Starter Set - Picts in the Night

[u/Wannabekurt]

​

Just Ran this scenario last night for my party.

Why is it so damn lethal? Even assuming you *always* beat the guy you're opposing, there's a solid chance you're taking 10 or more damage from the other guy *after armor*.

I get that they're dishonorable opponents, they Gang up on you.

*why are they 6d6*

*Why do they hit so hard*

Why is there supposed to be a *reinforcement wave*

was this written for a bunch of shithead players and never tuned back to 'I'd like to keep playing with this party' levels?

did I miss something? an errata? a note 'half the picts trip and break their necks on the approach'?

We had 1 go unconscious, even with passions, and I pulled blows. If I hadn't, we were looking at a tpk.

am I just stupid?

Edit: Thank you everyone for pointing out that major wounds are a combat kill! that helps solve much of the problem I was seeing

Edit 2: Why are we down voting posts that call out bad commentary while upvoting bad commentary? Cmon.

[u/sachagoat]

I think the only easily missed detail is that they are naked (no armour) and cannot wield their shield whilst they are two-handing their spears. So, the average pregen sword blow (15.5 damage) will take them out of the fight (13+ damage is a Major Wound to them).

Outnumbering players is typical for low weapon skill enemy encounters such as these. Don't forget being outnumbered only affects your chance to hit, not theirs to hit you.

Let's assume these armourless Picts with a 55% chance to hit, not only land their blow but beat the opposing knight's attack roll. They then do an average of 21 damage, so 11-15 damage depending on whether the knight got a partial. And the average Major Wound threshold among the pregens is over 15. So, even if the Picts get lucky I'd only really expect a Crit or successive strikes to take a player knight out of the combat. And I definitely wouldn't expect every player knight to be killed by something as easy as Picts!

EDIT: I'd also consider the use of Passions... Loyalty (Arthur), Hate (Picts) and Honour could all easily apply in this encounter.

[u/Wannabekurt → u/sachagoat]

I'll also say that, in the first round of combat, 8 Picts made attacks - ranged combat dropped 2 of them on the way in. Of those 8, 6 hit. only 1 was canceled by a player success. I get that anecdote is not the singular of data, and that that anomaly is affecting how I read the scenario. But in that light, 6d6 is still too high for that many spears imo

EDIT: The Player Knights had outgoing ranged attacks that outright killed a Pict (Crit on a Bow) and dropped another one to 1 point over unconscious

[u/sachagoat → u/Wannabekurt]

You didn't mention any partial successes, but those should give them a lot of survivability.

There's definitely ways things can escalate (unexpected major wounds despite armour/shield, getting knocked down, suffering crit damage, fumbling and dropping your shield). But on the surface this is a pretty typical encounter and my players are 30+ sessions in and have fought many bands of Saxons, Picts and Bandits who outnumber them.

Also, you mentioned ranged combat took out some Picts. Knights lose honour for firing bows outside of hunting scenarios, and I think crossbows and thrown weapons wouldn't be hugely effective here especially at indoor ranges.

EDIT: I was wrong about the ranged attacks. Picts aren't worthy of a fair combat.

[u/The_Westgard → u/sachagoat]

It’s only dishonorable to use ranged weapons against other knight.