Happened today: Pal5/Clr3, Pal8, Drd8 and PsyWar8 go up against a Half-Earth Elemental Orc Mnk8 (CR 11 by my estimation) who trapped them in a confined outdoors area with ridges to jump onto and cast Spike Stones on the ground.
Needless to say, this was a pretty tough fight for them, especially as the Monk had drank a potion of haste (he was ambushing them after all). In three rounds he proceeds to absolutely beat them into pulp, dropping the Pal/Clr to -20 hp or so with some lucky rolls (including a huge critical). Their tactics so far mostly consisted of walking around on Spike Stones (which I kindly allowed the Druid to explain them about) and nothing much else (they had potions of Haste themselves, for example).
The Druid is now also down to 25 hp or so and the Pal/Clr is still dead on the floor. Now the Druid thinks it's a good idea to use this Last Breath (or something, MoTW) spell on the Paladin. Basically it's a Raise Dead that has to be cast in the round someone died and it deals 1d6 (I think) dmg per hit dice of the raised character. I (again) kindly warn him that he's got a good chance of putting himself out of combat (average rolls would mean he'd go below 0) and that the Paladin will be coming back to life a) prone and b) with 0 hp.
Player casts the spell anyway (there were Clerics a day away who could have raised the Paladin BTW - they had good reasons to do so too), drops himself to exactly 0 hp and brings the Paladin back to 0 hp. The Monk goes right after the Druid, one-two's them and drops both of them to negative hp.
Luckily for them I have house ruled that you can go to -con hp. The Druid ended up at -10 (and would have been dead at -12), the Paladin (who was prone and never stood a chance) ended up at -14 (dead at -16). The Monk was *well* capable of killing both of them (20+ str, Fists of Iron feat with uses left), but the dice went with the players. I probably should have cheated and killed the Druid for stupidity, after all the poor Paladin was being put in line for two deaths in two rounds by his actions.
After that I actually pulled my punches a bit and let the other two players (who had been acceptably smart and sensible) overcome the Monk in a suitably heroic fashion. It felt wrong to punish them for the stupidity of the Druid (who should have retreated behind the tanks and cast some of the very nasty spells he has, which are pretty much always the deciding factor for this party when the going gets tough), else it would have been TPK.
Needless to say, this was a pretty tough fight for them, especially as the Monk had drank a potion of haste (he was ambushing them after all). In three rounds he proceeds to absolutely beat them into pulp, dropping the Pal/Clr to -20 hp or so with some lucky rolls (including a huge critical). Their tactics so far mostly consisted of walking around on Spike Stones (which I kindly allowed the Druid to explain them about) and nothing much else (they had potions of Haste themselves, for example).
The Druid is now also down to 25 hp or so and the Pal/Clr is still dead on the floor. Now the Druid thinks it's a good idea to use this Last Breath (or something, MoTW) spell on the Paladin. Basically it's a Raise Dead that has to be cast in the round someone died and it deals 1d6 (I think) dmg per hit dice of the raised character. I (again) kindly warn him that he's got a good chance of putting himself out of combat (average rolls would mean he'd go below 0) and that the Paladin will be coming back to life a) prone and b) with 0 hp.
Player casts the spell anyway (there were Clerics a day away who could have raised the Paladin BTW - they had good reasons to do so too), drops himself to exactly 0 hp and brings the Paladin back to 0 hp. The Monk goes right after the Druid, one-two's them and drops both of them to negative hp.
Luckily for them I have house ruled that you can go to -con hp. The Druid ended up at -10 (and would have been dead at -12), the Paladin (who was prone and never stood a chance) ended up at -14 (dead at -16). The Monk was *well* capable of killing both of them (20+ str, Fists of Iron feat with uses left), but the dice went with the players. I probably should have cheated and killed the Druid for stupidity, after all the poor Paladin was being put in line for two deaths in two rounds by his actions.
After that I actually pulled my punches a bit and let the other two players (who had been acceptably smart and sensible) overcome the Monk in a suitably heroic fashion. It felt wrong to punish them for the stupidity of the Druid (who should have retreated behind the tanks and cast some of the very nasty spells he has, which are pretty much always the deciding factor for this party when the going gets tough), else it would have been TPK.
