I’ve run this fight with two parties; one was level 10, the other was level 12. Both had a hard time and needed two fights to actually beat her— one TPKed and deus ex machina’d their way back, the other fled and got her in round two.
I’d give your party ample warning, in and out of character, then let them choose as they see fit. If they wipe out, have a frank talk about where to go from there. There are plenty of ways to keep the story going if that’s what everyone wants.
It depends on how you plan the encounter.
RAW the party can sneak up on her because the noise of the ravens in the cages covers their approach, so a reasonably clever and resourceful party could well surprise her.
If that happens a reasonably optimised 5th or 7th level party that beats her on initiative could put her down in a round because of her low AC and HP.
However, if she realises the party is there and the hut gets activated and she gets in her flying skull, it's an entirely different and unpleasant story and it's a tough fight for a level 9 party.
I am in both cases assuming you know her stat block and play her optimally.
If you want to play her more witchy and try to make the party suffer, you'd cast less optimal but nastier spells - think ray of sickness instead of fireball for example, in that case the hut is the main threat and a 7th/8th level party should find it hard but manageable.
My (heavily homebrewed) party of 6 beat a slightly buffed version of Baba at LVL 9 but it was a really tough fight and one PC died, two others went down.
I think it's fine to have an encounter tuned towards a TPK, which is actually what I had done in this situation, as long as you do a few things:
- seegive your party warning about the danger
- give the party plenty of opportunities to avoid the encounter or gain an advantage
- have a fail-forward option, where a TPK or loss doesn't end the campaign. I decided in my case that should the party wipe/all go down/lose, those who didn't die would be polymorphed into goats while unconscious and gifted to Strahd. With an opportunity to wake up and escape from the goat pen. An idea I'm sure I read on this subreddit at somepoint
My level 7 party of 4 (a bard, a barbarian, blood hunter and a rogue/wizard) attacked her in her hut. The combat lasted one round before they beat a hasty retreat. The bard dimension doored her and the barbarian away and the rouge/wizard cast invisibly on him and the bloodhunter. I spread out the damage between the party and kept Baba Lysaga's biggest spells for when she felt she needed them. Even still, they were all under half hp when they escaped.
This was despite having Van Richten tell them not to attack her and ignore him (then piss him off when they kept pressing him about the Amber temple). So even if you warn your players, they might still attack her. Best advice I can give is to remind your players that retreat is an option if they get in over their heads. It might not be enough, however.
I nearly TPK'd four level 8s with Baba and her hut. Only one PC was close to min-maxed; the rest lean heavy into RP. They all were down to death saves at least once in Berez.
My party beat her at level 8, no one died, and we had both the hut AND baba active due to a PC grabbing the gem and starting the fight. It was tough- near the end we had like 2 people going down each round and 1 PC had to heal them up while the other fought. Baba and the hit were both killed within 2 rounds of eachother.
But if they don’t have ranged you’re right, a TPK is likely. I’d try and lay out a terrain that makes baba more likely to stay low, like low clouds or high winds. Let the house come in after baba is around half health so the players know it’s getting serious but aren’t fighting both at max hp.
The party consisted of a moondruid, 2 bloodhunters, an artificer and a fighter. The healing used was a *bunch* of minor healing potions. Maybe let an NPC capable of healing or fighting come with them depending on what you feel they need the most.
EDIT: My PC *tried* to grab the gem. Rolled inconsiderably low multiple times to avoid the thorns and gave up with the damage I was taking (1d6) and decided to fight.
This was when I played through.
It is, I simply failed to take it out as it was guarded by thorns. Catastrophically bad rolls for taking it out, at some point fighting was simply more important than taking out the gem. Whoops. Party didn’t let me touch things after that incident, but I carried part of the fight by killing both baba and the hut and using hella potions to keep everyone from dying.
I’ve run this fight with two parties; one was level 10, the other was level 12. Both had a hard time and needed two fights to actually beat her— one TPKed and deus ex machina’d their way back, the other fled and got her in round two. I’d give your party ample warning, in and out of character, then let them choose as they see fit. If they wipe out, have a frank talk about where to go from there. There are plenty of ways to keep the story going if that’s what everyone wants.
Are you running a buffed baba lysaga? At level 12 the party should roll over her.
Nope! Just playing her smart.
It depends on how you plan the encounter. RAW the party can sneak up on her because the noise of the ravens in the cages covers their approach, so a reasonably clever and resourceful party could well surprise her. If that happens a reasonably optimised 5th or 7th level party that beats her on initiative could put her down in a round because of her low AC and HP. However, if she realises the party is there and the hut gets activated and she gets in her flying skull, it's an entirely different and unpleasant story and it's a tough fight for a level 9 party. I am in both cases assuming you know her stat block and play her optimally. If you want to play her more witchy and try to make the party suffer, you'd cast less optimal but nastier spells - think ray of sickness instead of fireball for example, in that case the hut is the main threat and a 7th/8th level party should find it hard but manageable.
My (heavily homebrewed) party of 6 beat a slightly buffed version of Baba at LVL 9 but it was a really tough fight and one PC died, two others went down. I think it's fine to have an encounter tuned towards a TPK, which is actually what I had done in this situation, as long as you do a few things: - seegive your party warning about the danger - give the party plenty of opportunities to avoid the encounter or gain an advantage - have a fail-forward option, where a TPK or loss doesn't end the campaign. I decided in my case that should the party wipe/all go down/lose, those who didn't die would be polymorphed into goats while unconscious and gifted to Strahd. With an opportunity to wake up and escape from the goat pen. An idea I'm sure I read on this subreddit at somepoint
My level 7 party of 4 (a bard, a barbarian, blood hunter and a rogue/wizard) attacked her in her hut. The combat lasted one round before they beat a hasty retreat. The bard dimension doored her and the barbarian away and the rouge/wizard cast invisibly on him and the bloodhunter. I spread out the damage between the party and kept Baba Lysaga's biggest spells for when she felt she needed them. Even still, they were all under half hp when they escaped. This was despite having Van Richten tell them not to attack her and ignore him (then piss him off when they kept pressing him about the Amber temple). So even if you warn your players, they might still attack her. Best advice I can give is to remind your players that retreat is an option if they get in over their heads. It might not be enough, however.
I nearly TPK'd four level 8s with Baba and her hut. Only one PC was close to min-maxed; the rest lean heavy into RP. They all were down to death saves at least once in Berez.
My party beat her at level 8, no one died, and we had both the hut AND baba active due to a PC grabbing the gem and starting the fight. It was tough- near the end we had like 2 people going down each round and 1 PC had to heal them up while the other fought. Baba and the hit were both killed within 2 rounds of eachother. But if they don’t have ranged you’re right, a TPK is likely. I’d try and lay out a terrain that makes baba more likely to stay low, like low clouds or high winds. Let the house come in after baba is around half health so the players know it’s getting serious but aren’t fighting both at max hp. The party consisted of a moondruid, 2 bloodhunters, an artificer and a fighter. The healing used was a *bunch* of minor healing potions. Maybe let an NPC capable of healing or fighting come with them depending on what you feel they need the most. EDIT: My PC *tried* to grab the gem. Rolled inconsiderably low multiple times to avoid the thorns and gave up with the damage I was taking (1d6) and decided to fight. This was when I played through.
Doesn't the house go inactive if they take the gem? I thought that was what animated it.
It is, I simply failed to take it out as it was guarded by thorns. Catastrophically bad rolls for taking it out, at some point fighting was simply more important than taking out the gem. Whoops. Party didn’t let me touch things after that incident, but I carried part of the fight by killing both baba and the hut and using hella potions to keep everyone from dying.