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Sunlight Powerlessness (Ex) A shadow demon is utterly powerless in bright light or natural sunlight and flees from it. A shadow demon caught in such light cannot attack and can take only a single move or standard action. A shadow demon that is possessing a creature using magic jar is not harmed by sunlight, but if it is struck by a sunbeam or sunburst spell while possessing a creature, the shadow demon is driven out of its host automatically.
Man, thats brutal. Maybe set fire to the jungle as you flee, in the hopes that even if you die, the demon's hunting ground is ruined by sunlight?
Wake your sorcerer, have him cast fireball on the canopy. Powerless shadow demon. Think outside the box!
1. The sorcerer isn't high enough level to have fireball.
2. Triple canopy forest? Even if fireball did singe a few leaves, how is that going to flood the area in sunlight?
Let's say you do manage to make a patch of light by blating the trees above. Now what? The shadow demon moves out of the radius of light and watches you hide in it until the sun goes down.
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[Shadow Demon bumps into Venger and gasps]
Venger: Well, what is it?
Shadow Demon: Ah, I have news.
Venger: Yes?
Shadow Demon: Warduke has captured Dungeon Master!
Venger: Unlikely.
Shadow Demon: I saw him.
Venger: (Disbelieving) You saw him?
Shadow Demon: Warduke says Dungeon Master is yours- for the right price.
Venger: "The right price"?! Warduke has either become very brave.... or very stupid. However, I've waited many years for Dungeon Master to make his mistake; I will see to it that it's his last.
It's a nasty monster, all right. If your GM is playing it to the best of its abilities (e.g. magic jarring into one of you when you're not expecting it, then spamming stuff like Telekinesis, Fear and Shadow Evocation), you probably don't have much chance.
Incorporeal monsters are hard to prepare for.
Whoops. Well considering the location and complete surprise this monster is likely to be about CR 8 really. If you're playing the AP I think you are then you guys should have a McGuffin to use against yon shadow demon.
Yeah, if you're on the path I think you're on the party should have been given something that will help with this fight.
I threw one of these against my fourth level party. They beat (read: ran from) it just fine.
In all seriousness, the sunlight powerlessness is probably your best bet--Throw a few fireballs at the trees above you; if your spells don't do any good against your enemy, use them for something else. (Looking over the lists for bards and sorcerers, any of the following should be of some use to you: flaming sphere, gust of wind (temporarily), fire breath, alter winds, snapdragon fireworks (maybe). You could probably get away with a number of other things as well if your GM rewards you for creative solutions)
I'm with Eragar. Creative use of abilities will save your behinds. A fly speed of 40ft Perfect is a b$@!~ to get away from. Triple Layered canopy is also a problem. Can't really climb away. Maybe Levitate might help get straight up as fast as possible to destroy the layers of jungle while the other PCs distract. Might be a bit too slow though.
I'm currently a fan of using flares, torches, lanterns, candles, extra kerosene, alchemist fires, makeshift Molotov cocktails, WHATEVER mundane equipment you have to set as much of the jungle on fire as possible. The thing does have fire resistance. But what you want is light. Slash and burn through the trees and treetops. Cast anything from simply Light, Dancing lights, Lighten Object (jk, though that would be funny) to stuff like Produce Flames, burning hands (all the wind and gust spells are a great ideas too).
All I can think is that this is probably why a CR 7 creature should be tackled by a level 7 equivalent party.
(Or a level 6 party with a lot of good stuff.)
Magic jar, is the shadow demon in the barbarian? What exactly is going on there because dominated or possessed barbarians is a bad, bad situation.
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Consider cutting a deal with the demon. Surely there's some NPCs you can offer it?
Any PCs with a mother or grandmother in their backstory?
To meta game a bit in a previous encounter with some natives you should have gotten a talisman that can be used to defeat it. I recall this encounter somewhat.
I assume that's what the Bard is holding. The trick is to live long enough to use it.
Our group was nearly TPK'd in the same encounter. We did not have The McGuffin and our Cleric was absent that session. To make matters even worse, our party was way below wealth by level, most of our melee combatants were without magical weapons.
There's more to it, but suffice to say, the whole thing left a sour taste in my mouth.
Honestly my players would find it insulting if I bailed them out of a situation, but you do have some new people so maybe they won't. I don't have any knowledge of the AP so sorry if this isn't exactly with the theme of the situation, but maybe the demon just stops fighting and offers them an out? A hypothetical would be that the demon just wants to use a body in order to get past the sunlight and into a more populated area, the PC's are given a choice and have to live with the repercussions.
Honestly my players would find it insulting if I bailed them out of a situation
I agree and I prefer to play in games without kid gloves. That said, the AP this encounter happens in was grueling to say the least. After working so hard to keep my PC alive, I did feel a little miffed when he, along with most of the rest of the party was killed in a really one sided fight.
Even so, I hope the GM continues to run the game as written and I'm enjoying it.
