TPK last night - 1st one (sniff)

[WampusCat43]

what is a Sakrith spelleater?

The spelleater has a Greater Dispelling ray - very nasty.

The thane gains damage reduction of a particular energy type after he's been damaged by it (interesting).

Both have 23-25 SR's and 24 or so AC's, as well as 150-200 hp, and a couple of other special abilities that didn't come into play. Vicious.

 

[Gomez]

Sarkrith Smackdown

Disaster. The mage led the way (!), turned ethereal, which promptly got dispelled by the spelleater.

Can you Cast Dispel on a person who is ethereal?

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Use Grim Tales' XP Calc spreadsheet, I plugged in a party of 4 with 2 at 9th level and 2 at 10th. I then plugged in two critters, one CR 11 and the other CR 13.

It calculated it as an EL 17 encounter. It gave a party survival rate of 60% and labeled it as VERY DIFFICULT.

Careful, careful, for folks not familiar with GT's EL system.

Yes, this encounter was (Grim Tales) EL17.

But the party's (Grim Tales) EL was 18.

This definitely does qualify the encounter as very difficult. When party EL = encounter EL, it's basically a coin toss who will win (50% survival rate with 100% expenditure of resources).

With the encounter EL just 1 below the party EL... well, as you pointed out, their survival rate rose to 60% (with an 80% expenditure of resources).

As a further reference point, a "moderate" encounter is an 87.5% survival rate and 25% expenditure of resources.

To win this battle would have required a herculean effort.

And it sounds like they were close!


Wulf

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Well an EL 14 encounter against a party of 10th level PCs should be about a 50-50 chance of the PCs winning if the monsters are played well and both groups have fairly similar abilities.

 

[Darkness]

Well an EL 14 encounter against a party of 10th level PCs should be about a 50-50 chance of the PCs winning if the monsters are played well and both groups have fairly similar abilities.

Yeah. Assuming the PCs' ability scores aren't incredibly high, in which case their odds are probably slightly better than even. Same thing for equipment (or the reverse, for the lack of it).

 

[Narfellus]

Wulf, it must be great to see those numbers plugged in and have them work out so nicely! It did seem like a hard encounter, probably harder than the PC's anticipated, expecially after wonking a black dragon, but they could have run and regrouped as well.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Ah one of those encounters that's just high enough that the PCs don't realize how difficult it really is. Problem is, when one PC falls, suddenly things start to get a whole lot harder and it dominos on down. It's a lot of fun when they survive those, but yeah those TPKs can be rough on ya. Sounds like an awesome battle though.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Wulf, it must be great to see those numbers plugged in and have them work out so nicely!

Not from where the PCs are sitting...

An 80% resources rate could mean that 3 out of 4 heroes die before the heroes ultimately prevail. It sounds like, with the exception of a couple of crits, that was very nearly the exact outcome.

(All props for GT's EL system and the spreadsheet go to Upper_Krust, btw, with equal shares of love for Cheiromancer, BryonD, CRGreathouse, Anubis, others...)


Wulf

 

[Quasqueton]

Ah one of those encounters that's just high enough that the PCs don't realize how difficult it really is. Problem is, when one PC falls, suddenly things start to get a whole lot harder and it dominos on down.

There probably ought to be a standing agreement with all adventuring parties: If one member drops early in a battle, everyone should retreat (grabbing the body if possible).

Quasqueton

 

[WampusCat43]

Ah one of those encounters that's just high enough that the PCs don't realize how difficult it really is. Problem is, when one PC falls, suddenly things start to get a whole lot harder and it dominos on down. It's a lot of fun when they survive those, but yeah those TPKs can be rough on ya. Sounds like an awesome battle though.

Boy, did they. After the first went down it was maybe three rounds before it was over. Sort of a High Noon battle, but one side left their bullets at home.

Appreciate all the feedback, btw.

I believe I did blow the Dispel on the ethereal wizard. I think the ray would work, but forgot that he was invisible. Not sure (don't have the book with me), but I don't think the spelleater could see ethereal, making the ray kinda hard to focus. The player didn't say anything either, though, and they're used to me screwing up about once a round anyway. That same wizard (a necromancer) had broken so many of my neatly planned encounters in the past (he animated a hydra skeleton and virtually wiped out my whole lizardman village with it) that he was due for a beating anyway. He had about a 50/50 chance to get a spell through their SR - it just didn't happen.

The guys have been good about not getting upset when characters die, fortunately. I think they like trying other classes/combinations. And, for some reason, they keep coming back, so something must be going right.