Tomb of Annihilation-team wipe Imminent

[HMS Invincible]

We are all level 7 and we are about to get wiped (or half the party dead). We are in omu, and are at the snake base in the circular walled area controlled by the yaunti East of the river. I got overruled, and the rest of the party decided to attack the entire Temple/fortress. Ras ni, all his elite subordinates came out, along with a flying King of feathers.

Current situation- I'm inside with the paladin, and I charmed a triceratops but we are low on hp in melee combat with an elite snake that deals more damage if he's not bloodied. T-rex is dead after paladin blew all but 2 smites on t Rex.

Ras ni is watching behind a magic wall , on top of a building ,that blocks physical attacks with a rogue sneaking up on him. Above us is the spell casters.

There's at least 3 enemy warlocks/casters ready to drop are spells on anyone in view.

Our party
Wizard -under a enemy cloud of tentacles, and is taking death saves. Hunger of Horagar or something warlock spell.
Sorcerer-under the same cloud but alive.
Rogue scout, sneaking up to Ras ni.
Fighter BM w/ sharpshooter, low on hp after taking down the king of feathers.
Paladin/warlock of blades that lets him use charisma. At 5hp from King of feathers. (Paladin is cursed, and is classified as a construct. Only heal spells without construct/undead limits can be used on him. )
Me druid 6/1 barbarian at 10 hp after an elite snake cut me up.
Another moon druid 7. 2 wild shapes left, minus a few 3rd level spells. Casted conjure animals and the plant growth that causes 4x difficult terrain.

Based on the dm reactions, he's pulling his heavy hitters back, so the mid level guys can capture some of us, and murder the rest. In character, I don't want to leave the paladin behind. But should me, the rogue, fighter and other druid just cut our losses and run? Or should I try to save the paladin? I think the wizard is going to die, unless someone breaks concentration on the warlock snake or runs in to heal him/pull him out.

[Man_Over_Game]

If that's your party condition at level 7, then there's not much that your team is going to do, besides that Druid (who sounds like he's mostly fine).

What I'd do is I'd have most of the party back off, have 2nd Moon Druid shift and try to save the Paladin. If the Moon Druid loses one form, he has a second use available.

Ditch the Wizard. Likely he's going down anyway. It's sad, but he has two things going against him right now that nobody is in good enough shape to deal with.

If Druid #2 can't reach the Paladin, time to play damage control, and ditch the Paladin too.

[jiriku]

Druids wild shape into giant eagle, grab the wizard and paladin, and fly away, then all others retreat while using a triceratops charge as a distraction? Unless your DM is using the optional encumbrance rules that really penalize your for carrying a load, a giant eagles should be strong enough to carry even a paladin in armor.

[HMS Invincible]

Correction we are all lvl 7, not 8. Also, you can't wildshape into flying things until druid 8.

https://i.imgur.com/KM0TDlu.jpg

This is the what our current battlemap looks like, and it's the top of the round.
Randall = BM Fighter, on top of a roof but taking heavy eldritch beam spam.
Pinchy = Sorcerer South of Randal. Got sorcery points left, but no 3rd level spells.
Willow = Druid 7 southwest of Pinchy.
Axian = soon to be dead wizard at 1 death save.
All of these people are on top of the wall surrounding the circular section of the city.

West of Randal & Willow, there is the only rope leading up and out of the walled in section.
West of the escape rope is Terry, stealthing his way to Ras ni or out of the city.
Southwest of Axian is Teqoia (druid6/barbarian1) and Nia (Paladin/warlock) along with a Triceratops + goat/vines.

https://ibb.co/tmw06Gr Backuplink of photo.
There are 6 remaining goats (reskinned as animated vines) that are stuck in the plant growth, but still being concentrated on by Willow.
Green symbol is the plant growth providing 4x difficult terrain. Brown left L is area exempted from plant growth. Doesn't affect buildings.
Red L shape is a magical wall (wall of force?) permits magic attacks, but not physical attack to go through.

Enemies
Behind the magic red wall lies Ras Ni, and some of his snake friends. He is observing after retreating from combat. (I think he's realized we pose no serious threat right now).
The snakes are the various kinds of Malisons type 1-3.
West of the rope, is a snake and an allied summoned goat/vine.
South of the rope snake is a Lieutenant snake, with Sentinel feat. He's in combat with Nia and Teqoia(druid 6/1Barb), 3 goat/vine and 2 exhausted rescued slaves.
Snakes farther west(stuck in the plantgrowth) and south(on a building rooftop) have poisoned longbows and swords. The south snake comes with a warlock.

[Jcp1195]

If anyone has Fly, Invisibility, haste, anything like that, now would be the time to use them and get out. Any Druids with remaining wild shape should turn into something with a climb speed to get up the rope as quickly as possible. If your Sorcerer has twinned Spell and Fly or Haste, that’s what he should be doing.

Wizard is done for. You’re not high enough level for Reincarnation and there’s no Cleric, saving him would only result in more of your party dying. The Paladin is a tough call. If you can get him out through means such as Fly, do it, but if it’s going to risk more players dying it might be best to leave him to be killed and captured. Best case scenario, you free him at a later level, worst case you raise him once you get access to Reincarnation.

[ruy343]

no spoilers here but..... have you considered negotiation/surrender? Often, players forget that they CAN choose to surrender, especially when you've got half your group nearly dead. Maybe the DM will have some fun intrigue planned to let you escape later?

[Keravath]

Your choices at this point are pretty limited ... it doesn't look like winning the combat is an option so you can try to flee and hope they don't cut you down as you run away, fight and die or surrender and hope they want some more slaves.

