I could use a CR estimate for this encounter

[Lord Zardoz]

I put my players against a pretty harsh fight today. Basically, the fight was in a room with 2 traps and a nasty Half Fiend Bugbear.

The players, all human. A 3rd level fighter, 2 3rd level clerics, and a 3rd level Sorcerer. The fighter and one cleric each had a +1 weapon. The other cleric has 8 Str and acts mostly as support. They knew the room they were entering had a dangerous guardian and buffed in advance.

The opposition:

Half-Fiend Bugbear: Goblinoid Outsider; PG 29/148; HD 3d8+6; HP: 23; Init +3(Dex);
Spd 30ft, Fly 30; AC 18 touch 13, Flatfooted 15 (+3 Dex ,+3 Std. Leather, +2 Natural);
Bab/Gpl +2/+6; Atk: +6 Claws 1d4+4; +6 Bite 1d6+4; +7 Falchion 2d4+6, Tht 18, (S);
Full Atk: +7 Falchion, +1 Bite; SU Smite Good 1 / day; Darkness 3/day;
SQ Resist Cold / Fire / Electricity / Acid 10, Dmg Reduction 5 / Magic, Spell Resist 12, Dark Vision 60ft; Scent; AL CE, Saves Fort +2, Ref +4, Will +1; Str 19, Dex 16, Con 15, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 11;
Skills: Hide 8, Listen 6, Move Silently 8, Spot 6; Bluff 6, Intimidate 6, Use Magic Device 6,
Knowedge(Arcana) 4.0, Knowledge(Planes) 4.0, Knowledge(Religion) 4.0;
Feats: Wpn Focus (Falchion), Alertness; Eqp: Falchion, Std Leather Armour;
Description: Before you stands an angry 7 foot tall creature with Wings, Fangs, Claws, And Rams horns on its head. It reeks of old blood and sulfur, and its eyes glow green.
Tactics: Spell Resist: Caster check of 1d20 + Caster Level, if greater than SR, Spell works.
Smite Good: +Cha to Attack, +Lvl to Dmg, Wasted if Align not right.

And a CR 2 pit trap from Traps and Treachery (Blackstone's Confining Conundrum), which has a DC 15 reflex save on the trap door and a DC 11 save to avoid the reduce spell. (This trap will shrink you if you fall in, letting you slide down a narrow chute that you would grow too large to crawl back out of).

And a summary of how it turned out.

The fighter managed to find the trap the hard way when he charged at the Half Fiend, and fell into the hole, but managed to make the fort save to avoid shrinking and taking himself out of the fight. The Half fiend scored a critical hit on his first attack, and dropped the Combat Cleric in one hit. A hold person from the support cleric was met with a successful save by the half fiend. The sorcerer started summoning celestial badgers one after another while the fighter got out of the hole and started to trade shots with the Half Fiend.

The support cleric healed the Combat cleric, who then healed himself some more. He then took a flanking position on the Half fiend, and scored a good hit. The half fiend yelled "Didn't I kill you once already to day", attacked him again, scored a critical hit again, dropping him once more.

Half Fiend was using bite attacks on the badgers, who were not doing much to it, but managing to score some damage with their smite good attacks. Fighter was kept in the fight by the support cleric. A badger got the last shot in.

It was a close fight. One that could have gone very badly if the fighter got stuck in the pit trap.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[GeorgeFields]

Definitely NOT too much for the group. The dice gods just frowned a bit on the players.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Agreed. I consider too much to happen when I score a TPK (two so far this campaign, but due to DM Contrivance, the party was not truly wiped out).

I think CR 2 is fair for the trap. I am curious about the CR for the Half Fiend Bugbear though. Getting +7 Falchion 2d4+6 is a pretty strong attack with a good to hit bonus, and the damage on the bite attack is pretty good too.

The way this encounter could have gone badly is if the Fighter got stuck in the trap leaving 2 Clerics and a sorcerer to fight this thing.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[lottrbacchus]

i find the cr thing to be a bit whacky, especially in this case. half fiend bugbear should be cr 3. 2 for base bugbear and then a ridiculously low +1cr because the base creature is 4 or less hd.

but what if i made half fiend bugbear character? then it is hit dice + ecl mod. so from the base creature i get 3 and +4 for half fiend. so: as a monster it is cr 3 (ruh huh) and as a character it is 7th level, which means cr 7 if i'm not mistaken.

anyhow- the handy dandy encounter calculator at d20srd says it is encounter level 5 and the characters should get 375 exp. oh- and that is was 'difficult' and this level of encounter should make up 15% of total encounters.

 

[Notmousse]

Given three spellslingers (even though one's a buttkicker as well) to 1 buttkicker party I think the SR was a likely cause of trouble. The DR likely forced the two into using spells as weapons would not cut it (figuratively speaking), but while more likely to cause damage (especially in case of the summons), had to overcome SR to affect it directly.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

My question is not so much about the Half Fiend Bugbear as much as it is about the addition of that trap to the encounter.

That party against that Bugbear is always going to go in favor of the party unless the Bugbear drops 2 of the opponents fast.

But against 3 instead of 4, things could have been dicey, especially if either the Fighter or the Melee-Cleric was taken out of the fight entirely.

That trap is a pain in the ass for players to get out of once they are within it. Its a DC 20 climb check that they only have 5 rounds to succeed at before they are too big to get out of it without either a Pickaxe or other external help.

I think the post saying that Bugbear plus Trap as CR 5 is probably accurate for experience calculation purposes.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Notmousse]

The pit took the fighter out for a few rounds, and the buttkicking cleric sounds like he was taken out of the fight for the most part anyway. I'm surprised the party managed to get away without any deaths.

 

[moritheil]

Celestial badgers FTW!

I'm really leery of combining traps with fights IMC. Good thing no one died!