Unexpected TPK: Unbalanced, bad circumstances, or fluke?

[Asmor]

Two PCs, both level 1. A warlock and a cleric.

Two fire beetles.

The fire beetles both use their fire spray, each catching both PCs in the spray. Coincidentally, they both do 12 damage. The Warlock takes 12, the Cleric takes 24, dropping him before he's even had a chance to act.

Against my strong urgings, the warlock runs off to try and fight the beetles on his own terms rather than try a heal check on the cleric.

I do a major fudge (not rolling to recharge the beetles' fire spray) and still manage to mess up the warlock. Eventually he kills 1 beetle, then with 1 hp left uses an action point to shift out of melee, move to the cleric, and make a heal check. He fails. Takes 5 damage and is dropped.

Miraculously, the cleric rolls a 20 and is up. The beetle hits the 'lok for another 6 damage, taking him to -10; another 3 damage and he's dead. So the cleric does minor word, stands up, action point to move and healing strike. They manage to kill the last beetle.

This was a straight up level 1 encounter. Two level 1 brutes vs. two level 1 PCs. If not for some big fudging and a major stroke of luck, it would have been a TPK.

So was this a result of poor tactics (fighting without trying to heal cleric), a result of bad luck (cleric getting hit by both attacks, and each attack doing better than average damage), bad circumstances (PCs being within 3 spots of each other and only 2 PCs present), unbalanced monsters, or just a complete fluke?

 

[generalhenry]

What was the warlock doing in melee range?

But I digress, it was a combination of bad luck, poor tactics and the game being balanced around 5v5 not 2v2

 

[RefinedBean]

Agreed with generalhenry, rolling max damage on the duo was a pretty nasty opening.

I'm guessing the warlock was in melee because the firebeetle charged him or what-not? Otherwise, that was unsound tactics on the player's side. Although, with his cleric lying there dead after one round of horror, I'd be pretty unsound as well.

Have you considered throwing in an NPC to help them out? I'm relatively new to DMing, but it seems like things can break down pretty quickly with that few of PCs.

 

[pogminky]

it was a combination of bad luck, poor tactics and the game being balanced around 5v5 not 2v2

Agreed.

And if you've only got 2 PCs, I'm not sure Warlock/Cleric is the best party. Paladin + Warlord, maybe? Or Cleric + Paladin?

You need healing + melee capability. Strikers seem bottom of the list in this circumstance.

 

[Asmor]

Agreed with generalhenry, rolling max damage on the duo was a pretty nasty opening.

Max damage would be 18; they rolled 12 (on 3d6; average is 10.5).

And yeah, the fire beetles charged him.

 

[Bandreus]

two hit 12+12, luck on the beatles (luck was the breath hitting 4 times in a row, not just the damage roll), still the Warlock had to make the cleric stand up asap, he was a fool.

For such a small party, I don't see the cleric like a good choice, a pally would bring some high AC, damage and more than enought healing on the battlefield. Oh, and still, 4E is perfectly playable even in 2vs2 or 3vs3, given you plan your party well. Multiclassing is a solid option here, since you'll be able to cover the missing roles. And good tactics is a must.

Last thought. I'm not all that experienced as a DM, but to me in a 2vs2 fight, 2 brutes is maybe the worst encounter to stand against, since the party won't probably have enought firepower to take them down quickly. So even for a lvl1 encounter, it was a tough one, imo

 

[RefinedBean]

Heh, you're right.

Well then, it could've been EVEN WORSE, which is scary.

 

[Minigiant]

Their Con is too low. They shouldn't drop at 24 damage.
Same with initiative, they should have went first.

but 2 brutes is a tough fight without a defender.

With a warlock and cleric I'd stick to controllers, skirmishers, and lurkers mostly.

 

[hong]

You know, if the PCs survived, that isn't a TPK....

 

[generalhenry]

it was way too close and had to be fudged.