D&D 5E Out of the Abyss: post your parties!

[steeldragons]

Interesting topic since I just threw together a party for the purposes of going up against Orcus. Some o you may have seen the other thread with the new Orcus stats in it and there was some talk [or was it a separate thread?] about a party of 6 7th level PCs housed a balor without breaking a sweat...and it was posed, originally, by a poster that Orcus did not look like he would be any big deal to ruin without any loss or significant threat...SO, I made this party, at 7th level, to throw against Orcus and see where the chips may fall...

Makes sense that for a "what is your OotA party" thread, I could just present them...as 1st level PCs.

Human/male, Fighter [Battlemaster to be]
Dwarf/male, Paladin [Devotion]
Human/female, Cleric [Life]
Human/male, Wizard [Diviner to be]
Elf/male, Fighter [Eldritch Knight to be]
Halfling/female, Rogue [Thief to be]

They seem to have quite a bit of potential.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

All Level 1

Drow Paladin (Died in 1st session)
Drow Cleric
1/2E Rogue
1/2E Sorcerer
Human Fighter
1/2O Paladin
Human Ranger

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Interesting topic since I just threw together a party for the purposes of going up against Orcus. Some o you may have seen the other thread with the new Orcus stats in it and there was some talk [or was it a separate thread?] about a party of 6 7th level PCs housed a balor without breaking a sweat...and it was posed, originally, by a poster that Orcus did not look like he would be any big deal to ruin without any loss or significant threat...SO, I made this party, at 7th level, to throw against Orcus and see where the chips may fall...

Makes sense that for a "what is your OotA party" thread, I could just present them...as 1st level PCs.

Human/male, Fighter [Battlemaster to be]
Dwarf/male, Paladin [Devotion]
Human/female, Cleric [Life]
Human/male, Wizard [Diviner to be]
Elf/male, Fighter [Eldritch Knight to be]
Halfling/female, Rogue [Thief to be]

They seem to have quite a bit of potential.

No chance. Party make up makes no difference. The one guy who thought Orcus would not be a threat was wrong. Orcus can slaughter most any group.

Also it should be pointed out that the 6th 7th level PC's that brought down a Balor. Also had the help of 5 level 5 or so NPC's.

 

[steeldragons]

No chance. Party make up makes no difference. The one guy who thought Orcus would not be a threat was wrong. Orcus can slaughter most any group.

Also it should be pointed out that the 6 7th level PC's that brought down a Balor. Also had the help of 5 level 5 or so NPC's.

Ahhh. Good point. Maybe I'll come up with 5 5th level NPCs to go with them [or not ]and see what happens anyway. Should be a fun, if short, round by round, blow by blow.

 

[OB1]

Attempting to run this as a solo campaign level 5-20. Wife will be playing an Human Oath of Devotion Paladin.

 

[steeldragons]

Also it should be pointed out that the 6th 7th level PC's that brought down a Balor. Also had the help of 5 level 5 or so NPC's.

Right, so in addition to these guys, the A-team, at 7th level [now with their backgrounds!]:

Human/male, Fighter Battlemaster (Solider)
Dwarf/male, Paladin Devotion (Acolyte)
Human/female, Cleric Life (Noble)
Human/male, Wizard Diviner (Guild Artisan: Alchemist)
Elf/male, Fighter Eldritch Knight (Outlander)
Halfling/female, Rogue Thief (Charlatan)

I'm going to run up these (at 5th), the "B-team", and have them accompany the party as...well, whatever...old school "followers", henchmen, squires/"young wards", pupils, significant others, etc...

(continuing with the 1e flavor):
Half-Elf/female, Ranger Hunter (Spy)
Human/female, Druid Land (Acolyte)
Human/male, Barbarian Berserker (Criminal)
Gnome/male, Rogue Arcane Trickster (Sage)
Dwarf/male, Fighter Champion (Folk Hero)

I'm really liking how this group kind of rounds out, starting to shape up, actually. I might actually use them from level 1 as a group to run through OotA.

