How can I get revenge...

[AngelOmnipotent]

Cutting out all the backstory, my players were face to face with a Mindflayer Sorcerer (straight from the MM) and I rolled a natural 1 on my monster initiative while none of the players rolled under 16.

That's fine, I think to myself, can't be too bad, right? Wrong.

First round the Mind Flayer gets charged, grappled and pinned to the floor by 2 players with his face wibblies held out of the way. I suppose that's where the encounter ended, because the fighter and blackguard continued to beat it into a purple pulp, while the Dire Bear shapeshifted Druid just sat on its face.

They all roll no lower than a 15 on their d20s for all of their saves against any psionics the poor Mind Flayer tries to dish out, while I'm stuck rolling no higher than a 4 on its get-off-me checks. With two players grappling him I used common sense to figure out that no amount of concentration rolls will allow him to cast any kind of spell.

Needless to say the encounter ended rather quickly and they gained the phat lewt I had rolled up previously. Curse my low rolls!

It's Eberron based, and the group is all level 11-ish, and I need to get my revenge somehow, any suggestions?

[Keld Denar]

You are the DM...a player vs DM antagonistic relationship is unhealthy. Just come up with other interesting and challenging encounters. If you "get revenge" on them, they may be resentful, especially if its heavy handed (Tiamat gates in...she doesn't want tea).

[Olo Demonsbane]

When all other options have been exausted, you can always bring out his identical twin brother.

More realistically, a mindflayer sorcerer could easily have allies powerful enough to ressurect him. Then give him stand still fighter type minions. That would make it a lot harder. Or put him on a balcony.

[Keld Denar]

Another thing...all spells from the Teleport subschool only have verbal components. Even if he was grappled, unless he was silenced too, he could have Dim Doored away. The concentration check is relatively easy to make. Once away, he could have plane shifted to get away and strike again from a different location where the heros couldn't charge him, or where he could enlist some volunteers thralls to serve as meat shields between him and the players. Mindflayers have MASSIVE int scores...run them like it.

[JeminiZero]

They all roll no lower than a 15 on their d20s for all of their saves against any psionics the poor Mind Flayer tries to dish out, while I'm stuck rolling no higher than a 4 on its get-off-me checks. With two players grappling him I used common sense to figure out that no amount of concentration rolls will allow him to cast any kind of spell.

Needless to say the encounter ended rather quickly and they gained the phat lewt I had rolled up previously. Curse my low rolls!

I suggest you take those dice and pound them in dust.

And then buy a set of these.

[AngelOmnipotent]

Another thing...all spells from the Teleport subschool only have verbal components. Even if he was grappled, unless he was silenced too, he could have Dim Doored away. The concentration check is relatively easy to make. Once away, he could have plane shifted to get away and strike again from a different location where the heros couldn't charge him, or where he could enlist some volunteers thralls to serve as meat shields between him and the players. Mindflayers have MASSIVE int scores...run them like it.

Well I guess that was short-sighted on my part, but I was in so much of a "wtf" mindset that it didn't come to mind.

As for the "getting revenge" it's only in a very joking way, nothing serious. I'm not angry at my players and I'm not trying to compete against them or specifically kill them, but the mocking I had when I kept rolling those 1s needs to be answered

[Fiery Diamond]

Oh my goodness... Awesome vid.

[Ire]

You would probably hate to DM for my party. We all designed our characters to do tons of front end damage with extremely high initiative bonuses. There are a number of ways our DM and sometimes me when I DM go around this.

Simplest way: Have monsters with upwards of 500hp, the cliche example is a dragon, it doesn't have much initiative, but even if your party beats its, its probably not going to die in one round (we generally double hp on npcs to make fights challenging)

Slightly better way: Give the NPCs a surprise round. This can be done easily, just say the NPC knew they were coming and set up a clever trap. Possibly have the NPC's henchmen engage the PCs in battle before the NPC makes some dramatic appearance

Even better way: Play intelligent NPCs intelligently(read powergamed tactics). You said the NPC they killed was an illithid sorcerer, odds are, this guy's been through a few battles and withstood a few assassination attempts. Why is he standing in a room where he's easy to charge? Give him some cover, a few meat shields, a clever trap between the PCs and him. Have him use some items (greater dust of appearance + psionics vs a rogue sounds like a great way to turn the tides of battle, or maybe a trap with mind fog + mind control psionics).

