| andreww |
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
In one of the recent rather tedious and lengthy argument threads (possibly Fighter versus Ranger) a challenge was thrown down to see if either class was able to complete a PFS 7-11 scenario on their own. Fury of the Fiend was suggested. Now I personally have next to no interest in Fighters and little enough in Rangers so I though I would see how my favourite class, the sorcerer, managed it. Obvious caveats apply, this is a solo session, one person running both sides, your experience may vary etc etc. What I have also tried to do is provide some notes on what he might do as part of a group to ensure success and how having a group with him might complicate things.
This is a PFS module so the character has been created using the PFS rule set. Obviously it contains an awful lot of spoilers for Fury of the Fiend so you read at your own risk.
First off our hero, Casimir the "Rogue", adventurer, thief, finder of things.
Male Half-Elf (Varisian) Sorcerer (Seeker, Wildblooded) 10
N Medium humanoid (elf, human)
Init +9; Senses low-light vision, Darkvision 120'; Perception +23
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 21, touch 13, flat-footed 19 (+4 armor, +3 shield, +2 Dex, +1 natural, +1 deflection)
hp 87 (10d6+30, including false life)
Fort +9, Ref +8, Will +12; +2 vs. enchantments
Immune sleep
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft., fly 40 ft. (average)
Sorcerer (Seeker, Wildblooded) Spells Known (CL 10th; concentration +22):
5th (4/day)—baleful polymorph (DC 23), overland flight
4th (7/day)—dimension door, elemental body i, emergency force sphere, enervation, fear (DC 22), greater invisibility
3rd (8/day)—aqueous orb (DC 23), dispel magic, fireball (DC 21), haste, paragon surge, stinking cloud (DC 23), suggestion (DC 21)
2nd (8/day)—command undead (DC 20), create pit (DC 22), glitterdust (DC 22), invisibility, mirror image, pilfering hand, resist energy
1st (8/day)—charm person (DC 11), disguise self, grease (DC 21), identify, liberating command, mage armor, magic missile, protection from evil, silent image (DC 19), snowball (DC 21)
0 (at will)—acid splash, arcane mark, daze (DC 18), detect magic, detect poison, light, mage hand, message, prestidigitation (DC 18)
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 7, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 26, Wis 11, Cha 7
Base Atk +5; CMB +3; CMD 16
Feats: Additional Traits, Expanded Arcana, Greater Spell Focus (conjuration), Improved Initiative, Persistent Spell, Spell Focus (conjuration)
Traits: eyes and ears of the city, magical lineage, reactionary, student of philosophy
Skills: Bluff +11(21 to lie), Diplomacy +10 (20 to convince), Disable Device +24, Escape Artist +12, Fly +9(14), Knowledge (arcana) +23 (+27 spells), Knowledge (dungeoneering) +9, Knowledge (engineering) +9, Knowledge (geography) +9, Knowledge (history) +9, Knowledge (local) +9, Knowledge (nature) +9, Knowledge (nobility) +9, Knowledge (planes) +21, Knowledge (religion) +18, Perception +23 (+30 to locate traps), Spellcraft +14 (+18 spells), Stealth +12; Racial Modifiers +2 Perception
Languages: Aklo, Celestial, Common, Draconic, Elven, Infernal, Kelish, Osiriani, Osiriani, Ancient, Thassilonian, Varisian
Special Quallities: arcane bolt, elf blood, mutated bloodlines (sage), seeker lore, trapfinding +5 (7), new arcana (4th, 5th)
Gear: potion of air bubble in sponges (2), potion of delay poison (2), potion of remove blindness/deafness, potion of touch of the sea in sponges(2), wand of infernal healing (50 charges), +2 mithral buckler, amulet of natural armor +1, belt of mighty constitution +2, cloak of resistance +2, eyes of the eagle, handy haversack, headband of vast intelligence +4, ioun stone (dusty rose prism, cracked), ioun stone (pale green prism (cracked, saves), page of spell knowledge (charm person), page of spell knowledge (magic missile), ring of protection +1, robe of arcane heritage, wayfinder, masterwork tool (diplomacy), masterwork tool (perception), sorcerer's kit, spell component pouch (3), thieves' tools, masterwork
So, how did he do down in the dark on his own?
Encounter 1:
As he approaches the Hellknight camp and hears the sounds of battle ahead he casts Invisibility to mask his approach. He will encounter the Morlock patrol but both have 120' darkvision. He is flying and invisible and he notices them outside of the Morlocks scent range. They aren't hiding but even if they were they have a Stealth of +9 versus +23 Perception and the Golem would rather give them away. He can therefore gain surprise on them. Seeing them heading towards the encampment he casts Greater Invisibility and moves in opening up with DC21 Fireball which, in their starting formation, hits all of them and deals 43 damage. Four fail their saves taking full damage, number 5 and 6 take 21 damage. The Golem is obviously unharmed. Combat is joined at that point.
Initiative: 4 17 7
Morlocks: 12
Golem: 16
Casimir: 16
Round 1:
Casimir: As the Morlocks are still clumped together he opens up with a second Fireball to hit all of them dealing 35 damage. Three of them fail killing two and four and leaving the rest on 11, 11, 33 and 15hp as they have not yet raged.
Golem: Unable to see any enemy it wanders aimlessly.
Morlocks: Unable to see or smell their enemy they scatter into the ruins to take cover. Even if they could see him they actually have no form of ranged attack so are stuck using improved ranged weapons, probably some sort of thrown rubble. Even if he was at short range they would only be attacking at +7.
Round 2:
Casimir: Having scattered it is no use using fireball, he picks off the heavily injured Morlocks with Magic Missile over the next several rounds. None of them are capable of doing anything to him and the Golem is similarly helpless. The Morlocks are liable to flee at this point leaving him to deal with the Golem. It cannot fly or see the invisible but it does have 107hp. He Paragon Surges for Intensified Spell and hits it with 3 Intensified Snowballs which are likely to deal with it. An alternate option might be to lead it off somewhere using a Silent Image or Surge for an Acid Pit. Its reflex save of +3 means it needs a 20 to save and the Pit will do 20d6 damage to it. It cannot escape but a second one will be needed to kill it. He may have to Grease the sides of the Pit just to make sure.
Group Options:
This encounter is actually significantly more difficult in a group as you almost certainly have ground based people who actually want to melee large dangerous monsters. Some may well not have darkvision meaning we have to rely on actual light and so we don't get the drop on the Morlocks. In a group situation Casimir is almost certainly taking care of the Golem to give people time to finish off the Morlocks. Create Pit dooms it to sit at the bottom of a hole while Aqueous Orb is also hilarious. Pit has a 90% chance of success, Orb 95%. It cannot climb out of the pit, even bracing and moving at half speed it needs to make 3 DC20 climb checks at +9 giving it a 25% chance of escape but neutering it for 3 rounds. He might also open up with Glittedust on the golem and Morlocks. Blinding Golems can be horribly effective, their low Dex and lack of skill points make it very hard for them to hit the Acrobatics DC to move more than half speed so the Stone Golem will often be limited to a speed of 10. With the penalty from being blind its Acrobatics modifier is -4.
Encounter 2:
This is a purely social encounter. With an effective Bluff of +21 to lie (26 with the forged documents) it is very easy for him to convince each of the suspicious Hellnights. Interestingly Casimir is actually a PFS character, a member of the Cheliax fation and a Signifier of the Order of the Gate and so is rather horrified by Bane's willingness to betray his oaths for a woman. In fact he has general issues with pretty much the entire scenario but needs must when the Venture Captain calls. He will help them out fixing the lift. Refreshed and with his spells regained he rebuffs before heading further into the complex. He will actually avoid using the lift entirely as he doesn't need it, being able to fly. Spotting the Morlocks he will simply bypass the entire encounter by turning Invisible.
Group Options:
This is another segment which is more difficult if you have a group with you. Many PFS PC's come with fairly poor charisma and limited social skills. Keeping them away from suspicious Hellknights would be an issue. He might consider providing some secure housing for the group while they are there, a surged Rope Trick or Secure Shelter might provide a bit of sanctuary for less socially adept players. The lift encounter also becomes more problematic as it is likely that some PC's will need to use it. Depending on the number of other PC's, animal companions and familiars he may well simply Dimension Door those who cannot get down themselves to avoid the issue. If forced to stay with the lift then swathes of the Morlocks die to Fireball or are blinded by Glitterdust but this is very much the least preferred option.
Encounter 3:
Haunts, everyone's favourite mechanic in PFS, second only to chase scenes.
