Is This Party Underequipped Part 2 (FoF Spoilers)

[zyzzyr]

Gizzard - I agree that the succubus is just a negotiation encounter. However, the big problem for me is that she can simply bully her way out instead.

Once she realized she could not trick them into letting her go, she turned back to her natural state. Bang! Most good-aligned characters are going to react with "oh my god! A demon! kill it!" in which case, she is attacked, then freed. Even if they don't, she tells them she's going to rip them all to pieces if they don't tell her she can leave, and being little level 4 or 5s, they agree, scared out of their wits.

Other than staying in the doorway, and fleeing immediately, the PCs basically don't have much of an option - as you said. And I don't like those encounters. Maybe if you made it such that somehow her powers were repressed while she is trapped - she still has damage reduction, and if she's attacked by good-aligned, then she can still leave ... ?

Unfortunately in my group we had too much metagaming going on. One player, who had written a very similar encounter into another adventure, figured it out right away, and laughed out loud when she piteously asked if it was ok if she left. (His character had just been drained by the allip and at that point had Wis 8, and Int 9 - I don't think his char would have gotten it). I had two other brand-new players, who were of course tipped off that something was wrong, and the encounter folded in on itself.


True, the allip does permanent wis damage, but a good spell will take it out in one shot.

And the neg levs from wight can be taken away by lesser rest I think ... ?

 

[Gizzard]

My players did it by swinging at the tentacles holding the grappled. Chop, chop, chop, RUN!

Well, doesnt Mr. Roper start with 8 tentacles? If you have a very large party, I suppose the chop-chop plan might work out; but if you have less players than tentacles, people are quite likely to be pulled into the big, gaping mouth before they can chop themselves free.

What happened in our game was that the DM minimized the Roper; 6 tentacles for 6 players. (Reminiscent of seven brides for seven brothers, no?). We managed to hack all of his tentacles off and then the Roper pleaded with us to spare him; he cant do anything without any tentacles after all. Against the better judgement of some of the PCs, we asked, "What can you offer us?" and he vomitted up a handful of gems and coins. "Mmmm, good, but we greedily want more."

Imagine the sad scene; a tentacle-less abberation forced to vomit up his stomach contents until a bunch of adventurers are satisfied. (We made him barf until the ring came out; we knew through D-Magic that there was something good in his tummy.)

Anyway, the original point of the encounter (according to a private discussion with the DM later) was to "make people learn to negotiate or run away; not all your problems should be solved with the sword." But he felt that the encounter wasn't very suited for teaching that; hence he scaled it down so it played as a straight encounter instead of a "lesson".

(Another way you can tell the encounter is supposed to be impossible is that the magic ring is just too butt-kicking good. If you scale down the impossible monster, remember to scale down the far-too-cool treasure.)

It was during this discussion that I suggested using a Construct instead of a Roper; it was the first monster I thought of that could TPK a party who insisted on fighting, while still being willing to spare a fleeing party.

And the neg levs from wight can be taken away by lesser rest I think ... ?

I think Lesser Rest is only for temporary ability damage. But you do get a Fort save 24 hours after the level is "taken" to see if you regain it. Its possible I am wrong here, because I play a Monk and therefore havent read the spell descriptions; I only know what our Cleric tells me. ;-)

And I don't like those encounters.

I think thats a fair position. I agree that it doesnt reward good play or punish bad play; its just exists, and that can be annoying -- especially if you are the one who gets Level Drained.

OTOH, its a really memorable encounter; and our group had a lot of fun with it, even though we got Drained. Perhaps the people who got Drained didnt take it badly because they volunteered to give the woman a hug:

DM: "She begins crying and says that after all she's been through, being subject to Detect Evil would just break her heart. Bard, make a save. Hmmm, you feel strongly that she is right. You want to protect her from such degradation."
Bard: "I go give her a hug and try to comfort her."
Barbarian: "So I see two beautiful women hugging in front of me. Can I make a Hug Of Opportunity?"

You cant really argue that the DM screwed you when you do stuff like that. ;-)