Spell Turret Health

[Afgncaap5]

The thread about niche effects for magic items reminded me of the spell turrets from DMG2 and, more importantly, my failed uses for them. One of my first games had a CR 2 spell turret on the first session and, well... the CR 1 players beat it, but it was rough. It wasn't hard for them or anything, it was just slow-going since they were determined to get past it. I think the thing that tripped me up was the fact that a spell turret has 200 hit points and 4d8+20 hp every 5th round, regardless of the level of spell in it. 200 feels like way too much for a CR 2 challenge, and recovering 4d8+20 hp every five rounds might outpace a party that doesn't know what they're doing.

So... has anyone looked over these? I wouldn't mind reusing them, but I think the issue of health needs to be resolved. I think 200 hp is probably good for some hypothetical "sweet spot" level, but I'm not sure what level I'd make that.

[Crake]

The thread about niche effects for magic items reminded me of the spell turrets from DMG2 and, more importantly, my failed uses for them. One of my first games had a CR 2 spell turret on the first session and, well... the CR 1 players beat it, but it was rough. It wasn't hard for them or anything, it was just slow-going since they were determined to get past it. I think the thing that tripped me up was the fact that a spell turret has 200 hit points and 4d8+20 hp every 5th round, regardless of the level of spell in it. 200 feels like way too much for a CR 2 challenge, and recovering 4d8+20 hp every five rounds might outpace a party that doesn't know what they're doing.

So... has anyone looked over these? I wouldn't mind reusing them, but I think the issue of health needs to be resolved. I think 200 hp is probably good for some hypothetical "sweet spot" level, but I'm not sure what level I'd make that.

I think the reason for the flat number regardless of level is quite plainly because the physical turret chassis doesn't change between spell levels. Iron has 30hp per inch of thickness, plus the internals, and the thing is self repairing, so yeah, 200hp is about right.

Iirc though, they can be disabled by a rogue with an appropriate disable device check, so the party didn't need to completely burn through all 200hp....

[Thurbane]

Iirc though, they can be disabled by a rogue with an appropriate disable device check, so the party didn't need to completely burn through all 200hp....

It's not uncommon (in my groups anyway) for no-one in the group to have Disable Device.

[Crake]

It's not uncommon (in my groups anyway) for no-one in the group to have Disable Device.

That's true enough for my groups too, but just because the players don't have access to the solution, doesn't mean it's not there. If you don't have a rogue with disable device, well, then you're just gonna have to lug through 200 odd hp, after hardness, and a self repairing mechanism. Either that, or find some way to put up cover along the turret's field of view I guess.