The Transforming Hunger - He only falls to this one a 1 if the half elves bonus is included. Even if he does fail he does 1d3-2 damage to himself a round so it is fairly irrelevant. The altar has an awful lot of HP so we will look to bypass that. He will Paragon Surge gaining the Acid Pit spell and drop the altar into it. After three rounds it has to start saving or become broken and then must save every round or be destroyed. If it is counted as non magical it automatically fails, if it is magical then its save is 2+CL, or +6 and the DC is 24. It is doomed.
Group Options: Another encounter where being in a group is more of a liability than a help. His role here is almost certainly controlling anyone who is affected by the Haunt. He can probably negate the initial attack on anyone next to him with Emergency Force Sphere as it breaks line of effect. Otherwise he is probably looking to control affected PC's with Glitterdust, Crete Pit or Aqueous Orb. Protection from Evil might also grant another save.
Fists of the Cruel Statuary - this one is significantly easier than the last. It will almost certainly just be dropped into a Create Pit initially followed by a Paragon Surge for Acid Pit. This will pretty much be the case whether in a group or solo. The Acid Pit probably isn't needed in a group as hopefully there will be people with ranged attacks who can shoot it to death while trapped.
Suffocating Stones - arguably as he is capable of flying he wont fall into a fissure but even if he does then Emergency Force Sphere gets to be used for its apparently intended purpose! He has no way of destroying the Haunt but the adventure doesn't require you to, only to trigger them. As part of a group he may be protecting people from being crushed with EFS or Dimension Dooring them out.
Encounter 4:
Warned of what lies below by the ghost of Eldis Casimir heads further into the ruins. Assuming he is flying solo he has the following number of spell slots remaining:
7/6/4/3/3
Casimir flies towards the ancient structure looming out of the darkness. He and Mo'al spot each other at the same time and as he is flying the Columns are entirely irrelevant. Neither has much, if any, time to buff.
Initiative: 6 and 18
Mo'al 12
Casimir 27
Round 1:
Casimir strikes first. With +18 Knowledge: Religion he is going to ID her as a Cleric and avoid will or fort save spells. He opens with Persistent Aqueous Orb to try and control her options. The DC is 23 and she fails the initial save taking 10 non lethal damage but avoids becoming entangled.
Mo'al: Casts Flame Strike and then leaps into the citadel to get out of sight and away from the churning orb of water. Casimir fails his save and takes 27 damage.
Round 2:
Casimir: He is still 120' away and she has now dropped out of sight. He casts Greater Invisibility and flies forward 40'.
Mo'al: Buffs herself with Freedom of Movement in case the Orb comes into play.
Round 3:
Casimir: Double moves bringing him over the top of the citadel. He can see Mo'al but has run out of actions. She cannot yet see him although she may be able to smell him.
Mo'al: She knows he is nearby but cannot see him. She activates her aura of madness hoping to confuse him but he makes the save. The Caryatid Columns are incapable of doing anything.
Round 4:
Casimir: He directs the Orb at her with his move action but it is incapable of affecting her. Annoyed he tries to Baleful Polymorph her into a slug and she fails the save. She retains her own mind which may actually be worse. She is now a very angry slug capable of channelling and using her domain abilities but not much else.
Mo'al: The fight is effectively over for her now. She can channel at him but that is about it. She can't do enough damage to stop him even if he did stay in her channel area. He will remove her at his leisure after the adventure or she might end up swimming off somehow.
Remaining Spells:
7/6/4/2/1
Group Options:
If the group contains lots of people who cannot fly then he will probably look at dimension dooring the melee types into range of the Cleric. This has the added benefit of avoiding the columns. If they do try and get involved then their terrible saves pretty much guarantee they spend the fight in a pit or trapped in a water orb. Mo'al probably gets more buff rounds if he is approaching with a group so he may well be tasked with trying to disrupt her while other members of the group fight their way past the columns.
Encounter 5:
Casmir heals himself with his wand and heads out to the strange wooden structure above the lake. Assuming the Columns are still alive and move to interfere he traps them in an Aqueous Orb (they save on a 20) and rolls them out into the lake where they sink being unable to swim. As he lands next to the prisoners and begins to release them the Retriever emerges from its cave. He identifies it with a 42 learning pretty much anything he wants about it. Those eye rays are really dangerous, this could just come down to initiative!
Initiative: 6 13
Retriever 13
Casimir 22
Round 1
Casimir: Casts Greater Invisibility and flies into the air. Staying anywhere near melee with a huge spider monster looks like suicide.
Retriever: It cannot see its target, has no way of detecting invisible opponents and only has +18 perception. It rages in frustration and eats several archaeologists.
Round 2:
Casimir: Moves further away from the thing and casts Paragon Surge for Intensified Spells. He then starts to launch Intensified Snowballs at it hitting on a 1 (its touch AC is 8 ignoring dex). An average of 30 damage per round accounting for its fast healing means it lives for 6 rounds maybe. It could ready to make eye ray attacks if it can pinpoint him which seems doubtful. While it can certainly hear him casting spells that is a long way from beating a +32 stealth modifier to pinpoint, +42 if he stands still. It's best option is probably to retreat into the cave and try and ambush him as he frees the prisoners but with an effective Stealth of -5 it isn't managing that. It could just start to eat the prisoners which would be bad and would force Casimir into a different tactic, maybe Blinding it with Persistent Glitterdust to slow it down while he kills it with Snowballs.
Group Options:
If he is a group then he will probably be looking to blind it with Glitterdust while staying the hell away from it. This thing looks utterly lethal in melee with 5 natural attacks and grab and an eye ray. I expect a fair few level 1 spell slots on Liberating Command would be useful here.
So, that is how one lone sorcerer might manage the module. How do you do so with your favourite class?
| Larcifer |
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Hey this is cool ! Can you run Casimir through this at the lower tier to see how he does?
Also on your above run through, consider the following:
| andreww |
Hehe, that would be very annoying and likely mean he lost most if not all of the prisoners. He would probably grab the main target and dimension door out of there. Of course there is an argument that as the
Running it at the lower tier is probably not viable, he simply wont have enough variety in spell selection at, say, level 8. Some of the encounters remain much the same (number 1 particularly, it doesn't handle flying well) but the limitations in PFS mean he doesn't have animated minions or planar bound allies.
What I am looking at is how he does in the follow up module Fate of the Fiend.
| Larcifer |
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Yes! But that action to get Marianix karn and Benton Grone would be an epic story!!!! Looking forward to Casomir's next adventure!
| andreww |
OK, having had a crack at Fury of the Fiend I decided to see how things would go in Fate of the Fiend. This module very clearly shows some of the changes which have come with developing seasons, it is significantly more difficult although some of the encounters retain some key weaknesses (mostly the first). I am dubious about how successful Casimir would likely be on his own and although he does ultimately prevail here things are much dicier. I could see him having to delay quite a bit between different events.
For this run through I have also made a couple of amendments. I dropped Expanded Arcana to give him back Eschew Materials and I have changed some of his languages around to support potential summoning and to reflect the fact that this is the Year of the Demon!. He is very likely to pick up SMV next level.
Be warned,, this contains many many spoilers for the module. If you plan to play this avoid at all costs.
