Some of you may remember the First Beastmass challenge some time ago which pitted a single high level character against a number of consecutive foes. It included a shoggoth, pit fiend, balor, solar, dragon and the tarrasque. As I had a bunch of time free over the holidays I decided to see how well a solo character could deal with a full blown module. I chose The Witchwar Legacy which is designed for 4 level 17 characters. I set a single level 18 character against it.
Please note that obviously this thread will contain many many spoilers. Read at your own risk.
Rules for the challenge are as follows:
1. PF material only, no 3.5 stuff, no leadership
2. Level 18, single character
3. 20 point buy
4. Standard WBL
5. No more than 1 permanent combat pet at a time. Arriving with your horde of planar bound angels isn't really demonstrating anything. This doesn't count anything you dominate or animate during the scenario.
I also used the PFS rules so that included no item crafting and a limitation on available resources but you can choose to do so or not.
Our first contestant on the scene is a half elven sorcerer by the name of Camulus. A devotee of the Sage mutant bloodline he is far more cerebral than his fellow sorcerers and acts as a sort of roving magical trouble shooter for those who are willing to meet his price.
Just a couple of points to pre-empt questions:
1. Paragon Surge allows him to take the feat Expanded Arcana (you can have it more than once) and gain an extra 9th or 2 extra 8th and lower spells known for the duration.
2. With the Robe of Arcane Heritage he counts as level 20 for his bloodline powers and so can add metamagic to his spells without increasing their casting time.
3. His single combat pet is a planar bound succubus which he uses to boost his Intelligence by 2. Obviously it is compelled not to use its suggestion through the link. Planar Binding it is trivial at this level.
Camulus:
Male Half-Elf (Varisian) Sorcerer (Wildblooded) 18
N Medium humanoid (elf, human)
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Defense
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AC 29, touch 15, flat-footed 25 (+8 armor, +6 shield, +4 Dex, +1 insight)
hp 146 (18d6+72)
Fort +16, Ref +16, Will +22; +2 vs. enchantments, an extra +3 resistance vs. divination and mind-affecting
Immune magic sleep; Resist elven immunities
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft., fly 40 ft. (average), swim 30 ft.
Sorcerer (Wildblooded) Spells Known (CL 18th; concentration +31/36 for defensive casting):
9th (5/day)—time stop, shapechange
8th (7/day)—summon monster viii, polymorph any object (DC 31), power word stun, sunburst (DC 35)
Gear: Ring of invisibility, Rod of absorption (50SpellLevel), Shoes of lightning leaping (1/day), +5 Mithral Buckler, Belt of physical might (Dex & Con +4), Bracers of armour +8, Circlet of persuasion, Cloak of resistance +5, Eyes of the eagle, Gloves of elvenkind, Handy haversack (4 @ 26 lbs), Headband of mental prowess (Int & Wis +6), Ioun stone (clear spindle), Ioun stone (dark blue rhomboid), Ioun stone (dusty rose prism), Ioun stone (orange prism), Ioun stone (pale green prism (cracked, saves), Ring of freedom of movement, Robe of arcane heritage, Tome of clear thought +4, Vest of escape, Wayfinder (1 @ 0 lbs), he also carries a variety of masterwork tools and pathfinder chronicles for all knowledge skills.
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Permanent Spells:
See Invisibility
Tongues
Darkvision
Arcane Sight
The Witchwar Legacy Day 1:
Spells per day: 10/9/9/9/9/8/8/7/5
As part of his preparations he generally casts the following spells at the start of each day:
Overland Flight (19 hours, level 5)
Mind Blank (24 hours, level 8)
Moment of Prescience (19 hours, level 8)
Life Bubble (38 hours, level 5)
Greater Darkvision (19 hours, level 4)
Ride the Waves (19 hours, level 4)
Ant Haul (38 hours, level 1)
This takes 3 level 3 spell slots for Paragon Surge leaving him with the following spell slots available:
9/9/6/7/7/8/8/5/5
He has also set up a Contingency (using Paragon Surge) for Teleport when he clicks his fingers. Given it lasts 1 day/level he will have regained the spell slots used.
Throughout the write up I have bolded his spells used to make it easier to keep track of what he has left.
Our background has Camulus being employed by Queen Elvanna to find out what happened to the previous groups she has dispatched to find the Torc which has caused so much trouble. Given the bonus to knowledge checks available through the libraries Camulus easily obtains the background information (+19 versus DC25). He travels to the far north. On arrival he cloaks himself in invisibility and flies into the Veil.
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Encounter 1: The Giant Camp
The sprawling giant camp is the first thing encountered as he enters the valley. The giants and their animals have no way of detecting a flying invisible spell caster. He briefly considers demolishing them (it is allegedly a CR19 encounter but the hardest monster is CR11 and most lack effective ranged options) but he decides he needs more information. Cloaking himself in greater invisibility he descends to close spell range (60' or as I like to call it out of scent range) and drops a dominate person on the largest meanest looking giant. Some of them might notice voices on the wind but they don't really have any way of working out what the hell is going on. Graff's Will save is +6 versus DC28 and unsurprisingly he fails. He has SR16 as well which is automatically beaten. Camulus has him head out of camp to take a leak and questions his new servant about the situation. He learns that they are here in service to the Demon Lord, that an advance party has headed into the Veil and that there is a powerful troll Cleric and an Abyssal Gigas leading the group. After learning what he can he directs him to return to the camp and continue with whatever they were doing but to tell no-one of their meeting. Frost Giant sense motive is +2 so they are unlikely to notice anything amiss, especially as their leader is not doing anything unusual.
Spells remaining: 9/9/6/6/6/8/8/5/5
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Encounter 2: The Freezing Stair
Camulus briefly considers flying further up the waterfall but decides that he should investigate the giant presence first. He floats up the staircase. The environmental conditions might be a problem if Life Bubble didn't negate them. It really is an excellent little spell. He finds the frozen corpses and identifies the bodies as members of a previous expedition. As he is examining the bodies the geyser erupts. He is too far away to be caught in the blast but the rain of freezing water might catch him. He makes the first save taking 17 damage. He decides to take action and promptly casts shapechange taking the form of a frost giant and therefore becoming immune to cold and the ice effect. Two charges from his wand of infernal healing get him back up and he heads further up being careful to avoid the geyser by using dimension door to get around it (you cannot teleport into the Veil but you seem to be able to teleport inside it). As he heads upwards he also casts resist energy: fire to offset his new vulnerability.
Spells remaining: 9/8/6/5/6/8/8/5/4
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Encounter 3: The Cursed Guardian
He reaches the large frozen chamber with its grisly contents and is immediately on the lookout. Some of those bones look recent. He spots the Guardian immediately with see invisibility (it has no cover and in any event it is stealth +16 versus perception +34). It will detect him with its blindsense. He is not inclined towards diplomacy and dragons take a dim view of thieves sneaking into their lairs invisibly. Combat is joined immediately. One thing to note is that this is a very small room to fight a Huge dragon in.
The Dragon: It senses a large creature below it and opens up with its scalding breath weapon, DC27. He fails the save and takes 30d4 fire damage due to his vulnerability for 69, or 39 after resistance. It then descends to bring the creature within reach of its icy talons. Camulus is immune to its frightful presence due to the clear spindle but fails only on a 1 anyway.
Camulus: Fighting dragons is a pain at the best of times given their saves and this one has some weird alternate breath attack. He could avoid the encounter by simply moving up the stairs well outside of its blindsense range. The dragon cannot physically fit up the stairs and, while he doesn't know it, it is not permitted to leave the room anyway. However he doesn't want to leave it behind him in case he needs to come back this way. He defensively casts dazing chain lightning (DC27 to cast defensively, passes automatically with a +36), SR is 26 which he beats automatically with +27 (CL18+1ioun stone+4greater spell pen+4doubling from spell perfection). DC is 35 against the dragons +14 reflex save and it fails taking 66 damage and becomes unable to act for 6 rounds. He still needs to kill it of course. He could whittle it down with something like enervation but that would take a lot of spell slots. He then moves out from under it in case it falls on him.
Round 2:
The Dragon: First round of being dazed. It crashes to the ground.
