Poll: Irontooth Total Player Kill

[OchreJelly]

I think an option should be added indicating whether you altered the encounter as written. I had to scale it down for three players and there was no TPK. I might have scaled away too much.

 

[silentounce]

I had to scale it down for three players and there was no TPK. I might have scaled away too much.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

My PCs spanked the encounter badly.

The rogue blinded Irontooth (then used an AP to hit him with an encounter power), the warlord (giving bonuses when PCs use APs) hit him with an attack that gave everyone +4 to hit (and since Irontooth was blind, everyone was getting +2 to hit already without their AP bonuses), and then virtually everyone else used a daily and an encounter power with APs, slaughtering Irontooth. Irontooth got his init during that period, but was blind, so he only hit once.

The wyrmpriests and the dragonshields made it something of a real fight, since the PCs were tapped out by that point.

 

[Ginnel]

6 players 1st level, stats were 28 point buy from the PHB instead of the 22

Dragonborn fighter (longsword and heavy shield in scale) 18 str, 16 con
Tiefling paladin (battle axe, heavy shield, plate) 20 cha 14 con
Half Elf Warlord (longsword, light shield, scale) 18 cha 16 str
Dwarven Cleric (warhammer, chainmail) 18wis 16str
Tiefling infernal warlock (leather armor) 18 con 18 cha
Dragonborn Orb Wizard (orb) 18 int 16 con

We'd used a few or our encounter abilities on the fight outside with both the dragonbreaths and the fighters multiclassed thunderwave gone, also the wizards daily had gone from earlier that day. The DM also allowed us to spend an action point in this encounter as if we'd had a 5 min rest but didn't return any encounter powers.

I believe the fight was made appropriate for our party size with a dual wielding kobold from dragon making an appearance.

During the course of the fight most dailys missed we formed a kind of wall at the entrance to the north (if going into the waterfall is west) and got flanked by 2 groups of kobolds, Bloodied condition was not rare with some well timed healing from the paladin cleric and warlord keeping us on our feet, when iron tooth came along he wasn't overly impressive until we bloodied him and he took down the cleric and the paladin in one round, with the warlord out of inspiring words it wasn't looking good, however the cleric rolled a natural 20 on his death check thingie spent the surge and was back on his feet, we managed to finish the fight with no casualties.

Was fun and felt dangerous, I'm not sure how much the +6 points for the point buy has helped us but i've put what I consider high stats up by the characters.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

My PCs spanked the encounter badly.

Mine too.

They fought the outside group, but not before the skirmisher could get inside to warn Irontooth.

They kept their cool after defeating the outside forces and decided to take a short rest. I played the encounter as writen and decided the interior forces didn't want to come out into the open to fight, instead lying in wait to defend their lair. Both waves plus the wounded skirmisher awaited them inside.

I swapped two interior skirmishers for a war priest, replaced the two dragonshields with pikers and replaced the wyrmpriest with a vermin handler.

Even with less than sound tactics, the group managed to keep everyone up, although a couple got close to going down. The party was comprised of a ranger, warlord, cleric, paladin and wizard.

Edit: Most important factor! Since we started the campaign with Kobold Hall the party was 2nd level.

 

[Wormwood]

Irontooth was a tough fight, no mistake, but we managed to survive with no casualties---although we're pretty sure that if the DM had remembered to use Irontooth's Action Point he could have easily knocked out the two guys flanking him.

 

[Cadfan]

No casualties with my group. We were out of healing and the ranger and rogue were both about one hit away from taking a nap, but they put him down. Daily abilities were used to great effect- Irontooth's damage drops a lot if you blind him, then weaken him once his sight comes back. The party fighter never even got in on the action, as he was too busy dealing with a dragonshield and a skirmisher.

 

[Nifft]

Edit: Most important factor! Since we started the campaign with Kobold Hall the party was 2nd level.

Ah-ha!

Cheers, -- N

 

[Grimstaff]

Our party survived by staying mobile, the paladin soaking damage from Irontooth and getting double attacks against him courtesy of warlord. It was the rogue who finished him off though, courtesy of a Riposte Strike interrupt

 

[Plane Sailing]

Four person party (paladin, feylock, rogue, cleric) dealt with the guys outside, had a short rest (while forewarned kobolds prepared a couple of traps), then party attacked.

The got spanked, largely because the dragonshield paladin got drunk on the idea of 'valiant smite' giving him +1 to hit for each enemy surrounding him, and he dived into the middle of the badguys so that he was surrounded by two dragonshields, four minions and irontooth. He didn't last so long. three party members down and dying, plus one surrendered. Dying party members stabilised and locked up so that they could be sold to hobgoblin slavers.

Party #2 then comes along to rescue them (warlord, wizard, ranger-archer) and they defeat Irontooth, 2 dragonshields, wrympriest, 2 minions and 2 skirmishers. Luck was on their side with a big hit from frost cloud, critical 'split the tree', successful 'lead the charge' and so on. Last man standing was the wizard who was ray of frosting irontooth to death and keeping out of his way because of the slow effect.

Fun all round, although I could probably have considered scaling it a bit better

It is early days of adventuring yet, and people are just getting the hang of working as a team rather than as individuals.

Cheers