Casimir
Male Half-Elf (Varisian) Sorcerer (Seeker, Wildblooded) 10
N Medium humanoid (elf, human)
Init +9; Senses low-light vision; Perception +23
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 21, touch 13, flat-footed 19 (+4 armor, +3 shield, +2 Dex, +1 natural, +1 deflection)
hp 72 (10d6+30)
Fort +9, Ref +8, Will +12; +2 vs. enchantments
Immune sleep
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft., fly 40 ft. (average)
Sorcerer (Seeker, Wildblooded) Spells Known (CL 10th; concentration +22):
5th (4/day)—baleful polymorph (DC 23), overland flight
4th (7/day)—dimension door, elemental body i, emergency force sphere, fear (DC 22), greater invisibility
3rd (8/day)—aqueous orb (DC 23), dispel magic, fireball (DC 21), paragon surge, stinking cloud (DC 23), suggestion (DC 21)
2nd (8/day)—command undead (DC 20), create pit (DC 22), glitterdust (DC 22), invisibility, mirror image, pilfering hand, resist energy
1st (8/day)—charm person (DC 11), disguise self, grease (DC 21), identify, liberating command, mage armor, magic missile, protection from evil, shield, silent image (DC 19), snowball (DC 21)
0 (at will)—acid splash, arcane mark, daze (DC 18), detect magic, detect poison, light, mage hand, message, prestidigitation (DC 18)
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 7, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 26, Wis 11, Cha 7
Base Atk +5; CMB +3; CMD 16
Feats Additional Traits, Eschew Materials, Greater Spell Focus (conjuration), Improved Initiative, Persistent Spell, Spell Focus (conjuration)
Traits eyes and ears of the city, magical lineage (glitterdust), reactionary, student of philosophy
Skills Bluff +11 (+21 to deceive), Diplomacy +10 (+20 to convince), Disable Device +24, Escape Artist +12, Fly +9(14), Knowledge (arcana) +23 (+27 spells), Knowledge (dungeoneering) +9, Knowledge (engineering) +9, Knowledge (geography) +9, Knowledge (history) +9, Knowledge (local) +9, Knowledge (nature) +9, Knowledge (nobility) +9, Knowledge (planes) +21, Knowledge (religion) +18, Perception +23 (+28 to locate traps), Spellcraft +14 (+18 spells), Stealth +12; Racial Modifiers +2 Perception
Languages Abyssal, Celestial, Common, Draconic, Elven, Ignan, Infernal, Osiriani, Ancient, Terran, Aquan, Auran
Special Qualities arcane bolt, elf blood, mutated bloodlines (sage), seeker lore, trapfinding +5(7)
Gear potion of air bubble (2), potion of delay poison (2), potion of remove blindness/deafness, potion of touch of the sea (2), wand of infernal healing (50 charges), +2 mithral buckler, amulet of natural armor +1, belt of mighty constitution +2, cloak of resistance +2, eyes of the eagle, handy haversack, headband of vast intelligence +4, ioun stone (dusty rose prism, cracked), ioun stone (pale green prism (cracked, saves), page of spell knowledge (charm person), page of spell knowledge (magic missile), page of spell knowledge (shield), ring of protection +1, robe of arcane heritage, wayfinder, masterwork tool, masterwork tool, sorcerer's kit, spell component pouch, thieves' tools, masterwork
So, how does he down in the dark again, all on his own.
Encounter 1:
With a feeling of some trepidation our hero returns to the buried city of Rachikan and its infestation of Morlocks. Flying up the hidden staircase he enters the cathedral like caverns and begins to make his way to where he recalls the Hellknights made their camp. He spots the hiding Morlocks at the same time as they see him flying through the cavern. Initial encounter distance is 120' and they are very spread out. However they lack any form of ranged attack as do the ichor sharks.
Initiative: 7 4 6
Morlocks 15
Sharks 10
Casimir 15
Round 1:
Morlocks: Scavenge the area around them looking for material to throw at this invader
Casimir: Casts Invisibility and moves forward 40'
Sharks: Lurk, they do not yet know that anything is up
Round 2:
Morlocks: Howl in frustration and lament the general unfairness of life.
Casimir: Flies forward 80' placing himself floating well above the main group. At the moment he is inclined to simply bypass this encounter.
Sharks: Emerge to see what has their allies up in arms.
At the end of this round the second group of Morlocks arrive and launch themselves at the first group. In the circumstances this seem like an automatic success at the Sense Motive check, the two groups are clearly not allies.
Round 3:
Morlocks: Begin to engage the second group.
Casimir: Casts Persistent Suggestion at one of the sharks, "your morlock allies have betrayed you, kill them all". Being a chaotic evil outsider this doesn't seem out of character. He beats its 21 SR and it fails its save. He becomes visible.
Sharks: One shark begins to launch itself at its Morlock allies. The other growls and snaps at the flying magician it cannot reach while making gruesome threats with its telepathy.
Round 4:
Morlocks: They are very confused about why their shark is attacking them but cannot do much about it. Shark versus Morlock action very much favours the shark. The Morlocks need a 13 to hit assuming they are flanking and their damage output is low. The shark on the other hand pretty much kills a Morlock every turn.
Casimir: One shark is now engaged with Morlocks but the other is still free to act. He applies another Persistent Suggestion to the second shark, "your shark ally has betrayed you, kill him now!" Once again being a chaotic evil outsider this doesn't seem like it would be out of character. It is possible that these violate the "obviously harmful" clause of Suggestion in which case he needs a different approach. That probably means an Enervation or two followed by Baleful Polymorph or Paragon Surge into Confusion. Alternatively he simply suggests that they leave and do not return which has much the same effect. The Morlocks on their own are barely any threat.
Allowing suggestion to stand he beats SR and it fails its save.
Sharks: One launches itself at the other.
At this point the whole thing becomes a messy melee between NPC's which I don't intend to roll out. If one shark starts getting the upper hand he might help out the other with a snowball or two, mostly he wants to make sure one kills the other while the remaining one is vulnerable to being quickly finished off.
Overall this encounter suffers from the same problems as the first encounter in Fury of the Fiend. Entirely ground based enemies with no form of ranged attack. Also like that encounter it is much more complex if part of a group which cannot easily all fly. In that case he is probably focused on keeping the sharks blinded with glitterdust. DC22 persistent glitterdust has an 80% chance of success.
Remaining spell slots:
7/6/7/6/1
Encounter 2:
On the way to the jail he will quiz Bogipfen about what he is doing here, why he is helping him and the layout of the area. He will easily recruit him to help to seal the various entrances to Rachikan as part of his faction mission. Arriving at the jail he turns himself Invisible and floats towards the building. With an effective stealth of +32 versus their distracted Perception of +11 they have no chance of knowing he is there. He easily identifies them (+21 Knowledge Planes versus CR7) and is concerned by their numbers and the wide range of screw you SLA's they possess. He retreats well out of range and casts Protection from Evil to at least block their charm and suggestion spells.
This is actually a very difficult encounter for him given the number of enemies and their resistances. He cannot just Fireball the crap out of the room as he risks killing the people he is here to rescue. I considered Aqueous Orb which could catch four of them but their DR would negate the damage. They are immune to Stinking Cloud and trying to single target kill them with Snowball or Magic Missile would take more spell slots than he has. Suggestion could work but with 6 of them here it is probably not an effective option. It is not entirely clear how you enter the building area (which is actually the third floor) but a section of the western wall seems to be missing and I assume the building had windows at some point.
He decides on a somewhat dangerous plan. He Surges for confusion and moves closer then casting Greater Invisibility. Moving into position he casts Confusion on the two fiends in the western room. He beats their SR17 and both fail the DC22 save. Confusion screws them as one attacks the nearest creature while the other babbles incoherently. They then enter Confusion lock.
The noise of this will draw the other four out of the eastern room. Fights between chaotic evil outsiders are unlikely to be unusual so I doubt they will immediately assume something is amiss. This should let him hit the group with another Confusion catching the remaining four. He beats SR on all of them and needing a 16 only one of them saves. The three affected act normally, babble and attack nearest ally. Two more now probably enter confusion lock. The wholly unaffected Incubus, unable to see its attacker moves into the room in order to start finishing off prisoners.
At this point I pretty much assume the five confused Incubi are going to finish one another off and I don't have much interest in rolling out 8 or 9 rounds of NPC versus NPC combat. At the very least they probably leave each other so weakened they can be picked off without too much trouble. Casimir will follow the single free Incubus into the eastern room to stop him killing the prisoners. He will hit it with Suggestion to leave this place and never return, beating SR and it fails its save.
Obviously there is a fair amount of hand waving in this encounter. I suspect if it was actually played out things would not go so well. Confusion lock certainly works but the Incubi cannot overcome their own DR so may not actually kill each other. He may well be forced to instead sneak in with Invisibility and rescue Karn with Dimension Door. The Incubi would obviously be alerted at that point and on watch, possibly killing the Morlock. He might be able to get some of the Hellknights by opening a hole to the basement with a Surged Stone Shape. The fiends would certainly notice though. If assaulting the jail as part of a group then Persistent Glitterdust is working 80% of the time or a Fear spell is panicking them for 10 rounds about 50% of the time. Given its area of effect it is likely to hit quite a few.
Assuming he is successful he easily secures the aid of Agajprak (DC24 to move him to friendly with +20) and likewise he easily learns what he needs to know from Karn (DC18). He can make the Paralictor friendly without difficulty (DC22) and once he is friendly can convince him to help in the assault on the demons (DC drops to 22 to request dangerous aid).
Remaining spell slots:
6/5/5/3/1
Being low on higher level spell slots he decides to spend some time resting. The group moves off to a different part of the complex. The Incubus which left is likely to have informed its masters of the prison break. It may not have as Chatoic Evil demons are not known for their acceptance of failure by minions so it may well run off and find a deep dark hole to hide in but it isn't worth taking the risk.
