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In yet another of my "just for kicks" mode of thinking, I figured I'd attempt playtesting with some PC's I made. I used treasure found only in the STAP path (which surprisingly follows the wealth by level table VERY well until you get to Scuttlecove, where it goes way overboard), and I will put them up against Khali at the end of City of Broken Idols.
The reason I'm doing this is I really don't think they will be able to face him very effectively. But, we'll see. They did real well playtesting the attack on Farshore, but this fight will test their mettle to the limits, I think. This thread is mostly an experiment, so I might abandon it at any time (but not without saying so). I'm assuming they managed to kill all other kopru and that troublesome Onailati, so they only have to deal with Khali, his 6 pets, and the wastrilith.
These builds are core only, and come from PC builds I would like to use as my next party someday.
I'm using Monte Cook's Damage Reduction Redux to ease up on DR requirements. I also allow re-rolling of low dice numbers for hp, so their averages are a little higher. Finally, I replaced the pearl of power (4th level) in the bat god's cave with a special headband of intellect +4 with +2 resistance to saves, since the ST path has very little Int love. Their ability scores are 28 point buy.
The players:
Borigard
LG male medium humanoid (human)
14th level paladin
Init +0; Senses normal; Listen +2, Spot +2
Aura good aura, 10’ radius +4 saves against fear
Languages Common
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AC 23, touch 12, flat-footed 23 (28 with longsword) (AC 28 with shield)
hp 136 (14 HD) (average)
Fort +16, Ref +8, Will +10
Immune disease, fear
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Speed 30 ft (6 squares)
Melee +1 holy greatsword +20/+15/+10 (2d6+7/17-20 plus 2d6 holy) or
Melee mwk longsword +19/+14/+9 (d8+4/19-20)
Ranged +1 composite longbow +15/+10/+5 (1d8+3/x3)
Base Atk +14; Grp +18
Special Actions Turn Undead
Atk Options Power Attack, Cleave, Mounted Combat, Blind-Fight
Combat Gear boots of speed, +1 animated tower shield, dusty rose prism ioun stone (+1 AC), oil of keen edge, gargoyle crown
Spells
3/2/1; DC = 12 + spell level; as 7th level caster
. 1st- divine favor (luck +2 attack/damage, 10 rounds), protection from evil (deflection +2 AC, saves), bless weapon
. 2nd – shield other, resist energy (20, 80 minutes)
. 3rd – heal mount
Spell-like abilities
. At will – detect evil, lay on hands (56 hit points/day)
. 3/day – smite evil (+4 attack, +14 damage)
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Abilities Str 19(+1), Dex 10, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 18(+2)
Feats Power Attack, Weapon Focus(greatsword), Cleave, Mounted Combat, Blind-Fight, Improved Critical (greatsword)
Skills (51) Diplomacy +17+4, Ride +17+0, Swim +17+6-12
Possessions combat gear plus +4 mithril breastplate, +1 holy greatsword, masterwork longsword, 20 arrows, cloak of charisma +2, ring of protection +2, belt of giant strength +4, boots of speed, +1 composite mighty longbow (+2 str), amulet of natural armor +2, bracers of health +2
Turn Undead – 7/day, Check d20+4, damage 2d6+15 as 11th level cleric
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Hook Fights for the cause, willingly goes anywhere that two rival factions are doing battle, to take the side of good in the struggle
Strategy Works best using Power Attack as long as target AC is low
Sarah
NG female medium humanoid (half-elf)
14th level cleric of Heironeous
Init +0; Senses low-light vision; Listen +0+7+1r, Spot +0+7+1r
Aura Good priest
Languages Common, Elven
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AC 23, touch 12, flat-footed 23
hp 93 (14 HD) (average)
Immune sleep, web, slow and paralysis (ring of freedom of movement)
Fort +10, Ref +4, Will +15; +2 saves against enchantments
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Speed 30 ft (6 squares)
Melee +2 flaming burst longsword +13/+8 (d8+2/19-20 [+1d10 fire on crit] plus 1d6 fire)
Ranged light crossbow +10 (d8)
Base Atk +10; Grp +10
Special Actions Turn undead
Combat gear wand of cure light wounds, wand of cure moderate wounds, wand of aid, string of prayer beads (heal, bless), slippers of spider climbing
Spells
6/8/8/6/6/5/5/3; DC = 16 + spell level; SR check d20+18
. 0 - cure minor wounds, detect magic(x2), light(x2), read magic
. 1st – divine favor(x2)(luck +3/+3, 10 rounds), remove fear (x2)(4 targets, 100 rounds), sanctuary(x2), shield of faith(deflection +4 AC, 14 minutes), protection from evilD(at 15th)
. 2nd – aid (at 15th), bear’s endurance, bull’s strength, hold person, silence, resist energy (30, 90 minutes), spiritual weaponD(x2)(longsword, attack +16/+11, damage d8+4, touch AC 12, one attack first round and any round it changes targets, 14 rounds)
. 3rd – dispel magic(x2), prayer, protection from energy(x2)(120 points, 140 minutes), magic circle against evilD(x1)(150 minutes)
. 4th – greater magic weapon (enhancement +3, 14 hours), neutralize poison(x2), holy smite(at 15th), divine powerD(x2)(base attack +14/+9/+4, enhancement +6 Str, 14 rounds)
. 5th – dispel evil(x2, at 15th), righteous might (enlarge, size +4 Str, +2 Con, enhancement +2 natural armor, DR 6/evil, AC and attack rolls -1, 14 rounds), spell resistance (SR 26, 14 minutes), flame strikeD
. 6th – greater dispel magic(x2), heal(x2), blade barrierD(15d6, 15 minutes)
. 7th – holy word (at 15th), destruction, power word blindD
D: Domain spell; Domains: War, Good (good spells cast at +1 level)
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Abilities Str 10, Dex 10, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 23(+3), Cha 14
Feats Combat Casting, Weapon Focus (longsword)B, Improved Turning, Brew Potion, Spell Penetration, Greater Spell Penetration
Skills (34) Concentration +17+2, Spellcraft +8+0, Diplomacy +0+2+2r, Gather Information +0+2+2r, Heal +2+7, Knowledge (religion) +7+0
Possessions combat gear plus +4 chain shirt, +2 bashing light shield, +2 flaming burst longsword, light crossbow, 20 bolts, silver holy symbol, necklace of adaptation, ring of protection +2, ring of freedom of movement, periapt of wisdom +4
