More Idylls questions - help! (long post, sorry)

[Ogrepuppy]

Spoilers are in here, so if you're not a Idylls of the Rat King GM, ya might wanna look elsewhere.

I'm GMing 2 guys & 2 girls. Both guys are fairly d20 experienced, both girls are utter novices. One guy likes the "exploring new places" aspect of D&D (fighter). The other seems to just simply love playing--combat, role-playing, exploring, he doesn't care...it's all good to him (sorcerer). One girl greatly enjoys role-playing (rogue/"the Face"), the other really likes combat (cleric). Very diverse group regarding play style preferences.

OK, so last post I confessed that I allowed my players to roll up superheroes--lots of 18s amongst their stats. (For example, I have a 1st level fighter--18 STR, CON scores--who is able to pretty easily pulverize opponents CR1 singlehandedly. Those poor mine-dwelling CR 1/4 goblins are like Scooby Snacks to the crushing, bloodthirsty force that is the fighter.) I have doubled, even tripled, the HP of some of the goblins, and the party is doing quite well against them. Sadly, the goblins' dice rolls have been piss-poor too, which doesn't help--a lot of "swing...and miss" or "a volley of arrows whistles far, far over your head...and into the wall behind you" against the players. (I rolled very low last game.) Right, so it was dumb of me to let the players create superhero characters, I'll know better for next time. Meanwhile, I need to deal as best I can.

I'm a new DM, and I really prefer the role-playing elements more than combat. Thus I don't invest time into a lot of fancy moves (bull-rush, etc) or large numbers of opponents against my group, and if I do it's because during the week I looked over various combat rules and integrated what I learned into my fights. I recently took a good look at cover & concealment, as well as the joy involved with opposed checks of Hide/Move Silent vs. Spot/Listen. Needless to say, last week's game (still on the 1st level of the mine) featured more goblin ambushes with ranged weapons than previously. My players took their hits--when the gobbies actually rolled well--and promptly charged down the halls and crushed their opponents into goblin blood-paste.

(In my GM's mind, portraying the goblins, they saw 4 of their best guerilla skirmishers go down in under 5 minutes. The goblins are near-terrified of the group, and are unwilling to send more mooks to their deaths against the party for now--they're not going to waste the "resources". Thus I've taken the gobbies out of the Mine Level 1 Wandering Monster list. I've replaced them with a more lethal, higher CR monster called a Whip Jelly, from Tome of Horrors III. Basically, a CR 2 tentacled amoeba--no special attacks aside from Grappling.)

I'm trying to play the goblins as fairly smart critters--not brilliant, but smart enough to realize that these big humans are invading their cool new hideout. The first time the players barricaded themselves in a room to rest, heal & refresh spells, I tried to imply that the goblins had reacted to this invasion of their territory. Hence, after their last recuperation period the players were being challenged by greater numbers of the gobbies at one time, who are also more crafty (guerilla hit & run attacks), but not brave enough to bum-rush the group en mass.

I need some direction & advice. The players just spent their 2nd night barricaded in a room near the entrance of the mine. How will the goblins react to this? The really big, bad goblins (the half-wererat ones) are on level 2 with the exception of Mr. Leader, who is guarding his throne room (on Mine Level 1). My first thought is that the CR 1/4 gobs surround the entrances of the room & try to smoke them out (literally--with fire and oily rags). I have no idea how to run that type of combat, or if that's even smart.

Or, the goblins could set tripwire traps outside the doors that trigger __(insert Bad Thing here)__. The Bad Thing has to make sense in a mine shaft, though, and not too lethal. Eh, and they need to be traps that can be set up in under 8 hours. Ideas?

Zombies might shamble to the barricaded room, looking for adventurers' brains. I haven't even used them from the Wandering Monster list.

I also thought maybe the Wandering Monster whip jellies might do something very similar--a jelly at each door as a wake-up surprise. The jellies are slow, but 8 hours is long enough for the jellies to slither to the doors in wait for their prey.

I know there's a lot here to digest, but if you can give me advice--regarding basically anything I've mentioned--I'm happy to take it. I want my players to feel challenged, but between their superhero stats and my bad die-rolls, I'm pretty sure they aren't too worried about these gobbies. I also don't wanna go the other extreme by having them die in combat that's too intense for them.

But mostly, I just needed to "think out loud".

