My party should reach this encounter this evening, I have been waiting for it since we began soul pillars. They do know Vittris is here (letter in the Temple of Wee Jas), however they dont know how close.
Any ideas on this encounter?
My group is in the same spot, it gives tactics, I'm going to try and keep him on the ceiling and such using his spiderclimb ability, Have him rain spell and breath on the casters. If he can isolate one of the fighters then maybe swoop in for a full attack.
How did these fights go? I am reading ahead and he looks like a party killer! Paralyzing touch DC26 with every melee hit?!?!
I am actually considering removing him or maybe weakening him in some way.
Experiences gratefully received....
The best part of the Vittriss Bale encounter is its completion is not essential to move the storyline along. All the useful information has usually already been attained from Fetor Abradius's room. In fact the only incentive for the PC's to undertake this brutal encounter is to get XP for Vittriss and recover his hoard.
But its fun to use it as an opportunity to give the PC's an unholy beating, especially if they made quick work of the other denizens of Karran-Kural.
The way I ran the encounter was this:
When Vittriss becomes aware of the party coming down the corridor via the alarm spell, he casts mirror image, mage armor etc. on himself and climbs above the entranceway using spider climb. The hapless party stands on the ledge gawking at the soul pillars and the ice bridge unaware of the pending doom lurking directly above them. One of the PCs may look up at the ceiling, or if they don't have a drop of acid land on somebody's shoulder (from Vittriss ramping up for his breath weapon attack). As soon as everybody looks up, they'll see up to half of dozen nasty as hell dracoliches leering down at them. Have everybody make their Will saves vs. his Frightful Presence at this time. Since the DC is 26, a lot of them won't make the save and suddenly find themselves petrified, unable to move as he unleashes his devastating tempest breath weapon. This will knock all but the largest characters prone and even large size creatures will be checked and unable to run away against the blast. If you want to be really nasty, have Vittriss do his petrifying gaze attack to get anybody who wasn't affected by the Frightful Presence effect. After that, Vittriss will drop down and start ripping up immobilized PC's with his savage improved multiattacks.
My group barely survived the first two rounds and wasn't able to land a single blow against him before the party wizard recovered from the fear effect and teleported everybody out.
The best part of the Vittriss Bale encounter is its completion is not essential to move the storyline along. All the useful information has usually already been attained from Fetor Abradius's room. In fact the only incentive for the PC's to undertake this brutal encounter is to get XP for Vittriss and recover his hoard.
But its fun to use it as an opportunity to give the PC's an unholy beating, especially if they made quick work of the other denizens of Karran-Kural.
The way I ran the encounter was this:
When Vittriss becomes aware of the party coming down the corridor via the alarm spell, he casts mirror image, mage armor etc. on himself and climbs above the entranceway using spider climb. The hapless party stands on the ledge gawking at the soul pillars and the ice bridge unaware of the pending doom lurking directly above them. One of the PCs may look up at the ceiling, or if they don't have a drop of acid land on somebody's shoulder (from Vittriss ramping up for his breath weapon attack). As soon as everybody looks up, they'll see up to half of dozen nasty as hell dracoliches leering down at them. Have everybody make their Will saves vs. his Frightful Presence at this time. Since the DC is 26, a lot of them won't make the save and suddenly find themselves petrified, unable to move as he unleashes his devastating tempest breath weapon. This will knock all but the largest characters prone and even large size creatures will be checked and unable to run away against the blast. If you want to be really nasty, have Vittriss do his petrifying gaze attack to get anybody who wasn't affected by the Frightful Presence effect. After that, Vittriss will drop down and start ripping up immobilized PC's with his savage improved multiattacks.
My group barely survived the first two rounds and wasn't able to land a single blow against him before the party wizard recovered from the fear effect and teleported everybody out.
Ah, so you reckon its more of a "Bloody hell, let's get out of here before we all die" encounter where they are not really intended to defeat him?
Can he pursue them into the ruins?(I don't have the book handy right now.
When I read Vittrus's stat block it seemed to me that his petrifiyng gaze is an ongoing effect kinda like an umberhulks confusing gaze. Is that right? Or does he have to use a standard action to force the effect on someone?
It was a great fight for the first two rounds, then the PC Cleric beat SR, hit with a Heal, and the DM rolled a 1 on the save.
Game over!
It was great as a DM you have to like it when the PC's uses his big bad as spell/weapon/ability and lays the evil dragon out cold.
All gaze attacks have dual modes unless specified otherwise. Passively, they work against anyone who is looking at the creature (affecting targets on their own initiative), leaving the creature free to use other attacks. However, potential targets may avert or close their eyes in order to attempt to avoid having to make a save against the effect. The creature, though, may choose to use a standard action to actively target an enemy with its gaze, attempting to force a save against the effect, though this has a chance of failing (50% for eyes averted, 100% for eyes closed).
Well I've read ahead as well and I've already decided to take this encounter out. My characters are just now finishing Chapter 4 and starting Chapter 5 and are already sick-to-death with the dragon encounters. They had two in one chapter (the red and black) and then are set to encounter another in Chapter 5 (another black, plus a half-black dragon as well :-\ ). I love running dragon encounters as they are usually the absolute toughest thing a party faces...but 4 dragon-ish encounters in three chapters? With a maxed out dracolich built to utterly destroy parties as the wrap up? A bit too much.
I wish I had cut out Dhorlot in Chapter 4 already as he was a useless encounter, but alas, I did not.
So I've decided to replace Vittris Bale with a 'hellweaver' from a "Dragon" issue two months back. I've going to "decorate" the final chamber with the soul pillar with thousands upon thousands of chains, with various body parts strewn about. Then add in a devil-spider made of wrapped chains climbing through the place picking up character after character...just sounds a bit more fun than the "next dragon encounter." :-)
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My characters are ... already sick-to-death with the dragon encounters. They had two in one chapter (the red and black) and then are set to encounter another in Chapter 5
Heh. Try running AoW... It's got an entire chapter FULL of dragons. In many ways, what I've heard about AP3 so far reads to me as, "what we do when our readers are 'dragoned out'."
My players managed to defeat him with a well-placed heal from the cleric who never casts any agressive spells.
What did ypur players with his Phylactery? My players didn't know he was a dracolich (I don't think they even realized such a thing existed). They just took everything from his lair and sold it. So now Vitriss is trapped in his Phylactery but out there somewhere. I think I'm going to use him sometimes later, maybe I'll save him for Age of Worms.
I have placed some clues towards his true nature in the 'library'. They have now figured out he's a dracolich but they still don't seem to realise they've sold away his Phylactery.
They have now figured out he's a dracolich but they still don't seem to realise they've sold away his Phylactery.
Could be interesting during Foundation of Flame...
They have now figured out he's a dracolich but they still don't seem to realise they've sold away his Phylactery.Could be interesting during Foundation of Flame...
Unfortunately they went to Sigil to sell the treasure they had gathered. I'm considering having someone show up at a later date complaining about the fact they sold him a Dracolich Phylactery. Or maybe I'll just leave things as they are and let him become an ally of Dragotha if I ever run Age of Worms.