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Spontaneous casting – any non-domain spell can be cast as a cure spell of equal spell level
Turn undead – 5/day, turn check d20+2 as 15th level cleric, turn damage 2d6+17
Hook Devoted follower of Heironeous, thrills in battle but strives as an effective combat medic when needed
Fipple Firestorm
CG male small humanoid (gnome)
14th level wizard
Init +1; Senses low-light vision; Listen +0+2+2r, Spot +0+2
Languages Common, Gnome, Elven, Orc, Draconic
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AC 19, touch 15, flat-footed 18; +4 dodge AC against giants
hp 85 (14 HD) (average)
Fort +9, Ref +7, Will +13; +2 against illusions
Immune magic missiles (brooch of shielding)
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Speed 20 ft (6 squares)
Melee quarterstaff +7 (d4-1) or
Melee dagger +7 (d3-1)
Ranged light crossbow +9(d6)
Base Atk +7; Grp +2
Combat gear wand of enlarged fireballs (7th), wand of mage armor, cloak of the manta ray, pearl of power(2nd), boots of levitation, lesser silent metamagic rod
Spells
5/7/13/7/6/5/5/3; DC = 16 + spell level (+1 evocation, +1 illusions); SR check d20+16
. 0 - dancing lights, light, detect magic, prestidigitation, ray of frost
. 1st- grease(x2), magic missile(x2), feather fall (14 rounds), color spray(x2)
. 2nd – scorching ray(x6), web, mirror image(x2, d4+4, max 8, AC 12), glitterdust(x4)
. 3rd – fireball(x2), dispel magic(x3), haste, displacement
. 4th – empowered scorching ray(x2), ice storm, greater invisibility(x2)(16 rounds), dimension door
. 5th – widened web, empowered fireball, overland flight, cone of cold, break enchantment
. 6th – disintegrate(ranged touch +9), chain lightning, mislead, greater dispel magic(x2)
. 7th – quickened fireball, mordenkainen’s sword(60’ range, attack +24, 4d6+3/19-20, 14 rounds), reverse gravity (7 10’ cubes, 14 rounds)
Evokist; prohibited schools Necromancy, Enchantment
Spell-like abilities
. 1/day – speak with burrowing animals (1 minute)
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Abilities Str 8, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 23(+3), Wis 14, Cha 8
SQ +1 attacks against kobolds, goblinoids
Feats Combat Casting, Scribe ScrollB, Spell Focus(evocation), Empower SpellB, Improved Counterspell, Spell Penetration, Craft Wondrous ItemB, Quicken Spell
Skills (92) Concentration +17+4, Craft(alchemy) +0+3+2r, Decipher Script +14+6, Knowledge(arcana) +14+6, Knowledge (the planes) +14+6, Spellcraft +17+6, Tumble +8*+1 (note: extra skill points from raising Int to 18 at 8th)
Possessions quarterstaff, light crossbow, dagger, bracers of armor +4, brooch of shielding, portable hole, ring of protection +3, headband of intellect+4 with +2 saves, ring of wizardry(2nd)
Spellbook
. 0 - acid splash, arcane mark, dancing lights, detect magic, detect poison, disrupt undead, flare, ghost sound, light, prestidigitation, ray of frost, read magic, repair minor damage, resistance, mage hand, mending, message, open/close
. 1st – grease, comprehend languages, magic missile, mage armor, feather fall, color spray
. 2nd – scorching ray, web, mirror image, glitterdust
. 3rd – fireball, dispel magic, haste, displacement
. 4th – ice storm, minor globe of invulnerability, greater invisibility, dimension door
. 5th – cone of cold, break enchantment, overland flight, transmute rock to mud
. 6th – chain lightning, mislead, disintegrate, greater dispel magic
. 7th – Mordenkainen’s sword, reverse gravity, ethereal jaunt, delayed blast fireball
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Hook Fascinated with anything involving energy, similarly curious about the Outer Planes and dragons, would love a pseudo-dragon familiar
Deylah
CG female medium humanoid (elf)
14th level rogue
Init +14; Senses low-light vision; Listen +15, Spot +19
Languages Common, Elven, Draconic, Goblin
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AC 23, touch 17, flat-footed 18; improved uncanny dodge
hp 86 (14 HD) (average, 1’s re-rolled)
Immune sleep
Fort +7, Ref +15, Will +5; +2 against enchantments, evasion
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Speed 30 ft (6 squares)
Melee +1 keen rapier +14/+9 (d6+2/15-20) and
+2 human bane dagger +15/+10 (+17/+12 against humans) (d4+3/19-20 plus 2d6+2 to humans)
Melee +1 keen rapier +16/+11 (d6+2/15-20) or
Melee +3 longsword +14/+9 (d8+4/19-20) or
Melee +2 anarchic spear +13/+8 (d8+3/x3 plus 2d6 against lawful)
Ranged +2 evil outsider bane longbow +17/+12 (d8+2/x3 plus 2d6 to evil outsiders) or
Ranged Nimbus bow +17/+12 (d8+3/x3 [+2d10 electricity on a crit] plus 1d6 electricity)
Base Atk +10; Grp +11
Combat Gear ring of invisibility, Nimbus bow (control winds, summon flame hawk, warp wood)
Special Actions Sneak attack +7d6, Opportunist, Crippling Strike
Atk Option Combat Reflexes
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Abilities Str 12, Dex 21(+3), Con 14, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 10
SQ When pass within 5’ of a secret door, automatically searches, DC >20 trapfinding
Feats Two-Weapon Fighting, Weapon Finesse, Improved Uncanny DodgeB, EvasionB, Combat Reflexes. Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, OpportunistB, Crippling StrikeB, Improved Initiative
Skills (170) Climb +13+0, Disable Device +17+2+2t, Escape Artist +14+5, Gather Information +14+0, Hide +17+5, Listen +13+0+2r, Move Silently +17+5+5i, Open Lock +17+5+2t, Search +17+2+2r, Spot +17+0+2r, Tumble +14+5; t = tools, r = race, i = item
Possessions +1 keen rapier, +2 human bane dagger, +2 anarchic spear, masterwork thieves’ tools, 50’ rope, grappling hook, +3 studded leather, +3 longsword, +2 evil outsider bane longbow, Nimbus bow, 20 arrows, elven boots, ring of invisibility, ring of protection +2, amulet of health +2, cloak of resistance +1, gauntlets of ogre power, decanter of endless water, ring of the ram (not worn)
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Opportunist (Ex) 1/round - If an adjacent enemy suffers melee damage, can take a free swing at them as an attack of opportunity. Combat Reflexes does not increase this limit.
