Loudwater NPC stats?
- Thread starter S'mon
- Start date
I'll be running Raid on Loudwater/Barrow of the Ogre King tomorrow, though they may not get through the whole barrow even though I'm halving monster hp (& upping damage to L+8 standard). As they're likely to interact with Curuvar and Lady Moonfire I thought stats would be nice. I can use MM Human Mage for Curuvar but I don't have any half-elf warlock stats. Nearest I can think of would be the Tiefling warlock in Monster Vault.
I demand a thrilling description of what happened!Never mind, I TPK'd the party in the aptly named Slaughter Pit.
Well, game thread here:
4e 'Loudwater' Forgotten Realms One-Shot: "Barrow of the Ogre King" 6.30pm-10pm Monday 11th April at The Counting House - open (4/5) - The London Dungeons & Dragons Meetup Group (London, England) - Meetup
PCs:
1. James - Quarfein, male (half) Drow Bard (Leader)
2. Damian - Morthos of Luskan, male Tiefling Warlock (Striker)
3. Al - Tarek Grimm, male Human Swordmage (Defender)
4. Catherine - Elixin, female Firesoul Genasi Wizard (Controller)
Goblins:
2 Warriors
2 Skullcleavers
1 Hexer
It was an epic 2-hour battle; the PCs started strong, took down a goblin warrior, and the Warlock took a female Goblin Skullcleaver from unbloodied to dead with a single blast. Things started to go bad when the Hexer brought up the Vexing Cloud and I realised it *both* put PCs at -2 to hit AND gave goblins concealment, a net -4. The remaining Skullcleaver blocked the Swordmage and they duelled on the left, the Wizardess fought a ranged duel with the Hexer, getting the worst of it as he Blinded her. On the right the Drow Bard & Warlock maneuvered in a running battle, battling the other goblin warrior, but then the Bard fell into a hidden pit and was assailed by starving dogs.
The Hexer managed to blind both the Swordmage and the Wizardess, his Skullcleaver buddy then hacked them down. The Warlock took down the last goblin warrior, and a bloodied drow emerged from the pit of dogs. The Hexer was advancing to help his Cleaver buddy, the Warlock thought of fleeing, but instead he turned, blasted the Hexer and pushed him into the pit! There, with only 2hp left, he was attacked by the last dog. He could maintain his Vexing Haze but was otherwise busy fighting the dog, eventually killing it (the Swordmage expired and we let the player play the dog - but his rolls as dog were as terrible as when he was playing the swordmage). It was down to just the Bard & Warlock vs the last Goblin Cleaver, but when they bloodied him he went berserk, hacked down the Bard, then chased the fleeing Warlock. The Warlock made it to the foot of the ladder before a cleaver was planted in his back. The last goblin standing then took the heads of his defeated foes in tribute to Maglubiyet.
Survivors:
One Goblin Skullcleaver, hp 12/28.
The Goblin Hexer, hp 2/23, down pit.
I didn't remove any monsters; since I gave them all 1/2 hp in theory the threat level was reduced to about 2/3 of encounter-as-written, it was their first encounter of the day so they had all resources - and in theory despite being 1/2-hp EL 4 for 5 PCs it was a very tough but winnable 1/2-hp EL 5 with 4 PCs.
There are two ways to start the encounter - the default is that the PCs fall through a hidden pit in the ruins above, take 2d10 damage each, then are attacked. That would have been an easy TPK. However the Bard Quarfein had made a Perception check 18 and while he didn't spot the upper pit, I ruled he *had* spotted the faint trail around the pit - the PCs followed that, avoided the trap, and came into the Slaughter Pit via the secret door, again making the encounter much more survivable.
If I were to change anything, I think it would be to weaken the Vexing Haze so it still gave -2 to hit but didn't grant concealment to the goblins. However if the PCs had coordinated ranged attacks on the Hexer (not in the haze) they could probably have taken him down, changing things a lot. One problem was that the fire genasi wizard's attacks all targetted Reflex, a strong suite for the goblins.
Were the party 1st level? It's been so long since I read that adventure that I can't quite remember. Also it's worth noting that halving HP doesn't change the EL like that. For example in Dungeon recently a Dark Sun adventure has two tembos in it. For some reason Wizards R+D thought that two Tembos on 1/2 HP was the same EL as one tembo. Anyone who has actually played that encounter will firmly disagree with that assessment.
In the end though it sounds like they had a bad day at the office and better luck next time! Hopefully they can get some revenge.
1/2 hp on monsters works out at about 2/3 the threat level - starts at full, but enemies drop twice as fast, averages to 2/3. Since the PCs dropped one Skull Cleaver before she could even attack, I'd say that was accurate.
I just looked at Monster Vault, I see the updated MM Hexer's Vexing Cloud has been nerfed exactly as I suggested above, though they also get a much better melee attack. I'll go with that in future.
I've decided I really like Loudwater and will stick with it despite the TPK. I'll probably use 'Lair of Shadows' as the intro adventure for the next group.
Back to my OP, when I run Loudwater again I'll use some reskinned monster stats for the NPCs, eg:
Curuar the Brazen: 'Human Wizard' - MM Level 4 Human Mage
Lady Moonfire: 'Half Elf Warlock' - MV Level 8 Tiefling Occultist
Brother Griffon, 'Human Nature Priest' - MV Level 6 Orc Storm Shaman
This approach certainly gives the NPCs a lot of flavour, and in Lady Moonfire & Brother Griffon's cases it lets them pack a formidable punch!
I just looked at Monster Vault, I see the updated MM Hexer's Vexing Cloud has been nerfed exactly as I suggested above, though they also get a much better melee attack. I'll go with that in future.
I've decided I really like Loudwater and will stick with it despite the TPK. I'll probably use 'Lair of Shadows' as the intro adventure for the next group.
Back to my OP, when I run Loudwater again I'll use some reskinned monster stats for the NPCs, eg:
Curuar the Brazen: 'Human Wizard' - MM Level 4 Human Mage
Lady Moonfire: 'Half Elf Warlock' - MV Level 8 Tiefling Occultist
Brother Griffon, 'Human Nature Priest' - MV Level 6 Orc Storm Shaman
This approach certainly gives the NPCs a lot of flavour, and in Lady Moonfire & Brother Griffon's cases it lets them pack a formidable punch!
