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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sammael" data-source="post: 1464258" data-attributes="member: 4475">Last session, my players made short work of my carefully planned EL12 kobold ambush encounter. I don't regret it, I just wonder what some of the different DMs would have done in my place.The party consists of one human sword-and-board fighter, one human cleric/divine disciple (with access to travel domain), one sun elf wizard/harper mage (focused on evocations), one human enchanter (who also likes illusions), one strongheart halfling rogue/assassin, and one moon elf monk/sorcerer/argent disciple (my custom PrC, basically a shifter-type class that lets him turn into a silver dragon and focuses on dragon form abilities).The kobold ambush consisted of a half-dragon (white) kobold barbarian 2/sorcerer 6/rage mage 2, eight arctic kobold warriors (level 5), and an arctic kobold cleric of Kurtulmak 5. The CR of the half-dragon alone is 12, but I felt that was exaggerated, and, going by the party size, I'd say this was an EL12 encounter.The players started unaware of the ambush, having to scale a cliff to return to the road they left. Four kobold sentries were posted in the cliff, not too attentive, but definitely aware of the party which had cast light to see their way around (all was happening during the night). The sentries let their leader know about the party (using a magic item), and the kobolds proceeded to prepare for the ambush. Basically, the sentries were to wait until the party scaled the cliff and attack from behind (using potions of spider climb to reach the top of the cliff quickly), the half-dragon was to fly above the party and blast them with his breath weapon and spells, the four additional warriors were to snipe from snow bunkers, and the cleric was to remain invisible and cast boosting spells.So, while the kobolds are busily buffing up for the encounter, the party's cleric casts fly on the fighter, while the monk/sorc casts spider climb on himself and starts scaling the cliff. Other party members stay behind. The fighter flies by the sentries, not noticing them. He flies over the cliff's edge, only to be blasted by a 10d6 lighting bolt cast by the spell enraged half-dragon (the fighter has 120+ hp, so he's perfectly fine). Invisible kobold cleric continues with his buffing, and four kobold warriors sling stones at the fighter, missing horribly (since he has a flat-footed AC of 28). Thus ends the surprise round.The rest of the party notices the lighting, and the monk/sorc morphs into a dragon and flies over the cliff. The cleric then gathers up the others, and successfully teleports to the top of the cliff (he has studied the cliff extensively twenty days prior to this encounter). Since all the kobolds rolled crappy initiative scores, the party's fighter goes first, flying over to the half-dragon and inflicting around 20 points of damage. The party teleports in, and the sun elf wizard casts chains of vengeance on the half-dragon, who, of course, fails the DC 23 save. By the way, I have toned the spell down considerably from its original version in Book of Eldritch Might. Enchanter attacks the half-dragon with phantasmal killer, but fails to kill him. On his turn, kobold cleric attempts to dispel the chains and fails, and the half-dragon fails to escape from their grip (despite an 18 Strength).Next round: party cleric demolishes the kobold warriors with holy smite. Fighter finishes the chained half-dragon off with a couple of blows. Kobold cleric successfully sneaks away past the party's rogue, and one kobold warrior manages to escape into the darkness. Kobold sentries reach the top of the cliff and promptly climb back down after seeing their fallen leader.So, any ideas as to how I could have made this encounter more interesting?</blockquote>

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