Encounter too hard? (My players out)

[brehobit]

I'm a bit worried about killing the party here.

OK, group of 4 PCs, level 2. None of them too twinked out. One is bascially a 2nd level warrior. (paladin in disgrace). 1 a sorc, 1 a war mage, 1 a scout. Have a bit of healing magic (20 good berries and 2 CLW potions). 32-point point buy.

Set-up:
PCs in a (very small) dungeon. Probably making a fair bit of noise. Baddies are:
Elven Wiz L3 (Enchanter), 2 standard skelitions, 2 zombies. Wiz is 28 point point-buy.

If PCs give him time, he will cast armor and false life on himself.

When they break into his 15x25 room, undead will be in a line and he will be behind a large stone coffin (and the undead). He will start to cast summon Monster II (fiendish wolf). Undead will hold the line making it impossible to pass them (without tumble, or bull rush).

Next round Wiz casts color spray. Round after Tashas HL. Round after magic missile. After that probably go to bow or rapier.

I just don't see the party making past round 3. The Color spray should catch at least 2 of the party members and probably more. They will drop like flies. And the wolf, minor undead, and viper familiar will just crush the one or perhaps 2 still standing. The key part here is that the undead are immune to the color spray. (mind-affecting).

The CR of everything is CR 3 for the Wiz, CR 1/3 for each of the minor undead. The wolf and familiar are part of the CR 3. So this is maybe a EL 4, which should be pretty scary. But this is really scary.

Before this they will have hit a few traps and 5 skels and 3 zombies (3/3 then one at a time). So they should be reasonably healthy.

Am I missing something? Will they likely be okay?

 

[Kilroy]

Low level encounters can be decided by a roll of the dice. This will be a hard encounter, particularly with no cleric. The sorc could go either way - a single lucky bow crit could drop her in a round, or she could wipe the party with her first spell.

Maybe be prepared to take them prisoner if it goes poorly?

 

[Infiniti2000]

If they encountered this group as a random encounter, it would be about EL4. That alone should see maybe one PC dead. Now, however, you have to account for the advantage of location for the wizard. Raise it perhaps by 1EL. You then also have to account for the extremely good tactics. I don't know if it raises it another EL, but it doesn't lower it. What orders do the undead have? Just stand there and attack anything who approaches?

Without a cleric, undead are definitely tougher. All in all it seems like a tough fight, but if this is the BBEG it is not unrealistic. The party should have the chance to escape and they may have missile weapons of their own and never need to fight the undead at all (making the undead a non-factor). Additionally, a simple prot evil from the sorcerer may negate the summoned monster. I think it's okay and I would award +20% XP for the Wizard due to the location and the well-organized defense (he is non-chaotic I hope).

 

[Quickleaf]

I would give the PCs some more options that they could use to their advantage. Obviously if they approach the elven wizard in the manner you describe, they're in for a difficult battle. But...if there's secret passage the wizard uses that the PCs could find to surprise them...
or a grate/wall they can pass and overhear the wizard's tactics... or a flaming chandelier above the zombies that could be cut with a tumble move... you get the idea.

 

[ThirdWizard]

What if the PCs stay in the hallway, not charging in?

 

[jgsugden]

Give the PCs some advantages. Provide hints of what is to come. If they know what they're facing, they can prepare.

As for the actual encounter, give the wizard in int of 15. That makes his DC for his color spray a 13W ... something reasonable.

I, personally, do not think this is too difficult of an encounter. The wizard should have less than 20 hit points. If the scout, sorcerer and warmage focus their fire on him, they should take him down before he completes his first summon spell and the color spray.

 

[brehobit]

What if the PCs stay in the hallway, not charging in?

I think they have two good options. One is that the scout tumbles past the undead (or the fighter bull-rushes). The other is that they stay outside of the room. If they stay out of the room, the undead are pretty much immune to the missile weapons, but the PCs should be able to kill the wolf pretty quickly. At that point, the wizard would likely duck down and hide out for at least a little bit. The PCs could then toss in fire or what have you.

If they run into the room, they will likely die. But the 2 casters will probably stay back.

Hmmmm... Thanks for the help.

 

[brehobit]

Give the PCs some advantages. Provide hints of what is to come. If they know what they're facing, they can prepare.

As for the actual encounter, give the wizard in int of 15. That makes his DC for his color spray a 13W ... something reasonable.

I, personally, do not think this is too difficult of an encounter. The wizard should have less than 20 hit points. If the scout, sorcerer and warmage focus their fire on him, they should take him down before he completes his first summon spell and the color spray.

Well,
With false life he has 22 hps. I'm not sure what the casters can do to him. At 2nd level they really can't do all that much damage. I guess the warmage could be doing a fair bit with his edge and magic missiles. And all of his cover wouldn't matter. (AC could be 22 with cover and armor spell.)

We will see....

Thanks!

 

[ThirdWizard]

I think their best bet is probably for the warmage and sorcerer to take out a skeleton and make room for the paladin and scout to take advantage of the breach in the defenses to make it to the back of the room to attack the enemy wizard directly, after staying back and killing the summoned creature, who will follow to attack them unless commanded not to.

If they reverse this, with the spellcasters trying to take out the wizard and the melees trying to take out the skeletons, they'll probably have more problems, at least with false life up. If they try it this way, it could be a TPK as the enemy wizard won't be threatened to hinder spellcasting and will be able to use his full power.

Good luck to the players!

 

[Thanee]

Am I missing something? Will they likely be okay?

Well, if they act smart, they shouldn't have too much trouble.

Both the sorcerer and the warmage can ready actions to disrupt the spellcaster, while the paladin and the scout can fight the undead minions (they better have weapons to beat the DR ).

Bye
Thanee