If you know there is no chance that the party will talk with Moreto, and instead instantly fry the guy, have him send out the morgs first. There's a chance the cleric will use up his Sudden feats on them instead. If not make sure Moreto uses his wand of enervation on the cleric asap. That might force him to lose those pesky high level spells. And if they kill Moreto without talking with him, they will have some difficulty figuring out how to safely handle the Seal of Law.
If your cleric is that focused on undead-blasting, Moreto's swift demise seems fair to me. Players love it when their turbo-build pays off big.
However, it can make a cool NPC seem surprisingly lackluster. Life Ward came recommended on another post as a way for undead to hold up against positive energy, I think. (I haven't checked it yet, but it's in the Spell Comp--I think--as well.)
You could play the odds a bit, and offer Moreto some kind of concealment/displacement. This at least gives the targeted spell a miss chance. If you player can't see in the dark, allow for the ghoul-light lantern to be dropped and extinguished as a free action, thus "putting out the lights". Sure a light spell will fix it, but that's someone's action, and there may still be a chance for concealment.
Or, since Moreto's a spellcaster, good old blur/displacement seems reasonable. Perhaps Moreto cast an alarm spell (with mental cue) near the bottom of the waterfall, giving him enough time to cast this short-duration spell. Either way, this can at least give him a sporting chance.
If I am doing my math right, this will do 13d12 (Due to being an Evil Undead) maximized and empowered (full damage x 1.5) for a total of 234 points of damage. No Save. Zilch.
As an aside, the empowered damage of a maximized spell is not maximized. You just roll the normal damage again, and divide that result by 2. You then add the result to the original damage.
In other words, the bolt of glory would do 156 + (13d12/2). That's still no small potatoes.
If I am doing my math right, this will do 13d12 (Due to being an Evil Undead) maximized and empowered (full damage x 1.5) for a total of 234 points of damage. No Save. Zilch.
As an aside, the empowered damage of a maximized spell is not maximized. You just roll the normal damage again, and divide that result by 2. You then add the result to the original damage.
In other words, the bolt of glory would do 156 + (13d12/2). That's still no small potatoes.
Where did you find this rule? Both feats say "all numerical effects" so why wouldn't they work together as behemoth stated?
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6
|
Where did you find this rule? Both feats say "all numerical effects" so why wouldn't they work together as behemoth stated?
The wording for that is under Maxmimize Spell, but it crosses a page boundary, so you have to keep reading past the apparent end of the feat to find it. Unfortunate layout choice. Here is the text from the SRD:
MAXIMIZE SPELL [METAMAGIC]
Benefit: All variable, numeric effects of a spell modified by this feat are maximized. Saving throws and opposed rolls are not affected, nor are spells without random variables. A maximized spell uses up a spell slot three levels higher than the spell’s actual level.
An empowered, maximized spell gains the separate benefits of each feat: the maximum result plus one-half the normally rolled result.
Russ
The odds are stacked against Moreto, the friendly undead underdark traveling chap. Knowing this, I elected to not have him be accompanied by Mohrgs; I tried to pull this encounter off with a little of a twist. The guy is undead and evil - sure. But I tried to put him in the best possible light (no pun intended), that is, not give the players any reason to kill him. He offered information and pleasantries, after all, we're just adventurers crossing paths....good day to you all.
It didn't go as envisioned. One of the characters is decidedly anti-undead, and would have no part in Moreto's parlay. Poor, poor Moreto.
Man...I hate that bolt of glory spell! That's really what was responsible for killing Lashonna (That and the priest who cast it ALtered Fate on getting his head chopped off by an Erinyes)Moreto is one of the more human bagduys in my opinion. Play him like that. Disguise self may give the Cleric pause if he thinks hes's about to whack a lost explorer. Entropic shield and blur/displacement/blink are all low level defensive measures that will at least give him maybe a round. If you really feel like cheating (or just want to make Moreto more memorable) give Moreto an amulet of "Life Ward" (spell compendium).In my game, Moreto went down in two rounds, but he almost had the PCs convinced that they should escort him out of the tomb (rolled nat 1 on 3rd bluff check and he flat out stated that he was looking for Dragotha..zot!zot!zot!" Hopefully he lasts longer in your game; I think his character concept is quite cool.
Edit: whoops Hierophantasm beat me too the punch!
Toughen his cadre of Mohrgs by using some (or all) of the ones in WoTC's 'Elite Opponents-Mohrgs' article(08/2004). I had a party of six against him so this was practically mandatory. Although the heroes were all neutrally-aligned, the (LN)Priest of St. Cuthbert initiated hostilities immediately after realizing whom they were talking to...
And for the love of Pelor, give that poor boy some ranks in concentration!
Seriously, look at his stat block.
We dirt-napped Moreto with a single casting of Slapping Hand. Failed concentration check, attacks of opp from the ranger, palladin, spelltheif, and cleric. Cleric turned morghs, ranger and pally mopped up.
