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Idea Man
2007-11-26, 03:16 PM
What's the most unexpectedly unfair encounter you've ever sent your players against? Something that shouldn't be too tough, but you missed/forgot they didn't have a certain resource, or didn't check to see that they needed one?

I sent my party of 3rd level heroes (ftr/sor,warlock,cleric,ranger) against a swarm of fiendish wasps. Unfortunately, they had no area spells, the wasps had fire resist 5 (so torches were out), and melee weapons wouldn't work at all (too small). The only thing I could think of to hurt the swarm was generous doses of alchemical acid, of which they had none. Oops! :smalleek:

Sooo...they ran back to town, got refitted with alchemy stuff (I had planned to have an alchemist there anyway), got healed of damage and poison (it was really bad stuff, double oops!), and went back and totally overkilled the swarm.

Anybody else stumble into this problem? Or do it on purpose, and the players are to stubborn to run? :smallamused:

Azerian Kelimon
2007-11-26, 03:19 PM
Well...while they explored sewers, I sent a level 4 gestalt party 2 trolls. Things got ugly there.

Crow
2007-11-26, 03:19 PM
What's the most unexpectedly unfair encounter you've ever sent your players against? Something that shouldn't be too tough, but you missed/forgot they didn't have a certain resource, or didn't check to see that they needed one?

I sent my party of 3rd level heroes (ftr/sor,warlock,cleric,ranger) against a swarm of fiendish wasps. Unfortunately, they had no area spells, the wasps had fire resist 5 (so torches were out), and melee weapons wouldn't work at all (too small). The only thing I could think of to hurt the swarm was generous doses of alchemical acid, of which they had none. Oops! :smalleek:

Sooo...they ran back to town, got refitted with alchemy stuff (I had planned to have an alchemist there anyway), got healed of damage and poison (it was really bad stuff, double oops!), and went back and totally overkilled the swarm.

Anybody else stumble into this problem? Or do it on purpose, and the players are to stubborn to run? :smallamused:

Shadows. The stupid cleric decided he'd be a bastard and go do his own thing. He died to a trap...then the group ran into the Shadows and they died too. Horribly. No chance.

Belial_the_Leveler
2007-11-26, 03:58 PM
The players were just about to enter epic levels and were messing with Far Realm-related Gates. So I drop Cthulhu (CR 35) on them. Totally unfair, totally intentional-but it was their fault.

Rachel Lorelei
2007-11-26, 04:08 PM
The players were just about to enter epic levels and were messing with Far Realm-related Gates. So I drop Cthulhu (CR 35) on them. Totally unfair, totally intentional-but it was their fault.

What? No, it wasn't. You decided that, hey, Cthulhu. Don't hide land mines in the sandbox and then blame people for stepping on them.

adanedhel9
2007-11-26, 06:31 PM
Shadows for me as well.

What sort of adventurers decide to explore the local caves while their only magic weapons are in the shop?

Starbuck_II
2007-11-26, 06:38 PM
Again, Shadows: we had no magic weapons and were level 4 or 5 (we had money but were far from town saving a Fort).

If it weren't for the Mage's Magic Missile (my Wu jen didn't prepare it that day), we would have wiped.

AKA_Bait
2007-11-26, 06:42 PM
It wasn't really one encounter as much as the most recent villian I ran them across. Sent a few assassians after them before I realized that everyone's spot check wasn't very good and no one had any spells that could reveal invisible attackers... my CR appropriate villian managed over the course of 4 encounters to kill 3 of 5 party members...

Nakun
2007-11-26, 08:01 PM
CR 11 Lolth touched Bebelith. There were originally 4 lvl nine PCs, but only two made it to that session. Massive carnage. They're scarred for life now.

daggaz
2007-11-26, 08:19 PM
Much like the OP, centipede swarm. Party of 3 lvl 5 or belows, no offensive energy spells, no alchemical weapons. It was only the DM choo choo that got us out of that mess, but then again, it was only the DM choo choo that put as there in the first place. Not exactly a fun session.

Thrawn183
2007-11-26, 09:06 PM
Level 13 Party vs 15th level cleric.

Arena match. Party simply knew it was a "magical combat" having already done monstrous and combat. Both sides had time to buff before
being teleported into the arena. NPC blew 90% of his spells on buffs. None of the PC's had prepared dispel magic much less dispel magic. Total wipe.

Balkash
2007-11-26, 09:25 PM
Four completely green level one PC's against a Gnoll. A Gnoll in the other room, with the door closed. The Gnoll had a shield and a mace. The door was locked, so instead of the rogue picking the lock, the fighter attempted to "running bash" the door down. It got so pitiful that the fighter went unconcious due to non-lethal damage. The Gnoll waited until the banging stopped, then charged out. Two rounds later the wizard and the rogue are dead. That left the monk. The monk was determined to try heal checks to revive the fighter, instead of fight the Gnoll. Total Party Kill. At level one. Against a Gnoll. I even TRIED to help. The Gnoll had to make an intelligence check, so that it wouldnt just charge out of the door. Which it made. Really, really depressing... we ended up just starting over and saying that some God took pity.

