|
Author
|
Comment
|
Kylearanon
Here for a while
(3/19/03 6:45 am)
Reply
|
just to share some depressive experiences ... :)
Yesterday night my players saw the Old Temple for the first time. Well, here is what they did:
Climbed up the north west wall of the compound (making quite some noise in pulling the heavily plated dwarf up with a rope *grin*). Then standing on the wall they began to look and argue .. and man, they were so loud that even the dead could have heard them. Anyway, I decided the hob-goblins in the tower didnīt really care because of their indifference (leave me and I leave you). And the ones in the ruin at least know now that someone entered the area. I didnīt really decide yet what the temple guards heard or did.
So they saw the tower, went towards it on the wall. And argued again what to do. While arguing the rogue jumped down trying to sneak past the arrow slit. While doing so all the others jumped down and just ran past the rogue rumbling and rolling.  I really couldnīt hide a grin. Then standing before the door the barbarian tried to open. A voice came from the inside "Who there ? Go away?". I played the hob-goblins a little dumb (I like them that way). Since the door was locked the barbarian prepared to batter it down.
While going back some feet to have a little startup the wizard casts a knock on the door but didnīt tell what he was doing.
There I had to grin even more.
Barbarian charged and took the whole door with him.
You wouldnīt believe how dumbfounded the hob-gobs inside were. Anyway, in his rush he took the first two of them down with him.
Then it began.
To make a sad story short, first was killed my magic missiles from the wizard. One got sneak attacked by the rogue (23 points of damage  ). Hob-gobs almost all missed. Goblins began throwing fire but didnīt do much damage. Barbarian cleaved 2 hob-gobs down to size. And next round the remaining two.
The goblins cowered in fear now in the upper floor. All went upstairs, save for the rogue (examining the doors) and the mage who was now entering the tower (CLOSING THE DOOR behind him and locking it ... he never did that before). Upstairs the monk tried to intimidate the lead goblin and smacked him .. he retaliated with a knife and therefore got cleaved from head to toe. Now the goblins panicked. One went out the window and died  . The other two tried to escape to the stairwell and down to the door. One was caught and grappled by the monk the other managed to get away. Only below he found the door closed and tried to open it ... frantically dragging and jerking the door lock, beating it and pulling and screaming and jumping. That was a funny view now  . The rogue seeing him coming down the stairs and going crazy on the door just walked up behind it and thrust her katana right through it. (sheīs going for assassin some day, by the way). Then she walked up the stairs, kind of bored and annoyed, and asked "What was that now" ?.
The monk, getting continously beaten in the meantime by his grappled goblin is losing his temper now and throws this last goblin out the window. But he makes a great save and jump check and begins to hobble away.
Rogue again:"I put my katana away, take out my crossbow, go to the window and send a bolt after the goblin. Goblin was
some 100 feet away now. She rolled a natural 20 and the goblin doubled over.
That was it. Hmm, what can I say ... it was real fun ... ! But darn, my group has not the slightest notion of how to do something without ringing every bell beforehand. Still the encounter was more than easy. The barbarian alone cuts through every horde of foes "like moses through the red sea", doing an average damage of 15-18 and with and attack roll of usually 20-something.
Anyway ... the poor creatures didnīt stand a chance from the beginning.
Well, just wanted to share my very singular groupīs exploits ...
Cheers
Kyle
|
madfox
Still here? Wow.
(3/19/03 7:34 am)
Reply
|
Re: just to share some depressive experiences ... :)
The tower is an easy encounter, but it had the bad effect of making my players think the rest of the temple would be easy as well. They knew otherwise the next day when they were forced into a very humilating surrender. Luckily, Utreshimon needed the PCs for something or else they would have ended up dead.
|
benhamtroll
Here to stay
(3/19/03 7:58 am)
Reply
|
Re: just to share some depressive experiences ... :)
My party hit the tower after the Temple, so it was a cake walk. I think your party will quickly learn how tough hobs can be when they get into the temple proper and everyone is alerted and the defenses are prepared against them.
I'd probably have one set of gate guards come to investigate the noise, following their normal tactics. If they see the party, three fight while number 4 runs to warn the others in the temple. When the party enters the temple, they will meet a very organized and prepared force with cover, bows, and javelins. It should be quite tough.
There's no business like gnoll business |
Entropius
Here for a while
(3/19/03 8:14 am)
Reply
|
Those goblins...
My PC's just did the Ruined Temple (log to follow soon). Several people were knocked down into the single digits, and I could have killed someone had I had the hobgobs focus their attacks on him more. They're vulnerable to area spells, but our 6th wizard only had two fireballs ready...
Most of the party has AC 19 or 20, but those +5 greatsword attacks still tend to get through once in a while, especially with flanking. And they hurt ... a lot. If I hadn't forgotten that they all had a potion of bull's strength, it could have easily resulted in the deaths of several people.
Add to this that most of the party spent quite a while beating on Rarkus (with his high AC and their bad rolls to start, fairly ineffectively), and they were taking lots of damage. I gave them spot checks every round to notice that some of his wounds were closing up every round (Krebbich and the wand of cure light wounds), and they finally deduced the presence of the invisible adept. He successfully spellcrafted the wizard's [i]see invisibility[/i], so he ran, casting [i]command[/i] on the way, and getting run down by the barbarian.
The dire ape is also incredibly nasty against foes with low AC--especially mages. IMC it got in a scrap with the druid's tiger companion, which the kitty won... barely. Yowch that cat is nasty.
I don't know how prepared and smart you want the hobgoblins to be, but if they have time to plan tactics (especially if they suspect area spells), have them fan out with the regular hobgoblins a bit in front. They'll draw out magic, leaving the elites (just as fragile, but hit much harder) to charge in and hopefully get a few good whacks in.
|
Killiak 
Here for a while
(3/19/03 8:43 am)
Reply
|
Re: Those goblins...
