| Darren Miller |
Okay, I know this is an old thread I'm resurrecting, which hasn't had a post in over a year, but I'm running rotRL for the first time, so it's new to me and my party finally fought Xanesha last night.
It was a tough fight, but the party prevailed. Having the collected insight of this forum, I have been coaching the party on some useful things that groups I've GMed for have never really used, so they've been discovering the usefulness of the Aid Another action and Glitterdust, which they used against the cultists back at the mill and blinded a number of them.
The party is:
Fighter 5/Ranger 1
Cleric 4/Paladin 2
Wizard 6 (specialized in summoning creatures)
Sorcerer 6
Rogue 6
They had a rough time of it with the Scarecrows DR and immunity to a lot of their spells, then the party Fighter and Cleric got hit by a bell, which knock the Cleric down to 1HP when he landed 100' below. The Wizard summoned a Dire Bat to soften up the bell droppers before they arrive, which got slaughtered without doing much, but they still had a relatively easy time of it with the stalkers due to the Sorcerer's Haste spell.
Then, it was time for Xanesha.
Here is the short version of the fight:
Next round, the Wizard casts Glitterdust on her, which doesn't blind her, but makes her visible, so she drops Invisibility (I didn't use her Mirror Image) and uses the mask to petrify the Sorcerer (she was the closest to the edge, still being on the landing to the stairs). This takes out the party's utility caster, who can turn the tide of a fight quickly with things like Haste. The fight goes badly for a while until the Cleric gets a lucky Critical Hit with his bow (while she is being harassed to little effect by a summoned Dire Bat), doing some ability damage on her (I use the Critical Hit & Fumble Decks). She gets pissed and comes after the Cleric, which brings her in the range of the Fighter and summoned dogs who are there just to harry her.
The Str & Dex damage she took softened her hits and nerfed her AC a little, but she is wearing out the party, causing them to use up a ton of resources and reducing their HP, when the Cleric rolls another incredibly lucky Critical Hit and this time blinds her, which gives her a 50% miss chance. Then she concentrates on the Fighter and the Cleric, bringing the Fighter to 6HP and the Cleric pretty low too, but she then Fumbles and with a draw from the Fumble Deck, trips herself and falls prone. She immediately starts to Dimension Door out (at 26HP), but the party brings her to -12HP quickly and she dies.