Mongobear
2017-05-17, 10:22 PM
Last session of our monthly campaign that's been going on for a little over 2 years now had quite a predicament last month, and this weekend we are going to see the fallout/results of it through.
Background Info:
We are a 6 man party
Lvl 12 Human Devotion Paladin with Mage Killer and a buffed Version of Lightbringer from whatever Module it is from. (Same stats, but it ALWAYS deals the bonus Radiant damage, not just against Fiends/Undead)
Lvl 12 Human BM Fighter with Mounted Combatant (Trying to emulate the 1e Cavalier class, which is what he was when this campaign originally started in 1st edition in 2015)
Lvl 12 Goliath Berserker Barbarian with GWM Only notable gear is a +1 Vicious Greataxe and a +2 Longsword
Lvl 11 Drow Shadow Monk with Mobile and a +2 Quarterstaff and Boots of Speed
Lvl 11 Gnome Arcane Trickster Rogue with a "Frostbrand" Light Crossbow and Winged Boots
Lvl 11 Bladesinger 2/Champion 9 High Elf with a +1 Rapier and a few other random utility items.
We are currently leading a small army of about 80 men, dwarves, and elves through a remote countryside to the homeland of the BM Fighter, where his father rules. The kingdom is under siege by Orcs and other random evil humanoids, we are hoping to make it in time, if not before, the final push against the castle walls which according to battle plans we've found, will occur within the next week.
On the evening of the last day we traveled, we made camp, and set up watches as usual. About 3-4 hours into the night, our lookout, the Devotion Paladin noticed a light, likely a campfire a few miles down the valley from us, so he woke up the Drow Monk for his turn to be on watch, told him about the Light, then used Find Steed and rode off to investigate. About 30 minutes passed and he didn't return, so the Drow woke the BM Fighter, who was on next watch, told him what was happening, and activated his Boots of Speed, sprinting off down towards the light to see what was up with the Paladin. Shortly after, and not feeling right about something, the Fighter wakes the rest of us and explains the situation, which we decide as a group to go investigate as well, since both the Monk and Paladin havent returned for close to an hour.
Not that any of us knew this ahead of time, but the light was a campfire lit by a gang of about 12 Goblins. When the Paladin showed up, he rode right into their campsite, announced his presence, dismounted and demanded to know what they were doing here. Only he and the DM know what was actually said beyond this point, but the ending point was that as he turned around to remount, a group of high level Drow revealed themselves and had about a dozen swords and spells aimed at the Paladin's throat. He surrendered without a fight, and was locked up or knocked out, or otherwise turned into a prisoner.
The Drow, several minutes later, sneaks through the tall grass around the camp site, sees the goblins, and signs of a horse having travelled through recently, but no Paladin. As he maneuvers around the clearing a bit, he bumps into something. Only he and the DM know what transpired exactly, but suffice it to say, the Drow ambush party knocked him out with their poison and added one more prisoner to their group.
Those of us remaining at camp get impatient and head towards the light, but we alert a few of the higher ranking soldiers and stuff following us of the situation. As we get closer, one of us has some ability to see much further in the distance, don't remember what exactly, and they note the Goblins and the high grass surrounding their campsite. We decide that the Fighter, acting as an emissary since it's literally his families' land will ride in an try to communicate with the goblins, which has actually worked in the past, he has convinced a few groups to follow him and join our forces. The others in our 4 man group, will sneak up the the edge of the clearing under the grass, and be ready to attack/defend against whatever happens.
During the talks with the goblins, I am notified in secret that I smell something strange in the grass near me. Not having any idea what, and not wanting to risk revealing myself I ignore it. Cue Drow Ambush. The 'strange smell' was a super high level (like 15 levels of BM Fighter on a Drow, "Super Elite Drow House Guard with a Name Tag"). Whom is the source of the smell that was sneaking up on me Invisibly and unloads into my ass with a full Nova round, Action Surge, Super Dice, everything. I was reduced from full HP, about 180 or so, to 60ish from his attacks and the Harm spell.
BM Fighter
Literally every Drow
Me
Rogue
Bladesinger
From across the Clearing, a similarly buffed Drow Priestess throws a Harm spell at me, luckily I save against, but it still hurts. 6 Drow Mages pop out of Invisibility above the Rogue and launch a mixture of Lightning Bolts and Scorching Rays at him, but he luckily gets missed a lot and only takes like 20-30 damage or so. The Bladesinger gets ambushed by a pair of "Dark Bladesingers" who are basically a better built version of him, one of which is the Drow that murdered his father from his backstory, and he gets knocked out from their knockout poison in the surprise round.
Another priestess a few regular Elite House Guards, and a few random derp Drow attack the BM Fighter, but he had Alert so luckily not a lot of them hit him since he wasn't surprised. Also, he dropped a Darkness globe on himself, from some random item he found, but somehow a bunch of the Drow have "Goggles of Devil's Sight" but he still had a pretty high AC and managed to only take a small bit of damage. I wasn't surprised, because of Feral Instinct, but I was prone in the grass and the Super Elite Name Tag guy really put a hurting on me, on top of the Harm spell. My turn, I used a magical item the DM made which let's me Paralyze one creature a day in fear until the end of my next turn as an Action, which I use on Name Tag, then dive across the battlefield into the Darkness.
