My party is almost about to fight Ilthane The Black. I ended last nights session as she came roaring down upon them, leaving them running for cover as they freaked out and (IRL) the players started screaming "Oh my god, we're ALL gonna DIE!" one even stood up and stared into space all 'Rabbit-in-headlights'ish'.
On that little cliff-hanger I left things, much to their annoyance. However I am a bit worried about how things will play out. You see I have changed Ilthane into a totally different creature.
In my campaign Ilthane is not even regonisable as a black dragon, she is an awful, flying-abomination that looks nothing like a dragon anymore.
She is a young (size:large) Brainstealer Dragon (from Dragon #337) with the pseudonatural template from Lords of Madness this gives her a CR of 11. I want to bump her up to a challenge rating of 13 (as the default Ilthane should be) so she is a challenge for my party. But I am afraid to make her too lethal.
My problem is the players are scraping through the AoW's as it is, they are a roleplay centred group, our games usually involve a lot less fighting so they are not used to 'tough-as-nails' stuff like the AoW's and loosing characters is usually only ever done as 'heroic sacarifice' in former campaigns.
I think they may become very disheartened if there are any more deaths in the campaign, they like to see their characters grow in personality and after the 'mini-novels' they turn in as character backstories, I feel kind of sorry for them when they bite the dust after a couple of sessions.
My party consists of:
10th LV human ninja (Bit of a coward, prefers to stay out of combat and use his bow, occasionally will go invisible and sudden strike against weak foes)
9th LV human wizard (Uses blasting magic, fireballs, lightning etc lacks any real wizard skills, cant use magic intellegently, player is used to fighters, this is his first non-melee character.)
10th LV halfelf wizard (A Raistlin-Majere fan-boy, plays this wizard as Tanis+Raistlin, a clever and resourceful character, often befuddles my poor DM-plans with his nasty, smelly player ideas! Has reams of spells in that book of his.)
9th LV (DMPC) human fighter (I play this character as a logical, military-minded guy who is quite the stragtegist, has no leadership skills and lacks confidence but sound advice will be given if he is asked his opinion by the PC's.)
10th LV multi-classed chaos monk/rogue. (The player is a style-over-content kind of player, this character looks great, has great hair, a pet wolf (wild cohort feat) has a nice peice of art represnting him and a cool mini but the player is always making bad choices, he thinks he can handle anything, then gets slapped down. Bruce Lee is his idol. This character nearly always gets killed and drinks so many healing potions he should have developed Wolverines healing factor by now. To his credit, he has learnt to hang back from obviously dangerous enemies (like Ilthane) so he might just use his magical (+2 shocking) shortbow this time.
So how can I challenge this group with my Ilthane yet not TPK them? I dont mind a few deaths as long as we all feel like it was fair enough and Ilthane isnt a total killer.
What would you add to Ilthane to bring her CR from 11 upto 13, bearing in mind my party arnt the best D&D hack and slashers and/or min-maxers?
I feel they might even 'do a runner' if they cant work out what the hell she is and she downs one of them straight away.
Any other DM's outthere that have less hack and slash and more 'drama-club-ish' players trying to survive the AoW's?
They need more XP and they need it quick. If your role-playing oriented, make sure you are awarding them XP for just hanging out and having a good time at the game table. I hand it out by the truck load. If you already are doing this, you might want to step up amount your are awarding.
My PCs might be facing Ilthane this Friday (as statted-out) and they are average level 11. Some might even be close to level 12, and they will be kicking a lot of customized magical gear by then. Also, they already know they will be facing a dragon soon due in part to the Dungeon magazine cover, and due in part to my "cutscene" of a shadow of a dragon skimming Daimond Lake from above. All of this is going for the PCs and I still expect this to be a very difficult fight and I fear for them.
