How to handle the Warlock?

[genuine]

I know you said you don't want to kill anyone, but why not? At level 13 they aught to be able to scrape together the 5k for a resurrection, and getting full-attacked by an Elasmosaurus should teach him not to TP behind enemy lines with a Warlock.

[Bozwevial]

I know you said you don't want to kill anyone, but why not? At level 13 they aught to be able to scrape together the 5k for a resurrection, and getting full-attacked by an Elasmosaurus should teach him not to TP behind enemy lines with a Warlock.

It might be that he wants to teach the lesson with a less harsh penalty than making the warlock's player sit out of the session until he rolls up a new guy or gets resurrected.

[Epimetheus]

Slight nitpick: Doesn't fighting in Forbiddance prevent the DimDoor tactic from working altogether?

And if they put themselves into danger, you are allowed to kill them. As mentioned, resurrections are cheap.

[PhaedrusXY]

WTF... so really the problem is that you overnerfed your encounter to allow your gimpy party to survive, because otherwise you would have easily TPKd them.

[DrHorrible]

WTF... so really the problem is that you overnerfed your encounter to allow your gimpy party to survive, because otherwise you would have easily TPKd them.

Well, yeah... But it must be said that even if that dinosaur was a CR12, offensively was a beast. That said now I understand I should have played it at his fullest, killing a PC and seriously wounding a couple others. In the end a resurrection at their level is pretty easy.

[weenog]

WTF... so really the problem is that you overnerfed your encounter to allow your gimpy party to survive, because otherwise you would have easily TPKd them.

Solution for this kind of crap: Never ever ever pull any punches, and then don't get all bitchy when your players start looking at options and characters that are far more powerful and flexible than you're used to.  Selection pressure will tend to encourage non-gimpy characters, for the convenience of not having to make a new one every single session if naught else, but only if the DM clearly knows that it's okay for the PCs not to suck.

[Tenebrus]

I would amend  the above to say: Know your party.  You are there to provide entertainment to them and yourself.  Some parties box above their weight, some below.  If you devise a scenario that takes out the warlock, can the rest of them manage the encounter?  Is it just that the warlock is the only power gamer, and the rest of them are still kinda clueless?

[weenog]

Well yeah, I'm mainly thinking in terms of what I, and (most) of the people I play with find enjoyable.  As players, we don't like DM pity handouts, we want to earn what we get (or fail) through our own abilities.  To encourage that, you need a DM who is willing to let characters die if they get into situations that will kill them, but also, a DM who is willing to accept new characters that have a good chance of not dying in situations like those that eliminated the previous characters.  One without the other, either you're a killer DM or a pushover, and either way you probably shouldn't be DMing.

[Bard]

+1 to Phaedrus and Weeong, also to any crowd control, possibly with Fort or Ref saves...
but most of all, I will give you the advice I'm convinced it's the basis of DM'ing: "Know your party and troll 'em hard."
He uses Dimension Door?
Have a mage somewhere with Anticipate Teleportation: it's a 24h buff that delays teleports by one turn, so the lock will:
1. lose one turn every time he teleports
2. EVERYONE will know when and where he'll appear and can ready action and traps for him.
He can see invisible creatures? Use burrowing ones, just as invisible with no fear of see invisibility. Or boost hide and add the dark template to some of your monsters (bonuses to hide AND Hide in plain sight), so he can't see them anyway, even if they're right in front of him.
He's flying?
Dispell him and enjoy falling damage.

Basically just turn his strengths against him and SMILE. (don't do it too often tho, players NEED to feel strong and special and all, just keep them grounded)

[Rejakor]

This is DnD.  Intelligent enemies should expect teleportation.


That said, you're compounding your mistakes hilariously.  1.  You made an encounter too hard for the party.  2.  You overnerfed it.  3.  You decided that because you overnerfed the encounter, the warlock is OP and you can't make an encounter to challenge him (without killing him/the party).


Here's an idea.  On a bluff overlooking the fight, the hobgoblin sorcerer is shooting spells at people from inside his Globe of Invulnerability.  Two hobgoblin Guarda are standing in front of him with prepared actions to use Tower Shields to block LoS.  Behind the Sorcerer, troop of Hobgoblin infantry are underneath camo cloaks (+10 hide) with 1/10 of their bodies showing from a pre-constructed blind (+10 hide).  If anyone gets on top of the ridge and starts attacking the sorcerer, they use a barrage of nets, tanglefoot bombs, and hobgoblin linebackers with touch attacks to either grapple or bullrush, depending if the foe is flying or not.

Have the sorcerer have a contingent Draconic Polymorph (War Troll) + Tenser's Transformation + Flame Blade + False Life spell-chain readied.

Have the sorcerer be a disguised Wight with pimped out grapple (check out frank's Grapple Wizard for how) who starts grappling the warlock to death if the warlock gets close.  Keep in mind the warlock can't DDoor out of a grapple.

But yeah, the warlock really isn't the problem.  You need to hit the right encounter level.  Currently you're aiming way too low.