As a first time DM I'm after some help with the Harpy encounter in Dragons of Stromwreck Isle. My questions were:-
1. If a PC fails the luring song save does it also use the dash action to get to the Harpy as quickly as it can?
2. Can another PC use a grapple to prevent the charmed PC from moving towards the Harpy?
3. The luring song is defined as a bonus action so presumably the Harpy can continue singing and attack at the same time?
4. The Harpy will be hiding in the crows nest at the top of the 50 feet mast and when a charmed PC has climbed up the rigging to get to the Harpy the Harpy will either grab/grapple the PC and drop it doing 5d6 damage at 50 feet or attack it to knock it off the mast. Is this strategy fair on the PCs? Presumably the incapacitated PC cannot resist the grapple and presumably it would fall from the mast if successfully hit?
1. The charmed PC is incapacited so can not take actions, this includes dashing towards the harpy
2. Yes, also note that at the charmed PC is incapacited it can not contest the grapple check the grappler automatically succeeds.
3. The Luring song is listed under actions so it takes an action to start the song (so can not attack that turn). It takes a bonus action to continue singing so if the harpy began singing on the previous turn it can contuinue singing as a bonus action and (multi) attack
4. Yes but "Attacking it to knock it off the mast" would need to be a shove attack not a claw or club attack, this means it can not be part of multiattack.
Be very careful with this level 1 combat is very swingy anyway and giving the Harpy such situational advantage would be very likely to lead to a player death, possibly even TPK even if the party do nothing wrong strategicially. I fall from 50 ft is very likely to insta kill a level 1 character (at least those a d6 or d8 hit dice), the party will not be able to see harpy so have very few options to attack it from range (only thing I can think of is sleep with a miniscule change of success (need to roll 38 with 5d8). It comes down to whether enough PCs save to grapple their charmed friends. As long as climbing the rigging counts as climbing (I would say not skill check required but speed is halved) giving most PCs chances to save at deck level, 15ft up, 30ft up and 45ft up should make the odds of more than half the party failing 4 saves unlikely.
As a first time DM I'm after some help with the Harpy encounter in Dragons of Stromwreck Isle. My questions were:-
1. If a PC fails the luring song save does it also use the dash action to get to the Harpy as quickly as it can?
2. Can another PC use a grapple to prevent the charmed PC from moving towards the Harpy?
3. The luring song is defined as a bonus action so presumably the Harpy can continue singing and attack at the same time?
4. The Harpy will be hiding in the crows nest at the top of the 50 feet mast and when a charmed PC has climbed up the rigging to get to the Harpy the Harpy will either grab/grapple the PC and drop it doing 5d6 damage at 50 feet or attack it to knock it off the mast. Is this strategy fair on the PCs? Presumably the incapacitated PC cannot resist the grapple and presumably it would fall from the mast if successfully hit?
1. The charmed PC is incapacited so can not take actions, this includes dashing towards the harpy
2. Yes, also note that at the charmed PC is incapacited it can not contest the grapple check the grappler automatically succeeds.
3. The Luring song is listed under actions so it takes an action to start the song (so can not attack that turn). It takes a bonus action to continue singing so if the harpy began singing on the previous turn it can contuinue singing as a bonus action and (multi) attack
4. Yes but "Attacking it to knock it off the mast" would need to be a shove attack not a claw or club attack, this means it can not be part of multiattack.
Be very careful with this level 1 combat is very swingy anyway and giving the Harpy such situational advantage would be very likely to lead to a player death, possibly even TPK even if the party do nothing wrong strategicially. I fall from 50 ft is very likely to insta kill a level 1 character (at least those a d6 or d8 hit dice), the party will not be able to see harpy so have very few options to attack it from range (only thing I can think of is sleep with a miniscule change of success (need to roll 38 with 5d8). It comes down to whether enough PCs save to grapple their charmed friends. As long as climbing the rigging counts as climbing (I would say not skill check required but speed is halved) giving most PCs chances to save at deck level, 15ft up, 30ft up and 45ft up should make the odds of more than half the party failing 4 saves unlikely.
That's really helpful thank you!