I have a suggestion for making the combat challenging to your PCs, but sure not to TPK them. Many people frown upon the idea, but when faced with a party that you want to have dramatic battles but you know they may not be able to take the battle itself, I think that it's (occasionally, and to a very small extent) a good idea to fudge the battle a little bit. Not in the favor of players, unless they need it- and not against the players, unless they need it. Basically, run the battle as you normally would, but if you see the PCs are taking a beating, reduce the bad guy's HP a little bit. If they manage to go against what you thought they would, and knock down three quarters of the bad guy's HP in a single round (as my PCs did with the Ebon Aspect), double its HP. It's been my experience that PCs tend to do a LOT better than you think they will, but only if you prepare an almost impossible battle. If you lower the challenge, either the players will feel cheated when they kill this (previously built-up and whispered in terror) bad guy in two rounds, or they'll somehow end up getting themselves killed by an obvious oversight.
So, in short, run it as you normally would, but ad-hoc the bad guy's HP until you felt you've built up enough terror and tension.
Thankyou for your input.
I've play tested the encounter few times and Ithane kills them all each time, even without her CR at 13! Even if they run, Ithane can track them down and eat their brains!
I have decided to only fudge if things get really desparate ie: if three or more members of the party go down.
I had a thought, while laid in bed this morning:
The halfelf wizard carries around Kullens axe, as a trophy so everyone in Krakens Tooth (Diamond Lake) knows he is not to be messed with.
I might have them notice (as they are running for cover) that the axe is now glowing with a white-hot radient energy. They should understand that this is unusual and has only ever happened in Ithanes presence. I will then describe how that once she notices the axe, she seems to become greatly agitated and almost fearful, rearing up with her snout-tentacles thrashing in barely contained rage at the sight of it.
So it turns out Kullens axe is a minor artifact or something, marked with the 'cerulean sign' and an anathema to abberrations etc. They have never bothered to get the axe identified, the half elf wizard often snidely refers to it as a:
"Glorified meatcleaver, barely worth owning if not for the chagrined looks it causes the thugs of Krakens Tooth to give me, its my grubby 'badge of office' in a town of petty scumbags."
Imagine how he will react to finding out it may save his life! LOL, I think I may just HAVE to do this?
Any ideas on how to stat this artifact out, I need to have it do the job of keeping them alive, reducing Ithanes threat to a more survivable level and yet not unbalance my campaign?
You may want to check out Weapons of Legacy.
We are due to play this weekend, so I dont have much time! :(
I have looked through the Weapons of Legacy book before and found it not to my liking, I could be wrong though as theres only so much you can process while stood in the corner of the local gamestore, those Magic the gathering guys can be very loud!
I might just try making something using the books I already own. I kind of want the axe to be pretty minor in the melee sense and awsome as a 'symbol' or warding device, perhaps it was never an axe at all, maybe the primative orcs who found it assumed it was a weapon and sharpened it into one, maybe the axe allowed this even?!
I could then work things into the plotline a little, saying the reason Ithane has now made her move while the PC's were away in the city, is because she feared Kullens axe! Once she 'felt' it go away from Krakens Tooth (Diamond Lake) she moved in for the kill! Yay! (It's all falling into place as I type!)
I just noticed that three of the PC's are about to level up, they need only a few more xp's each. Because I give out the xp at the start of each session it means that the human wizard, halfelf wizard and human ninja will all level up. However the party are still in an ambush situation and cant prepare spells or really make the most of any new tricks they might learn. The ninja's 6d6 sudden strike could come in handy but he will no doubt stay well away from Ithane, perhaps even more than 30feet away. The now 11th LV wizard will gain 6th level spells but wont have time to prepare them, he will start the game annoyed, he mentioned multiclassing into a prestige class before so I hope he can cope.
How would you come up with a save for the party? Should I go with the axe-idea or try something else?
Go with the axe idea, sounds good and should give the wizard a little shot for putting down the weapon.
However, if you are still concerned what if the dragon is over come with shock and falls back from the party at seeing the axe. The party can then flee, level up and prepare properly for the fight.
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The axe idea is a good one. Like you I also don't like killing pc's, no DM should imo, but then again that's another can of worms. Despite not liking it though I do kill them if it happens. Usually this is when they meet a boss monster/npc like for example Ilthane is in my campaign. The reason that Ilthane came back is that she is looking for the ones that meddled in it's affairs, the pc's. But from what I read in your post the axe surely is a nice idea, maybe it has a shine to it and it's actually a silver dragonscale that centuries ago was given to a tribe that had problems with a chromatic dragon and the silver not wanting to have it's involvement to be known left a scale imbued with some of it's powers (bane vs chromatic dragon or something ;). The primitiv tribe made an axe out of it and then used it to defeat the chromatic one. It only activates when it feels a chromatic in the neighborhood.