I'm also curious about what brought you to the point of thinking a frontal assault on the yuan-ti was a good idea. I'm in a ToA campaign that is a bit ahead of yours (actually in the tomb) and I find it interesting how differently things are run by different DMs. The problem is that it is impossible to discuss without revealing spoilers though given your description of the encounter I have the feeling the DM didn't like you :)

[HMS Invincible]

Quick reminder, tomb of annihilation does not allow Resurrection in any form due to story reasons. Nobody has fly, or climb spells. The rogue has a ring of spider climb, except he's not the one who needs it.

no spoilers here but..... have you considered negotiation/surrender? Often, players forget that they CAN choose to surrender, especially when you've got half your group nearly dead. Maybe the DM will have some fun intrigue planned to let you escape later?
The module does allow for surrender, the only quirk is that half the party is on the wall looking down(easy escape), and the other half are in trouble inside the wall. Technically, my druid can maybe escape with a good stealth roll to break contact and a climb check. I wanna save the paladin in character, even though she's badly cursed. (No speaking, no spellcasting only smiting and lay on hands, can only be healed by stuff that can affect constructs). I wanted to Zerg rush the leiutenant, and then run but even with giant constrictor snake form and triceratops, there's no room for error.

Your choices at this point are pretty limited ... it doesn't look like winning the combat is an option so you can try to flee and hope they don't cut you down as you run away, fight and die or surrender and hope they want some more slaves.

I'm also curious about what brought you to the point of thinking a frontal assault on the yuan-ti was a good idea. I'm in a ToA campaign that is a bit ahead of yours (actually in the tomb) and I find it interesting how differently things are run by different DMs. The problem is that it is impossible to discuss without revealing spoilers though given your description of the encounter I have the feeling the DM didn't like you :)
Like I said I was overruled. We have a fighter with Long bow and sharpshooter, and 3 full casters with aoe, terrain impairment and summons. If I had to guess, arrogance and luck combined with powerful builds. I don't think the party realized how close we came to death multiple times before. For example, fighting King of jungle or an undead T-Rex easily dealt me and the paladin 100+ theoretical hp in an round. But we managed to tank it with the help of bearbarian, high AC paladin+shield guardian. This in the past, let the DPS and casters have full reign.
Now, facing intelligent and numerous casters, they realize too late that red wizards of thay and yuanti are no joke. Plus 5e has limited taunting mechanics.
you play with the friends you have, and not the munchkins online. Others are munchkins but don't realize where their builds fall short.
I'm not sure how much is the DM trying to rebalance our party (ambushing the shield guardian, cursing the paladin with cursed high ac armor, limiting short rests to 2x per day) etc etc. and how much we are bad at this. This is Tomb of Annihilation after all, and the module is quite mean.

[Sigreid]

Those who can get out should flee. Those who can't, should surrender. The paladin should make a big show of tossing their weapon out and unarmed trying to go help the fallen wizard. Hopefully the commotion of her surrender will provide distraction for the rest of you to get away. If the DM accepts the paladin's surrender and/or allows the wizard to be saved the new priority is to find a place to hold up for a long rest and begin planning to save the prisoners.

If they are not allowed to surrender, and/or the wizard cannot be saved at least you've saved most of the party. A mistake was made. A bad one. But that shouldn't mean you all have to die together. Unless you prefer to all roll up new characters as a group.

[jdolch]

This would be an awesome time for the Darkness Spell.

Can the Paladin lay-on-hands the wizard?

[Keravath]

In this case, I would probably go with the surrender and escape option ... get some folks out, see if they can rescue any survivors.

Your DM also made this tougher by throwing the King of Feathers into the encounter. The yuan-ti should have been enough :) ... though you would still lose a frontal assault (also keep in mind that yuan-ti are magic resistant and have advantage on all their saves vs magic and spells which significantly devalues the strength of your caster support. Did you buy a copy of Volo's Guide in Port Nyanzaru? Very useful resource when fighting the creatures in Chult :) ).

[HMS Invincible]

FYI I posted a screenshot of the battlefield in the spoilers. It's quite complicated when I was summarizing.

In this case, I would probably go with the surrender and escape option ... get some folks out, see if they can rescue any survivors.

Your DM also made this tougher by throwing the King of Feathers into the encounter. The yuan-ti should have been enough :) ... though you would still lose a frontal assault (also keep in mind that yuan-ti are magic resistant and have advantage on all their saves vs magic and spells which significantly devalues the strength of your caster support. Did you buy a copy of Volo's Guide in Port Nyanzaru? Very useful resource when fighting the creatures in Chult :) ).
My previous character did. He was killed and body burned Jedi style with all his belongings. I'm not sure if anyone knows the snakes have magic resistance. We just fight them.

[HMS Invincible]

Alright, we talked it over and made a decision. The party is going to alpha strike Ras ni. Fighter will commanding strike the rogue, to get a sneak attack in. And then the rogue will sneak attack again. The druid and paladin will fight the Sentinel lieutenant. From there, hope the loss in leadership provides an opening to escape. The sorcerer is out of combat. And the other druid Willow will wild shape or spam spells.

[Man_Over_Game]

This thread:


"Fly, you fools"



F*** that. LEEEEROOOOOYYY JEEEEEENKIIIIIIINS.

[HMS Invincible]

The fight just ended, and boy did we get lucky,
Fighter commanding striked the Rogue into a crit for 50 damage, killing Ras ni. Then the rogue critted another lieutenant, killing him. Sorcerer returned to combat with a fireball into the group of snakes. The wizard dies to Hungar of Hogar, along with my charmed Triceratops, but the snakes quickly fall to the onslaught of blows. One lieutenant flees after robbing Ras Ni, while the other fights to the last. He's a monster tank with 4 attacks, 150hp, magical darkness + devil sight and Sentinel feat.
Ending XP reward: 11,000. We're all lv 8 now, and ready to enter the tomb.