Hzurr
2009-09-29, 02:28 PM
As I'm sure some of you are aware, my group is playing through the 4E campaigns (modified), and are currently about 90% of the way through H3 - Pyramid of Shadows. Last night, after a particularly brutal fight, I stopped back to think about some of the encounters, and it seems to me that the pyramid almost overly difficult. I currently have 6 players, am not adjusting the difficulty, and they're only making it through by the skin of their teeth, (and that's with me pulling a few punches. Not many, but it has made the difference between life and death on at least an occasion or two). The party is overall a very capable group. There's a couple of members who are a little weak, so it could probably be seen as a party of 5.5 characters rather than 6. They have plenty of healing, good damage output, pretty good front liners, and the best controlling I've ever seen. These guys are no amateurs, but the pyramid is beating them like British Orphans.
A few of the biggest problem encounters I've seen so far- Note: There will be spoilers, so if you're playing it, or are planning to play it, you might want to skip this
The Library of Whispers - 4 normal enemies, and a leader that can grant them all an additional attack? This is terrifying. If there's focus fire, you're talking about up to 4d8+20 + 4d10+20 damage (not including crits) on one target before it could even have a chance to act. For a level 7 character, this can mean going from full to death in one round, easily.
The Ice Chambers - This one is either a walk in the park, or exceptionally deadly. (a way to determine the answer to this question is: Do you have a Cleric in the party?) - the stacking aura from the zombies is deadly. This would be bad, but with all the abilities that slow or immobilize, bad turns to disastrous very quickly. At one point, we had PCs taking 30 damage as soon as their turn started (multiple auras, frigid aura, ongoing damage from the demon, ongoing damage from the zombies), but were immobilized and unable to escape. Ouch.
Maze of Lost Souls - There are 2 reasons this is ridiculous: 1) Party tactics and maneuverability are out the window because of the narrowness of the maze 2) The Banshee ignore the walls for line of effect, and can phase. This means the Banshees are impossible to catch, the party can't really pin them in, and the Banshees can sit in another hall and destroy the party without ever putting themselves in danger. Add in the skeletons to slow the party down while the Banshees recharge, and life sucks.
The Shadow Stone - Hey, I've got an idea! Let's put in 4 creatures who can create large portions of darkness that they only have to spend a minor action to maintain, and give them ridiculous sneak attack! The problem is, even if the party is able to get a zone of darkness down, one of the other creepers can immediately put it back up. This encounter is the only time I've seen the party go into something with 100% of their resources, and barely crawl away alive.
So...yes. While there are other difficult encounters (Chamber of the Monoliths, Howls from Beyond, the Arborean encounters), none of them feel so 1-sided against the party like those listed did.
A few questions for everyone: Were my experiences with this unique, or is this universally seen as difficult? How does a party with only 5 PCs, or with PCs that aren't optimized function in a module like this? Is this the standard difficulty curve for the rest of the modules?
A few of the biggest problem encounters I've seen so far- Note: There will be spoilers, so if you're playing it, or are planning to play it, you might want to skip this
The Library of Whispers - 4 normal enemies, and a leader that can grant them all an additional attack? This is terrifying. If there's focus fire, you're talking about up to 4d8+20 + 4d10+20 damage (not including crits) on one target before it could even have a chance to act. For a level 7 character, this can mean going from full to death in one round, easily.
The Ice Chambers - This one is either a walk in the park, or exceptionally deadly. (a way to determine the answer to this question is: Do you have a Cleric in the party?) - the stacking aura from the zombies is deadly. This would be bad, but with all the abilities that slow or immobilize, bad turns to disastrous very quickly. At one point, we had PCs taking 30 damage as soon as their turn started (multiple auras, frigid aura, ongoing damage from the demon, ongoing damage from the zombies), but were immobilized and unable to escape. Ouch.
Maze of Lost Souls - There are 2 reasons this is ridiculous: 1) Party tactics and maneuverability are out the window because of the narrowness of the maze 2) The Banshee ignore the walls for line of effect, and can phase. This means the Banshees are impossible to catch, the party can't really pin them in, and the Banshees can sit in another hall and destroy the party without ever putting themselves in danger. Add in the skeletons to slow the party down while the Banshees recharge, and life sucks.
The Shadow Stone - Hey, I've got an idea! Let's put in 4 creatures who can create large portions of darkness that they only have to spend a minor action to maintain, and give them ridiculous sneak attack! The problem is, even if the party is able to get a zone of darkness down, one of the other creepers can immediately put it back up. This encounter is the only time I've seen the party go into something with 100% of their resources, and barely crawl away alive.
So...yes. While there are other difficult encounters (Chamber of the Monoliths, Howls from Beyond, the Arborean encounters), none of them feel so 1-sided against the party like those listed did.
A few questions for everyone: Were my experiences with this unique, or is this universally seen as difficult? How does a party with only 5 PCs, or with PCs that aren't optimized function in a module like this? Is this the standard difficulty curve for the rest of the modules?