Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Phase spider matriarch is dumb

Party of 4 = Diadell the Wood Elf Rogue, Drogyn the Half-Orc Barbarian, Lynari the Drow Wizard and Vel the Half-Elf Druid. They are even Level 5 characters.

They enter the well and begin to explore. First battle begins. 2 Ettercaps and 2 Phase Spiders.

Initiative is rolled. Order is Diadell, Ettercap 1, Lynari, Vel, Ettercap 2, Phase Spider 1, Phase Spider 2, Drogyn

Diadell chooses to dart 30 feet and takes cover. She then fires at Ettercap 1. She rolls a 10 with her shortbow and gets a +6 to hit. Ettercap has 13 AC. Hit. Diadell rolls 1d6+3 damage. She does not get to use Sneak Attack because she neither has advantage against the ettercap nor does she have an ally within 5 feet of it. She rolls a 2 and takes 5 HP off total.

Ettercap 1 moves 30 feet towards PCs, now putting it within 30 feet of them. It fires a web at Drogyn. It gets a +4 to hit. It rolls a 9 + 4 = 13. Drogyn's AC is 18. Miss.

Lynari's turn. She has 2 level 3 spell slots, 3 level 2 spell slots and 4 level 1 spell slots. She decides to use her Level 2 spell Dragon's Breath. She chooses fire breath. This is a bonus action. Then she runs up to the Ettercap 1, positions herself so that she can hit a bunch of webbing as well within the 15 foot cone that her dragon breath makes, and then she uses her action to blast her fire breath at her targets. She rolls 3d6 damage. The Ettercap rolls to see if it can take half damage. It uses a Dexterity Savings throw against Lynari's Spell Save DC of 14. Her damage roll is 11. The Ettercap 1 rolls 9 + 2 = 11. Failure. It takes full damage and a bunch of webs are on fire. Ettercap 1 now has lost 16 HP total. It only has 44 total HP to begin with, so now it is reduced to 28 HP.

Vel is next. He has 2 level 3 spells, 3 level 2 and 4 level 1. He runs up next to Lynari and uses Moonbeam, a Level 2 spell. He directs the beam so that it is a shaft of silvery light that shines down in a 5 foot radius and extends all the way to the ceiling of the cave some 40 feet above. It descends right down on top of Ettercap 1, blocking any pathway to the PCs so that all enemies must come through the moonlight to get to the PCs. Ettercap 1 has to make a Constitution Savings throw against Vel's Spell Save DC of 13. It rolls a 12 + 1. It succeeds. Vel does 2d10 damage to it, but it is halved because of the successful savings throw. Vel rolls 8 so takes only 4 off the creature. It now has 24 HP left. Vel keeps the beam up using concentration.

Ettercap 2 moves, using a Dash action to go 60 feet. It cannot do any other actions because Dash is an Action. It has now moved into range, coming close to the moonbeam but not going in it.

Phase Spider 1 uses a bonus action to do an Ethereal jaunt. It magically shifts from the Material Plain to the Ethereal Plain. So, in this round, it simply disappears. Phase Spider 2 does the same. They don't just phase into the Ethereal Plain and then back into the Material Plain in the same turn, teleporting across the board right on top of you all in one turn. It takes 2 turns to do this.

Now it is Drogyn's turn. He rushes up to Ettercap 1 and attacks using his Greatsword. He rolls an 8. He gets a +8 to hit. He gets 2 attacks per round because he is a level 5 Barbarian. So he hits with a 16. He rolls 2d6+5 damage. He rolls a 9+5=14. The Ettercap is now reduced to 10 HP. He rolls a second time to hit and gets a natural 20. He rolls 4d6+5 damage. But wait! He has Savage Attacks because he's a Barbarian. When he scores a critical hit with a melee weapon, he gets to roll one of the weapon's damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit. So that means he actually gets 5d6+5 damage. He rolls a total of 22 damage off. Ettercap 1 is dead.

Next round. Diadell can now use Sneak Attack because her companions are within 5 feet of Ettercap 2, just on the other side of the moonbeam. She rolls a 7+6=13. Hit. She does 1d6+3 for her bow, but as a level 5 rogue she also gets 3d6 extra damage for Sneak Attack. That's a total of 4d6+3 damage. She rolls an 18+3=21. Ettercap 2 is now reduced to 23 HP.

Lynari's turn. She moves into position and launches her fire breath. It has a duration of 1 minute, and only 1 round has gone by (which is 6 seconds). So it is still active. She hits Ettercap 2 and deals 3d6 damage. It rolls a savings throw and succeeds. She rolls 10 damage which is reduced to 5 because the Ettercap made the savings throw. It now has 18 HP.

Vel's turn. He uses his Action to move the beam. He can move it up to 60 feet in any direction. He puts it on the Ettercap. He rolls 2d10 damage and gets a total of 8. The Ettercap rolls a 19 for savings throw, so he only loses 4 HP. It has 14 HP left.

Ettercap 2 goes. It's really mad now. It has Multiattack so it can attack once with its bite and once with its claws. It goes right for Lynari. It gets a +4 to hit and rolls a 9 and 18 for totals of 13 and 22. Her AC is only 12. Hit twice. Bite does 1d8+2 damage and Claw does 2d4+2 damage. It rolls a 3+2=5 and 6+2=8 for a total of 13 HP off. Lynari had 22 HP to start with, so she now only has 9 HP.

