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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 4380680" data-attributes="member: 18">I ran this encounter recently. The party (four, not five, and I had decided not to tone down the number of enemies because they'd done very well in the other encounters) had a Warforged Fighter, Dwarf Cleric, Tiefling Rogue and Dragonborn Fey-Pact Warlock (yes we laughed at that too), so they were decently balanced, and they were all smart and on their toes.They splattered the outside encounter utterly, managing to draw the minions together an hit them with the Rogue's shuriken-hurling daily (stupid Kobolds!), and didn't let any of them get away into the cavern (they outmanuevered the kobolds and the ones who fled, fled away from the cavern and the one who nearly made it into the cavern caught a shuriken to the back of the had - albeit at maximum shuriken range, kind of a lucky shot but not really).The Rogue made some VERY good stealth rolls and scouted the front of the cavern well, so they had a very together plan and managed to take the Kobolds by surprise. If they hadn't been so togther initially, I'm pretty convinced that this would have been a very bad situation. I followed the adventures instructions that the second wave comes three rounds later, and I believe doing otherwise, again, would be TPK material and somewhat unfair, at best.Irontooth could have been a real menace, as he got to charge the Cleric (who was pretty much alone, as they thought she was safe), but the Fighter and Warlock acted fast and decisively and Rogue engaged in some very smart manuevering. Then Irontooth proceeded to miss pretty much every attack role after he got bloodied, and whilst it took a while to kill them, he wasn't much of a threat. Had he hit more often, I don't think it would have been a TPK, but it'd have been bloody.I do think it's a risky encounter design. Honestly, KotS is VERY FAR from the best designed adventure I've ever seen, and has some spectactular plot holes (like the whole Sir Keegan idiocy) and things that just plain don't make sense (giant rats on the ceiling? WTH? Are they Spider-rats? I know rats, I live in London! They don't go on the ceiling!), but if you play this encounter as suggested, and if they players short-rest before coming in, I don't think it's extremely likely to TPK them. If you don't give them the three rounds for Irontooth comes, though, I think not having a TPK is more a matter of luck than judgement.I should add that we did nearly see a TPK at the Douven Staul encounter, oddly enough, when the Halfling Slinger got two crits in a row and they just couldn't seem to separate those two dragondogs from each other (whilst being shot at with a crossbow and sling). Only the Warlock's high manueverability saved them, in the end, and everyone used their daily.</blockquote>

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