[Jack_Simth]

So... the Scythe probable out to be sold (nobody's proficient), the diamond is the eventual component for Raise Dead, so we probably want to keep that as party loot.

The amulet... probably ought to go to whoever has the lowest AC... but then, it is rather pricey for what it does, and selling it could pay for some nice stuff.

So... how do we split up the loot?

As for the battles....

The rats took two or three rounds, but there's a couple reasons they seemed so easy:

1) They lost initiative, badly - Luck.
2) One of the PC's used a strong (for the level) 1/day ability, that affected them all (Breath Weapon - 6d6 fire is harsh at this level) - a nova effect.
3) They all blobbed together, making good bait for area effects (which the party had in plenty, and which are more effective on groups than they are on individuals) - partially tactics, but mostly a matter of terrain and starting position.

If, instead, the rats had one initiative, the Half-Dragon Monk had kept the breath weapon in reserve, and the rats had coalesced on the party from the four corners of a room once the party was in the room, things would have gone much, much differently.

The half-fiend spider, on the other hand, went the other way on most things - no Nova left, it's got a nice set of defensive abilities that happens to coincide with most of the party's attack forms (Fire Resistance, SR, and DR vs. Ornald, DR vs. Rick) that we weren't set up to penetrate. There was only the one of it, so area effects aren't particularly effective in the first place.

The Goblins were circumstance - they weren't immediately hostile, had very poor sense motive checks, and got Bluffed into submission.

Farkus... we got off lightly with him due to a few missed standard actions when he was getting up, and some poor spell choices on his part - spamming Spiritual Weapon would have been the death of us all at that point. Especially with the duration on that encounter.


But yes, there's a lot of luck in it, and certain things are stronger or weaker than others of the same CR vs. particular tactics. At this level, though, CR's actually pretty accurate.