Remember, a traveling druid only gets his HD when it comes to Animal Companions, not 2x!!!!
|
 Infiniti2000
Still here? Wow.
(3/19/03 11:54 am)
Reply
ezSupporter
|
Re: Those goblins...
True, but a tiger is only 6HD and since the wizard is 6th level, maybe the druid is too.
IMC, the hobgoblins were prepared, everyone used their potions of bull's strength and they were kicking butt, until the wizard tossed in a glitterdust...blinding a hobbie and revealing the high-level adept Krebbich. Btw, I also had Alubya rejoin their forces. It was a difficult battle, but the PC's won the day, and managed to not kill Rarkus. To this day, they are having Rarkus rebuild his force at the temple! He is now up to like 20 hobgoblins.
I'd be interested in ideas on what to do with them...
|
Taxman66
Here for a while
(3/19/03 12:37 pm)
Reply
|
Re: Those goblins...
Have them get crushed by the temple forces but have Rarkus get away and eventually provide the PCs with some usefull information. The more they support Rarkus the more usefull the info. Perhaps even dink the temple's forces for having to encounter stiffer than expected resistance.
Taxman
"It takes an uncommon mind to think of these things, Hobbes." - Calvin
|
madfox
Still here? Wow.
(3/20/03 5:32 am)
Reply
|
Re: Those goblins...
If you portray the hobgoblins as truly tactical minded, they might not go for close formations when facing artillery (and a wizard with a fireball is basically artillery) or even single PCs. In my battle the hobgoblins succesfully tried to lure the PCs into seperate groups and they tried to limit the effectiveness of cleave by manoeuvring around. Then when the PCs where split up, the big three (Utrshimon, the dire ape and the hobgoblin leader) came on the battlefield selecting easy targets.
On a side note about the see invisibility, that allows only the wizard to see the invisible person. Is a wizard really that much a threat to force an adept to flee and even risk blowing his invisibility on a fairly ineffective spell like command?
|
Entropius
Here for a while
(3/20/03 7:53 am)
Reply
|
See Invisibility
Our wizard, after casting See Invisibility, planned to throw an illusion spell (silent image, methinks) on Krebbich and concentrate to move it around as he moved. Not quite the same as seeing him for the rest of the PC's, but easily enough for the rest of the party to target him.
Krebbich of course didn't know that, but he had seen said wizard cast several nasty offensive spells (two fireballs and sundry other things), and didn't want to be blown apart... yeah, it was a tactical mistake on my part. DM's do that too.
(and my players do that all the time, like the cleric not healing himself at 1 hp and getting killed by Lareth, or people not using their spells intelligently... during the fight with the hobgob elites the druid had a heat metal prepared the whole time! )
|
madfox
Still here? Wow.
(3/21/03 2:37 am)
Reply
|
Re: See Invisibility
Quote:
Our wizard, after casting See Invisibility, planned to throw an illusion spell (silent image, methinks) on Krebbich and concentrate to move it around as he moved. Not quite the same as seeing him for the rest of the PC's, but easily enough for the rest of the party to target him.
Mmmm, still a 50% misschance, but it certainly beats having an argument with the DM if if the wizard can verbally tell exactly in which square the invisbile opponent is standing. Nice tactic.
My intention with the remark though was never to put you on the defensive. On a side note - fleeing in itself was not really a big tactical error, it was the attack. Anyway, as any normal person I make errors as well.
Madfox,
who still thinks with shame of the fact that a druid villain casted heat metal on a plate wearing fighter while the druids companion had the swallow whole ability. Dumb animals do not swallow whole opponents glowing red hot. It actually saved the life of that particular fighter, even though it kept him out of battle for three rounds.
|
Cordo Crowfoot
Here to stay
(3/21/03 6:14 am)
Reply
|
Re: See Invisibility
My experience was the same as it seems Madfox's was, my players went to the tower first, and were overconfident in the temple due to their easy time of it.
I wouldn't have the guards from area 1 move in by themselves if they clearly outnumbered, however. I might sick the dogs on them first, and see how they did. In the unlikely even the first two rounds go well for the dogs, charge... Otherwise fall back to 5.
The guards at 5 of course should probably have already warned the entire inside area, so they should be ready.
Just in case you are interested, here is what I had the Hobgoblins in my campaign do. It worked pretty well:
They set up a line of normal (non-elite) hobgoblins 10' apart about 40' back from where the temple doglegs back to 8 (just to the nortwest of the number "7" on the map). The hobgoblins readied actions to throw javelins at the first person they saw with their 60' darkvision.
The idea is to get the invaders to charge their position. I then had the hobgoblins charge, trying to grapple the two most dangerous looking members of the group (preference to grapple elves). They charged along with the goblins who were to try to grapple any small sized party members. Once the party were good and engaged with this group, the elites, Krebitch, Rarkus, and the Dire Ape all charged from where they were hiding just south of the number 8 on the map. The elites should try to concentrate on one or two characters if possible, concentrating their attacks and rolling up the flank so to speak. Rarkus should move in and try to finish off anyone who is grappled (since they will lose their dexterity) and the Dire Ape should be sicked on a spellcaster type.
"They were immediately and absolutely recognizable as adventurers. They were hardy and dangerous, lawless, stripped of allegiance or morality, living off their wits, stealing and killing, hiring themselves out to whoever and whatever came... They were scum who died violent deaths, hanging on to a certain cachet among the impressionable through their undeniable bravery and their occasionally impressive exploits" China Mieville, Perdido Street Station |
|
Okay -- Your Turn
Email This To a Friend
Topic Commands
Click to receive email notification of replies 
Click to stop receiving email notification of replies