Hello guys! After two years and three months we'll finally be getting to the final battle of Rise of the Runelords (Anniversary Edition for the last year and a half), and this being my first BBEG boss fight I must admit to being a bit nervous. I mean, I have never played a character with lvl-9 spells for goodness sake!
We have a party of six lvl-16 PC's, and they had a VERY generous (Like 35) point buy due to us not knowing the exact rules when we started out for the first time. The Sorcerer has a Charisma score of 32. I do not want them walking over Karzoug, especially after the awe-inspiring image of him they have constructed in their minds by now.
So here are my changes, plans and questions for you guys, maybe you could help me out a little bit!
- I raise Karzoug's AC by 4 (41) (as per advanced template) and SR by 1 (25)
- I'll give him 450 HP to last a bit longer against 6 people
- I swap out his Meteor Swarm (That is pretty useless, right?) for Mage's Disjunction and his quickened baleful polymorph for another Wail of the Banshee.
- I change his Combat Expertise to Improved Initiative
- By my reasoning, Karzoug will be warned off the exact moment of the PC's coming because of the Sihedron so he will be already buffed to the teeth. Mind Blank, True Seeing, Globe of Invulnerability, Repulsion, Spell Turning and a Crushing Hand for now focused on the Ranger. All spells will have at least still a duration of 10-15 rounds on them when the PC's arrive.
- He will be flying at least 40 foot of the ground at 75 feet from the place where the PC's appear. A Mark of Death will be near his throne just in case he can lure a melee fighter with less than 150 health to it. (Mark of Death doesn't work above 150 hp, right?)
- Start off with a Mage's Disjunction and a quickened Time Stop to cast Cloud Kill and Forcecage and maybe a Wall of Force.
- From then on just spam Finger of Death, Wail of the Banshee and Horrid Wilting and use Wish and Lesser Wish to keep him and his allies healed, and quickened Dimension Door to stay mobile.
- For melee fighters that get near, Sign of Wrath, Crushing Hand or Maze. And if Mage's Disjunction disarmed their Dominant Weapon: Baleful Polymorph or Temporal Stasis.
- Should I refrain from using Repulsion? It's very powerful, but the way I read it is that if our Fighter and Magus throw ONE lousy Will Save they are just out of the fight for 10 rounds. Is that still fun, or am I reading the spell wrong? Maybe there's a more fun alternative? It sucks that Karzoug has no mirror images or something like it.
- Karzougs +2 Dancing Glaive, if it dances and uses Karzougs BAB of 10, will it have an attack roll of 12? Because that seems pretty weak.
- The disorientation effect described on page 360 that the Anima Focus causes, will the players suffer from that after using the portal to the Eye of Avarice or do they not suffer from that?
- If the Bard uses Hold Monster, will Karzoug's Contingency target it?
EDIT:
- If I use Mage's Disjunction, all their spells and effects will end immediately (no Save), and they have to roll a 32 Will Save for every item they own, right?
What do you guys think of these tactics? Am I missing something obvious or messing something up? Maybe I'm overlooking one of the tactics a lvl-20 wizard has to his disposal? Thanks in advance!
As far as I can tell the Dancing glaive is useless.
For 6 characters I suggest boosting his henchmen a bit, more giants or a tougher dragon.
Karzoug's tactics are going to depend on your players tactics. He knows they are coming and is ready for them so prepare based on how they fight.
If your sorceror depends on a few spells , give Karzoug defenses against them. Have him precast most of his buff spells, keep shapeshift up use it to disguise as a dragon or giant.
I am giving him a permananced Prismatic sphere he can retreat to, he can then heal in there.
I would use repulsion if the fighters do not like it one of their spellcasters can do something about it. If none of the spellcasters are prepared to expend multiple dispel magics thats their bad tactics.
You can always give him more gear including items to cast mirror image , more difficult as he cannot use wands and scrolls of illusion spells.
If your pc's neglect to cast elemental protections than meteor storms can be useful , particularly if he has a Metamagic rod of maximise. My players will have Communal energy resistance vs everything
What is your party makeup, and how do they normally win fights? What books did you allow you players to use? (I don't like to give bosses anything my players can't have)
I am not to him in my campaign yet, but I already looked over the fight and was thinking of the following changes.
-I swapped something for fiery body, my party uses a lot of weapon damage and fire attacks, so immunity to crits and fire helps a lot, plus all the other bonuses.
-Swapped polymorph any object for quickened enervation. If you have a player with high saves, but low INT, or just any player with low INT, hit them with it, then Maze. DC 20 INT check to escape, if they have a negative Mod, they are out of the fight.
-If they have people who can't fly, quickened hydrolic push has a good chance to push them into the lava below.
-As far as I can tell, even though he has no access to the spells, you can use wish/limited wish to cast illusion spells. Displacement or mirror image are both great defensive spells.
-Maybe have his cloak also give a bonus to Saving throws.
-Unless your party uses a lot of teleportation, I plan on opening with Waves of Exhaustion. -6 STR lowers melee to hit, compound bow to hit, damage, and carrying capacity. -6 DEX is less AC, ranged to hit, and reflex saves. No charging, and all movement speed is halved. Plus they don't get a save.
I would also age the dragon until he is gargantuan size, so Old age. Give the rune giant a couple of levels in fighter so you can give him a couple extra feats. I might also remove the part where the storm giants turn on Karzoug if the Rune giant is killed.
Also, the glave isn't great, but every round it can either shoot a fireball at a non caster, or heal Karzoug. Not great, but every little bit is going to help.
Also in reference to meteor storm, it really depends on what you want to do with it, and if you can hit them. the 2d6 extra damage is nice but what you are really after is the -4 to the save for the fire damage. You can send all the orbs at one person give them a -16, or spread them out a bit, giving multiple party members, like ones that have high reflex and evasion, negative to make sure they feel at least some of the effect.
These are some good ideas!
If a character is affected by Maze, I would suggest that the player then be given another character to run (either a party-allied NPC or a Karzoug-allied foe). It's no fun to be sitting at the table, doing nothing for up to 10 minutes of game time (that's 60 rounds of combat!)
A side note about Meteor Swarm. My understanding is that the -4 penalty to the save is not cumulative (only the fire damage is cumulative vs. any fire resistance).