Crippling Strike (Ex) When dealing sneak attack damage, the attack also deals 2 points of Strength damage.
Hook Devoted to allies, serious combatant, but occasionally mischievous
What, you never gave all the crap to your rogue?
Those look lovely! On to the testing. This may take a while.
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Looks like I goofed - Deylah's Init modifer is supposed to be +9...
Testing now. It's looking nasty. Assume that Borigard has his animated shield up, and Magic Circle against Evil is cast on him. After entering through the south entrance, the heroes see the backside of a large statue on a platform overlooking a room full of murky water. Stepping out from behind the statue is a large hideous creature - it is vaguely humanoid with two tentacles for arms and talon-like hands at the end, and a kopru-like tail, the body topped with two baboon heads with a toothless maw between them.
"What sacrifices have been brought to Khala today?", the creature's double voices hissed in the heros' minds. He appeared to be guarding a sinister looking pearl nearly matching in appearance the one that almost detonated at Farshore (a stone shape from Koskius around the pearl at the cliff's edge managed to prevent that disaster).
The heroes exchanged the standard demands of stopping the creature's rituals as the creature retorted with prophecies of the breaking of their world. Little did they know, six other creatures lurked in the water and were being telepathically commanded by Khala to take up specific positions near the platform, to spring out of the water by his command.
[Surprise round] Suddenly, Borigard felt an arcane tugging on his entire body, and with a violent thrust was pulled into the room to land near Khala, suffering minor damage (failed Will save, telekinesis, 375 lbs., 200 ft. throw limit but I'm being nice, 2d6 damage as he rolled hard and fell 10 ft.). As he landed, Khala's eyes glowed with an evil intensity. Borigard was immune to the fear effect, but failed his save against the confusion, and it would last for 4 rounds. At that same instant, six large lizard-like creatures sprung out of the water and landed on the platform (being Large creatures with a swim movement rate of 50 ft. [+8] and Str of 22 [+6] made it an easy matter for them to reach the ledge surface 10 ft. above the water. Four landed at the far side near where Borigard landed, and two appeared at the southern end near Sarah, Fipple, and Deylah.
Initiatives are rolled - more to come.
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Round 1:
For the record, Khala saved against the slow effects of the 4 nearest skulv's, Borigard failed his save against one of them, so he's slowed for 4 rounds.
* Khala's first move is to turn and unholy blight the three at the entrance. Sarah takes 24 points and is sickened for 2 rounds. Deylah takes 22 points and is sickened for 4 rounds. Fipple takes 11 and saves against the sickening.
* Borigard manages to keep his senses and spends this round standing up (his only action due to being slowed). He is lashed by tails from the two adjacent skulvs and suffers one tentacle from Khala (1 tail hits - 9 points and 1 wound, tentacle hits, 17 points + 3 Con damage [failed his save]). And now, because of the confusion effect, he is now compelled to attack the first skulv.
* Deylah... delays! I ain't runnin' in there until we get fancy!
* Skulv's turns... The two nearest Borigard each take 4 tail attacks. 5 of them hit (36 points of damage and 5 wounds). One moves towards Borigard (10 ft. move rate). The other far one performs a run towards the group at the entrance (40 ft.). The one to the left of the group runs to block their advance (can't attack, moved too far). The right one is now blocked from running by one of the skulvs, so it takes a double move towards the three at the entrance. Group has to save against 2 slow effects. All of them fail at least 1 save, so everyone is slowed.
* Fipple can't reach Borigard with his haste spell, but he hastes himself, Sarah and Deylah, casting defensively of course.
* Sarah moves around the skulv in front of her so that Deylah can make full sneak attacks. Two skulvs lash at her with their tails, one hits - 9 points, 1 wound. This also moves here into range of Khala's gaze attacks. She notices them, saves against both, and warns the group. Oh, and she can still swing... hit. The skulv soaks up the sword damage but suffers 4 points of fire damage from the burst.
* Deylah decides to go now. About time. 4 swings sickened. All four hit, one is a crit. You go girl! Final tally: 29 points of weapon damage, 104 points of sneak attack, -8 from sickened, -20 from DR = 105 points. The skulv is down to 5 hit points. Not bad. Perhaps there is hope yet...
