Ugrosh's page

Thanks for reporting your Xulthos encounters. It seems that none of your group had a really hard time with him. I am quite relieved, while still interested in any testimony of some unlucky players or group.

Grimsh : 7 characters did the trick for you. I plan to play with five players, and i am not to found of taking NPCs along with them. Personal taste I'd say. Beside, Beta characters are a little more powerful than 3.5 are. It might have helped.

Ninjaiguana : I agree that fleeing is a good result for a confused character.

I was quite sure that the level required for this encounter is 4th. I read everywhere and found that on page 8 that "[PCs] should not enter the crypt under he church until they are 4th level" and on page 49 that "under no circumstances will [Almah] grant the key if they are lower than 5th level".

I definitely think that 5th is the right level for a group of 4 or 5 players. The "hit point bag" of the group is then able to take a full round (and beg for heal after that). And I will make sure that the first full round attack will be directed against the HP bag.
But i am still worried. A fighter has 75% chance to fail the will save, and i guess that with a fighter that saves the encounter is a great one, where PCs defeat Xulthos by a narrow margin, while with a failed will save, it becomes nearly impossible.
And while I am okay with the fact that this encounter has to be tough, I dislike the fact that victory relies on one single save of a single player.

I have just finished reading howl of the carrion king and have some worries about the final encounter. Xulthos really seems to me overpowered and i am wondering if the PCs, even if they make no mistake, can beat Xulthos.

Here are my guesses, from the stats i read :

- Any full round attack from Xulthos targeting a single character results in an instant death. A buffed fighter (or any high HP class) may survive one full round, but may die too.

- Xulthos has many hit points, a good AC improved with his daze and drone features. Some elemental damage mitigations are here to deal with the wizards massive damage. All of that make the encounter a long one.

- There is an high probability to have all PCs confused since round 1. A DC 18 will save is not an easy one, especially for all the "low will save/low wisdom" character classes. Fighter and rogue will probably be useless for a few rounds. Leaving cleric and wizard alone facing the melee war machine that will kill them one at a time every two rounds : one to move, one to full attack.

- This is a one try encounter. No retry after gathering information such as "next time, come with the silence spell prepared to negate drone". If the encounter fails, it's a TPK, or an evade from Xulthos.

All of that makes me think that even with a well balanced group of 4 or 5 level 4 characters, experienced and good players, it can easily result in a TPK, even with players making no mistake.

So, first of all, am I missing something?
How did this encounter ran for you that have already finished HotCK? Did you play Xulthos as-is, and it ran just fine? or did you use any trick to make it easier?