Argyle scales with PC levels?

[Daimondheart]

I ran into an odd situation today and wanted to see if my hunch was right. After taking a little nap after work, I decided to log into Sundren and see what was going on. Noticing I was but the fifth person online and the scry list not revealing anything truly useful, I decided to make a brief run through Argyle to get a little XP. I tend to stick only to the roads, but I've grown a bit more confident thanks to extended cleric buffs and decided to attempt the corrupted temple.

Things went well enough as I found, much as I expected, I could tear through corrupted monks like they were nothing and the succubus could easily be dealt with thanks to my "She-Ra" (Extended Divine Power, Battle Tide, Prayer, etc.) buffs until I ran into what I'm guessing might have been a evil PC fighting several other mobs in the temple. The thought of running away came to mind, but as I was feeling rather desperate for RP and Cora couldn't be sure the PC was evil, I decided to send a party invite, have Cora aid him, then just see where things would go from there.

That's when several of the mobs on him suddenly switched to me... and tore Cora apart like she was a piece of paper. After dying, I contacted the player about what happened as I wanted to know whether or not he was going to do anything with the corpse. I learned that his character was level 20 and apparently this causes far more powerful mobs to spawn in the area, hence why Cora got her back side handed to her so easily.

So I would like to know if this is the case with Argyle (Which it certainly seems to be!) and, if so, would like to know what other areas are like this on the server? I would also like to suggest that some type of warning be displayed for lower level PCs that may wander into one of these scaled areas unaware of the presence of a much higher level PC(s). Forget metagaming and avoiding possible conflict. This is something that could be very annoying to players when they enter an area expecting the usual difficulty, only to find themselves being tossed around like a rag doll when the mob difficulty is suddenly amped up several notches!

[Saulus]

The better question is if you were alone with a level 20, what level are you? Argyle is not designed for solo play.

Mobs scale to a degree, but it's not something that's area specific, it's universal.

Sometimes there are dangers out there, we can't give a warning for everything. Demon-infested portal to hell should indicate some difficulty to be had.

[Daimondheart]

As I said, there was only four other people online. No matter where I went, I would have been alone.

Edit: And people solo all the time on the server. I used to try and follow that rule, but when just about everyone else ignores it and there's nothing else to do, it's better than just sitting in the AFK room.

[Mournas]

As I said, there was only four other people online. No matter where I went, I would have been alone.

The desecrated Temple of Lathander always had pretty powerful guys in there in comparison to the rest of the zone to begin with. You possibly just got really unlucky. It's mainly an AI thing, it knows all of your stats and adjusts combat according to them. You see graphics, the AI sees data and numbers.

[Raksha]

Almost all areas scale on spawns. You can see this as you run through the Pioneer's Way; what would have been two bandits as a raw newbie is now four bandits that you mow through like grass on a level 10+ character.

It's ~usually~ not a problem, except in areas with especially challenging spawns. The Temple in Argyle is very, very challenging, difficult to solo even for some level 20s due to the multiple enemies with greater dispel and the boss that hits for 30s. I'd suspect what happened is that you got hit by a dispel at some point, it took a bunch of stuff because you were lower level, and then everything and its mother went 'ooh tasty low AC omnomnomn.'

The good news is that the rest of the spawns are usually much more reasonable, with the sometimes exception of things like the Smith and the blue scythe peasants, and they never dispel. The Temple is the hardest area.

[thaelis]

Yeah, unless your caster level is 20+ the Succubi have a decent chance to dispel you! I couldn't solo that place with my EK until level 17 with Spell girding feat. I have a feeling non-casters would actually do quite well in there as they don't need to worry about the dispels. Also the critters in there are resistant to electrical and fire so it's a nightmare for offensive casters. Personally I like that there are some areas like this where non-casters are almost a necessity

[cmosier]

Yeah, unless your caster level is 20+ the Succubi have a decent chance to dispel you! I couldn't solo that place with my EK until level 17 with Spell girding feat. I have a feeling non-casters would actually do quite well in there as they don't need to worry about the dispels. Also the critters in there are resistant to electrical and fire so it's a nightmare for offensive casters. Personally I like that there are some areas like this where non-casters are almost a necessity

Fighters do quite well unless they fail their save and get paralyzed. Then hurt happens. Paladins might do better with their higher saves.

[Valhalla]

Fighters do quite well unless they fail their save and get paralyzed. Then hurt happens. Paladins might do better with their higher saves.

Argyle is pretty much custom-made for Paladins of all levels to steamroll through while cackling maniacally. Its got evil, its got undead, and its got outsiders. And it has all three rolled into one mob.