Camulus: Casts dazing ball lightning using a level 7 spell slot. He beats SR on a 3 which passes. For the next 19 rounds it has to make 4 DC31 saves (at +14) or be dazed for the next 4 rounds. Each failed save is also another 3d6 damage. It isn't ever coming out of daze during that time (it would need to roll 16 consecutive 17's or better). Each ball will do, on average, 8 damage per round (accounting for the chance of a save) so by the end of 19 rounds it has taken another 600+ damage and is very dead.
Spells remaining: 9/8/6/5/6/7/7/5/4
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Encounter 4: The Guard Post
Resuming invisibility Camulus heads up the stairway. He shifts to the form of a medium white dragon to more easily navigate the narrow stairway and floats out on to the balcony. He spots the giants and the winter wolves but they are unable to see him at the moment and he is outside the range of the wolves scent ability. They are however in his way. He shifts to Frost Giant form and flies upwards. He de-cloaks as he casts mass suggestion at the giants (who seriously struggle to fit in the small area provided, that's 9 large creatures in an area with about 10 10' squares, they must all be very close family.
"You are commanded to return to the base camp at once and await further orders. Take your wolves with you"
Given the cramped quarters he can hit most if not all the giants. DC is 29 versus their will save of 6. They all fail needing a 20 as they do and they pack up and head off.
Spells remaining: 9/8/6/5/6/6/7/5/4
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Encounter 5: The Lieutenant
Camulus heads further into the fortress. At this point he is not actively looking for secret doors but if he was he would have pretty much auto spotted any by taking 10. He will only do so if left with no other means of heading onwards although he will obviously be looking for treasure as well. He heads into the next room to find the sleeping giant Narak. The sound of the grumbling frost giants heading down the stairs has woken him and, while still a little groggy, he wants to know who the hell this foreign giant is. Not really wanting to raise suspicions he drops a persistent suggestion on Narak (DC26 versus Will of +6). Unsurprisingly he fails and Narak also heads off with the other giants. A quick sweep of the area uncovers the statuette which is the first major danger here. This could actually end his adventure right here and now. Obviously he will examine the object. It is arguably a compulsion and so blocked by the spindle but I decide to let that fly. However his Mind Blank and Elven Immunities both should apply moving his Will save to 27 versus DC30. He passes. Given the bloody handprint I also let him find the exceptionally low DC secret door. It is almost as if the writer wants you to find it.
Spells remaining: 9/8/6/5/5/6/7/5/4
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Encounter 6: The Altar
He heads down the secret passage finding the great bloated troll cleric worshipping before the weird altar. With an effective stealth while invisible of over 40 he isn't noticed by the giants +12 perception. He recognises him as the cleric described in his first encounter and decides he cannot be left behind him either (he is obviously unaware of the curse). However he also represents a really useful source of extra help. He attacks with surprise and decides to try and take some control.
Camulus: Persistent suggestion, SR is 26, CL is 23, DC is 26, will save is 16. He fails to beat SR and snarls in frustration as he becomes visible.
Round 1:
Camulus: Launches a dazing acid substituted chain lightning which auto beats SR (CL27 for this) and the cleric needs a 20 to save. He fails and takes 68 damage.
Cleric: First round of Daze
Round 2:
Camulus: Doesn't really want to waste too many spell slots trying to obtain a new cleric minion but he isn't quite willing to give up just yet. He throws a persistent dominate person which beats SR and which the troll fails its save against (DC28, will save 16, a 6 is a fail). He waits for daze to wear off and then commands his new friend to explain what spells he currently has prepared looking for potentially useful buffs. He has him cast Stoneskin on him but the rest are either not much use or too short a duration. He also gets the low down on who is in the party with the Gigass. He then orders his new minion to come with him. That puts him in direct conflict with the curse effect and I give the troll another save. He passes and I give him a surprise round given how unexpected it is. Combat begins again.
Cleric: Realising that he faces a powerful arcane caster who may well outmatch him he eschews blasphemy. He also doesn't bother taking to the air as it isn't doing much in this fight. He leads off with power word stun reasoning this is the most likely spell to give him time to take him down. Unfortunately it is no action to absorb a targeted spell with a rod of absorption and it is harmlessly absorbed.
Round 1:
Camulus: Annoyed at the loss of his minion he launches another acid substituted dazing chain lightning which the cleric fails to save against taking another 60 acid damage.
Cleric: First round of Dazed
Round 2:
Camulus: Deciding to give up on a bad job he drops acid substituted ball lightning on the Cleric. He beats SR and it will now take 95% of 60d6 damage over the next 5 rounds before it comes out of daze. It is already down 128 HP and has regenerated say 30 of it since then. He has about 200hp left and will take more than that from the ball lightning.
Sighing in frustration Camulus heads up towards the Giant leader.
Spells remaining: 9/8/6/5/3/4/6/5/4
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Encounter 7: The Doors!
Arriving in the large chamber before the great doors Camulus is immediately detected by the Ferric's blindsight. Neither side is however surprised and combat is joined immediately.
Camulus: The Gigas is a humanoid so its takes Knowledge: Local to know much about them (despite their planar traits). He gets a 3 so he knows nothing. Still it is a gargantuan giant looking creature so the old standby of dazing chain lightning should work fine. Given the size of the room he should be able to hit everything but unfortunately for him the Gigas is immune to electricity. All of the rest of the enemies fail their saves and take 71 damage and are dazed for 6 rounds. He follows up with a quickened chain lightning which they all fail on again taking another 61 damage. The wolf is dead, the normal giants have 1HP each and the lieutenant has 29hp.
Ferric: Charges to bring its warhammer and bite attack into play. Not wanting to risk a potential full attack if it has Pounce Camulus casts emergency force sphere. Being an adamantine weapon it ignores hardness and he deals 47 damage to it of its 190hp.
Round 2:
Camulus: Concerned about the potential risk such an enormous creature might pose he casts time stop. I decide that he has to plan for the minimum number of bonus action rounds but he actually gets 3. It saw him when he arrived so he cannot rely on his invisibility as a defence and isn't prepared to rely just on mirror image given the potential damage output of such an enemy.
Bonus Round 1:
Free action: Shifts into the form of a medium white dragon.
Move action: He burrows under his force sphere (they are actually hemispheres) and away 30' from Ferric emerging on the ground. While Form of the Dragon doesn't specify that you get movement modes the base polymorph rules do. The ice is actually as hard as stone so burrow is arguable. The alternative is a quickened dimension door after he casts his spell this round or just dismissing the barrier.
Standard action: Casts repulsion as a more potent defensive measure
Bonus Round 2:
The map lacks a scale so I assume the squares on it are 10'. If they are 5' then the room cannot actually contain everything in it. He moves to maximum range next to the doors. At the moment he is relying on repulsion taking hold when the time stop ends. He starts to cast Summon Monster VIII for 1d3 celestial trex's. He gets 3!
Bonus Round 3: He completes casting SMXIII and the dinosaurs arrive. They are too big to be able to flank the Gigas and instead he creates a wall of dinosaur between him and Ferric. The time stop then ends.
Dinosaurs: Each acts (I generally run summons as acting on their summoners go). Each of them smites the abyss tainted giant gaining no bonus to hit but +18 damage per attack. Sadly he is too big to be swallowed. They each attack at +20 doing 4d6+40 but he has 10 points of DR. His AC is 31. 1 hits (I accidentally rolled four attacks instead of 3) dealing 56 damage and a potential crit which confirms causing him a total of 102 damage. It then tries to grapple with CMB of 32 versus CMD43. and succeeds. He is now being chewed on.
Ferric: Suddenly finds himself in a difficult position. He initially fails the save against repulsion (DC29 versus +10 will). Being grappled and with a wall of dinosaurs between him and his enemy is inconvenient. He is not likely to beat the DC to use his Fear SLA which could deal with all 3 dinosaurs nor is he likely to get a dispel magic off. He could just try and break the grapple but he is probably better off trying to kill the dino. Awesome blow might have been useful but they are too big. He full attacks. His first attack is a bite on the dinosaur grappling him but at -2 due to the grapple. The dinos AC is 21 and he takes another -4 for power attack. If he hits and he nauseates it then he will direct his melee attacks at another dino. He hits with all four attacks and the dino fails its save. His melee attacks do 124 damage which is not enough to kill the second dino (the first being unable to do anything anymore).
