[HELP!] Need some DM opinions

[ForceUser@Home]

Hi gang,

I'm running my first session of Oriental Adventures tomorrow and I'm having trouble deciding whether I should include a particular encounter. I need advice from sage DMs!

The encounter consists of a single Large Zombie (CR 1, 29 hit points, Monster Manual page 192). The party consists of six first-level characters:

1 No-sheng (Chinese Sohei)
1 Fighter
1 Monk
1 Shaman
1 Rogue
1 Wu jen

They all have max hit points. It's likely they'll be fresh (full hit points, spells, etc) when they encounter the Large Zombie. The book says this is a CR 1 encounter, which means four 1st-level characters should be able to handle it. I have six. However, the zombie, being large-sized, has a reach of 10 feet, meaning he'll get an attack of opportunity when the PCs try to melee him. He does 1d8+4 damage per attack - enough to potentially destroy any character in the group with one solid damage roll. And he'll get a free attack when the meleers close range with him to fight. On the plus side, being a zombie, he only gets partial actions a round.

My quesiton is simple: is this creature too tough for six 1st-level characters? We're playing tomorrow, so a few opinions would be very welcome since I'm having trouble judging the difficulty of this encounter! Thanks!

 

[hong]

My quesiton is simple: is this creature too tough for six 1st-level characters? We're playing tomorrow, so a few opinions would be very welcome since I'm having trouble judging the difficulty of this encounter! Thanks!

Remember that (unless you've set it up specifically otherwise) your group could just keep their distance and pepper it with arrows. Zombies are low CR because they're basically slow and dumb, and have no abilities beyond whacking people who get too close.

 

[James McMurray]

It should be an easy fight for them. Of course, if the party charges witht he low hp members first, then they'll be screwed. Also, it only has a +4 to hit, meaning that it will need at least a 10 vs. your average PC, and a 13 or so against melee types.

 

[Buttercup]

If your players use ranged weapons, they could probably take down two of these with little or no damage to themselves. If they try to melee, or do something stupid like putting the casters in front, then they will have problems.

 

[Carnifex]

Should be an easy, easy kill for a band of 6 PC's.

 

[alsih2o]

i agree with everyone else that this should be a relatively easy fight to handle for the p.c.'s, but also feel the need to mention that not every fight has to be.

talking your way out of a situation you might not (or can't) win is just as important a skill as sword swinging. not that talking to a zombie would do you a lot of good, but don't train your players into believeing that everything they face is whippable!

i don't mean to criticize you as a d.m., and apologize if it sounds that way, i think it is great to see you worried about balance. but just remember that for every critter out there a party can whip, there are amny they might very well encounter that they don't stand a snowballs chance on the elemental plane of fires chance against

 

[Darkness]

... the zombie, being large-sized, has a reach of 10 feet, meaning he'll get an attack of opportunity when the PCs try to melee him. ... And he'll get a free attack when the meleers close range with him to fight. ...

Right. However, he can get only one AoO per turn (and none at all in the first round before his turn, I think???), so it's not that bad.

 

[ForceUser@Home]

Thanks guys, I'll use him.