Umber Hulk(Huge) In The Stinger Caves Should Be Changed

[Ebonstar]

tune it up not down

if people choose to try and bulldoze everything it will give a nice surprise. Then they will use their heads, which is supposed to be part of this game

[Skald Haldi]

I will add a comment since there was another recent thread with a similar topic.

Arelith wants death to be meaningful. At the same time, for proper RP, it shouldn't give unfair advantages to players just because "they've seen it before". Hard to avoid, but things like this are the example of where it really breaks immersion.

Yes, it's fun to have hard encounters / dungeons. It's even better if there's big hints that you aren't intended to fight this thing. The problem arises if the only reasonable way you learn NOT to fight it is by dying.

Wash, Rinse, Repeat. That's a dumb way to learn - and not much fun. It best rewards the player who DOESN'T think, rushes through, gets killed, and so knows what to do different next time (and next character). Bad RP.

[Bibliophile]

I personally would hate to see it toned down or gone. Sure, put some sort of warning, scuff marks or claw marks on the tunnel walls, something that lets people who are taking an unfamiliar place carefully notice and be aware of, but will let those that just sprint through whole areas easily miss.

[Durvayas]

Arelith wants death to be meaningful...

...The problem arises if the only reasonable way you learn NOT to fight it is by dying.

This is largely the issue with this boss in a nutshell. Its impossible to gauge how strong it is, and there is no warning. In an area for sublevel 10s, this thing is designed for 20s, and aggros you as soon as it establishes LoS.

The only way to know how high its AB is is to get swung on.
The only way to know you don't do enough damage to be a credible threat is to shoot it or swing on it.
The only way to know the(absurd for the area) DC of its confusion gaze cone(or even that it has one) is to get gazed.
If any of these things happen, the PC in question is dead 100% if the time; In the case of the gaze cone, the PC and everyone within the tunnel for at least ten feet as well.

If its meant to demonstrate the UD has some terrifying things in it, and there is always a bigger fish?
Great.
Fantastic.

Absolutely make it dangerous, but make it fair.

[Intrepid42]

I once played on a NWN2 PW that (for a time) had a script that left bones/remains where a PC died in-game, however unlike current Arelith mechanics they persisted for a while even after respawn/server reset (one per PC).

You could always tell where the first real solo challenge was, by the piles of corpses when you entered that area. The scattering and location even told stories "oh look, this one tried to run away, but didn't quite make it to the entrance".

The remains were moveable, and they gave us some crypts to store/inter them in properly, but there were still quite a few in the more distant dungeons.

Eventually the sheer number of remains resulted in some modification to the code, but for a time I liked the foreboding atmosphere it could convey, of wandering past the ever-increasing numbers of those who came before you.

[Iceborn]

I once played on a NWN2 PW that (for a time) had a script that left bones/remains where a PC died in-game, however unlike current Arelith mechanics they persisted for a while even after respawn/server reset (one per PC).

You could always tell where the first real solo challenge was, by the piles of corpses when you entered that area. The scattering and location even told stories "oh look, this one tried to run away, but didn't quite make it to the entrance".

The remains were moveable, and they gave us some crypts to store/inter them in properly, but there were still quite a few in the more distant dungeons.

Eventually the sheer number of remains resulted in some modification to the code, but for a time I liked the foreboding atmosphere it could convey, of wandering past the ever-increasing numbers of those who came before you.

I don't know why I never thought to this. The Dark Souls approach to PvE death sounds *rad*.

[Subutai]

I could make a new topic for this, but it seems like it would be reasonable enough to add this in here.

After struggling for some time against this umberhulk today, coming across it with no warning at all, it seems to me that the problem with the hulk isn't that it's not dangerous, or that it's too hard from a too much damage or too much AC perspective, but that, for some baffling reason, it has regen (which Umber Hulks don't normally have, so it doesn't make much sense). This makes the fight not exciting, or challenging, but a frustrating slog as you see its health drop, drop, drop, then go back up as yours goes down, down, down.

I think this could be a pretty fun surprise boss fight if it just lost the regen. It's tough enough already that unless the group is warded up and prepared when the fight starts, they're going to get beaten. If they're level appropriate and prepared, I don't see why they shouldn't get a fighting chance against it, which could easily be provided by ditching the (non-lore-friendly) regen.