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<blockquote data-quote="Retreater" data-source="post: 7575041" data-attributes="member: 42040">I am running a group of mostly new players through ToA, and they have arrived at the climactic battle. Throughout most of the adventure they have complained that it was too hard and just wanted to get to the end of the adventure. I told them that as they advance it will be getting more difficult and that I will be less forgiving. For the past several sessions, they have been taking long rests between most rooms (not necessarily between all encounters, because there are sometimes multiple encounters in the same room.) They went nova on the second-to-last big fight (the hag coven), and wiped out one of the three hags in a single round. Thus the coven was broken and they couldn't really do anything to challenge the party.The second round saw a second hag get killed AND the third hag reduced to 20ish hp. On her turn, the third hag went ethereal to escape the combat. The party is explaining their strategy in front of the ethereal hag and take a long rest. I decided that due to the environment, they could only get part of their spells, hit dice, etc, back. [They are listening to the wailing of the atropal in the next room and sleeping in the green mist of the hag cauldrons.]The quick situation is that the party saw the next fight is the boss encounter and wants to retreat to a far location for a long rest to get back every resource and prepare. There are 6 players and they haven't had a real challenge in the campaign for months. Would I be a jerk to have the remaining night hag to materialize from the ethereal plane and take the keys from the door to the final encounter, trapping them in there with the &quot;boss fight&quot;? She has been listening to the plans and I've already demonstrated that the hags can relock the door.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Retreater, post: 7575041, member: 42040"] I am running a group of mostly new players through ToA, and they have arrived at the climactic battle. Throughout most of the adventure they have complained that it was too hard and just wanted to get to the end of the adventure. I told them that as they advance it will be getting more difficult and that I will be less forgiving. For the past several sessions, they have been taking long rests between most rooms (not necessarily between all encounters, because there are sometimes multiple encounters in the same room.) They went nova on the second-to-last big fight (the hag coven), and wiped out one of the three hags in a single round. Thus the coven was broken and they couldn't really do anything to challenge the party. The second round saw a second hag get killed AND the third hag reduced to 20ish hp. On her turn, the third hag went ethereal to escape the combat. The party is explaining their strategy in front of the ethereal hag and take a long rest. I decided that due to the environment, they could only get part of their spells, hit dice, etc, back. [They are listening to the wailing of the atropal in the next room and sleeping in the green mist of the hag cauldrons.] The quick situation is that the party saw the next fight is the boss encounter and wants to retreat to a far location for a long rest to get back every resource and prepare. There are 6 players and they haven't had a real challenge in the campaign for months. Would I be a jerk to have the remaining night hag to materialize from the ethereal plane and take the keys from the door to the final encounter, trapping them in there with the "boss fight"? She has been listening to the plans and I've already demonstrated that the hags can relock the door. [/QUOTE]

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