The fate of dice and how they stopped a party wipe out

[Accordion Twome]

Heres the party

Somar: lezzer (home brew race). 7 level bard/2 dragon disciple.
Teaspoon: halfling, 8 level druid. just found out that wild shape can make her a good combatant.
Ilyana: half-drow/half-high elf. 7 level rogue/1 level shadow dancer
Hike: drow, 7 fighter/1 shadow dancer
Mollycoddle: gnome, 8 level wizard.

This session they went into the sewers because there were all of a sudden lots of undead appearing.
They found a dungeon manned by undead (mostly vampires and specters)
that were harnessing the power of the negative energy plane to make a undead factory.
They went through with not a lot of trouble. Somar had taken four negative levels when his intelligent sword cast Heal on him.

The end fight was not prepared and I thought I could wing it with little trouble.
I wanted it to be hard so I put the BBEG as a 7 level monk vampire, three specters and four simple 5 level fighter vampires.
The party gave an artifact sword to Ilyana that allowed her to sneak attack undead and then cast Improved invisibility on her.
Molly flew over the five vampires and fire-balled them and then quickened fire-balled.
Their saves looked something like this:

BBEG roll a nat 2
1 a 5
2 a 6
3 a 2
and 4 an 8

Very similar on the second one, I know the BBEG got a 2 again and the fighters all got under 10.
She did 71 damage taking down all fighters and then Ilyana ran up and sneak-attacked the boss killing him!

Not untill after the combat was over did I realize that if the fight had gone differently that the undead would have overwhelmed them, because thay did not have a way to heal negitive levels and the undead did 2 per hit.

So I am posting this to thank the dice and Molly for not killing the party

[Calanon]

Your BBEG would have slaughtered them
Note to self: Never be a player under you... you play to rough T_T

[Kol Korran]

Heres the party

They went through with not a lot of trouble. Somar had taken four negative levels when his intelligent sword cast Heal on him.

Heal does not restore negative levels. also... 8th level character with access to heal?

The end fight was not prepared and I thought I could wing it with little trouble.
I wanted it to be hard so I put the BBEG as a 7 level monk vampire, three specters and four simple 5 level fighter vampires.

they were indeed overpowering. how did they get to the battle before you were prepared? i find that if the players surprise me (or i know they are about to) i ask them for 10-15 minutes, to prepare something not as rushed.

Molly flew over the five vampires and fire-balled them and then quickened fire-balled.

how did an 8th level wizard quickened a fire ball? isn't that the equivalent of a 7th level spell?

So I am posting this to thank the dice and Molly for not killing the party

that's why Domain (luck) is so important.

what happened with the spectres though? they are not meat (ghost? ) fodder as well.

i had a similar instance in my last session. a battle with shadows and other monstrosities almost proved a TPK. at the end of the battle two characters were at strength 2 (close to being shadows themselves) one at 8 (2-3 hits away, with several shadows around him) and one with 12 (that would have gone down quickly without the support of the others).

the dice favored the players (rolled openly) at that point, and their quick and resourseful tactics saved their hides.

[Accordion Twome]

Heal does not restore negative levels. also... 8th level character with access to heal?



they were indeed overpowering. how did they get to the battle before you were prepared? i find that if the players surprise me (or i know they are about to) i ask them for 10-15 minutes, to prepare something not as rushed.



how did an 8th level wizard quickened a fire ball? isn't that the equivalent of a 7th level spell?



that's why Domain (luck) is so important.

what happened with the spectres though? they are not meat (ghost? ) fodder as well.

i had a similar instance in my last session. a battle with shadows and other monstrosities almost proved a TPK. at the end of the battle two characters were at strength 2 (close to being shadows themselves) one at 8 (2-3 hits away, with several shadows around him) and one with 12 (that would have gone down quickly without the support of the others).

the dice favored the players (rolled openly) at that point, and their quick and resourseful tactics saved their hides.

This party is a very sneaky one molly cast invisibility on her self using a magic Item and the two shadow dancers have good hid skills for this level, having hid in plane site they sneaked up and attacked.

Somar has a magic item that allows heal/1 day.
I didn't know it does not remove negative levels

Wow I really miss read the Quicken spell feat I thought it only took up gust one level spell higher.

The specters were attacked by Teaspoon and Somer while the others were taking care of the vampires.

Hopefully I will not do that again.
I know one thing, Always prepare the boss fight!