I am prepping Lich Queen for my group and was wondering how it went for other groups. We don't do very much high level adventuring, usually topping off around 15, so I am just curious how it holds up to most high level groups. Have any of you found it to be a tough high level, medium difficulty or mild. Any tips or advice is always welcome also.
Thanks in advance
the answer depends on your party. see, the lich queens' beloved adventure was written when the 3.5 books came out, and prior to a lot of the splat books which gave optimizers some pretty horrendous things to do. for a Core only game, the lich queen is going to be a tough encounter. for one that is optimized to the hilt with mixes of 3 or 4 prestige classes and horrendous magic items, it will be a 2 or 3 round battle, with you crying at the end of it. follow the tactics guide for her and you should be okay. know your players, run the encounter a few times before hand, and read up on every spell she has possible. remember, she has access to all of the arcane spells in every book, from the PHB, tome of magic, all the races books, all the splat books, etc. this is an encounter you need to prep for at least 3 or 4 times prior to play just to get all the kinks out of it. she makes use of extended time stop a lot, read up on what you can do with that spell in order to make her effective. if she gets into combat, she's done. don't let this happen. hope this helps.
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I ran it for a party whose average level was 18th, a total of six party members....they were dead in the throne room before the end of round 5. It was pretty awesome. The monk attempted to jump the obvious trap in the middle of the room and landed dead center in the trap. The power gaming dwarf from hell dimensioned doored in front of her and she killed him with a death spell.. it went downhill for the players after that.
I adored this module. It was the culmination of a 1.5 year FR campaign arc using the Githyanki Incursion material from Dragon/Dungeon. It was a peak in the previous campaign, lemme tell ya.
PCs at the time:
Rusk - male human barbarian 13/fighter 6/champion of Gwynharwyf 5
Khaltarah - male elf wizard 24/arch mage 1
Aldamar - male human cleric of Mystra 21/spellfire channeler 4
Remmy - male gnome sorcerer 9/rogue 6/arcane trickster 9
The PCs actually assaulted Tunarath itself, alongside powerful NPCs (no Realms' specific characters), cohorts, and summoned celestials (including hound archon and planatar paladins of Tempus, a ghaele eladrin barbarian, and Gwynharwyf herself (Exalted Deeds)... Good dragons battled red dragons in the Astral skies above, wizards and sorcerers clashed with githyanki warlocks... Astral ships... We had a lot of fun with the web enhancement.
Anyway, as the PC barbarian led the ground assault through legions of githyanki, nightmare knights, iron golems, and a pit fiend gated in by Vlaakith herself, the other three PCs (wizard, cleric, arcane trickster) waited to strike. Once Vlaakith used gate to call the pit fiend, the three PCs (along with their own cohorts and NPC allies... all spellcasters of one sort or another, a bladesinger, and a monk) used a portal provided by Zetch'rr to slip into the Palace and attack Vlaakith. The scry-and-die was out due to her casting mind blank so as to be warded 24/7, conveniently.
Having learned of the inner halls of the Palace through Zetch'rr, the group hastily moved into Vlaakith's throne room. One of her clones sat upon the throne, and she and her minions were ready. That battle was fierce, with the clone falling victim to the PC cleric's spellfire.
Vlaakith then called upon a b'kallash dreadnaught to fight for her. The awful beast crashed through the roof of Vlaakith's throne room... The barbarian took Eladrin form (artifact gauntlet) and flew in through the hole in the roof to lend his axe. In the end, its eye was put out by the arcane trickster, and the barbarian swept off its head.
Things got really hairy when the group encountered the real Vlaakith in the reliquary (room 38). The barbarian was immediately sucked up by the mirror, leaving three PCs and two NPCs to fight Vlaakith and all of her terrible minions. That battle was so intense. It lasted for a couple hours. Vlaakith dropped two horrid wiltings in one round, forcing the arcane trickster to teleport away to consume potions (lol). To make things interesting I had an insane red dragon (prismatic spray) clumsily shatter the mirror late in the battle, releasing its prisoners (and the barbarian... completely naked). Vlaakith was destroyed after some tense spell turning exchanges and a pair of chain acids (mastery of elements), one which I believe was empowered.
The duthkagith guards were pushovers... There were a few minor skirmishes that amounted to skillful killing on the PCs' part. The fiendish beholder and Xam'Kras were swept aside like grass. The two-headed red dragon guarding the phylactery was diced to pieces once it fell within full attack range of the barbarian (who wielded a +3 vorpal greataxe with deadly efficiency). A ranged sneak spell from the trickster ended the wyrm's life.
Once her phylactery was destroyed (smote into pieces by the barbarian's axe), the group used plane shift and greater teleport to return home, while the allied forces helped to set Zetch'rr up as the new leader of the githyanki, hoping to place a more trustworthy (or perhaps easier to control) leader on Tunarath's throne.
And the campaign moved on from there...
The Lich-Queen's Beloved was a great module. It inspired the Githyanki Incursion in my campaign, and it got me hooked on Dungeon. Thanks for that.
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I adored this module. It was the culmination of a 1.5 year FR campaign arc using the Githyanki Incursion material from Dragon/Dungeon. It was a peak in the previous campaign, lemme tell ya.
PCs at the time:
Rusk - male human barbarian 13/fighter 6/champion of Gwynharwyf 5
Khaltarah - male elf wizard 24/arch mage 1
Aldamar - male human cleric of Mystra 21/spellfire channeler 4
Remmy - male gnome sorcerer 9/rogue 6/arcane trickster 9The PCs actually assaulted Tunarath itself, alongside powerful NPCs (no Realms' specific characters), cohorts, and summoned celestials (including hound archon and planatar paladins of Tempus, a ghaele eladrin barbarian, and Gwynharwyf herself (Exalted Deeds)... Good dragons battled red dragons in the Astral skies above, wizards and sorcerers clashed with githyanki warlocks... Astral ships... We had a lot of fun with the web enhancement.
Anyway, as the PC barbarian led the ground assault through legions of githyanki, nightmare knights, iron golems, and a pit fiend gated in by Vlaakith herself, the other three PCs (wizard, cleric, arcane trickster) waited to strike. Once Vlaakith used gate to call the pit fiend, the three PCs (along with their own cohorts and NPC allies... all spellcasters of one sort or another, a bladesinger, and a monk) used a portal provided by Zetch'rr to slip into the Palace and attack Vlaakith. The scry-and-die was out due to her casting mind blank so as to be warded 24/7, conveniently.
Having learned of the inner halls of the Palace through Zetch'rr, the group hastily moved into Vlaakith's throne room. One of her clones sat upon the throne, and she and her minions were ready. That battle was fierce, with the clone falling victim to the PC cleric's spellfire.
Vlaakith then called upon a b'kallash dreadnaught to fight for her. The awful beast crashed through the roof of Vlaakith's throne room... The barbarian took Eladrin form (artifact gauntlet) and flew in through the hole in the roof to lend his axe. In the end, its eye was put...
WOW! Wishing i was in your compaign. Dont leave us hanging, Crust. I want to read more.
Thoth-Amon