Encounter 3:
Rested, refreshed and rebuffed he quizzes the Morlocks on the nature of the enemy they face. A 23 on Knowledge: Planes lets him ID the Kalavakus but only gets him a small amount of information. He gets their SLA's and begins to worry. At will telekinesis could be very bad. In preparation for the assault he casts several defensive spells. Protection from Evil will prevent dominate from landing, Mirror Image for general usefulness, Paragon Surge gaining Dismissal and just before the assault begins Greater Invisibility. Given the demons +24 perception even with the +10 stealth bonus I assume Casimir doesn't gain a surprise round.
Initiative: 10 4 2 9
Kalavakus 11
Golems 3
Morlocks 12
Casimir 19
Allies 10
Round 1:
Casimir: Seizing the initiative Casimir strikes first moving into range and casting Dismissal at one of the demons. He beats SR and it fails the DC23 will save.
Morlocks: Rush to engage his allies.
Kalavaku: It is perturbed by the removal of one of its allies but cannot see the spellcaster. It almost certainly hears him so has an idea of where he is but that doesn't allow it to target him. It casts Air Walk and moves towards where it heard the spellcaster.
Allies: Agajprak sends her Golem to intercept one of the enemy golems, Bogipfen sends his Morlocks to engage the enemy Morlocks, Karn grants her naturalist bonus against outsiders (it is not entirely clear what level she is so I assume somewhere between 5 and 10 granting +2AC, attacks and saves) and Primo Ambusta will direct Dismissal against the second Kalavaku. He beats SR and it fails the DC18 save.
Golems: One will fight the allied Golem while the other plows into some allies.
This fight is pretty much over at this point with the two main enemies driven from this plane. Left with just ground enemies all that is left is mop up. They got very lucky with the Dismissals, especially the Hellknights, but I wouldn't fancy the Kalavakus chances with its inability to see invisible. They could have retreated as soon as they realised they faced an invisible flying spellcaster but that would seem rather out of character.
In a group situation Casimir may well be doing something similar or could be spending his time controlling Golems with Aqueous Orbs or Create Pit. A Persistent Create Pit uses up a level 4 slot and a Stone Golem has a 1% chance to avoid it. Persistent Aqueous Orb is avoided by the Golems only 0.25% of the time but does take a level 5 slot and two are needed for them. He could skimp and use normal orbs which have a 95% chance of success.
Remaining spell slots:
6/6/6/5/2
Encounter 4:
Resting up after the battle Casimir will investigate the strange fortress. He easily identifies it as a construct and probably gets that it is a Behemoth Golem as well as noting its tracks. He is mildly amused by the Paralictors threat that he has two days following which he will be subject to the full force of Chelxian law given if it wasn't for him he would still be rotting in a hellhole prison being tortured by fiends. He locates the control panel with ease (DC18, Perception 23) and while he can operate it (DC25 Disable Device versus +24) at the moment he is reluctant to. Given what this is guarding he is tempted to do some checking first.
He steps outside of the Golem and Surges for a Secure Shelter and Locate Creature. He sets up his Shelter to give him some privacy and security and casts Locate Creature looking for Stone Golems. The spell will bring him back into the Behemoth Golem and up to the blank wall section. He will Surge again for Clairvoyance casting it to place the viewing sensor 20 yards beyond the wall which puts it in the middle of the Tomb. Fortunately the chamber is lit as his Darkvision does not work through the Clairvoyance. He identifies the Queen as a Lich and spots her many Golems which nearly gives him a heart attack. He certainly doesn't want to fight her and them together. She easily notices the sensor and begins to cast her own defensive spells in preparation for a conflict.
He retreats to his Shelter to ponder his next move and allow her defensive spells to expire. He contemplates obtaining further information with Contact Other Plane but the chance of Int damage is too high if he seeks more reliable answers. He cannot afford to lose all spellcasting ability! He beds down for the night to think on the problem.
The next day he renews his own buff spells and layers a number of additional protections. Shield, Protection from Evil, Mirror Image (he gets 6), Invisibility, Resist Energy (Fire), Resist Energy (Electricity), Resist Energy (Cold) and Paragon Surge for Spell Focus: Necromancy. All of them last for the next ten minutes and they increase his AC by 2-3. With them in place he activates the Golem aligning the door with the passageway. Stepping into the Tomb with a sense of impending doom he moves to confront the Lich which smiles as he approaches, she can clearly see him!
Helsprex offers him her deal and he would almost certainly accept. He almost certainly fails the Sense Motive to realise she will give up more and is unlikely to push the issue instead leaving her free to go and assuming control of the Golems. However that is very dull so let us see what might happen if things get ugly.
Starting Spell Slots:
5/2/6/6/3
Initiative: 19 20 4
Lich 23
Golems 19
Casimir 14
Well, that could have gone better.
Round 1:
Lich: Casimir is currently invisible and flying out of range of her Golems. She has a couple of options, unleash direct damage hell with maximised fireball and quickened magic missile, dispel magic his flight or invisibility, conceal herself with Cloudkill or nail him with Suggestion. She starts off by stopping suppressing her aura to try and impose Skhaken on him and he fails the save. I assume she has been able to use the time they spend negotiating to identify his buff spells. Recognising a powerful Resist Fire and Cold effect along with Shield means most of her direct damage is not going to be very effective (he has Resist 20). Protection from Evil will prevent Suggestion from taking hold and given the number of spells he has and his temerity in entering alone Circle of Death is unlikely. She casts a targeted dispel magic looking to bring down his Overland Flight but fails the caster level check completely.
Golems: Unable to perceive a target they remain motionless.
Casimir: Shaken and worried about what more she might be able to do he launches a Persistent Command Undead at her. With Spell Focus from Paragon Surge the DC is 21. Her will save is +13 so his chances of success are not great. She makes the save and he becomes visible.
Round 2:
Lich: Her options largely remain the same. She again tries to bring him down to the ground with Dispel Magic which succeeds! and he floats to the ground.
Golems: Each charges him, as soon as they do so he casts Emergency Force Sphere. The Golems batter at the globe inflicting on average no damage through its 20 hardness.
Casimir: Safe within his bubble for now he casts Greater Invisibility
Round 3:
Lich: Concerned about the potential loss of free will she moves towards the exit and casts Cloudkill surrounding her
Golems: Batter futilely on the sphere
Casimir: Casts Elemental Body I turning into a small earth elemental. He sinks into the floor and earth glides out past the Cloudkill effect popping up at the far edge.
Round 4:
Lich: Unable to see her enemy she moves towards the exit out of the Cloudkill. She still cannot quite leave the Tomb as the forbiddance keeps her here for another couple of rounds but she wants to be ready to go as soon as she can. She will come across him as she emerges from the Cloudkill. She lunges at him hoping to paralyze him with her touch but misses. As she can see him she would in any event of had to contend with the Mirror Image. She calls for her golems.
Golems: Plod through the Cloudkill but with no target to smash they do nothing.
Casimir: 5' steps away from the Lich and casts another Persistent Command Undead at her and this time she fails. He asks her very kindly to cease trying to kill him and have her golems stand down. She agrees to this entirely reasonable request given they are now on the very best of terms. Applying some diplomacy he gets her to agree to loan him her Golems on an extended, even permanent basis, and convinces her to accompany him to meet the scholars at the Grand Lodge in Absalom who would be most certainly thrilled to learn what she can tell them of her era. As she is now friendly the DC to seek lengthy or complicated aid is only 20. With a starting diplomacy of +20 he easily convinces her. He Paragon Surges for a Teleport and brings them both to the Grand Lodge making her Aram Zeys problem. No doubt he will go apoplectic but the Lodge should have sufficient resources to manage an otherwise pliant Lich Queen. He will then return to the Tomb and recover the Golems bringing them to the ship for transport using the teleport plinth. On the way out he completes his faction mission as he has easily met the various checks to get everyone on side and claims the funky Cheliax boon.
This is an interesting encounter although I would have liked to see the queen specifically statted out with a unique set of feats, spells known and perhaps wizard school abilities. The default Lich spell list is a bit bare of some important stuff, in particular flight and invisibility. If facing this encounter in a group Casimir is probably on Golem control duty while the melee close and try and prevent her from casting. As she cannot fly that seems entirely possible. With a bit of careful timing it should be possible to get both Golems with one Create Pit. Hopefully the group also have a Cleric or Oracle with Remove Paralysis in the event of successful touch attacks.
