The Great Wyrm Lieutenant Eldric Farror

By charberus, in Descent: Journeys in the Dark

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Has anyone been able to have a group kill or almost kill Lieutenant Eldric Farror in Bronze or Silver Level? We figured that with the lieutenant could go straight to Tamalir and start raising the town. While it would take some time, the players would be still have a hard time killing him if they tried to stop him.

That is our assumption because I totally killed the group and made the weak ones run away, whenever they fought him because they couldn't do more then 10 damage in a round. In the battles with him, he would hide in the trees and let the players come to him. Also, since the group could kill any minions before they had a chance to get close, I used the threat to move him and amplify his attacks. Also, the environment I think played a big part. We were in an area where there were alot of trees, which provided shadowcloak ability to those in it.

Note: I just love his special abilites of ironskin and unstoppable; and his regen...oh how the players hate the regen.

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Sir Alric Farrow is probably a challenge to defeat with starting gear but I see absolutely no reason why a party of 4 would be unable to kill him with some copper gear.

I think it’s important to have completed at least one dungeon by the end of week 2. This gives a party the money and equipment necessary to defend against a lieutenant rushing Tamilir.

I was in a group a while back that possessed moderate copper equipment and killed Alric in a single round of combat (the overlord was a good overlord so don’t think he did anything stupid, we just focus-fired Alric dead) and then, in the following week, killed Merick with strategic use of a character with the bear tattoo.

Lieutenants are all bark and no bite.

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Hi,

I have to agree with Incarna about the "all bark and no bite" remark. The heroes can easily get some copper equipment during the first 2-3 weeks, and if they then attack the lieutenant, position themselves that they can all attack him during a single turn, and use power potions, it's not much of a problem to kill him in a single turn.

-Kylearan

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incarna said:

I was in a group a while back that possessed moderate copper equipment and killed Alric in a single round of combat (the overlord was a good overlord so don’t think he did anything stupid, we just focus-fired Alric dead) and then, in the following week, killed Merick with strategic use of a character with the bear tattoo.

Alric is very different from Merick. He is not affected by grapple, so he can always run away. He has more wounds and regen. So if you don't make very good damage on him in one turn you will be not able to kill him. I doubt that any good OL allow you to do so.

The only way I can see to kill him if one of your character has telekinesis. Move Alric to corner if this is possible on that map. Set team on corner exit and try to make aim with Power Potion and all fatigue for every character. You will get 10-13 power dices for each attack. Totally about 48. Only them should damage about 36-40 in aim, reroll any not power results (unless you have +1 damage for surge). You will need to get another 10-14 from 8 other dices, very possible result. There are about 12% that one of you will miss, in this case he will survive almost for sure. If you will not succeed, he will run away (12+ MP) and you lost your chance in most cases (he can even continue to run on map until he get full of health and then come back and finish you). For that you will need 4 Power potions and some Vitality potions. If you don't have it, I doubt you can kill him because battle action even with using 4 fatugue to dices on every attack will give about 3 damage per hit, 6 per turn. (More for tanks but tank have to move first and battle will be offten not possible).

But even this way is not so easy to set up, since he has 7 monsters with him. Most of them armor 3. This is different from other Leits who have much weaker army. I really doubt that anyone can even make him flee on first - second week. After that he can upgrade his monsters to silver and this will be another task.

Using him to attack heroes from the first turn is very powerfull for OL because he can get CT much faster, quickly upgrade to silver, protect dangeons with Power. Since he get silver very quickly, he will get more CT in any battle and will be able to buy treachery, which will make hell to face Leit combat at this level unless you have Wind Pact. Think he got 2 green treachery and will destroy 2 of your weapons on second turn, any chance to kill him? How to play further?

When OL full of threachery any leit combat will be hell even if you have Wind Pact. He can destroy weapond, tirn you all into monkeys and kill, do lots of things and then just run away if you are still too powerfull. You will get some money if you win, but he will get much more for sure. And you will be never able to kill him. With 4-5 leits OL can make your life ... interesting.

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You’re both oversimplifying and mischaracterizing how an encounter with Alric would go. Rushing Tamilir SHOULD mean the overlord has not acquired enough treachery to upgrade a monster category to silver. It is possible that he may have purchased treachery but there’s no gurantee that he has chosen event treachery - especially depending on what Avitar he’s running.

