When Hook Horrors attack!

Over the past few weeks, I've been playing through WGR1: Greyhawk Ruins. Yes, playing - a friend has agreed to DM me and some of my other friends through that adventure.

I've been playing a Radiant Servant of Pelor in this game. The adventure is full of massive threats and treasure, so we've been levelling up very, very quickly indeed. Those of us who have survived, at least. One 7 hour session will normally get us about 2 levels! Very Monty Haulish.

So, Alvares Yulos, my priest, is now 10th level. We're having a lot of fun, though! :)

Anyway, last Sunday, we wandered into a room with thirty three Hook Horrors! Hmm.

At that time, the party was as follows:

* Harald, halfling Fighter 4/Rogue 2/Master Thrower 3
* "Mighty Braveman", half-orc Barbarian 5/Occult Slayer 3 (who is ignoring all the role-playing implications of the class...)
* Lady Misal, elf Ninja 7
* "Bob", elf Scout 7
* Alvares, human Cleric 6/Radiant Servant of Pelor 3 (my character)
* Aritheraith, elf Wizard 6 (my cohort) (with elf substitution levels)

So, what do you think happened?

Yes, we won. Eventually. After about an hour. Oh, and "Mighty Braveman" fell during the last stages of the combat, when he got too far away from me to be healed.

It was interesting to see the role of the various members of the party:
* The Master Thrower drunk a potion of spider-climbing and spent the combat hanging from the roof out of reach and throwing daggers.
* The Barbarian kept moving to cleave and power attacking as much as possible. Hook Horrors have a good AC, but not good enough...
* The Ninja was using Spring Attack and Ki Invisibility on the Horrors, and generally protecting my character from harm.
* The Scout was moving around, trying to keep away, and shoot arrows at the Horrors. He also was protecting my character from harm.
* The Wizard cast Haste, and then a fireballs, and then a few magic missiles, and shortly was out of spells. I haven't got his magic items right, yet, and we'd already encountered a couple of monsters.
* The Cleric (me) cast Daylight (Hook Horrors are sensitive to bright light), Prayer, Bless and then healing spells on the various PCs as required. A couple of Spiritual Weapons were set up, but eventually spent half their time not attacking, due to me being distracted.

Alas, when the Barbarian fell, I was too far away to use the Revivify spell I had prepared. :( (I had to use a scroll of Raise Dead instead).

However, here's a point: as the cleric, my main role in the combat was just casting Healing spells to keep the others going. Now, I'm very, very good at that. (Radiant Servant of Pelor with Augment Healing feat... wow!) However, whilst I'm doing that I'm not attacking.

It's something that interests me about priests - do the priests in your campaigns act in a similar fashion, or do they go more the Divine Favour and Power and Righteous Might route?

I think my DM misread the adventure, btw, for he interpreted the entire cavern system to have six of these chambers! (I think it should be 33 hook horrors over 6 chambers...)

Interestingly, we used miniatures for the combat. Very, very useful. Alas, I don't have 33 Hook Horrors. I have one. So, we just used some of my other large D&D Miniatures as proxies. I had enough. (Actually, I think I'm up to about 50 large D&D Miniatures... :))

For reference, here is my character at the moment:

Alvares Yulos, male human Cleric 6/Radiant Servant of Pelor 4
HD 6d8+4d6+10; hp 53; Init +0; Spd 20 ft; AC 23, t12, ff23; BAB +7; Grp +9; Atk +10 melee (1d8+3, +1 heavy mace) or +8 ranged (1d8+1, +1 light crossbow); Full Atk +10/+5 melee (1d8+3, +1 heavy mace) or +8 ranged (1d8+1, +1 light crossbow); SA spells, greater turning; turn undead; SQ aura of warding; empowered healing; immune disease; radiance; AL NG; SV Fort +10; Ref +3; Will +16; Str 14, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 20, Cha 15.

Skills: Concentration +12, Diplomacy +14, Heal +11, Knowledge (nobility) +6, Knowledge (religion) +12, Sense Motive +6, Spellcraft +4
Feats: Augment Healing; Divine Spell Power; Extra Turning; Leadership; Rapid Spell
Domains: Healing, Sun.
* Turn Undead 9/day (Greater Turning 5/day)
* Healing Domain spells are automatically Empowered.

Cleric Spells Prepared: (6/7/6/5/5/4/4, DC 15+spell level, CL10):
orisons-detect magic x2, guidance, light ,read magic x2
1st-bless, command x2, cure light wounds*, hide from undead, obscuring mist, comprehend languages
2nd-align weapon; consecrate, cure moderate wounds*, lesser restoration, spiritual weapon x2.
3rd-dispel magic x2, cure serious wounds*, prayer, remove curse.
4th-cure critical wounds*, death ward, neutralise poison, restoration, rapid monster summoning III
5th-revivify, mass cure light wounds*, rapid summon monster IV; summon monster V

Important Magic Gear: +1 heavy mace, +1 light crossbow, +3 breastplate, +2 light wooden shield, periapt of wisdom +2, cloak of charisma +2, gauntlets of ogre power, bracers of health +2, +2 ring of protection, Everburning torch, Heward's handy haversack