Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
DM advice: How do you NOT kill your party?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="77IM" data-source="post: 7398224" data-attributes="member: 12377"><p>Oooh, a challenge!</p><p></p><p>If the Big Bad is a spellcaster, her first few spells are going to be doozies. A good <em>counterspell</em> roll can shut that down, or a poor roll can open it up. E.g., if you fail to counter <em>time stop</em> the archmage then she can cast some combination of <em>globe of invulnerability</em>, <em>mirror image</em>, <em>fire shield</em>, and <em>cone of cold</em> on her first turn. Of course the archmage is probably going to try to <em>counterspell</em> your <em>counterspell</em> so you might want to cast with a higher-level slot so that she has to roll too. So there could be as many as two rolls. Actually three rolls, if you consider the 1d4+1 actions you get on <em>time stop</em> could result in 2-5 actions, which is kind of significant.</p><p></p><p>Things can go from dicey to terrible if the party's only healer fails their save against a boss medusa, or if the designated tank (buffed up with some good spells) still manages to fail a save against <em>banishment</em>. The demon-summoning and devil-summoning variants are wild cards too: a marilith has a 50% chance of summoning <em>another marilith</em>, which seems like a pretty big change to encounter difficulty (even though killing the first marilith causes the second one to pop).</p><p></p><p>Now maybe the fate of the fight is not "decided" by these single rolls, but certainly there are times when a single roll, made early-on, could swing things pretty far in one direction or the other, making the fight either really hard or really easy.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="77IM, post: 7398224, member: 12377"] Oooh, a challenge! If the Big Bad is a spellcaster, her first few spells are going to be doozies. A good [I]counterspell[/I] roll can shut that down, or a poor roll can open it up. E.g., if you fail to counter [I]time stop[/I] the archmage then she can cast some combination of [I]globe of invulnerability[/I], [I]mirror image[/I], [I]fire shield[/I], and [I]cone of cold[/I] on her first turn. Of course the archmage is probably going to try to [I]counterspell[/I] your [I]counterspell[/I] so you might want to cast with a higher-level slot so that she has to roll too. So there could be as many as two rolls. Actually three rolls, if you consider the 1d4+1 actions you get on [I]time stop[/I] could result in 2-5 actions, which is kind of significant. Things can go from dicey to terrible if the party's only healer fails their save against a boss medusa, or if the designated tank (buffed up with some good spells) still manages to fail a save against [I]banishment[/I]. The demon-summoning and devil-summoning variants are wild cards too: a marilith has a 50% chance of summoning [I]another marilith[/I], which seems like a pretty big change to encounter difficulty (even though killing the first marilith causes the second one to pop). Now maybe the fate of the fight is not "decided" by these single rolls, but certainly there are times when a single roll, made early-on, could swing things pretty far in one direction or the other, making the fight either really hard or really easy. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
DM advice: How do you NOT kill your party?
Top