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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Blue" data-source="post: 6935315" data-attributes="member: 20564">Session #3Big battle time!  We were able to draw the giants to one portion of the walls and concentrate forces.  Unfortunately the giants can in under the cover of tree branches to provide some cover from our archers.They had:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">6 Hill Giants </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">12 Ogres, 6 with goblin-flinger backpac catapults </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">12 bugbears </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">60 goblins </li> </ul>We were down two players this week so there were only three of us!  We had:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">5th UA Ranger (Hunter) [me] </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">5th Barbarian (Totem) </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">5th Paladin (Oath) </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Several NPCs who helped </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A whole bunch of archers, behind the wall </li> </ul>Basically the other PCs were melee-only.  The barbarian got Fly cast of her early on by an NPC, but didn't go out by herself to engage because it would have been a slaughter.There was several rounds of them running up, during which I switched to a longbow for range (no feat), and the NPCs & melee people dealt with flung goblins.  But as they got closer there was word of attacking on another part of the wall, and the archers withdrew to deal with that.To condense, my favored enemy bonus helped against goblins and bugbears.  With losing an attack due to longbow, I focused on the bugbears.  With that bonus tt took about 3 hits to kill one, and I was able to eliminate all of them completely by myself before they got up the wall.  I usually had three attacks a round - base + extra attack, and if either hit and there was another within 5' hordebreaker.  That was a lot harder for most of the time they were closing since it was long range for the bow and disadvantage hurts even when I only needed a 7 to hit.  Once they got to the wall and started climbing (top to base was 60', so still out of the 30 short range of the hand crossbow), I was able to eliminate all 12 by myself before any crested the wall.Between the snares and traps I had set up the previous session and the archers+NPCs, the 60 goblins really weren't a factor in this battle.  Also the giants had some damage from the run in (33 points each?) under the archers.The other two PCs and the NPCs dealt with tossed goblins, and then as the heavy forces got to the wall they started dumping boiling oil we had prepared.  (DM:  2d6 damage, no roll to hit, single target because of the foe size)  One NPC stood out throwing suggestions that they retreat else they get killed to a wounded giant and an ogre.However, we were joined by a bronze dragon, whom had ridiculous luck with recharge rolls on it's breath (made int he middle of the table) and that sent the remaining heavies into a rout.  They didn't even make the top of the wall, which was very surprising.The flying barbarian pursued and the paladin did a 60' leap from the top to attack a prone giant.  With the exception of a few who left early due to the suggestion we were able to kill (and in one case capture) all of the foes.All in all, I don't feel like the UA Ranger was a star.  I was the only ranged character for a fight that started at 600' with us not wanting to advance, but disadvantage plus limited target selection fairly far down the monster food-chain because it was mixed favored and non-favored enemies means that I was taking sometimes 2-3 turns just to kill off one of twelve CR 1 creature.  Once the giants were close I still didn't want to switch because d8+4 (longbow+dex) just isn't a lot against a giant, and hordebreaker gives me a 3rd attack but not focus fire.  And the once climbing up weren't close enough to trigger it anyhow.  Hunter's Mark is my go-to for cases like this, but with the large amount of combatants on each side I would have been changing it every round, using my bonus action for that instead of an extra attack with my crossbow.This was particular to my build - I went for a 18 Dex + feat build which is pretty powerful, but going for the hand crossbow made me better for indoor ranges.  I am counting on favored enemy to give me enough bonus damage that an extra attack proves more valuable than Sharpshooter's -5/+10.  In earlier combats that was true, in this one it worked against me.  Which is fair, my choice has times is excels and times it doesn't.Now, with only 3 PCs we got enough XP to hit 6th, and I now have Giant as my Advanced Favored Enemy, and my favored enemy bonus doubles from +2 to +4.  We'll see how that works out moving forward, it should make a big difference.</blockquote>

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