I have confidence in my players. They're all veterans. They're crafty. They have a strong knowledge of the rules. They're fair. And they're gonna get creamed by Zyrxog.
With his impossible-to-beat spell resistance, DC 23 mindblast, DC 19 suggestion ability, ability to planeshift, and strong balance of offensive and defensive spells, it just doesn't seem possible that my players (who will be 9th level at the time) are going to defeat him.
In this case, how did some of you who have already played this section of THoHR handle the scenario of a TPK?
Don't think the Orb spells (from Complete Arcane) can be resisted by Spell resistance. If you have an arcane caster, all he has to do is hit Zyrxog with a ranged touch attack. If he is hit he can make a save to avoid the various effects but he still takes 9d6 points of damage. Two or Three of these babies can put him out of commission. These spells are gained at 7th level, so your arcane caster should hopefully have 1 or 2 in his arsenal.
His other abilities (mind blast and so on) could be a problem...
Guess its a matter of who wins initiative and how well your players roll on their saves.
My party handled this with a nice simple ambush. Elven ranger hides on the balcony to the cathedral of the mind while the rest of the party goes in through the front door. The mind flayer floats out and starts gloating. The ranger whispers something unflattering about the mind flayer's mother and lets fly. A couple of (admittedly) lucky critical hits later, we're looting the body and checking for traps.
My party handled this with a nice simple ambush.
For the adventurers to encounter Zyrxog they must first pass through room M8 (the Stone Brain). Being that the item can speak telepathically with Zyrxog (a free action) and that the personality of the item is a clone of the Illithid's (Int 19), it would certainly take the opportunity to alert its master of intruders. Zyrxog should be well informed of the player's approach, and in my game, wont be "just floatin' around" his spawning pool when the players find him.
I have confidence in my players. They're all veterans. They're crafty. They have a strong knowledge of the rules. They're fair. And they're gonna get creamed by Zyrxog.
With his impossible-to-beat spell resistance, DC 23 mindblast, DC 19 suggestion ability, ability to planeshift, and strong balance of offensive and defensive spells, it just doesn't seem possible that my players (who will be 9th level at the time) are going to defeat him.
In this case, how did some of you who have already played this section of THoHR handle the scenario of a TPK?
I thought it would be tough as well, but my group had more trouble with the Octapins than the mind flayer or the stone brain.
They knew they were going against a mind flayer because he had appeared to taunt them before. They cast lots of will buffs and put up a Magic Circle against evil. This effectivly stopped the domination effects. After that they went in staggered formation so they didnt all get hit by an Area of effect spell, and filled him full of arrows.
After a few rounds of butt-kicking, the wizard Sereph cast an Unluck on him. Fortunatly, he rolled really really really really really really low. After a few turns, he cast a phantasmil killer and a few "lucky" roles Zyroxs was down.
With his impossible-to-beat spell resistance, DC 23 mindblast, DC 19 suggestion ability, ability to planeshift, and strong balance of offensive and defensive spells, it just doesn't seem possible that my players (who will be 9th level at the time) are going to defeat him.
Just ran the group through last night and they had a blast. Here's a few things I learned while prepping/playing through the encounter.
Planeshift - Zyrxog doens't flee the battle. He fights to the death protecting his tadpoles and years of work. (Found this in the mag)
Spell Resistence and Mindblast - Since the PCs faced Zyrog once, they should realize what they are about to face. With a city like Free City, info on Mindflyers could be easily found. If they take the time to do research, this would allow Magic users to memorize buffs (such as owl's wisdom) and defensive magic. If they don't think of this, have them pass by a store that contains dungeonering supplies and adventure's journals in which they would find this info.
The low down on our encounter:
Sir Gabriel and his band had diffuclty with Zyrog, but some inventive tatics were used to take him down. Sir Gab was knock out of the encounter with a mindblast, right after the only fly spell was cast on him. A moment or two later, the thief managed to pull down Zyrog with a grappling hook. Around this time, their only other fighter, a dwarf barbarian, was stunned out of commition. The last resort for the magic users was to use the griffen statue they had found, which came out pissed and ready to rend the mage. Thankfully for them, a failed charm monster and a successful Animal Empathy check stopped the feindish griffon, and turned it against Zoyrog to ensure his demiss.
My party handled this with a nice simple ambush.For the adventurers to encounter Zyrxog they must first pass through room M8 (the Stone Brain). Being that the item can speak telepathically with Zyrxog (a free action) and that the personality of the item is a clone of the Illithid's (Int 19), it would certainly take the opportunity to alert its master of intruders. Zyrxog should be well informed of the player's approach, and in my game, wont be "just floatin' around" his spawning pool when the players find him.
I never said the mind flayer didn't know the party was coming. However, after we destroyed the stone brain, it wasn't in much shape to update the mind flayer that one member of the party stayed behind.