TOPIC: True Grind Post-Mortem (2014 GenCon)

A good party, some good slides, and Incognito now being in a bad mood...lol.

Teamwork.

And some good solid *thinking* about your gear, and your opponents.

People who are used to min-maxing their gear for treasure, or for damage, often do poorly on Grind.

People who work well together, who think of alternate ways to take down their opponent (instead of always "Hit it 'til it stops moving!") and who waste very little time calling out their actions or lining up to the combat board... those groups tend to do better.

Having two healers with Lenses of Divine Sight does not hurt either though especially if one or both have an elderitch set....lol.

Personally, clever use of gears/items. All those ideas that normally get shot down in the dungeon proper for consistency reasons are pure gold in grind.

Last year we faced a drunken satyr. He was convinced to leave in exchange for a bottle of rum. This year we faced a Sand troll whose regeneration was overcome by our ranger dual wielding water skins. Facing a room full of stirges, blow horns of blasting. Encounter a gelatinous cube, purify it with faerie water, etc. Things like immunity to charm, resisting a variety of elemental types, and being aware of your scrolls are key.


Basically the best advice you can get for grind is to be aware of your surroundings and be prepared for any eventuality. Though sometimes a vorpal bunny will still rip your arm off before you can get to the holy hand grenades.

Raven wrote: Teamwork.

yes, Yes, YES! A thousand times yes!

Though teamwork and group cohesion are important in the two-hour adventures, in Grind those qualities are absolutely essential. As in, if you don't have them you will fail.

For that reason (and some poor personal experiences), I will never do Grind with a PUG.

Picc wrote: Though sometimes a vorpal bunny will still rip your arm off before you can get to the holy hand grenades.

Nom nom nom.

Incognito wrote:

Picc wrote: Though sometimes a vorpal bunny will still rip your arm off before you can get to the holy hand grenades.

Nom nom nom.

I still have the nightmares

Picc wrote:

Incognito wrote:

Picc wrote: Though sometimes a vorpal bunny will still rip your arm off before you can get to the holy hand grenades.

Nom nom nom.

I still have the nightmares

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Awwwww...sooooooo CUTE!

Josh Rayden wrote: What makes for a successful (survivable) True Grind run? Some luck, some gear and a bunch of consumables? It sounds pretty brutal.

Well, probably most important is choosing the appropriate level. It seems to me generally much harder than the dungeon runs, so a Hardcore TrueGrind is probably equivalent to a Nightmare regular run or even more (based on only one experience).

We had a TPK on TrueGrind Hardcore and I was the last one alive probably because I was the only one (I think?) with a few Legendaries (plus I had a really high AC and health).

But ultimately I didn't bring enough tokens. I needed a bigger stash of potions and arrows as a ranger and maybe we (well, maybe just I) would have survived.

Kirk Bauer wrote: Well, probably most important is choosing the appropriate level. It seems to me generally much harder than the dungeon runs, so a Hardcore TrueGrind is probably equivalent to a Nightmare regular run or even more (based on only one experience).

Yes, True Grind monsters are smarter and tougher than the average TD monster, so wisely choosing the right difficulty level is key.

Hardcore tends to be most popular choice and provides a good challenge with a high chance of "winning."

Nightmare is definitely not for everyone. It is for those who want the ultimate challenge, are okay with dying, and have a synergistic group with excellent teamwork and strategy. A victory on Nightmare has to be truly *earned*.

We had a TPK on TrueGrind Hardcore and I was the last one alive probably because I was the only one (I think?) with a few Legendaries (plus I had a really high AC and health).

But ultimately I didn't bring enough tokens. I needed a bigger stash of potions and arrows as a ranger and maybe we (well, maybe just I) would have survived.

I remember this run (Saturday 10 PM). IMHO, strategy was the Achilles' Heel.

Looking at the party card, there is a heavy emphasis on + hit/damage, at the expense of AC. While that is a totally legitimate strategy, it normally needs to be backed up by plenty of healing, since with those relatively low AC's you are going to get hit a lot. (The Paladin and Ranger had 30+ AC's but most other classes had around a 20 AC). So there wasn't a sufficient healing strategy to back up the party's specific build.

Also, your group was one of several that had trouble with the Purple Worm. Once the Purple Worm starting swallowing people, many parties should have focused on it alone.

I recall many groups seeing the Purple Worm board and saying "well there's only that tiny 20 area and the big 12 area so we're not even going to bother trying to slide on that board," which resulted in several party members getting digested. In contrast, there were other teams who all slid on the board, using the combined efforts of 3 or 4 sliders to get a critical hit in.

Alternatively, with sufficiently high + hit, there were several players that could have hit on the 12 but in some cases those players kept going for the 20 (and missing completely as a result).

Ah yes I know the purple worm all too well. LOL I wanted to tell my party to focus fire on the wurm but once your inside its hard to get the words out.

Sharknado! was super awesome. Thanks for letting our pickup druid using my gear play a flying shark. I think we all had a blast. The shark on shark action was super amusing even if I did get chomped up a lot.

Was a super great time.

The Room counter was perfect.
I had an idea to "upscale" it when you're ready to take it to the next level.


Can't wait till next time.

valetutto wrote: Ah yes I know the purple worm all too well. LOL I wanted to tell my party to focus fire on the wurm but once your inside its hard to get the words out.

There were at least two cases when a healing spellcaster decided to jump into the mouth of the Purple Worm, in order to heal some of the players who had been swallowed. That's the sort of teamwork that really helps out in Grind.

Sharknado! was super awesome. Thanks for letting our pickup druid using my gear play a flying shark. I think we all had a blast. The shark on shark action was super amusing even if I did get chomped up a lot.

Was a super great time.

Yeah, people really seemed to enjoy the Bulette.

Several players wanted to go toe-to-toe (or maybe fin-to-fin) against the Land Shark.

Although your polymorphed Druid did get Confused a bit by the Umber Hulk, fortunately the Umber Hulk died before he could properly "mount" your Druid. Thank Pelor for small blessings!

The Room counter was perfect.
I had an idea to "upscale" it when you're ready to take it to the next level.

Yeah, that was an improvised solution.

I am certainly interested in your ideas to upscale it.