Yeah, counterspell only has a 60' range. MANY spells have much further than that, for ex. both fireball and hypnotic pattern. One of the bigger, often overlooked, limitations.
D&D 5E FeeFiFoFum *splat* goes the giants
Yeah, counterspell only has a 60' range. MANY spells have much further than that, for ex. both fireball and hypnotic pattern. One of the bigger, often overlooked, limitations.
I don't have the stats for the barbs, but assuming they do standard average damage for a CR2, doubling the attacks (aka doubling their damage) would probably put them around a CR3. Their offensive CR goes up to 5, so if there defensive CR was 2 before its like 2.5 or so.
But that is a completely theoretical ballpark. If someone wanted to share with me the statblock of the monster I could check it more accurately.
Ancalagon
Dusty Dragon
Well one lesson I'm learning here is that ... there is no real point in boosting the power of the PCs if you are boosting the power of the monsters too. (we use the Dungeon Dude array and generous HP rolls) - I mean part of this is inexperienced and enthusiastic DM energy (I repeat, this is a fun game), but this game has made me realize how there is no "point" in boosting PC power (beyond say, fixing a class/subclass that is seriously under-powered).
Another lesson that the GM may or may not learn is that having super deadly battles but at the last second pulling your punches and having allies save your bacon is, uh, weirdly anticlimatic.
Lastly, I will note that this semi TPK (we lost 2/4 permanent PC, the 5th member is only there half the time because of scheduling) is seen by our GM as just another opportunity for high adventure. I don't know what he's planning, but he's been dropping hints about Spock's resurrections in Star Trek so...
For me, I will take the opportunity for my character being brought back to life to have a "change of heart". the real-world reason I didn't play a rune knight in this game is because someone else had played one in the previous campaign and I wanted to try the psi warrior... but really, the RK is better/more thematically appropriate. The RP angle I will take is that my character, a scholar who studied giants extensively, rejected giant ways because of what they had done to him (almost all the PCs are from a small town destroyed by giants a number of years ago), but now he realizes that runic magic is the key to victory - and to truly understand the Giants.
I'm not sure what the ranger's player will do. My character's body was saved, but the ranger was being used as a chew toy by the dragon as we fled...
ad_hoc
(they/them)
To be clear I'm not saying that you are playing wrong or the game isn't fun I'm just saying that you are so far from the baseline that it doesn't work well for an example of the CR system.
The higher stats, HP, and magic items probably should count for another 2 levels or so.
The dragon not entering until round 3 and the presence of allies should negate the multiplication of superior numbers.
The allies themselves will add to the encounter budget. I'm not sure by how much.
And then we need to up the CR on the shaman and berserkers because they are far more powerful than standard.
The higher stats, HP, and magic items probably should count for another 2 levels or so.
The dragon not entering until round 3 and the presence of allies should negate the multiplication of superior numbers.
The allies themselves will add to the encounter budget. I'm not sure by how much.
And then we need to up the CR on the shaman and berserkers because they are far more powerful than standard.
Faolyn
(she/her)
I threw two at my party, had one of 'em cast fireball, and did so much damage I couldn't bring myself to have the other cast it as well (they were in a place where they couldn't replace a dead PC and there were no clerics in the party, just a paladin).Yeah, the system is far from perfect. Try building an encounter around flameskulls
They're only CR 4, right? A half dozen fireballs all going off at the same time is just a bit ... deadly even for a party of 6 8th level PCs. Not that I'm speaking from experience of course.
Oofta
Legend
Yeah, I filed that one under lesson learned. Especially because they fly and could fly in, fireball, fly out in the scenario I had set up. IIRC I broke them up into two initiatives and played them a bit "dumb" but it was still touch and go. This was during our first 5E campaign so my memory is a bit hazy.
Could have been worse, like the time I TPKed most of the group in 3.0 when orcs were getting critical hits with greataxes (which had a X3 crit multiplier) left and right. The wizard ran saw the rest of her group get mowed down. One of those "I'll put this orc encampment here and they won't be stupid enough to do a direct assault, right?" moments.
In any case, point is that combats by their very nature in D&D will hit times when what I thought would be easy combats are hard, hard combats are easy. Just the nature of the game.
Oofta
Legend
Different DMs and players will have different preferences. I've gotten to the point where I've decided that it's more fun not to have super-powerful PCs (I use standard array and average HP) and to have a bit lower level of magic. That way the class builds and tactics seem to shine through a bit more. The option, like you said, is just an arms race.
Personally I'm not a big fan of super deadly combats and NPCs rarely if ever come to the rescue unless it's a "hold the gap for reinforcements" type scenario. If the DM is running a game that's not working for you, you may want to talk to them off-line. I don't know your situation, and even constructive criticism can be hard to take sometimes but there's also no such thing as a perfect DM.
Ancalagon
Dusty Dragon
I should point out that the last 2 battles (the remoraz and now the barbarians + dragons) are getting less and less... useful... as example. The party got more magical items, and it's very had to account for the allies because they aren't full allies, but ... jump in when it's too late? For example, the ally cleric only acted on 4/8 rounds of the combat.
I'm mostly posting them in case some people vaguely care about what happened to the group
Ancalagon
Dusty Dragon
Oh that's a different conversation entirely. This is this guy's first campaign he's running. I think he has tremendous potential as a GM, and his games are already fun. There are rough edges though, but they will polish off with time. I'm thinking about how to provide some constructive criticism without sounding too negative, and I also want to be sure I'm certain about some of these points - is it "bad" or is it "a different style of GMing?" Because it's one thing to point out genuine areas for improvement, vs complaining just because he runs some things in an unusual way.
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