Our KOTS TPK (Warning: KOTS spoiler info)

[Scribble]

Did your group go from outside straight into the "inside" fight? Did they also let someone escape the outside fight to warn the inside group?

In my opinion combining the outside and inside parts of the fight is a VERY deadly thing to do.

 

[Obryn]

I remember that fight very well. It would have been a TPK had I not decided the kobolds should do non-lethal damage. (It makes sense in the context of the adventure; in fact, I think it makes more sense than a slaughter.)

My group did okay with Irontooth, once they figured out they need to keep him moving and can't just sit there and swing. They did okay with most everyone else, too, even if dragonshields are a pain. What dropped them were the freaking slingers. A little bit of focused fire from these guys - along with my DM dice being on fire - dropped over half of the party.

I think the party's tactics were pretty good - they bottlenecked the kobolds at the waterfall entrance - but the slingers and the kobolds' shiftiness hurt that considerably.

Anyways, the whole party got captured, except for the gnome ranger who made good use of his Invisibility and ran away. This was a great setup for an escape scene with a skill challenge, which went very, very well. They got to roleplay with Irontooth, found out a few pieces of information, and then slaughtered the only-slightly-reinforced remnants of the kobold army.

-O

 

[Obryn]

I am a little familliar with the goblin rage thing. Do you by chance know what orifice he is pulling that healing from?

AFAICT, it's basically the fighter's Boundless Endurance stance.

-O

 

[Fifth Element]

WOW. Were those four misses rolled in the open or do you think your DM had some mercy? I'm not familliar with your DM's style, so its impossible to guess.

Luck happens, you know? Maybe your group was just unlucky, and that's why they were demolished. If the threads around here are any indication, it's a survivable encounter.

 

[satin]

Obryn's point about bottlenecking the kobolds at the entrance is a good one. Our party did the same thing and in hindsight, that probably helped a lot too.

If we had done Irontooth as one of our first encounters (before we got the hang of tactics and positioning), we would probably have been toast.

 

[Maggan]

I am a little familliar with the goblin rage thing. Do you by chance know what orifice he is pulling that healing from?

It's called Blood Crazed, and I think he's pulling it out of his left ear.

Perhaps not, but if we knew about the possibility then we would have saved our better powers for him for sure.

Ah, yes, that's one thing that we've noticed. We've learned to never burn off the better powers until some time into the battle. And to take Short rests after each encounter where so is possible.

Were those four misses rolled in the open or do you think your DM had some mercy?

We roll all dice in the open, to avoid suspicion of DM fiat in any direction. It works well for us.

It was extremely lucky that Irontooth didn't demolish the fighter before everyone could gang up on him. I would have to say that streak of fortune is what made the encounter " not terribly challenging".

That was lucky of course, but the thing that really made it difficult for the DM was the fact that only one of us engaged Irontooth. That meant that his Dual Axe ability was totally useless, since he was only fighting one opponent. And he was marked every round so he didn't move to engage anyone else, and my fighter has a lot of hit points, so 1d8+4 damage doesn't really matter that much. EDIT: well, it matters of course, but as the encounter played out, the main thing the fighter did was keep Irontooth contained, which he could have managed even with taking two or even three hits with the axe.

When we engaged in force, we realised that he was lethal (that was also when he went bloodied), and that's when he started dealing out real damage. A daily power or two and a devestating blow from the fighter and the rogue took care of that.

But in the final analysis, I think the thing that tipped the scales to our advantage was that the fighter locked Irontooth down all by himself for four rounds, and then everyone else could descend on him like the wrath of Bahamut!

/M

 

[ExploderWizard]

Luck happens, you know? Maybe your group was just unlucky, and that's why they were demolished. If the threads around here are any indication, it's a survivable encounter.

Oh yeah. Luck often carries the day. Hearing about group having really good luck, yet still having one PC down and three others badly wounded and then saying the encounter wasn't "terribly challenging" isn't exactly a fair comparison. We rolled average most of the fight as did the opposition (judging by the results we observed) and got waxed. If the DM's dice were on fire or ours were colder than the North Pole then there wouldn't be so much to wonder about.

 

[ExploderWizard]

It's called Blood Crazed, and I think he's pulling it out of his left ear.

ROFL. I'll check again. I don't remember the healing being part of it.

Ah, yes, that's one thing that we've noticed. We've learned to never burn off the better powers until some time into the battle. And to take Short rests after each encounter where so is possible.

Yeah. I call this "Anti-Nova Syndrome". Instead of blowing all your powers, you spend all day using at-wills because you never know when the boogeyman will appear and require the big ones. .

We roll all dice in the open, to avoid suspicion of DM fiat in any direction. It works well for us.

You guys were rolling in the four leaf clover..............we stepped in crap

 

[That One Guy]

It was hard. Hella' hard. Two fighters (one MC rogue), a ranger, and a wizard. The wizard killing minions was useful. The wyrmpriest just would not go down and I think he was harder for our group than Iron Tooth (just got missed a bunch). Basically, our wizard slowed him and the two fighters would take turns attacking him (both trying to do it from range). One of the fighters was down at the end of the fight, and both went down one other time. The ranger and wizard got hit a little, but nothing too terrible. We also had cover from the slingers for most of the fight (We followed the kobold through the entrance he took rather than the waterfall. In retrospect, I think if our table had been larger the kobolds should have pinched us in - Irontooth taking his guys around the back to flank us) due to where we happened to come in). The wizard was useful for wrecking minions and hurting everything we blocked up. I can tell you, a character or two more - possibly a healer - would've made this fight a heckuva' lot easier.

 

[Fifth Element]

Yeah. I call this "Anti-Nova Syndrome". Instead of blowing all your powers, you spend all day using at-wills because you never know when the boogeyman will appear and require the big ones.

Sounds like a typical day at the office for a 1E 1st-level wizard.

Where "at-wills" means "throwing darts ineffectually" and the "big ones" means "your one sleep spell".