I'm running Tyranny of Dragons right now, and my players beat [/monster]Langdedrosa Cyanwrath[/monster] last session. It was a very close fight, but I am astonished with how many things could have gone wrong. Cyanwrath, on his first turn alone:
Walked up to the cleric.
Fired a lightning breath that halved the cleric's HP (successful save), continued through the cleric, then dropped the paladin to 0 HP (failed save).
Used ACTION SURGE.
Smacked the cleric with a greatsword to drop the cleric to 0 HP.
Walked up to the rogue with remaining movement and failed to reduce him to 0 HP with a second greatsword attack.
The player characters surprised both of the berserker minions, Cyanwrath rolled poorly on initiative, and Cyanwrath ruined his team's surprise because his heavy armor imposed disadvantage on his Stealth check. Cyanwrath wasn't even able to set up a line that hit three PCs. Despite this, Cyanwrath knocked two out of four PCs down and nearly knocked down a third. This encounter is worth an adjusted 4000 XP (the deadly threshold for four level 3 PCs is 1600 XP, and the daily budget is 4800 XP), and I suspect that it is so difficult that it might even be an even match for the PCs.
But what I haven't mentioned is that this boss room has RANDOM ENCOUNTERS. Every time the players enter, there is a 1 in 6 chance that one of the following enemy groups will be found there in addition to the enemies already inside:
Many of these possible encounters in Cyanwrath's room go beyond the daily budget without even trying. This can't be intentional, can it? Is it possible that random encounters are only supposed to happen in chambers 3 through 8 rather than 3 through 10?
This section is rather notorious for being unusually difficult, it seems to have been designed with the idea that most of the rooms won't end up in fights. If your players go stealth then the random encounters are basically patrols to avoid. If they go in guns blazing then yes its simply too much combat.
This section is rather notorious for being unusually difficult, it seems to have been designed with the idea that most of the rooms won't end up in fights. If your players go stealth then the random encounters are basically patrols to avoid. If they go in guns blazing then yes its simply too much combat.
No, most of the rooms do have fights. The problem is that rooms 3 through 10, which includes the boss room, have a non-trivial chance of having even more enemies than usual, taking the already exceedingly difficult Cyanwrath and making him nearly impossible.
I should add that the players took the easy route to get to Cyanwrath, finding the secret passage in room 2, wiping out all the minions in room 12 before they could flee to protect Mondath, and curbstomping Mondath in just two rounds. They were basically unscathed going into this boss, and they still only survived because they surprised the minions.
Hoard of the Dragon Queen (part 1 of ToD) was in development before 5th edition was finalized and as such has a bunch of problems with its difficulty scaling.
This section is rather notorious for being unusually difficult, it seems to have been designed with the idea that most of the rooms won't end up in fights. If your players go stealth then the random encounters are basically patrols to avoid. If they go in guns blazing then yes its simply too much combat.
No, most of the rooms do have fights. The problem is that rooms 3 through 10, which includes the boss room, have a non-trivial chance of having even more enemies than usual, taking the already exceedingly difficult Cyanwrath and making him nearly impossible.
I should add that the players took the easy route to get to Cyanwrath, finding the secret passage in room 2, wiping out all the minions in room 12 before they could flee to protect Mondath, and curbstomping Mondath in just two rounds. They were basically unscathed going into this boss, and they still only survived because they surprised the minions.
The impression I got is that rooms 2-6 are generally pretty easy to avoid any combat at all. They consist of low dcs to detect traps that would alert enemies but otherwise you can pass through safely. Room 7 is a very easy encounter that could be finished with a single spell. Also from my experience it isn't too uncommon to like your party did completely skip rooms 3-8 which is why I get the impression that this dungeon is made with an expectation that allot of combats will be skipped.
This section is rather notorious for being unusually difficult, it seems to have been designed with the idea that most of the rooms won't end up in fights. If your players go stealth then the random encounters are basically patrols to avoid. If they go in guns blazing then yes its simply too much combat.
No, most of the rooms do have fights. The problem is that rooms 3 through 10, which includes the boss room, have a non-trivial chance of having even more enemies than usual, taking the already exceedingly difficult Cyanwrath and making him nearly impossible.
I should add that the players took the easy route to get to Cyanwrath, finding the secret passage in room 2, wiping out all the minions in room 12 before they could flee to protect Mondath, and curbstomping Mondath in just two rounds. They were basically unscathed going into this boss, and they still only survived because they surprised the minions.