Finally a quick note on the Lich Queen's tactics. She could have opened up with Maximised Fireball and followed up with another the following round and then Cone of Cold. However as things stand her Golems were completely useless unless she can ground him. A save against maximised Fireball would do 10 damage, a fail would do 40. Subsequent spells would do on average 15 damage on a fail. It wasn't a winning proposition. She could have tried to dispel the Resist Fire but being level 2 it is very easy to reapply which she would realise. Spectral Hand for Vampiric Touch was an option but that is a fairly pathetic 5d6 damage.
Something like Wall of Ice would be great against a group to isolate people with a Golem although the room is very large and it may be more of an inconvenience more than anything else.
| Larcifer |
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Oh Cassimir.... I need to talk with your GM about putting those softballs directly across the plate, here is how I see things going down...
from here on, even though the battle vs the kalvakas should be harder, I have no doubt the invincible Cassimir can win it. On to the Lich. She sees his eagerness to parlay and she does so dragging it on to outlast the remaining duration on the modified forbiddance spell. After that once she feels the battle is futile (something the genius does quickly) she does the only thing that she can to hurt Casomir, she dimension doors away and ultimately teleprts away taking the ivory baton with her. Casomir's mission, while destructive is an utter failure in terms of missions accomplished.Bravo, you liberated the city for the remaining morlocks...
....
BTW Karn's level is 10 its in there.
| andreww |
To be fair the remaining Incubi don't actually know what is going on until they come out to have a look. I don't think one round to hit them is exactly soft balling anything. Only one of them survives the second confusion volley. Certainly this encounter could go horribly south as I note in the description.
As for the end boss I am not so sure she would be so ready to flee facing a single mortal and one of those desperately crippled (compared to the true masters of arcane magic Wizards) sorcerers. Even in her humbled state he is still only one man. If she does try and escape with the "item" then she needs to go and grab it as it is on a shelf. That suggests it has value too her and so he may grab it back with Pilfering Hand (+18 versus CMD of 27)
If she does flee with the "item" that is certainly not the end of things. A Paragon Surge for the Apparent Master spell gets him control over a golem for 10 hours although I am honestly entirely sure it is PFS legal given it is from an old 3.5 source. He can cast four of these in a row so it takes three days to move them all.
If not then he can turn to the local Morlocks. Bogipfen is still alive and he can probably ensure his aid by enslaving the other chieftain types with dominate and charm. Together they are strong enough to haul out the golems. If they refuse he could slaughter them and raise them as Zombies but he would need to go and grab some onyx first.
If he can find a sufficiently large piece of statuary nearby then he might be able to do it with Possess Object. If need be he could make his own with stone shape although it would be rather crude. He could gain a +5 bonus to the craft check with crafters fortune at the same time. A huge animated object has a strength of 30 and augmented with an ant haul has a light load of nearly 6500lbs.
One way or another he can get the Golems to the exit. It may take him a while and he may have to go and shout at the captain to come back but he probably manages it.
| Larcifer |
Fair enough, but as the authour of these scenarios:
Any rate I really enjoyed reading these and actually am flattered at the time you did to perform this exercise. I definatley will be more aware of flying, invisible nuclear arsenals :)
The point I am trying to make in my counter posts is this: If the enemies have nothing in front of them to distract or become an outlet for their rage, they take it out on their nearby victims. Frontline fighters, rogues, and paladins are great at meeting these threats head on to protect the innocent. I once soloed tomb of horrors in a simililar fashion as you describe above. I think the real point here is that high level arcane spellcasters are way too Overpowered when compared to their melee cohorts.
Thanks for doing this, I enjoyed it a lot.
Larry Wilhelm
PS I urge you to do this at the lower tier to appreciate your fellow party members.
| Are |
I think the real point here is that high level arcane spellcasters are way too Overpowered when compared to their melee cohorts.
Especially when they have paragon surge, and can use it to gain "Expanded Arcana" with different spells each time :)
I think this exercise would be even more interesting if that particular spell was omitted from Casimir's spell list, even though it's certainly interesting as it is as well.
| davidvs |
Running it at the lower tier is probably not viable...
Might it work with a level eight version of Foxisyu along?
At eighth level the bardic performances Dance of the Dead and Inspire Greatness are missing, but Foxisyu still provides an awful lot of Sorcerer buffing. Including wealth that could be used for a few scrolls of overland flight.
| andreww |
Hi Lancifer,
Thanks very much for your comments, it is rather gratifying to have the author of these scenarios posting here.
It is an interesting set up that some characters are potentially more capable when they are operating on their own than in a group. Casimir is only as successful as he is because of the powerful combination of long duration flight and easy access to invisibility. When you add in a group he has to change his tactics significantly. He simply cannot afford for example to spend 4 or 5 rounds demolishing a stone golem with snowball from range as it is doing about 40-50 damage per round to most relatively low AC two handed melee front liner types. He simply has to switch to control at that point if only to minimise the incoming damage. On the plus side it does give other team members a chance to shine.
I am pretty much certain that he cannot achieve this at a lower level with anything like the same sort of consistency. The introduction of overland flight at level 10 is simply to much of a game changer. Without it he is starting most encounters not flying, having to buff in combat and risking not getting off the ground before he is engaged and possibly grappled by something hideous like a stone golem or an acidic land shark. His CMD, like most arcane casters, is so low he is pretty much automatically subject to any manouver. It would not be impossible but I would suspect an unacceptably high failure rate leading to unavoidable death at some point. Even with Foxisyu I dont think it is viable. I am not a fan of relying on scrolls of Overland Flight. They are over 1100gp each and a single dispel can utterly ruin your day.
If Paragon Surge were removed (and honestly if nothing else the various tests I have done suggest it is grossly overpowered) then things do change significantly. At that point he has to look very carefully at his spel list to include some divinations and probably has to sacrifice some gear on a few more pages of spell knowledge and a Mnemonic Vestment and some scrolls.
In terms of the encounters I think they could have benefitted from taking some of Painlords guide to what Society members should be capable of. Some form of ranged attack would change things quite a lot, even some simple thrown javelins or something. Similarly in the major encounters I really think it is important for someone to be able to detect invisible enemies. It doesnt have to be everything but something with scent, blindsense, see invisibility or true seeing would change the set up considerably. Swapping out one of the enemies in encounters 2 and 3 for a couple of Babau would make a world of difference.
Also a note on encounter two. How it is approached will vary significantly depending on the layout of the area. Unfortunately the map is a little light on detail. If he can reach the eastern chamber and target the enemies there first he has a much better chance of taking out all of them with confusion. If he can get them confusion locked then he could also just look at rescuing the prisoners and escaping although the durations make that tricky. I do have some questions about the layout and a few other issues but I will post them in the GM thread.
Finally I jsut want to end by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed both modules. They are open, varied and interesting with an excellent mix of exploration, intrigue, combat and stealth possibilities which give everyone the chance to shine. I would recommend both of them to anyone at all. I particularly like the Chelaxian boon on Fate which is marvellously naughty.
CanisDirus
Contributor
|
I just want to say bravo to both of you for the back-and-forth. I'm preparing to run Fate of the Fiend (after I re-run Fingerprints and Fury) soon, and this has been really insightful into my prep!
| Anzyr |
I think the real point here is that high level arcane spellcasters are way too Overpowered when compared to their melee cohorts.
Nope, only people with agendas believe that. (Sorry I couldn't resist!)
But yes, caster *are* overpowered compared to the martial brethren, please bear word of this to others so that martials can receive some well deserved buffs.
|
CanisDirus
Contributor
|
With the new FAQ on Paragon Surge, I wonder if Casimir would still be able to take this on.
| andreww |
I strongly suspect it is still possible for him to solo a 7-11 even with the PFS limitations. He has gone through a few revisions since I posted these which have added to his flexibility significantly. I may pitch him against a different 7-11 scenario. Do you have any you would prefer to see?
If I ran him as a home game character I am certain he could as he would have the benefit of crafting his gear for a significant increase in available wealth and he would have undead and planar bound minions which are both still available via Paragon Surge.
| Anzyr |
Ya, the rules andreww is using are really holding him back. He's basically doing the run with weighted training gear, since he's not even abusing minions/create wondrous item. Properly utilized CWI is easily a 70% WBL increase for a caster class.
| andreww |
OK, I am looking at making another run with an updated Casimir. With the loss of unlimited free spell access from Paragon Surge Casimir the "rogue" changes to Casimir the "priest". He drops the Seeker archetype and instead joins the ranks of Razimir's faithful. He can no longer disarm magical traps without using a spell but he does gain access to an enormous list of divine spells.
