Just looking at the stats for the orlath it seems like it would be a nightmare to run: 17 attacks plus an average of 5 confirmation rolls and some of the damage is vile!? Has anyone run this critter, and if so, is it as time consuming as it looks?
Creative Director
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Just looking at the stats for the orlath it seems like it would be a nightmare to run: 17 attacks plus an average of 5 confirmation rolls and some of the damage is vile!? Has anyone run this critter, and if so, is it as time consuming as it looks?
If you're lucky, the PCs don't stand around long enough for it to get a full attack action.
But if you aren't that lucky, I don't see how the orlath is that much more complex to run than, say, a fight against three or four vrocks. I mean... yeah, it's a lot of attack rolls, but so are three or four vrock full attacks.
One good trick is to determine at the start of the orlath's attack sequence the exact number it needs to roll to hit with its attacks and then just roll a handfull of d20s all at once. Discard the rolls that are under the number you need and make a mark on a piece of scrap paper for the ones that hit, then roll up the damage in one collective handful of dice.
OR: just have it use a spell-like ability. :-)
I'm gonna give the orlath a level or two of swordsage, so that he can do something like a Burning Blade boost, and get an extra 1d6 + initiator level in fire damage per attack!
I'm gonna give the orlath a level or two of swordsage, so that he can do something like a Burning Blade boost, and get an extra 1d6 + initiator level in fire damage per attack!
Why don't you give it friggin' laser beams it can shoot from its eyes while you're at it? ;)
N1NJ4, you don't need to give it any swordsage levels (which would increase CR).
You could give it Martial Study (Burning Blade), but wouldn't that be a bit sadistic?
Is an orlath swordsage anything but sadistic? :D
Ohhhh, what about an orlath dervish?
Orlath Duskblade, anyone?
DONT DO IT JAMES! WE NEED YOUR DELICIOUS BRAIN INTACT FOR FUTURE SQUEEZINGS!!!
Top it off with a gaze attack that does 1d4 points of vile Charisma damage and this thing is a strong contender for one of the most vicious original monsters I've seen in Dungeon for a long time!
Top it off with a gaze attack that does 1d4 points of vile Charisma damage and this thing is a strong contender for one of the most vicious original monsters I've seen in Dungeon for a long time!
Yeah, and only a CR15. Love it!
I just restatted the orlath. It's pretty terrifying with just two levels of fighter, taking Improved Multiweapon Fighting and Greater Multiweapon Fighting. 39 attacks per round FTW!
I just restatted the orlath. It's pretty terrifying with just two levels of fighter, taking Improved Multiweapon Fighting and Greater Multiweapon Fighting. 39 attacks per round FTW!
Your players will wander off in sheer boredom unless you roll ALL of its attacks and damage in advance, so all you have to do is check them off a piece of paper... a BIG piece of paper.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6
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I just restatted the orlath. It's pretty terrifying with just two levels of fighter, taking Improved Multiweapon Fighting and Greater Multiweapon Fighting. 39 attacks per round FTW!
Sure, you can do that, but why on earth would you want to? The thing is irritating enough to run as is.
I can roll em in groups of 3 or 4, it's fine. After all the shit they make me wait through, it's only fair.
I just restatted the orlath. It's pretty terrifying with just two levels of fighter, taking Improved Multiweapon Fighting and Greater Multiweapon Fighting. 39 attacks per round FTW!
See also the Thirty-Headed Tarrasque on the Wizards's site today. Thirty bite attacks and sixty horns. Oh, and two claws and a tail slap.
Ladies and Gentlemen, some things are just not right... and the reason I DM :P
See also the Thirty-Headed Tarrasque on the Wizards's site today. Thirty bite attacks and sixty horns. Oh, and two claws and a tail slap.
Hurrah! Now there's a reason to GM an epic game... :-)
I just restatted the orlath. It's pretty terrifying with just two levels of fighter, taking Improved Multiweapon Fighting and Greater Multiweapon Fighting. 39 attacks per round FTW!Sure, you can do that, but why on earth would you want to? The thing is irritating enough to run as is.
To see the look of terror on your players faces when you roll fifty D20's at a time. (We use a plastic tumbler, like a yatzee shaker from hell!) I mean, why else would we buy all those pretty dice?
I agree - nothing can ever have enough tentacles ! F'Thagn !
but in all honesty, the Orlath will need some _serious_ preparation to run - at least with any resemblance of smoothness.
Then again, there are those players who need a full 10 minutes (groan-filled) to state their two actions every round in combat... So definitely the GM should be given some leeway !
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Creative Director
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The best way to run the orlath is to prepare by determining the number on the d20 it needs to hit its targets. Ask your PCs for their armor classes at the start of the battle, figure out what the demon needs to roll to hit them, and then jot that number down. Then roll handfuls of d20s at once, setting aside the hits and rerolling the misses as necessary till you're done.
In fact... this method works pretty well for anything that has a lot of attacks... such as a fight with three vrocks, or three dual-wielding high-level fighters, etc.
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6
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The best way to run the orlath is to prepare by determining the number on the d20 it needs to hit its targets. Ask your PCs for their armor classes at the start of the battle, figure out what the demon needs to roll to hit them, and then jot that number down. Then roll handfuls of d20s at once, setting aside the hits and rerolling the misses as necessary till you're done.
In fact... this method works pretty well for anything that has a lot of attacks... such as a fight with three vrocks, or three dual-wielding high-level fighters, etc.
I'm sort of darkly amused that after all these years, a lot of us effectively are back to using THAC0 (which after all, was designed to tell you what you needed to roll on the D20 to hit someone). If you can handle subtraction, figuring out the number needed to hit is one heck of a lot faster on the die-rolling side.
Yeah, it does smack of THACO. Eh, I suppose its effective to end at something resembling THACO. But at lower leves, with less attacks, I find starting at THACO to be a bit more work. Maybe Im just anti-THACO, maybe not.
But for the Orlath, I have one thing to say: awesome.
So, in my game, this bad boy gets the drop on the party cleric, who charged the "standard crimson fleet thug" in good dwarven style. The thug shrugs off the hit from a righteous mighted, divine powered, divine favored cleric (prompting a WTF from the players).
And then he reverts to true form. One full attack later, were it not for a previously cast Fortunate Fate, the cleric would have been dead and a half. As it was she was only at half. 190 points of damage brought her from near full, to dead, FF granted a heal spell (150hp) and she was still back down to about 60. Rocking.
So the ice troll warblade moves in (funnily enough, I think he's the weakest character in the group). He's not worried about damage (con of 30, approaching 300 hit points, AC at 32 thanks to potions). He fails his will save and takes 4 points of vile charisma damage from the gaze attack.
Did I mention he has a charisma score of 6?
So, to sum up, thanks to a well timed wall of ice from the frost sorceror, a flurry of ranged disarm attempts from the anti-demon ranger (took away 3 of his scimitars, including his primary) they downed the orlath.
But not until the ice troll took another 2 points of charisma damage. Dretch time.
I was kind, since the stats didn't give a "how to fix this" I made it hard but not ridiculously hard. A break enchantment to remove the demonic control, a remove curse to purge the orlath's essences and power, and a restoration to restore the charisma, which of course must all be done in a consecrated or hallowed area. A few good knowledge religion and planes checks and they had their troll back. Who is now considering a cloak of charisma, just to avoid that kind of nonsense again.
Again, awesome. One of the more memorable encounters of my Savage Tide path.