Iron_Chef
First Post
My DM is trying to run our conquest-happy little group of devout Banites through The City of the Spider Queen. So far, we are getting consistently clobbered, only making it through a couple of rooms/caverns before getting nearly annihilated and having to retreat. We just started this adventure two sessions ago, and haven't beaten the first level yet, LOL.
How tough is this adventure supposed to be? I don't want spoilers, but it's freaking killing us so far and I'd like to know if it just keeps getting tougher. I really hate fighting undead, drow and demons...
Our group:
PC #1: LE human female Wizard (Conjurer with Evocation and Necromancy opposed schools) 5/Master Summoner 2/Mindbender 1/Nar Demon Binder 1/Mystic 1/Theurgist 1 (she collects PrCs but quickly loses interest in advancing in them if they limit her spell progression). Useless in combat aside from spells. Has an Imp familiar, also useless in combat. Both have darkvision. She has Spell Penetration, Spell Focus Enchantment and Greater Spell Focus Conjuration (high DCs combined with her 22 INT/Spellcasting Prodigy feat and +1 to all spell DC bracelet).
Her problem is, most everything we are running into has spell resistance, AND massive elemental resistance (20) or immunities (and almost all her damaging spells do acid damage). Most of her spells are completely ineffective against outsiders, undead and constructs. She has a lot of mind affecting magic, buffing and utility spells, but her combat spells are limited because of her oposition school choices. She is completely helpless in a fight if her spells don't work on the enemy, she doesn't even have a magic dagger and her BAB is around +3 at level 11... She just found a wand of greater magic weapon, so that should help the group out.
PC #1's Cohort: LE human female Ftr 2/Wizard (Transmuter) 4. Wand of Lightning Bolt (5th level). MW Bastard Sword. A ruthless, cold-hearted, supremely efficient lesbian human (Zhent) supremacist, LOL. Can cast Fear 1/day (DC 15).
PC #2: LE human male Cleric 9 of Bane/Ftr 1. Largely useless in combat aside from casting spells. This oily villain weighs over 300 pounds and really lazy except when he's trying to charm/dominate or hold everything (preferably female and attractive) in sight. If none of the above options work, his idea is to run (waddle) away, leaving his companions to their doom (which hopefully gives him enough time to wander off in search of whores and ale). He's got a MW bladed gauntlet. Can cast Fear 1/day (DC 18)
PC #3: LE mh/half (red) dragon Rog 7/Ftr 2 (ECL 12), dual wielding a +1 flaming rapier and +1 rapier. He can fly 1 hour/day and has darkvision, plus a ring of invisibility. He can do a ridiculous amount of damage under the right circumstances but we keep running into incorporeal creatures like ghosts (which he always blows his miss chance on) or creatures you need a +2 weapon to hit (like Bebiliths), so he can still get his ass kicked. He's obnoxious and arrogant, but supremely clever (INT 20) when he has to be.
We hardly have any offensive magic items, and only a modest amount of defensive and utility magic items. None of us particularly want to do this adventure, but Bane (Read: The DM) is rail-roading us. Apparently, some necromancer has stolen a rod of power from Zhentil Keep and is sending it to the drow city of Maerimydra to open some sort of portal to the Negative Material Plane or some such folly. All we know from comune spells so far is that "the rod will be used against the interests of Bane" and it is "time sensitive" for us to recover the Rod. We don't know what the rod is or does exactly, though we did see it once (we ended up giving it over to a vampire servant of the necromancer in Zhentil Keep, who just hapened to be poor PC #1's father whom she let be tortured/murdered by the necromancer rather than give in to blackmail to prevent her from her duties in rebuilding the walls of Zhentil Keep). The DM is changing some things up a bit to get us involved, since altruism isn't in our nature... nor is greed, when it comes to a suicidal mission like this.
Advice?
How tough is this adventure supposed to be? I don't want spoilers, but it's freaking killing us so far and I'd like to know if it just keeps getting tougher. I really hate fighting undead, drow and demons...
Our group:
PC #1: LE human female Wizard (Conjurer with Evocation and Necromancy opposed schools) 5/Master Summoner 2/Mindbender 1/Nar Demon Binder 1/Mystic 1/Theurgist 1 (she collects PrCs but quickly loses interest in advancing in them if they limit her spell progression). Useless in combat aside from spells. Has an Imp familiar, also useless in combat. Both have darkvision. She has Spell Penetration, Spell Focus Enchantment and Greater Spell Focus Conjuration (high DCs combined with her 22 INT/Spellcasting Prodigy feat and +1 to all spell DC bracelet).
Her problem is, most everything we are running into has spell resistance, AND massive elemental resistance (20) or immunities (and almost all her damaging spells do acid damage). Most of her spells are completely ineffective against outsiders, undead and constructs. She has a lot of mind affecting magic, buffing and utility spells, but her combat spells are limited because of her oposition school choices. She is completely helpless in a fight if her spells don't work on the enemy, she doesn't even have a magic dagger and her BAB is around +3 at level 11... She just found a wand of greater magic weapon, so that should help the group out.
PC #1's Cohort: LE human female Ftr 2/Wizard (Transmuter) 4. Wand of Lightning Bolt (5th level). MW Bastard Sword. A ruthless, cold-hearted, supremely efficient lesbian human (Zhent) supremacist, LOL. Can cast Fear 1/day (DC 15).
PC #2: LE human male Cleric 9 of Bane/Ftr 1. Largely useless in combat aside from casting spells. This oily villain weighs over 300 pounds and really lazy except when he's trying to charm/dominate or hold everything (preferably female and attractive) in sight. If none of the above options work, his idea is to run (waddle) away, leaving his companions to their doom (which hopefully gives him enough time to wander off in search of whores and ale). He's got a MW bladed gauntlet. Can cast Fear 1/day (DC 18)
PC #3: LE mh/half (red) dragon Rog 7/Ftr 2 (ECL 12), dual wielding a +1 flaming rapier and +1 rapier. He can fly 1 hour/day and has darkvision, plus a ring of invisibility. He can do a ridiculous amount of damage under the right circumstances but we keep running into incorporeal creatures like ghosts (which he always blows his miss chance on) or creatures you need a +2 weapon to hit (like Bebiliths), so he can still get his ass kicked. He's obnoxious and arrogant, but supremely clever (INT 20) when he has to be.
We hardly have any offensive magic items, and only a modest amount of defensive and utility magic items. None of us particularly want to do this adventure, but Bane (Read: The DM) is rail-roading us. Apparently, some necromancer has stolen a rod of power from Zhentil Keep and is sending it to the drow city of Maerimydra to open some sort of portal to the Negative Material Plane or some such folly. All we know from comune spells so far is that "the rod will be used against the interests of Bane" and it is "time sensitive" for us to recover the Rod. We don't know what the rod is or does exactly, though we did see it once (we ended up giving it over to a vampire servant of the necromancer in Zhentil Keep, who just hapened to be poor PC #1's father whom she let be tortured/murdered by the necromancer rather than give in to blackmail to prevent her from her duties in rebuilding the walls of Zhentil Keep). The DM is changing some things up a bit to get us involved, since altruism isn't in our nature... nor is greed, when it comes to a suicidal mission like this.
Advice?
So instead of the kind of adventures we want (political, roleplaying, short-term mass combat), we're stuck in hack-n-slash mode with PCs/players who are ill-equipped psychologically AND game mechanically to pull off this adventure. 
