Lessons learned playing the Red Hand of Doom

[Lord Zardoz]

I just ran the initial parts of Red Hand of Doom today. Here are some things I learned while running this.

1) The Dice hate my players. The combat cleric managed to roll a staggering assortment of Ones, Twos, and Threes, basically never exceeding 5 for nearly every attack roll made in that fight. Our fighter did not do much better, managing to miss the Hobgoblin regulars more often then not for the first wave of the fight.

2) The Dice Love Me. I rolled at least 8 Twenties. I did not confirm many crits, but I did lay in the hits. The initial 6 Regulars nearly won the fight on their own, causing me to hold back the Cleric, Blade Bearer, and Hell hounds until the 2nd wave.

3) Fighting a Hydra in a Swamp is a bad, bad, bad idea. Even if the support cleric is all gung ho for it, its still a bad idea. 1 fighter, 2 clerics, Jorr, his 3 dogs, and a Gnome Theif are not a match for a Hydra in a Swamp that has Fast Healing 16, and 10 foot reach. If I did not spread out the attacks, I would have wiped out most of the party. Instead, Jorr lost 1 dog, everyone took a solid beating, and everyone got mad at the cleric who suggested trying to fight it.

4) Manticores are fun to grapple with. When the party took another route, they encountered a manticore in a forested area. They did alot of damage to it very easily. But the manticore got off a grapple on a 8 Str human cleric and got some air. At about 60 feet up, it tried to drop the weak cleric on the melee cleric (and missed). It ended up getting shot out of the sky and landing on the 2 clerics.

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[Sidekick]

I just ran the initial parts of Red Hand of Doom today. Here are some things I learned while running this.

1) The Dice hate my players. The combat cleric managed to roll a staggering assortment of Ones, Twos, and Threes, basically never exceeding 5 for nearly every attack roll made in that fight. Our fighter did not do much better, managing to miss the Hobgoblin regulars more often then not for the first wave of the fight.

Heh, yup my group had god awful rolls for that first fight. They got their arses handed to them quite well. The first wave didn't do much but 3 hell hounds, the second wave and an invisbile cleric sure did ruin their day.

2) The Dice Love Me. I rolled at least 8 Twenties. I did not confirm many crits, but I did lay in the hits. The initial 6 Regulars nearly won the fight on their own, causing me to hold back the Cleric, Blade Bearer, and Hell hounds until the 2nd wave.

Ayup. My groups dwarven tank got held - heheheh the second wave sorta just moseyed on up and pounded him something rotten...

3) Fighting a Hydra in a Swamp is a bad, bad, bad idea. Even if the support cleric is all gung ho for it, its still a bad idea. 1 fighter, 2 clerics, Jorr, his 3 dogs, and a Gnome Theif are not a match for a Hydra in a Swamp that has Fast Healing 16, and 10 foot reach. If I did not spread out the attacks, I would have wiped out most of the party. Instead, Jorr lost 1 dog, everyone took a solid beating, and everyone got mad at the cleric who suggested trying to fight it.

I actually skipped that fight. I thought it was more than a little jarring. Also I coulnd't see why a hydra would be allowed to nest right near what is supposed to be a popular trade road...

4) Manticores are fun to grapple with. When the party took another route, they encountered a manticore in a forested area. They did alot of damage to it very easily. But the manticore got off a grapple on a 8 Str human cleric and got some air. At about 60 feet up, it tried to drop the weak cleric on the melee cleric (and missed). It ended up getting shot out of the sky and landing on the 2 clerics.

Heh, I'll have to remember that one. I'm about to start RHoD with a group of 7 PCs so I'll be looking for ways to spice up the combats and provide distractions and multiple fronts in the combats.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

I had my concerns about that Hydra fight the moment I read the 'Fast Healing 16 / round', and knowing that my players did not have any easy way to work around that.

Still, I ran it anyway, since my players tend to surprise me. My players had gotten up to level 5 against mostly humanoid monsters, so running this one seemed a good way to break that up. Also, I did not have as much chance to do advance prep, and did not want to hit Vraath keep tonight. The Hydra was a good way to do that.

Ultimately though, without any easy way to deal either a big damage blast or to cherry pick shots to the heads, the fight proved to be untenable. I could see them making it work by having the mounted combat fighter do lance charges while the clerics use Spiritual weapon and everyone else hits ranged attacks. But that would have to be on firm footing.

I think I will have the Hydra haunting that road and keeping it mostly impassible for a while, and maybe later, the Red Hand armies will try to capture and domesticate it. A Hydra would be handy for them.

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