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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Xetheral" data-source="post: 9458021" data-attributes="member: 6802765">I was a little surprised too. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> I thought the most likely outcome would either be a PC dies and the others escape, or the PCs would succeed in finishing off the cambion and escape only to then find themselves becoming the hunted.If it had been a short-range slugfest, I agree the party would have been obliterated. But the party made masterful use of strategic surprise (they were just shy of getting tactical surprise too--a PC happened to just barely come within the dragon's blindsight range) so the enemies were unprepared and unbuffed, unlike the party who had carefully planned and stacked their buffs. The party also made excellent use of the terrain (dense, forested swamp) to control the range, which was a huge advantage considering that the DPR on which the CR calculations were made was mostly from melee-range abilities.Accordingly, the relative CRs on paper didn't reflect actual dangerousness in the battle. Needing to protect the cambion, the dragon couldn't strafe, and her size was a disadvantage in the close confines of the forest. Other than her breath weapon (which never recharged before she went down) she mostly contributed by drawing fire, which meant that when she finally got into melee a couple lucky crit smites was enough to almost finish her off. The night hag ended up being the biggest threat by far, since the plentiful dim lighting meant Shadow Step provided extreme mobility to get into melee, and her considerable offensive damage and debuff potential was significantly increased by buffs from the cambion (who was itself trying to stay in total cover, as it didn't have enough HP left to survive more than a couple hits). The aranea's 120 foot range with Psychic Lance meant it contributed most of the enemy's ranged firepower, despite its much lower CR, but it too was hampered by the fact that it never got in range to use its disabling spells (although this also kept it alive, as it would have become a priority target if it had actually gotten off a Twinned Mental Prison or Hold Person).Ultimately, the party eeked out a partial victory against overwhelming odds by sizing the strategic initiative, pinning the enemy to a fixed point (the injured cambion*, who was now out of the spell slots which had let him escape the party previously, other than its innate Plane Shift), ruthlessly exploiting its range and terrain advantages, and a LOT of luck. Frankly, I love that D&D can support this sort of battle, and this encounter is definitely one of the most memorable I've run.*A further playstyle note: the enemies' decision to try to protect the (non-ressurectable) cambion rather than immediately launching an all-out offensive undoubtedly shaped the outcome of the battle. If I'd played them as suicidal berserkers willing to fight to the death, I'd probably have killed at least half the party before the others got away. But that wouldn't have been in-character for these enemies, and the PCs knew that (although they happened to be wrong about why the others were so devoted to the cambion). Honoring what the PCs have learned by roleplaying the monsters accordingly is an essential part of my DMing style, but it undoubtedly substantially reduced the actual dangerousness of this encounter below the Deadly x5 face value.</blockquote>

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