On to round 2... (since I'm recording this, each round may take a while since I'll be taking breaks here and there, like, right now :) )
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Round 2:
Status of our heroes:
Borigard - 14/108 hp (all that damage plus lost 3 Con, remember?), 6 wounds, confused for 3 more rounds (Khala), slowed for 3 more rounds
Sarah - 65/93 hp, 1 wound, sickened for 2 rounds (Khala), hasted for 14 rounds, slowed for 4
Deylah - 64/86 hp, sickened for 4 rounds (Khala), hasted for 14 rounds, slowed for 4
Fipple - 74/85 hp, hasted for 14 rounds, slowed for 4
* Khala sneers at the group - "Say goodbye to your oh so holy warrior! And YOU, little gnome... say goodbye to your MIND!" Fipple fails his save by 5 (-4 saves against casters didn't help), and is feebleminded.
* Borigard, still confused, has no sense to heal himself or flee, and attacks the skulv in front of him with 5 points of Power Attack and Smite Evil. He hits for 34 points, after DR. Skulv is down to 80 hp.
* Skulv's turn. Wound damage applied. Borigard takes 6 points, Sarah takes 1 point. Borigard now has 3 skulvs in striking range, and they all use tails, but start with only 1 swing each to see if it downs him so they can move towards the others. First skulv missed with first swing and hits once with the rest. Borigard is down to 0 hp with 7 wounds. Second skulv swings once, misses. Hits twice with the rest. Borigard takes 20 points and dies. Third skulv moves towards the others. The skulv surrounded by Deylah and Sarah swings its tails at Deylah, hits 3 times, causing 27 points and 3 wounds. Another skulv moves 5' in range of Sarah and swings its tails, hitting twice for 16 points and 2 wounds. The final skulv only approaches.
* Fipple drools.
* Sarah delays because her path to Fipple is blocked by a skulv. She doesn't have to worry about saving against gazes because she has her back to Khala.
* Deylah takes a flanked attack against the near death skulv and hits. It dies from 28 points of damage. She steps 5' and finishes her swings on the skulv that approached, hitting once but causing no damage due to the DR (no sneak attack damage this time).
* Sarah casts Heal defensively, moves to Fipple (suffering two tail lashes on the way for 15 points and 2 wounds) and heals him, cancelling the feeblemind.
What have we learned?
1. Detect Evil helps you know the boss is there, prompting you to cast more buff spells!
2. Stoneskin is vital equipment! Bad Fipple!
3. Borigard could have activated his gargoyle crown (DR 5/adamantine for 10 minutes) and boots of speed as free actions when he had his senses. My bad.
4. Deylah could have scouted first.
5. The sweet spot of the game must end at level 13 :)
I'll continue this fight and see if I can salvage this debacle...
In my defense, though, had I actually been adventuring with these characters, common patterns of response would have been more developed. Also, I didn't realize Borigard was down to only 14 hp after those attacks until I looked more closely at the numbers, otherwise Sarah would have done things differently in Round 1 (although at this point, I have no idea what - holy word probably would have been a better move than taking one swing on a lizard). Had Borigard hasted himself with his boots, he could have used his other action that round to high-tail it back to the group as well.
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I goofed in Round 1 - when Sarah struck the skulv with her sword, Deylah could have used her Opportunist ability. Also, the skulv that Deylah sneak attacked 4 times lost 8 Str due to her Crippling Strike ability. Don't you hate high level play? I'll leave things the way they are this time.
Round 3:
Hero status:
Sarah - 34/93 hp, 5 wounds, sickened for 1 round (Khala), hasted for 13 rounds, slowed for 3
Deylah - 37/86 hp, 3 wounds, sickened for 3 rounds (Khala), hasted for 13 rounds, slowed for 3
Fipple - 85/85 hp, hasted for 13 rounds, slowed for 3
* The heroes hear Khala's laughing voices in their heads, "Six of us, three of you, Demogorgon is pleased!" Another unholy blight strikes the group, but miraculously, they all save. Sarah takes 5 points, Deylah 18 (rolled high), Fipple 8.
* Wound damage applied (Sarah 5 points, Deylah 3). Two skulvs are in range of Deylah. One swings with its tails and hits all 4 times. Deylah takes 37 points of damage and dies. The other skulvs approach Sarah and Fipple in the entrance archway using run actions as they can, but none can get to striking range in time.
* Fipple, noticing that the first skulv took fire damage from Sarah's blade, also notices that all the skulvs are huddled in a group - so he unleashes a quickened fireball followed by an empowered fireball, and is mezmerized by the light display. The skulvs take 56, 66, 75, 43, and 29 points respectively. Not enough to take any of them down. Khala was engulfed by both blasts but was unaffected. Fipple also steps away from the archway and suffers a tail AoO which misses because of cover.
* Sarah casts holy word. The Skulvs are weakened by 7, 10, 6, 2, and 9 points of Strength, and are dazed for 1 round. She also backs up and gets ready to heal herself. (I almost applied a critted AoO at this point. whoops)
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Round 4:
Hero status:
Sarah - 29/93 hp, 6 wounds, hasted for 12, slowed for 2
Fipple - 85/85 hp, hasted for 12, slowed for 2
* Khala laughs, "No spell you cast stays in the presence of Khala!". Greater dispel magic on the skulvs. All holy word effects are removed (d20+20 against 26 is quite easy to beat...)
* Wound damage applied (Sarah takes 6). The skulv in the entrance charges and lashes Sarah with a tail. She takes 9 points and 1 wound. The others crowd around the entrance, waiting their turn to fight.
* Fipple casts mirror image on himself (8 images). Time to tank!
* Sarah casts Heal on herself, all hit points cured, all wounds and sickened state removed. Time to dice up some skulvs...
