Hi everyone,
a quick rules question
I intend to be using a Nightcrawler (nightshade) in combat soon.
The monster has the Vital Strike chain of feats, including, Greater Vital Strike.
The monster details can be found here:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/undead/nightshade/nightcr awler
It's got a massive 4d10 + 18 bite plus 4d6 cold and grab as attack option.
Does this mean that...
This thing can do a move action, move up to an opponent, and then employ Greater Vital Strike for a whopping 4x 4d10 = 16d10 + 18 bite plus 4d6 cold damage? ; and as sweet topping it can cast a swift quickened Cone of Cold after that too?
Ouch.
Or am I doing something wrong here?
Just thought I'd check before the body count hits on game day. (Although they're 13-14th level, they ought to be able to bring it down)
You are correct.
It's much more fun (for the GM) when creatures--generally dragons in this case--with fly by attack have this, as fly by attack lets the monster make a standard action attack during its move.
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You are correct. That's an average of 120 points of damage on the bite and 52 (DC 21 reflex for half) from the cone.
Edit: by the way, you might want to use the sting instead. Less damage, but the DC28 Con-draining and negative level poison that goes along with it is nasty.
There's a reason a CR18 character is considered an epic encounter for a party of 15th level characters.
Thanks for your replies...
even more damage... it has Power Attack... bring on the pain.
@Belafon>> Well they're a party of 6... and they have quite considerable damage output...
A Zen Archer with Clustered Shots for instance
A Barbarian with Superstition, Come and Get me, and Raging Brutality
A bard with a +3 on to hit with inspire courage.
They got Death Ward in a magic item (Blessed Banner of the Crusade) in a 40' aura around them. (so level draining won't work much. The 6 greater shadows it can summon won't do much either ; unless it gets hit by a dispel attempt maybe (but why bother)
add haste to that... the action economy is going to be against it.
But Deeper Darkness along with Burrow and air walking... should be interesting.
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Though the shadows aren't a real threat to your heroes with their death ward, they will provide a barrier of sorts to help with the action economy against the nightcrawler. Position the shadows against the crawler that will hinder melee characters reaching the crawler, while the crawler uses its reach. And the shadows are summoned for 1 hour, so they should already be summoned when the fight starts (hidden in the floors) if the crawler is aware of the heroes before hand. Also, remember the crawler has darksense so it can still see when its deeper darkness is affecting the battlefield.
If you're cruel and can afford +1 CR you could advance the critter and give it Improved Natural Attack for the bite or sting.
@Devilkiller>> Nah that'd be a bit too much indeed.
I'm not out to kill them, just, keep them on their toes and make it interesting.
Every critter I place in front of them that ends up Full Attacking the Barbarian gets sliced and diced with Come and Get me.
This Nightcrawler guardian encounter has been a long time coming, I've teased the encounter already by having it show up, get smacked up with some damage and retreating after that by the use of his burrow ability. (kinda hard to follow something that makes it's own path)
But with the Greater Vital Strike, landing all the damage with Power Attack in one major attack is a good answer to the Come and Get me power.
The tip with the Shadows is also a good one. Keep it from not getting outright destroyed in 2-3 rounds.
It's supposed to be tough, and maybe scare them a little bit, but definately not going for a TPK here.
Yeah, an enemy with one big attack could definitely make CaGM less "worth it". I'm planning on taking the very similar Taunting Stance in one campaign soon. Usually I'd consider it kind of overpowered, but it is a Mythic game with crazy CR fights and general madness.