I have a party of 5 PCs plus Kaurophon about to face the final encounter in TotSE. And I'm racking my brains trying to think of a way to make this interesting.
The problem: Kaurophon is too wussy.
Waldo
There's another thread somewhere that goes into more detail on this subject but I can relate. I have a party of 8 characters. First off dispense with the "A sacrifice? No problem!" line unless the party has been seriously beat upon the lich, flesh golem and the rakshasa. If they go in beat up this will be a tough encounter and anticipating that the end is near (in more ways) then one Kaurophon would try to get the characters to go on even if they are sub-optimal (whichmeans he might still have his buffs on). In one post I think someone mentioned that he talked one party member into scouting ahead with him and came back alone later to announce that he was the new ruler of Occipitus.
Kaurophon can fly under his own power so he doesn't really need the spell fly. If you are worried about AC give him a potion of shield of faith; someone hearing him while he's invivsible a lesser metamagic rod, silent.
If you are worried about a particular wizard or sorcerer that might pose an immidiate threat disintergate them. Otherwise whip out the cone of cold so people know they've been in a fight, or if most of the Will saves are marginal at the point use the scroll of mass suggestion. Also he can telekinetically toss people at the plasma stream (via [i]telekinesis[i]). All of these have the potential to be dramatic rolls.
GGG
I just ran the finale on Sunday. The party had seperated from Kaurophon around the first test when the party wizard said something like "We should kill him soon." in front of him. Ever since they have been semi-cautiously watching their backs.
They waltzed through the lich after the wizard telekenesed/grappled him out of the nexus and held on as the rest of the party surround and beat him mercilessly. Most of the summoned animals couldn't do much to the party but they definetly made the fight last a lot longer.
After getting to the plasm, Kaurophon (well buffed with Cat's Grace, Bear's Endurance) teleported in at the nexus(I gave him a scroll), touched it, did a cone of cold (which knocked 2 of the party members into the negatives but they stabilized.) The party barbarian immediately ran up and hit him for almost half his HP. He then began to take flight and was hit by a critical attack of oppurtunity from the barbarian. Once in midair, he telekenised/grappled the wizard directly into the flames. Kaurophon gained the smoking eye template for, oh about a round, because the next thing that happened was a piddly searing light (i think 19hp damage) that did just enough to knock him out.
I would recomend having him take flight first thing. That makes it harder for the tanks to get at him. Cone of cold is good especially if he touches the nexus of evil and it does 15d6 damage. Telekenising the spellcasters (or other physically weak) spellcasters is also a good idea. Overall, it was a rather anticlimactic fight but we still had a lot of fun. You shoulda seen the expression on the face of the wizard when he was being telekenised since he had just done the same to the lich in the last room.
The party ranger/aasimar type thingy ended up getting the smoking eye template when he decided to sacrifice himself in hopes of saving the wizard who had already gone in. It didn't work, but he still gained the template.
Creative Director
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-- BTW, it's too late now for the hardcover, but: the tactical suggestion about the fire giant using Sunder? Does Not Work. That's because you can't Sunder magical weapons unless you're striking with an equally powerful magic weapon. (Confusingly, this rule is in the DMG, not in the Sunder description.) Since the giant only has a plain greatsword, he's just going to waste attacks against a typical 10th-11th level fighter. Dan Noonan is a brilliant writer, but that single rules slip helped to seriously nerf that encounter for my PCs.
Actually, the DMG is in error here—this was a remnant from the 3.0 rules that didn't get cut out of the DMG. The 3.5 DMG errata omits the 1st sentance after Hardness and Hit Points: on page 222 of the 3.5 DMG.
Magic weapons have their hardness increased by +2 and their hit points by +10 for each +1 of enhancement bonus the magic weapon has. Thus, you can still break more powerful magic weapons with less powerful ones; you just need to hit harder. Which shouldn't be a problem for a giant.
In a case like this where the Player's Handbook and the Dungeon Master's Guide conflict, you should always go with the rules as presented in the Player's Handbook.
As for the battles in Smoking Eye being too easy... your mileage may vary, I suppose. For some folks, these encounters are really tough. For others, not. Depends on the makeup of your party mostly. In any case... I personally don't have a problem with bad guys getting mulched super easy by the PCs; it lets the PCs feel tough. There's plenty of other encounters in Shackled City that'll give the PCs a chance to be humble and beaten.
I have to agree. It's great when the PCs kick some butt and look like the heroes they are supposed to be. When that false sense of security comes back to bite them, it makes for some good times.(Insert evil laugh).
Further complication: I want to give Kaurophon a suitable Bad Guy soliloquy. So he needs to be invisible and Dimension Dooring around for a round or two.
To quote the Incredibles..."You sly dog, you. You caught me monologuing!"
Keep in mind that the Lich is likely to have a couple rounds to summon creatures as the combat with the golem ensues. A nice large-huge creature blocking the entrance to his chamber makes that fight take a bit longer and gives him the chance to send some more spells through the way of the players.
Let Kaurophon buff up in that fight; it's a good way to do so. If you can severely diminish the player's power in that fight, it helps too. (Harm, Slay Living are both good options for this). Dismissal is great, as at this point the PCs are extraplanar, but it does take out one player for the rest of the module.
Finally, if you want to play him this way...here's what I did. The PCs decided to rest after fighting the lich and his myriad of minions. By this point, they were down to 3 (a sorceror, a warlock, and a fighter) and Kaurophon. During the fighter's watch, a quick hold person is all it took...TK the fighter up the stairs to the plasma, and throw him in. Kaurophon got the template and went away. The others woke up, discovered that both the fighter and Kaurophon were missing. To this point, IC they don't know exactly what happened.