LMoP spoiler
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I ran the Cragmaw hideout last night.
They (the cleric, mage, and noble fighter; along with the rogue as NPC) slept two of the wolves and killed a third, before sending the cleric up the chimney having a Light spell on her holy symbol. The bugbear leader Klarg, his goblins, and the wolf immediately noticed her, and after a seconds thought; she popped back down. (Smart move.) The wolves, which they didn't want to kill unless necessary were starting to wake up. The goblins climbed down after her, but the party slew the wolves and got back to the entrance before the goblins got down the chimney. The party decided to wait around the corner from the cave entrance and ambush the goblins. But the goblins, being to cowardly to chase after the party themselves without Klarg, wouldn't go out. A minute or two goes by, with the PCs waiting, and they hear the sound of yelling from within the cave, another minute goes by, and the noble takes a peak into the cave to see that Klarg has gathered all the goblins and the entire cave is charging out at these first level characters. Klarg (who can drop any PC with one hit), a wolf, and (I think) eleven goblins. Instead of running immediately, the warrior throws a javelin at Klarg and misses. Fortunately, there's a bit of a pinch at the cave entrance, with the warrior and cleric up front taking the attacks, and the goblins not wanting to run by them to incur opportunity attacks, but I rule Klarg can bump them aside to get to the warrior. The NPC rogue ran off immediately after one pot shot. But the PCs tried to stand their ground. I rolled lousily, and no PCs died, even though they stood for another round and still hadn't killed a single goblin themselves. They took a few arrows, realized they couldn't win, and ran. I had Klarg and the wolf chase them, with a couple volleys of arrows from the goblins, too lazy and cowardly to run much farther than the cave entrance. The wizard, being already a decent distance from the melee, managed to get off a couple rays of frost, one on Klarg and one on the wolf, which after a couple rounds gave the PCs a bit of distance. (If she had saved her sleep spell and used it on the goblins, this battle might have even been winnable! Not likely though.) I decided Klarg would give up the chase after a couple minutes, but the wolf wouldn't give up. They heard the thundering feet of the bugbear slow and eventually stop, and so they stopped to rest. At this point, no PC has more than 2 hp. But then they turn to realize the wolf is right behind them. Fortunately the cleric had held onto her guiding bolt spell, and she gets initiative and takes out the wolf.
I spent most of that encounter thinking this would be a TPK. I had a string of really low rolls for the goblin arrows, and if any of them had hit, that would have been the end of that character. If I'd had the goblins give more chase and shoot arrows, it's likely one of them would have died.
I've been playing with these players for a year, and they haven't had a character die... and I wonder if it's because I've been soft. I just started after a 20 year hiatus, and the players are my fiancé and two friends, and I think I went easy on them during the playtest campaign because those were their first characters, and they were quite attached to them. At least now they have the picture that with the official rules, the monsters are no pushovers and their characters really will be placed in deadly positions. And they know the monsters won't sit there and wait to be picked off one by one.
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