The axe idea is a good one. Like you I also don't like killing pc's, no DM should imo, but then again that's another can of worms. Despite not liking it though I do kill them if it happens. Usually this is when they meet a boss monster/npc like for example Ilthane is in my campaign. The reason that Ilthane came back is that she is looking for the ones that meddled in it's affairs, the pc's. But from what I read in your post the axe surely is a nice idea, maybe it has a shine to it and it's actually a silver dragonscale that centuries ago was given to a tribe that had problems with a chromatic dragon and the silver not wanting to have it's involvement to be known left a scale imbued with some of it's powers (bane vs chromatic dragon or something ;). The primitiv tribe made an axe out of it and then used it to defeat the chromatic one. It only activates when it feels a chromatic in the neighborhood.
This can cause problems later in the adventure path in the wormcrawl fissure when flights of cromatic dragons attack the group...
or i can be mistaken :)
I plan on dropping good hints that there will be dragons later in the AP so that players get ready for the action
Our Druid met the group after a vision of worms raining from the sky while he was surrounded by the party members in Epic gear and they where the only one´s he saw fighting of the horrors around them. I plan to start eacg session on him reciving some kind of omen of things to come (including the events in the free city arena and the return to the whispering cairn)
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In the case of a group that's much more story-oriented rather than rules-oriented, you can take a sort of "to hell with mechanics" approach in some special cases and things work out well and without grumbling.
I'm familiar with the brainstealers, a truly nasty creature. My question--did they take and keep any unusual artifact/item/bit of creature from the lair of the mind flayer sorcerer in "Hall of Harsh Reflections"? If so, that might work well as a counter to Ilthane's illithid nature.
The axe could work equally well, especially since your player has a sort of love/hate relationship with the item.
Or, perhaps those two items interact in some wholly unexpected way--even better if they are borne by different heroes and they need to combine forces to overcome the threat.
In either case, it doesn't seem like you'd want to have it be a one-shot-kill of the Ilthane you've created. You've got to have some mechanics in place to make the fight a truly epic one. Though, the longer it goes on, the more likely they are to be dying.... So, for mechanics, how 'bout making the axe an Aberration Bane? You could also toss in some other times-per-day effects, such as nullifying mind blasts or even turning them back on their point of origin. Give that last effect a 10' or 20' range, and you've again got the characters working closely together to face down the threat.
How to convey all of these powers? Go with a vision, blurry like the shadow world portrayed in the "Lord of the Rings" movies, or the flashbacks in "Underworld", that appears before the axe (or item's) bearer the first time he/she is subjected to the mind blast. The powers are revealed through the vision, and perhaps accompanied by some Knowledge (Arcana) checks.
If nothing else works, and things are grim, have the final power reveal itself: the weapon can channel the life force of its wielder to dispatch its chosen foe, but the weilder is lost in the process.
Or perhaps the soul is bound to the weapon (or item)...?
You may have really backed yourself into a corner with this beefed-up Ilthane. If they don't already know she's got a squid-face, you might want to run some mock combats as you've done already, but with different versions of her.
Have fun, and good luck!
Wait, are my DM ears hearing correctly? You don't want to eat the party's brains?! What is WRONG with you!
Just joking ;)
I also think the idea with the axe is interesting, and the Cerulean sign reference shows you're on the right track. I'd either stick with making it anti-aberration or anti-dragon, but either way you'd be golden. If you have access to the Eberron CS there are several abilities and spells that are heinous against aberrations, or if you have the Weapons of Legacy go with a modified Crimson Vengeance (the exact name escapes me... the greatsword that's a red-dragon hater).
My own 2c; a "turning" ability that works as Turn Undead, just aberration-focused instead. Use a set lvl to determine the turn modifier, or go with wielders' level -3, like a paladin, or even 1/2 wielder's CL.
Thanks for your replies, I am quite confident about the axe idea now, its good to know other DM's approve.
