my first "tuckers kobolds" moment

[big teej]

greetings playgrounders,


last night, my girlfriend and I were having dnd withdrawls and invited a buddy of mine over for a quick one off of dnd, using the "teaching module" I used to start my school group off.

the module is 6 "roughly" connected adventures meant to begin at 1st level and end at 3rd.

given that there were only 2 of them, I started them at 3rd level, just for kicks and giggles.


adventure one: rescue the unicorn from the evil goblins.

task 1: get past door to cave where goblins are hiding.

task 2: slay all 4 (FOUR) goblins (single hit die, unaugmented, etc.)


favoring the direct approach, the two players (a dwarf barbarian and an elf ranger) took turns beating on the door till it broke, where they were confronted with ready-and-waiting goblins (it took several rounds for them to break the door)

the party waits for the goblins to rush them.

-insert first change-
the goblins on either side of the door (so they can't see them) begin lobbing alchemist's fire out at the party.

this irks the barbarian eough for her to rush into the cave and attack the only goblin they can see, causing her to eat four AoOs AND get shot by the ranger next turn (shooting into melee... tsk tsk)

long story short, a combination of friendly fire and napalm lead to a TPK

2 level 3 characters, vs 4 normal goblins....


what's your story with small creatures punching WAAAAY above their weight?

[Greyfell]

did the barbarian rage first? Before charging? What sort of armor was he wearing?

I find it hard to believe that the attacks of oppurtunity would all hit and would drop a raging barbarian... unless you got several criticals?

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

Shooting into melee imposes a -4 on the attack, with no chance of hitting an ally, but you may have some houserules in place. This is why I tend to dislike those houserules personally.

The only one I can think of is when the barbarian (yes, the barbarian) dissuaded my paladin, the wizard, and the ranger from attacking a few goblin scouts and (likely) one-shotting them. Instead, he suggested the mage try to use ghost sound to lure them into a trap. Suffice to say they didn't bite, we lost the surprise round, and they went back and got everyone in their little cave to set up one big battle. It would have been a TPK if not for some lucky rolls and some well-placed spells.

[Morph Bark]

With a smaller-than-average (3 or below) party, you sometimes need to watch out more because they drop more quickly due to less actions and less healing capability.


Shooting into melee imposes a -4 on the attack, with no chance of hitting an ally, but you may have some houserules in place. This is why I tend to dislike those houserules personally.

We've always used "shooting into melee doesn't impose a penalty, but if you miss, you must roll your attack roll again against one of your allies in that melee".

[elpollo]

Favoring the direct approach, the two players (a dwarf barbarian and an elf ranger) took turns beating on the door till it broke, where they were confronted with ready-and-waiting goblins (it took several rounds for them to break the door)

What exactly did you expect two characters without any lockpicking ability (as Open Lock is 'trained only') to do to bypass a locked door?



-insert first change-
The goblins on either side of the door (so they can't see them) begin lobbing alchemist's fire out at the party.

How can the goblins see the players but not the other way around? If the players have no line of effect to the goblins then surely the goblins have no line of effect to the players, what with it using the same squares and all. They have cover, but that only raises the goblins' ACs to 19 (questionably 23 against ranged attacks), which is far from unhittable for a raging 3rd level barbarian. Hell, if they were just round the corner then the barbarian could have stepped through the door without provoking AoOs (as he would have had cover from the corner too), then fought them without a penalty.



This irks the barbarian enough for her to rush into the cave and attack the only goblin they can see, causing her to eat four AoOs

How did that happen? If the two goblins lobbing alchemist's fire were close enough to the door to get AoOs then they were hitting themselves with the splash, which would raise the question of why the goblins thought throwing a vial of fire at their own feet was the best plan. Why did the goblin getting charged get an AoO, anyway. Did it have a reach weapon?



AND get shot by the ranger next turn (shooting into melee... tsk tsk)

As others have said, it's a -4 to hit and probably a +4 AC for the goblin for having soft cover. There is no chance to hit your fellow PC.



long story short, a combination of friendly fire and napalm lead to a TPK

2 level 3 characters, vs 4 normal goblins....

