When Hook Horrors Attack!

[MerricB]

Over the past few weeks, I've been playing through WGR1: Greyhawk Ruins. Yes, playing - a friend has agreed to DM me and some of my other friends through that adventure.

I've been playing a Radiant Servant of Pelor in this game. The adventure is full of massive threats and treasure, so we've been levelling up very, very quickly indeed. Those of us who have survived, at least. One 7 hour session will normally get us about 2 levels! Very Monty Haulish.

So, Alvares Yulos, my priest, is now 10th level. We're having a lot of fun, though!

Anyway, last Sunday, we wandered into a room with thirty three Hook Horrors! Hmm.

At that time, the party was as follows:

* Harald, halfling Fighter 4/Rogue 2/Master Thrower 3
* "Mighty Braveman", half-orc Barbarian 5/Occult Slayer 3 (who is ignoring all the role-playing implications of the class...)
* Lady Misal, elf Ninja 7
* "Bob", elf Scout 7
* Alvares, human Cleric 6/Radiant Servant of Pelor 3 (my character)
* Aritheraith, elf Wizard 6 (my cohort) (with elf substitution levels)

So, what do you think happened?

Yes, we won. Eventually. After about an hour. Oh, and "Mighty Braveman" fell during the last stages of the combat, when he got too far away from me to be healed.

It was interesting to see the role of the various members of the party:
* The Master Thrower drunk a potion of spider-climbing and spent the combat hanging from the roof out of reach and throwing daggers.
* The Barbarian kept moving to cleave and power attacking as much as possible. Hook Horrors have a good AC, but not good enough...
* The Ninja was using Spring Attack and Ki Invisibility on the Horrors, and generally protecting my character from harm.
* The Scout was moving around, trying to keep away, and shoot arrows at the Horrors. He also was protecting my character from harm.
* The Wizard cast Haste, and then a fireballs, and then a few magic missiles, and shortly was out of spells. I haven't got his magic items right, yet, and we'd already encountered a couple of monsters.
* The Cleric (me) cast Daylight (Hook Horrors are sensitive to bright light), Prayer, Bless and then healing spells on the various PCs as required. A couple of Spiritual Weapons were set up, but eventually spent half their time not attacking, due to me being distracted.

Alas, when the Barbarian fell, I was too far away to use the Revivify spell I had prepared. (I had to use a scroll of Raise Dead instead).

However, here's a point: as the cleric, my main role in the combat was just casting Healing spells to keep the others going. Now, I'm very, very good at that. (Radiant Servant of Pelor with Augment Healing feat... wow!) However, whilst I'm doing that I'm not attacking.

Do the priests in your campaigns act in a similar fashion, or do they go more the Divine Favour and Power and Righteous Might route?

I think my DM misread the adventure, btw, for he interpreted the entire cavern system to have six of these chambers! (I think it should be 33 hook horrors over 6 chambers...)

Interestingly, we used miniatures for the combat. Very, very useful. Alas, I don't have 33 Hook Horrors. I have one. So, we just used some of my other large D&D Miniatures as proxies. I had enough. (Actually, I think I'm up to about 50 large D&D Miniatures... )

For reference, here is my character at the moment:

Alvares Yulos, male human Cleric 6/Radiant Servant of Pelor 4
HD 6d8+4d6+10; hp 53; Init +0; Spd 20 ft; AC 23, t12, ff23; BAB +7; Grp +9; Atk +10 melee (1d8+3, +1 heavy mace) or +8 ranged (1d8+1, +1 light crossbow); Full Atk +10/+5 melee (1d8+3, +1 heavy mace) or +8 ranged (1d8+1, +1 light crossbow); SA spells, greater turning; turn undead; SQ aura of warding; empowered healing; immune disease; radiance; AL NG; SV Fort +10; Ref +3; Will +16; Str 14, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 20, Cha 15.

Skills: Concentration +12, Diplomacy +14, Heal +11, Knowledge (nobility) +6, Knowledge (religion) +12, Sense Motive +6, Spellcraft +4
Feats: Augment Healing; Divine Spell Power; Extra Turning; Leadership; Rapid Spell
Domains: Healing, Sun.
* Turn Undead 9/day (Greater Turning 5/day)
* Healing Domain spells are automatically Empowered.

Cleric Spells Prepared: (6/7/6/5/5/4/4, DC 15+spell level, CL10):
orisons-detect magic x2, guidance, light ,read magic x2
1st-bless, command x2, cure light wounds*, hide from undead, obscuring mist, comprehend languages
2nd-align weapon; consecrate, cure moderate wounds*, lesser restoration, spiritual weapon x2.
3rd-dispel magic x2, cure serious wounds*, prayer, remove curse.
4th-cure critical wounds*, death ward, neutralise poison, restoration, rapid monster summoning III
5th-revivify, mass cure light wounds*, rapid summon monster IV; summon monster V

Important Magic Gear: +1 heavy mace, +1 light crossbow, +3 breastplate, +2 light wooden shield, periapt of wisdom +2, cloak of charisma +2, gauntlets of ogre power, bracers of health +2, +2 ring of protection, Everburning torch, Heward's handy haversack

Cheers!