Round 3:
Camulus: Directs a dazing acid substituted chain lightning hoping he is not immune to acid damage (he isn't he is just resistant). It casually slaughters the remaining enemies. Ferric fails his save (Ref +8 versus DC35) and takes 61 damage. Out of things now for 6 rounds and down to 110 HP he cannot survive multiple further dinosaur attacks. They demolish him.
I may have slightly over reacted to this encounter by unleashing all manner of hell on the basis that one enemy was the size of a house. He has expended a lot of spell slots here which is not ideal.
Being out of level 6 spell slots is problematic but he will have to do. This first part of the adventure has been relatively easy so far but it has drained him of resources. He also now reaches a place where he is blocked from going further. He cannot make the required DC to pass the doors. He tries to earth glide through them and tries a dimension door as well but both fail. He is now forced to backtrack and begins searching for alternate passageways he may have missed. He could possibly make it with Moment of Prescience although it isn't technically an opposed ability check. Eagles Splendour would also bump his charisma to a point where it was possible.
Spells remaining: 9/8/6/3/3/0/6/4/3
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Encounter 8:
He easily finds the secret door in the dragons lair (DC30, Perception 32) and floats downwards. He has resumed invisibility and taken frost giant shape. The adventure calls for a chance of the worms bursting out each round however it does not account for PC's being able to detect intruders. They have tremorsense which only applies to creatures travelling on the ground. At this level there is no real reason why you wouldn't be flying all of the time. With +16 perception versus +43 stealth they are not noticing his quiet passage through the area. He reaches the crack in the ice and its grim chimney filled with the remains of those who betrayed Baba Yaga. However here the rock face is also visible. He decides to avoid the grisly crevice and potential lurking enemies and changes into an earth elemental to earth glide through the rock of the cliff to the top. He neatly avoids the trap and the wisps who remain oblivious. He emerges at the door to area 12 and resumes frost giant shape. He pushes open the door but pauses at the sight of the ball of swirling negative energy.
A 39 easily identifies it as an elder negative energy elemental (DC22) and I give him its negative energy burst, death throes and energy drain abilities. That is potentially scary, especially energy drain. He also spots the Hoar Spirits although they spot him as well with their heat sense. Combat begins immediately.
Initiative: Many rolls I did each spirit individually to give them a better chance
Camulus 14
Elemental 15
Spirits 3 beat Camulus
3 spirits: They know there is an enemy in the doorway and move to engage. He is floating outside so not all can engage. One can charge into combat while the remaining two launch cone of cold at him. Unaware he is currently immune he takes no damage. The single claw attack hits and threatens but he saves against the dex damage (he does so on a 2). The crit fails to confirm and he takes 2 damage after the DR from stoneskin.
Elemental: Unable to reach him, see him or to move it readies to attack if an enemy comes within reach.
Camulus: With a +31 knowledge religion he automatically identifies the hoar spirits but he wants to avoid the use of too many more spell slots. He defensively casts dazing chain lightning using a level 7 spell slot targeting the elemental and arcing to all of the spirits. All of them fail their saves (the elemental needs a 15, the spirits a 20) and take 60 damage.
Elemental: Round 1 of daze
4 spirits: Round 1 of daze
Round 2:
Camulus: Casts Wall of Fire hitting all of the undead and the elemental. The elemental takes 10d6+95 damage over the next 5 rounds. The undead take double that. There is no save. Having taken 60 already (and the spirits being vulnerable to fire) all of them are destroyed during the daze. The elemental explodes and does an irrelevant amount of damage. He explores the room discovering the anti magic field (and avoiding it!). He discovers the missing chain links but leaves them alone for now. Shapechanging into something small enough to fit through the bars he heads east (and reverts back afterwards). The corridors here are narrow so he assumes the form of a medium white dragon.
Spells remaining: 9/7/6/2/3/0/5/4/3
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Encounter 9:
He arrives in the strange small chamber with the dining table and cells. Arcane Sight means he notices the presence of the illusionary wall straight away but not what it is. I count that as interaction and he gets a save which he can only fail on a 1. He passes. The Nabassu has about a 50/50 chance of noticing his presence and does so but cannot pinpoint him. The dread wraiths notice automatically with lifesense. They would normally lurk in the walls ready to attack but battle is immediately joined between Camulus and the Nabassu. However it cannot currently see him even though it knows he is there.
Wraith 3 and 5: Delay waiting to try and ambush as per their tactics. This actually harms them as any attack will be made against a non flat footed foe, albeit one who is still denied their dex bonus to ac. Ultimately it actually makes no difference.
Camulus: Recognising it for what it is (a demon) he launches an acid substituted dazing chain lightning. It beats SR on a 1 but this critter has enormous saves (+28 across the board). DC35 and it makes the save. This gives him real reason to pause. The uber trick is always supposed to work. It takes 23 damage and he becomes visible. He casts quickened mirror image which unfortunately wont help him against lifesense
Wraiths: 3 and 5 come out of delay and the other 3 all leap to the attack. All of them go before the Nabassu. Seeing a bunch of wraiths descending on him is a rather terrifying prospect. His flatfooted touch AC is 11 but I allow his bracers to apply as mage armour works against incorporeal touch attacks. They are attacking at +20 so it is unlikely to matter. In dragon form he has a fortitude save of +17 versus their drain DC of 23. One misses with a natural 1 (numbers are attack roll, damage, save, con drain). Four hit and he takes 8 damage after DR. He fails one con drain save (the last one) losing 7 points of Con. That is not good. He could have used emergency force sphere but they could just pass under the floor to get around it.
Nabassu:
He can see his target now and tries its death gaze hoping to evolve and escape. DC is only 18 but carrying a -7 con penalty makes it less certain as his fortitude save goes down to +14. He passes but only just.
Round 2:
Defensively casts sunburst which includes himself in the area of effect. DC31 reflex save. The wraith are destroyed on a failed save (they need a 17). He also needs to save to avoid blinding himself. He passes but so does the Nabassu and 2 of the wraiths. Realising the precariousness of his position he quickened dimension doors 760' back towards the exit which leaves him flying over the valley (the forbiddance only prevents teleporting into the ice spire). A paragon surge followed by magnificnet mansion sees him holing up to rest and recover. Limited wish follows to remove the ability drain with restoration.
Spells remaining: 9/7/5/2/3/0/0/2/3
So, by the end of his first day of exploring the area he has removed the main party sent by the Demon Lord to recover the Torc and made some initial forays into the inner chambers. The Giants he sent back to the base camp are likely to head back in to find out what happened but with both of their leaders dead they don't have much in the way of options. Tomorrow Camulus plans to avoid going anywhere near the wraiths unless he has too and instead explore the upper levels of the ice flow. He does briefly reconsider planar binding a Planetar to help out but is still determined to go it alone.
The Witchwar Legacy Day 2:
Spells per day: 10/9/9/9/9/8/8/7/5
Camulus spends 8 hours resting and recovering his expended spell slots. His hour/level spells are all still in operation. He decides to add to his defences and adds the following spells with one casting of paragon surge:
This nets him +2 to all of his saves, attack rolls and skill checks and +5 to saves against spells and spell like abilities
He already has the following spells in effect which have around 9+ hours left on them.
Overland Flight (19 hours, level 5)
Mind Blank (24 hours, level 8)
Moment of Prescience (19 hours, level 8)
Life Bubble (38 hours, level 5)
Greater Darkvision (19 hours, level 4)
Ride the Waves (19 hours, level 4)
Ant Haul (38 hours, level 1)
He starts day two with the following spell slots available:
Spells per day: 10/9/7/9/9/8/8/6/5
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Encounter 1:
Passing out of his hidden fortress Camulus makes his way flying back up the waterfall. He decides to explore the upper levels and so ignores the frozen hallway and its inner chambers. As he climbs he discovers the necropolis. He identifies it for what it is without any trouble (DC15 versus +14 skill). Deciding he doesn't want any more undead encounters (it's a necropolis!) he heads further up.
He easily locates the cave in which the ice linnorm makes its lair. You only get a chance to spot it if you come within 40' which is within range of its true seeing. That could be a problem if Mind Blank didn't protect him from it. Its 26 perception means it isn't spotting him with +44 stealth. He finds it curled up and asleep. He rolls a 1 on his knowledge check but a 37 still identifies it and gives him two pieces of information. He gets its death curse and immunity to mind effects. This is another enemy he cannot leave behind so he moves to longer range and strikes with surprise.
