The Ogre Killed the Dwarf in 3 Rounds

[Kurtomatic]

Right.

• A party of 1st-level PCs choose to stand and fight an Ogre.
• The healer completely fails to fulfill that role.
• The party as a whole fails to kill the Ogre in 5 rounds.
• Two PC deaths occur; one of them is a Wizard.

This is an axiomatic result. Next is authentically D&D, Q.E.D.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

I see no problem with this, only a moral:

"Don't go toe-to-toe with a great big ogre at first level."

 

[Rhenny]

As the DM for my group, I was scared the Ogre would destroy the party, but my players did pretty well. First, the rogue had set up a trip wire in the hall already because they anticipated some action (not realizing it would be an Ogre). Then, when they saw the Ogre coming down the tunnel, they were able to get one round of ranged attacks. The rogue taunted the Ogre so it ran faster toward the party (Charisma vs Will contest). When the Ogre got to the tripwire, he had to roll a Dex DC 13...he failed and fell. The others pounced. The rogue got into hiding. The Ogre stood up and wailed on the Slayer. Then the rogue stuck his dagger in its back. The Ogre turned to fight the pesky halfling rogue, and would have smashed him, but he used his "lucky" ability to avoid the blow. By this time, the Ogre was down to about 35 hp, so the fight only lasted a couple of more rounds. I think it pummeled the Slayer one more time, but the Slayer was able to crit, and then the wizard hit it with a magic missle. The Ogre had 1 hp remaining so it ran away like a little girl.

The players were scared to death, but they prevailed. The ranging and trip took it down about 20 hp so that really made it possible for the group to survive.

 

[Hussar]

At level 1, an ogre should be able to take out an entire party unless they use a bunch of DM fiat tricks.

I wouldn't go that far. Pre-3e, a 1st level party could and probably should whack an ogre at 1st level. The ogre's usually only got about 19 HP and the party is hitting it fairly often. Sure, you might get a bit of beats on a PC or two, but, TPK vs a full party? Not often.

3e? Yeah, I'd say you're looking at a dead PC or two. But, that's mostly because 3e PC's at 1st level are very, very fragile - poor AC vs monster attack bonuses and much, much higher monster damage=dead PC's.

 

[fba827]

The Pelor Fanboy was standing around with his finger in his butt.

Hopefully not shooting radiant lance at the same time... 'cause that would just be painful.

 

[Incenjucar]

I wouldn't go that far. Pre-3e, a 1st level party could and probably should whack an ogre at 1st level. The ogre's usually only got about 19 HP and the party is hitting it fairly often. Sure, you might get a bit of beats on a PC or two, but, TPK vs a full party? Not often.

3e? Yeah, I'd say you're looking at a dead PC or two. But, that's mostly because 3e PC's at 1st level are very, very fragile - poor AC vs monster attack bonuses and much, much higher monster damage=dead PC's.

I was stating my preference.

The notion of being able to butcher ogres that early in the game just leaves you fighting demon gods before you can pop a delayed blast fireball.

 

[howandwhy99]

When a character has 20 hit points and a monster can do a maximum of 14 points damage with 1 hit (I'm not even including a critical hit here) the game requires balancing.

A couple of the PCs in my D&D game have only 1 hp. And most of them can be hit on just above average rolls by a standard level 1 monster. While that's not true in every version of D&D there is more to combat than damage.

The key is, hack & slash tactics is not how we balance a game unless we wish to promote hack & slash play.

It's not a bad play style, but neither is it the only one I want considered when designing a game.

 

[Oni]

So the Ogre with a greatclub doing 2d4+6 damage got angry at the dwarf in the party and only focused on attacking him. With only 20 hit points, the Ogre was able to beat him literally into the ground dead in 3 rounds.

When a character has 20 hit points and a monster can do a maximum of 14 points damage with 1 hit (I'm not even including a critical hit here) the game requires balancing.

I would prefer it if monsters in the game could kill a character in 5 rounds and not 3. If the Ogre did 1d6 damage like the weapons table suggested with a +4strength modifier to hit and to damage, it would have been better.

Take the average likely roll of 4+3=7 and it would take the Ogre at least a round longer to kill the Dwarf.

The Ogre also killed the Wizard Elf in 2 rounds after dispatching the Dwarf.

One of the goals is to make combat faster and more tense. Sounds like everything is working as intended and I'm very happy about that.

 

[cr0m]

This is further proof that the Fighter needs better intelligence.

FTFY

 

[Celestian]

I think balance is boring. I sense (hope) they learned that from 4e.

Frodo's party had to flee even with Gandalf around.