He retains the limitations of PFS membership (no crafting mainly) but as he is using their rules I also treat him like a PFS character. This gives him access to three Chronicle boons which have any real impact:
1. A +2 profane bonus to his Intelligence (pretty much equivalent to planar binding a succubus which he would otherwise be doing anyway)
2. A bonus feat. He grabs Greater Spell Penetration.
3. A +2 profane bonus to his Fortitude save
I also allow him to buy some gear using Prestige Points. At level 11 he would have gone through 30 adventures. Each is worth up to 2 prestige each giving him probably somewhere between 40 and 60 prestige. He can spend 2 to buy a single item worth up to 750gp. You can also use them to buy spell access. He has spent 6 on atonements following gaining the boons listed above (Season 4 allowed you to be very naughty in exchange for extra power). He has spent 24 or so on wands and scrolls leaving him plenty for a body recovery and raise should the worst happen. They are marked with an *
Note that his stat block includes the effect of a number of long duration buff spells. Generally he will start every day with Overland Flight (11 hours), Heroism (110 minutes), Magic Vestment (20 hours), Delay Poison (15 hours), Mage Armour (11 hours), Barkskin (+5AC, 150 minutes), and Ant Haul (24 hours). These cost him a 1st, 2nd, 3x3rd, 4th and 5th level spell slot. If entering a particularly dangerous area he will normally add Mirror Image and Shield of Faith for an extra 5 points of AC. With Heroism running he can activate a CL20 divine scroll using UMD with a 1. Without it he can still automatically activate a CL18 scroll with a 1.
Half-Elf Sorcerer (Razmiran Priest, Wildblooded) 11
LN Medium humanoid (elf, human)
Init +9; Senses low-light vision; Perception +25
--------------------
Defence
--------------------
AC 27, touch 12, flat-footed 25 (+4 armour, +6 shield, +2 Dex, +5 natural)
hp 79 (11d6+33)
Fort +14, Ref +11, Will +13; +2 vs. enchantments
Immune sleep
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft., fly 40 ft. (average)
Sorcerer (Razmiran Priest, Wildblooded) Spells Known (CL 11th; concentration +21):
5th (6/day)—baleful polymorph (DC 25), hungry pit (DC 27), overland flight
4th (8/day)—arcane eye, charm monster (DC 24), confusion (DC 24), dimension door, dragon's breath (DC 24), elemental body i, emergency force sphere, greater invisibility
3rd (8/day)—aqueous orb (DC 25), dispel magic, fireball (DC 23), heroism, paragon surge, remove disease, stinking cloud (DC 25), suggestion (DC 23)
2nd (9/day)—aid, aram zey’s focus, command undead (DC 22), glitterdust (DC 24), invisibility, mirror image, pilfering hand, see invisibility
1st (9/day)—air bubble, charm person (DC 21), disguise self, feather fall, grease, hydraulic push, liberating command, mage armour, magic missile, protection from evil, shield, silent image (DC 21), snowball (DC 23), true strike, unseen servant
0 (at will)—detect magic, detect poison, ghost sound (DC 20), light, mage hand, mending, message, prestidigitation, ray of frost
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 7, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 30, Wis 11, Cha 7
Base Atk +5; CMB +5; CMD 15
Feats Additional Traits, Expanded Arcana (2xlevel 4), False Focus, Greater Spell Focus (conjuration), Greater Spell Penetration, Improved Initiative, Persistent Spell, Skill Focus (Use Magic Device), Spell Focus (conjuration), Spell Penetration
Traits elven reflexes, student of philosophy, underbridge dweller (magnimar), pragmatic activator
Skills Appraise +12, Bluff +14/26 to deceive, Diplomacy +13/25 to influence, Disable Device +21, Escape Artist +21, Fly +14, Knowledge (arcana) +28, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +13, Knowledge (engineering) +13, Knowledge (geography) +13, Knowledge (history) +13, Knowledge (local) +13, Knowledge (nature) +13, Knowledge (nobility) +13, Knowledge (planes) +26, Knowledge (religion) +26, Linguistics +13, Perception +25, Sense Motive +13, Spellcraft +18, Stealth +15, Use Magic Device +34 (39 for divine spell completion/trigger)
Languages Abyssal, Aquan, Auran, Common, Celestial, Daemonic, Draconic, Elven, Giant, Ignan, Infernal, Terran
SQ arcane bolt, elf blood, false piety, metamagic adept (3/day), mutated bloodlines (sage), razmiran channel
Gear: mithral buckler, belt of mighty constitution +2, cloak of resistance +3, eyes of the eagle, handy haversack, headband of vast intelligence +6, cracked dusty rose prism ioun stone, cracked pale green prism ioun stone (saves), sleeves of many garments, vest of escape, 100gp gold holy symbol (Razimir), masterwork tool (diplomacy, signet ring), masterwork tool (perception, eye glasses), masterwork tool (UMD, scroll reader), thieves' tools, masterwork, wand of infernal healing*
Pages of spell knowledge: air bubble, disguise self, feather fall, hydraulic push, liberating command, mage armour, shield, true strike
Divine Scrolls:
Level o: Create Water, Stabilise
Level 1: Cure Light Wounds (CL5), Ant Haul (CL12), Protection from Chaos, Good, Law, Comprehend Languages, Obscuring Mist, Endure Elements, Shield of Faith (CL18), Touch of the Sea, Remove Fear, Remove Sickness, Speak with Animals, Bless Weapon
Level 2: Cure Moderate Wounds, Align Weapon, Barkskin (CL15)*, Desecrate, Remove Paralysis, Lesser Restoration, Find Traps (CL15)*, Delay Poison (CL15)*, Gust of Wind, Resist Energy (CL15)*
Level 3: Create Food and Water, Daylight, Invisibility Purge, Stone Shape, Magic Circle versus Good, Magic Circle versus Evil, Magic Vestment (CL20), Remove Blindness/Deafness, Wind Wall, Speak with Dead, Speak with Plants, Dominate Animal
Level 4: Death Ward*, Dimensional Anchor*, Freedom of Movement*, Restoration (100gp component), Tongues*, Command Plants*, Summon Monster IV*, Divination*
Paragon Surge still allows him to gain 1 or 2 free spells per day so he can indulge in Lesser Planar Binding or undead animation if he wishes. For this test he will be bringing along some animated bloody skeletons. He could pick up a CL20 scroll of animate dead and be carting around 80HD worth but I decided that would be a bit too cheesy. He is however animating them in a desecrated area giving them extra HP. He has 3 skeletons, a pair of Frost Giants (14hd each) and a Dire Tiger (14HD). These cost him 1050gp to animate and as bloody skeletons are rather difficult to permanently remove for most monsters. He has also Lesser Planar Bound a Hound Archon purely to act as a bodyguard, watchdog and messenger. It is not required to enter combat and will largely sit in the background.
Str 29, Dex 11, Con --, Int -- , Wis 10, Cha 14
Initiative +4, Perception +0
Fast Healing 7, Deathless, Channel Resistance +4
Speed 40
AC: 16, touch 10, flatfooted 16 (+4 armour +1 dex, -1 size, +2 natural)
DR5/Bludgeoning, Immune to Cold
HD 132 hp (14d8+42)
Fort +4, Ref +4, Will +9
BaB: +10, CMB 20, CMD 30
Greataxe: +19/14, 3d6+13
2 Claws: +19, 1d6+9
Dire Tiger Bloody Skeleton (Large Undead)
Str 27, Dex 17, Con --, Int -- , Wis 10, Cha 14
Initiative +4, Perception +0
Fast Healing 7, Deathless, Channel Resistance +4
Speed 40
AC: 13, touch 12, flatfooted 11 (+1 dex, -1 size, +2 natural)
DR5/Bludgeoning, Immune to Cold
HD 132 hp (14d8+42)
Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +9
BaB: +10, CMB 19, CMD 32
Bite: +18, 2d6+8
2 Claws: +18, 2d4+8
I shall be starting with part 1 of the Echoes of the Everwar series and should post the results some time tomorrow.
| andreww |
Echoes of the Everwar 1
Having received his orders Casimir makes his way north towards Skull Hill to locate the missing pathfinder agent and recover the ensorcelled ring. Dragging along his undead minions may make for some interesting encounters on the way although he can bypass some of them with spells like Dimension Door or a surged Teleport or simply by negotiating his way past with his +25 Diplomacy. He would mostly stay off the beaten track. In any event the module has the group starting out on a ridge overlooking the motte and bailey fort in the valley below. It is very appparent that the place has been attacked, the main gates are wrenched off their hinges and the walls are scorched. The tower has taken some quite substantial damage and there is no sign of life. Perturbed Casimir decides to investigate.