I see several suggestions on setting the jungle on fire, but I have to think that this wouldn't be easy to accomplish at all. When I think jungle, I think wet and dense, so getting it to burn hot enough to start spreading is going to be pretty tough.
Clearly you haven't been to magic fantasy jungles, where the air is hot and dry and the ground is littered with matches, which are what the trees shed instead of leaves.
n00b.
/sarcasm
Yeah, I didn't think about the part where the jungle acts like a jungle and, ya know, resists being set on fire...
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Damage reduction doesn't apply to magic damage, only to damage dealt by weapons. And I don't remember how being incorporeal interacts, but I'm pretty sure most spells that deal damage aren't as nerfed as you'd expect. Thus, the solution here is to blast. Any spells that deal damage-- fireball, sonic burst, shocking grasp, etc. I don't know how many of those your group has-- a bard only gets one that I can think of, but a draconic sorceror should know a fair number of them.
I'm pretty sure most spells that deal damage aren't as nerfed as you'd expect. Thus, the solution here is to blast. Any spells that deal damage-- fireball, sonic burst, shocking grasp, etc. I don't know how many of those your group has-- a bard only gets one that I can think of, but a draconic sorceror should know a fair number of them.
I have to disagree here. A shadow demon is immune to Cold and Electric damage, and has resist Fire and Acid 10. Something as simple as being a sorcerer of the wrong color dragon can break this. The demon also has SR which requires a 12 to crack for a level 5, that's only a 40% chance of success, and then on top of all of that, the impressive +11 reflex save of the demon. All of this adds up to make blasting probably the worst option available at this point. Blasting outsiders is a bad idea in general, they do not tend to be affected by much outside of raw physical or force damage. A select few may have a vulnerability, but they are the exception not the rule.
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Okay, I admit it, I didn't actually break out the Bestiary and look up the stats on this thing. I just found it weird that people are talking about fireballs, alchemist's fire, flaming sphere, and the like, and yet under the assumption that the party has this much firepower nobody suggested throwing it directly at the monster.
Although in my admittedly limited experience with shadows (different, I know), they never really chased PCs more than a single room away. Is a shadow demon willing to chase down fleeing PCs, or would he let them get a few hundred yards and consider his territory suitably defended?
I'm sorry to say but it looks like this encounter simply didn't favor your group. I fidn it amusing to think my 5th level paladin even without a magic sword could rip said demon a new orifice from which to spew bile from. Best you can do in these situations is run, or find creative ways of dealing with the problem.
Funny thing is one of my groups met one at level 1. It expressed its regret in not tearing them to shreds due to the terms of its cursed contract. They had five minutes. Needless to say this got them running pretty fast.
Your DM isn't giving you the full information about the item you're carrying, read further if you dare...
A shadow demon is one of the nastier CR7 creatures in the game and basically unfair to run into unprepared. Then again it is almost helpless against prepared characters.
Honestly my players would find it insulting if I bailed them out of a situationI agree and I prefer to play in games without kid gloves. That said, the AP this encounter happens in was grueling to say the least. After working so hard to keep my PC alive, I did feel a little miffed when he, along with most of the rest of the party was killed in a really one sided fight.
Even so, I hope the GM continues to run the game as written and I'm enjoying it.
Can you reveal which AP this is in a spoiler box? You've perked my interest with "grueling." Is the whole AP like that?
All I can think is that this is probably why a CR 7 creature should be tackled by a level 7 equivalent party.
(Or a level 6 party with a lot of good stuff.)
No, an equal-CR encounter is a workout, a +2 CR encounter is meant to be a challenging but winnable fight. This shadow demon is TPK in a can.
It wiped our party too. It didn't even need to use Magic Jar, darkness + shadow evocation + melee attacks was plenty. And yeah, i used the McGuffin and blew it (failing to actually touch the thing before it killed me).
The shadow demon encounter is from
And it does nothing for the story, it's just a random TPK in the middle of nowhere.
As for the "intelligence test", that's b!@~%##$. Pixelb$~#+ing is bad design*, and pixelb#*&~ing in a fight with something that kills a party member most rounds is even worse.
Furtermore, Dispel Evil does not work that way. Failing to use it that way is not in any way failing any meaningful test. Especially since there's ZERO foreshadowing that this thing might work on a shadow demon.
*You know what else is bad design? The Dispel Evil McGuffin. Hey, this spell banishes evil outsiders, so that gives them a fighting chance, right? sounds good, dude, job's done! without taking 30 f+*&ing seconds to check if it actually works. "sounds good, roll the press" was clearly the design philosophy behind Ultimate Combat too.
That woulda been my guess.
The 300 gp seems to be a problem also. That fight assumes access to magic weapons. Even if the save had been made there would have been issues. The monster does not to a lot of damage. Did the GM just roll really high for the damage rolls. I would expect for someone to no longer be afraid by the time the 2nd character was killed since it is only for 10 rounds.