Round 2, BM Fighter charges the closest Priestess of Lolth and puts a hurting on her, then Action Surges and does it again. Most of the Drow turn their attention to him, but between high AC, Indomitable, and a few random resistance granting items, he barely gets scratched. The Rogue flies away really fast and hides in the grass over the hill. The Bladesinger bleeds a bit. Name Tag Drow wobbles a bit and pees a little. Suddenly from around the back of the camp, a dozen more Drow Soldiers appear from the grass, and draw weapons, looking to enter the fight. We would find out in the weeks since that these are the result of two Major Image spells, but our characters don't know that yet.
And this is where we ended the night as it got really late.
In the weeks since, almost everyone of the players has raised some sort of argument about this fight being WAY over-tuned, even for a Deadly fight. If I calculated the CRs of the custom enemies correctly, this fight is worth approximately 37000 XP, our Deadly Threshold is something like 19000 xp.
The two 'prisoners' have basically said they're done with the current game since they died, but one is being let to reroll one of our army members if we manage to survive the nights events. The DM blames us for 1) splitting the party and 2) not taking any of the NPCs in the army along, which we had no reason to. Splitting up isnt a fault of the entire group, just the first two people. He has said "You will be fine, Im sure a bunch of the NPCs will be along shortly to save you. And besides, there is help about to join the fight." Which basically means this fight was intentionally over-tuned and he scripted a Deus Ex Machina to occur.
The Fighter and I basically give zero ****s, and fully intend to fight to the death, the rogue we don't know, and the unconcious/captured people won't be there, because of work. So it is 3 of us, one of which really hurt, the other running away, and the 3rd injured but still pretty good to survive these guys. Hopefully, on my turn, I will obliterate the Name Tag Drow, GWM + Brutal Crit vs a Paralyzed target is something like 9d12+78 damage if I hit all 3 attacks, unless he has an extra 100 random NPC hp, that should kill him. If so, I can dive back into the Darkness, chug a few Supreme Healing pots and come back out roughly in fighting form. Also, ignore Frenzy Exhaustion, our DM houseruled that away because everyone at the table thought it was horrible, so I can re-enter Frenzy after healing up easily.
Are we screwed? Is there any tactic or method that we can utilize to survive this, or should we just do oour best and let ourselves be Deus Ex'd?
Background Info:
We are a 6 man party
Lvl 12 Human Devotion Paladin with Mage Killer and a buffed Version of Lightbringer from whatever Module it is from. (Same stats, but it ALWAYS deals the bonus Radiant damage, not just against Fiends/Undead)
Lvl 12 Human BM Fighter with Mounted Combatant (Trying to emulate the 1e Cavalier class, which is what he was when this campaign originally started in 1st edition in 2015)
Lvl 12 Goliath Berserker Barbarian with GWM Only notable gear is a +1 Vicious Greataxe and a +2 Longsword
Lvl 11 Drow Shadow Monk with Mobile and a +2 Quarterstaff and Boots of Speed
Lvl 11 Gnome Arcane Trickster Rogue with a "Frostbrand" Light Crossbow and Winged Boots
Lvl 11 Bladesinger 2/Champion 9 High Elf with a +1 Rapier and a few other random utility items.
We are currently leading a small army of about 80 men, dwarves, and elves through a remote countryside to the homeland of the BM Fighter, where his father rules. The kingdom is under siege by Orcs and other random evil humanoids, we are hoping to make it in time, if not before, the final push against the castle walls which according to battle plans we've found, will occur within the next week.
On the evening of the last day we traveled, we made camp, and set up watches as usual. About 3-4 hours into the night, our lookout, the Devotion Paladin noticed a light, likely a campfire a few miles down the valley from us, so he woke up the Drow Monk for his turn to be on watch, told him about the Light, then used Find Steed and rode off to investigate. About 30 minutes passed and he didn't return, so the Drow woke the BM Fighter, who was on next watch, told him what was happening, and activated his Boots of Speed, sprinting off down towards the light to see what was up with the Paladin. Shortly after, and not feeling right about something, the Fighter wakes the rest of us and explains the situation, which we decide as a group to go investigate as well, since both the Monk and Paladin havent returned for close to an hour.
Not that any of us knew this ahead of time, but the light was a campfire lit by a gang of about 12 Goblins. When the Paladin showed up, he rode right into their campsite, announced his presence, dismounted and demanded to know what they were doing here. Only he and the DM know what was actually said beyond this point, but the ending point was that as he turned around to remount, a group of high level Drow revealed themselves and had about a dozen swords and spells aimed at the Paladin's throat. He surrendered without a fight, and was locked up or knocked out, or otherwise turned into a prisoner.