Camulus: Dazing chain lightning which beats SR automatically. Its reflex defence is 19 against a DC of 35 and it fails taking 73 damage.
Round 1:
Linnorm: Round 1 of daze
Camulus: Dazing Ball Lightning beats SR and the Linnorm enters dazing lock. DC31 means it only needs a 12 to save. It takes approximately 6 damage per ball per round, or 24 damage per round for 19 rounds. It is dead well before the spell expires. It needs to roll 16 12+ on a d20 to exit Daze making its chances negligble. He makes the save against the death curse.
Spells per day: 10/9/7/9/9/7/7/6/5
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Encounter 2:
As the Linnorm never got a chance to move its corpse conceals the existence of the shaft leading below. Sighing Camulus heads back down to the Necropolis. He encounters the Witch Clock first and easily notices the scrawled message and the hidden riddle. His presence so close to the clock activates the Golems but as medium creatures with no reach or missile attack they are incapable of doing anything to a flying opponent. They are also incapable of perceiving an invisible enemy so they wander about for a bit before returning to their tracks. Recalling the chains attached to the Throne he decides he needs to retrieve them. He still needs to find the "porcelain fine" so decides to explore this area before returning to the throne room.
He begins exploring the tombs heading clockwise around the room. He casts shapechange and takes the shape of a medium white dragon so he can burrow through the doors. He first locates the entrance to area 20 and heads upwards into the sprawling ice cave and its weird contents. Finding a load of treasure he naturally starts collecting which rouses the Shoggoth. It shatters its column of ice and attacks with surprise.
Shoggoth: As it bursts forth it unleashes its maddening cacophony. DC22 means Camulus only fails on a 1, he passes. It would like to engulf the intruder but cannot trample in the surprise round (its a full round action). If Camulus is flying then it cannot actually detect him unless it is very near as it has tremorsense not blindsight. I assume he starts on the ground. It lashes out with a pseudopod hits for 22 damage. The grab auto fails due to the ring of freedom of movement.
Round 1
Camulus: Giant oozes can be tricky. He decides to remove the monster. He recognises it as an ooze which is therefore immune to polymorph and is enormous so is liable to have a lot of health. He defensively casts persistent plane shift trying to send it to the elemental plane of fire to burn up. He flies towards the creature accepting the irrelevant opportunity attack (it cant grab or trip him) and makes the touch attack, beats SR and takes the 13 on the save which fails and it takes a vacation. He collects the remaining loot and heads back down to the necropolis.
Spells per day: 10/9/7/9/9/7/7/6/3
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Encounter 3:
As he continues to explore the necropolis he encounters Hingarl. The giant barbarian is supposed to try and surprise the group although how he does that with his +4 stealth skill is unclear. He launches a dominate person at him which automatically beats SR and he needs a 20 to save (CR17 creatures with a will save of +3!). It fails and he brings his new minion along on his explorations. He quickly finds the entrance to area 10 and heads downwards.
Spells per day: 10/9/7/9/8/7/7/6/3
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Encounter 4:
He arrives at another sets of doors into area 10. The impenetrable doors only appear to be those from area 9. He has his new friend push these open to see what lies beyond. Locating the strange room full of cackling crone statues he watches the arcing fields of negative energy. He recalls the inscription from room 9 and realises that he needs a cleric to deal with these. He casts paragon surge for Summon Monster IX and calls up a Ghaele Azata. He has it cast death ward on itself and he casts resist cold on it. He sends it into the room to try and demolish the statues. It destroys one with Heal and another with Cure Serious Wounds and at will Cure Light. It is immune to the negative energy blasts due to death ward and resist cold 30 negates pretty much all of the remaining damage. It recovers a pair of dolls from the rubble and departs.
Spells per day: 10/8/6/9/8/7/7/6/2
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Encounter 5:
He returns to the necropolis and continues to explore. He locates the entrance to area 15 and heads further down. With his new lumbering companion he cannot really be that stealthy. He enters chamber 15. Being in statue form seems to be more of a hindrance than a help so I decide it switches back when it hears the approaching giant and casts Persistent Image to create a solid wall concealing it. Arcane Sight allows Camulus to notice it and he makes his save. The giant fails.
Camulus: Another outsider, these are potentially troublesome. He launches a dazing chain lightning which auto beats SR. Its 19 reflex means it needs a 16 to save and it fails taking 60 damage.
Round 2:
Camulus: Dazing Ball Lightning finishes it off doing on average 24 damage per round.
Spells per day: 10/8/6/9/8/6/6/6/2
Quote:
Encounter 6:
Returning to the throne room he is faced with heavy shackles sitting in an antimagic field. He could use the giant but it would suppress the dominate. He leaves him behind to avoid alerting the Nabassu. He casts paragon surge for arodens spellbane choosing anti magic shell, disjunction and energy drain. He steps up to the throne and removes the shackles. With all of the components in place he recats shapechange (it expires when paragon surge is cast as its a polymorph effect and you cant have two up at once) and heads back to the necropolis and the Witch Clock. The golems begin to emerge as he sets up and he leaves the giant to distract them. He uses telekinesis to set the components in their correct place while flying out of reach. The portal opens, he shifts into the shape of a large white dragon and steps through.
At this point the module sort of breaks down. Ilivorr is supposed to be scrying on the necropolis with a crystal ball and therefore be aware of when a group will be arriving so she can cast a lot of prebuffs. This rather overlooks the fact that crystal balls and scrying only scry on people, not places and as such she has no way of knowing anyone is coming. I decide that she instead scries on Hingarl from time to time. She cannot detect Camulus due to the mind blank but will note when Hingarl is fighting the golems and note the ritual being set up and so prepare accordingly.
The CR of this encounter is supposed to be 20. She is a level 20 Witch who has had a +1 CR increase due to using 20 point buy and having double wealth. That might be relevant if she wasn't put together in about the most incompetent way possible. I appreciate that module enemies wont be optimised to the hilt but this is a level 20 witch, a primary spellcasting class, who has wasted 7 of her feats on melee weapon abilities (two weapon fighting really!). Similarly her gear choices with her double wealth are pretty terrible. 44k on a ring of cold resistance when she could just cast endure elements once per day and resist cold if needed.
Anyway Camulus arrives and Ilivorr is unable to see him due to the mind blank blocking her see invisibility. She does obviously know that someone has arrived. Combat begins immediately.
Ilivora: She knows someone is there but not who or exactly where. She moves forward and casts Wail of the Banshee. As an area spell he cannot absorb it with his rod so he has to take his chances. He makes his save with a 2 (base save is 16, +3 from protection from spells, +2 from heroism, +2 from 4 con increase from dragon form).
Camulus: Dazing chain lightning which she saves against with a natural 20! She takes 29 damage. He follows up with a quickened greater invisibility and then moves away.
Round 2:
Ilivorra: She still cannot see him to target him with hexes or single target removal spells so she hits the entire area except herself with firestorm, DC24. He passes taking 37 damage.
Camulus: Quickened chain lightning which she fails the save for taking 66 damage followed by power word stun which stuns her for 3 rounds.
Round 3: with three free rounds he can demolish her in any way he chooses. He settles for persistent flesh to stone which she fails the save to. He picks up the Torc and heads out greater teleporting back to Queen Elvanna. By not killing the guardian he also accidentally avoids the curse effect. Even if he was forced to face it he is looking at only failing on 2.
Spells per day: 10/8/5/9/7/3/3/4/0
So, that is the module complete with pretty much each area explored. He fled one combat but if really necessary he could have come back better prepared with a precast death ward either from a summon or limited wish. Part of the ease is that it actually isn't that great a high level module. Too many of the opposition are big stupid monsters with little or no way of detecting invisible enemies or dealing with flyers or resisting mind affecting spells. The only really serious enemy for a caster is probably the Nabassu so I am quite sure there are plenty of people who could complete it in a single pass.
Ilivora is a poorly constructed end boss in possibly the dullest room to fight anything in ever conceived. If I was running this for a group she would get a significant overhaul. The other awkwardness is the size of various combat areas which are clearly too small for the number of large sized and bigger opponents expected to fight in them.
I'd like to note that a greater planar binding can also snag a lilitu, which can cast wish 1/week for a mortal humanoid and can give +4 to 1 stat with no telepathic bond.
