Juvenile and older white dragons can spam Fog Cloud at will. Stormborn sorcerors of level 9 and higher can see through fog and mist, whether natural or magical. Coincidence? I think not!
Plot seed: evil stormborn sorceror teams up with white dragon. I think it starts when she makes a deal with him to kill her family, and pays him off with most of the loot from their estate... she didn't want the money, she just hated her family a lot. Anyway! They're both CE, so you wouldn't think this would last. But for some reason, it does -- they just hit it off. It helps that the sorceror doesn't care much about treasure, and also that they share certain things in common -- a vindictive temperament, a sense of grievance towards a world that tries to oppress them, a love of good beer. Whatever the reason, now they're a team. A 9th level sorceror is CR 8, and a juvenile white dragon is CR 7. Together they'd make a CR 9 encounter. Potentially a rather lethal CR 9 encounter, if the PCs aren't expecting something like this -- I'd have them be looking for an evil spellcaster *or* a white dragon, not both together.
I see the sorceress as a combination blaster-controller; she has an evocation tattoo and throws fireballs and lightning bolts, but she's got some battlefield control spells too. Stuff like Slow and Sleet Storm is a lot more alarming when you're also facing a dragon, yeah?
I'm thinking of statting this out, and am just wondering what kinds of spells and feats could make this a truly nasty combo (and a truly memorable fight for a group of 7th-8th level PCs). Suggestions welcome!
Doug M.
Resist Energy (Fire)is probably a must, either via spell known or a scroll.
A teamwork feat, perhaps Lookout, to reflect their cooperation.
Sorceress casts wall of ice. White dragon walks up side of wall of ice.
Maybe somebody talks about her "lizard familiar" and PCs, not knowing any better, expect it to be a scorpion or polymorphed quasit or some such, it doesn't turn out that way.
Mage armor on the dragon is almost too obvious to mention. Almost. Ditto haste.
If she knows invisibility, she can hide while PCs go "oh, it's only a dragon". An invisible dragon is almost equally annoying. A dragon with greater invisibility... You did want a very dangerous encounter, right?
A sorceress around the corner using ventriloquism with suggestion could be loads of fun, though you night want to be sure that the dragon is OK with someone else talking out of his mouth.
While we're at it, all sorts of fun could be had with a minor image, or even.a silent image, of a bigger dragon, or a smaller dragon, or a twin dragon, or a giant dragon hoard lying there on a very thin layer of ice over the deep pit, freezing muck, or giant bear trap, take your pick. Not to mention hiding a created pit ith an illusion.
Fear is a very powerful fourth level spell, splitting up parties and giving the dragon stuff to enjoy chasing. Maybe too powerful...
Add some Rime Spell to her ice evocations (if any)
Resist Energy, for sure. I think she might take it as one of her second level spells -- it's useful enough. And a white dragon with Fire Resistance 20 is just good fun.
-- This is definitely one of those encounters that gets much, much worse if the bad guys know you're coming. Resist Fire and Mage Armor on the dragon, Minor Image and Invisibility to create a decoy dragon while the real one gets in position. The dragon spams a bunch of Fog Clouds in advance; the sorceress hangs out inside them throwing Glitterdust, Black Tentacles, Sleet Storm, Fear, Suggestion, and maybe the occasional Fireball just for fun.
Doug M.
Which leads to a question: assume these two are hanging out together in a lair-type arrangement. What could they reasonably do for security, to ensure that they get at least a few rounds of warning before the adventurers burst in?
Doug M.
Alarm spell.
Familiar watching the entrance, or some kind of trained animal, or a few kobolds hanging around hoping to scavenge off the dragon's kills, worship their god, whatever. Anything that can yell loudly would do.
Some tripwires with bells attached. Perhaps a net across the entrance to the lair, with bells attached.
A minion or two charmed by the sorceress.
A tough door that requires significant force to breach.
If the sorceress knows dimension door, the lair may be inaccessible from the surface (bricked up wall or something), though I don't know if the dragon would buy that.
A large gong with a striker next to the lair entrance. You'd be surprised how many PCs would fall for this.
An inscription by the door in explosive runes. If the PCs read it, the boom will alert the inhabitants.
Part of the lair floor covered with dry leaves or scattered twigs. Dragon relies on its Perception checks to notice scuffing. Smart PCs might bypass this if they can fly or d-door.
Depending on how much time was taken to prepare the lair, perhaps the passages intruders must traverse are convoluted, but a small hole carries sound directly from the entrance to the lair.
If the sorceress still owns the family properties, maybe they're living in the main house and the servants will intercept visitors at the door.
Some combination of the above. A smart foe will have redundant defensive strategies.
tonyz wrote: Alarm spell. Duration is too short -- she'd have to have it as one of her spells, and cast it twice/day.
tonyz wrote: Familiar watching the entrance, or some kind of trained animal, or a few kobolds hanging around hoping to scavenge off the dragon's kills, worship their god, whatever. Anything that can yell loudly would do. Thinking she'll be a tattooed sorceror (I don't think much of the thunderstaff ability, and anyway it's useless here) so a familiar is certainly possible. She'll definitely have Fly, so I'm thinking the lair will have an obvious ground level entrance and a much less obvious entrance accessibly only by air.
tonyz wrote: Some tripwires with bells attached. Perhaps a net across the entrance to the lair, with bells attached. Mechanical alarms count as traps, which means a rogue is going to slice right through them. Putting stuff on the floor, same problem.
tonyz wrote: A minion or two charmed by the sorceress. Possible. Possible.
tonyz wrote: A tough door that requires significant force to breach. "But then, how does the dragon get in and out?" Hm.
tonyz wrote: A large gong with a striker next to the lair entrance. You'd be surprised how many PCs would fall for this.
