Hi All,
Question for all the DM's out there.
How tough is TOO tough?
Just started a new module with our regular DM. We solved the last one with admirable sneakiness deciding not to fight the dragon that was guarding the treasure we had to have but instead being very sneaky and achieving the objective. Personally I think the DM was upset that we didn't fight the dragon and he didn't get to broil us alive... So
In the previous campiagn we had found a deck of wonders and all drawn cards. My character lucked out and drew the card that bestowed a Keep, three months later in Real Time a wizard comes along to tell me I've inherited a Keep and here is the key - Oh and a letter from a long lost relative saying that we are his last hope as he is being attacked by Orcs he can't stop... Fair enough.
We get there and we find the following: -
3 Frost Giants
3 Chimeric Dire Bears
3 Dozen Orcs (Barbarian orcs leveled to 12th)
A Gargantuan Green Dragon
2 Harpies
Evidence of high level magic use and that there are invisible assassins present as well. These are all we can see outside the keep but behind a palisade that has been recently built.
O..Kay. The party decides to give it a go thinking that we can be sneaky and watches for a while (The DM fudges and DOES NOT tell us that the above group is ~attacking~ the keep - which would indicate that we have potential allies inside) We do find a body however and take it back to town and speak with dead to find out more, and discover all about the above attackers - Oh and that the purpose is that the Orcs want to raise some BBEG and this is the reason for the keep being built in the first place. We get back and discover that all these creatures are now INSIDE.
Great. So after discovering that there is no way into the Keep except the front door (OK I have a key) we enter - remember we have no thief - and set off not one but two glyphs of fireball doing combined damage of over 100 points - The wizard and my character is now dead and all other characters have less than 10 HP left, Which is when we discover that the walls are magically sealed and we cannot TP out...
Thanks for reading this far. I personally feel that the DM was harsh, especially since as part of the world environment if you die you lose a level, and I'm inclined to do one of the following:-
1) My character is dead, I'll stay dead thanks. - Which would kinda remove the entire reason the party has for attacking a heavily fortified and magically enhanced keep with bad guys inside.
2) Sell the keep - Um By the way there are some squatters....
3) Hire a number of sappers with Shape stone to riddle the large stone Butte the keep sits upon and buy lots of fire clay to rig the keep to fall and give them one chance to exit before I blow the keep to small pieces.
None of these are ideal solutions, obviously the DM wants us to heroically battle the interlopers and use combat tactics to try and kill opponents significantly more powerful than we are, but since he has already said (Fight your own battles) when I tried to recruit help in the town, and my character has died already, (taking me back to 9th level) and each opponent we face if they get a critical hit can kill us outright, I don't think I want to play by his rules.
So tell me, am I just a defeatist player or did he make this too tough?
Question for all the DM's out there.
How tough is TOO tough?
Just started a new module with our regular DM. We solved the last one with admirable sneakiness deciding not to fight the dragon that was guarding the treasure we had to have but instead being very sneaky and achieving the objective. Personally I think the DM was upset that we didn't fight the dragon and he didn't get to broil us alive... So
In the previous campiagn we had found a deck of wonders and all drawn cards. My character lucked out and drew the card that bestowed a Keep, three months later in Real Time a wizard comes along to tell me I've inherited a Keep and here is the key - Oh and a letter from a long lost relative saying that we are his last hope as he is being attacked by Orcs he can't stop... Fair enough.
We get there and we find the following: -
3 Frost Giants
3 Chimeric Dire Bears
3 Dozen Orcs (Barbarian orcs leveled to 12th)
A Gargantuan Green Dragon
2 Harpies
Evidence of high level magic use and that there are invisible assassins present as well. These are all we can see outside the keep but behind a palisade that has been recently built.
O..Kay. The party decides to give it a go thinking that we can be sneaky and watches for a while (The DM fudges and DOES NOT tell us that the above group is ~attacking~ the keep - which would indicate that we have potential allies inside) We do find a body however and take it back to town and speak with dead to find out more, and discover all about the above attackers - Oh and that the purpose is that the Orcs want to raise some BBEG and this is the reason for the keep being built in the first place. We get back and discover that all these creatures are now INSIDE.
Great. So after discovering that there is no way into the Keep except the front door (OK I have a key) we enter - remember we have no thief - and set off not one but two glyphs of fireball doing combined damage of over 100 points - The wizard and my character is now dead and all other characters have less than 10 HP left, Which is when we discover that the walls are magically sealed and we cannot TP out...
Thanks for reading this far. I personally feel that the DM was harsh, especially since as part of the world environment if you die you lose a level, and I'm inclined to do one of the following:-
1) My character is dead, I'll stay dead thanks. - Which would kinda remove the entire reason the party has for attacking a heavily fortified and magically enhanced keep with bad guys inside.
2) Sell the keep - Um By the way there are some squatters....
3) Hire a number of sappers with Shape stone to riddle the large stone Butte the keep sits upon and buy lots of fire clay to rig the keep to fall and give them one chance to exit before I blow the keep to small pieces.
None of these are ideal solutions, obviously the DM wants us to heroically battle the interlopers and use combat tactics to try and kill opponents significantly more powerful than we are, but since he has already said (Fight your own battles) when I tried to recruit help in the town, and my character has died already, (taking me back to 9th level) and each opponent we face if they get a critical hit can kill us outright, I don't think I want to play by his rules.
So tell me, am I just a defeatist player or did he make this too tough?