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Round 5:
Heroes:
Sarah - 93/93 hp, haste 11, slow 1(not raly, due to her ring)
Fipple - 85/85 hp, haste 11, slow 1, 8 mirror images for 14 rounds
* Khala casts another unholy blight on the group. They both save. Sarah takes 16 points, Fipple takes 13.
* The skulv in front of Sarah decides to claw and bite, since it knows its wounds will simply be healed. One claw hits for 9 points.
* Fipple blankets the entrance area with a web. None of the skulvs are stuck fast, but that's ok, because...
* Sarah casts a circular blade barrier at the entrance, slamming 4 of the skulvs there. They are unable to dodge the blades because of the webs (full round action to even move), so they are forced to take full damage. They take 54, 57, 55 and 51 points. This kills the left two skulvs, leaving the remaining three at 54, 16 and 24.
Khala roars in rage, then laughs again...
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Round 6:
Heroes:
Sarah - 68/93 hp, haste 10, slow 4(not)
Fipple - 72/85 hp, haste 10, slow 4, 8 mirror images for 13 rounds
* Khala screams out, "Fools! There is nothing you can do that I cannot undo!" Both the web and blade barrier are brought down by a greater dispel on their origin points.
* The skulv in front of Sarah bites and claws. 2 claws hit, she takes 16 points. The remaining skulvs continue trying to get to the heroes.
* Fipple launches a normal fireball, causing 12, 19 and 15 points, enough to bring down one of the skulvs.
* Sarah says "screw this" and brings down a flame strike. The skulv in front of her rolls a 1 for its save! Damage caused is 52 and 17 points, enough to vanquish the remaining skulvs.
Sarah turns to Fipple. "You do realize we need to get Borigard and Deylah out of here?"
Fipple turns back. "Just get them together and I'll do the rest. I still need to find a way to distract 'ol Double Dooky. What I wouldn't give for a wall spell right now..."
Sarah glances down regretfully at Deylah's body, wondering how 3 fireballs, a blade barrier and flame strike might prevent raising her, much less make her possible to carry...
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Round 7:
Sarah - 52/93 hp, haste 9, slow 3 (not really)
Fipple - 72/85 hp, haste 9, slow 3, 8 mirror images for 12 rounds
* Khala booms, "You've defeated my pets. Now, you face my servant!" Khala roars and a gate opens directly in front of Sarah and Fipple. Then, it fizzles out. "WHAT!?" Khala roars in unbridled rage! (rolled an 8, heh).
* Fipple yells, "Ha... you suxors!", and casts Overland Flight, and flies 40 feet into the room with his back to Khala. He's halfway to Borigard.
* Sarah casts Righteous Might to increase her size and strength, then runs over to Deylah.
Round 8:
Sarah - 52/93 hp, haste 8, slow 2 (not really)
Fipple - 72/85 hp, haste 8, slow 2, 8 mirror images for 11 rounds
* Khala yells, "I shall rend you with my own claws! But first, enough of your enchantments, gnome!" Suddenly, Fipple's overland flight, mirror image and haste all go down, and he drops to the floor (no damage since he wasn't flying more than 5 feet off the ground). With a Reflex save of 15, Fipple lands on his feet.
* With eyes averted, Fipple casts a Reverse Gravity on Khala. Alas, Fipple is unable to avoid Khala's confusion gaze, but he saves exactly!! Khala falls upward, and with tentacles and tails flailing helplessly, strikes the ceiling above, bringing down fragments of rock raining down throughout the cavern.
* Sarah picks up Deylah and runs hasted all the way to Borigard.
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Round 9:
Sarah - 52/93 hp, enlarged, Str +4, haste 7, slow 1 (not really)
Fipple - 72/85 hp, slow 1 (Su ability, not dispellable)
* Khala sneers, "Mere gravity cannot stop me, whelp!" With a simple act of will, Khala now glides through the air effortlessly, and dives towards the heroes.
* Fipple delays, waiting for Sarah.
* Sarah picks up Borigard and hobbles to Fipple under the strain of all the weight, despite her size and extra strength.
* Fipple quickly calculates, flips an inner coin, casts a spell, says, "960 feet, straight up!" and touches a wide-eyed Sarah. They all disappear, leaving the roars of a demon aspect echoing throughout the deep caverns.
Suddenly, Fipple and Sarah find themselves in a free-fall above the cliffs of the island. "What have you done!?" Sarah yelled as the wind blurred her hearing.
"Don't worry, I've got it covered!" Fipple replied. With a lift of an eyebrow, they slowly floated to the ground.
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PLAYTEST #1 RETROSPECT
It was a nasty move on Khala's part to yank Borigard into the room away from the the rest of the party. But frankly I thought it would seem stupid to have the heroes just stand in the entrance waiting for the skulvyns to get closer with their 10 ft. land speed. The adventure talks about Khala waiting for the skulvyns to be in position to attack, but really, the map doesn't allow for this unless the heroes walk along the edge of the platform (which I wouldn't do). Besides, Khala isn't exactly the sporting type, so why would he wait? However, this shows just how nasty overexposure to melee and being separated from the cleric can be. If Khala really wanted to be nasty, he could just fling the heroes one at a time into the water and let the skulvyns kill them there.
It's also somewhat strange that the statue is facing away from the characters, and that Khala is standing on the other side of it. This doesn't make for much of an initial presentation. I figure I'll have Khala hop on top of the statue when he is casting abilities at the party, then hop down to melee when no skulvyns are left. The heroes can approach from the upper balcony as well (the map shows no steps up to it!), but confronting the boss from high ground didn't seem like it would be a very dramatic start.
This fight could have been much harder if Khala would have dispelled the haste on the group. Still, he seemed to enjoy hurting them more. He would have been more likely to dispel if the group clearly had many other enchantments on them to give them an advantage. Deylah was the only one that could really take advantage of the haste, except for Sarah running to Borigard at the end.
