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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 6727425" data-attributes="member: 3586">Originally posted by Hurin88: Thanks, that does help. But it does also seem that a lot of people have problems with the module, especially the frankly poor monster math. I'm sure we can cut the designers some slack for not having the final rules and xp budget when they were writing. But so many of the battles seem to require DM fudging (something I absolutely despise) to prevent a TPK. Even without the final encounter budget, designers should know that a monster with a rechargable 4d10 breath weapon, two heavy attacks per round and henchmen with advantaged-greataxe attacks and 67 hit points is way to much for most 3rd level parties to be able to handle.Originally posted by pukunui:The point is that that isn't necessarily what the encounter involved when they wrote it. The monster's breath weapon might have done less damage. The henchmen might have had fewer hit points. They weren't able to catch every late change in monster stats in their final editing pass of the adventure, and they were no doubt under pressure to have it ready to print in time for 5e's launch.Originally posted by Hurin88: Then that's when you delay a launch. Good companies have quality control and refuse to release a broken/inferior product, regardless of the hit to their bottom line. And this module is as close to broken product as AAA modules get.Originally posted by OGRE1984:using milestone xp i allowed an extra level to help the party, i also used hero points. used morale as wellwhen close to castle bowmen on walls gave fire support. a healer [feat] was in the castle to aid the partybad stealth rolls led to a number of running fights.cyan wrath fight was almost won due to lucky rolls.for the dragon i had ballista on the keep and it swooped in out of boredom [got tired of not recharging his breath weapon].the party got dropped a number of times and they lost 1 character [mill ambush] at the camp they split up and got stupid, ending up captured and interrogated by Rezmir and Hazirawn. [foreshadowing] also lost another characterthey witnessed an attempted assassination on Rezmir by old cult loyalists. introducing subplot about old cult of the dragon loyalists resisting the Church of Tiamat.they manage an escape the halfling rogue having avoided capture scouted part of the hatchery [disguised as kobold + spoke no draconic = comedy gold] he avoided traps and encounters through blind luck several times! a week later they return Hatchery is been fortified with extra traps, i added an urd sorceror, dragonborn race abilities to berserkers, added class abilities to Mondath and Cyanwrath, gave potions and scrolls and poison. it took 3 tries to clear the hatchery, with the enemy observed gathering ambush drakes for reinforcement. additional players joined so that helped alot [6 total] mondath fled first fight and they rested. at this time only 2 characters are original and level 4, everyone else is level 3. personally i don't bother with 'Balancing' an encounter. many of the tougher fights were with the minor foes. player choices, enemy tactics, and DICE all change the dynamics. for instance the kobolds relentlessly attacked the gnome, dropping him twice. the big boss fight with Mondath and Cyanwrath challenged the party and dropped half of them, with out Mondath and her trickery domain powers and prayer of healing, they would have mopped the floor with that fight. the biggest problem i have at my table is edition creep; where past versions of common rules pop up to confuse players [and DM] causing mischeif. Originally posted by Helnam:We were actually able to win this fight with 4x 4th level characters as is but it was very close and very hard. During an argument with 3 of them the 4th one backstabbed me and nearly insta killed me(like almost double my max health)... if I had 2 less health I would have died outright... kind of insane as I was full health to begin with. Lucky for us our healer rolled good imitative and healed me and then being a sorcerer I twin casted hold person and got both of them to fail saves for like 3 rounds(#thankthedicegods). So our Orc Warrior was doing 3d12+4 per round as we had very easy crits with paralyzed targets. Once those 2 went down I twin casted another hold person and only got 1 to stick but at that point they can't do their sneak attack dmg so it wasn't too horrible.. it was a lot of getting knocked down and having the healer pop them up just to get knocked down again. Our raging dwarf barb was able to take a few hits as he had resistance and advantage to the poison and resistance to the physical… but if it wasn't for those hold persons sticking it would have been a TPK. Problem is now that we were able to win that fight I don’t see anything posing much of a threat haha. 3900 exp was a nice bump.Originally posted by BRJN:Well, if Solos don't bother you, I - excuse me, your DM - can either throw a half-dozen Elites (boss lieutenants) at you or send in swarms of minions. Let's see you Hold Person a whole mob ! (My group is into Tiamat and lucky for me the Wizard used his Hold Monster spell slot on a troll, instead of saving it for the Dragon he knew was in the basement. They still beat me, but I put up an Epic battle and made them earn it.) </blockquote>

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