TOPIC: The Skull of Cavadar: Part Deux

Arcanist Kolixela wrote: Also worth taking into account how many spells are likely to be cast in your run.

Currently on Nightmare I expect 1 round of combat on room 1, 1 or 2 on room 2 and 2 on room 3. That's 5 or 6 rounds to cast so if you have FA spells each room it'd be in favor of skull with no healing but teeth with healing.

Complications

Valid addition. Your experience is different than mine. I tell the wizards plan on 3 to 4 combats and use spells accordingly. So 3 rounds of damage spell casting each room would run you to your 12. I haven't had a 1 round of combat in the first room that I can ever remember with my group. Though 2 rounds has happened back when we were playing hardcore.

I very much understand that 1 round can and does happen, just not my experience, but very valid consideration.

EDIT: Though I would say if you are defeating final monsters in 2 rounds maybe you should be trying epic...lol.

jedibcg Banjo 815 Lover wrote:

Arcanist Kolixela wrote: Also worth taking into account how many spells are likely to be cast in your run.

Currently on Nightmare I expect 1 round of combat on room 1, 1 or 2 on room 2 and 2 on room 3. That's 5 or 6 rounds to cast so if you have FA spells each room it'd be in favor of skull with no healing but teeth with healing.

Complications

Valid addition. Your experience is different than mine. I tell the wizards plan on 3 to 4 combats and use spells accordingly. So 3 rounds of damage spell casting each room would run you to your 12. I haven't had a 1 round of combat in the first room that I can ever remember with my group. Though 2 rounds has happened back when we were playing hardcore.

I very much understand that 1 round can and does happen, just not my experience, but very valid consideration.

EDIT: Though I would say if you are defeating final monsters in 2 rounds maybe you should be trying epic...lol.

It depends upon the group and the DM (some will just automatically add hp to the monster for certain groups regardless of what's in the module), but my experience has been very similar to that of Arcanist. I certainly see more rooms that end in 1 round of combat versus 3, with 2 being about average. And even when the combat goes to a second round, when I step up to the DM to cast my spell he often looks at me and says not to bother because one more slide hit will kill the monster.

Dave wrote:

jedibcg Banjo 815 Lover wrote:

Arcanist Kolixela wrote: Also worth taking into account how many spells are likely to be cast in your run.

Currently on Nightmare I expect 1 round of combat on room 1, 1 or 2 on room 2 and 2 on room 3. That's 5 or 6 rounds to cast so if you have FA spells each room it'd be in favor of skull with no healing but teeth with healing.

Complications

Valid addition. Your experience is different than mine. I tell the wizards plan on 3 to 4 combats and use spells accordingly. So 3 rounds of damage spell casting each room would run you to your 12. I haven't had a 1 round of combat in the first room that I can ever remember with my group. Though 2 rounds has happened back when we were playing hardcore.

I very much understand that 1 round can and does happen, just not my experience, but very valid consideration.

EDIT: Though I would say if you are defeating final monsters in 2 rounds maybe you should be trying epic...lol.

It depends upon the group and the DM (some will just automatically add hp to the monster for certain groups regardless of what's in the module), but my experience has been very similar to that of Arcanist. I certainly see more rooms that end in 1 round of combat versus 3, with 2 being about average. And even when the combat goes to a second round, when I step up to the DM to cast my spell he often looks at me and says not to bother because one more slide hit will kill the monster.

I've had that several times as well.

I've had DMs just wave me off in similar fashion. If it's a newer group I tell him to let them slide up to the wire and "barely" win. But it's very common to end combats very early in room 1 or 2

Arcanist Kolixela wrote:

Dave wrote:

jedibcg Banjo 815 Lover wrote:

Arcanist Kolixela wrote: Also worth taking into account how many spells are likely to be cast in your run.

Currently on Nightmare I expect 1 round of combat on room 1, 1 or 2 on room 2 and 2 on room 3. That's 5 or 6 rounds to cast so if you have FA spells each room it'd be in favor of skull with no healing but teeth with healing.

Complications

Valid addition. Your experience is different than mine. I tell the wizards plan on 3 to 4 combats and use spells accordingly. So 3 rounds of damage spell casting each room would run you to your 12. I haven't had a 1 round of combat in the first room that I can ever remember with my group. Though 2 rounds has happened back when we were playing hardcore.

I very much understand that 1 round can and does happen, just not my experience, but very valid consideration.

EDIT: Though I would say if you are defeating final monsters in 2 rounds maybe you should be trying epic...lol.

