Lethality check

[big teej]

boutsofinsanity, if you're reading this.
stop.
no seriously, if I found out you read this, I'll smack you with BOTH of my DMGS

-ahem-
anyways
yep, me again, making sure I don't obliterate my players.

for those of you who don't remember my last several threads about "am I about to kill my players?" allow me to summarize.

I consider myself a fairly decent DM, but occaisionally I greatly over/under-estimate the capabilities of my players. now, to prevent this from killing them all (repeatedly) I come here and run my ideas by yall to see if they stand at least an 85% or so chance of survival.

this time around, its a kython infestation.

the party:
Lesser Tiefling Duskblade - plans on going into Dragon Disciple
Dwarf Knight - plans on going into Dwarven Defender
Dwarf Barbarian - no plans I'm aware of.
Human Barbarian - also no plans I'm aware of
cleric/rogue - I don't know which character the player is going with.

the party is all level 4


now, here's the adventure.

the party has been tasked to find out what's been happening to farmer macntyre's flocks.

they will track a brood of kythons to a cave, the first encounter is against a "hunting swarm" of 4/8 broodlings
(I haven't decided on 4 or 8, that's part of what this is for)
I expect this to help illustrate that these are nasty little buggers and get the party's attention to be cautious.

seperate encounter

now, after this, they finish following the trail to a cave, where they will encounter 3 more broodlings (advanced by 2 hit die)

seperate encounter

the party will proceed further into the cave and come upon a "nest like" area with 8/12 broodlings and 4 juvinile Kythons.

again, haven't decided on 8 vs 12. this is meant to be tough, but not that bad of a fight.

now, for the "boss" encounter
after the kythons have been slain and the party has had oh... 6 rounds to recuperate, a Kython ADULT attacks.


so... how does this stack up?
against a 4th level party, I feel like it'll be rough, but doable with no casualties.

but I could be way off the mark there.

thoughts?

[Toliudar]

If you give the PC's lots of clues that there's a major nest at the end, so that they prepare and perhaps rest between, this seems doable.

[big teej]

If you give the PC's lots of clues that there's a major nest at the end, so that they prepare and perhaps rest between, this seems doable.

thats a good point, probably need to have a few descriptions about how many bones are lying around, a few observations about "the # you've seen so far couldn't have eaten this many this fast" and a charnel stink.

any dead-give away or at least "really strong" hints you can think of to tip them off about the nest?

[BlueInc]

any dead-give away or at least "really strong" hints you can think of to tip them off about the nest?

Sounds (heavy breathing, sounds of panicked animals), footprints, eggs, mutilated corpses, an NPC they're looking for splattered against a wall (or if you want to be kind, at -1 HP and falling).

[big teej]

eggs, corpses, mutiliated former-bodies.

I like
I can use
mwuahahahahah

[Seffbasilisk]

I personally love Chain-Devils, but their strength varies depending on how many chains are around for them to manipulate.

I think it'd tax them pretty well, but they do have a healer, and most of them seem pretty beefy HP wise.

[CTrees]

I personally love Chain-Devils, but their strength varies depending on how many chains are around for them to manipulate.

I think it'd tax them pretty well, but they do have a healer, and most of them seem pretty beefy HP wise.

Kython =/= kyton

[awa]

these things do con damage be careful about throwing that many saves at them it does not take many failed saves to bring them down. allowing them to learn about the poison ahead of time and giving them the option of buying anti toxins would help aliveate that dramatically.

Remember it says cr 1 but their actually pretty dangerous for that cr

[Tanngrisnir]

these things do con damage be careful about throwing that many saves at them it does not take many failed saves to bring them down. allowing them to learn about the poison ahead of time and giving them the option of buying anti toxins would help aliveate that dramatically.

Remember it says cr 1 but their actually pretty dangerous for that cr

Having them discover a sickly looking dead sheep (I'm assuming the missing animals are sheep) before they get anywhere near the cave would be a nice way of placing a clue about the con poison in.

I know that if I was hunting whatever killed it I'd definitely spend some time finding out why the sheep looked as though it had rapidly wasted away.

[HalfDragonCube]

Having them discover a sickly looking dead sheep (I'm assuming the missing animals are sheep) before they get anywhere near the cave would be a nice way of placing a clue about the con poison in.

I know that if I was hunting whatever killed it I'd definitely spend some time finding out why the sheep looked as though it had rapidly wasted away.

The first thing that springs to my mind when you get a sickly sheep is disease. Try to encourage a heal check to diagnose how they died. Then again, last time I did that in a game the response was 'devoured by cats'.

[big teej]

poison thingy is also a great idea, I'll be sure to throw in a clue about that.


the session is in a few hours, any more last bit advices?

[Essence_of_War]

Then again, last time I did that in a game the response was 'devoured by cats'.

I work in a small office with 2-3 other people and I just laughed inappropriately loudly. Have yourself a cookie :smallamused:

[HalfDragonCube]

poison thingy is also a great idea, I'll be sure to throw in a clue about that.


the session is in a few hours, any more last bit advices?

Ummm... If you don't want boutsofinsanity to read your first bit, then you might want to spoiler it. In case their eyes happen to stray towards it.


I work in a small office with 2-3 other people and I just laughed inappropriately loudly. Have yourself a cookie :smallamused:

Why thank you. *Noms*