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If the avalanche elemental is supposed to be as powerful as I imagine it, I wouldn't even give it a fixed hit points. And I would give it special attacks like the dragons' tail sweep and crush. I imagine the elemental to be one big tentacle which is as long as the "natural" avalanche was wide, and then anchor one of the edges to the mountain while the other edge rises up into the air. Treat it like a trap if you're a die hard fan of D&D terminology. Let it hammer on the PCs for 4 - 5 rounds and then dissolve followed by Karzoug's taunt/bluff and a clear sight of the Hidden City of Wealth.

It is essential for a good reoccuring villian to be.. reoccuring, so I like the idea of the avalanche and the players recognize that it is Karzoug who is behind it.

The end of book 6 describes a few possible storylines if the group should fail to stop Karzoug. One of them is that an epic entity called Mhar resides inside the mountain and becomes awaken, and all mountain-altering DM fiat should perhaps be in his domain. So to not confuse Karzoug and Mhar (if you want to use him), let the face of the mountain belong to Mhar.

I generally like having the avalanche. Perhaps his voice could just boom and resonate between the mountain passes (an impressive feat still) similar to Saruman in one of the LoTR movies? Another great display of power could be to let the avalanche look like an avalanche and just as the characters fly up, the avalance animates (or is controlled like from a telekinetic effect) and fights like a huge elemental - only for a few rounds of course as the feat is draining for Karzoug and his powers (end the encounter with him taunting them and just wanting to show them the near limitless power he possesses and what awaits them if they proceed) (a smart character asks himself why Karzoug didn't just kill them here and now if his power is so limitless).

Edit: By "huge elemental" I did not mean the D&D size classification. I meant a big mofo ice, snow, rock, tree, kick-ass elemental :)

I don't believe the CR system is as perfect as Trialbyfireent describes it. His explanation of it might be the goal that the system strives for, but the monster books are filled with examples where it doesn't hold true.

My group is playing the 3.5 RotRL and the Xanesha encounter in the clocktower was a definitive TPK. Xanesha was absurdly strong for her CR and the terrain was greatly in her favor.

There are also significant tresholds where usually a certain spell is enough to scewer the CR system. A monster might be CR+1, but if it has access to 9th level spells where the party can only achieve 8th then the encounter becomes much more difficult than what trialbyfireent describes as being somewhere between "run of the mill" and "challenging".

High level play often becomes a game of rocket tag if your players master the system well enough. A full attack from a fighter or a spell combo from a spellcaster can be enough to destroy the enemy on the first initiative. Characters or enemies who specializes can obtain high enough spell resistance, AC or attack bonus to make the corresponding attack/defense insignificant. That rarely happens at lower levels (although the high ac variant is not unseen).

If you're new to high level play or D&D encounters in general then Trialbyfireent's descriptions are quite fitting as a rule of thumb.

My group waltzed through the fort as well without the aid of the NPCs. Healing wands (CLW and Vigor) made it one big slaughterfest. The only noteworthy aspect of this part of the adventure is that the ogres all carry ogre hooks. So the PCs went from practically unharmed to near dead whenever the ogres were lucky enough to score a (power-attacking) x3 crit.

High level D&D becomes a completely different ballgame. It really comes down to the amount of books you use and your players' ability to take advantage of the game's flaws. The power differences between the classes become more and more obvious as the characters climb the level ladder. The challenge rating system becomes less of an useful tool and you really have to follow your gut feeling when you design encounters. A CR 1 encounter is fun against a group of 1st level characters, a CR 20 encounter is a boring walkover for a 20th level group.

Everyone should experience high level D&D at least once to give it a try and see if it is something to be fond of. I've run two campaigns which both ended with the characters being level 20, and I am quite pleased to see that my ROTRL campaign will end when the characters defeat Karzoug at level 15 where the game is still somewhat manageable.

I had to google Gilgamesh to realise he apparently has 6 arms :)

He's really hard to build without drastically changing the premises that the Rise of the Runelords is build on - and what Dungeons & Dragons is based upon.

You want him to have six powerful weapons and some pretty neat armor and misc. items. Some of it doesn't exist in the official books and are therefor difficult to appraise, but Gilgamesh's items breaks the system if they fall into the hands of the PCs.

I don't play Pathfinder so I'm not completely sure that the equivalent exists for your system but in 3.5 there's a table which describes how much worth in gold the players should have in loot. For a PC who is level 10 the table states he should have gathered loot for 19,000gp.

Your weapons alone bumps the party up with more than 300,000gp. I would guess Gilgamesh has items for 450,000 - 500,000gp. If you have four players then they would have loot for 100,000+gp each.

The CR system is based on the assumption that the PCs only have the loot at their service worth what the table states. You make the PCs way too powerful if you hand these items to them.

Now, it all depends on what kind of campaign you want to run but Gilgamesh, as written now, is not a suitable encounter according to the books.