 

[Darkness]

* Harald, halfling Fighter 4/Rogue 2/Master Thrower 3
* "Mighty Braveman", half-orc Barbarian 5/Occult Slayer 3 (who is ignoring all the role-playing implications of the class...)
* Lady Misal, elf Ninja 7
* "Bob", elf Scout 7
* Alvares, human Cleric 6/Radiant Servant of Pelor 3 (my character)
* Aritheraith, elf Wizard 6 (my cohort) (with elf substitution levels)

9, 8, 7, 7, 9, cohort 6

Let's call it a 9th level party due to greater numbers.

vs.

33
hook horrors (CR 6, 10 HD Large Aberration)

33 creatures is off the DMG chart but I'd call that ca. EL 16. (10-12 creatures would be EL 13.)

Pretty bad. Nice job.

 

[Flyspeck23]

Sounds like a fun battle

However, here's a point: as the cleric, my main role in the combat was just casting Healing spells to keep the others going. Now, I'm very, very good at that. (Radiant Servant of Pelor with Augment Healing feat... wow!) However, whilst I'm doing that I'm not attacking.

Do the priests in your campaigns act in a similar fashion, or do they go more the Divine Favour and Power and Righteous Might route?

There's no cleric in our latest campaign (Eberron), despite the fact that there are 6 characters. Stupid, eh?

But usually, it depends upon the fight. If it's going bad, then the cleric will need to cast as many healing spells as possible, or otherwise...

So, more often than not, I'd say it's pretty normal for the cleric to do mostly healing and no bashing. Even more so if she's the only healer in the party.

(Then again, the cleric in our other campaign is actually a multiclassed fighter/cleric. But there's a paladin too, so they more or less share the healing equally, and both will get offensive in virtually every fight.)

 

[cmanos]

I'm currently playing a Priest of Kord. He's the second strongest and second most able fighter in the group, coming in right behind the dwarven barbarian. Wielding his greatsword and charging into melee gets him in trouble more time than not. Yes, currently most of my spellcasting is for healing, but I am DEFINITELY not staying back and playing medic. In our last game, he was down to -5hp from his max with one round of combat with a Stonespike. Yes he is first level, but he's not the kind to cower in the back and play medic. That's the druid's job.

 

[Piratecat]

Sagiro's game has three clerics in it: a cleric 15, a cleric 10/fighter 5, and a cleric 5/rogue 6/lasher 3. We definitely have to balance kicking butt with keeping people alive. We've balanced this a bit by distributing potions and healing wands to people who can use them, and depending on the encounter by having one cleric on "support" duty.

For instance, I'm playing the lasher, and I'm GREAT at stealth and sneak attacks. In the huge climactic encounter that we had recently, all of our enemies were immune to sneak attacks (those jerks!) As a result, I spent much of the combat casting buffing spells and moving around keeping people alive. It's a different type of fun, but I think it's just as rewarding to me. When you see three or four attacks hit that wouldn't have if you hadn't cast prayer, that's a nice feeling.

 

[Ravellion]

When I played a radiant servant of Pelor, I usually did not even draw my mace. Buffing the group and/or fighter, dispelling nasty stuff (such as enemy haste), and healing took up most of my rounds. When a friend of mine plays a cleric it is always a good melee combatant. I'd say it's personal style.

Rav

 

[Numion]

I'm currently playing Half-Orc Cleric level 8, with War and Trickery domains. He kicks more butt than the Dwarven barbarian. I use a Falchion since it has a high threat range so my large STR bonus and Divine Favor bonus gets multiplied.

Also the Trickery domains invisibility gives a nice start to combats, I can sneak behind the enemy lines to get flanking bonuses and a nice bonus to attack.

I think that clerics rock. Very versatile and very good in terms of power.

 

[azmodean]

* The Master Thrower drunk a potion of spider-climbing and spent the combat hanging from the roof out of reach and throwing daggers.

The subject can climb and travel on vertical surfaces or even traverse ceilings as well as a spider does. The affected creature must have its hands free to climb in this manner

This is somehow a very common tactic that is just not supposed to work.

But back to the topic at hand...
I find it mostly depends on the player, I've seen clerics who don't even have a melee weapon because they'd rather be casting bless, even at high levels than wade into combat. On the other hand I've seen clerics who don't do any healing at all in combat, and no buffing on the rest of the party (unless it just happens to hit the whole group, like bless or prayer).

 

[diaglo]

I think my DM misread the adventure, btw, for he interpreted the entire cavern system to have six of these chambers! (I think it should be 33 hook horrors over 6 chambers...)

i think you are right. tu as raison. but who cares as long as you are having fun.


as for clerics only healing. i think it depends on the party and the players involved. our cleric refuses to heal. the bard and the druid did most of the healing for us.

 

[BlackMoria]

I think my DM misread the adventure, btw, for he interpreted the entire cavern system to have six of these chambers! (I think it should be 33 hook horrors over 6 chambers...)

Extrapolating your DM's understanding, that means that you get to enjoy fighting 165 more hook horrors (33 x 5 remaining rooms.)

Enjoy....