Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Asisreo" data-source="post: 8145821" data-attributes="member: 7019027">Allow me to correct myself, He actually casted Spirit Weapon and I don't think he actually casted Spirit Guardians until the last round or 2. My bad. You're correct that you can target Mindblast, but Dispel Magic only affects spells itself. Even though Mindblast is a valid target, the spell would basically do nothing but waste the turn and slot. That's why I gave them a second chance on their action. The goal was to set up the next hook. I was maybe expecting someone might die, but the Cleric had revivify and a couple of diamonds which is fine. Its when the cleric was downed while the rogue fell that made the rogue and wizard players basically high-tail it. They knew about mindflayers but they never really experienced one until then, which is why I waited until it was a medium encounter and why it was a single-target fight with the fight beginning in melee. The plan was for me to showcase what a general Mindflayer would do so that at levels 15-17, the adventure to the Elder Brain would be a bit more telegraphed and they won't be too surprised during an actual boss fight. Get their ducks in a row with spell picks and magic items. I essentially telegraph everything, though, and I try to make even the metagame clearer so they don't misunderstand me. When he used the tentacle attack, I essentially said "He connects his chin to her head and teeth begins clasping down on the head. He'll try to extract her brains next turn." My party was definitely doing their best, though.      The rogue just plain never had a chance to sneak attack since its not like anything could spare a Help action, the Wizard's 3rd level slots consisted of Counterspell, Dispel Magic, Hypnotic Pattern, and Fireball and he was waiting for me to cast a spell, which is why he saved his last 3rd-level slot. The Paladin tried staying close to at least the Cleric but the Rogue and Wizard are usually too squishy to be within 10ft of the front line, even for the +4 to saves. The cleric is used to his Spirit Guardians, Spiritual Weapon trick so I don't blame him for doing that. Mindflayers can be deadly in particular but this isn't an isolated event. Like I said, death feels much more frequent for all my games than what I see in forums so I generally don't know if there's any inconsistencies in play. I've had a level 10 player die to bands of hobgoblins, a level 12-13 player die fighting a Death Slaad, I lost the same player's character twice to vampires. It just feels like I may be running a completely different game.</blockquote>

Verification