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<blockquote data-quote="SparqMan" data-source="post: 5462959" data-attributes="member: 77624">As a recap, it went pretty well.I presented the options, talked about the importance of realizing that their characters are not immortal and let the players chat in private while I shuffled some papers in the other room. They discussed and decided that if their characters were going to die, they wanted to see it happen. If it was their time to go, they would accept that.The ritual to sacrifice their magic items in exchange for health went well. Even with that and removing almost all of the follow up encounter, the original encounter almost killed them and Duggin (the dwarf NPC who wasn't supposed to join in the fight until later).This made me realize that I was careless in assessing encounter budgets against the PCs. I also need to remember that with just 3 PCs, four Artillery monsters focusing area attacks can be BRUTAL; I had to completely remove the Orc Archers' area attacks of the battle would have been over swiftly again. Thankfully they're Orcs and an Ogre, so they were mostly in it for blood and not extremely tactical.It worked out well and after learning about the imminent arrival of an Earth Titan, seemed pretty concerned about the potential for survival if a pre-encounter was this hard.I don't think they felt coddled and I don't think I was too light on them.Again, appreciate all the wisdom.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="SparqMan, post: 5462959, member: 77624"] As a recap, it went pretty well. I presented the options, talked about the importance of realizing that their characters are not immortal and let the players chat in private while I shuffled some papers in the other room. They discussed and decided that if their characters were going to die, they wanted to see it happen. If it was their time to go, they would accept that. The ritual to sacrifice their magic items in exchange for health went well. Even with that and removing almost all of the follow up encounter, the original encounter almost killed them and Duggin (the dwarf NPC who wasn't supposed to join in the fight until later). This made me realize that I was careless in assessing encounter budgets against the PCs. I also need to remember that with just 3 PCs, four Artillery monsters focusing area attacks can be BRUTAL; I had to completely remove the Orc Archers' area attacks of the battle would have been over swiftly [I]again[/I]. Thankfully they're Orcs and an Ogre, so they were mostly in it for blood and not extremely tactical. It worked out well and after learning about the imminent arrival of an Earth Titan, seemed pretty concerned about the potential for survival if a pre-encounter was this hard. I don't think they felt coddled and I don't think I was too light on them. Again, appreciate all the wisdom. [/QUOTE]

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