Toughen his cadre of Mohrgs by using some (or all) of the ones in WoTC's 'Elite Opponents-Mohrgs' article(08/2004). I had a party of six against him so this was practically mandatory. Although the heroes were all neutrally-aligned, the (LN)Priest of St. Cuthbert initiated hostilities immediately after realizing whom they were talking to...
I actually swapped out the Mohrgs for a couple of CR-equivalent baddies from the Book of Vile Darkness, namely an Eye of Fear and Flame, and a Vilewight. These guys can offer a little more ranged support, and I generally like Vilewights over Mohrgs anyway.
|
For the first time in my campaign's existence, the pc's actually talked to the undead ghoul Moreto and told him about flycatcher's plans. Moreto offered them the seal and they took it and left the ghoul alone. The pc's continued to kick themselves after the fact saying that they should have killed the foul creature when they had the chance. It was really eating them up, so I had Moreto jump them while they were fighting flycatcher at the end of the adventure. Both of our undead hating pc's vowed to never let the group talk them in to bargaining with a ghoul again. :)
Behemoth, sounds to me like you are reaping the "rewards" of allowing the players to have anything they want. A word of advice: next time you run a campaign, learn to say no to certain character options. Bolt of glory is one of those spells I take exception to. It turns clerics into blasters when they are supposed to be support.
Bolt of Glory or not, I think Moreto suffers from the typical arcane caster's achilles heel, namely anyone who can get up close can pound him very quickly (as can any group with heavy-hitting spells). From memory, my group took him out in a single round, which was not unexpected; perhaps my choice of first action for him was sub-optimal, but really, it was only ever going to be a couple of rounds before he got pounded; his only chance was for him and his allies to roll high on init and get enough of his support crew up close to the PC's. And this is after I gave him two extra levels of sorc. But I always knew he wouldn't last long no matter what I did, so I had him try to talk to the PC's as long as possible (which was not very long; they quickly decided he was evil and needed to die).
I actually swapped out the Mohrgs for a couple of CR-equivalent baddies from the Book of Vile Darkness, namely an Eye of Fear and Flame, and a Vilewight. These guys can offer a little more ranged support, and I generally like Vilewights over Mohrgs anyway.
This is a good idea; an Eye of Fear and Flame is something I've always wanted to include but never found the right place. Not sure it would make a huge difference, except maybe help deflect all the attention from Moreto...
Maybe it's just me, and I don't have my rulebooks handy, but how in the world is your cleric at his level able to cast a maximized 6th level spell? Doesn't that require using a ninth level slot, which he doesn't have? Empowered I understand, as there are a couple of items they could have found that grant the ability to cast empowered spells, but I don't recall anything that gives the ability to cast maximized.
Brings me to my strategy of ensuring that the group meets some of Moreto's minions first. Maybe even introduce an 'Aide' for Moreto...another True Ghould but of lower level, basically a red herring (or red shirt :) ) who would meet the party first on Moreto's behalf and probably get blasted under the assumption he was Moreto :)
Sounds like Allan Quartermain (Sean Connery's character) in the movie of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. He had a friend pretend to be him to put off curiousity seekers. When a group killed that friend in front of him, he got the drop on them.
An additional option is a spell (beleive it was in the Spell Compendium) that prevents you from being dropped below 1 hp...might be a good safeguard from that one spell).
I think it's called "Indomitability", and you can bet I'll be including that as a buff on every main NPC I can conceivably grant it to in my future D&D sessions. What a great spell! Not dispel-proof, I believe, but hey, nothing's perfect.
Moreto looks pretty human like if I remember, so anyone targeting him quickly with a spell that does extra damage against undead would be silly if they don't suspect him of being undead. Might want to watch player knowledge vs. character knowledge if that's a problem for your group it sounds like it might be.
It's been awhile since I ran that encounter so I might be wrong about him looking human. I'd consider house-ruling that only 1 sudden metamagic feat can be applied to a spell. Remember that the Age of Worms (and all adventure paths so far) are only designed for really using the PHB, DMG, and MM so all the extra options make some situations not nearly as challenging as they should be.
I changed the scene and had Morteo cast invisibility as he heard the party approaching and then an Illusion of himself. I had him stand in the square right next to the illusion as he and the party talked from about 10 feet away before they decided they did not trust him and they moved to kill him. Maybe it's a little cheesy but since they never really interacted with the illusion just his real voice talking back and forth I did not give them a save to disbelieve the illusion until after the first attack on the square the illusion was in. He still died pretty easy but at least got a few good attacks in and it told a better story in my opinion than a dude that spoke and then died in 1.5 rounds of combat.
Good players won't mind a DM not allowing certain things from new books when they are playing Adventure Paths if they want to be challenged and ensure that it tells a good story.
~MB
If you want Moreto to pass of as human, you can also use a hat of disguise to hide his undead nature, possibly giving him a chance to speak before being attacked. Also anti-alignment detection items and items of Gentle repose to keep his alignment hidden and his body "juicy."
Stan