Poll: Irontooth Total Player Kill

[AntiStateQuixote]

Haven't fought him yet, but should see him next week, so I'll wait to vote. The PCs are 2nd level, not 1st, so should have a bit of an easier time than the 1st level parties that have faced him. Also, I've got six PCs and I'm only scaling up the non-boss encounters. So,this one will be as is against 6 level 2 PCs. I expect the players to take care of business.

 

[Tervin]

We ran the encounter today, and I would call it a TPK even though the rogue actually managed to run away.

Our excuse as a group? Playing the whole thing with a four person group and having with the DM to play it all without scaling down, plus going into that encounter without a single daily left among us. It did seem like we got reasonably close though. As we just did it all as a "test the new edition" session it was still a big success in the group.

 

[Victim]

Our cleric managed to run away.

 

[Anguirus]

I saw this thread before I ran the encounter so I knew it might be trouble, but I ran it as is anyway. I did laugh maniacally at the players when they said "it's just a goblin."

They had a big scare when he used that axe-sweeping move to take out the paladin AND the fighter in the SAME round, but they had mauled him so badly that the other players finished him off. The rogue especially shined, occupying the wyrmpriest for several rounds before killing him and then dealing the death blow to Irontooth. The kobold dragonshields did a great job punishing the party for trying to ignore them, too.

 

[the Jester]

No tpk here, but not too far from it. Two of the pcs were down, the warlord was dead; they dropped Irontooth, and negotiated with the (still unwounded!) wyrmpriest, who saw the opportunity to seize control of the tribe, and they got the hell out of there.

 

[silentounce]

I just ran my party through that tonight. I even warned them ahead of time about this encounter and how people were complaining online, tpks, etc. I even told them it was level six. I never do this, but we wanted to see how it would play because we're trying out 4e and this product. I gave them an extended rest for free after taking out the outside people. So, they went in knowing it was level six, that it had tpked several groups, and they were fully rested/refreshed. Party was minotaur fighter, githyanki star pact warlock, githyanki rogue, elf ranger, and dwarf cleric. All of them burned all their dailies and encounters. They all used their action points and second winds. Result: fighter and rogue dead, all three others bloodied, and they barely pulled of a victory. If I had not told them about the encounter ahead of time it most likely would have been a tpk and I'm sure they would have never wanted me to DM again, in fact, they confirmed this. Oh, and they managed to take out the first wave entirely in three rounds before the second wave was able to engage. Which didn't make sense anyway, because at one point the wyrmpriest and dragonshields would have been able to see the PCs only at only a dozen or so squares away. But we wanted to play it as written, so they hung back until the end of the third round. Oh, and some of the PCs got a surprise round on the first wave as well. 1st level party + 6th level encounter = bad design.

 

[Blackrat]

Nope. They all survived. Though some were down by the end of the encounter. It was tough, but not a TPK.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

4 players (Characters: Half-Elf Paladin, Elven "Laser" Cleric, Dwarven "Orb" Wizard, Halfing Rogue). Not quite a TPK, but it could have been.
The group managed to take care of the first wave quick enough that the second wave basically was alone. The Paladin dropped first (but was only dying), and eventually the Cleric and Rogue.
The Wizard retreated through the waterfall and took down Irontooth, while the heavily injured Wyrmpriest chose to stay inside (DM fiat benefitial to the PCs) and stabilized the potential slaves. The Wizard got best Irontooth and the Wyrmpriest in the end, with 6 hp or so remaining.

 

[xazil]

Ran this during the week with five level 2s, a dwarf fight, human paladin, eladrin wizard, half-elf warlord and elf rogue.

Having played their characters for a over a month (on preview rules) they fought well, with few mistakes.

I didn't adjust the encounter and the two defenders both died, the rogue and the warlord falling unconcious with the wizard finishing off Irontooth the round after the warlord fell.

 

[Vurt]

My group ran into Irontooth a few weeks back, and while it was very close (I could count the total amount of hp of the party members on my fingers) it was not quite a TPK.

Our problem wasn't Irontooth, as it happened, who went down before actually doing much. As the sole goblin in what was otherwise a kobold swarm, we figured he was bad, quickly surrounded him and concentrated our firepower. No, our problem was that the encounter turned into a continuation of the previous encounter, our encounter powers were largely spent, and the DM decided that given the situation it wasn't very logical for the kobolds to come out in waves, and hit us with them all at once.