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Message: <blockquote data-quote="al_fredo" data-source="post: 6240933" data-attributes="member: 81597">Ran the Manor encounter last night. DMs:  MacBannin is way too easy. I have a party of 4, they came in fresh for the day, with 4 Allied Officers (who were mostly ineffective). MacBannin got dealt about 60pts of damage and was grappled before he could act. I upped his HP to 190. With him grappled and marked, his ranged attacks were out. Also, He needs to get close to hex AND someone has to attack him THEN they get a curse. It's a slow moving affect. The most dangerous people in this encounter are the house staff. You have to keep track of who attacked last round (with 22, this is rough book keeping)...but hit for 10 points of damage is a pretty big deal. If 11 are attacking each round, and half hit - that 50pts. With "improvised weapons" doing 10pts with 'house help'....seems rough. I decreased their damage by 2 pts each round, to simulate fatigue.  Basically the minons are too tough, and Macbannin is too weak. This is the MAIN guy...and he almost went down before he could act.  He ended getting all his curses out on 1 PC (ha!)...and if I didn't up his HP, none would have came out. The geysers randomly took out house staff...didn't affect the PCs. MacBannin finally went down, and I had one knife-fighter retreat. When the other went down, there were still roughly 14 house staff left....I had them surrender.   Basically, adjust this encounter so that MacBannin is more of a boss, and the minions behave more like gardeners.So...they saw through the exaggeration of MacBannin, but still thought that they would need him to fix the lab problem. They brought him. I ruled that one of the officers had Mage Cuffs. The LabSo...this part was a bit strange. Reed is actually helpful here, as he doesn't want to destroy his city. PC's see the engine, and deal with Jaguars. Reed said they need to repair the engine...so, all of these checks seem meaningless to me. They run downstairs, grab the supplies, come back up. They do their 5 INT checks...and at this point, Reed knows what to do...not sure why I'm doing the checks. They are threatening Reed all the way. Going back to the control room, they feel like they are just guessing. They turn the pumps on slow, and hear the groaning what not. So they stop. They threaten Reed again...but he doesn't really know what's going on. My thief is impatient, and decides to stab him in the groin(!).  I rule that Reed passes out! They get a better view of the reservoir, and see the two pipes on the west wall and a wheel.  The thief goes for the wheel, fails a PER check, and I have Creed on the catwalk behind her. The rest of the party is in the control room...and have the Kell Thugs on coming down the stairs. We stopped there.So, I'll run the fight. And I think the puzzle is OK from this point out. The engine thing seemed not-needed. With a knife to Reed's throat...wouldn't he just instruct the PCs exactly what to do??? Meanwhile, I have an anti-climatic battle with the dragonborn scheduled for the next day (courtesy of Cippiano).  Thought about putting them in this, but it might not make too much sense. Anyway...appreciate suggestions here.</blockquote>

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