He could of course just go blundering in like some sort of idiot but he isn't an idiot. Instead he directs his minions into cover and settles down to explore like only a spellcaster can. Ten minutes later a small scrying sensor pops into existence near the broken gates and his Arcane Eye slips inside to have a look around. As a Scrying spell Arcane Eye can be detected with a DC24 Perception check. It lasts for the next 11 minutes and travels at between 10' and 30' per round. Outside he will set it to 30', inside buildings he will set it to 10' to pay closer attention. Given the duration he can probably explore the entire place with one casting but just to be sure he explores the bailey with the first and uses a second for the tower.
WARNING: BEYOND THIS POINT ARE MANY SPOILERS FOR THE MODULE. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Directing his eye into the fort he first easily detects the trap rigged on the gate (DC25, he is taking 10 for 35). He will be flying when he enters so doesnt concern himself with it but notes it as a posible tactical option. He then sends it scooting through the two low buildings at the entrance. The barracks are empty save for signs of an armed struggle with blood spattering the walls. All is clearly not well. Next he directs it into the boarded up inn finding the two morose orc barbarians. With +5 Perception they need a 19 to spot the spying and they fail. Curious about why they are there Casimir leaves them for now and explores the buildings and craters to the east finding nothing of interest. Heading northwards he enters the cornfields and will bump into the skeletal champions after not very long. The four of them have a Perception of +7 so need a 17 to notice the spying. They fail although it dubious that they could really do anything if they had noticed. They have no way of knowing what sort of spell was being employed. Exploring the barn and pasture he finds more signs of violence but nothing of further interest.
He places the second eye on the road to the gate and sends it flying forwards. Again he easily spots the gate trap (DC25) and directs the eye into the tower. He easily spots the skeletal champions lurking in the main hall (DC15) and with +7 perception they need an 17 to spot him. They fail. He finds the armoury and murder holes and then floats upstairs. He finds Krug in the kitchen but with his Perception of +2 he cannot spot the scrying sensor. Heading upstairs he finds another two skeletal champions which also need a 17 to spot him. They also fail. Upstairs he also finds the body of Heralt (DC12). Having completed his exploration of the tower he directs the eye outside to float into the crater. Here he finds the entrance to the cave below. The Moonflowers have +10 so only need a 14 and two notice they are being spied upon. Unfortunately for them there isnt much they can do about it as they have no SLA's at all and arguably it looks like they are actually trappped in their cave. I assume that the plants will warn Krug that enemies may be nearby and that he should be ready for them. I assume this will make it not possible for him to be reasoned with and remove that option from his encounter. He casts Mage Armour, Shield and False Life on himself just in case. Technically they have no way of doing so, their write up only gives them telepathy with other Moonflowers but I stretch things a bit to allow it.
Regardless their presence gives Casimir cause for concern, giant plant mutants from outer space are not a good sign. He does notice the passageway out of the cave but as he directs the eye there he can no longer see as it is pitch black. Annoyed he casts Paragon Surge for Darkvision and False Life and casts both. Able to see now he finishes exploring the cave finding the sarcophagus in which he suspects the ring might be found. At this point he could potentially complete the entire adventuure withot a single encounter. He has discovered the whereabouts of Heralt and he can easily retrieve the ring by Dimension Dooring into the save with the Hound Archon, taking 20 on the check to open the sarcophagus (or Stone Shaping it) and recovering the contents. The passageway to reach the cave is actually too small for the Moonflowers to navigate as huge monsters, even with squeezing. Instead I decide he wants to clear out the place, maybe the Society would like their own secret forward base in Belzken.
As he has explored Casimir has also had the chance to make Knowledge checks to identify the enemies. I dont bother with the Orc Barbarians but give him one for the various undead skeletons, one for Kurg and one for the plants. He gets 33, 39 and 29 for Religion, Local and Nature. He easily identiifies all of his enemies. The skeletons dont have anything especially fancy from a knowledge check although he does recognise them as intelligent champion undead. He recognises Kurg as a sorcerer and the plants as mutants monsters from outer space. Given they are huge sized monsters with massive tendrils he has no intention of getting anywhere near melee with them. He also gets their immunity to electricity, resistance to cold and vulnerability to fire. The cold/electricity thing is odd but the fire vulnerability might be expected, they are after all plants.
Remaining Spell Slots:
8/7/2/5/5
The Fort
Casting Invisibility and Shield of Faith on himself Casimir directs his giants to close on the fort but leaves them lurking outside the gates pressed up against the pallisade. The cat is left in the bushes for now. The skeletons in the corn fields cannot see anything (although he can now see them flying high in the air). Moving back to the gate he casts Silent Image creating an illusion of a small group of orcs sneaking out from behind a building and past the corn field. He stops it at the row the skeletons are at and makes them appear to jump at seeing the skeletons and then flee towards the gate. The skeletons rage and pursue their prey but as yet have not interacted with the illusion so receive no save. Casimir leads them directly into the trap on the entrance gate which the skeletons dont know about and then has his minions attack.
Trap: +20 melee for 10d6 damage, the trap hits three of them for 33 dammage. Number two is saved by trap sense! I assume it is bludgeoning damage given it is in effect a building falling on them. I give Casimir a surprise round although I dont allow the minions to attack as that would put them in the trap area.
Initiative: 1 12 14 2
Casimir 10.9
FGiants 16
Cat 21
Skeletons 10.2
Surprise Round:
Casimir: Moving to hover above his minions he hits all of the skeletons with a Dragons Breath engulfing them in a cloud of acid. DC24 for 11d6 acid damage. Here we first encounter the problem of undead barbarians. Undead are immune to morale effects, all of the effects of rage are morale boosts but their stat blocks clearly assume they work. I decide to treat them as special undead who can actually use their class abilities. With superstition they have +12 reflex saves which may be an issue. One and three save taking 21 damage but two and four take 42. Four crumbles into dust.
Round 1:
Cat: Waits for orders
Giants: Wait for orders
Casimir: Orders the giants to attack and delays to see what is left.
Giants: They 5' step bringing the skeletons into reach and full attack. Each choooses a target at random. They pick Three. For giant 1 both blows connect, the first destroys number 3 and he switches the second to number one which also destroys it. Giant two left with only one enemy targets both of his blows at it hitting twice and destroying it.
With the battle over in short time Casimir directs his minions back out of sight. The orcs hiding in the Inn certainly hear the trap go off and probably see him flying around outside. Recognising that they cannot reach a flying enemy very effectively (they only have javelins) for now they do nothing. The skeletons in the upper level of the tower will see what has happened and move down to the main hall to warn their compatriots there.
Remaining Spell Slots:
7/5/2/4/5
Diplomacy!
Having removed the skeletons infesting the fields Casimir decides to try and talk to the Orcs hiding out in the Inn. He descends to ground level and calls out to them. They do not answer. He moves closer to the Inn but they still dont reply hoping he will come closer. When he gets within 40' they rage and boot open the door to attack. Both sides know the other is there, both suspect the other of being willing to do violence. No-one gets a surprise round.
Initiative: 12 14 11
Casimir 21
Barb 1 16
Barb 2 11
Round 1:
Casimir: He really doesnt want to have to fight them. He casts Persistent Suggestion at the first suggesting that they sit down and talk things through as they are both on the same side. DC23 forcing two saves against a will save of 10 with superstiton and he fails.
Barb 1: Subject to the Suggestion he stops raging and punches his mate in the arm, "hey, this pointy ears is OK, why dont we talk?"
Barb 2: not interested in talking he charges and attacks with his falchion agaisnt Casimirs current AC of 32. He would hit dealing 19 damage but Casimir blocks him with an Emergency Force Sphere.
Round 2:
Casimir: Still not wanting to fight them Casimir uses his time inside the sphere (it lasts 11 rounds) to try and talk down the barbarian. Diplomacy takes a minute, the sphere has hardness 20 and 110hp. The orc can vital strike it for a couple of points of damage per round. Given he hasnt actually taken any offensive action against them and has destroyed some of the skeletons I give him a chance at a Diplomacy check with an ad hoc +5 DC and based on the hostile stage. That makes the DC28 and I dont allow taking 10 given it is mid combat (even though he is not actually threatened at the moment, the barbarian cannot reach him). With +25 he passes calming the barbarian and shifting him to indifferent. He sits down with them and gets them to tell him their story. He recommends that they get out of there asap now that the skeletons are gone from the fields and wishes them the best of luck.
Remaining Spell Slots:
7/5/2/3/4
What is that smell?