Short story longer, a small, low levelled party had unfavourable circumstances and house rules (several of which meant that 50% of the party could not effectively engage), which significantly raised the EL of an encounter with a low CR threat. Mind you, that's pretty much what happened with Tucker's Kobolds (that and a lot of party stupidity), so I guess it's relevant.

[Kol Korran]

back when i was a kid, playing 1st Ed the players really pissed me off (don't remember the reason), so i decided to "humiliate" them (i was a kid, give me a break! :smalltongue:) there was a small dungeon with... kobolds (and i don't think the term "Tucker's Kobolds" was invented then).

they were level 8, and they HATED that dungeon. first encounter meant they had to squeeze through a narrow opening, and 3-4 (?) kobolds through oil at them from a perch, and threw daggers, and lighted the oil. and climbing to the perch involved some small trap (falling rocks i think)

there were many small kobold sized tunnels, and the buggers kept on shooting and running away. a well remembered room had kobold arroive from nearly all sides, just before activating two traps- the first was a pit under the players (which only one escaped), the second was a hidden case opening from above, to spill about 3 ferrets per person down them.

the party was in the pit, with ferrets attached to them viciously ("get them off me! get them off me!") and while a few of the kobolds harassed theone out of the pit, the others shot at the trapped characters, some of them... relieving themselves on them...

and there were quite a few more surprises. :smallbiggrin: i think i was so ashamed at what i did there, i was never so mean again. luckily, the players continued to play.

(oh, the characters decided to leave the reward, face the shame of being beaten by kobolds, but NEVER, EVER, getting back to that dungeon again. :smallbiggrin: )

Kol.

[big teej]

back when i was a kid, playing 1st Ed the players really pissed me off (don't remember the reason), so i decided to "humiliate" them (i was a kid, give me a break! :smalltongue:) there was a small dungeon with... kobolds (and i don't think the term "Tucker's Kobolds" was invented then).

they were level 8, and they HATED that dungeon. first encounter meant they had to squeeze through a narrow opening, and 3-4 (?) kobolds through oil at them from a perch, and threw daggers, and lighted the oil. and climbing to the perch involved some small trap (falling rocks i think)

there were many small kobold sized tunnels, and the buggers kept on shooting and running away. a well remembered room had kobold arroive from nearly all sides, just before activating two traps- the first was a pit under the players (which only one escaped), the second was a hidden case opening from above, to spill about 3 ferrets per person down them.

the party was in the pit, with ferrets attached to them viciously ("get them off me! get them off me!") and while a few of the kobolds harassed theone out of the pit, the others shot at the trapped characters, some of them... relieving themselves on them...

and there were quite a few more surprises. :smallbiggrin: i think i was so ashamed at what i did there, i was never so mean again. luckily, the players continued to play.

(oh, the characters decided to leave the reward, face the shame of being beaten by kobolds, but NEVER, EVER, getting back to that dungeon again. :smallbiggrin: )

Kol.

I approve of your childish vindictiveness. :smallbiggrin:

or at least the creativity it inspires :smalltongue:

[PotatoNinja]

I had one such event last week that ended in a TPK.

Party:
Archivist 9(Human)
Bard7/paladin2 (Lesser Assamir)
Sorcerer (Human, blaster)
Fighter/Warblade/Minotaur mix, essentially the tank

All players had homebrew templates that essential equated to domains, but molded around base elements, giving the Minotaur powers such as fly 1/day, and the archivist incendiary cloud 1/day, and such. They were a bit higher in estimate toughness than a typical Level 9 party.

Setting: The ruins of an old city that were build on top of, these ruins are on the inside of a dormant shield volcano. There is only one entrance to it from the sewer of town. it is a 140 foot drop off in the ceiling of the under city. it is illuminated as daylight, by crystals that shine brightly in a ring around the drop point. The rest of the city is a 3 by 5 mile, pitch black, circle.

Monsters: I had originally planned to have a few encounters. In total i had
1 Advanced Hitdie gargoyle (around 11 hit die if i recall) who was to be used once.

One Mimic that looked like a door

and Two level 9 psionic thri kreen(no monstrous humanoid levels, and a 32 point buy, both with no items save one that double their dark vision range.) Only one psion was ever to engage the party at a time. Both were snipers/ Energy Ray users. They were very lowly optimized.

Shadow mastiffs, right from the book, yes, the 4 hit die variety

Now to get to the fun part, after all that build up!

