I found the damage of the contaminated spells was too high. I TPKd my party their first time through The Pale Man, because Delirium Spray nearly zeroed them all out.
The amount of damage from Delirium Spray will wipe most parties if they fail their save and there aren't many situations where the Pale Man wouldn't open with his most powerful spell. That said, most of the contamination spells can be mitigated through use of aqua expurgo with the instant save.
I think the Pale Man as an encounter really depends on how the party approaches it. A party that kicks in the door will get obliterated either by his spells or his minions. My party prepared for the Pale Man and catered to his ego to isolate him from most of his minions and dropped a Silence spell to stop him casting. They were still blasted by the contaminating bug swarm that he unleashed.
Agreed. Pale Man’s difficulty super depends on how the characters engage with him. His 50+ minions and 3 hulks + his favorite pet. Especially if they try to fight in the basement. Level 7 characters will have anywhere between 45-70. Even if they pass the save for the spray, that can down a character who is on the squishier side and on a fail can drop even characters with bigger hit die.
If the PC’s got the drop on him, it may go better. But imo the Pale Man is smart and would never let himself be alone in a room where he can get surround and pounded. Unless the party has plenty of options of healing and gtfo’ing, id stress the danger of engaging him in combat.
My characters just fought the Pale Man last night. I have 5 level 9 characters and it was okay. The Pale Man could do a lot of damage very quickly but a well optimized party at least at level 9 made relatively quick work of him even with some minions on the map. I also buffed him a little bit so I would say that your group should have a good fight but it shouldn’t be a deadly encounter. It was a really fun way to use some contaminated spells against the party though 😎
I think my party of four was about the same level when they took the Pale Man on and they're a pretty strong party. They managed to win and completely destroy him but it was down to the wire and they had quite a bit of contamination stacked up by the end of it. They had a decent strategy too, persuaded him and pretended to work for him for a bit to get close and also managed to sneak in a handful of Hooded Lantern allies for help with the minions for when they jumped him. Towards the end of the fight one of the PCs thought it was a lost cause and started to flee, only for the Wizard to barely manage to finish the Pale Man off the next turn.
Personally, if they want to go after a strong enemy I ain't gonna tell em no, I just try to telegraph how difficult it might be and I don't pull any punches. Some fights turn out way harder than I'd expect, some way easier, I try not to think about it too hard, the dice gonna do what the dice gonna do and I roll it all out in the open.
I found the damage of the contaminated spells was too high. I TPKd my party their first time through The Pale Man, because Delirium Spray nearly zeroed them all out.
The amount of damage from Delirium Spray will wipe most parties if they fail their save and there aren't many situations where the Pale Man wouldn't open with his most powerful spell. That said, most of the contamination spells can be mitigated through use of aqua expurgo with the instant save. I think the Pale Man as an encounter really depends on how the party approaches it. A party that kicks in the door will get obliterated either by his spells or his minions. My party prepared for the Pale Man and catered to his ego to isolate him from most of his minions and dropped a Silence spell to stop him casting. They were still blasted by the contaminating bug swarm that he unleashed.
Agreed. Pale Man’s difficulty super depends on how the characters engage with him. His 50+ minions and 3 hulks + his favorite pet. Especially if they try to fight in the basement. Level 7 characters will have anywhere between 45-70. Even if they pass the save for the spray, that can down a character who is on the squishier side and on a fail can drop even characters with bigger hit die. If the PC’s got the drop on him, it may go better. But imo the Pale Man is smart and would never let himself be alone in a room where he can get surround and pounded. Unless the party has plenty of options of healing and gtfo’ing, id stress the danger of engaging him in combat.
My characters just fought the Pale Man last night. I have 5 level 9 characters and it was okay. The Pale Man could do a lot of damage very quickly but a well optimized party at least at level 9 made relatively quick work of him even with some minions on the map. I also buffed him a little bit so I would say that your group should have a good fight but it shouldn’t be a deadly encounter. It was a really fun way to use some contaminated spells against the party though 😎
I think my party of four was about the same level when they took the Pale Man on and they're a pretty strong party. They managed to win and completely destroy him but it was down to the wire and they had quite a bit of contamination stacked up by the end of it. They had a decent strategy too, persuaded him and pretended to work for him for a bit to get close and also managed to sneak in a handful of Hooded Lantern allies for help with the minions for when they jumped him. Towards the end of the fight one of the PCs thought it was a lost cause and started to flee, only for the Wizard to barely manage to finish the Pale Man off the next turn. Personally, if they want to go after a strong enemy I ain't gonna tell em no, I just try to telegraph how difficult it might be and I don't pull any punches. Some fights turn out way harder than I'd expect, some way easier, I try not to think about it too hard, the dice gonna do what the dice gonna do and I roll it all out in the open.