Khala could have prevented them from easily escaping by instead teleporting to the floor and grabbing Sarah with his tail as she moved towards Fipple. Fipple would probably still have been able to touch her with the spell, though. I had to think carefully about how to handle Fipple after his spells went down, because if he got grappled, it would all be over.
I kind of like Fipple the way he is :) Who ever trusts a gnome with magic, anyway? He could really use a stoneskin or wall spell, though. Web seems to serve the purpose well, but it can be dispelled. A wall is a more permanent crowd control solution.
I'll be continuing this with a revived Deylah and Borigard. I'm just going to apply a negative level to each to save me the trouble of de-levelling them.
Any comments are welcome!
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I'm going to do this one by the book for now, to see how a fight against Khala and the retriever goes (and of course, the wastrilith). As I see how that fight turns out, I'll see about tweaking it. I'm sure Khala can send out a call for some kopru to join him, but at this point I want to see how they do against the boss himself, since it's Khala that I'm so concerned about.
I was disppointed that it had to be a retreat, but they went in ill-prepared, so it's not really a surprise.
* Sarah casts holy word. The Skulvs are weakened by 7, 10, 6, 2, and 9 points of Strength, and are dazed for 1 round. She also backs up and gets ready to heal herself. (I almost applied a critted AoO at this point. whoops)
Are the effect of holy word different ? As 12 HD creatures, the skulvyns were supposed to be deafened for 1d4 rds and blinded for 2d4 rds. They even had a pretty good chance to be banished back to the Abyss. Or maybe you use another version of the spell.
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That's a good point about the banishment, I forgot that all they need to be is outsiders to be banished. I was thinking about them being summoned (which they aren't, I believe). Thanks for that.
Based on dice rolls, only 1 would have remained. That would have saved Deylah if Sarah had cast that first, then Healed Fipple.
Just goes to show how leading off wrong at this level can be very very bad.
You're also right about the blinding and deafening. I was treating it like a blasphemy, stupid me.
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As Borigard and Deylah regained their senses, the group kept shelter in their cave and discussed new battle strategies.
Borigard: "So, what do we know about our new foe anyway? I barely remember anything."
Sarah: "Well, he had gaze attacks. We don't know what one does, but the other causes confusion. His tentacles also cause health damage."
Deylah: "What can we do to keep from being yanked into the room?"
Fipple: "Assuming he hasn't replaced his pets, hopefully that won't be a problem. But we won't know until they come up out of the water again. We might be able to attack from those balconies... we didn't explore that side passage from that large pool cavern yet. Maybe it leads there."
Sarah: "Well, if the lizards are there, I should be able to drive them back to the Abyss. I don't know why it didn't work before. And why were they dazed instead of blinded? It's all so strange." (Oops)
Fipple: "He also tried to summon something but failed. No idea what would have come through."
Sarah: "AND he can fly, has telepathy, can dispel better than anything I've seen, and casts that evil version of my holy smite any time he likes. Oh and he reduced Fipple's mind to that of a lizard."
Fipple: "He did?"
Borigard: "What about getting past outside defenses?"
Fipple: "Now that I know the internal layout of the place, I should be able to get us inside. There is one room there I remember pretty well."
Deylah: "Good, I'd rather not fight that giant eel again" (SMIRK)
Borigard: "Well, then let's rest and get our abilities ready in the morning. Livinia will be glad to hear the shadow pearl threat has ended."
Deylah: "Assuming we succeed."
Borigard: "We have to."
Deylah: "Just get me behind that creature. I'm waiting to sink my blades into his back."
Borigard: "Speaking of which, any idea what he resists?"
Fipple: "He takes falling damage pretty well."
Borigard and Deylah, look at each other, confused.
Sarah: "Based on what we learned from the Olmans, demons usually take damage from holy weapons or cold iron, or a combination of both. We should just assume the worst. I can enchant your holy blade with a 3rd level of enchantment. That should get you through his defenses."
Deylah. "What about my weapons?"
Borigard: "Your backstabs should cause enough to keep it from being a concern."
Fipple: "Of course, he can just dispel everything we cast."
Borigard: "Not all of us all the time. We'll just have to keep him busy."
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As Sarah slept, words kept entering her thoughts. "Fire... immune... immune... FIRE! HE'S IMMUNE TO FIRE!" She sprang awake to see Fipple fresh out of sleep. Deylah was just staring at him, trying to meditate.
Fipple: "He's immune to fire!"
Sarah: "What do you mean?"
Fipple: "My two fireballs, they didn't hurt him!"
Sarah: "It was probably just spell resistance. Go back to sleep."
Fipple settled back down, mumbling to himself. "Spell... resistance... was probablmmm... *SNORE*"
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The next morning, Fipple switched out a normal fireball for another haste spell. He also took out ice storm for another dimension door.
Sarah took out bear's endurance and added align weapon, and replaced one neutralize poison with another greater magic weapon.
They approached the island and made their way to the cliff face opposite the shore to avoid encountering the demonic eel.
Fipple: "Alright, this should be close enough. If it isn't, hang on."
Borigard: "If it isn't?"
Sarah: "It should be, you don't know how high we fell from yesterday."
As Fipple completed his casting, the flash replaced the bright outdoors with the dark room of the Nimbus Bow temple. Lighting up their torches, they pressed on.
They descended into the large pool cavern and located the western path leading towards Khala's statue room. Deylah warned the others to stay back as she activated her invisibility ring. Sarah reminded her to hide anyway, since it was unclear what else Khala was capable of.
Quietly, Deylah emerged onto the walkway of the balcony surrounding the cavern. She crawled on the floor slowly to the edge, and ever so carefully raised her head so she could see what lay below.
