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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WampusCat43" data-source="post: 2099956" data-attributes="member: 12027">Sarkrith SmackdownSituation:Our four heroes, all 9th-10th level, having just beat up on an adult black dragon, find their way to its lair in the hope of finishing him off.  Instead, they find its two allies, a Sarkrith spelleater and thane.  The PC's just waded in, with virtually no buffs in place.  Disaster.  The mage led the way (!), turned ethereal, which promptly got dispelled by the spelleater, who proceeded to whale on him.  A couple of missed SR checks and it's one man down.The cleric and the fighter/sorcerer, having had little success with their spells, double-teamed the thane and were putting the hurt on it.  Unfortunately, one good critical hit finished off the cleric, along with his healing powers.  Two down.The spelleater now turned its attention on the archer/ranger, who had been peppering it with arrows while it munched on the wizard.  A couple of critical misses and a panicky switch to melee weapons later, ranger roast.The fighter/sorcerer declined to run or surrender, hoping to take out the now-wobbly thane.  Squish.The sarkrith were CR 11 and 13.  Was this encounter that unbalanced?  In retrospect, I think the spelleater alone would have been a match for the group, but they had had little trouble with encounters near their level to this point.  It seems like a situation where the baddies were a near-perfect match for the party weaknesses: many save-or-die spells, lack of ability to do massive damage, etc.Lots of shoulda-woulda-couldas here: concentrate on one opponent, plan ahead, run, surrender...Needless to say, I feel like crap, a familiar theme on these boards in these situations.  Some of these characters had been played for a year or more, and I had put a lot of work into them as well (I actually built the f/s for a new player to the game).  I'm not looking for sympathy as much as I'd like to let fellow DM's know that these guys are tough and you should be real careful if you "take the gloves off" (as I warned them I was about to do).  It's certainly easy for both DM's and players to get overconfident in the abilities of the party.Thanks for letting me get this off my chest.  I'm going to go hang my scalps now.</blockquote>

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