I ran the Kuo-Toan shrine fight last weekend and figured the party would probably get through, but they might have a kind of a rough time with it if they handled it badly.
They handled it badly.
Aushanna's basic tactic after the first few rounds was to keep knocking the wizard and the hound archon unconscious so the cleric would spend all her time running back and forth, healing two pc's back to consciousness, even though they couldn't actually hurt Aushanna.
PC's, all 6th level:
Hound Archon
Dwarf Fighter, primarily axe/shield
Human Fighter, primarily long sword/shield
Dwarf Ranger, archer
Human cleric of Pelor
Fire Genasi wizard with Bloodline of Fire & signature spells, so 8th level fire attacks
Human Rogue, spiked chain wielder
Human 5 druid/1 Beastmaster, with a leopard companion
A couple minutes in the life of Aushanna:
first round: (poit) Okay, what now? Adventurers again? Hey... most of the Kuo-toans are down. This should be interesting... let's see, there's a fire genasi wizard. He probably can't hurt me, but it never hurts to be careful. (thunk) (plop) Well, that was easier than I expected... And there's plenty more to shoot... (thunk thunk miss). Tee hee. (critted the wizard, 44 hp. Wizard is at -7 but regenerating 3/round).
Party: apparently didn't get the "44 hp in one shot" message and ignores her.
Aushanna: Let's see... there's a cleric going to heal the wizard. Can't have that. (thunk miss miss miss). Dang. That's some good armor.
Party: wails on the kuo-toans some more.
Aushanna: Oh, look. The wizard's up again. (thunk) (plop). Hee hee... oh, look. They have an archer. (thunk thunk miss).
party: (miss miss)
Aushanna: Okay, the archer's not much of a threat. What else do they ... holy crap, I'm hovering next to a hound archon! (flap flap flap Unholy Blight). Boy, it must suck to be a good Outsider. That looked like it really hurt. Oh, and now they have a second archer.
party: (thunk thunk miss miss) Ow. Quit it.
Aushanna: Ah, I see the cleric is going to heal the archon. I'll see if... oh, my. A dwarf who thinks she's an archer. (thunk thunk miss miss).
party: (thunk thunk miss miss miss miss miss) Ow. Quit it.
Aushanna: Okay, they have two dwarf archers. That's just wrong. (crit thunk thunk miss)
party: (thunk thunk thunk thunk thunk miss miss) Thank you, Damage Reduction!
Aushanna: Oh, the cute widdle wizard thinks he can (zap) ow. Fine. (thunk thunk) (plop) hee hee. Where'd that archon go? (thunk miss).
party: (thunk thunk miss miss miss miss miss) Ow. Quit it.
Aushanna: (big bad guy head evil Cleric type shows up and distracts half the party from fighting the devil) Let's see if those people down there are my sworn enemies (Unholy blight) dang.
party: (thunk thunk miss miss miss miss miss) Ow. Quit it.
Aushanna: Those archers are really beginning to piss me off. (miss miss miss miss) WTF?
party: (thunk thunk miss miss miss miss miss) Ow. Quit it.
Aushanna: Those archers are really beginning to piss me off. (thunk miss miss miss)
party: (thunk thunk miss miss miss miss miss) Ow. Quit it.
Aushanna: Those archers are really beginning to piss me off. (thunk miss miss miss)
Aushanna: Aw, crap. I'm out of arrows. Hey, you, human archer. I wink the suggestive eye of charming compulsion at you. Could you lend me your quiver? I'm out of arrows.
Aushanna: Hah hah, now I have your arrows!
druid: warp wood on the arrows; good thing they aren't magic...
Aushanna: Okay, that's pissing me off pretty badly now. Fighter, do you have a magic sword? Good, give it to me.
Archon: takes sword from fighter.
Aushanna: This is probably not going to end well...
party: Cleric begins to pray for divine intervention because she's out of healing, the wizard has nothing that can affect her, the fighters are starting to fail their saves, and none of the melee types has any potions of flight. leopard companion leaps, bites, falls 60 feet, lands on all fours (meaty thud).
