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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lord Zardoz" data-source="post: 5225888" data-attributes="member: 704">TPK in todays gameOrdinarily, I would not quote myself.  But todays game had a TPK.Party:  All level 1Bounty the Dwarven FighterMerric the Halfling RangerLia the elven RogueTorment the Tiefling SorcererHeskan the Dragonborn ClericThe EncounterDungeon Delve:  Coppernight Hold 1-3, Audience ChamberMerric and Lia entered the fight in rough shape (Merric ended encounter 1-2 with 2 hp and 1 surge left).  Bounty, Merric and Lia had already used their Daily encounters by this point.  The Kobold Wyrmpriest from 1-2 had retreated into the next room.  The party decided to fall back just outside the dungeon to regroup and take a 5 minute rest.  As background, there is not much ranged capability in that part as the Ranger is a melee build.  The only ranged attacks were from the Cleric, the Sorcerer, and occasional thrown daggers from the RogueThe fight was going reasonably well with the players bottled up in the corridor.  I tried to draw them out using the Kobolds shifty ability to coax them into the Audience chamber.  The players were making decent progress, mostly focusing on the Kobold Slyblades and Wyrm Priest (who were close enough to be hit but in melee).  After several rounds the players had taken some hits, but they were holding up quite well.  The Wyrmling had taken a few hits too, but its low attack bonus was balancing its high damage output well enough.  The biggest damage inflicted was by the Slyblades getting combat advantage on the Fighter and triggering ongoing damage.  However momentum was on their side.  Things were well in hand, and other then taking some heavy damage the players were going to win itl.But then the White Dragon Wyrmling had its opening.  All the players were finally drawn into the room and within a 3 x 4 area.  I moved the Wyrmling into position and rolled damage first, hitting 20 damage on 3d6+4.  Then I looked at the attack bonus and saw it was a pathetic +2 vs Reflex.  Still, it was the best shot I would get, and I made the attacks.I do not remember exactly what I rolled, but it was something like 17, 19, 15, 18, and 7, and 11.  I hit every player except the dwarf, and I missed the one Kobold Cutter Minion within the blast.  Every player except the dwarf was now in negative HP.  And I still had the Wyrmling, both Slyblades at about 3/4 hp, the Wyrmpriest at exactly 1 hp remaining, and 5 minions.Bounty the Dwarf started calling for Parley, but was getting hit enough that he had to flee.  The wyrmling flew overhead and cut him off, and then he was taken down within 2 rounds of the others dropping.  The last thing the players remembered were the Kobolds having victory dances, and an arguement over which kobold would eat Heskans eyes.So as I said in my previous post in my threads, some suddenly hot dice can shift a combat fast.  There were only 2 things that might have warned of this TPK.1)  Inability to clear Minions:  The players focused a bit too hard on the non minions.  The minions managed to keep the players from getting good position on the real threats, and they were hitting often enough to chip away at the players.  The ranger was rendered mostly ineffective due to being unable to get into melee.  The sorcerer was also unable to set up any effective blast attacks.2)  Single Effective Front Line Melee:  The dwarf was effective as front line melee due to Armour class and an Invigorating at will.  The Ranger had the damage output but not the AC to stay in the front line.  The Rogue was also only wearing Leather armour.  The Cleric is passable for melee, but the attack bonus is not especially strong and the AC was only 16.However as I said, despite the above the players were winning the fight right up until the moment I dropped 4 out of 5 of them in a single attack.END COMMUNICATION</blockquote>

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