Scenario Assessment

[jjordan]

Dryad and three awakened trees (she will be inside one of them and will cast barkskin on it to up its AC to 16).

Party is 4 level 3 characters (a knowledge cleric, a beastmaster ranger, a circle of the land druid, and an astral self monk).

Automated encounter builders are rating this as a deadly encounter.

Your thoughts?

[Unoriginal]

Dryad and three awakened trees (she will be inside one of them and will cast barkskin on it to up its AC to 16).

Party is 4 level 3 characters (a knowledge cleric, a beastmaster ranger, a circle of the land druid, and an astral self monk).

Automated encounter builders are rating this as a deadly encounter.

Your thoughts?

Would you mind telling us what are the other factors in play, like:

-what is the battlefield's configuration and the most likely positioning?

-Is one side surprised or doesn't have the time to prepare?

-What are the objectives of both sides for this encounter?

-What intel does each side have on the other?

-Does everyone start the fight at full ressource?

-Is it the only fight for the long rest and do the players know it?

[jjordan]

Would you mind telling us what are the other factors in play, like:

-what is the battlefield's configuration and the most likely positioning?
Hillside forest with lots of trees and no significant terrain features.


-Is one side surprised or doesn't have the time to prepare?
Depends. The dryad's tree has been partially burnt and will be the point tree so the adventurers will have a chance to notice it. The ranger is in favored terrain. So surprise could go either way depending on how players approach this. And depending on how they roll.


-What are the objectives of both sides for this encounter?
The players have previously brokered a deal between the dryad and the villagers. The villagers have broken the deal (they never intended to keep it) and attacked the dryad. The player objective will be set by the players. They might try to talk to the dryad (possible) and convince her to stop attacking the village (unlikely). They might help the dryad prevent the village from logging the mountain through other means (possible and almost certainly the way the druid will lean). They might end up fighting the druid if things go wrong. If forced to fight the dryad will lead with her two awakened trees while standing off at distance and using her magical abilities. She is quite willing to sacrifice these trees because she can awaken more. She is less willing to sacrifice her own tree. If her tree is unable to flee she will either fight to the death or abandon it (50% chance of either). If she survives and her tree does not she will become a less than sane implacable foe that pursues the party.


-What intel does each side have on the other?
Intel is a force multiplier and a function of roleplay. The players have the opportunity to gather intelligence but the villages may be reluctant to provide it. They can learn about the extra trees (they have already fought and defeated an awakened tree in an earlier encounter). The dryad only knows about the existence of three of the players and has no idea of their capabilities.


-Does everyone start the fight at full ressource? The players have the opportunity to do so and almost certainly will. I won't throw random encounters at them beforehand and the environmental hazards are unlikely to cause problems because the ranger is in favored terrain. The trees and the dryad are at 90% because they are still healing from previous encounters.


-Is it the only fight for the long rest and do the players know it?
They think there's a hostile druid in the area so they may decide not to fully expend their resources.

[J-H]

The dryad has 22 hit points, so prepare for her to go down in one round if the players focus on her. She has no offensive abilities worth mentioning outside of melee. The trees dish out a lot of damage in melee, but they are slow. A quick-moving party could kill the dryad and then kite the trees with ranged attacks. It'd be a bit boring for the monk, but there's no crowd control to force them to ever engage the trees in melee. I'd look at buffing the dryad a bit by giving her some spellcasting, like Entangle or something.

[KorvinStarmast]

The dryad has 22 hit points, so prepare for her to go down in one round if the players focus on her. She has no offensive abilities worth mentioning outside of melee.
Dryad can cast entangle. Battlefield control spell that messes up the party's actions somewhat for those who do not save. My party of 5th levels (Me DM) ran into a dryad, three tigers, and one Archer (Volo's); it was an interesting fight.

The trees dish out a lot of damage in melee, but they are slow. A quick-moving party could kill the dryad and then kite the trees with ranged attacks. It'd be a bit boring for the monk, but there's no crowd control to force them to ever engage the trees in melee. I'd look at buffing the dryad a bit by giving her some spellcasting, like Entangle or something. She has entangle straight out of the box. From the stat block:

3/day each: entangle, goodberry
1/day each: barkskin, pass without trace, shillelagh
Magic Resistance. The dryad has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
{snip}
Tree Stride. Once on her turn, the dryad can use 10 feet of her movement to step magically into one living tree within her reach and emerge from a second living tree within 60 feet of the first tree, appearing in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of the second tree. Both trees must be Large or bigger.
She might be tough to target due to tree stride.

[J-H]

Cool, I missed the Entangle in there with all the non-combat spells. That helps.

[Unoriginal]

With all you've said, Deadly seems like an accurate rating, but it's a bit of a misnomer.

There is a chance for at least one of the PCs going to 0 HPs and having to make death saves (which can results in a death), but the PCs shouldn't have too much troubles handling the situation aside from that.

[jjordan]

The dryad has 22 hit points, so prepare for her to go down in one round if the players focus on her. I'm letting the dryad ride inside her tree like it's a mech. That effectively gives her about 100 points of damage she can simply ignore because it happens to the tree, not her. I split psychic and lightning damage equally between her and the tree and she shares her action slots with the tree (e.g. if she uses an action to cast the tree can't use an action to attack). She can also use tree stride to bail out or reposition as needed. While it's possible for the players to learn about these abilities ahead of time, I kind of doubt they will. Targeting the burned tree (particularly since they've seen it before) is certainly a possibility. But I doubt the dryad goes out of the fight particularly early and if she does the trees will simply defend her (if unconscious) or die (if she dies).

[J-H]

Ok, putting the Dryad in Tree-Mech makes this a lot less likely to end on round 2. In that case, I like it.

[Ettina]

The players have previously brokered a deal between the dryad and the villagers. The villagers have broken the deal (they never intended to keep it) and attacked the dryad. The player objective will be set by the players. They might try to talk to the dryad (possible) and convince her to stop attacking the village (unlikely). They might help the dryad prevent the village from logging the mountain through other means (possible and almost certainly the way the druid will lean). They might end up fighting the druid if things go wrong. If forced to fight the dryad will lead with her two awakened trees while standing off at distance and using her magical abilities. She is quite willing to sacrifice these trees because she can awaken more. She is less willing to sacrifice her own tree. If her tree is unable to flee she will either fight to the death or abandon it (50% chance of either). If she survives and her tree does not she will become a less than sane implacable foe that pursues the party.

Are any of the villagers willing and able to assist? A couple allies with guard, bandit, etc statlines could make a difference. You could include them straight-off, have them run in halfway through if things are going badly (possibly kitted with a healing potion), have the NPCs start the fight and PCs have option to assist, etc.