Aushanna: Well, that was entertaining... Fine, I'll use this stupid nonmagical long sword. (hack hack)
Leopard: (far) run run run run run (near). Cleric summons celestial griffin.
Aushanna: (Unholy blight) Still a good Outsider, I see, mr. Hound Archon.
Leopard: Pounce (hits with bite and two claws, bears Aushanna to the ground). Griffin: pounce rend tear.
Aushanna: stupid griffin (dies).
Celestial griffin, to party: "Buy potions." (poit)
Wow - thats some fight you had.
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I like the combat description.
But I'm beginning to worry for my party. When (if) they face Aushanna they will likely be 6th or 7th level as well, but have only 5 party members, and no animal companions or anything, and no real ranged attack experts. Well, they are ok at ranged combat, but its not their area of expertise.
Did you advance Aushanna at all? If not, maybe I should suggest they hire some help for the Zenith mission...
I would say to stick to the official timeline, i.e., she arrives two minutes after the first non-evil person walks into the shrine. That way the party can mop up the kuo-toans and be healed up before she shows up; you might want to jigger the time a little so she doesn't show up at the same time the High Priest of the Unspellable Name shows up. In my game, except for one kuo-toan who must have been blessed by Blibdoolpoolp, they were all down by the end of the fourth round. None of this "hold out until Aushanna shows up" malarkey.
Also, just give her 20 arrows if they're being way too effective.
Sometimes, a party can always just run.
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Sometimes, a party can always just run.
Very true.
Unfortunately not every party realises this :-|
Also, running from an enemy who has the advantage of flight, decent movement and ranged attacks is not always as effective as you'd like it to be. Of course, Aushanna only has a limited time to do her stuff, so this could help.
Also, if the party runs, technically, Aushanna's job is to defend the temple. If the spanked adventurers are running like a bunch of frightened children, it's Miller time.
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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Colin, this was one of the most amusing play-by-plays of a fight scene that I've ever read. Bravo!
I, too, have noticed that it requires insurmountable odds before a party will run in this game. If the party THINKS they can win somehow, they won't run. I once had a party of 10th level characters encounter an 9th level vampire ranger in a cavern. He kept shooting them from across a chasm and they couldn't spot him to save their lives. When they finally did see him, they unloaded... and did next to no damage to him. That's when they finally got the point and bolted, just in time for their own ranger to get dropped to -2. Hooray for clerics!
CEO
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I just ran this battle and it was as tough as advertised. The first time, the players handled the Kuo-Toas fairly easily, but it took most of the two minutes and BAM, there is Aushanna. The poor party really didn't have a chance. After a few rounds of fighting, with haste wearing off and spells gone, they fled like little children out the front door.
So they go back to Cauldron, heal up, restock what they can, and come back for more. This time they run in Dhorlot, the black dragon. Now Dhorlot has taken over as leader of the Kuo-Toa because Zenith is upstairs in his smoking eye induced ramblings. Dhorlot makes a deal that the characters can get free passage up to Zenith and he won't attack as long as they don't attack "his children," the Kuo-Toa. The characters go up, fight Zenith, kill him, a character gets assassinated, they kill they assassin. Then when they try to go back downstairs, there is Aushanna. Seems it took them over two minutes from when they crossed the threshold. She starts to lay waste to the characters, but this time they are ready with fly and the beefy fighter types take it to her. Meanwhile, the Kuo-Toa attack the characters, but the characters won't attack back because of their deal with the dragon. It was really funny watching the Kuo-Toa attack with impunity. Dhorlot just sits and waits. The party kills Aushanna finally, but the rogue is down and surrounded by Kuo-Toa. The party's sorceror casts glitter dust on the Kuo-Toa. And then Dhorlot steps in. Seems he found this to be an attack on "his children." A few rounds later, many Kuo-Toa are dead, Dhorlot is barely hurt but he can see his children dying. So when the party parlays to just get out of there and break off the attack, Dhorlot agrees. The party runs. Again.
The party is probably going to try to track the dragon down, but he has had time to regroup. Should be a fun battle.
-Lisa