their friends as zombies... the only surviving orc said that they were brought there by an illithid that paid their leader good gold to send a squad against the PCs. They now know that the illithid was true to its words.
That is combat as war. That illithid will harass the PCs as best as it can. It will not be fair, it will not be glorious either. If they do not act, that illithid will get them. They are in the underdark and searching for a way to get out. I wonder how they will manage.
Last session players 5th level, 6 characters and 3 NPCs, faced an illithid arcanist with its retinue. They littoral crushed it but it got away. Right before leaving, it left this message in the mind of one player:" I will be back. Prepared this time." They were quite proud of themselves.
The next encounter came with a group of orcs, a warrant, and the players were almost killed but prevailed through sheer luck and a good use of their skill. When a high AC fighter fell, three orcs immediately attacked him. Two hit, causing two failed death save. Not taking any chances thw last orc archer tried to finish the fighter but missed. The players won the initiative and healed back the character with their best spells. 3 cleric and a bard can heal quite a lot. But it also meant that they did not attacked that round. They finally won, but being outnumber 7 to 1 brought them to only a few hp each and all their ressources were spend. They were particularly shocked when the four orcish clerics rose a few of their friends as zombies... the only surviving orc said that they were brought there by an illithid that paid their leader good gold to send a squad against the PCs. They now know that the illithid was true to its words.
That is combat as war. That illithid will harass the PCs as best as it can. It will not be fair, it will not be glorious either. If they do not act, that illithid will get them. They are in the underdark and searching for a way to get out. I wonder how they will manage.