DM Thoughts: Session 08
The previous week, the party faced one test of their combat abilities: being outnumbered over the course of an extended fight. This week, they faced the opposite challenge: having the numbers greatly on their side, but against a seemingly indestructable foe. It proved to be quite a bit more difficult.
The set-up for this fight was that Lavinia finally had access to her family vault under Castle Teraknian. With the party's assistance, she was now going to enter it and discover whether or not it had already been robbed by her brother.
What the party did not know was that the Lotus Dragons had set up a trap in the form of a deadly mechanical assassin called an Iron Cobra. With a potent venom and incredible defenses, such a creature could easily best a single opponent. If Lavinia had gone alone, she would have had no chance against it. Yet, with their numbers totalling five, the party should have been able to fight off the Cobra without great difficulty. However, their specific class and feat choices had made this fight far worse than could have been expected.
This was largely due to two elements: damage reduction and spell resistance. Coincidentally, both of these are elements that will reappear in the campaign, though much much later. So in a way, this fight was to be a preview of a distant future, where the party would no longer be fighting only humanoids, both easily hit and vulnerable to spells.
And so, with the party make-up, this fight became very tough. Glaive's spells were all but useless against the high spell resistance of the cobra. Crimson did not possess the strength and damage potential to overcome its damage reduction. And both Gustave and Garland needed to get pretty lucky with their damage rolls to have much of a chance, either. Add to that a strength-crippling poison that reduced Gustave's power, and Garland was soon the only hope for victory. Yet, as always, my players' best asset is their brains and knack for unconventional problem-solving, so they came up with a sound plan to use the terrain to their advantage, having the rolling vault door crush the cobra with a well-timed activation. Though suggested nowhere in the adventure, I thought it was smart and effective, and was prepared to allow the plan to work - though an unlucky roll kept it from happening. Yet, in time, the party was able to survive thanks to Garland being risen from unconsciousness a couple of times. And so, a memorable fight served as a definite warning to them, of just how limited their power could be, when pitted against the right enemy. Hopefully they will remember this later on in the campaign, when the use of proper weapons to beat damage reduction could make all the difference in the fight.
The set-up for this fight was that Lavinia finally had access to her family vault under Castle Teraknian. With the party's assistance, she was now going to enter it and discover whether or not it had already been robbed by her brother.
What the party did not know was that the Lotus Dragons had set up a trap in the form of a deadly mechanical assassin called an Iron Cobra. With a potent venom and incredible defenses, such a creature could easily best a single opponent. If Lavinia had gone alone, she would have had no chance against it. Yet, with their numbers totalling five, the party should have been able to fight off the Cobra without great difficulty. However, their specific class and feat choices had made this fight far worse than could have been expected.
This was largely due to two elements: damage reduction and spell resistance. Coincidentally, both of these are elements that will reappear in the campaign, though much much later. So in a way, this fight was to be a preview of a distant future, where the party would no longer be fighting only humanoids, both easily hit and vulnerable to spells.
And so, with the party make-up, this fight became very tough. Glaive's spells were all but useless against the high spell resistance of the cobra. Crimson did not possess the strength and damage potential to overcome its damage reduction. And both Gustave and Garland needed to get pretty lucky with their damage rolls to have much of a chance, either. Add to that a strength-crippling poison that reduced Gustave's power, and Garland was soon the only hope for victory. Yet, as always, my players' best asset is their brains and knack for unconventional problem-solving, so they came up with a sound plan to use the terrain to their advantage, having the rolling vault door crush the cobra with a well-timed activation. Though suggested nowhere in the adventure, I thought it was smart and effective, and was prepared to allow the plan to work - though an unlucky roll kept it from happening. Yet, in time, the party was able to survive thanks to Garland being risen from unconsciousness a couple of times. And so, a memorable fight served as a definite warning to them, of just how limited their power could be, when pitted against the right enemy. Hopefully they will remember this later on in the campaign, when the use of proper weapons to beat damage reduction could make all the difference in the fight.
posted by Markus the Mad | 8:02 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home