Also, upon review, Camulus has neither planar binding nor greater planar binding. If he used a scroll, that's worth mentioning, no?
I'd like to note that a greater planar binding can also snag a lilitu, which can cast wish 1/week for a mortal humanoid and can give +4 to 1 stat with no telepathic bond.
Also, upon review, Camulus has neither planar binding nor greater planar binding. If he used a scroll, that's worth mentioning, no?
Ah, of course. Paragon surge. Out of curiosity, I'd like to see what the OP would do without Paragon Surge, since many people find that spell just as bad as Leadership.
also, please note that if that succubus decides you compelling her and binding her against her will is a dick move, she can revoke her gift as a free action to horrifying effect against you.
Ah, of course. Paragon surge. Out of curiosity, I'd like to see what the OP would do without Paragon Surge, since many people find that spell just as bad as Leadership.
The spell list would need to be rejigged a little and I would add a Mnemonic Vestment and some scrolls.
also, please note that if that succubus decides you compelling her and binding her against her will is a dick move, she can revoke her gift as a free action to horrifying effect against you.
You can determine the conditions at the time of binding which would obviously include not revoking the benefit until she is released.
also, please note that if that succubus decides you compelling her and binding her against her will is a dick move, she can revoke her gift as a free action to horrifying effect against you.
You can determine the conditions at the time of binding which would obviously include not revoking the benefit until she is released.
just making sure, since the only condition you listed to the binding is that she not use suggestion through the gift's link.
I think this is quite interesting but once again shows why high level play is boring. Martials are almost pointless unless the casters are GOD wizards and the same trick with small variations trivialized most of the opposition.
Neat build. Can you take the same character into a different 17th level mod and so as well?
My thought: I'd like to see this with a pure-martial (full BAB, no dipping into a hybrid or caster) class. :)
You could certainly create a martial character capable of single round killing any single encountered opponent but I am not sure any purely martial character would have the necessary combination of mobility, utility, information gathering, defence and stealth in combination with that offence to solo such a module.
My thought: I'd like to see this with a pure-martial (full BAB, no dipping into a hybrid or caster) class. :)
You could certainly create a martial character capable of single round killing any single encountered opponent but I am not sure any purely martial character would have the necessary combination of mobility, utility, information gathering, defence and stealth in combination with that offence to solo such a module.
Let's see, mobility, utility, information gathering, stealth and defense...plus offense in a party of one?
There have been a few high-level dungeons that were better than Witchwar Legacy (which, as you point out, is not all that). The first one that comes to mind is "Prince of Demons", the capstone level 20 adventure at the end of Savage Tide. Unfortunately, it's hard to get access to that one -- Dragon magazine issue #150 was never reprinted as a .pdf -- and of course it's 3.5 rather than PFRPG. But if you have it, I'd be very interested to see if you could run a single character through it.
The high-level modules at the end of Age of Worms would probably present some interesting challenges, too; IMS they served up a nice mix of different sorts of creatures and situations.
There have been a few high-level dungeons that were better than Witchwar Legacy (which, as you point out, is not all that). The first one that comes to mind is "Prince of Demons", the capstone level 20 adventure at the end of Savage Tide. Unfortunately, it's hard to get access to that one -- Dragon magazine issue #150 was never reprinted as a .pdf -- and of course it's 3.5 rather than PFRPG. But if you have it, I'd be very interested to see if you could run a single character through it.
The high-level modules at the end of Age of Worms would probably present some interesting challenges, too; IMS they served up a nice mix of different sorts of creatures and situations.
I don't have access to either of those but I do have Kingmaker so I decided to run through Part 6 of that given it is more of an adventure than Kingdom building related. I amended Camulus to become a Human and stop using Paragon Surge but to compensate slightly I swapped his feats around to grab Craft Wondrous Item giving him a bit of extra gear.
Camulus:
Male Human (Varisian) Sorcerer (Wildblooded) 17
N Medium humanoid (human)
Init +10; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +33
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Defense
--------------------
AC 37, touch 20, flat-footed 33 (+6 armor, +6 shield, +4 Dex, +5 natural, +5 deflection, +1 insight)
hp 138 (17d6+68)
Fort +14, Ref +14, Will +20; +8 resistance vs. divination and mind-affecting
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft., fly 40 ft. (average)
Sorcerer (Wildblooded) Spells Known (CL 17th; concentration +28):
8th (5/day)—form of the dragon iii, mind blank, polymorph any object (DC 29), power word stun
7th (8/day)—greater shadow conjuration (DC 28), greater teleport, summon monster vii, plane shift (DC 28), limited wish, mage's magnificent mansion
6th (8/day)—repulsion (DC 27), contingency, flesh to stone (DC 27), chain lightning (DC 33), true seeing, veil (DC 27), mass suggestion (DC 27)
5th (8/day)—overland flight, baleful polymorph (DC 26), dominate person (DC 26), contact other plane, hold monster (DC 26), telekinesis, hungry pit (DC 26)
4th (8/day)—greater invisibility, charm monster (DC 25), emergency force sphere, dimension door, wall of fire, enervation, animate dead, ball lightning (DC 29)
3rd (9/day)—tongues, dispel magic, haste, heroism, fireball (DC 28), suggestion (DC 24), daylight
2nd (9/day)—stone call, darkvision, resist energy, mirror image, glitterdust (DC 23), command undead (DC 23), invisibility, see invisibility
1st (9/day)—ant haul (DC 22), magic missile, protection from evil, identify, endure elements, charm person (DC 22), air bubble, snowball (DC22)
0 (at will)—acid splash, daze (DC 21), mage hand, detect magic, detect poison, arcane mark, prestidigitation (DC 21), message, light
--------------------
Statistics
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Str 7, Dex 18, Con 18, Int 32, Wis 20, Cha 7
Base Atk +8; CMB +6; CMD 26
Gear: Mnemonic vestment (1/day), Potion of delay poison (2), Potion of gaseous form (2) Potion of hide from undead (2), Rod of absorption, Wand of Infernal Healing (2), +5 Mithral Haramaki, +5 Mithral Buckler, Cold Iron Scythe, Silver Greataxe, Silver Mattock, Silver Scythe, Amulet of natural armor +5, Bag of holding I (4 @ 44 lbs), Belt of physical might (Dex & Con +4), Bracelet of bargaining, Circlet of persuasion, Cloak of resistance +5, Eyes of the eagle, Gloves of elvenkind, Handy haversack (1 @ 19 lbs), Headband of mental prowess (Int & Wis +6), Ioun stone (clear spindle), Ioun stone (dusty rose prism), Ioun stone (pale ruby trillian), Ring of freedom of movement, Ring of protection +5, Robe of arcane heritage, Tome of clear thought +1, Vest of escape, Scroll (Greater Planar Binding, Teleport)Wayfinder, Thieves' tools, masterwork, 4500gp diamond, 3500gp onyx
Permanent Spells:
See Invisibility, Tongues, Darkvision, Arcane Sight
Overland Flight (17 hours, level 5)
Mind Blank (24 hours, level 8)
Endure Elements (24 hours, level 1)
Persistent Veil (17 hours, level 8, DC27 to appear as one of Nyrissa's defaced Nymphs. His knowledge skills are more than high enough to make any relevant check)
Spell slots available:
8/9/9/8/7/8/8/3
He has also set up a Contingency for Teleport when he clicks his fingers. Given it lasts 1 day/level he will have regained the spell slot used.
Our background has Camulus as the ruler of his own realm within the Lost Lands. He has fought long and hard to take control of the region employing powerful evocation magic but also significant enchantment spells to forge himself a place in the stolen lands. Judicious use of summoning (reusing Binding scrolls with the Mnemonic Vestment) ensures that he has capable outsiders in key positions to manage his estates and he carves out hidden bunkers to store the animated forms of powerful monsters he has defeated. He maintains control with regular castings of Control Undead. I am skipping the Bloom section as so much of it involves fighting ground based opponents with little or no effective ranged options. Many of them will simply be added to his forces through Dominate or murdered from the air and animated. Given there is little time pressure to deal with these in the same rest period he approaches each with all spell slots available making them very unlikely to do much.
The only ones likely to cause any sort of issue are the Huntsman, Jabberwock or the Swarms. Dazing Wall of Fire almost certainly demolishes the swarms (2d6+7 damage per round accounting for fast healing over 17 rounds for an average of 238 damage DC29 will save to avoid the daze versus +8will and the wall is long enough to hit multiple swarms).
