I have DMed my group through the AL Storm King's Thunder modules. They have completed Treasures of the Broken Hoard (with some difficulty), The Black Road (failed), Uninvited Guests (success), Giant Diplomacy (epic failure), and Bad Business in Parnast (success).
We have currently finished two sessions of Siege of Parnast. The group took Chandra to the Weathercote for safekeeping and has currently defended Parnast from two waves of baddies. Now they are seriously depleted and I don't think they are going to make it to the end.
1) They started with fewer Siege/Training/Scouting points than is probably typical (11 fortification, 7 training 4 scouting) due to poor rolls, taking Chandra to Weathercote and failing Survival rolls when trying to find the Spineripper Orc lair. After defeating Wave 2, they have paid for a Short Rest and have Fortifacation 7 - Training 5 - Scouting 0 points left.
2) Spell slots are in short supply because the party casters insisted on casting buff spells during Fruul's speech demanding surrender. SInce he didn't attack immediately, most spells expired before the first wave moved in.
I did give each party member inspiration before the first wave attacked and the Scouting point total includes a few "freebies" because the group did try to find the Spinerippers when they could have been earning more points through Skill checks (and the intial total includes the +5 bonus points for defending Parnast).
For both players and DMs: How many Points did your group have going into the battle? How did the battle go for your group?
Well, the party was crushed in the third wave of Siege of Parnast. The wizard went first after being caught by orc chargers, the warlock was taken down by a critical hit spear throw from the orc war boss, the druid and fighter fell, leaving only the sorcerer standing against the war boss and manticore.
They had used Siege Points to remove a warboss and three orcs using points they had, but were still overwhelmed. The group definately needed more Siege Points to make the encounters survivable.
We had a party of 5 players lvl 4 (DM decided to use very strong party option as we used this adventure outside AL in a regular campaign, but no meta-builds also) and we've managed to have 18-20'ish points each at the start of the Siege.
Every player was good at something for the down-time activities in Parnast and we had good rolls, also successfully gathered all possible... optional objectives.
First wave - cleared totally with points Second wave combined with Third wave - due to clearing about half of the challenge for 2nd wave DM decided to combine 2&3 wave (with a delay of 3 turns as I remember), party managed to kill Kurglow. Used short rest for Hit Dices (as tank was close to death). About 40% of spell slots used. Final wave - managed to leave just the boss and 4 Orcs with left-over points (had 6/6/6). Tank was counting deah saving throws once, all spell slots used, most of the party resources used (pots, wands etc) so it still was a deadly (or even absurd) challenge.
I have DMed my group through the AL Storm King's Thunder modules. They have completed Treasures of the Broken Hoard (with some difficulty), The Black Road (failed), Uninvited Guests (success), Giant Diplomacy (epic failure), and Bad Business in Parnast (success).
We have currently finished two sessions of Siege of Parnast. The group took Chandra to the Weathercote for safekeeping and has currently defended Parnast from two waves of baddies. Now they are seriously depleted and I don't think they are going to make it to the end.
1) They started with fewer Siege/Training/Scouting points than is probably typical (11 fortification, 7 training 4 scouting) due to poor rolls, taking Chandra to Weathercote and failing Survival rolls when trying to find the Spineripper Orc lair. After defeating Wave 2, they have paid for a Short Rest and have Fortifacation 7 - Training 5 - Scouting 0 points left.
2) Spell slots are in short supply because the party casters insisted on casting buff spells during Fruul's speech demanding surrender. SInce he didn't attack immediately, most spells expired before the first wave moved in.
I did give each party member inspiration before the first wave attacked and the Scouting point total includes a few "freebies" because the group did try to find the Spinerippers when they could have been earning more points through Skill checks (and the intial total includes the +5 bonus points for defending Parnast).
For both players and DMs:
How many Points did your group have going into the battle?
How did the battle go for your group?
Well, the party was crushed in the third wave of Siege of Parnast. The wizard went first after being caught by orc chargers, the warlock was taken down by a critical hit spear throw from the orc war boss, the druid and fighter fell, leaving only the sorcerer standing against the war boss and manticore.
They had used Siege Points to remove a warboss and three orcs using points they had, but were still overwhelmed. The group definately needed more Siege Points to make the encounters survivable.
We had a party of 5 players lvl 4 (DM decided to use very strong party option as we used this adventure outside AL in a regular campaign, but no meta-builds also) and we've managed to have 18-20'ish points each at the start of the Siege.
Every player was good at something for the down-time activities in Parnast and we had good rolls, also successfully gathered all possible... optional objectives.
First wave - cleared totally with points
Second wave combined with Third wave - due to clearing about half of the challenge for 2nd wave DM decided to combine 2&3 wave (with a delay of 3 turns as I remember), party managed to kill Kurglow. Used short rest for Hit Dices (as tank was close to death). About 40% of spell slots used.
Final wave - managed to leave just the boss and 4 Orcs with left-over points (had 6/6/6). Tank was counting deah saving throws once, all spell slots used, most of the party resources used (pots, wands etc) so it still was a deadly (or even absurd) challenge.