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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 6727412" data-attributes="member: 3586">Originally posted by Eugee:There's a random road encounter in Episode 4 that first got me looking thinking about this: Show[sblock]No Room at the Inn4 NPCs have rented out the entire inn and stables, and taunt the PCs repeatedly. In truth, they are 4 assassins...The entry ends with:... They needle and goad the characters and their fellow travelers at every opportunity, including from the doorway and windows of the inn when no one else is inside. If the characters don’t start a fight, someone else from the caravan might. In fact, these NPCs are four disguised assassins traveling to Baldur’s Gate in search of employment and out to have a good laugh over someone’s misfortune. They drop all pretense after violence breaks out.[/sblock] CR 8, 3900 XP eachFor a party of four 4th-level characters (expected at this point of the adventure)... the top end of a deadly encounter is 2000 XP. The assassins total up to 15,600 XP and challenge wise are at 31,200 XP! Ordinarily I would view this as a sometimes you run away encounter, but the text even mentions that if the characters don't start a fight, the NPCs in the caravan probably will. So that got me looking at some of the other encounters, and some of them are just brutal if you factor in the encounter XP multiplier for difficulty... For a party of four 2nd-level characters a deadly encounter maxes out at 800 XP...The first real encounter in Raider Camp...Show[sblock]Is 4 Dragonclaws, so 200 XP each is 800 XP, then doubled for 4 of them is 1600 XP...[/sblock] Can someone who's started running HotDQ speak to this? Are the encounters too nasty? It really seems like KP wrote this before the XP Difficulty Multiplier came about, and if it plays fine, why bother with the multiplier?Originally posted by DarkCrisis77:The whole first episode seems brutal for 1st level characters. 1st encounter saw them blow all their spells etc. Several Kobalds with slings are brutal to 1st level characters. Now figure in several encounters and all they get are short rests to complete the town scenerio. I ended up having the Governor give then some cure potions and shortened the over all episode. As much combat as there is and only a couple short rests, its just brutal.</blockquote>

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