So, I'm not entirely sure how cool this will be for other people, but I wanted to share a great encounter with Nualia (and the custom stats I used for her). There are of course spoilers for Thistletop below.
Nualia CR 5
XP 1600
Female Aasimar Warpriest 6
CE Medium Outsider (native)
Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +5
Defense
AC 23, touch 16, flat-footed 20 (+7 armor, +3 Dex, +3 deflection)
hp 48 (6d8+18)
Fort +10, Ref +4, Will +9
Resist acid 5, cold 5, electricity 5
Offense
Speed 20 ft.
Melee +1 Falchion +9 (2d4+4/18-20/x2) or Claw +7 (1d6+1/x2)
Ranged Masterwork Composite longbow (Str +3) +6 (1d8+3/x3)
Special Attacks Strength blessing, Lamashtu’s Mark, G. Weapon of the Chosen
Spell-Like Abilities
1/day—daylight
Warpriest Spells Prepared (CL 6, concentration +9):
2 (4/day) Cure Moderate Wounds, Bull's Strength, Shatter (DC 15), Bear’s Endurance
1 (5/day) Shield of Faith, Divine Favor, Sanctuary (DC 14), Doom (DC 14), Obscuring Mist
0 (at will) Stabilize, Bleed (DC 13), Mending, Detect Magic, Resistance
Statistics
Str 16, Dex 12, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 17
Base Atk +4; CMB +7; CMD 18
Feats Greater Weapon of the Chosen, Improved Weapon of the Chosen, Lamashtu’s Mark, Power Attack, Weapon Focus, Weapon of the Chosen
Skills Intimidate +11, Knowledge (religion) +6, Perception +5
Racial Modifiers +2 Perception
Languages Celestial, Common, Goblin
SQ aura, channel energy (DC 16), fervor 2d6 (6/day), blessings (evil, strength), spontaneous casting
Other Gear +1 Breastplate, +1 Falchion, Arrows (20), Masterwork Composite longbow (Str +3), Sihedron medallion, Gold holy symbol, 100 GP of Valuables, potion of cat’s grace
So my party got to Thistletop, had one bad foray (bluffed past the goblins, went downstairs, fought the Yeth Hounds first, healer died, they retreated to town and got the healer a Raise Dead), and then went back to Thistletop and climbed onto the first basement floor at the Tentamort lair. Cleared that level alright and went to the next level.
They triggered the trap to see what it did, alerting Nualia so she could prebuff, but then explored the rest of the ruins (which allowed a few of her buffs to expire). The party (Controller Witch, Life Oracle Healer, Switch Hitter Ranger, Thunder and Fang Fighter) confronted Nualia, the fighter blew his save, dropped his hammer and ran. The ranger took on Nualia and her hound on her own and the Oracle actually took a swipe with the fighter's hammer. I ended up taking down both the Oracle and the Ranger (not dead, but bleeding out) before the fighter got back in the fight.
So the Witch has buffed her AC (Iron Skin and Mage Armor) and dashes past Nualia to put a potion of CLW down the Oracle's throat. The Oracle gets back to 0 and channels (rolls max, too) to get himself and the Ranger back in the fight. With the Oracle back in the fight and channeling and the fighter back with his earthbreaker, they force Nualia to flee with only a few HP.
Cut to a chase past the trap and up the stairs with the party shooting arrows. The witch is the only character fast enough to catch up and is UMD'ing a wand of Magic Missile. She finally catches Nualia at the top of the stairs that lead to the surface level, takes out Nualia's final hit point, and her last scream alerts all of the goblins the party bypassed before.
All in all, a great fight and I just had to tell someone who wasn't the group that just fought through it. I made a few small mistakes that might have altered the outcome slightly (I forgot to apply damage from the minor evil blessing), but in the end it was great stuff. I highly recommend customizing Nualia's stats if you run RotR.
Does anyone else have any great encounter stories with Nualia, either running her stats as written or with your own tweaks?
How are you getting an AC of 23? More specifically, how are you getting a Dex bonus of +3?
I assume that you haven't altered Nualia's base stats and that these stats provided are including her buffs (otherwise these stats are absurd), so I am guessing that you added her Potion of Cat's Grace twice. Her base Dex is 8, not 12.
This can of course be fixed by adjusting her base stats to a 20 point-buy, instead of a 15 point-buy. Bumping Dex to 12 and perhaps putting the last point into Strength to raise it to a base 13. This also fixes the problem of Nualia not actually qualifying for Power Attack.
Yeah, I cut out some of the block. The stat block includes some of her pre-buffing, including her casting Shield of Faith and quaffing a potion of Cat's Grace. But I think you're right, I had her Dex to AC a little high.
Like I mention, in the actual fight she didn't have all of her buffs on anymore. I might have also futzed with her ability scores when I rebuilt her, but I can't quite recall now.