NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 6121691" data-attributes="member: 37579">Fun was had. But I'll give the full story. We had an absent player so it was only a three man group: paladin (warden), cleric (storm), and druid (moon circle). This is a filler game as a break between our regular campaign so the role-playing was a little light. There was still a lot of fun, especially after the cleric player realized she could choose the colour of her light spell, which was being cast on the paladin's armour. So the paladin was running around glowing bright pink.  I have a metric crap tonne of minis and use battlemaps a lot so my Theatre of the Mind was rusty and one of the players (very visual) struggled to get the descriptions. After solving the Sphinx's riddle, they went right down the middle passage and beat up the kelpies with the paladin only taking a little bruising. The spinning corridor really slowed them down and did a surprising amount of damage. The druid sent his familiar in first and it was shot by the fighter on watch. This prompted some debate over how a familiar heals and if it was worth it to burn a potion. They joked that an injured familiar was no good so they should just mercy-kill it and summon a new one, miming snapping its neck while giving it sympathy for the arrow wound. (They opted to let it live.) They assumed the arrow was a trap the familiar set off so the druid went through the tunnel and was flopping around when the fighter set it on fire. The druid stumbled out (they still thought it was a trap) so everyone decided to wait until the grease stopped burning giving the were-wizard time to buff the fighter who leapt to attack the still flailing druid. The pally and cleric quickly dove through the (still burning) tunnel ending prone at the feet of the fighter who happily whumped the prone paladin that appeared at his feet. The wizard dumped a stinking cloud in the end of the chamber, chocking out the party. (I'm not particularly impressed by how stinking cloud works in Next. It was a non-offensive control spell and now it's just another AoE, and if you position it right, it can do a crap tonne of damage, more than fireball as you can catch people in it multiple rounds.) The druid went off to solo the wizathrope and after waffling on what spell opted for moonbean as an okay offensive spell, unaware he was fighting a werewolf. So that hurt the wizard's effectiveness. The fighter dropped quickly but the wizard managed a few more rounds of damage with some high level magic missiles. Everyone mopped up, rested, and backtracked to head down the corridor towards the crab. Seeing the doors in that corridor close securely and suspecting shenanigans, they piton the doors open. They reach the boiling lake and quickly laugh as the crab can't get out of the chamber. Not realizing the magical bubble in the boiling lake was puncture-able, everyone sat back while the paladin pumped arrows into the crab. Dexterity was an okay stat for him so I allowed the cheap potshots knowing he was bound to miss eventually and puncture the bubble flooding the chamber and putting everyone on the clock or risking losing an item. Plus, in case you haven't seen the crab's stats, it's pretty damn tough and can take a few cheap shots from a bow. The pally would miss on an 10 or lower so I figured it'd be 2-3 rounds then things would get interesting. Nine roundsof deadly strike crossbow bolts later with the crab  at half hitpoints and the pally finally misses and the bubble pops. The druid rushes in, gets scalded by the water and floored by the crab. The cleric and pally dump some spells into the crab, which paired with the water, finish off the beast. And fills the shrinking chamber with a delicious smell. The cleric heals the druid then grabs the chest (with Wave inside) and they skedaddle. The druid spent three rounds sizzling in the water but he had used resist energy prior and stabilized after his death saves, so he came out of the fight alive.But now there's a wave of water rushing after them. Since the paladin secured the pitons to the door I have him make three Strength checks to set the DC for how secure the doors are stuck. His dice have been on fire all night and now is no exception. All three pitons are really securely in place. The group frantically pulls on the doors, each taking one, before a lucky roll jars one loose and the slam it shut avoiding flooding half the dungeon with boiling water.After a short rest and some potions, the group continues on down the left/west passage. They puzzle at the metal plates for some time before walking down and realizing the heat metal effect. Throwing their gear in backpacks and tying it with rope and dashing forward. When it burns through their bags they used a magical maul (wooden handle) to shuffleboard their gear into the room, just in time for a ghoul ambush. Which were insta-turned by the cleric. I missed the note that the ghouls couldn't be turned, which does seem a little cheap given that's traditionally the cleric's chance to shine. ("Gee, sorry wizard, the oily rag golem is warded against fireball.") But it emphasised how broken turn undead can be against waves of weak undead. From there they entered the frictionless room and the druid prompted found himself sliding face first in a pit of razors. But, druids be immune to disease, so the deadly instant super-tetanus did nothing. The druid tied a rope to himself which was kept taut and slid about the floor until they reached the far door. But not before bashing off and taking a handful of razors covered with save-or-die super instant tetanus.From there they went the way I was hoping they wouldn't go and went north to the kayak room. A 10th level fighter and his many 4th level fighters are a nasty encounter. I opted to scale it back to just Sir Bluto and one flunkie, which was still a potent fight for my level 7 party. Seeing the water (and having been dunked over his head twice so far), the paladin took of his armour (again) and hoped in a kayak and muddled into the stream, followed quickly by the others. And was promptly ambushed. Seeing trouble, the paladin flopped out of the kayak onto the floor, laying prone and unarmoured at the feet of the villains. Three attacks. Advantage. Somehow I still managed to hit once.Everyone rushed in. The paladin entangled the area (another crowd control spell that does damage. WTF?!) And then Sir Bluto responded with his ungodly number of attacks and high damage aimed directly at the paladin. He hit with a critical I was positive was going slay outright, but only sent the paladin into low, low negatives. -17 with death at -21. The druid and cleric twacked the weaker fighter and turned to Sir Bluto, who exchanged blows with the cleric before knocking her down. After failing to death saves but only rolling "1" for damage, the paladin was sitting scared at -19. He failed his third death save and bled out 4 points, dying on the ground. Sir Bluto turned to the druid, and struck hard but the druid remained on his feet and obliterated the fallen knight with his last high level spell. TPK narrowly avoided. While the cleric was healed, they were down one party member and everyone low in resourced we called it for the night.</blockquote>

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