Phase Spider 1 is next. It uses Ethereal Jaunt to appear right next to Drogyn. That was a bonus action. It rolls a 15+4=19 to hit. It hits Drogyn. It does 1d10+2 damage. Drogyn must also make a Constitution savings throw of 11 or higher to avoid taking a full 4d8 poison damage as well. He rolls a 12+3=15. He takes half damage from it. So the creature rolls an 8+2=10 damage for its normal damage and 20 for poison which is then reduced to 10 because he made the roll. Drogyn has 48 HP to begin with, so now he only has 28 HP.

Phase Spider 2 joins Phase Spider 1, teaming up on Drogyn. It rolls a Natural 20. It deals 2d10+2 points of damage. Drogyn makes his savings throw so he takes half damage from the poison. The spider rolls a 2+2=4 damage and with the 4d8 roll he gets 16 which is reduced to 8. Drogyn is now reduced to 16 HP.

Drogyn's turn. He attacks Phase Spider 1. He rolls a 15+8=23 to hit. (Oh yeah. He has a Greatsword +1, by the way.) Phase Spider AC is 13, so he hits. He rolls 2d6+5 damage and gets a total of 13. Phase Spiders have 32 HP, so Phase Spider 1 only has 19 HP left. He attacks again, because he gets 2 attacks, and he rolls a 7+8=15 to hit. He hits and rolls 2d6+5 damage, getting a 14. Phase Spider 1 has 5 HP left.

Round 3. Diadell's turn again. She stows her bow and runs up on Phase Spider 2 using her two short swords. She has a Frostbrand Shortsword and a Shortsword of Wounding. She gets Sneak Attack this round because Drogyn is within 5 feet of the enemy. She rolls a 12 and a 9 to hit. Her bonus to hit is +6, so she hits both times. For her Frostbrand Shortsword, she gets 2d6+3 (an additional 1d6 cold damage) and for her Shortsword of Wounding she gets 1d6 (she does not add +3 because it is her off hand weapon.) She is using Sneak Attack for her Shortsword of Wounding so that she deals 2d6+3 damage with her Frostbrand Shortsword and 4d6 damage with her Shortsword of Wounding. She rolls a 7+3=10 and a 15 for a total of 25 HP off the Phase Spider. Phase Spider 2 now only has 8 HP.

Lynari's turn. She still has her breath weapon and blasts the Ettercap with it. She rolls an 8 for damage off of it. It rolls and fails its savings throw. It loses 8 HP. It had 14 HP left, so now it only has 6 HP.

Vel moves his moonbeam again. It deals 2d10 damage and the creature fails the save. He rolls a 9. Ettercap 2 is now dead.

Phase Spider 1 attacks Drogyn. It rolls a 13+4=17. A miss. It then uses Ethereal Jaunt to shift into the Ethereal Plain to escape. Phase Spider 2 attacks Diadell and rolls a 13+4=17. Diadell has 16 AC, so it hits. It rolls 1d10+2 damage and gets a total of 7 off Diadell. She has 27 HP to begin with, so she's down to 20. Diadell rolls a Constitution Savings throw. She gets no bonus and rolls a 10. She fails. Spider does 4d8 additional poison damage to her. It rolls an 18. Diadell now has 2 HP remaining. It then phases just like Phase Spider 1.

Drogyn gets to go, but with no enemies around, he can do nothing but drink a potion and heal. He uses a Potion of Greater Healing which provides 4d4+4 HP back. He rolls a 12+4=16, so he now has a total of 32 HP.

Next Round. Diadell heals with a potion and gets back 14 HP for a total HP of 16. Remember, potions are Actions, so she can only use one healing item per round. That's all she gets back. Lynari also uses a healing potion and gets 10 HP back. She now has 19 HP. Vel readies an action. Phase Spider 1 returns to attack Drogyn. Vel has readied his action, though. He uses it now moving the moonbeam right on top of the phase spider. He deals 2d10 damage and rolls a 9. Phase Spider fails the savings throw. It's dead. Phase Spider 2 appears and attacks Diadell. It rolls a 19 and hits. It does 1d10+2 damage and takes off 6 total. Diadell rolls and fails her savings throw again and thus receives an additional 4d8 damage off. Phase Spider 2 rolls a 12. So Diadell loses 18 HP total this turn. She is now down and dying.

Drogyn's turn. He rushes the last Phase Spider to get revenge for his fallen Diadell. He rolls an 18 and 14 total to hit. He does 2d6+5 twice, once for each hit. He kills the Phase Spider and ends the combat. Vel immediately rushes over to Diadell and heals her using Cure wounds. She gains back 1d8+5 and he rolls a 4. So Diadell is restored 9 HP.

-- End of Battle 1 --

As you can see, even this first battle, which is not yet even the fight against the spider queen matriarch, was a tough one for 4 level 5 characters. Diadell was even knocked out at one point and dying. Vel used 1 Level 1 Spell Slot and 1 Level 2 Spell Slot. Lynari used only 1 level 2 Spell Slot. However, now they are weakened already and need to recover HP. If they are NOT able to take a long rest, that means that they will need to press on using potions and healing spells to recover lost HP to be ready for the next fight. They might also want to use a Short Rest, if the DM allows it, to recover some HP and maybe Lynari can recover her lost spell slot using Arcane Recovery. Either way, the point of me putting this here is that it illustrates that this was a very tough fight already, and we haven't even gotten to the queen. If Larian did the game rules the way they should be done, it would be plenty difficult to face the spider queen's lair.

If I have time, I might even let you know how the spider queen fight went for this team using the stats that I was suggesting - 64 HP with AC 16 and maybe I'll even give her multi-attack.