Metahuman1
2017-05-03, 12:43 AM
Ok, so, context.
Gestalt game, level 2. Party has a Gnoll//Druid Avenger using a spontaneous casting deal that I gave him because it's his very first time playing, a more or less newly hatched silver dragon//Swordsage also a very fist time player, and a Drider//Bard who took cleric casting, and is a second time player.
Being rookies, they opted to vote to split the party away form the 2 more experienced players who are a bit more socially built and are working on using that to pursue connections they think they'll need later.
Alignment requirement's not enforced.
There exploring a new continent, looking to settle and start building a nation. And as part of that there sweeping a forsest, and took an interest in an are densly populated by spider monsters. They fairly easily bested 3 medium size category monsterous spiders off the SRD with the added gimmick of improved unarmed strike being a feat I swapped in. (This was hilarious when 1 of them rolled a nat 20 on an unarmed strike vs. the dragon, and managed from there to briefly grapple him. This lead to me describing the tactical situation when the new round started and it was that players turn as
"So, the drider as scared her's into backing away, the gnoll hs produce flamed his and fended off it's first couple of jabs at him in exchange, and the dragon has chilled it some with his breath, but discovered he is trained to be the guardian of Kun Lung and is The Iron Fist." (We'd all seen the show recently so that was the easy reference.)
Anyway, they won that fight in 2 rounds and some change, so they opted to press on.
Eventually they got to an area that was densly webbed, were due to some rolls, as they started to back away, an encounter happened. And then we had to end the session because I had to cut back to the other party members and by the time I was done with them we were out of time, so the cliff hanger is a spider attacking in a pattern consistent with a Trap Door Spider, missing (Nat 2 on the roll.) and the party about to have to fight it next session at the start in order to get the hell out of there before they get overrun by numbers they can't handle.
So, I'm looking to upgrade a Swordspider, from Monsters of Fearun, to make sure they have a real fight, but a real fight they can win, on there hands.
Suggestions on what I can do to make this encounter work better? Templates? (I'm not worried about justifying the templates, I've got like twenty prewritten hand waves for that prepped already. ) Maybe have a couple of smaller spiders show up to run interference part way in?
Seeking advice/suggestions.
Gestalt game, level 2. Party has a Gnoll//Druid Avenger using a spontaneous casting deal that I gave him because it's his very first time playing, a more or less newly hatched silver dragon//Swordsage also a very fist time player, and a Drider//Bard who took cleric casting, and is a second time player.
Being rookies, they opted to vote to split the party away form the 2 more experienced players who are a bit more socially built and are working on using that to pursue connections they think they'll need later.
Alignment requirement's not enforced.
There exploring a new continent, looking to settle and start building a nation. And as part of that there sweeping a forsest, and took an interest in an are densly populated by spider monsters. They fairly easily bested 3 medium size category monsterous spiders off the SRD with the added gimmick of improved unarmed strike being a feat I swapped in. (This was hilarious when 1 of them rolled a nat 20 on an unarmed strike vs. the dragon, and managed from there to briefly grapple him. This lead to me describing the tactical situation when the new round started and it was that players turn as
"So, the drider as scared her's into backing away, the gnoll hs produce flamed his and fended off it's first couple of jabs at him in exchange, and the dragon has chilled it some with his breath, but discovered he is trained to be the guardian of Kun Lung and is The Iron Fist." (We'd all seen the show recently so that was the easy reference.)
Anyway, they won that fight in 2 rounds and some change, so they opted to press on.
Eventually they got to an area that was densly webbed, were due to some rolls, as they started to back away, an encounter happened. And then we had to end the session because I had to cut back to the other party members and by the time I was done with them we were out of time, so the cliff hanger is a spider attacking in a pattern consistent with a Trap Door Spider, missing (Nat 2 on the roll.) and the party about to have to fight it next session at the start in order to get the hell out of there before they get overrun by numbers they can't handle.
So, I'm looking to upgrade a Swordspider, from Monsters of Fearun, to make sure they have a real fight, but a real fight they can win, on there hands.
Suggestions on what I can do to make this encounter work better? Templates? (I'm not worried about justifying the templates, I've got like twenty prewritten hand waves for that prepped already. ) Maybe have a couple of smaller spiders show up to run interference part way in?
Seeking advice/suggestions.