Experiences with Monster Manual V

[Doug McCrae]

I thought the Thrym Hound looked pretty deadly for its CR.

 

[MadMaxim]

Nope, AC 39 (-2 size, +1 Dex, +30 natural). CR 10. Touch spells would seem to be the order of the day.

That only makes it 29... That's one major typo right there... Your players should have had a whole easier time hitting those things, Merric.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I thought the Thrym Hound looked pretty deadly for its CR.

We had an encounter with two of these in our Alternate Victorian England game last session - there were 7 of us (10th level), and we got owned. We couldn't hit them, they messed us up big-time, and we had to eventually just do what we could to neutralize them (web, grease, using terrain to our advantage) in order to survive long enough to get them frustrated enough to lose interest. With an AC 39, we couldn't hit them without a natural 20, and our sorceror couldn't do enough Fireballs to take them down. Way under-CR'ed.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

That only makes it 29... That's one major typo right there... Your players should have had a whole easier time hitting those things, Merric.

You're missing the base of 10. 10-2+1+30=39. I think 29 would probably make them about right (that'd be a +20 natural armor).

 

[MadMaxim]

You're missing the base of 10. 10-2+1+30=39. I think 29 would probably make them about right (that'd be a +20 natural armor).

DOH! You're right... Where are my math skills at...?

 

[frankthedm]

You're missing the base of 10. 10-2+1+30=39. I think 29 would probably make them about right (that'd be a +20 natural armor).

29 is easy enough to hit for 10th. 39 AC is not impossible for the front line to hit provided the party is working together as they should be in the first place.

+11 from roll
+10 from BAB
+3 from enhanced weapon
+8 from enhanced raging STR [starting 16, 18 from level ups, 22 from four point item, 26 from rage]
+1 weapon focus
+1 from prayer
+1 from moral
+2 from flanking
+2 from being improved invisibled

50% / 50% shot of hitting AC 39.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

50% / 50% shot of hitting AC 39.

If you have ALL of that stuff ready to go, right off the bat, and know that you're dealing with a 39 AC right off the bat (And even if you do, its going to be one character against 350 HP worth of magical wolf.). As it was it took us three rounds to figure out their AC was over 30, wo we didn't even start thinking about a lot of those things until we were almost out of the fight, and at that point we had decided "Run Away!" was a more prudent course of action. If we do face them again, we can probably do better, but we'd need to be super-prepped for that particular encounter.

 

[MerricB]

If you have ALL of that stuff ready to go, right off the bat, and know that you're dealing with a 39 AC right off the bat (And even if you do, its going to be one character against 350 HP worth of magical wolf.). As it was it took us three rounds to figure out their AC was over 30, wo we didn't even start thinking about a lot of those things until we were almost out of the fight, and at that point we had decided "Run Away!" was a more prudent course of action. If we do face them again, we can probably do better, but we'd need to be super-prepped for that particular encounter.

I don't mind high-AC creatures - sort of the fighter's equivalent of high-SR creatures. These ones are nasty, though.

What made it really difficult for my group was that I'd just hit them with a deafening blast from a trap, and they weren't able to hear bardsong (thus losing +3 attack and damage), and they were missing the Arcane Hierophant.

Cheers!

 

[Evilhalfling]

The Party
Duskblade 7
Fighter 7
Druid 7
Beguiler 6 /master of masks 1
Cohort Priest 5

1 spectral rider (cr6)
Challenged a champion to joust on a bridge. Suggested that the party help with what magics they chose. after five rounds of buffing they both charged! The champion's horse fell through a pit trap on bridge, SR rode through the party and nearly killed the cohort cleric - priceless.

Ruin Chanter cr 14
Mine was insane - and not at peak form. I was expecting the party to flee or do a better job at negotiation, but they managed to fight him for a while before a glibness spell and a +51 bluff check got him to leave. AC 31 which the 2 melee guys seemed to have little trouble with.

what do you mean use level appropriate cr?

Sapphire Dragon - player of the game.
The dragon had already become the groups mentor, she made them exarchs, but only told them of the "recover from death power" and the "return to lair power", which they have already forgotten. One player keeps thinking of suicide as a valid plan so she does not have to leave treasure/ Mcguffins behind. So far the other palyers have dissuaded her.

 

[Himoura]

I'm the 13 incarnate in Merric's game and during that fight for what ever reason, I don't remember at the moment I didn't get the chance to attack any of the wolves, I have a 6d6 acid attack and a 8d6 scorch ray (2 rays) so a total of 14 d6. I can't say that amount of damage would have saved our soulborn, or complete turned the tide, we probable would have still needed to run away but i'd like to think we might have been able to at least take one of the wolves out.

I did do 75 damage (i crited on one of the rays) against the boar things so i presume i could have done a fair amount of damage against those wolves.

Oh well next time we encounter them we'll be better prepaired for them.