The Drow, several minutes later, sneaks through the tall grass around the camp site, sees the goblins, and signs of a horse having travelled through recently, but no Paladin. As he maneuvers around the clearing a bit, he bumps into something. Only he and the DM know what transpired exactly, but suffice it to say, the Drow ambush party knocked him out with their poison and added one more prisoner to their group.
Those of us remaining at camp get impatient and head towards the light, but we alert a few of the higher ranking soldiers and stuff following us of the situation. As we get closer, one of us has some ability to see much further in the distance, don't remember what exactly, and they note the Goblins and the high grass surrounding their campsite. We decide that the Fighter, acting as an emissary since it's literally his families' land will ride in an try to communicate with the goblins, which has actually worked in the past, he has convinced a few groups to follow him and join our forces. The others in our 4 man group, will sneak up the the edge of the clearing under the grass, and be ready to attack/defend against whatever happens.
During the talks with the goblins, I am notified in secret that I smell something strange in the grass near me. Not having any idea what, and not wanting to risk revealing myself I ignore it. Cue Drow Ambush. The 'strange smell' was a super high level (like 15 levels of BM Fighter on a Drow, "Super Elite Drow House Guard with a Name Tag"). Whom is the source of the smell that was sneaking up on me Invisibly and unloads into my ass with a full Nova round, Action Surge, Super Dice, everything. I was reduced from full HP, about 180 or so, to 60ish from his attacks and the Harm spell.
BM Fighter
Literally every Drow
Me
Rogue
Bladesinger
From across the Clearing, a similarly buffed Drow Priestess throws a Harm spell at me, luckily I save against, but it still hurts. 6 Drow Mages pop out of Invisibility above the Rogue and launch a mixture of Lightning Bolts and Scorching Rays at him, but he luckily gets missed a lot and only takes like 20-30 damage or so. The Bladesinger gets ambushed by a pair of "Dark Bladesingers" who are basically a better built version of him, one of which is the Drow that murdered his father from his backstory, and he gets knocked out from their knockout poison in the surprise round.
Another priestess a few regular Elite House Guards, and a few random derp Drow attack the BM Fighter, but he had Alert so luckily not a lot of them hit him since he wasn't surprised. Also, he dropped a Darkness globe on himself, from some random item he found, but somehow a bunch of the Drow have "Goggles of Devil's Sight" but he still had a pretty high AC and managed to only take a small bit of damage. I wasn't surprised, because of Feral Instinct, but I was prone in the grass and the Super Elite Name Tag guy really put a hurting on me, on top of the Harm spell. My turn, I used a magical item the DM made which let's me Paralyze one creature a day in fear until the end of my next turn as an Action, which I use on Name Tag, then dive across the battlefield into the Darkness.
Round 2, BM Fighter charges the closest Priestess of Lolth and puts a hurting on her, then Action Surges and does it again. Most of the Drow turn their attention to him, but between high AC, Indomitable, and a few random resistance granting items, he barely gets scratched. The Rogue flies away really fast and hides in the grass over the hill. The Bladesinger bleeds a bit. Name Tag Drow wobbles a bit and pees a little. Suddenly from around the back of the camp, a dozen more Drow Soldiers appear from the grass, and draw weapons, looking to enter the fight. We would find out in the weeks since that these are the result of two Major Image spells, but our characters don't know that yet.
And this is where we ended the night as it got really late.
In the weeks since, almost everyone of the players has raised some sort of argument about this fight being WAY over-tuned, even for a Deadly fight. If I calculated the CRs of the custom enemies correctly, this fight is worth approximately 37000 XP, our Deadly Threshold is something like 19000 xp.
The two 'prisoners' have basically said they're done with the current game since they died, but one is being let to reroll one of our army members if we manage to survive the nights events. The DM blames us for 1) splitting the party and 2) not taking any of the NPCs in the army along, which we had no reason to. Splitting up isnt a fault of the entire group, just the first two people. He has said "You will be fine, Im sure a bunch of the NPCs will be along shortly to save you. And besides, there is help about to join the fight." Which basically means this fight was intentionally over-tuned and he scripted a Deus Ex Machina to occur.
The Fighter and I basically give zero ****s, and fully intend to fight to the death, the rogue we don't know, and the unconcious/captured people won't be there, because of work. So it is 3 of us, one of which really hurt, the other running away, and the 3rd injured but still pretty good to survive these guys. Hopefully, on my turn, I will obliterate the Name Tag Drow, GWM + Brutal Crit vs a Paralyzed target is something like 9d12+78 damage if I hit all 3 attacks, unless he has an extra 100 random NPC hp, that should kill him. If so, I can dive back into the Darkness, chug a few Supreme Healing pots and come back out roughly in fighting form. Also, ignore Frenzy Exhaustion, our DM houseruled that away because everyone at the table thought it was horrible, so I can re-enter Frenzy after healing up easily.
Are we screwed? Is there any tactic or method that we can utilize to survive this, or should we just do oour best and let ourselves be Deus Ex'd?