I wouldn't! I've killed more PCs just by putting levers in front of them. "I pull the lever." Yeah.
tonyz wrote: An inscription by the door in explosive runes. If the PCs read it, the boom will alert the inhabitants. A distinct possibility, though normally I don't love this spell.
tonyz wrote: If the sorceress still owns the family properties, maybe they're living in the main house and the servants will intercept visitors at the door. I've been thinking of this in terms of "dragon's lair, the presence of the sorceress is the nasty surprise" instead of vice versa. But maybe vice versa could work? Kinda hard to keep a dragon's presence secret, though.
Doug M.
The rules give you the option of just raising the DCs for the simple reason of "I want to." It just says to increase the CR of the traps accordingly and gives a table to tell you what it's worth. For instance, bumping a trap's DCs to 30+(with no upper limit) gives it a +3 CR for each DC increased.
So make the alarm trap be a pressure plate rigged to a mechanical chime with a Perception DC of any number above 30 that's appropriately challenging for the party, making it a CR 4 trap. If they ask why the DC was so high, say that the pressure plate was a 60 square foot plate covered by foliage/dirt/etc and so was almost perfectly camouflaged. Not only because it was covered by the natural environment, but also because when you combined that with the size you wouldn't really notice where the edges were. It was triggered not just by extra weight, but by the distribution and movement of that weight, so that it would only trigger in the circumstances of someone actually walking across it in a somewhat meaningful manner.
You've got to think evil genius/supervillain with this kind of stuff. You wouldn't expect Professor Moriarty to just throw tripwires on the floor and buckets of water on top of every door.
Unruly wrote:
You've got to think evil genius/supervillain with this kind of stuff. You wouldn't expect Professor Moriarty to just throw tripwires on the floor and buckets of water on top of every door.
Yeah, but a juvenile White Dragon has 10 Int. And honestly? A sorceror's not likely to be much smarter. Gorgeous, handsome, or just impressive as heck -- but not much smarter.
Doug M.
Then how about this one(I'm going to assume the rogue has 14 Wis and is level 8 with full ranks in Perception for this) -
A series of three wires at, say, a DC 25 Perception check. Each of these wires is a full trap in its own right, DC 25 Disable Device, with bells and whistles and alarms all over should the rogue fail his checks. Easy to see for pretty much anyone at this point, and a cakewalk for the rogue to disable.
However, unless the rogue gets a 35 or higher on his Perception check(rolls a 16+) he doesn't notice that these traps are connected to another trap. They're diversions from the real deal. If he disables all three of them he ends up setting off the big one. It's a fail-safe setup. So long as the other traps are intact, the main one doesn't go off. And it's not like it's impossible for the rogue to spot the big one, he's just got an 80% chance of missing it. If he does spot the big trap, then it's a DC 25 Disable Device because it's not well built, it's just well hidden.
Adjust the DC according to the rogue's stats, but don't give him more than a 25% success chance on the Perception check for the fail-safe trap.
And diversionary tactics/fail-safes don't take a genius to come up with. I was thinking about crap like that in middle school.
First sketch of our sorceress
Level 9 Human sorceress (stormborn)
CE medium humanoid
Str 10 Con 12 Dex 14 Int 10 Wis 8 Cha 20 (22)
Feats: Dodge, Focused Spell, Spell Focus (Evocation), Mage's Tattoo (Evocation), Reach Spell, Toughness
6 Alarm, Mage Armor, Ear-Splitting Shriek, Magic Missile, Shield, Shocking Grasp
5 Glitterdust, Gust of Wind, Minor Image, Resist Energy, Web
4 Fireball, Fly, Lightning Bolt, Suggestion
3 Black Tentacles, Shout, Volcanic Storm
Given a few rounds to prepare, she casts Resist Energy and Shield on the dragon, followed by Fly on herself and a Minor Image of a second dragon. Meanwhile the dragon spams some Fog Clouds for her to hide in.
If she can catch two or more PCs, she'll open with Black Tentacles, followed by a Fireball (10d6, DC 20 Reflex) against those caught in it. Otherwise, she'll say hello with Lightning or Reach Lightning (10d6, DC 21) directed against any spellcasters. She's ruthless: her simple but usually effective tactic is to keep blasting a single target until it stops moving, then shift to the next. She'll use Volcanic Storm tactically against PCs moving around on the ground, and Shout (DC 22) against any flyers who approach her. The dragon flies around and strafes with its breath weapon; it understands that its role is primarily to draw fire while she blasts their enemies. If the dragon is reduced to 1/4 hp or less, it will fly away.
Thoughts?
Doug M.
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