And finally a tactic that's used way to sparsely, RUN AWAY. Contingency is great for this. NPCs should not be stupid, if they see themselves losing, they should do what PCs would do, run away and to fight another day.

[Khanderas]

Illithids are too smart to place their scrawny bodies in front of a group of adventurers and hope to win initiative or die.

First off, they got minions. Lots of them and atleast a few of them fighter types with low on will and big on brawns. Bodygards at the very least.
Second, Illithids should know when attackers are coming near, alarm spells, charmed minions, detect thoughts.
Third, if they fight, it will be on their terms (and horribly unfair if possible) or not at all. Teleport out at signs of trouble, its own life is the only thing it really cares about.

[dspeyer]

Upon whom do you desire revenge? If it's the dice, I suggest a microwave.

[Hal]

Giving encounters an element of unpredictability can really spruce things up as well. An open room with the players on one side and the solo monster on the other usually ends up with encounters like you described.

On the other hand, put them in an underground chamber where steam vents are randomly shooting off during combat. Have them fight on a suspension bridge that keeps getting blasted by gusts of wind. Really, any sort of factor that takes you out of the flat, square room/field makes for much more interesting encounters.

For the sake of revenge, if nothing else, plan encounters that hinder the players, rather than kill them. If they're constantly being knocked prone, teleported randomly around a room, or being chased around a maze, they'll be less likely to just bullrush through encounters.

[KillianHawkeye]

Yeah, you basically just played the NPC poorly. An Illithid would never show up in front of the PCs without anything (minions or obstacles) between them.

As an example, in a recent campaign I ran, the BBEG was an alliance between a renegade Drow, an Illithid cult leader, and a vampire. It was basically an experiment in running villains who are long-lived and hyper-intelligent and playing them that way. The whole time the PCs were going about their adventure, the BBEGs were manipulating them without their knowledge, using the PCs to set up their plans and help them find the keys to a powerful artifact.

Unfortunately, that campaign kinda ended before the BBEGs and their plan was actually revealed, but if enough of the players are still interested I may pick it back up in the future.

[Kyouhen]

If you want to get back at them for their method of taking down the Flayer, I'd give them a dungeon that makes it extremely inconvenient to try that again. Maybe even have it end with a similar encounter. Two possible ideas:

First would be to have an entire dungeon where the floor's made of a spikey material. Not enough to cause major damage, but enough to have the entire dungeon count as being covered in caltrops, but change it so that they're only affected by it if they move more than their base speed in a single round. They'll be forced to take their time and be unable to charge into combat. Then fill the dungeon with monsters that fly or ooze or walk on the walls and are unaffected by the spiked floor.

Second would be to make a dungeon with twisted gravity. The native inhabitants of the dungeon have gravity holding them on the ceiling while intruders are held to the floor. Let the players try to grapple with them and see what happens.

For more fun, combine the two ideas.

[Tsotha-lanti]

How can I get revenge...

I suggest beating your head on a desk.

You didn't just send a lone monster at the PCs, it was a lone spellcasting monster. I do not have words for how bad an idea that is. Where were all its dominated or voidminded minions? Grimlocks, bugbears, ogres, trolls, quaggoths. Basically any lone monster will be destroyed in 1-2 rounds, making them a bad idea; and any spellcasting monster needs minions to keep the PCs off them.

[Advocate]

So basically, your encounter died because you house ruled it into dying, and you're upset about this. Gotcha. Because otherwise, it's still DC 20 + spell level, allowing it to escape.

Why did it have a charge lane open to it in the first place? There should have been some duped mooks in the way or something.

Edit: Also, Sorcerers are casters. Why isn't it pimping out its initiative modifier through the roof?