Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 72005" data-attributes="member: 2011">Actually, we were planning on resting before meeting the golem. We were seriously low on spells and many PCs were damaged.But, I think the reason the Ranger hit the button is that we were at the top level of the tower. Nowhere left to go and we had just killed the three fire zombies there. He didn't tell me this, but I think he thought the tower was over as far as monsters were concerned and he was looking for treasure, not another fight.As for being fully rested up, I think people forget that even fully healed and with full spells, we would have gotten our butts handed to us in that first battle. It’s next to impossible to anticipate that type of battle where you must have specific spells, or you cannot really damage the creature enough before it lays waste to the party. Even fully rested, I cannot see any way that we could have taken on the Golem without knowing it was there ahead of time without losing at least a PC. Knowing it’s there, that’s a different story.And like I said, the second battle looked like a slam dunk. If I would have not come up with the plan for the "magical spear", we absolutely would have rested. But, we let our emotions get the better of us when a “full proof” plan came up. It's kind of like a chess game (for those who have played in tournament chess) where it is almost time for an adjournment and your move looks so obvious that instead of taking the last few minutes on the clock and double checking it and sealing it, you instead make it. Suddenly, you realize that it was not so good after all.The same happened with the second battle. It looked like we could not lose according to the rules (or at least that the risk was extremely low), so we just went and did it. Oh well. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />People keep posting that the module warned the DM and stated that the golem is a tough challenge. Actually, according to what Wolfspider posted earlier, the module did the exact opposite.This implies that the golem CAN be handled by a low level group of PCs. It says that it is a much weaker monster, not the powerhouse it normally is.It is not a warning. Rather, it is a poor rationalization as to why this powerful monster is there.Wolfspider also posted that the creature was listed as having 35 hit points and was CR 3. Halving its average damage from 14 to 7.5 and dropping its hits from 49 to 35 does NOT drop it from a CR 7 to a CR 3 creature.Please show me another CR 3 creature that effectively has 6 HD, Damage Reduction 15/+1, immunity to most spells, and immunity to criticals.I doubt you can. DMs are actually lured into believing that this creature is less powerful than it really is by that quote from the module and the CR 3 listed. It’s not a warning, it’s a misleading reassurance.Finally, what some posters fail to remember is that DND is a game about people. It’s the players and DMs who play and benefit from the game and the main idea behind the game is to have fun.It is no fun when your character dies due to an overly powerful monster being placed in the scenario by the designer to “have an encounter designed to force the PCs to run away as opposed to fighting”. That is the most lame reason to be a killer DM that I have heard.To me, the slightly weakened Golem here is similar to the Roper put into Forge of Fury, just to have PCs run away. If you have inexperienced players or the players who actually roleplay that their characters do not know what a Roper is, then you will typically get a few PC deaths, just because the designer wanted to teach PCs a lesson. Some lesson: let’s not play in this DMs world. Bogus.Yes, the game involves risk. But, a killer DM can wipe out a party anytime he wants. Let’s not put that bogus kind of crap in modules as well. JMO.</blockquote>

Verification