Having learned of Kurg and the strange condition afflicting him from the orcs he decides to pay him a visit. As the skeletons are alerted I decide they have moved about a bit. There are four ragers in the tower and Kurg. I keep two in the main entrance, with one covering the murder holes so it can give the alert and two relocate to the food stores opposite the kitchen so they can ambush anyone coming upstairs.
Casimir moves his three undead minions up to the keep, disabling the trapped entrance with ease (DC20). He then casts Invisibility and Freedom of Movement on himself and flies up to the partially ruined tower entering through the demolished wall into the ruined chamber on Kurgs level. He stealths around towards the kitchen and with an effective stealth of +35 neither the skeletons (+7) or Kurg (+2) have any chance of hearing him. Opening doors of course presents a problem and the skeletons upstairs will hear the sound of the chamber door opening. They prepare to leap out at the first sign of Casimir and do so just as he opens the door to the kitchen. I give them a surprise round but not Kurg as he is largely oblivious to everything. I roll initiative for the skeletons downstairs (3 and 4) as they will be able to act on round 2 having been alerted.
Initiative: 16 4 15 10 8 14
Casimir 25
Kurg 6
Skele 1 23
Skele 2 18
Skele 3 16
Skele 4 14
Surprise Round:
Skele 1: Bursts out of the store room to find no-one there, assumes there may be someone invisible in the doorway (the door just opened) and tries to grapple anyone there. It doesnt have improved grapple but Casimir has never wielded a weapon in anger in his life so doesnt take the opportunity attack. With a +16CMB while raging it only needs a 1 but does have a 50% miss chance which causes it to miss.
Skele 2: Will take the exact same tactic, if they can grapple an invisible spellcaster they can tear him apart with their claws. Unfortunately they do not know about the Freedom of Movement. He hits but learns his target cannot be grabbed. Oh well, so much for that plan.
Round 1:
Casimir: Flies into the kitchen away from them. He doesnt provoke as he is currently invisible and they cannot therefore take opportunity attacks against him. He lurks up near the ceiling but I assume the rooms are 10' high so he cannot escape melee reach inside here. He casts Hungry Pit catching both of them. The DC is 27 versus their +11 reflex saves. They both save and end up inside the room.
Skele 1: The cauldrons are between Casimir and the skeletons so he cannot charge. He can however reach quite easily with his movement and takes a swing with his claws (these have no weapons). He threatens but fails to crit. He deals 15 damage getting rid of the false life temporary HP.
Skele 2: Copies skele 1, as Casimir is flying they cannot flank. He misses.
Kurg: Moves away from the melee. his tactics suggest he drops Ice Storm or Fear but he can see Fear is a bad idea as Casimir is clearly a caster and Ice Storm will hit his allies. He considers trying to Blind Casimir instead but ends up going with Ice Storm, the undead are immune to the cold damage at least. He deals 9 bludgeoning and 7 cold.
Round 2:
Casimir: Things are not looking ideal. He really needs to deal with the Orc spellcaster. He defensively casts Aqueous Orb, DC25 reflex against his +5 and he fails both. The defensive casting is automatic (DC21 versus +21 concentration). The kitchen is only 35'x15' so he sweeps the orb across the room into the two skeletons hoping to catch them as well. With +11 reflex they fail all of the DC25 saves and find themselves out of reach of Casimir and trapped.
Skele 1: Will attempt to escape and succeeds and move back to melee and attack. He threatens but doesnt crit dealing 16 damage.
Skele 2: Fails to escape the orb due to the -4 dex from entangled.
Skele 3: Rages and double moves into the room to be confronted by the Orb and a flying magician.
Skele 4: Rages and double moves into the room. It is getting crowded in here.
Kurg: Attempts to escape but fails. Tries to cast Lightning Bolt to avoid hitting the Skeletons but must make two DC18 concentration checks for being entangled and under water. He has +13 and passes both. Casimir saves taking 17 damage bringing him to 30hp, that's less than half!
Round 3:
Casimir: Things are looking dangerous trapped in a small room with multiple undead barbarians and a sorcerer. He uses his move action to sweep the Orb across the enemies and into the Hungry Pit. He can hit all of them and just has enough movement to get them to the pit. They get no save to avoid the Pit if they are trapped in the Orb. Only number one is caught but he, Kurg and Skele 2 go tumbling into the Hungry Pit. They take 28 damage or 27 for the skeletons with their DR. He then uses a standard action to cast Greater Invisibility and 5'steps to one side to make it harder for the two remaining skeletons to find him.
Skele1: Now it has a problem. Escaping from the Orb places it in an adjacent square but it is fitting neatly into the pit so there is no adjacent square that is not effectively the orb. I decide that if it does get out it eends up clinging to the side of the pit and can then attempt to climb out. It fails and will take more pit damage on Casimirs turn.
Skele 2: Escapes the orb and starts to climb. It has 50' to go and I deny it the climbing in a corner modifier on turn one due to the orb being in the way. Its base speed is 40' making its normal climbing speed 10'. His climb skill is +12 and he strength surges for an extra +9. As a skeleton he is immune to fatigue and can surge every round if need be. He makes the check and clears the orb which will allow him the +5 brace bonus next turn. Unfortunately when he takes damage he will have to make another check or fall. I rather strongly suspect he is doomed.
Skele 3: Casimir could be in any of 9 possible squares. He picks one at random and tries to claw that location. He picks wrong.
Skele 4: Does the same but picks the right square this time! He misses with a nat 1.
Kurg: He remains trapped. He tries to cast another Ice Storm although given he can only centre it directly overhead it will hit him and the skeletons in the pit as well as those outside. Casimir avoids it with Emergency Force Sphere which does give away his position. The skeletons takes 6 damage and now the entire area is basically difficult terrain.
Round 4:
Casimir: The pit causes another 10 damage. He casts another hungry pit hitting the other two skeletons. They both fail taking 32 damage. He then retreats out of the room to avoid being hit by any more Ice Storms. Skele 2 fails his climb roll and is knocked off the wall back into the orb.
At this point the battle is largely over. Kurg cannot escape the Pit and has about 26hp left. He will last maybe another 3 rounds before it smushes him. The skeletons have a climb modifier of +12. With strength surge for +9 every round they can get it to +21. The DC to climb 10' is 30 with the corner bonus. Every round they must make the check to progress but also every round they take damage they have to make another check. That is 10 consecutive climb checks needing a 9 each time. If they take the +5DC to move 20' that is 6 consecutive 14's to escape. If at any time they fail by 5 or more or if they fail any of the checks when they take damage they fall. Most of them currently have around 20-30hp left and they will take at least 12d6 damage from the pits. I call it here. Casimir takes out his wand and begins healing himself.
Remaining Spell Slots:
7/4/1/1/1
Zombie Plants from Outer Space
Tired of messing around and generally annoyed Casmimir flies back outside to have a look at the crater which he knows contains the enormous evil plant monsters. He also knows that the chamber below is relatively small. He calls out to them that if they leave peacefully of their own accord then he will take no further action against them. He hears nothing from them as they are an uncommunicative lot. Unfortunately for the plants he doesnt actually have to enter the chamber to atttack them. He has seen it clearly and knows its layout from his spying. The hole in the roof gives access and allows spells to be directed inwards without much difficulty. While still subject to greater invisiblity he descends to a point above the hole where he can see inside the cave and directs a fireball into it. He will follow with two more using up his remaining level 3+ spell slots. With a reflex save of +4 and being vulnerable to fire damage they take 15d6 per spell needing a 19 to save. Their tentacle attacks are at +11 so they need a 20 to hit him and have a 50% miss chance. They also only deal 1d8+4 damage and cannot grab him. The cave is too small to allow them any space where they wont be hit given they are huge creatures. Saves and damage. Two save against the first fireball, one saves against the third. Oddly they all end up taking 116 damage which kills all of them. He directs his frost giant skeletons into the cave to open the sarcophagus and recover the body of the sorceress.
Now the plants could have used their Light Pulse but given it is short term temporary invisibility I dont see that it would have helped at all. All it would have done would force him to retret briefly, wait for it to run out and return under the effect of mirror image just in case.
Final Spell Slots:
7/4/0/0/0
And with that our hero completes the Echoes of the Everwar Part 1. He has used up more resources than I expected, having no higher level spell slots left. The fight inside the keep was effectively three encounters combined and the enemy got lucky with a couple of near crits. Ultimately this scenario does suffer a bit from lack of ranged attackers and the final fight seems quite literally to be shooting fish in a barrel. Also while he brought some undead minions he barely needed to actually use them. So, while Paragon Surge may have been toned down a bit I think I can say with reasonable certainty that it won't slow down the competent arcane caster that wants to strike out on their own.