The Jabberwok would certainly be engaged from long range. DC33 dazing chain lightning requires a 16 to save and with its fly 60 (poor) it can never get near enough to attack if he alternates with dimension door. Its eye rays don't have a listed range but Resist Fire means they do on average 22 damage even assuming they hit given it cannot detect invisible opponents more than 60' away.
The Huntsman could be dangerous if he got the drop on Camulus. His full attack routine could potentially kill him although it is unlikely. With deadly aim, rapid shot and his favoured enemy bonuses his attack routine is +27/27/22/17/12 for 1d8+25 per hit. If he wins initiative against flatfooted AC33 he is averaging about 130hp damage which is close to dropping him. Of course getting the drop on an opponent when you are dragging along a bunch of worthless Ettins is difficult and with a will save of 15 he is reasonably likely to be fooled by the Veil and therefore not launch a full out assault.
Anyway, on to the interesting bit, travel through the First World.
The Glades:
Quote:
The Whirling Lake
Camulus passes through the Gate and finds himself in the dark and dangerous first world. Now he eschews the Ring of Invisibility as a cheap tactic (even if it is effective) and instead relies on his Illusions. He passes through the arch and into the passageway between the trees. The first pathway is perilously narrow. The module tells you to check for wandering monsters during movement between each glade but doesn't give a chance. Previous adventures suggest a chance between 5% and 15%. That chance is doubled in the blooms so I decide on a flat 40% each time he moves but nothing is encountered this time.
He enters the glade containing the lake and easily spots the lurking treants (Stealth 24 versus 35 Perception). Veil is a Glamer which Plants are not immune to and with +9 will rolling twice against DC27 all of them fail. Given Camulus currently looks like one of Nyrissa's minions they are unlikely to attack him. He passes through the area without incident taking the south eastern river exit. At this point he discovers the strange effect on their direction and sighs picking the right hand path.
Time taken: 5 hours
Quote:
The Frozen Boneyard
This pathway is not perilous and is free of wandering monsters. He enters the icy boneyard but is unaffected by the cold due to Endure Elements. He easily spots the Giant (it has no stealth skill) but his Perception fails to beat Camulus's stealth (44 versus 47). Floating at the edge of the treeline Camulus needs to do something about the Giant or risk being spotted as he continues on. He could simply turn invisible but instead he casts persistent Dominate Person which the giant fails to save against. He quizzes him about what he knows about the region learning little and then brings him along as some extra muscle. He commands him to follow him and protect him from danger.
Spell slots available:
8/9/9/8/7/8/7/3
Time taken: 1 hour
Quote:
The Nightmare Spire
This track is littered with the carcasses of dead animals. A rather grisly sight which exposes our hero to Bubonic Plague! Fortunately both he and his new giant minion make their saves. No wandering monster is encountered.
Camulus could probably slip into the huge clearing undetected but with a great lumbering giant with him he decides to be open about the whole thing. He advances forwards towards the spire and the Rook takes to the air. It would be fooled by the veil but it is immune to illusions and so immediately attacks. A 37 Knowledge Arcana gives Camulus its immunity to illusions, regeneration and fear aura. Neither side gets a surprise round.
Camulus: Move action: Commands the Giant to attack Big Bird. Casts DC33 dazing Chain Lightning which it fails to save against taking 76 damage. It falls out of the sky crashing to the ground.
Giant: Rages and moves to engage.
With 6 free rounds to attack it is going to die, all that matters is whether they can overcome its regeneration. Camulus draws a silver scythe out of his bag of holding and hands it to the giant to kill the raven with. He replaces it very carefully back into the bag.
Spell slots available:
8/9/9/8/7/7/7/3
Time taken: 1 hour
Quote:
Haven't we been here before?
With the Ravens death the region remains stubbornly in place. With no onwards route he must return to the Boneyard and then the lake to take the other path. The first path is not dangerous and has no encounter. The second is the same. He passes the Treants who wonder at the presence of the Giant and this time one of them pierces the Veil. It shrieks a warning and I give it a surprise round.
T4: Charges at Camulus swinging its club like branches but misses
Round 1:
T3: Charges at Camulus and swings with flanking bonus hitting for 31 damage.
Camulus: Flanked by two huge treants with more on the way is not a good position for an arcane caster to be in but three of them are now relatively close together. He defensively casts dazing acid substituted chain lightning hitting 2, 3 and 4 who with their reflex save of 7 all fail taking 52 damage. Defensive casting is automatic at this point.
T2: Dazed 1/6, fast heals 10
Giant: Rages and full attacks T4 the first treant to attack his master. Four hit dealing 101 damage which leaves it teetering on the brink.
T4: Dazed 1/6, fast heals 10
T1: Cannot reach the group so unleashes chain lightning hitting Camulus and the Giant which it assumes has betrayed Nyrissa. Camulus negates the attack on him with Emergency Force Sphere. The giant passes taking 20 damage. He chains it to the other treants healing them of 13hp.
Round 2:
T3: Dazed 1/6, fast heals 10
Camulus: Dismisses the bubble and moves out of sight of T1
T2: Dazed 2/6, fast heals 10
Giant: Full attacks directing initial attacks at T4 and then T3 if T4 goes down. All five attacks hit with the first two destroying T4 and the next three dealing 73 damage to T3.
T4: Dead
T1: Lightning Bolts the Giant and both its remaining allies. The giant passes taking 16 damage and the treants regain 11hp
Round 3:
T3: Dazed 2/6, fast heals 10
Camulus: Casts Haste on himself and the Giant.
T2: Dazed 3/6, fast heals 10
Giant: Now with an extra attack he launches all 6 targeting T3 first then following up on T2. {url]Five[/url] hit ad the first four demolish T3, T2 takes 13 damage.
T1: Things are looking grim but it launches yet another lightning bolt. The giant passes with a 3 taking 20 damage with 13 healed.
Round 4:
T3: Dead
Camulus: Tired of T1's interference he casts Hungry Pit at it which it fails to save against. It has no effective way out but between its DR and fast healing wont be taking much damage.
T2: Dazed 4/6, currently uninjured
Giant: Launches a full attack against T2, four attacks hit for 103 damage.
T1: Thrashes in frustration in the pit
Round 5:
Camulus: Flies over the it and drops an acid substituted Wall of Fire inside it and listens to the sweet sounds of screaming treant (2d6+17 acid damage per round for the next 17 rounds spells death)
T2: Dazed 5/6, fast heals 10
Giant: Full attack the last treant hitting five times and reducing it to kindling.
Before they head on Camulus burns 10 charges of his wand of infernal healing to restore them both.
Spell slots available:
8/9/8/7/5/6/7/3
With the death of the Treants the region shifts to the material plane which is a bit of a shock to everyone. Our Giant minion is also now staggered which is annoying. However with its move to the material plane Camulus is able to travel freely towards the main objective. He leaves the giant behind and soars into the air finally free of the limitations of the First World. Spotting the House in the distance he flies onwards.
Time taken: 8 hours
His long term buffs still have 2 hours remaining but he is no longer subject to the time delay on travel. If they begin to run out he may retreat to recover spells or simply recast them. He adds Heroism just in case. He does have to recast Ant Haul and his Magnificent Mansion has run out.
Quote:
The Dragon!
Flying towards the House brings him directly past the Dragon Ilthuliak. She isn't fooled by the Veil but Camulus will also see her coming with See Invisibiility. I decide that if the battle lasts more than three rounds it will attract the attention of the Knurly Witch. While too far away to interfere directly she may well add summoned enemies to the mix. The encounter begins at a distance of 330' (the point at which he can spot the dragon as it moves towards him in the open). I assume the dragon has had a chance to buff up.
Camulus: Dragons are dangerous and tend to have SR and decent saves but reflex is a notorious weakness. He launches dazing chain lightning at her, DC33, CL25 for SR. He beats SR and her +13 reflex save fails to save her. She takes 52 damage and plunges to the ground smashing trees and bones with her landing and taking another 28 damage.