The impression I got is that rooms 2-6 are generally pretty easy to avoid any combat at all. They consist of low dcs to detect traps that would alert enemies but otherwise you can pass through safely. Room 7 is a very easy encounter that could be finished with a single spell. Also from my experience it isn't too uncommon to like your party did completely skip rooms 3-8 which is why I get the impression that this dungeon is made with an expectation that allot of combats will be skipped.
That's the thing. My group basically skipped the entire dungeon AND surprised Cyanwrath's berserkers AND weren't surprised in return AND focus fired Cyanwrath so he only got two turns AND surrounded him to trap him so that (upon recharging on turn 2) he couldn't use his breath to get more than one person (his hit points were too low for him to risk taking an opportunity attack). The party would have been wiped if any of these conditions had not been met. With the fight already so thoroughly stacked against the players, why is it even possible for these additional enemies to appear in this room? The players are level 3!
Hoard of the Dragon Queen (part 1 of ToD) was in development before 5th edition was finalized and as such has a bunch of problems with its difficulty scaling.
The original, yes, but I'm running the 2019 rerelease on D&DBeyond, which fixed many of those errors. For instance, the rerelease replaced the four assassins in Chapter 4 (the players are level 4 in this one) with four veterans.
I'm running Tyranny of Dragons right now, and my players beat [/monster]Langdedrosa Cyanwrath[/monster] last session. It was a very close fight, but I am astonished with how many things could have gone wrong. Cyanwrath, on his first turn alone:
The player characters surprised both of the berserker minions, Cyanwrath rolled poorly on initiative, and Cyanwrath ruined his team's surprise because his heavy armor imposed disadvantage on his Stealth check. Cyanwrath wasn't even able to set up a line that hit three PCs. Despite this, Cyanwrath knocked two out of four PCs down and nearly knocked down a third. This encounter is worth an adjusted 4000 XP (the deadly threshold for four level 3 PCs is 1600 XP, and the daily budget is 4800 XP), and I suspect that it is so difficult that it might even be an even match for the PCs.
But what I haven't mentioned is that this boss room has RANDOM ENCOUNTERS. Every time the players enter, there is a 1 in 6 chance that one of the following enemy groups will be found there in addition to the enemies already inside:
Many of these possible encounters in Cyanwrath's room go beyond the daily budget without even trying. This can't be intentional, can it? Is it possible that random encounters are only supposed to happen in chambers 3 through 8 rather than 3 through 10?
This section is rather notorious for being unusually difficult, it seems to have been designed with the idea that most of the rooms won't end up in fights. If your players go stealth then the random encounters are basically patrols to avoid. If they go in guns blazing then yes its simply too much combat.
No, most of the rooms do have fights. The problem is that rooms 3 through 10, which includes the boss room, have a non-trivial chance of having even more enemies than usual, taking the already exceedingly difficult Cyanwrath and making him nearly impossible.
I should add that the players took the easy route to get to Cyanwrath, finding the secret passage in room 2, wiping out all the minions in room 12 before they could flee to protect Mondath, and curbstomping Mondath in just two rounds. They were basically unscathed going into this boss, and they still only survived because they surprised the minions.
Hoard of the Dragon Queen (part 1 of ToD) was in development before 5th edition was finalized and as such has a bunch of problems with its difficulty scaling.
The impression I got is that rooms 2-6 are generally pretty easy to avoid any combat at all. They consist of low dcs to detect traps that would alert enemies but otherwise you can pass through safely. Room 7 is a very easy encounter that could be finished with a single spell. Also from my experience it isn't too uncommon to like your party did completely skip rooms 3-8 which is why I get the impression that this dungeon is made with an expectation that allot of combats will be skipped.
That's the thing. My group basically skipped the entire dungeon AND surprised Cyanwrath's berserkers AND weren't surprised in return AND focus fired Cyanwrath so he only got two turns AND surrounded him to trap him so that (upon recharging on turn 2) he couldn't use his breath to get more than one person (his hit points were too low for him to risk taking an opportunity attack). The party would have been wiped if any of these conditions had not been met. With the fight already so thoroughly stacked against the players, why is it even possible for these additional enemies to appear in this room? The players are level 3!
The original, yes, but I'm running the 2019 rerelease on D&DBeyond, which fixed many of those errors. For instance, the rerelease replaced the four assassins in Chapter 4 (the players are level 4 in this one) with four veterans.