Harsh Reflections: Part Twenty-Eight
Chapter: Season Six
Trevor didn’t roll too well on his hit points as he gained levels.
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Trevor didn’t roll too well on his hit points as he gained levels.
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HOVER-TEXT: Count Grudgula is part of a well balanced GM breakfast
It’s more brutal than a level one 5e encounter!
I honestly hate rolling like this as a GM, at least at lower levels. I’ve fudged many a dice roll to keep a character alive at the early stages of the game.
I’m going to make an educated guess that the DM and players discussed this and agreed that the lethality level was ok. It must be ok for some players otherwise modules like the infamous Tomb of Horrors wouldn’t exist. I skimmed through it and that is one lethal tomb. So tempted to try and convert that to Pathfinder rules one day and run it with the veterans.
I only fudged a roll once whilst being the GM and that was to make a crit that would’ve killed the level 1 character into a regular hit that brought him close but not dead.
Did that for two reasons
1. There’s some excitement to be had in a close call.
2. It was literally level 1, and the boss of a small cave. The module I was running was one where the characters could meet and introduce themselves without going into the old “you meet in a tavern” cliché.
That sounds like my group’s experience when we were first learning to play running A Dark and Stormy Knight.
well, most of them were around for the dungeon run event, so i think they’re familiar with karthun’s lethality – so they hardly walked in with eyes shut, there.
though damn, those are some hard-hitting rolls.
Worth remembering, things like Tomb of Horrors were designed to be PC killers. Gary Gygax made it deliberately to challenge even the most overpowered PCs and the most skillful (and paranoid) players. Quite frankly, if I walked into a room and the DM even mentioned Tomb of Horrors, I would walk out if I had not known them a long time. It tends to draw in DM’s who collect dead character’s sheets and take immense pleasure in killing characters who are sub-optimal (and as a roleplayer, as opposed to roll player, I tend to have suboptimal builds, if only to have something different in the game).
I also admit, I will shamelessly fudge rolls, sometimes overtly even, if the roll would result in a terrible and unfun session. Killing a player in a single surprise round in an area of questionable risk would be one of those times.
Of course, then I get my wife, who decides to climb a 300ft stone spire to fight a roc in melee combat. I still use that story with new players to explain the difference between playing your strengths and committing suicide for them.
Also these are the same characters they played before after a fairly long hiatus. These are not low level characters likely. That being said this is still a brutal opening scene, and I suspect their is a plan with that.
Part 26 had in the comments that they’re level 2.
Forgehand Breck was level 2. The returning characters wouldn’t necessarily be. Also, author text on this very comic indicates Trevor’s character had gained levels, plural.
MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU, TREVOR!
I’m going off the assumption that Sam is an experienced enough DM not to let this happen off the bat. He’s likely designed an intentionally brutal encounter with the purpose of moving the story forward – for example, these “bandits” might end up capturing the party in order to provide more story.
Seems likely. Sam isn’t the sort to slaughter needlessly. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see what comes next. So exciting.
Honestly, His group is skilled enough and experienced enough for this, its the dice rolls, sometimes the dice do it to you. This is a group that has played tomb of horrors, and competed in a dungeon run. Sam doesn’t need to hold their hands.
Forgehand Breck should ha taken the dwarf up on his offer. Now she is dead.
I wonder if luck will truly be on their side. cause now i’m speculating various theories.
It might be because of the game session where Brett’s character lost his arm. An agreement for no more fudge rolls to save characters, may the chips fall where they may.
That’s a good point, he did sound a bit indignant when he thought Sam was going easy on him.
I remember fudging a roll simply because we had a new player being introduced, and before he could do anything, the Dragon he had been running away from (Almost qualifies as a bard, that one…) tried to bite him. 20. 20. And somehow, a third 20.
“Man, these dice really want you dead.”
“So, did I die?”
“Oh, you’re not just dead. You’re a new kind of dead. We shall call it ‘Hyper Dead’. The state of being deader then dead. You aren’t pining for the fjords, you’re pushing up daisies. You are an Ex-PC.”
As a DM, I fudge rolls sometimes. In both directions. I see my role as DM to be to facilitate an exciting adventure, and sometimes the dice land in such a way that it would make it less so. It’s not going to be satisfying for the players if a bunch of weak enemies who should be a relatively quick and clean encounter roll three crits in a row (this happened once with some enemies that happened to do bonus damage on a crit, and nearly wiped out the party. That’s when I started fudging sometimes). Likewise, the long awaited encounter with one of the big bads of the campaign should feel epic and challenging. If he opens up with two missed attacks in a row, the tone of the battle is going to lose something in the process.
That said, my group prefers a story-driven campaign, if I was running for a group who focused more on the combat aspect, I’d probably be more inclined to let the dice fall as they may.
How much lower level was Breck? The mage has half as many HP again as the beefy looking cleric, and that’s low?