Dragon: Dazed 1/6
Round 2:
Camulus: Descending into the tress he launches a dazing Ball Lightning at the Dragon. CL is 21 and he just beats SR. DC29 means she needs a 16 to save and has to make 4 per round. An average of 24 damage per round means she is dead in 11 rounds. He leaves her to be slowly electrocuted to death and given the battle effectively ended in two rounds the Knurly Witch does not become involved.
Spell slots available:
7/9/7/7/5/5/6/3
The House:
Quote:
The House at the End of Time
The route to the house is now open and he wastes no time heading in that direction. He heads across the bridge is challenged by the (now staggered) Linnorm. It bursts from the waters and moves to attack.
Linnorm: Limited to a single action it is able to partial charge flying out of the lake and trying to bite (it cant vital strike on its charge). It misses with a 9 due to the power attack penalty.
Camulus: Linnorms are bad news. 43 on knowledge arcana gives him its freedom of movement, immunities and breath type. It isn't really clear if freedom of movement makes you immune to stun or daze but for the purposes of this adventure I decide it does. This makes the Linnorm significantly more challenging but may benefit Camulus given he wears the ring. He casts quickened invisibility followed by a defensive dimension door moving 100' away, well outside its scent range (true seeing is no help due to mind blank).
Round 2:
Linnorm: Hunts around for him so I give it a 25% chance of getting him into range of scent. It succeeds but cant do anything else due to stagger.
Linnorm: With its enemy visible it breathes its poisonous breath at him. He casts Emergency Force Sphere to avoid the unpleasantness.
Camulus: Dismisses the sphere and moves into cover where he cannot be charged.
Round 4:
Linnorm: Flies to bring him within melee range.
Camulus: With a -5 save penalty he thinks he can risk a save or suck. He casts persistent Baleful Polymorph which transforms it into a squirrel. He picks up the cute creature and pops it into his bag of holding.
Spell slots available:
7/9/7/4/5/4/5/2
Quote:
The Ground Floor
Slipping over the battlements he easily spots the Jabberwok but it also sees him (he isn't invisible). It fails to penetrate the Veil and so has no reason to challenge him. He slips past the beast and into the house. With Stealth 30 versus 33 Perception Camulus spots two of the lurking assassins. With blindsight they automatically notice him but Mind Blank prevents their true seeing from automatically piercing the Veil. With a +13 will all of them fail to recognise him.
He explores the remainder of the ground floor which actually contains precious little. Technically the Worm that Walks isn't there as Nyrissa cannot detect him, the ghosts are all suppressed and apart from that there are some elementals in a washroom. For the sake of interest I assume the Wriggling Man is in the throne room as Nyrissa may well have noticed the removal of the Linnorm. He will be prebuffed and therefore Mind Blanked and Invisible. Oh the irony. For the sake of convenience I assume he notices Camulus passing through the room and challenges him as to why he is there. He fails to penetrate the Veil. Still he is Nyrissas most powerful minion and is happy to lord it over her lesser servants. Unsure of who is asking Camulus claims the mistress sent him to deliver a message to one of the outer guardians which he buys. Slipping out he casts Invisibility and sneaks back to find out what is going on. Nothing appears (I assume the Worm keeps activating the ring) so he takes stronger measures. He casts Limited Wish duplicating Invisibility Purge and both of them become visible. Battle is immediately joined.
Camulus: Ugh, that is revolting. A worm that walks! 46 on knowledge nature gives him the worm traits. That is a lot of immunities which affect many of his spells. He quickens Glitterdust so it cannot resume invisibility if the invisibility purge goes down and it fails its save. He follows up with dazing Ball Lightning as Chain Lightning wont work. That forces four DC29 reflex saves which he fails three of taking 39 damage and being Dazed for 4 rounds.
Worm: Complete Daze lock. His fast healing helps but he is taking an average of 18 damage per round after taking into account healing. As he dissolves Camulus uses Arcane Sight to identify any spells or magic items he might be carrying and notices the Contingency. He attempts to Dispel it. The first attempt fails but the second passes. The Wriggling man collapses into a puddle of worms and dies. Camulus particularly likes the Staff which goes nicely with his Arcane Apotheosis ability.
Spell slots available:
7/8/5/4/5/3/3/2
Quote:
The Upper Levels
He enters the Great Hall and finds his path blocked by a pair of huge wyverns. Both are fooled by the Veil. He starts at the nearest exit and explores the servants wing finding nothing of interest. He heads around the room and enters the guest rooms finding the stairs up and down. Leaving them for the moment he heads back. The wyverns raise a lazy head at this minions slightly unusual behaviour but not much else. He heads across the bridge to the last area finding the door locked. To avoid alerting the Wyverns to something being up he Dimension Doors past it. The text says that 6 nymphs reside here, the stat block 8. I assume 8 to make things more difficult and assign them randomly between the 7 rooms. Room a contains 2, 5 and 8, d contains 1 and 6, e contains 4 and g contains 3 and 7. Camulus is currently impersonating number 2. He picks the first door on the left (e the drawing room) to find a nymph quietly sobbing on a chair. She looks up to see one of her sisters standing watching her. She fails to break the Veil. Camulus saves against the gaze and given the closer interaction I also give her a chance to see through the disguise with the +10 intimate bonus. +25 perception versus +28 disguise and she fails to notice. Smiling sweetly Camulus hits her with Charm Monster which she fails to save against. The two good friends sit down for a nice chat and she explains that the mistress dwells in an extra dimensional set of chambers but that there are several means of accessing them. At some point Nyrissa notices one of her handmaidens talking to thin air and causes her to explode to preserve her secrets. She orders her remaining handmaidens to converge on the area. Camuulus casts Invisibility when the nymph explodes expecting trouble.
The remaining nymphs converge on the room. It is unclear whether or not gaze attacks will work on an invisible foe. Assuming that they do he can avert his eyes to reduce the chance to 50% but must make DC20 fortitude saves (at +16) for any fails. He avoids one out of seven gazes but only fails one save taking 3 points of str, con and charisma drain. Not ideal. He then strikes gaining a surprise round.
Camulus: dazing Chain Lightning hitting all of them. They all fail taking 47 damage.
Round 1: Flying out of the room Camulus casually drops a Wall of Fire engulfing all of them and leaves them to burn. 2d6+12 per round for the next 5 rounds spells death.
Spell slots available:
7/7/5/1/5/2/3/2
Free now to explore this upper level he discovers the Fable portal and easily identifies the trigger (Spellcraft 38 versus DC35). He passes through finding her true bed chamber but no Nyrissa He easily identifies the exit and decides to check out the previous stairs. He passes the wyverns who are curious about the burning smell coming from the mistresses private rooms. 26 bluff versus 24 sense motive doesn't quite manage to convince them and they attack.
Camulus: Running low on spell slots he needs to start to try and conserve them. He takes a gamble and drops dazing Wall of Fire on both wyverns which both fail the will save. They take 2d6+17 damage every round for 17 rounds which is more than enough to kill them.
Spell slots available:
7/7/5/1/5/2/2/2
At this point with the death of so many of her minions and her inability to see the attacker Nyrissa orders all of her minions to trust no one and to attack anyone except for her on sight.
Quote:
The Upper Level
Bypassing the wyverns as they burn Camulus heads back to the stairs he saw earlier heading up to M3.
Warned about intruders being present Phomandala casts her defensive buffs. Neither side is capable of surprising the other as things stand so as Camulus steps into the chamber combat begins in earnest.
Camulus: Averts his eyes to try and avoid the gaze. Does so which is just as well as he rolled a 1 for the save. Wanting to end things quickly he casts persistent Flesh to Stone DC27 which she fails becoming a statue. He moves on.
He explores the library easily deciphering the various notes. Nyrissa notices and commands the Ankous to find and kill him. To make sure she orders them to kill any humanoid creature they encounter inside the House. She is getting a bit desperate. Meanwhile Camulus has located the information needed to identify and use the portals and reasoning the Throne Room is the most important he Dimension Doors directly to it as the Ankous are searching the upper level. Activating the portal he finally finds himself face to face with Nyrissa.
Spell slots available:
7/7/5/1/5/2/2/1
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The Final Battle
Ok, so this is an actual end game boss monster. Touch AC33 means Enervation is not going to connect. With her lowest save being +30 (including the penalty for shaken) she makes almost all saves on a 1 and with evasion she wont even take half damage. Summons wont really touch her with her AC50.
