I hate to keep nitpicking this adventure, but why bother giving Fetor the cool new feat Death Frost Spell (pun intended)and then not have any of his spells prepared with it? The feat is unique to this adventure and it's too good to waste by not using it.
Also, it isn't noted in his stat block that his necromancy spells should all be +2 DC from his spell focus and greater spell focus feats.
I think I'm going to tweak Fetor around a little bit before my group encounters him.
I hate to keep nitpicking this adventure, but why bother giving Fetor the cool new feat Death Frost Spell (pun intended)and then not have any of his spells prepared with it? The feat is unique to this adventure and it's too good to waste by not using it.
Also, it isn't noted in his stat block that his necromancy spells should all be +2 DC from his spell focus and greater spell focus feats.
I think I'm going to tweak Fetor around a little bit before my group encounters him.
good catch. Be sure to post the updated character here :)
I had already ran Ike but not Fetor before reading this so thanks for the catch.
I also noticed he has spells prepared with empower spell but using the lesser rod also. The tactics section should clarify that his empowered spells cast are using the rod first. Here's the spells I changed.
0th- same
1st- same
2nd- dropped 2 blindness/deafness for magic missle(death frost)
3rd- dropped the haste for another lightning bolt
4th- dropped 1 confusion for a lightning bolt (death frost)
5th- same
6th- dropped circle of death for magic missle(quicken,death frost)
7th- same
I felt haste made a poor choice for his other spells prepared unless used for movement to get away, which his dimension doors and teleport do better at. Remember Fetor needs the dimension doors to bypass room 11 so don't change them. The greater teleport is a must to return to town if needed or to escape. I left command undead and halt undead incase they are needed vs the dracolich if they ever have a sudden missunderstanding.
Changed round by round tactics as follows:
1- same
2- same
3- Opens the door and casts lighning bolt(death frost spell) empowering w/ the rod (spell still is a 3rd level spell after applying death frost, it only uses a higher slot). If foes are still alive casts a quickened lightnig bolt and takes a 5-foot step behind the door.
4- Casts a death frost magic missle (using the rod to empower) and a quickened death frost magic missle on a divine spell caster.
5- same
6- Attempts to pick of stragglers with vampiric touch (using rod to empower)
Rikkus and I had nearly the same thoughts on Fetor's spells.
As to his Rod of Empower and using the empower feat, keep in mind that he can only use the rod 3/day so preparing a few empowered spells is a good thing. One thing I'm not clear on just yet is the rod itself. It's a use-activated item, but what kind of action it takes to activate it is questionable. Since it duplicates a feat, which does not take an action, is it a free action to use the rod on a spell? It can't be a standard action to activate unless you have to activate it in one round and then use it in the next round. That doesn't make sense to me. I'm going to go with it not being an action to use since it's used in conjunction with a standard action-appling a feat to a spell. If it's not then his tactics as I have them would need a little change, just for the spells empowered with the rod.
Here's how I changed his spells-
0- same
1- same
2- replaced 1 blindness/deafness and mirror image with 2 death frost magic missles
3- replaced haste with another lightning bolt
4- replaced 1 confusion with death frost lightning bolt
5- replaced dominate person with wall of stone
6- replaced circle of death with quickened death frost magic missle
7- replaced quickened lightning bolt with finger of death
I dropped his normal mirror image because I didn't think he needed two of them. I dropped a blindness/deafness because two of them should be enough. I dropped haste because I don't see him engaging in a full-round attack action, and the bonus to AC, reflex saves, and speed aren't really good enough. I dropped a confusion because the spell has a 15 ft radius and he's tossing it into a 5 ft wide hallway. I dropped dominate person because it doesn't really fit in with his other spell selection. Who's he going to dominate after he's killed them all? Plus he's got it on a scroll. I dropped circle of death because it doesn't affect targets of 9HD or more. It won't even hurt the cohorts. Even assuming he has that spell to use on an unruly minion, all his minions at Karran Kural have more than 9HD. And finally, I dropped a quickened lightning bolt in favor of finger of death. Necromantic nastiness is better than lightning any day, IMHO.
These changes to his spells mean his tactics change a little bit too-
round 1- same
round 2- same
round 3- casts empowered death frost lightning bolt (using rod) and quickened death frost magic missle
round 4- casts empowered lightning bolt (prepared) and quickened magic missle (empowered with rod)
round 5- same
round 6- casts empowered vampiric touch (prepared)
At this point, he's still got two magic missles, two blindness/deafness, two death frost magic missles, two lightning bolts, two vampiric touches -all of which can be empowered with his rod, enervation, greater dispel, and finger of death in his offensive repertoire.
One thing to keep in mind, is that 5 of the squares in the hallway have the ice lattice in them. That means the PC's will be taking 5d6 cold and 5d6 negative energy damage just to reach him. Assuming they don't move slowly and fail the Escape Artist checks that is.
For futher tactics, I'd have him retreat into the room to the other side ot the scrying lattice, and ready an offensive spell to hit the first PC in the room. Then he can dimension door out to the other end of the hallway, maybe around the corner a little bit, where he can blast from behind and make them cross the ice lattice again. This tactic could work a few times since he's got two dimension doors prepared and one on a scroll. I'd save his greater teleport for his final escape.
Oh, and don't forget that the DC for his necromancy spells is 18 plus spell level and for his other spells it's 16 plus spell level. The extra +2 for necromantic spells isn't listed in his stat block.
I believe using the metamatic rod is part of the action of casting the spell, but I decided that it would take too much of an action to be used on a quickened spell.
I also dropped circle of death for the same reason, I only forgot to list it.
I would use the dimension door tactic once. Save the second spell to bypass room 11 and head down towards the dracolich. Fetor is smart enough to retreat against a group that withstood more than a round or three after his listed tactics. He will be lower on spells but by warning the dracolich he not only strengthens thier relationship, but also has a powerful ally to help against this incursion. The greater teleport would be his escape in this final encounter. Remember if your party seems too weak to handle the additional trouble of Fetor by the time they reach the room, simply remove Fetor from the fight. As far as the PCs will ever know Fetor escaped after the initial encounter, but in reality the dracolich became enraged that Fetor didn't stop the PCs so he had to make a quick escape from the dracolich. Having Fetor encounter the PCs twice would make the regular mirror image useful. If you do plan a full out fight the second mirror image may still help, but not as much so I'd agree with the replacement.
Oh, and I left the dominate person for a couple different tactics. If the confusion works on 2 or more PCs than a dominate person on another PC will make the encounter all the more dangerous. Also, fighters and rouges normally lead. They also normally have the lowest will save. They can hold the party up in the 5' hall while the rest of the party still gets bombarded with magic missles, another confusion attempt (if you have more than one prepared), or even a lightning bolt. Depending on the indiviual party composition and who leads greatly effects this tactic, but it sounds reasonable. The wall of stone hinders more of the ruins than helps with a single encounter, and makes further uses of dimension door neccessary, from my point of view. However the fact that dominate person is on a scroll may be worth replacing the prepared version, but remember the DC will be lower.
Thank you though for your complement Matt. The party bypassed that room and are currently in the middle of the encounter w/ Xail, and were talking about backtracking to the Fetor encounter. I'm gonna tweak the spells a bit further possibly dropping the mirror image and/or the dominate person, and will use the diminsion door tactic you came up with. Good job!