I am deep in TCB right now (who would have thought from my posts ;-) )
Yesterday the PCs faced off against Bozal, which was a very boring fight. True, Bozal lasted for nearly 15 rounds as they could not dispel his Antilife Shell, but his Summoned Monsters (bearded devil, fiendish dire wolf, fiendish boar) and the remaining Kyuss Spawn were defeated quite quickly, but then the PCs had to chip away on him with ranged weapons and Bozal used most of his spells to little effect due to many good rolls on saves. In the end they enlarged the Barbarian, who used a weapon with 10ft range (becoming 15ft) and hacked Bozal to pieces.
Now where did I do anything wrong? The problem is that the most powerful spells Bozal has, Harm and Slay Living, have a range of Touch and cannot be used in an Antilife Shell. Should I have dropped the protection earlier to at least discharge one of these spells, potentially killing a PC and making Bozal a real CR12 threat (I made him level 12 to compensate for the PCs' higher level) and daming him to a quick death at the hand of the tanks? Or should I have had him retreat to the demon earlier or was there another tactical move I missed?
I never before played at such high levels, so I would appreciate some hints on how I could have fared better (my main problem is, that the fight was quite unclimactic).
I am deep in TCB right now (who would have thought from my posts ;-) )
Yesterday the PCs faced off against Bozal, which was a very boring fight. True, Bozal lasted for nearly 15 rounds as they could not dispel his Antilife Shell, but his Summoned Monsters (bearded devil, fiendish dire wolf, fiendish boar) and the remaining Kyuss Spawn were defeated quite quickly, but then the PCs had to chip away on him with ranged weapons and Bozal used most of his spells to little effect due to many good rolls on saves. In the end they enlarged the Barbarian, who used a weapon with 10ft range (becoming 15ft) and hacked Bozal to pieces.
Now where did I do anything wrong? The problem is that the most powerful spells Bozal has, Harm and Slay Living, have a range of Touch and cannot be used in an Antilife Shell. Should I have dropped the protection earlier to at least discharge one of these spells, potentially killing a PC and making Bozal a real CR12 threat (I made him level 12 to compensate for the PCs' higher level) and daming him to a quick death at the hand of the tanks? Or should I have had him retreat to the demon earlier or was there another tactical move I missed?
I never before played at such high levels, so I would appreciate some hints on how I could have fared better (my main problem is, that the fight was quite unclimactic).
I think that Bozal should have recognized that he was not going to gain an advantage with his chosen strategy (anti-life shell) after a couple of rounds. Given that, he would definitely seek to change his strategy. I doubt that he would have lowered his shell to let the party at him - he knows that is the only thing keeping him alive. His Slay Living and Harm are the "oh crap" aces he keeps up his sleeve in case someone penetrates the anti-life shell.
So, given that he recognizes he's not doing any damage to the party, and if he drops the shell he's going to be a meat sandwich, I think the most likely course of action is to flee and summon backup.
Sometimes it's easier to determine what an NPC would do by putting yourself in his shoes. If it was you in the anti-life shell faced off against the bloodthirsty PCs, would you willingly lower it? Would you just stick around and let an enlarged barbarian tear you to shreds? Probably not. Especially if there are easier alternatives.
As far as making the battle climactic, it sounds like you could have used a few more enemies in the battle. Don't be afraid to introduce mooks to a running battle, or to bring in enemies from another part of the dungeon.
My group mopped up the morhgs (I added one) and the spawn after stealthing up through the sewers. The monk perished in the melee, sadly. Zahol heard everything, summoned three fiendish dire boars, and let them into the room. He spent the next couple rounds hiding behind a door firing his wand of enervation.
In the next round, the lizardfolk druid cast obscuring mist to thwart the wand's ranged attacks. As the undead and boars were taken care of, Zahol retreated into the room with the scroll. PCs raced after him, suffering the wand once again. They soon realized he couldn't be touched, so they resorted to ranged attacks. The druid used call lightning and flaming sphere. The ranger threw his greataxe. ;) The scout skirmished with his bow.
With his last action, Zahol then released the Apostle. The scout's arrows were largely ineffective, but the ranger moved in close, using power attack 10, his greataxe (two-handed), and favored power attack, dealing an additional 30 damage on each hit just from power attack. The druid continued with his call lightning/flaming sphere combo, and the Apostle was destroyed.
I knew Zahol was doomed to die eventually. His anti-life shield made his death less graphic, but no less inevitable. My big disappointment was knowing that I couldn't run my "Night of the Living Dead" wight nightmare scenario. I suppose I could have rail-roaded it, but I wanted to see what they did with the data presented.
I switched anti-life shell for Blade Barrier.
quite nastier...
Yes, I should have switched Harm with Blade Barrier...as I said, I am new to the levels above 10 and thought, that the Bozal was rather maxed to the abilities of a cleric of his level. But Harm is of no use in conjunction with the Anti Life Shell and as a "just-in-case" spell a 6th level slot is just too precious. Anyway, at least the Apostel is still in there, maybe I will get the big showdown at the final fight, would be really great! I would really like to see my players' faces when they realize, that they do not always win...but I guess they will just disintegrate the sphere with an arcane scroll :-(
Yup, I had the exact same problem. The whip-wielder kept tripping him and stole his weapon. Arrows weren't doing much. Eventually he got desperate and tried running through a gap to escape, Harming the whip-monkey on the way, killing him, but getting killed himself before he could escape. It was a lengthy siege, though, to be sure.
What's worse is having a Warlock who can use Vitrolic Dispel at will, stripping all of Bozo's spells (including Anti-Life Shell) and then counterspelling everything he tried to cast after that. I gave Bozo access to all of spells of Kyuss and even swapped the Mohrg for a Favored Spawn of Kyuss Dire Lion, but all for not. I think Bozo is just one of those bad guys who is meant to die. That's okay...since Madtooth and Ugly usually get plenty of revenge for him.
I'm looking to spice up the encounter with Zahol a little bit by using the Spell Compendium. None of my players own the book, and the wizard is more interested in making up his own spells than perusing the SC. So I'd be interested in any suggestions for flashy and unusual spells that could help Bozo out.
One that I was considering was "Ring of Blades" which might help deter the grapple-machine monk PC. I like the idea of using Blade Barrier, but I was hoping for something a bit more unusual just to make the battle interesting and exciting for those players who recognize all the PHB spells. "Stone Body" looks interesting as well, but it's just another buff for Bozo.
Anyone have any cool suggestions?
Thanks!
I cannot help you with the SC, but about your grapple-monk-ey, iirc Bozal Zahol casts Freedom of Movement on himself...so not grapple!
I cannot help you with the SC, but about your grapple-monk-ey, iirc Bozal Zahol casts Freedom of Movement on himself...so not grapple!
Ah yes, he very well could. Good point, thanks Belfur.
I went and checked and Freedom of Movement isn't listed in his prepared spells, though there's no reason that he couldn't have it.
Does anyone else have any experience with nifty Spell Compendium cleric spells?
I had Bozal trade out a few spells for the spell Fleshripper from the Book of Vile Darkness, just to give him a ranged attack, and also had him work in conjunction with the Akilith demon. It made for one incredibly deadly fight. The party still hates Bozal, almost as much as they fear Swords of Kyuss (everyone in the party bought Soulfire Armor just in case they ever ran into them again after Spire of Long Shadows).