I am running the hair-raising next-episode later tonight, my telephone and mobile have been red-hot this morning as my players try to squeeze more information out of me, lol!
Players were asking me simple things like:
"Have I got enough xp to level up yet?"
And:
"If I die can I be a _________?"
To this question from the halfelf wizard:
"Did I feel sickened by the monsters presence, does the fear effect feel icy-cold like that produced by undead or something else, like a spell, did it make me feel sick to my stomach?"
The human ninja player sent me a text:
"Has the green worm entered Allustans body and turned him into the thing at the cairn, is it Allustan and can we talk to him, did it look like Allustan at all, was anything familiar about it, what about his eyes, do his eyes look like Allustan?"
The chaos monk/barbarian player asked me:
"Does the creatures flesh look soft enough to punch into, could I do a flying kick through it, I'm the fastest, what about if I ran back to Krakens Tooth, luring it into a ruin and impaling it on a beam from one of the destroyed houses, is it clever?"
Me: *silence*
Chaos monk/barbarian player: "What does my wolf think, does it smell like anything or anyone we have met before?"
:)
My players are going crazy, and have obvisously been talking to each other!
I'm looking forward to running the game, I have decided to stick to the axe idea now. The axe is an artifact that has now 'woken-up' and is indeed connected to the symbol of the cerulean sign or simular.
I am gonna have it 'tell' or 'emote' its abilties to which ever character decides to weild it.
It is able to make a 10' dome of radiant pearly-white energy surrounding the bearer. While the dome is activated the bearer of the axe cannot do anything except take a five foot step and speak as the item requires his focus to maintain the dome.
Anyone can enter or leave the dome as it only hurts evil-outsiders, evil-aberrations or evil-extraplanar creatures. If Ithane touches the dome she will suffer the effects of a heavenly burst (magical weapon ability from p.113 in the Book of Exalted Deeds, ie: take some damage and maybe go blind for one round, everytime the axe does a heavenly burst the weilder takes 1D2 temporary strength damage, I like this it means players may have to 'Pass the torch'. While inside the dome the party will gain a +2 bonus to Will Saves.) Ithane can still reach into the dome, it just hurts - lots! I might give the players a +2 to AC or Ithane a -2 to her attack rolls while they're in there as well, as shes hampered by the pain, like punching your hand into hot water to grap a fork out the kitchen sink. :)
Ithane 'knows' the axe from times long ago and will no doubt seek to weaken the user at the cost of a few of her own hit points.
I will play up her terrible anger and have her screaming and thrashing around, making noises like the alien queen from 'Aliens' I will, stand on my chair to tower over the players and imitate the alien queen body movements as best I can! I will be playing the aliens soundtrack loudly during this encounter to add to the perilous and urgent feeling of the scene.)
If used in melee the formerly +2 axe will act as a +4 against Ithane causing the heavenly burst on a succesful critical hit only, if used this way the axe will glow brightly in the same pearly white radience as before and make a high-pitched sound like a female falsetto/elven voice. It will drip a trail of white glyphs behind that hang in the air for a second before dissapearing.
I will really go to town on them with Ithane and give off the impression I am going to kill them all, I might try and kill the DMPC in a very nasty manner just to get the point across.
Now I am thinking. Say the players kill Ithane, should I have the axe turn black (like a spent Optimus Prime ;)) and then become mundane or even turn to ashes and blow away on the wind (because its purpose is now served) or should I let them keep it in one form or another?
If a player does die during the battle I suppose I could have the axe urge its bearer to take it to the fallen, where it will be placed onto the body/float over the corpse and return them to life in a magical display of holy power, then crumbles into dust or falls to the ground inert?
The thing is I want to do all this without it seeming like Im throwing them a bone?
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Good stuff! I hope it's fun in the end.
I'd have some display of magic where the hidden energy of the axe moves from it to the corpse of Ilthane, crystallizing her or turning her to ash or something appropriately dramatic. With that, the special power of the axe is spent, and it's forever marred with flecks of crystal/ash/whatever else Ilthane might become.
If you've read the "Age of Worms Overload", you'll know that there are some significant enemies in the future that are also aberrations, and you might not want them to have this advantage again in the future. That'd be my metagame rationale for de-powering it.