The party stock up on items, and does a little research on whats down there, they know that thri kreen live down there, and are psionic, and even had a hint at what powers they might use. (they asked the Tower of Magi about psionic powers, instead of the local psions.... .... ?)

They come upon the entrance, which is illuminated, and the gargoyle was posted as gaurd/sentry. had they all had fly/invisible they could have avoided this encounter all together. (they did have enoguh resources to buy the scrolls or items, they chose not to buy them... knowing it was a straight drop the the city)

The gargoyle had no means to detect invisible intruders. He easily spots the party and uses cover to conceal himself until they are all at the edge, he spots the smallest/weakest member, the archivist, and charges in to grapple, hovering just over the ledge. He takes three turns to successively get a grapple started on the archivist(who managed to roll two displacement procs in a row :D), the party see's that I'm starting grapples, and does little to move into position, the Minotaur does not use his daily fly ability to gain flanking on the gargoyle, and everybody is to afraid to attack the gargoyle out of fear of hitting the mage in his hands. The gargoyle flys away with the archivist and drops him 140 feet, he survives the fall with 5 hp (low rolls)

The party then does two more things, they pick up the psions psi crystal, and let it follow them around, they did cast detect magic, but nobody used knowledge psionics. This gives the psions sensory input about the whereabouts of the party. Secondly, they toss day lighted objects down into the city, alerting every hostile in the area that they have friends about to come down to play.

The party uses rope to drop down the hole after tossing a few glowsticks/items down to illuminate the area they think the mage fell in(but strangely, they didn't drop ANY in their drop zone, leaving themselves in the dark. The gargoyle cuts their rope in mid descent, dropping them for some very light fall damage.

By this point, the psion has gotten into range and set himself with concealment. he gains psion concentration, and readies a far shot, split energy ray, with feats he can ignore the 2 point cost for the metapsionics, and starts to have his crystal focus as well, he expands both foci, and as soon as the party lands, blast two of the members for 9d6 (sorc and minotaur). it is worth noting that i explained that there was heavy rubble in the area, and that the Minotaur could see three semi ruined building within 20 feet, in three different locations.

At this point, the archivist advances back to the party, seeing them descend the rope on his spot check.

The party, taking heavy fire from "nowhere", all try to pinpoint the location, the bard and sorcerer don't move, despite the minotaur being at half health, and the sorcerer at 5 hp. The minotaur tries to scout with his darkvision. The psion takes a round to gather his focus again.

The party again does not move from their position, so the psion lets lose another volley of rays, hitting the minotaur down to 21 hp, and the bard down to 6hp. Nobody runs for cover, nobody tries to hide in the darkness. At this point the archivist gets a spot check and can see the general location of the psion, and the party can hear him moving about. The archivist drops an incidiary cloud close to the party to kill it with AOE since he cant target directly and the sorc drops a fireball to finish it off. (it was like, the only smart thing done all night, hey guys, USE AOES TO HIT THE GUY YOU CANT LOCATE!) During the whole affair, nobody decided to take cover to stop the psion from sniping them from the darkness.

Then, the party, upset over taking so much damage just entering the location, decides they want to back out, recoup, and maybe try again, or not try at all. The archivist, who is a paranoid schizophrenic, and who has no way to fly himself, tells the party that he would rather stay down here to recoup, because in game, and out, he realizes that it's the parties own fault for not getting around two easily avoidable encounters. the archivist is still about 100 feet away fro mthe party.

Ingame, one mentions that they should just knock out the archivist and bring him back to the surface since he is refusing to go with them. Archivist sends me a note :Ready action, flame strike if they take a threatening action. Incendiary cloud catches up with the bulk of the party, dealing 4d6 damage. Minotaur readies initiative to knock out the archivist, the archivist uses flame strike and smites the entire party for being aggressive, and also for saying that they would leave him down there to die (I.E., they were un-willing to help him get out if he tried to survive on his own down there). They knew his character was shady, and even debated weather or not to go down there in the first place.