You could make all the weapons Weapons of Legacy. There's a book published by Wizards which describes the rules for these weapons. They basically level up along with the players so they are still level appropriate to them but they get more powerful as the PCs gain levels.

The danger he posesses to a group of players really depends on the players. If you go toe-to-toe with him and try to bash him then he will be extremely difficult. He has way better attack, damage and AC than your average 10th level fighter, but he doesn't seem to have much defense against spells, so most save-or-lose or save-or-suck spells will make him trivial.

Based on how you've written him I would say he's a CR 14. I imagine the increased stats, special abilities and the bonuses from his items would be equal to a LA 4 or 5 (so CR 14 or 15) template or race.

His weak spots are definately his low hit points and his vulnerability to spells. Your group doesn't have to be more than level 10 to make this a hard but doable encounter.

If your PCs get their hands on his loot then they will make the encounters in RotRL very trivial for a very long time. If you refuse to let them sell some of the items, you might make some of your PCs frustrated. The fighter gains a +3 holy vorpal greatsword (200,000 gp) while the group's spellcaster gains nothing of use. Sucks to be the spellcaster - who most likely was the essential instrument to overcome the encounter.

How about letting Gilgamesh be dead (say he's a master swordsman whom legends say lived while the Runelords ruled the lands) and then send out the PCs to search for clues for where his items ended up and let them collect them one by one. You could make Gilgamesh the (undead) guardian of the main tomb where his most prized sword is buried with him. This way they will still meet him without getting loot for a million gp instantly.

Are you sure you really want your PCs to get their hands on that much loot? Most of it will be sold (I'm looking at you two, mr. Tournesol and mr. Wyrmhero Blade), and will place them way way ahead in loot.

With his abilities, items and stats he's definately not a CR 9 creature.

It really comes down to your GM style and what the party is capable of. I would personally allow Mokmurian to reorganize his minions - as well as rememorize appropriate spells - if the group decides to rest. It's the only real answer to the 15 minutes work-day.

Mokmurian is a tough encounter but he is still a spellcaster standing alone in confined quarters. Once the fighters are within full attack range his hps will dwindle fast and I therefor don't consider adding a hp brute to the fight to be making the encounter significantly more challenging.

How did your group fare against Barl Breakbones and his Stone Giant minion?

It's always nice with some feedback.

I also, per default, give all named NPCs max hit points. I've actually also given all named NPCs in these encounters max hit points (the tiger has lowered hit points as it is wounded). I usually also remake them to at least optimize their feat selection. In my own version of these encounters I add stone giants to the attack on Sandpoint both to increase the amount of hit points necessary to keep up with the round by round raid but also to further increase the xp rewards as the characters of my players are behind.

The time limit imposed by the encounters were the cause of much thoughts, and I advice GMs to adjust it to their groups. I know my group will spend time on scouting on the ogres in Chast before taking any action. They will debate if it is right to kill the "innocent" dire tiger and I am sure they will try to scare it away or use animal-related magic which might not already be prepared.

Additionally, each encounter will take resources from the party. Both the dire tiger and the Big Baws are offensive enough to perhaps force the characters to use memorized spells like healing - which in return puts them in the dilemma if they should rest or not before reaching Sandpoint.

If you know your party doesn't spend much time discussing, scouting, talking to survivors, then you can always come up with some time limits yourself. The real function of the time limit is to add a new perspective on all actions they might consider, but you could always say that skinning the tiger takes half an hour (time vs. loot), or that Chast is a 30 minutes ride from the main road (time vs. saving the Varisian uplands). Each time-consuming activity, almost no matter the amount of consumption, should or could be a roleplaying opportunity.

You, as the GM, already know that it doesn't make a difference how much time they spend, as any interaction with the encounters (other than discussing if they should act or skip) makes the characters arrive just as the Sandpoint raid has begun.

If you want to tweak it differently then you are welcome to do so. I don't want the characters to arrive in the middle of the raid, as I want the players to experience the round-by-round encounter that the raid is. So instead I impose on them the time penalty and make it harder for them to keep up.

Hello everyone,

My group consists of 6 players which means they're a bit behind on loot and xp. To redeem some of this I've made a few encounters which are optional for them when they have to

They're writting to fit my group, our rules and as my DM notes, but I figured it never hurts to place the stuff here as well in case it might inspire a fellow DM.

My group had a TPK at Xanesha. I cannot fathom how that encounter could run through the whole write-up process and be approved for publishing.

Other than that, the AP has been easy for my players. We're in the middle of the Hook Mountain Massacre where the only threat to the players is a lucky crit from the giants x3 weapons. The giants only gets to act for one round before they're usually dead.

In response to this I've started to give the named NPCs full hit points and optimized all the giants which already has class levels - mainly giving them warblade levels (with Stone Dragon and Iron Heart disciplines only (for the fluff)) instead of their fighter levels - not that it helps that much as their full attack usually is a better option.