SoD
2007-11-29, 05:29 AM
I threw a mephit with a few levels in monk against my level 2-3 party. However, once they were unconcious, the mephit did make heal checks to stabalize them. Party doesn't know why though. He did bury a dagger into the ground next to the clerics head though.

Due to his monk levels his AC was low 20's. 23ish, I think. High dex, high wis, and all unarmed attacks added some fire damage.

:smalltongue:

kjones
2007-11-29, 08:52 AM
I've nearly TPK'ed my parties so many times it's not even funny. The problem is that I design encounters with enemies that act intelligently, with the assumption that my players will do the same. They don't.

Lessee... Once I sprung some goblinoid Bear Cavalry on them. As if that wasn't bad enough, all the goblins had levels in rogue. They managed to catch the spellcasters by themselves.

In another campaign, the level 5 party was ambushed in a cave by about twenty bugbears, a lot of whom had levels in barbarian. The ambush took out the cleric in the first round, so they were pretty much SOL. Massive luck (a 40-damage critical with a greataxe on the chieftain) combined with intelligent spellcasting and good teamwork saved the day, but only barely. The Encounter Calculator gives this an EL of about 11, which means that they really shouldn't have survived. (It did help that the bugbears arrived in waves, and they were able to hold them at a chokepoint.)

Then, there was the time that the level 9 party finally confronted the BBEG, only to learn that he was a Wizard 5/Fatespinner 2/IOTSV 7. They were literally incapable of harming him at all. He won initiative, and just delayed his action until they tried anything on him, then threw down two veils as an immediate action. Then he did the same thing next round. It was brutal.

Keld Denar
2007-11-29, 09:05 AM
6 players with an average party level of 10, vs a single Dread Wraith. It was so bad, I made a post about it last week. The party had to blow almost a combined 1000g in Magic Missile wands and other wand charges just to bring it down, and took about a grand total of 35ish CON damage between 6 characters (most of it was on 3, I was trying to make spawn, but they had some very good defensive positioning). The party wasn't made up in a way to deal with the DW, and something like 30 rounds of spring attacking from the walls and floor, and 2 hours of real time, they finally managed to get the thing redead. Too bad, a couple of the characters (undead hunter types) would have made excellent wraith spawns...

its_all_ogre
2007-11-29, 09:18 AM
lizardfolk half black dragon monk.
was a gestalt game he was equal level to party (monk//fighter) and his ac was so high that they would struggle to hit it. however he did so little damage that it should have been an easy fight.
then the pcs split up....
tpk

Pelfaid
2007-11-29, 09:26 AM
In my very first session as a DM I threw my group of 5 lvl 1 PCs at a modified Hobgoblin. I expected them to get a good beating but he dropped his weapon first round and then got a crit dealt to him by the dwarven urgosh. I was sad.

Triaxx
2007-11-29, 10:40 AM
Party of eight level 42 characters, Forgotten Realms. I had no idea what a Tarrasque was, but thought it looked like fun. They ran into it coming out of a cave that it was using as a lair. Complete massacre. Very messy when he started eating wizards.

bignate
2007-11-29, 01:18 PM
for me it was a skeletal rat swarm...

the party was made up of barbarian 1/fighter 2, rouge 3, druid 3, ranger 3 and it went sooo, badly for them. i intended it to be a simple fight but it almost wiped them....

Shishnarfne
2007-11-29, 02:12 PM
Expedition to Castle Ravenloft:

I'm running this one for the second year in a row (different players). Here are some "highlights":

Church fight, came VERY close to TPK on the understory this year;
The Forest Fane. Last year's party retreated after losing one PC (and one NPC), came back higher level, with more PC's, and having cleared out much of the encounter... and still lost two PC's in the fight.
Strahd's Tomb, last year, the party simply ran rather than fight it out with the guardian.
Oh, yeah, the first zombie fight took a lot longer than the players expected each year.

In a game I played in:
An intelligent weapon caused the entire party to splinter... (everybody (level 2) failed their will saves against its Ego... mainly due to rolling 5's).

Fenix_of_Doom
2007-11-29, 02:20 PM
Party of eight level 42 characters, Forgotten Realms. I had no idea what a Tarrasque was, but thought it looked like fun. They ran into it coming out of a cave that it was using as a lair. Complete massacre. Very messy when he started eating wizards.

I assume this is a typo, eight level forty-two(!) characters should wipe the floor with the Tarrasque.