did anyone else have a problem with the ulgurstasta sorcerer in Into the Wormcrawl Fissure having a 21 CR? my party chopped him up toot sweet, after dropping a greater dispel magic on him. with 6 rounds spent buffing himself and travelling, he didn't make it to the fight with the centipedes and scorpions until there was only 1 centipede left. he took one shot from a heal spell and got the heck out of dodge. then, when the PCs caught him in his lair, they GDMed him, and chopped him into little wormy pieces before he got to take his second action.
i should have caught this initially, but with a 25 AC, SR 21, and only 153 hp (after his false life is dispelled), it's not surprising that he didn't last long against 5 18th level characters. i was just a bit disappointed by how quickly he went down.
so, this is just my shout out to other DMs to maybe buff him a bit more (or just give him some more tactically advantageous terrain to run and hide in).
o
Creative Director
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This is yet another example of how the CR system breaks down at high level, especially once you hit 20 or above. It's particulalry bad with monsters like constructs and undead who have glass jaws when it comes to their hit points due to the lack of a Constitution score. With good planning combined with luck, a high-level/near-epic party can take out some really tough monsters with ease, but had the dice fallen another way or the tactics been a bit looser, you would have had a TPK on your hands. But in cases where the PCs defeat a high-CR monster with ease, don't worry. The PCs are high level, and it's good to FEEL like you're high level. Nothing does that more than taking down a high-CR monster with apparent ease. If every single fight is an edge-of-the-seat peril-filled menace, you don't feel a sense of growing power. You can have fights like that at 1st level.
It's funny, but the Mother Worm (KotR) played out the same way. I even bumped it to CR 22. But, alas, some monsters are meant to play out as BBEGs, and others can only progress in many respects as monsters leading up to the BBEG. N'Vesh-N'Kar, cool as he is as a spellcasting ulgurstasta, has abyssmal hit points, being undead and a spellcaster. That's his "kryptonite" as I call it.
Every player and monster has a weakness, and what's interesting is that the more challenging an encounter should be (i.e. with a high-EL encounter), the weaknesses seem to increase. This is, of course, because a foe with a CR that is appropriate to any given encounter is going to be because of a foe who has specialized in one avenue of gameplay. As they progress, they fall behind in many others, as their abilities spike. It happens with PCs, as well, and in many ways, more so.
N'Vesh-N'Kar just has more than his fair share of weaknesses. One disintegrate from a halfway serious spellcaster, and he's already gone.
Mother Worm was easy for your party Hierophantasm? True my party didn't have too hard of a time with her but that was largely because I had made a technical ruling error. Turns out that her paralysing touch is an extraordinary ability and Freedom of movement wouldn't have prevented it. Freedom of Movement only technicly works on magic that prevents or impairs movement and grappling. I e-mailed WoTC about it and that's the ruling they gave me. No one in my party could possibly make that save to prevent paralysis.
You are right though that N'Vesh-N'Kar is rather weanie in the grand scheme of things. Most creatures in the last few adventures can barely even hit my PC's by anything short of a natural 20.
the mother worm was, i felt, a wonderfully created adversary, because she nearly wiped out the party (killed a beloved cohort) and sent them all packing the first time they encountered her. after sizing her up and going back in with some specific spells and tactics designed to tackle her acid spit and paralysis attacks, she was a challenging but defeatable opponent.
I haven't quite gotten to Wormcrawl Fissure yet, but I'm noticing that the PCs can handle CRs 4-6 above their level. For example, I had them encounter a wormdrake at 15th level and they beat it. Granted, I removed its gate ability, but I still figured they would have to run away. Perhaps my tactics weren't great, and perhaps I went too easy on them in the beginning of the battle. All said, it was a great fight, just one I didn't expect to lose :)
Sir VulgarPasta Sorcerer went down in three rounds in my game, thanks to a Windwalking, Path-Finding buffed group of heroes who had at him before he got any buffs off. I think he got off a horrid wilting. More terrifying were the other denizens within and some minor tweaking on my part (see thread "Near TPK in the Apostle Caves")
The Mother Worm scared the bejeezus out of my characters when they initially encountered it. For some reason, only half the party could get past the hundreds of carrion crawlers to face the mother, so they fought it about half strength and missing many spells. Its full attack was what did it. I never missed, and focusing its entire wrath nearly killed a PC a turn. The acid ray was a surprise I saved for the second encounter that I knew would follow. They ended up running, resting, getting nearly waxed while the slept by Zyxanth, and having another go at the thing, with much better results. Wow...I didn't realize that Freedom of Movement didn't cover extraordinary abilities. That's huge in my game... What do you do against DC 40-something?? SHoot and Run?
Anyway, I had something weird happen in mine: The spirit shaman attempted to turn incorporeal and go into the worm for the key. I ruled no, since his incorporeal form couldn't manipulate the key even if he were able to even find it amisdst the acid juices and what-not. By the rules, I guess an incorporeal creature can enter another creature's space, but I was being as strict as possible about it. He probably could have cut free if he discorporated and grabbed it...Then again, with DR Epic, maybe not...I kind of wish I'd let him do it now, but I really wanted them to fight the worm. It's so cool...
There's a great feat in the Tome of Horrors II or III called Death's Blessing that allows an undead creature to use Cha instead of Con for bonus HP. It gets a lot of use in my AoW game. >:D
Mother Worm was easy for your party Hierophantasm? True my party didn't have too hard of a time with her but that was largely because I had made a technical ruling error. Turns out that her paralysing touch is an extraordinary ability and Freedom of movement wouldn't have prevented it. Freedom of Movement only technicly works on magic that prevents or impairs movement and grappling. I e-mailed WoTC about it and that's the ruling they gave me. No one in my party could possibly make that save to prevent paralysis.
While the grappling was an oversight on my part--I just went with a lot of full attacks--the party's saving grace was thanks to a heroes feast, negating the effects of the carrion crawler poison, not to mention the hallucinatory mushrooms. I can see how, without it, any given party would have a rough time with all the effects triggering in this fight, but with all the carrion crawler juices flying around in the Rift Crawler's lair, it's practically a giveaway to use it.
It's attack was diminished significantly, thanks to our cleric casting Moon Bolt (dealing 16 Strength damage; Spell Comp.) and our wizard laying on thick enervations/energy drain.