[RPG] Is this encounter in Ghosts of Saltmarsh ridiculously deadly

charmeddnd-5eghosts-of-saltmarshunderwater

In the Ghosts of Saltmarsh appendix A, "Of ships and the sea" one of the pre-created underwater locations (the wreck of the marshal) has the following feature:

Eight harpies lurk in their bone-covered nests on this rock, gnawing on humanoid remains. When the harpies notice humanoids nearby, they use Luring Song to bring their prey in close before attacking. The harpies fight until four remain and then flee.

I'm hoping to run one of the suggested adventures in this area (the one for level 5 characters), but I'm struggling to see how this feature is supposed to work. As in this question the PCs will have to make 8 saves to avoid being charmed, so even with the low DC of 11 (and the elf in the party having advantage), the chance of at least one failure is high. Once they are charmed they will get no further saves if they just swim straight towards the harpy that's charmed them and then that harpy can kill them without them getting another save (as long as it's the harpy they're charmed by). To me, this seems like a death sentence to any characters that haven't make preparations in advance (like stuffing their ears or using the Silence spell).

Am I reading this wrong? It feels mean to just say to my players "roll 8 wisdom saves". Which makes me think I must have missed something here.

Best Answer

Luring Song has as part of its description:

A creature can also repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns.

So the player gets to roll a new save every round, and success will render it immune to the song of that Harpy. They'll still need to pass all the 8 saving throws eventually, but between the low DC and being able to pass multiple per turn, it shouldn't take too long.

Related Topic