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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ravingdork" data-source="post: 4487269" data-attributes="member: 12084">Forked from: <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showpost.php?postid=4456083" target="_blank"> What would you have done? </a>You might remember my <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showpost.php?postid=4456083" target="_blank">Battle of Oozes</a> game that I spoke about in another thread.Well, I had a similar battle where I was hosting as a GM. I pitted five 2nd-level characters against 8 Skeleon Warriors and 2 Wraiths. The encounter was originally set up for six characters (a hard encounter), but one of my players got called into work (now a "too hard" encounter).Here's the Diagram Aid.<img src="http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh275/Ravingdork/DortimirEncounter.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />(Click links to download easy to read PDF character sheets.)<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?hold6ehby6u" target="_blank">Dragonborn Fighter (Greatsword focus)</a><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?xl7usctxddh" target="_blank">Eladrin Melee Ranger (dual-wields frost flails; not really present through most of the battle)</a><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?gej1rw46kdc" target="_blank">Elf Archer Ranger (took Careful Shot and uses it all the time)</a><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?jtmx0cstk7x" target="_blank">Halfling Rogue (practically immune to Opportunity Attacks)</a><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?exurd8meqvm" target="_blank">Human Cleric (worships the Raven Queen, super healing focus)</a><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?rse6pymwk1w" target="_blank">Human Wizard (Fire focus)</a>VS8 Skeletons2 WraithsThe characters were exploring the haunted town of Dortimir searching for the Baron's daughter who had recently disapeared into the area. After spending some time chasing after a figment of a little girl (who may or may not have been the Justine they were looking for) they were lead to the collapsed well  at the center of the town. From there, several skeletons popped out of the ground, a wraith flew out of the well, and another wraith flew out of House #2. Nearly the enture party was quickly surrounded (only the rangers escaped this fate).It seems to me that whenever my friends get surrounded like this, they go completely brain-dead (see the ooze encounter for a good example of what I mean). They were in a bad position, trapped between two houses and nearly a dozen powerful enemies and the only thing they can think of to do is "Daily, Encounter, Encounter, At-Will." <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f644.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":rolleyes:" title="Roll eyes    :rolleyes:"  data-smilie="11"data-shortname=":rolleyes:" /> I clearly told them THREE TIMES that there were doors on the South side of House #1 and the North side of house #2 adjacent to their respective PCs, and yet nobody bothered to escape through them until one PC was dead, another unconscious, and the remaining two shown were at less than 5 hit points BETWEEN them! Even then, only the halfling rogue bothered to take me up on my hints! The others got chopped up into little wraith bits--or at least they would have if it weren't for the Bow Ranger (who had been taking pot shots the entire time), the delayed intelligence the halfling rogue who FINALLY ran through the house and circled around the enemy into a flanking position, and the timely intervention of the Melee Ranger (who I brought in, in the last two rounds to avoid a TPK).Now, I know it was a bad encounter from the start due to the missing player, but I can't help but think my idiot players didn't make it any easier on themselves. They get so caught up on the powers listed on their sheets they don't even bother thinking of anything else! From the very beginning of the encounter I told them that there were doors and yet they didn't even attempt to open them until round EIGHT! They instead opted to stand around and get wailed on by a superior force outnumbering them. They said they were concentrating their attacks on a single creature in order to make an opening through the mob, but nobody could agree on which creature they should concentrate on (who's more dangerous the wraiths with their weakening touch, or the skeletons with their ability to mark you?).In the end, the fighter was knocked out by the mob and when a wraith flew in to coup de gace him and make another wraith (which would surely doom everyone) the wizard nuked the fighter first, killing him instantly and reasuring the surviving party members that "there wasn't going to be a third wraith if she had anything to say about it."The cleric got the brunt of it (even being pushed into the 50 ft. well and being harassed by a wraith as he tried to climb out again), but he was able to heal enough to survive. The two rangers hardly had a scatch on them having been outside the main fray nearly the entire time. The halfling rogue was beat up bad, but faired fairly well next to the rangers. The fighter, wizard, and cleric (who had been surrounded along with the rogue) got the worst of it.Am I right? My players are idiots, right? There were multiple avenues of escape (even obvious ones such as the doors into the houses) and they were all ignored. An exciting running battle got turned into a slugfest which the PCs ahd little hope of winning.</blockquote>

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