[gargoyle]

Your first instinct is a good one. First quickly barracade the door (door A) then light the barricade on fire. Have the gobbos retreat around to the other door (door B). The characters can hear the fire, see smoke coming in from under the door, feel the heat of it as it burns. Decide on the progress of the fire prior to the combat. For example
round one: barricade thrown in place by several gobbos
round two: darricade lit on fire
round three: listen check DC 10 to hear fire (repeat until heard)
round four: spot check DC 10 to see smoke (repeat until seen)
round five: door hot to touch obvious smoke in room.
round six: smoke in room start rolling for Smoke Inhalation: A character who breathes heavy smoke must make a Fortitude save each round (DC 15, +1 per previous check) or spend that round choking and coughing. A character who chokes for 2 consecutive rounds takes 1d6 points of nonlethal damage. Also, smoke obscures vision, providing concealment to characters within it.
Round seven: roll for inhalation
Round eight: continue rolling for inhalation - total concealment in the room.
Round Ten: door collapses continue rolling for inhalation

Now at door B your gobbos are waiting for the party. They have spread oil on the floor in front of the door - You can pour a pint of oil on the ground to cover an area 5 feet square, provided that the surface is smooth. If lit, the oil burns for 2 rounds and deals 1d3 points of fire damage to each creature in the area. They have also thrown caltrops into that oil - A caltrop is a four-pronged iron spike crafted so that one prong faces up no matter how the caltrop comes to rest. You scatter caltrops on the ground in the hope that your enemies step on them or are at least forced to slow down to avoid them. One 2-pound bag of caltrops covers an area 5 feet square. Each time a creature moves into an area covered by caltrops (or spends a round fighting while standing in such an area), it might step on one. The caltrops make an attack roll (base attack bonus +0) against the creature. For this attack, the creature’s shield, armor, and deflection bonuses do not count. If the creature is wearing shoes or other footwear, it gets a +2 armor bonus to AC. If the caltrops succeed on the attack, the creature has stepped on one. The caltrop deals 1 point of damage, and the creature’s speed is reduced by one-half because its foot is wounded. This movement penalty lasts for 24 hours, or until the creature is successfully treated with a DC 15 Heal check, or until it receives at least 1 point of magical curing. A charging or running creature must immediately stop if it steps on a caltrop. Any creature moving at half speed or slower can pick its way through a bed of caltrops with no trouble.

The gobbos are on the other side of the oil and caltrops behind set longspears - A longspear has reach. You can strike opponents 10 feet away with it, but you can’t use it against an adjacent foe. If you use a ready action to set a longspear against a charge, you deal double damage on a successful hit against a charging character. And behind the first row of gobbos is a second row of spear gobbos (think phalanx) and behind them a row of gobbos with ranged weapons. Repeat if you have enough goblins!

Win lose draw - they ain't gonna sleep in your dungeon nomore! And a TPK (total party kill) fixes you unbalanced party! Of course i should warn you i am a bit of a prick...

Guaranteed they will talk about that combat for weeks!

[bighara]

Sounds like you have the right general idea in having the goblins avoid a frontal attack, etc. You might not want to make thing too deadly (though gargoyle's suggestions are delightfully nasty ). If you TPK the group, it might turn off the newbies a bit.

Goblins should hit and run, plus use traps. The flaming oil suggestions above are good ones since they are the kind of thing that the goblins could put in place quickly. Although fire in a mine is very dangerous (firedamp, smoke/lack of air/etc.) so it could hurt the goblins as much as the PCs. Acid flasks are a good alternative.

Try tanglefoot bags, caltrops, snares, nets; things that can immobolize or slow the party down. Have the goblins set up ambush points and try to hit the party from more than one side at once. They should single out a one target -especially spellcasters and/or the tank- for that particular ambush, hammer him with crossbows and spears for 1-2 rounds, then flee. The gobbos might not drop their target in one ambush, but the party will be worn down over a few of those (running out of HP, healing, etc.). Toe-to-toe melee is a last resort, unless the goblins have good (4:1 or better) odds.

If the party decides to retreat, their steps should be harried by archers shooting from a distance at their backs. Ideally, the goblins would love to push the PCs into a rout that has them run right into a trap or ambush put in between them and the exit. With the party hurrying too much to be stealthy or make spot/search checks.

I don't think the dungeon should suddenly transform into a meat grinder, but you're probably safe upping the ante a bit with such powerful PCs.

[Ogrepuppy]

Thanks, both of you. We'll see in...oh, about an hour.

* * Later * *

I combined many of these ideas, beginning with a fire in front of the door, oil of slipperiness, arrow-firing gobbo hit squads and continuing into an ongoing, running battle where the players kept stumbling (sometimes literally) into annoyance traps.

They seemed to have fun while also getting the snot beat outta them. They could tell I wasn't pulling punches and would have killed a PC (or the entire group) had they mis-stepped, so were very much on edge.

Thanks again for the advice!!

[bighara]

Rock on, OP. Happy to help. Sounds like you hit a good balance.

Not to pimp another company's product on the GG boards, but if you ever get the chance to pick up some of Mongoose's "Slayer's Guides" (hardcopy or pdf), some of them have good ideas for the various critters. It's a bit of a mixed bag, but several of the ideas I mentioned are touched upon in "Slayer's Guide to Goblins."

[bobrunnicles]

They seemed to have fun while also getting the snot beat outta them. They could tell I wasn't pulling punches and would have killed a PC (or the entire group) had they mis-stepped, so were very much on edge.

This is the best kind of game - if the players are triumphant, it makes it all the sweeter if they realise that their (character's) lives were actually on the line.