She could see Khala distracted, gathering the energies coming off the waters and focussing them into the pearl.
The rest of the group heard a roar that echoed through the caverns, and they could hear footsteps coming quickly toward them, stirring up dust. "He saw me!" she said, panting. (Khala has a +27 Spot, -5 distracted, -4 from distance. Deylah has a +19 Hide. Khala rolled a 17. She rolled a 3. Owwie.)
Borigard asked, "Did you see any lizards?"
"No, I didn't get a chance to study the water."
Fipple asked, "So, what do we do?"
Borigard replied, "He knows we're here, we might as well attack as quickly as we can to keep him from making preparations."
Sarah said, "I agree, where should we attack from?"
Borigard thought and said, "The ground level entrance gives us a shorter path to travel to get to him once he sees us. I'd rather be on the ground than be on the balcony."
Deylah replied, "Sure, why not, how many times can one person die, anyway?"
Quickly, they made their way as they could towards the southern entrance, casting buff spells as they went. Sarah cast greater magic weapon on Borigard's sword, and align weapon and greater magic weapon on Deylah's keen rapier, just in case.
"I guess invisibility is out of the question", Deylah noted.
"I could have prepared two more dimension doors, then", Fipple observed.
Finally, they reached the southern entrance. Expecting to be attacked immediately, Fipple and Sarah readied per round buff spells, and they prepared to charge. Fipple started with a displacement on Borigard, then Sarah cast Dispel Evil and Fipple cast haste, and up they charged.
They emerged into the room, and there was Khala, standing beside the statue, waiting for them with tentacles raised and tails wiggling in anticipation.
Borigard yelled, "DO IT!"
(Hoo boy...)
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BATTLE #2
Round 1:
Borigard - full hp, hasted 13 rounds, displacement 12 rounds, greater magic weapon +3. magic circle against evil
Sarah - full hp, hasted 13 rounds, dispel evil 13 rounds
Fipple - full hp, hasted 13 rounds
Deylah - full hp, hasted 13 rounds, align weapon, greater magic weapon +3
* Borigard charged first into the chamber. Everyone else delayed to come in after him. The moment he stepped inside, Khala let out a howl, but nothing visible happened. Borigard averted his eyes, managed to avoid both gazes, easily reached his target, and commenced the attack. "Smite Evil!" He would have hit an AC of 39 had the sword not sliced through thin air.
* Fipple yelled, "Project Image!", and casted a greater dispel on it. The final roll was 20. No good.
* Sarah attempted one as well. Final roll, 21. Nope.
* Deylah looked around for the real Khala. To the left, all she could see was darkness coming from the balcony. She saw nothing above, then she looked up to the right. She pointed and yelled, "Spider!"
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BATTLE #2
Round 2:
Borigard - full hp, hasted 12 rounds, displacement 11 rounds, greater magic weapon +3, magic circle against evil
Sarah - full hp, hasted 12 rounds, dispel evil 12 rounds
Fipple - full hp, hasted 12 rounds
Deylah - full hp, hasted 12 rounds, align weapon, greater magic weapon +3
* The image of Khala focussed its attention on Sarah and casted feeblemind. She made her save by 3 (only needed a 5).
* The summoned retriever shot a petrification bolt at Deylah, and missed.
* Borigard yelled, "Find Khala!" and ran up the stairs to the right to engage the retriever. In a double move action, he was already upon it, but the retriever got a free bite attack from his approach and, after beating the concealment check, scored a natural 20 on the hit (not a confirmed crit). The opposed grapple rolls were Borigard:28, Retriever:32, so Borigard was now stuck fast in its mouth, taking 11 damage.
* Fipple said annoyedly, "Oh, to blazes!" and casts disintegrate at the retriever, scoring a hit. The retriever failed its save miserably and suffered 28d6 damage for 102 points, dropping it solidly to 32 hit points. Fipple looked at his finger, amazed.
* Sarah looked at the various places where Khala could be hiding and cast a light spell up at the left balcony. On a stroke of luck (d4 = 4) she cast a light spell exactly where Khala was hiding, illuminating his hideous form. "Found Khala!" Sarah moved quickly to the opposite side of the statue, where she was protected from line of site from both Khala and the image. (Whoops, light spells are touch now. Okay, she cast it on one of her colored stones and winged it there with a 21 on the AC roll, no time to hide, then).
* Deylah hid with Sarah. (Nope she's hiding alone, see above).
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BATTLE #2
Round 3:
Borigard - 120/131 hp (-5 from negative level from death), hasted 11 rounds, displacement 10 rounds, greater magic weapon +3, magic circle against evil
Sarah - full hp, hasted 11 rounds, dispel evil 11 rounds
Fipple - full hp, hasted 11 rounds
Deylah - full hp, hasted 11 rounds, align weapon, greater magic weapon +3
* Khala's image casts an unholy blight on Sarah and Fipple. They both save and take 8 and 13 points respectively, and are not sickened.
* The summoned retriever fires a lightning bolt at Fipple, missing entirely.
* Borigard tries to force his way out of the retriever's mouth with an opposed grapple check of... Natural 20! The retriever rolls a natural 18 - not good enough. Borigard drops to the floor (5 points of damage) and stands up. The retriever takes another free bite but fails against the concealment check.
* Fipple casts an empowered scorching ray at the retriever (at -4 since it is now engaged in melee). All 3 rays hit and cause a total of 61 points of damage. The retriever dissolves. "Next time, just let me take care of those!" He then moves to hide behind the statue.
* Sarah moves to hide.
* Deylah says, "How are we going to get him down here? If we go up there, he'll just fly away, or probably teleport. Maybe we could just steal the pearl and call it even."
Borigard then got an idea.
