Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="DrSpunj" data-source="post: 4622795" data-attributes="member: 994">Agreed! This was exactly the situation my party faced in last week's session with Blazing Skeletons at the top of stairways and platforms and Chillborn Zombies & Skeleton Minions littering the main floor making it difficult for the party to rush the stairs.I think the general party consensus was to "step back into the hallway and whittle them down" but the Blazing Skellies ranged flame attack has a range of 10 and the only way any PC could attack at that range (aside from the Ranger with her bow) was to be on the front line to trade shots with them. That would put them, of course, up front with the Zombies & Minions where most non-Defenders just aren't likely to last all that long. I thought the fight was going to turn into a grindy slugfest that would almost assuredly end with the party retreating outright or a TPK if they started this way and then tried to change tactics in the middle of the fight after realizing it wouldn't work all that well. (Someone commented at one point, "let's pull them into the corridor" but the mobs weren't going to leave that room!)Thankfully the Cleric of Kord charged into the room (as usual <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> ) and Nail's Fighter followed him in to protect him and establish a front line which pulled the rest of the party in. Unfortunately for the Cleric & Nail, most of the rest of the party hung back for several rounds which only left the two of them as targets for all the mobs, both ranged and melee, for nearly too long. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devil.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":devil:" title="Devil    :devil:" data-shortname=":devil:" /> However with some key smart plays and a few lucky rolls they managed to not lose anyone and emerge victorious! And there was much rejoicing.I'm not sure if we need to number all the tips but this battle taught me to try and avoid too many similar monster effects. By that I mean with the Chillborn Zombie Auras doing cold damage at the start of PCs turns, along with both their Cold ongoing damage attacks & the Blazing Skeleton Fire ongoing damage attacks, Nail's poor Fighter and the Cleric of Kord were really getting hit with all kinds of hurt every round. With the rest of the party not moving in all that quick to help them and take their fair share of the hurt, and the Chillborn Zombie's Immobilize effect keeping them from moving back I had them unwittingly pinned pretty well. There was also a great deal of the players' time spent adding & subtracting markers from both PC & enemy minis, and we're still trying to figure out the best way to track all those conditions from round to round!BTW, thanks much to Vayden for starting this thread and to everyone else who's posted with their own advice. Originally this encounter was using those same mobs straight out of the MM, but after reading this thread I lowered the levels on all the non-Minion mobs and increased their numbers by 50-75%. For my party of eight 2nd level PCs this was a much better encounter that was exciting & fun! As it was originally I'm pretty sure they would have just been frustrated and/or died against the Chillborn Zombies soldierly high AC.So, a big Thank you! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f60e.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":cool:" title="Cool    :cool:"  data-smilie="6"data-shortname=":cool:" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

Verification