The heroes SHOULD have done at least one dungeon and acquired some copper weapons and armor. This means that whatever minions accompany Alric should not be much trouble… but I would consider them limited priority anyway over driving off or killing Alric.
The heroes get first turn so they SHOULD be able to position two durable heroes side-by-side in a two-space corridor creating a bottleneck. This should force most monsters (with the exception of the razorwings) to direct their attacks at the heroes more apt to be able to take such an attack. (not counting the possibility that one hero might have grapple or taunt)
Now, since Alric is a melee lieutenant he should be relatively close to the heroes and, if the overlord is spending his threat on bonus movement and attack dice, he won’t be reinforcing – and what reinforcements he does add will not be in a position to effect the combat immediately.
The heroes then use fatigue to position themselves to do 2 battle actions each making sure to keep the bottleneck blocked off behind them. This type of onslaught will give ANYONE pause even at 5 armor. Axe-wielding heroes can inflict up to 4 or 5 damage with EACH attack after armor but lets say he inflicts 5 total damage with BOTH attacks (figuring in the potential to miss or do maximum damage). Sword, crossbow, and immolation wielding characters can inflict up to 2 or 3 damage with each attack but lets say each of them inflicts 3 damage total with both their attacks (figuring in the potential to miss or do maximum damage) for a total of 14 (3+3+3+5)… this is with STARTING weaponry and without factoring in abilities like Command, Inner Fire, Necromancy, Prodigy, Quick Casting, Sorcery, Alertness, Born to the Bow, Eagle Eye, Master Archer, Rapid Fire, Berserker, Brawler, Furr the Spirit Wolf, Knight, Leadership, Mighty, Unmovable and Weapon Mastery – obviously things get freaky when Mad Carthos with prodigy does a battle action with the copper staff that stops undying for up to 18 damage in one attack… but that’s a bit extreme… Chances are the heroes will have at least two of these abilities available and some copper weaponry backing them up so I’d bump the total party damage after armor up to about 18…
Battles that take place in the open camp tile in outdoor encounters don’t usually go well for the heroes and I just naturally assume heroes will bottleneck a hallway. Alric doesn’t have the ability to run around the board, regenerate, and build threat – he can only run away or stand and die… and if he runs, that’s all you need. The lieutenant gets sent back to the overlords keep and needs to waste another god-knows how many weeks moving back to Tamilir while the heroes do another dungeon, equip themselves with better copper weapons and armor and possibly train new skills and add additional attack dice.
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What Alric should be doing, IMHO, is getting Silver Razors and reinforcing more and more of them, soaring and killing the ranged dudes, then blocking the melee guys and wearing them down.

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If heroes will block movement from one side with tanks, razors can block it from another side. Tanks can't hit them. If heroes will move, other monsters like beastmans can attack weak one. Even cupper razors does lots of damage, enough to kill any weak in 2-3 attacks. Even if someone will attack them with ranged, it is still difficult to kill them from distance 5 since they have 3 armor.

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SanJin said:

If heroes will block movement from one side with tanks, razors can block it from another side. Tanks can't hit them. If heroes will move, other monsters like beastmans can attack weak one. Even cupper razors does lots of damage, enough to kill any weak in 2-3 attacks. Even if someone will attack them with ranged, it is still difficult to kill them from distance 5 since they have 3 armor.

If I had a lieutenant pinned behind my tanks along a corridor and a razorwing or two flew behind me to block behind me, I wouldn’t be concerned in the least… in fact, I’d be happy – that gives my ranged/magic users the (only ones who can attack them) an exposed target… and two fewer obstacles between the Lieutenant and me. If I were an overlord I’d use my razorwings and fly up into the tanks faces forcing them, on their following turn, to back out and waste an attack so my ranged/magic users can knock them out of the sky

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Xandria said:

What Alric should be doing, IMHO, is getting Silver Razors and reinforcing more and more of them, soaring and killing the ranged dudes, then blocking the melee guys and wearing them down.

Totally how I won. Yeah, the hero party still hasn't really forgiven me for that fight.

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With crossbow and 3 power dice from range 5 ( min for you to attack razors) you will get max 2 damage since razors have 3 armor. Average result will be about 0.5 because most of cases damage will be 1 and about half times you don't get enough range or don't break armor or miss. So to kill 1 razor you need 8 attacks with crossbow, similar for mage. If you get some bonus it could be more damage, but generally you kill one razor in one tirn. Don't forget that you will move using fatigue because range 6 will make almost sure that you miss. Any way you will have to move your tanks away to give line of sight. That will allow all monster to attack weak character next turn and 100% it will be killed. Good exchange 1 razor for 1 character, since OL get his razor back every turn.