We created a rule of taking part in with a minimal of six gamers. But the oldsters who confirmed actually wished to play, so we broke our personal rule … and practically broke the get together with it.

To Play or Not to Play?​

It occurs. Everyone’s busy, and solely sure gamers present up. I labored arduous to encourage a mixture of assist casters and fight character varieties, six characters in complete. We play as soon as per week over Roll20. The rule we got here up with is that we might play with a minimal of 4 gamers. If we had all six, nice, I might modify the sport’s problem on the fly.

But this final encounter concerned ranged fight utilizing cowl in a sniping battle. Our remaining get together members have been an elven druid, a tiefling sorceress, and a gnome artificer. With the exception of the elven ranger, the ranged attackers have been all current. I requested the gamers in the event that they wished to proceed. The three who confirmed up have been actually wanting ahead to the sport, so I made a calculated resolution and determined to go forward.

Maybe We Shouldn’t Have Played…​

The battle concerned hordes of enemies arriving from above, with a horizontal (as an alternative of an overhead view) map, Space Invaders type. There have been large mushrooms to cover behind and many flying clockwork monsters taking pictures radiant rays. The sorceress unleashed fireballs and a storm sphere, whereas the druid used her moonbeam spell in a 40-foot lengthy column (very totally different from the 10-foot aspect circle when combating from a top-down perspective!). The artificer ran round therapeutic and offering assist. For the primary couple of rounds, issues have been going within the get together’s favor.

But there have been too many monsters, which meant that essential hits have been more likely. Even although the monsters had low Armor Class and low Hit Points, there have been plenty of them, and the essential hits began so as to add up, notably on the druid. There wasn’t plenty of room to cease and heal, as each get together member was maximizing their motion financial system because the enemy relentlessly got here nearer and nearer to them on the backside of the map.

Then the monsters closed to melee.

When it was a sniping battle, issues have been pretty even. Although the monsters have been being decimated they nonetheless have been scoring hits, however the squishier casters could not face up to a lot melee for lengthy. This is the place they missed their tanks most. The sorceress summoned a Hound of Ill Omen and the artificer summoned his eldritch cannon. These soaked up some hits, however not sufficient.

At this level issues have been getting determined. The sorceress went down, as did the Hound and cannon, however that was sufficient for the druid to make use of her moonbeam to wash up the remainder of the attackers after which revive the sorceress. It was an in depth match and the gamers have been sweating.

What I Did Behind the Scenes​

I initially had two assaults for each monster, so I reduce that in half. It additionally simply made fight transfer quicker, as there have been plenty of attackers (15 per wave). I additionally rounded up injury when the monsters have been near 0 hit factors, so in the event that they have been inside 2 or 3, I simply blew them up. The fight was meant to make the PCs really feel highly effective, they usually undoubtedly loved wiping opponents off the battlefield.

The monsters additionally got here in waves, which meant that whereas our heroes began out robust, it will definitely wore them down. The monsters weren’t notably sensible and had no chief, so that they reacted to fight situations solely after they skilled them (e.g., they did not keep away from the storm sphere at first till a couple of obtained caught in it).

And regardless of all that, it was nonetheless very a lot a swingy battle that would have resulted in a complete get together kill.

Was It Worth It?​

The gamers talked about this sport in breathless phrases, thrilled that they survived. I used to be too, as a result of I actually did not wish to wipe out the get together as a result of we selected to play with out the remainder of the group. And but capturing that lightning in a bottle, the place the win is tough earned, is a part of what makes the sport a lot enjoyable. There are actually issues I might have performed in a different way, however with so many variables it could possibly typically be arduous to gauge it good. It was shut a match, however I believe it was well worth the danger.

Your Turn: How do you deal with video games when half or extra of the get together is lacking?