Since Kyuss's final locale is situated above the massive spire, I'm wondering how much he is aware of any fights taking place beneath his location and what he can do to influence the battle. I don't necessarily mean raining Gates and other nastiness during the heroe's ascent of the spire, but I'm wondering if he is able to see and sense the heroes as they climb and fight his minions beforehand. Can he cast prepratory spells before he immerges?
This stems mainly from a screw-up on my part with Lashonna. The problem is that she died really easily, and this comes partly from the fact that I didn't really look at her stats or evaluate her enough before running her. I wanted her to be big and bad, but she got honed in four rounds, and really because I simply didn't adjust her like I have some of the other encounters. Running with six players, plus cohorts, Gated creatures and a resurrected Vulras and freed Hemriss spelled certain doom for Lashonna, and I feel that as a beloved BBEGal, she deserves more.
Initially, I planned on allowing her the use of Astral Projection until I realized that this wouldn't work in Tenser's epic D-Lock field. I'm thinking that a simple Wish or Miracle would undo her last action of combat (an ineffectual breath) by Kyuss, prompting her to flee the battle instead so she can make one final appearance. The players know that there are one final set of guardians before Kyuss (Maralee and crew), but again, I doubt this will be tough enough to stem their advance, so I plan on having Lashonna making one more showing. Is this too DM-in-love-with the NPC- cheating? I do want to make the end memorable, and we're taking about gods and heralds, after all. (even Rank 0 gods) Advice would be appreciated, as the Wormgod makes his appearance in four days...
So Lashonna bit the big one. That happens. Great NPC or no, I almost never "hit the rewind button" on fights. I can't tell you how nonplussed I was when Ilthane (the first dragon in the AP, mind you) was petrified with one spell, before she even got her first action. Que cera, cera...
Anyway, this question crossed my mind as well, because of Kyuss' Divine Blast ability, in particular. While I generally assume a ray of this nature to require line of sight, the thought of a divine blast of writhing green worms shooting directly at the PCs from far above seemed so cool...
But, in truth, I would assume no. If he's in that little demiplane/prison/whatever it is at the top of the spire, it's unlikely that he has the ability to affect anything until he actually breaks free (see Part Five: The Age of Worms, p.80 of the article for the effects of "breaking his rusty cage").
Still, if you're looking to challenge your PCs with a fight--perhaps to make up for Lashonna's last stand--consider keeping a few of the auto-buffs Kyuss has up before the fight (+20 insight bonus to AC, Divine Rank 1, etc) to make the fight more vicious. One ability you may want to give him is the ability to automatically bust out of his monolith, not wasting a round he hardly has to spare. Another variant on this might be that he is "invulnerable" until he completes his emergence. This is nice, because it could convince shoot-from-the-hip PCs to waste resources in the first round that Kyuss would otherwise eat up.
Another way to buff Kyuss might be to give him a "divine grace"-type ability, which would grant him a +16 to his saves. This is pretty much useful if your party uses a lot of save or (blank) spells. Another ability--while a bit weird--might be to give him a variant on the unholy toughness ability, (i.e. giving him bonus hp equal to his HD x Cha mod), thus giving him an extra 480hp.) Just think of Kyuss with 1140hp. :)
Anyway, if nothing else, consider having him use one of his minions as his familiar (like Maralee) to deliver touch spells, etc.
Kyuss can't cast spells out of the monolith.
What about preperatory spells?
|
Just out of curiosity, how would Astral projection change anything - unless, of course, Lashonna is actually on some outer plane and is projecting herself onto Oerth? But if she is, why is she keeping all that stuff in area A11? All that should be kep where her physical body rests, especially Baalphegor's Grace.
Just out of curiosity, how would Astral projection change anything - unless, of course, Lashonna is actually on some outer plane and is projecting herself onto Oerth? But if she is, why is she keeping all that stuff in area A11? All that should be kep where her physical body rests, especially Baalphegor's Grace.
Like I explained, a contingency against death. Astral projection says nothing about not being able to re-project on the material plane in an astral body, so a caster or user of the spell could test the waters against a given enemy without fear of destruction. If their astral body is destroyed, back to the real one. She is already aware that her lair has been completely ransacked, and would have probably taken some contingency to increase her longevity should this event occur. I've never pictured Lashonna as the overconfident type, yet I had little time before the fight to prepare her properly. By that, I mean adjusted for a party of six PCs with an entourage of followers. I ran her as is, and she got wiped. Even after fighting four broodfiends previously and an undead entourage guarding the first level, she was no match. It was kind of depressing and pretty anticlimatic... I wanted to give her one last appearance, especially since one of the players couldn't make the fight. Anyways, I'm sure Kyuss will have a nasty trick or two to play during the final fight. I don't look forward to the prospect of my PCs mopping two major villians back to back, especially after the previous climatic fights against Dragotha and the rest of the Kings of the Rifts.
Well, when it comes right down to it, Kyuss can do whatever you want him to. You're the DM.
If you think he's in need of a boost, rock on. I should warn, though. Kyuss looks like the kind of NPC who you could find becomes quickly out of control, and too powerful to beat. Gauge your PCs capabilities, and make the fight the kind of fight you want.
So Lashonna bit the big one. That happens. Great NPC or no, I almost never "hit the rewind button" on fights. I can't tell you how nonplussed I was when Ilthane (the first dragon in the AP, mind you) was petrified with one spell, before she even got her first action. Que cera, cera...
Yeah, I never have hit the "rewind" button before, even when entire parties have been slain. I probably shouldn't start now. Nonetheless, if Kyuss is able to grant spells to followers and influence the material plane, how is he not aware of heroes progressing intently towards his doom? Stasis or not, how can he be completely oblivious to all that happens around him?! I'm sure it takes a great amount of effort to break free from the prison, but it just strikes me as odd that a deity wouldn't be prepared in any shape or form for his slayers. His stats are pretty good, but once debuffed by the loss of faith and negative energy portal, he is just begging to get killed in three rounds, especially taking an extra round to immerge. My PCs have the Sphere and have not used it yet. This means that Kyuss will probably spend every attack on the PC wizard manning the artifact (this assumes that the wizard even lets Kyuss get within attack range or affects him w/ a spell)while the other 5 PCs (one of whom also has the Hand of Vecna) plus cohorts gang up on him. Deadsville, population: Kyuss. No disrespect intended to the wonderful authors of these awesome modules, as I understand the need for an "official" response to the Kyuss's power limitations; for my part, I'm giving Kyuss the ability to project himself as a man before he fights the party in his statted form. The whole "Raar! I'm an angry god of death! Here I come!!" bit kind of strikes me as cheesy. He should get some words in before he fights at least...if not spells so he doesn't go down in three rounds.I guess this would be called scaling for an average 21-22 level party of 6...
Imagine what I must have to do, with seven gestalt PCs who get a feat every level... :o They're like superheros at 11th level!
The way I see it is that Kyuss can only accomplish relatively passive actions while in the monolith. So, his remote sensing ability works, but he cannot cast spells or use most of his abilities. However, I am allowing him to use his ability to designate any follower as a familiar... and the PCs will encounter his familiar instead of Maralee. The familiar will have Maralee's stats, but will look like the pic of Kyuss in SoLS. I'm hoping that they will think it is actually him.