Planetars

[ubernoob]

I decided to throw a pair of them at a party of 4 level 10 PCs. Considering that this is the same group that took down a dozen huge air elementals (CR 16ish), I figured they could probably handle it.

Party
Fire Mage
Monk
Barbarian 8/ Fiendish Brute 2
Sorcereress (notable spells include flesh to stone and enervation)

Anyways, since this was the "Show the players what monsters to avoid" session, I declared the planetars had superior resistance up as well as that stupid spell that lets you get all the benefits of the undead type but none of the drawbacks (namely, immunity to negative levels)

On the first round the planetars tossed the fire mage into the plane of positive energy and force caged the barbarian, which put him out of play for five rounds or so til he could tunnel out. After that, the planetars kept trying to toss the monk into the plane of positive energy and not failing saves against anything. The monk did a little con damage, but not enough to really do more than give me an excuse to keep attacking the monk.

In the end, I ended up saying "Guys, that was a CR 18 encounter and there was no way you could win" and ending the session. The players weren't actually angry. They asked me why I ended the encounter early since they might have been able to defeat them. When I pointed out that the planetars could have just used force cage and then ganked whoever they left out, the players accepted that I'd thrown a way too hard encounter at them.

Moral of the story: I threw a CR 18 EL at a party of 4 level 10s, nobody actually died, and everyone learned that spellcasting monsters tend to be a pain in the ass. Yeah, I love my players for not getting angry at me when I toss high CR monsters at them and mention things for them to look up to fuck with any DMs that annoy them. Earlier that session I tossed a CR 14 dragon at them that had scintillating scales up and they two rounded it, but the monk player was super excited after he looked up scintillating scales.

Anyways, it's nice to see that Tome level PCs have a ceiling on how much they can break the CR expectations. This was by far the hardest encounter I'd thrown at this group and their first loss, so it was a good experience for the players. They did curbstomp a CR 14 dragon without casualties due to me rolling a 1 on my touch attack to grapple the barbarian though. The joys of rolling without a screen.

[RobbyPants]

Considering that this is the same group that took down a dozen huge air elementals (CR 16ish)

Wouldn't this be closer to EL 14 (assuming the WotC CR system means anything)?

Anyways, it's nice to see that Tome level PCs have a ceiling on how much they can break the CR expectations.

I'm running into this as a player right now. It's not a Tome game, but I'm running a druid in a one-on-one game, and the DM has a hard time gaging encounter difficulty. It's usually either "I win with little real danger" or "we only survive due to roll fudging".

What's fun is when I get into a fight that he thinks will be tough, turns out to be easy, and I make a game out of it. I don't start messing with the monsters or anything, but one time I was fighting eight human rogues, and I wanted to be able to question them. I was having fun trying to neutralize all eight of them without killing a single one. That was seriously fun (for me).

The joys of rolling without a screen.

I know what you mean. I stopped using mine a few years ago, and I like things just being pure and impartial like that. The players know I'm not fudging for or against them. If the BBEG fails a save, he fails a save. If the troll crits, he crits.

[ubernoob]

Considering that this is the same group that took down a dozen huge air elementals (CR 16ish)

Wouldn't this be closer to EL 14 (assuming the WotC CR system means anything)?

It was 9 huge air elementals and one elder air elemental. Since the elder air elemental is two CR higher than the huge one, we can just calculate it as 10 CR 9 creatures. That's a bit more than 8 (+6 CR from the base creature) so the CR of the encounter was around 15 or 16.

[RobbyPants]

That makes more sense.

I'm curious after reading about the Planetar fight: what tactics did you use for the air elementals against the PCs?

[ubernoob]

That makes more sense.

I'm curious after reading about the Planetar fight: what tactics did you use for the air elementals against the PCs?

Oh, they just kited the shit out of people. The PCs won because the elementals had trouble hitting the PCs and didn't deal all that much damage. People using blitz and power attack with bows along with the stormlord tying up four or so with solid fog won the fight. It just took quite a while.

[CatharzGodfoot]

People using blitz and power attack with bows along with the stormlord tying up four or so with solid fog won the fight.

...

Anyway, interesting story. Remember that Planetars have the [awesome] tag, and are actually at least CR 17 each.