Titanium guardians and timing issues

[Skywatcher]

Description: The spawn guarding the titanium in the Deep from northern Belinara is compsed of two pieces it seems and this creates a dangerous trap.  The Titanium golem is not on the same timer as the rest of the spawn.  I was with a group tonight exploring the underdark and we came across this battle.  We eliminated the spawn with the exception of the golem fairly quickly and went to work on the golem.  Since we were mostly only able to do single digits of damage it was taking a while.  We got it to badly wounded and were continuing to fight it when the entire spawn reappeared and wiped out our party.  Normally a spawn timer doesn't start until the last creature in the spawn is killed.  At least that's what I thought.  I am not sure what the CR of the titanium golem is but I think this could fall under the jump in CR from one area to another rule.  The remainder of the spawn was already a huge jump from anything we encountered in the way there and that golem made the battle nearly impossible it seemed.
 
Location: The spawn near the 3 titanium veins in the northern underdark.

Verified:

Reproducable: Yes

[aragwen]

What happens here is meant to happen I think.
 
 The titanium gaurdian is similiar to all high level CNR guardians and you have to kill it quick or the normal spawns will reappear. Similiar situation is found at rubies, emeralds, mithril as well.
 
 These encounters are the not meant to be easy to be honest as you gain access to the best CNR on the server. These encounters in my opinion is scaled for around level 21 and up characters.
 
 Also note that there is a "ambush spawn" at the titanium. There is not only one spawn. There is at least 3 spawns and the guardian if I remember right.
 
 Just thought I would clarify the situation for you.

[Dorganath]

There may be another dynamic at work here, and that is that the "guardian" creature is placed by itself and set to respawn on its own rather than as part of an encounter.  In most cases, our "boss" type creatures are put there as discrete creatures with their own independent timers. So while you are correct about encounter timers not restarting until the last creature is destroyed, in this case, and many others for that matter, the guardian is not part of the spawn and so the encounter can restart on its own even if the guardian is not yet destroyed.

In the immediate vicinity of the titanium veins, there is the Titanium Golem, 4 other placed creatures (independent respawns) and the encounter trigger.

As Aragwen said, this is by design.

[Skywatcher]

Ok.  If this is all as planned then I guess it's not a bug.  I didn't realize that this CNR was supposed to be above the ability of a coordinated group of 20th level characters.   I am off to get some practice to get stronger.

[Dorganath]

Having not seen your attack and not knowing the make-up of your party, I cannot comment on whether or not it should have succeeded.  The CR of creatures/encounters in the immediate vicinity of the Titanium range from about 20 to the mid-40's.  Not all CNR is guarded by stronger foes than would be "normal".  In the case of Titanium and other high-level CNR (mithril, emeralds, rubies, yew), yes, the guardians can be quite a bit more of a challenge than the other creatures around.

To use another example, things like the Mithril chamber were balanced for a group of mid-20th level characters.

One other comment: Many of these guardian creatures have a "weakness" or at least a form of damage against which they are not highly resistant (or immune).  Taking only a few points of damage off this guy per hit may indicate that there is a better way to combat them.  My disclaimer there is that I have not personally been part of such a fight, nor have I inspected its stats very closely, but even so, just getting "stronger" may not be the answer.  In Clarissa's case, for example, golems typically are not easily hurt by bladed/slashing/piercing weapons.

[Skywatcher]

Those are good thoughts.  Thanks.  I'll keep those in mind for future battle planning.