Camulus: He knows what he is facing and that he will have a tough time getting his spells to land. He makes the blinding beauty save due to Heroism. He casts Limited Wish to impose a -7 penalty on her next save.
Nyrissa: Starts the fight confused, she gets attack the nearest creature and will be confused again in 3 rounds which probably wont matter as the attack clause is likely to be in effect. She knows he carries a Rod of Absorption so she casts Fire Storm making the concentration check and breaking the SR from Briar. He fails the save taking 71 damage. She follows up with quickened Glitterdust which she just makes the concentration check for but he makes his save.
Round 2:
Camulus: He has basically one chance to get a spell through her defences. He casts persistent Flesh to Stone DC27 against her reduced fort save of 23. She only needs a 4 to save. She rolls a 17 and 2 giving victory to Camulus. He picks up the slender statue with telekinesis and smashes it to pieces against a wall then disintegrates the remains with the Staff of Transmutation just to be sure.
Spell slots available:
7/7/5/1/4/2/1/0
Post Fight Analysis:
Unfortunately her single target spells would do her no good against the Rod so Finger of Death, Baleful Polymorph, Maze and Telekinesis were all out and her charm/dominate powers fail against the Spindle. She could have used Prismatic Spray which has a chance of imposing a potential save or die but not a good one. Rod Maximised Chain Lightning or Flame Strike were possible but the lower save DC meant a better chance of half damage. Quickened buffs weren't needed and blinding him would have prevented single target spells. Ultimately he got very lucky and if the spell had not worked he would have Emergency Force Sphered whatever she did on her action and got the hell out of there to come back another time with friends. Lots of friends.
gotta say you got lucky in that last battle. its a nice read, btw. also, i can now laugh at folks who say blasters suck.
You've misunderstood. Blasting is not optimal when (and here's the important part) you are in a party. In a party its more optimal to simply buff your allies and debuff the enemies and let your party members do clean up. That's the whole premise of the God Wizard and in those circumstances it is correct.
Now in a solo adventure, obviously you don't have the luxury of party members and andreww has placed significant limitations on his ability to bring his own minions. In those cases, blasting goes from sub-optimal to much more optimal. But that's a very narrow circumstance, considering he could theoretically have many many minions with him were he not intentionally holding back.
You've misunderstood. Blasting is not optimal when (and here's the important part) you are in a party. In a party its more optimal to simply buff your allies and debuff the enemies and let your party members do clean up. That's the whole premise of the God Wizard and in those circumstances it is correct.
While generally this is true it is worth noting that Camulus is not actually a Blaster, he is primarily a battlefield controller because Dazing Spell is the best control effect in the game. If he was a Blaster then he would be looking at Cross Blooded, Empower and maybe Intsenfied Spell.
It just so happens that his control also causes damage which ends encounters. You have to sit back and watch your enemies shrivel to death but it is easily as effective as summoning a bunch of minions or bringing along a load of undead.
The only thing more effective would probably be binding dozens of outsiders with Greater Planar Binding and bringing along a small army but that is dull, time consuming and not likely to fly with many GM's.
It is worth noting that I would totally play Camulus in a group as his main control (Chain Lightning) is able to be used regardless of people being in the way.
While generally this is true it is worth noting that Camulus is not actually a Blaster, he is primarily a battlefield controller because Dazing Spell is the best control effect in the game.
I've been reading this with great interest. One thing I'm taking away is that Dazing Spell is pretty badly broken!
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The only thing more effective would probably be binding dozens of outsiders with Greater Planar Binding and bringing along a small army but that is dull, time consuming and not likely to fly with many GM's.
I've been writing a long series of posts on the Diabolist, and that's definitely an issue. If you build a caster specialized for Planar Binding, it's not hard at all under RAW to build an army of literally dozens of outsiders. If Camulus were built that way, he could be marching at the head of a platoon of CR 14-16 creatures.
The SuperBinder is probably the single most game-breaking build. Fortunately, it almost never comes up -- partly because it's complex and a bit of a PITA to play out all those bindings, but mostly (I think) because it's not only broken, it's broken in a way that most players and DMs would find non-fun.
Yeah, take away Dazing Spell and emergency force sphere and leave out long-term minions, and, while still quite do-able, the exercise becomes slightly more difficult than the cakewalk we're looking at. But I'm about 99% sure it could still be completed solo.
Paragon Surge was FAQ'd. All choices are made when the spell is cast the first time each day.
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Half-Elf, paragon surge: Can I cast paragon surge multiple times in a day to gain different benefits?
No. The first time each day that you cast paragon surge, you must select a feat and make all the associated choices that come with it. Once that choice is made, it is set for the day and additional castings must make the exact same decisions.
Paragon Surge was FAQ'd. All choices are made when the spell is cast the first time each day.
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Half-Elf, paragon surge: Can I cast paragon surge multiple times in a day to gain different benefits?
No. The first time each day that you cast paragon surge, you must select a feat and make all the associated choices that come with it. Once that choice is made, it is set for the day and additional castings must make the exact same decisions.
It is more an errata than a FAQ. It is worth noting that bar gaining access to a few buffs at the start of each day Camulus actually only casts Paragon Surge I think twice during Witchwar. With a little rejigging I doubt he would need it at all.
Synthesist summoner can still pretty casually do all this, and that's mainly a melee character.
I would imagine, with the advent of Divine Protection, a lot more melee characters can do this too.
Perhaps a better challenge would be to do slightly easier challenges with level 12 PFS-legal characters, so we'd get something more interesting than a caster jacking their save DCs?
-Cross (Oh wait, we'd probably still get casters jacking their save DCs. XD At least no mass suffocate!)
Two minor quibbles with the originally posted character.
Intelligence should be 34 on a 20 point buy, not a 36. (18 +2 racial +4 level advancement +4 inherent +6 enhancement = 34.)
Adamantine does not ignore hardness of 20 or higher, so your emergency force sphere holds up fine.
You missed the +2 Profane.
That I did. To be fair, I would caveat that as a highly suspect bonus in typical campaigns. *Especially* in a PFS-based set of stipulations that explicitly forbid evil stuff. Either way, definitely interesting.
Edit: retraining a 17th level feat for a sorcerer to gain Expanded Arcana shouldn't be allowed to 'game the system' (picking a 9th level spell known), since at 17th level a sorcerer does not yet know a 9th level spell. Does it? (That's not how I read the retraining rules.)
Highly suspect in a typical campaign? Why? If you aren't throttling the heavens with your phenomenal cosmic power you might as well crush the abyss beneath your heel. Full casters with access to 9th level spells aren't really afraid of of small fries at this point. Also PFS has less in common with an ordinary game of Pathfinder then the campaign shown here. Furthermore, there is nothing that makes receiving a Profane Gift an Evil action. And since you brought up PFS, remember you can cast Evil spells with no worries of alignment change in PFS ala Infernal Healing.
Highly suspect in a typical campaign? Why? If you aren't throttling the heavens with your phenomenal cosmic power you might as well crush the abyss beneath your heel. Full casters with access to 9th level spells aren't really afraid of of small fries at this point. Also PFS has less in common with an ordinary game of Pathfinder then the campaign shown here. Furthermore, there is nothing that makes receiving a Profane Gift an Evil action. And since you brought up PFS, remember you can cast Evil spells with no worries of alignment change in PFS ala Infernal Healing.
Yes, retraining allows that.
"Willing humanoid creature" when it comes to interacting with a succubus seems a Chaotic Evil act by definition. 'Highly suspect' in that a supposedly Neutral creature is wilfully engaging in actions with demons purely for personal gain, arguably the epitome of Neutral Evil.
It isn't that a succubus is directly a dire threat to you per se, but the taint on the character's soul from a profane gift seems quite likely to have ramifications upon death.
Also, I wouldn't want to risk having a succubus telepathically linked into my noggin. That leads to her Demon Queen potentially having access to your brain that may not be thwarted by mind blank. ;)
The differences are minor (+12 Int bonus vs. a +13 Int bonus), but definitely interesting.
Hrm ... yeah, re-examining retraining rules does allow that. I wouldn't allow escalating use of such IMC, for the reasons previously stated.
o.O ... PFS is a wriggling can of worms in its own right. To me it's ... inconsistent, at best.
Good stuff on the character. I was glad to see a 'theorycraft' spellcaster used that wasn't a venerable age category of [race] for once.