It depends upon the group and the DM (some will just automatically add hp to the monster for certain groups regardless of what's in the module), but my experience has been very similar to that of Arcanist. I certainly see more rooms that end in 1 round of combat versus 3, with 2 being about average. And even when the combat goes to a second round, when I step up to the DM to cast my spell he often looks at me and says not to bother because one more slide hit will kill the monster.

I've had that several times as well.

I've had DMs just wave me off in similar fashion. If it's a newer group I tell him to let them slide up to the wire and "barely" win. But it's very common to end combats very early in room 1 or 2

Yeah, my experience the past five years or so is the first combat room will end up being a chance to get to know the people in my PUG or talk with people I haven't seen since the last con. That's running Normal with a bunch of first timers or Epic with veterans.

jedibcg Banjo 815 Lover wrote:

Arcanist Kolixela wrote: Also worth taking into account how many spells are likely to be cast in your run.

Currently on Nightmare I expect 1 round of combat on room 1, 1 or 2 on room 2 and 2 on room 3. That's 5 or 6 rounds to cast so if you have FA spells each room it'd be in favor of skull with no healing but teeth with healing.

Complications

Valid addition. Your experience is different than mine. I tell the wizards plan on 3 to 4 combats and use spells accordingly. So 3 rounds of damage spell casting each room would run you to your 12. I haven't had a 1 round of combat in the first room that I can ever remember with my group. Though 2 rounds has happened back when we were playing hardcore.

I very much understand that 1 round can and does happen, just not my experience, but very valid consideration.

EDIT: Though I would say if you are defeating final monsters in 2 rounds maybe you should be trying epic...lol.

I’ve had it happen twice now where the Paladin got an auto kill first round

Bob Chasan wrote:

jedibcg Banjo 815 Lover wrote:

Arcanist Kolixela wrote: Also worth taking into account how many spells are likely to be cast in your run.

Currently on Nightmare I expect 1 round of combat on room 1, 1 or 2 on room 2 and 2 on room 3. That's 5 or 6 rounds to cast so if you have FA spells each room it'd be in favor of skull with no healing but teeth with healing.

Complications

Valid addition. Your experience is different than mine. I tell the wizards plan on 3 to 4 combats and use spells accordingly. So 3 rounds of damage spell casting each room would run you to your 12. I haven't had a 1 round of combat in the first room that I can ever remember with my group. Though 2 rounds has happened back when we were playing hardcore.

I very much understand that 1 round can and does happen, just not my experience, but very valid consideration.

EDIT: Though I would say if you are defeating final monsters in 2 rounds maybe you should be trying epic...lol.

I’ve had it happen twice now where the Paladin got an auto kill first round

The Assassin in my regular group hasn't failed to assassinate at least one monster per run. His best was 3 on the scrael module.

Fiddy, I am one such person that has collected the teeth but does not have the kilt.

Fiddy wrote:
The Assassin in my regular group hasn't failed to assassinate at least one monster per run. His best was 3 on the scrael module.

That's pretty incredible, does everyone work together to get him as many natural 20s as possible?

Iross wrote:

Fiddy wrote:
The Assassin in my regular group hasn't failed to assassinate at least one monster per run. His best was 3 on the scrael module.

That's pretty incredible, does everyone work together to get him as many natural 20s as possible?

He's a really good slider, so when he's Assassin, we have him slide first. If he lands on the 20, we all pause and eat a few seconds from the clock to see if he killed it. I don't think we've ever successfully bumped him into an assassinate when he didn't land on the 20 initially.

Fiddy wrote:

Iross wrote:

Fiddy wrote:
The Assassin in my regular group hasn't failed to assassinate at least one monster per run. His best was 3 on the scrael module.

That's pretty incredible, does everyone work together to get him as many natural 20s as possible?

He's a really good slider, so when he's Assassin, we have him slide first. If he lands on the 20, we all pause and eat a few seconds from the clock to see if he killed it. I don't think we've ever successfully bumped him into an assassinate when he didn't land on the 20 initially.

That's some seriously impressive skill, I am going to have to revise my opinion of how useful the Assassin class is

Damian (Dimetri) wrote: Fiddy, I am one such person that has collected the teeth but does not have the kilt.

If anyone ends up with just the Cavadar Eldritch Token, the Kilts of Dungeonbane are very affordable right now. They can be bought for the cost of the raw ingredients, if not less.

Fiddy wrote:

Philip Goodman wrote: I think the current design is okay.

I'd also be a fan if the skull allow stacking with one psychic enabler to not invalidate all of them.

"Grants access to all pwr tiers & grants psychic ability or 1 addl pwr use"

This.

Always late to the game I agree with this