Whoo, pretty awesome!
Man, tonight's D&D session was PRETTY EPIC. Good times.
The party was heading for the kobold's lair, so first they got a map from an elf (that was actually pretty hilarious too, because...our group is just pretty hilarious at role-playing encounters. XD). The battle outside the lair was pretty easy, so they headed inside the lair...to the EPIC BOSS BATTLE. On the nice full-color map, as well.
This was literally the hardest battle they've faced thus far--a level 6 encounter (they're level 2). And this adventure was designed for characters STARTING at level 1! Truly a tough battle. Well, they ended up getting boxed in under the waterfall and facing heavy attacks from the boss, which kept approaching from the corner. Finally the mage was down to 3 hitpoints and facing attacks from a Kobold Striker AND the boss.
Well, I actually fudged the striker's attack roll a bit, because it was just slightly over her AC and, well, she really would have died and then the party would have been in trouble, since one of her attacks was doing a lot of the damage to the boss. Plus two other characters were also at critical HP levels, so they were farther away using healing powers. BUT I really couldn't do that with the boss's attack roll if it was really quite high (the rolls generally have a bonus attached that the players don't know, so if the die roll is under the character's AC but the total with bonuses is higher, it's possible to give it a little wiggle room).
So I was rolling the boss's attack, and she was like 'you guys, this is it, I'm seriously going to die! This is the end!'. But I rolled a 1. I didn't just MISS her, that's the lowest possible roll. PRETTY EPIC. The whole group was like OH MY GOD IT'S A ONE. Epic moment.
The fighter came close to death later, and was at -4 hitpoints (once you reach -10 you die). The boss was going to attack her on its next turn. So one of the characters did some epic emergency healing and administered a potion AND used a heal check to let her use her second wind and spend a healing surge. So it was like EPIC HEALING.
And then they finally managed to defeat the boss (which had over 100 HP! That's several times more than any of the monsters they had faced thus far) they all cheered. It was pretty awesome. XD
Well, it was the toughest battle yet, but they did a good job! Even with some unlucky rolls, they managed to get through without anyone actually dying. They're good at battle strategy and have good teamwork as well. They're a pretty awesome group.
I'm not sure how much of the Shadowfell Keep we'll get through next week...it's got like...11 encounters or so just on the first floor. The most encounters we've done in one session was about 7. And then there's the second floor as well. Well, we don't have many weeks left...meh, maybe during senior week we can squeeze an extra session in or something. Hopefully we can actually finish this adventure! I'm giving them slightly more magic items as treasure than are really listed for level 2 characters, because I doubt we'll get past this adventure and this way they can all get at least one more. More fun that way.
They're a really awesome D&D group...it's sad that we don't have much time to play together. Oh, graduation...
The party was heading for the kobold's lair, so first they got a map from an elf (that was actually pretty hilarious too, because...our group is just pretty hilarious at role-playing encounters. XD). The battle outside the lair was pretty easy, so they headed inside the lair...to the EPIC BOSS BATTLE. On the nice full-color map, as well.
This was literally the hardest battle they've faced thus far--a level 6 encounter (they're level 2). And this adventure was designed for characters STARTING at level 1! Truly a tough battle. Well, they ended up getting boxed in under the waterfall and facing heavy attacks from the boss, which kept approaching from the corner. Finally the mage was down to 3 hitpoints and facing attacks from a Kobold Striker AND the boss.
Well, I actually fudged the striker's attack roll a bit, because it was just slightly over her AC and, well, she really would have died and then the party would have been in trouble, since one of her attacks was doing a lot of the damage to the boss. Plus two other characters were also at critical HP levels, so they were farther away using healing powers. BUT I really couldn't do that with the boss's attack roll if it was really quite high (the rolls generally have a bonus attached that the players don't know, so if the die roll is under the character's AC but the total with bonuses is higher, it's possible to give it a little wiggle room).
So I was rolling the boss's attack, and she was like 'you guys, this is it, I'm seriously going to die! This is the end!'. But I rolled a 1. I didn't just MISS her, that's the lowest possible roll. PRETTY EPIC. The whole group was like OH MY GOD IT'S A ONE. Epic moment.
The fighter came close to death later, and was at -4 hitpoints (once you reach -10 you die). The boss was going to attack her on its next turn. So one of the characters did some epic emergency healing and administered a potion AND used a heal check to let her use her second wind and spend a healing surge. So it was like EPIC HEALING.
And then they finally managed to defeat the boss (which had over 100 HP! That's several times more than any of the monsters they had faced thus far) they all cheered. It was pretty awesome. XD
Well, it was the toughest battle yet, but they did a good job! Even with some unlucky rolls, they managed to get through without anyone actually dying. They're good at battle strategy and have good teamwork as well. They're a pretty awesome group.
I'm not sure how much of the Shadowfell Keep we'll get through next week...it's got like...11 encounters or so just on the first floor. The most encounters we've done in one session was about 7. And then there's the second floor as well. Well, we don't have many weeks left...meh, maybe during senior week we can squeeze an extra session in or something. Hopefully we can actually finish this adventure! I'm giving them slightly more magic items as treasure than are really listed for level 2 characters, because I doubt we'll get past this adventure and this way they can all get at least one more. More fun that way.
They're a really awesome D&D group...it's sad that we don't have much time to play together. Oh, graduation...