Ok, so I'm running a game of D&D with 4 players, all at level 4. Do you think I could throw a group including a lvl 5 rogue, a lvl 4 fighter, and a level 3 bard at them and have them survive? What about imeadiately following with a fight against a lvl 4 fighter and a lvl 3 barbarian, this time with a lvl 3 NPC joining their side?


PS. A quick reply would be greatly appreciated, as I plan on running this game tonight...

It all depends on the PCs, and what they have.
It is a pretty Exterme encounter, You have a Group of 4 lvl 4, the rules are desgned to have a challange of 1 CR4 thing (the the Fighter) and use a small amount of their resources, spells, HP, one shot magic items etc, the more you throw into it the more they are expected to use up in resources. Will it be a challangeing fight, possibly, or it could be a push over, it depends on the strength of the players, how they work together, what they are equiped wirth etc. There is no clear cut answer. a few good hits one oneside and a few bad misses on the other can switch the encounter alot.

Is it surviable, very. The question is how much do you want them to use of their resources, and how much can they recover before the next fight. The next fight will be tough again, but the NPC helping will even things out a bit, becuase it can be a source to help resupply valued resources.

They could be hard pressed against the level 5 rogue, as 4 level 4 characters should be able to handle 1 CR 4 encounter with the loss of a portion of their resources. From my understanding of the rules, that would mean that the level 4 fighter is a CR 4 encounter, the level 3 bard is a CR 3 which should be ok thrown in with the level 4 fighter, but the level 5 rogue might cause them some problems depending on how you run the encounter compared to the PCs.

Course, you could always throw them into the encounter and if the battle was going badly for them, either have some NPCs enter the fray on the sides of the PCs or fudge some rolls.

But, they could be like my group and surprise you. So far, I haven't had to fudge any rolls, and they've done pretty well against some heavy opponents. But the encounter CR rules in the book match pretty well what happens in the game that I'm running. Ie, 1 CR encounter that is equal to their level makes them use up some of their resources, ie hit points, spells, etc.

Hope that helps.

Edit: It tells in the book what amount of resources they'll loose per encounter, but I'll have to look it up.

Skunk

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This is the final fight of the adventure. To fill you guys in, the pc's were hired to protect a group of "pirates" from the other half of their crew, which supposidly had a mutiny against them. This is a ship to ship fight, when the PCs finally encounter the "mutineers" (the rogue, fighter, and bard). They fight hard and kill the mutineers, but as the final one dies(or is subdued), he yells "bloody mutineers!" Knowing my PC's, they will realize that they have been fighting for the real mutineers. They will then be attacked by the people they have been defending, on the grounds of knowing too much. One of the people they have been fighting for will turn on her mates, as she is attached too the NPC's, and that sets up the final fight...


Wow, that was a mouthfull...

Anyway, this fight should be a huge strain on their resources, as just as it's over, another begins. Its the final fight, so if they use all of their spells, its Ok.

BTW, thanks a lot for the quick replies...

I like running high fantasy campaigns, which usually equates to pretty capable PCs. So I'm usually beefing up the opposition.

It's often possible for the players to run into an equal level group of Orc fighters. Course, these are not your usual Orcs mind you and they're aren't a whole lot of them. In fact, they're all members of the main enemy's troops, something that the PCs have figured out.

Skunk

Check out my fantasy campaign, Wizard Quest, a world using Wizards of the Coast’s 3.5 DnD system by visiting .

Check out the NEW IMPROVED flash teaser for my sci-fi campaign, , coming Jan 2007. I’ll be using D20 Future for the rules.

Check out what games I’m working on and their status by visiting .

Tampa Bay Game Players Forum is now available, .