Everybody dies, within 5 feet of the drop point. I didn't even get to use the whole "Psion uses his power to swap allies to have him bring in the gargoyle again, now did i get the split the party up and have the mimic door attack the mages while the gargoyle took care of the Minotaur :(. Didn't even get to use the second psion. Son, i was disappoint. Party brought to their knees by one ECL 10 psion using kobald tactics of terrain advantages and ambush :/

If my party is reading this, use this analysis as a ways to think about future encounters!!

[Amoren]

There was one kobold event in a 3.5 game I play in, but that was a combination of poor rolls, a pit trap, and a thunderstone (and a decently high leveled kobold sorcerer).

I was playing a catfolk rogue, while we also had a dwarf cleric, gray elf swashbuckler, werefox gnome wizard (the lycanthropy was house ruled to just a LA 1 template with some changes), and a dragonwrought venerable aged kobold sorcerer with the feat that got him a 2nd level spell at level 1 and the only character with flaws (guess who as the one that broke the DM's game and started the strict rule of only PHB I race's and base classes?). We had a human fighter who joined in later because of this, the player wasn't that interested in 3.5 but was a friend so she came to hang out anyway until we needed her.

At the start of the 'dungeon' (a mining cave that miners had abandoned due to an infestation of kobolds), my catfolk noticed a trap that had a thunderstone ready to drop down and deafen us all; he successfully disabled it and pocketed the thunderstone for later. Later on, the dwarf (with his racial ability) detected a trap in the stone floor in front of us, and pointed it out to the rogue (a pit fall trap located at the end/middle of a one square wide hall leading into a larger room). And this is where my bad luck comes to bite me in the arse, as I roll a 1 on the disable device skill. My catfolk plumits to the bottom of the pit. Now, I can't remember if he made his tumble check or not (I 'think' he did?), but the DM ruled that he fell onto the thunderstone, setting it off. I'm the only one to successfully save against the thunderstone; EVERYONE ELSE is deafened. This alerts the kobolds in the room in front to start lobbying crossbow bolts and, in the case of their kobold sorcerer leader, casting spells (notably acid arrow).

So my character is trapped at the bottom of a pit and can't get out by himself. Everyone is is being attacked by kobolds who can clearly see us because we need torch light, while they're to far out of range for our light (and even our own party's dark vision), and the most managed was a lucky shot or two that I don't remember (or was revealed) to strike any kills. Eventually, the swashbuckler manages to get a rope down and helps my catfolk scamper up, and we all get the heck out of dodge and back into town to rest.

Perhaps not the best example, but just one way bad luck and a thunderstone can screw over your party at low levels I suppose. xD

[Big Fau]

and a dragonwrought venerable aged kobold sorcerer with the feat that got him a 2nd level spell at level 1 and the only character with flaws (guess who as the one that broke the DM's game and started the strict rule of only PHB I race's and base classes?).

To be fair to that player, the DM likely didn't enforce the drawback of that feat (or didn't know it had one). The feat is likely Precocious Apprentice, something any Sorcerer or Wizard can take at 1st level. The Venerable Dragonwrought part is a bit cheesy, but at that level it only means he gets an additional 1st level spell/day (as the spell granted by his feat doesn't let him get 2nd level bonus spells).

Regardless, he should not have been using those tactics with that DM, as the DM showed a weaker level of system mastery and was not prepared for Dragonwrought trickery.

[Daftendirekt]

--epic tale of failure--

Wow. Your party is a bunch of morons. Straight up. No two ways about it.

[Dalek-K]

1 goblin (regular) versus 7 PC's

Cleric (me) 4 18's, 17, 14 (my stats...yay rolling)
Fighter
Barbarian
Sorcerer
Rogue
Duskblade
Some weird super Psion with mantles and stuff...

The rest of the party had great stats too...

But anyways... At second or so level (I doubt we were level 3) we got in a fight with a bunch of goblins and some monsters that hung from the ceiling (looks like stalactites)... We killed them with a rain of 19's and 17's ... then one last goblin came in after hearing the noise (woken up) and attacked....

No one... I mean no one at the table rolled above a 2 for around 30 rounds... Statistically impossible but one guy was even using a computer program.

The goblin had average hp - 1.
The sorcerer was out of spells
I had only healing type of spells

First and last time I ever saw a DM say "Rock Falls, Goblin Dead"

[Grod_The_Giant]

<stuff>

What. Just... what. I think you guys broke the laws of probability somehow...