Last night was my game. We play with a few "variant rules".

*Gestalt Characters
*Massive Damage Rules
*Death and Dying (from UA)
*Bosses always have maxed Hit Points

My souped up version of Zyrxog had 192 hit points!

We had been in combat for a few rounds. It was the third round, and the Wizard/Warmage tosses up an Sudden Empowered Orb of Fire. It hits and does 57 points of damage. This exceeds Zyrxog's Massive Damage Threshold of 55 (25 + 2 x 15 HD), so I roll a Fortitude save. My version of Zyrxog has a +10 Fortitude save. I think to myself, I just need a 5 or higher. I roll a 3. So using the Death and Dying rules, instead of Dying when you fail your Massive Damage Threshold Fortitude save, you immediately drop to 0 Hit Points.

This allowed my Cleric/Paladin who had taken the form of a Protector (spell from the Spell Compendium), to finish off the Zyrxog once and for all.

Here is where I screwed up. Zyrxog should have had Fire Resistance 20. The black pillar of his provides him with energy resistance fire 20. This means Zyrxog would have only taken 37 points of damage and would NOT have had to make a Fortitude save.

The battle was over in 4 rounds. I thought that it went a bit to easy... and after re-reading about Area M13 I see why.

Live and Learn I guess...anyone else forget about his Fire Resistance 20?

I did at first. Z was levitating above the pool and having his way with the party between mind blasts and lightning bolts. The party has no real ranged damage capabilities (ah-ha! found a weak spot!), so the rogue resorted to tossing alchemist's fire. He hit and did minor damage, but was primarily trying to force a concentration check. Z made the check anyway, so no harm. I remembered about the resistance a round or two later and marked off the fire damage - which at that point was the only damage he'd taken!

Thanks for the heads up. I'm sure I would have made the same mistake. I'd have been too busy trying to run my first Mind Flayer baddie to remember that.

That fire resistance really does seem like it comes from nowhere. I almost forgot about it several times during the battle as well.

I remembered the Fire Resistance.... But forgot the Spell Resistance... You can imagine how that turned out.

Making mental note now... Even though we are a long way from zyr I know I will forget.

also, do not forget that only evil cretures can be summoned in the room due to the Unhallow spell effect. Add this to the point that should a PC cast Summon x in the room and you don't tell them the reason their spell fails, they will be mightily pressed to figure out that they cannot call for extraplanar help as all such non-evil creatures are hedged out.

I'm going to re-read that again and make some notes not to forget. I'm running HOHR next. Thanks.

The last adventure was a absolute cake walk for the party, they basically snuk into the lizards lair and killed everyone before anyone knew they were there. They had one of the most amazing night of dice rolling I've ever seen. It sucked for me, but hey you can't win them all. And since they still talk about it, I consider it a win.

Thus, it only seems fair that this one shouldn't be a cake walk, so I don't want to miss anything :-P

also, do not forget that only evil cretures can be summoned in the room due to the Unhallow spell effect. Add this to the point that should a PC cast Summon x in the room and you don't tell them the reason their spell fails, they will be mightily pressed to figure out that they cannot call for extraplanar help as all such non-evil creatures are hedged out.

When events like this transpire I allow a spellcraft check for the PC to lean why his spell failed or didnt work as intended. Anyone else do this? I usually set the DC around 10 or 15 + spell level.

also, do not forget that only evil cretures can be summoned in the room due to the Unhallow spell effect. Add this to the point that should a PC cast Summon x in the room and you don't tell them the reason their spell fails, they will be mightily pressed to figure out that they cannot call for extraplanar help as all such non-evil creatures are hedged out.

Gah! I completely forgot this. Still, if I had remembered and so prevented the druid's summons, I would have TPK'd, so in the long run...

I really had difficulty with this part. I had Zyrxog levitating when the players entered. A couple of mindblasts later 2 of the 6 players were left. It was so close to a TPK. I think its one of those encounters were a DM if not careful could wipe out the party. With the high SR and if you levitate so the melee characters can't get stuck in, does make this really challenging. My advice is be careful. If you'd have remembered the fire resistance it could have been a different story. The room is also shaped for a mindblast if he levitate's.

Did I screw up? In the first contact with Z in Sodden Hold, Z catches one of the PCs alone guarding Telakin's body while the rest of the party is looting T's sanctum. said PC fails save vs. mindblast and is stunned. my question is, even stunned, the PC defends himself normally and Z has to make two opposed grapple checks to extract the brain? the encounter wasn't the 'no brainer' (heh) that i expected after the PC won the check twice before the rest of the party came back and Zed fled. did i run this right?
I actually don't think the showdown with Z will be that tough for my party as they tend to prep fly/levitate and electrical spells... i'm thinking of switching out Z's false life and displacement spells for invisibility and dispel magic to make it a little tougher...

I had him levitating above the pool as well. Funny thing was even though my pc's had some missile weapons. their mediocre skill was further hampered by the celestial owl the wizard summoned to fight him in the air. None of the pc's had point blank shot, so they eventually started to shoot at the owl to get rid of it ;)

Did I screw up? In the first contact with Z in Sodden Hold, Z catches one of the PCs alone guarding Telakin's body while the rest of the party is looting T's sanctum. said PC fails save vs. mindblast and is stunned. my question is, even stunned, the PC defends himself normally and Z has to make two opposed grapple checks to extract the brain? the encounter wasn't the 'no brainer' (heh) that i expected after the PC won the check twice before the rest of the party came back and Zed fled. did i run this right?

I actually don't think the showdown with Z will be that tough for my party as they tend to prep fly/levitate and electrical spells... i'm thinking of switching out Z's false life and displacement spells for invisibility and dispel magic to make it a little tougher...

I would have taken the PC back to his lair for extraction. The change in spells might help. I would have him high up say 60ft so his mindblast will cover the whole room. When the PC's enter mindblast them with a DC of 23 it will take out a fair few party member (mostly the fighters) and next round the same again. I would look at these messageboards, if you enter Zyrxog under search it may give you some ideas(that is if you haven't already). I really don't think it will be that easy. 23 is a difficult save to make

I would look at these messageboards, if you enter Zyrxog under search it may give you some ideas(that is if you haven't already). I really don't think it will be that easy. 23 is a difficult save to make

DC 23 is a typo. The DC should have been 20:

http://paizo.com/dungeon/messageboards/ageOfWorms/archives/zyrxogsMindBlast DC

Even so it's still a difficult DC to pass. I use a spellgen for choosing spells. Its really handy especially for cleric spells. Worth using if you can get your hands on it. I would offer to help people but my computer that has it on is in storage while I move house.