We just finished Trial of the Beast, apparently deviating from the expected sequence of events near the end:
The homunculus Waxwood managed to communicate the Count's situation, which we resolved by sending Waxwood back to the Count with a potion of gaseous form. Once rescued, the Count offered to pay us a considerable amount if we'd get rid of the Promethean, and provided a good bit of information on its capabilities.
With those specifics, we were able to make appropriate preparations the following day including buffs that used more than half the daily spell capacity of both our 8th level clerics. Without that, a TPK would seem to have been the likely result. Given our pathetic AC's it could only fail to hit on a natural 1, and countering some of its special abilities required the use of buff spells we don't normally prepare in multiple -- no way we'd have done that if we didn't have the Count's information beforehand.
So my questions are: was the party seriously expected to face that thing toe to toe, and what the heck was its CR? I asked our GM afterward and he said the module gave two options and yes, one was fighting it head on. I keep thinking there must be something in the book he missed (it's happened several times in this AP already.)
Clever use of that Potion of Gaseous Form. Well done.
It's possible for some parties to take down that monster with careful preparation or freakish luck. Your party seems overleveled for that point at the adventure path, but even for you it was a pretty tough fight. A party that thinks they can just rush in and take it down could easily be TPK'd. My own party tried, and lost two of six party members before running, having done essentially no damage.
I'm hesitant to spoil the adventure's details for you if your GM did not. Rest assured that there are alternate methods of defeating it. As you present it, it doesn't seem like your GM missed anything. But if you absolutely have to know that your GM is in the right:
I'm hesitant to spoil the adventure's details for you if your GM did not. Rest assured that there are alternate methods of defeating it. As you present it, it doesn't seem like your GM missed anything. But if you absolutely have to know that your GM is in the right:
Yes, please do avoid spoilers for future books. We did know about the other thing, but only because we'd been able to speak to the Count beforehand. We didn't know beforehand* how long it would take to gain the advantage it offered, though, and our strategy involved buffing the group, then splitting up with some on the roof and some in the room below our target, so for all we knew half our buffs could have expired while waiting.
We'd just reached 8th level -- literally with not one XP to spare -- the session before we were to take on the promethean. We'd thought we were going to have to do it as 7th level characters.
*We actually did activate the thing afterward, just to tie up loose ends, and discovered we wouldn't have had long to wait.
@Level 1 Commoner: Saving throws weren't our biggest worry.
