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Message: <blockquote data-quote="bluesfella" data-source="post: 5472770" data-attributes="member: 98561">Scenario: Frost Goblins bring down the airship[sblock] XP Encounter Difficulty: Level 1 (not intended to be a significant threat)  Brief summary: The party of 5 level 1 adventurers are traveling in a small hot-air balloon in the dead of winter.  (They aren't very high up - just above the dense cloud cover hugging the ground.)  Just before they reach their destination, two small frost goblins come flying up through the clouds and land on the balloon itself.  They pull out daggers and start shredding the balloon, while two more come flying up behind them and do the same. The balloon starts to plummet while they fight off the minions, then it crashes and throws them all prone (based on their acrobatics/athletics checks).  As they stand up and retrieve their weapons, a giant frost goblin appears and throws even more minions at them... Area setup: Approx. 40ft. by 50ft. airship platform...basically like a large hot-air balloon basket, but wider and more shallow. Enemies: 1 Giant Frost Goblin (re-branded from a goblin skullcleaver) on the ground below, at least a dozen goblin cutters (minions). Enemy setup:   The frost goblin giant is on the ground, and each round on his turn throws between two to four minions at the balloon until it crashes.  (That only took two rounds.)  He continues throwing minions until he is bloodied, then he charges and begins melee attacks.  How it went: Very well! This was a thematic battle, and not intended to be too difficult, but it ended up being very close.  It really took the party by surprise, and I had several comments about how much they enjoyed it.  I gave the giant goblin an aura 2 that slowed the PC's, but other than that, I just re-flavored the stock powers.  The PC's, being a very oddly-mixed group and unsure of their own powers, took some time to figure out strategies, but eventually overcame the odds.  When the giant would throw minions at them, they would take damage from the hit, get knocked prone, AND now had minions flanking them.  Even if they ducked and were missed by the minions, those minions were now behind them.  Even though all the minions went down quickly, there was a lot of "OH CRAP!" moments when the softer PC's would get knocked down and surrounded.  PC's were knocked unconscious three different times!   By the time the big baddie was bloodied, it became a melee grudge match, but by then the players were having so much fun it didn't matter.  Actual Difficulty: Maybe Level 3?  It turned out much more difficult than I imagined, but part of that is the player's faults, really.  This was only their 2nd encounter ever...  How well did it work(on a scale of 1-10):  Easy 9.  They talked about for a week afterward... [/sblock]</blockquote>

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