New Redlight Goblin Shamans

[Crunch]

I have noticed that the new goblin shamans cast phantasmal killer with a DC of 19.  Between that and the elemental shield they put up, they are a very serious challenge to low level fighters.  Unless I knock them down before they get started casting, they have something like a 1 in 3 chance of killing my fighter in the second round of combat.  They don't seem to give any more xp than a standard goblin fighter/rogue.

I think a slightly lower dc on the phantasmal killer or bumping up the CR might be appropriate.  In general it seems like the default NWN spell casting progressions for NPC casters give the PCs a little time to get on them before they get very dangerous.  This balances the fact they seem to be the same XP as a similar level fighter.  When custom scripts are used to go straight to offensive spells, IMHO the CR should be adjusted accordingly.

I agree that the default spell selection makes many of the caster NPCs too easy, and am glad to see the team tweaking it.  I just think it maybe has gone a bit far with the goblins.

[MJZ]

Oi, that called lightning smarts, eh?

I hate when the fighters you're with don't understand that they should try to tackle the shaman first, before we all get fried. Then it turns into a spellcaster vs. spellcaster duel - which is viciously aggravating with that elemental shield. And then KABOOM! All the fighters suddenly have <30 hp. *Finger hovers over invis button*

[Dorganath]

The Red Light Caverns have been adjusted upward in terms of difficulty, as they are no longer adjacent to a starting area.  The CR of the whole cave is higher, and the CNR has been adjusted to reflect that, to a degree.

It would be helpful to know the level of your character in question as well as anything else in the party at the time to help us determine if there is an unintended imbalance at work here.

[Crunch]

The first time I got hit with it was my 7th level fighter and a 9th level fighter.  I failed my saves and died, but the 9th level fighter defeated them.  The second time was my 7th level figher, a 9th level fighter, a 6th level figher and a 6th level cleric.  That time I made my save and we all survived that encounter.  (but the 9th level fighter and I both were killed in a later encounter.  the cleric was invisible and survived that encounter and saved the 6th level fighter too.  Having seen how the two stage spawn in the later area works, I'm sure that group can handle it now, but it still will be a tough fight.)

My issue is not so much with the overall difficulty as with the death magic.  There aren't very many buffs against death magic available for single digit characters and even if you can reduce your chances of death down to 1 in 10 through bless, aid, etc you still will pick up dts from that situation if you keep facing it over time.

I think I'm probably pushing things a bit taking a 7th level character into the redlight, but I haven't many areas where the risk versus reward is any better at 7th level.  For now I am mostly just steering clear of areas where I know these shaman hang out.

Upgrading the kobolds in the cave in the sielwood forest to something more like what the tougher redlight goblin once were might make a good intermediate challenge.  Also the kobolds and kenkus near hlint would be good training for the 6-8 level crowd if they were upgraded by about 2 in CR.  

Please don't mistake this for a complaint.  I know you guys are really busy trying to make all the version changes and tweak balance and get a new storyline going and all those other things going on in the background.  I'm just giving my 2 coppers on how I think things might be tweaked to support small parties of single digit characters adventuring for fun and profit.

[Dorganath]

Understood...But there are other caves and areas closer to the starting areas which are geared more toward that challenge level (i.e. single-digit characters adventuring for fun and profit).

And I don't think it's a complaint, I'm just trying to explain what's going on there. A 6-9 level party like you described might have been more appropriate for the old Red Light Caverns in V2, but the challenge (and reward) has been upped in those areas for V3.

Phantasmal Killer, incidentally, is not death magic...it's illusion. It literally scares the target to death rather than kills them outright.

[Crunch]

Thanks Dorg.  I'll spend a bit more time exploring nearer the starting areas.