But definitely want to run the Orcus massac-aaaaahhhhOMBAT! Yeah, that's it. The Orcus combat.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I think if you wanted to kill Orcus with a low-level level party, your best bet would be to focus relentlessly on a single tactic, whether that is "kite with magic weapons" via 5 Sharpshooter Eldritch Knights[1] covered by Bless + Death Ward from a Cleric or "Disable via spells and then Polymorph into earthworm" via 6 7th level Lucky Diviners. If you spread yourself out with a traditional fighter/magic user/cleric party you won't hammer through any of the defenses in time to end it.

I'm not sure whether either of the approaches above would work but I think it is your best shot. I'd be comfortable taking on Orcus with an 11th level generalist party but not at 7th level--and by "comfortable" I mean, "if the end of the world is coming if we don't kill him, and I have access to reconaissance which says his abilities work precisely as described in OotA, I could formulate a plan which I think has better than a 50% chance of taking him out and us living to tell the tale."

[1] Not doable at 7th level; requires 8th level for Magic Weapon. Alternately you could do a Battlemaster 5/Wizard 3, which would actually be more successful than the Eldritch Knight due to Precise Attack although it is also more gimmicky. Battlemasters will Disarm Orcus's wand with a trick shot (Disarm maneuver) while everyone's familiars wait to scoop it up and scram (vanish into other dimension), which drops Orcus's AC to 17 and prevents all kinds of nasty stuff. At that point, everyone starts sniping him with their +1 Longbows at 2x +5+d4 to-hit/1d8+15 damage, doing about 11.4 damage per attack not counting Precise Strike, for a total of 114 damage per round and twice that on the first round, so they can expect to kill him on the third round or so. Faster if all their familiars Help. It takes a total of about 21 successful attacks to drop Orcus, and if they manage to get the drop on Orcus somehow (are there any clerics who get Pass Without Trace as a domain spell? Orcus's Truesight only works out to 120' and they don't need to get that close to kill him) they could potentially each land 3 hits each for 58 points of damage total, leaving him with only about 100 HP at the end of the surprise round. (You need a way to sneak your familiars into closer range than that but maybe they're rats or something.) Then Orcus presumably hits the panic button and casts Time Stop, and I don't know what happens if he wins initiative and gets away with it. Cat and mouse, probably, so the PCs will try to have a way of preventing him from casting Time Stop successfully.

Plans are useless but planning is indispensable.

 

[RobotElder]

Remember that darkvision doesn't give perfect vision: it just makes darkness into dim light. So you still have disadvantage on checks related to vision (spotting things). So there is an incentive to use a light source (this goes for NPS and monsters too!)

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Remember that darkvision doesn't give perfect vision: it just makes darkness into dim light. So you still have disadvantage on checks related to vision (spotting things). So there is an incentive to use a light source (this goes for NPS and monsters too!)

Alternately, when sneaking around in the Underdark, there is an incentive not to use a light source--because it helps enemies more than it helps you! (At least until combat starts and then you do want someone to drop Dancing Lights.) Just accept that you're mostly blind and try to think like a Grimlock.

I haven't checked out all the maps for OotA yet but the ideal situation is to have a Sharpshooter PC at least 150' or so back from the enemy while someone else illuminates the enemy with Dancing Lights, so you get advantage on all of your Sharpshooting attacks. It's like Faerie Fire but with no save and no spell slot cost. Only works in moderately large caverns though, which is why I need to check the maps.

 

[RobotElder]

I noticed that the warlock invocation Devil's Sight seems to be the best darkvision in the game; it literally says that you can see normally in darkness to 120 feet. So darkness isn't dimly lit to you... it is not darkness at all. Heck, you can even see colors.

This is even better than the devil's sight that devils get... for them it says that magical darkness doesn't impede their darkvision.