So my party just lined up for the final battle with Khala, the evil power behind the Isle of Dread.
I was hoping to get some input from any DM's that have been through this battle on what to expect?
Is the ability to switch places with the Wastrilith demon with Blasphemy at will a party wipe waiting to happen?
Khala knew they were coming and was able to prepare with a projected image so he was able to lure them in with it as the party teleported themselves right on top of his image before finding out it was an illusion.
That is where the group left off last week. We start up the main battle tonight.
Thanks!
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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JollyDoc's campaign journal on enworld is your friend. They fought the wastrilith first but didn't kill it. Then faced Khala and had to retreat. Finally they came back loaded for bear and kicked his butt.
Link to the story, the first encounter outside is post 766.
By this point, they're very high-level players. They have Dimensional Lock, Teleport Without Error, and Resurrection. If they don't use these abilities when they are available, then they deserve what they get. If they have some peculiar party composition that blocks access to some useful spell, throw in a side quest or tweak a treasure hoard to accommodate for the lack.
By this point, they're very high-level players. They have Dimensional Lock, Teleport Without Error, and Resurrection. If they don't use these abilities when they are available, then they deserve what they get. If they have some peculiar party composition that blocks access to some useful spell, throw in a side quest or tweak a treasure hoard to accommodate for the lack.
They have dimension lock, but I was more interested in how challening this encounter was for your parties? It seem like the blashphemy will certainly devastate many parties since there is NO saving throw and can be used at will.
Thanks for the journal reference, I will check it out!
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It seem like the blashphemy will certainly devastate many parties since there is NO saving throw and can be used at will.
J. Jacobs mentioned in another thread about the wastrilith that silence will hedge out blasphemy. I would hope the PC's would prepare against that possibility, since usually it gets away the first time, and the PC's are now well aware of what it can do. The trick is getting the protection up before you're hit with the spell, of course.
Also carefully note that you aren't paralyzed unless you're 10th level or lower against a CL 15 blasphemy, the strength reduction does NOT stack with repeated uses, and even though you're dazed for 1 round when it is cast, that's the only standard action the wastrilith can take that round (hopefully everything else in the area is cleared out by then, otherwise they can eat the PC's at their leisure!)
That's a real nice campaign log, by the way. He really knows how to compose the action into a narrative.
EDIT: Hmm, if Khala keeps his link up, he can still unholy blight the group through the wastrilith while they are dazed. Eek. Antimagic would suppress that link, since it's a Su.
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It's a great log - it's well worth taking the time to read it from the begin. There was a big chunk where they were basically an evil party, which was great reading. They're still almost Neutral Evil but so tied up in the big story they're going for it anyway. Nice to see that done properly.
Among the many highlights are what they did with Avner, the whole Olangru thing, storming the whole pyramid in the Lightless Depths and the ambush with the Julajimus.
Pretty challenging (three Character deaths ), but great fun. Of course my poor "victims" ran into Khala and Onatari, plus the Skulvyns all at once and without real preparation.
on the other hand, they had already killed the Wastrilith, within the last 24 hours to boot, which weakened Khala some, plus robbing him of an easy escape route
Great scenes and a pretty good finale for a "less enjoyed" ( the players found the entire Skinwalker setup less than interesting and entertaining - there were some heated and distracting debates about the feasibility of the entire island setup , as well as the "cheesiness" of it. Different from a GM point of view of course )
Well, the party completed the final showdown with Khala.
Since they snuck in through the secret skinwalker entrance they didn't hit the Wastrilith until the final battle with Khala.
It was a tight battle at the end, as the party dimension locked the Wastrilith demon which caused Khala to come back to fight the party with the Wastrilith demon a couple of rounds later (healing and dispelling 2 spells that the party had cast on him). With the Wastrilith using Blasphemy on the party and Khala attacking, it was almost a party wipe.
The only thing that saved the party was dumb luck. The fact that the sorcerer was flying about 35 feet away when he was dazed and when he floated to the ground under beyond heavy encumberance since his strength was 1, he fell out of the blasphemy range and he was able to take out the Wastrilith in a couple of rounds.
They did survive though with only 2 PC's dropping and no deaths, but they were well buffed when they fought Khala and gang.
The only issue with this encouter I see is if you decided to play the Wastrilith demon to the best of its ability, you would just have it teleport in early in the battle, have him blasphemy the party and have Khala teleport back in, you could party wipe every time if the party didn't face the Wastrilith first.
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If that were to happen, I would probably whittle the party down on health until it seemed that one of them is getting pretty low, then the wastrilith would move to attack the weak one, giving the others a chance to act.
It's a fudge, yeah, but demons like to rend other creatures apart, so I could reason that the wastrilith was just getting impatient and wanted to bite someone.
My group just encountered the wastrilith and the skinwalkers from area three just last session. I have been looking forward to running the battle with Khala ever since I got the magazine! He is the kind of enemy that is just dangerous to be around with those high save gazes he has. I can't wait to start handing out negative levels like candy! my players seem to hate those and being dispelled the most so Khala fits the bill nicely.