(Needing a break, I should have more in a few hours)
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BATTLE #2
Round 4:
Borigard - 115/131 hp (-5 from negative level from death), hasted 10 rounds, displacement 9 rounds, greater magic weapon +3, magic circle against evil
Sarah - full hp, hasted 10 rounds, dispel evil 10 rounds
Fipple - full hp, hasted 10 rounds
Deylah - full hp, hasted 10 rounds, align weapon, greater magic weapon +3
* Khala's image moves to where it can see Sarah, Fipple and Deylah and coats them with a greater dispel. Fipple and Deylah lose their haste, Sarah loses her dispel evil.
* Borigard comes running down the steps and approaches the front of the statue. "Sarah and Fipple, get to the corner over there so you are are out range of his gazes. Ready spells for when he appears if you like. Deylah, move out of sight of the image and Khala again. I think I know what will bring him down here."
* Fipple moves to the SE corner.
* Sarah does the same.
* Deylah positions herself out of view of the image and Khala by stepping just around the south corner of the statue.
Borigard looks at the glowing pearl.
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BATTLE #2
Round 5:
Borigard - 115/131 hp (-5 from negative level from death), hasted 9 rounds, displacement 8 rounds, greater magic weapon +3, magic circle against evil
Sarah - full hp, hasted 9 rounds
Fipple - full hp
Deylah - full hp, align weapon, greater magic weapon +3
* Khala's image sneers at Borigard and hits him with a targeted greater dispel. All but the magic circle against evil come down.
* Borigard yells out. "You never struck me as the type to hide, Khala. No matter. Your evil machinations end here!" Raising his blade, he brings it down and strikes the pearl as hard as he can. Deylah gives out an audible gasp. A roar echoes throughout the cavern, and everyone hears the word "STOP!" in their heads.
* Fipple delays.
* Sarah delays.
* Deylah delays and says to herself, "We are so going to die..."
Round 6:
Borigard - 115/131 hp (-5 from negative level from death), magic circle against evil
Sarah - full hp, hasted 8 rounds
Fipple - full hp
Deylah - full hp, align weapon, greater magic weapon +3
* Khala teleports just behind Borigard. Borigard alone hears his voice in his head. "I will tear you limb from limb, and ignore all others while I destroy you beyond recognition!"
* Borigard readies his blade, steadies his heart, clicks his boots, activates his crown, closes his eyes, and turns to swing, consuming his 2 remaining smites. All four strikes touch flesh, but only 1 connects. Khala takes 31 points of damage, reduced by his damage resistance but including smite damage.
* Fipple casts an empowered scorching ray, but it's absorbed by Khala's spell resistance.
* Sarah unleashes her destruction and it affects him! Khala rolls a save and gets a 10 (needed a 3). He takes 36 points of damage.
* Deylah uses a double move to get behind Khala, her back turned to him (high tumble, no problem).
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BATTLE #2
Round 7:
Borigard - 115/131 hp (-5 from negative level from death), hasted 10 rounds, DR 5/adamantine, magic circle against evil
Sarah - full hp, hasted 8 rounds
Fipple - full hp
Deylah - full hp, align weapon, greater magic weapon +3
* Khala takes full swings on Borigard. Believe it or not, only 1 tentacle and 1 bite hits. Borigard takes 29 points after DR applied, and saves against the Con damage!
* Borigard swings 4 more times at -4 power attack. All 4 swings miss.
* Fipple casts another empowered scorching ray. This time, it gets through, and all three hit! Final damage after fire resistance is 16 points. I rolled sucky.
* Sarah chances it and casts her power word blind. It affect Khala! He's blind!
* Deylah says, "Excellent..." and take 4 unhindered swings against a blind gazeless opponent with no Dex bonus! Two hits, a total of 52 points of damage after DR reduction! Unfortunately, she forgets to shut her eyes...
Round 8:
Borigard - 86/131 hp (-5 from negative level from death), hasted 9 rounds, DR 5/adamantine, magic circle against evil
Sarah - full hp, hasted 7 rounds
Fipple - full hp
Deylah - full hp, align weapon, greater magic weapon +3
* Khala casts an area greater dispel on himself. The power word blindness goes down, as does Borigard's DR effect and Deylah's align weapon. Deylah also fails twice against the gaze attacks and is feared for 3 rounds and confused for 2 rounds.
* Borigard swings 4 more times at -4 power attack. 1 hit, and it's a crit (thank you haste +1 to attacks)! 29 points of damage after DR!
* Fipple gets an idea and delays...
* Sarah casts remove fear on Deylah, but she's still confused.
* Deylah starts babbling in coherently.
Khala has taken 167 points of damage so far! But he has also healed 10, so he has... uh..93 hit points.
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BATTLE #2
Round 9:
Borigard - 86/131 hp (-5 from negative level from death), hasted 7 rounds, magic circle against evil
Sarah - full hp, hasted 6 rounds
Fipple - full hp
Deylah - full hp, greater magic weapon +3, feared for 3 rounds, confused for 2
* Khala takes full swings again on Borigard. This time, both tentacles hit (1 is a crit) along with 1 bite. The tail misses just barely. Alas, Borigard is hit for 79 points of damage AND loses 7 points of Con, which drops him to... -49 hit points. He is utterly killed, again. Anyone see that coming? Should have healed! Would it have mattered?
* Fipple looks at Sarah and casts a web to engulf Khala, leaving Deylah outside the edge.
* Sarah casts a blade barrier on top of Khala, doing 46 points of damage, since he can't hop out of the way.
* Deylah decides to attack the nearest creature and futily swings at Khala 4 times, doing no damage.
Round 10:
Borigard - DEAD
Sarah - full hp, hasted 5 rounds
Fipple - full hp
Deylah - full hp, greater magic weapon +3, feared for 2 rounds, confused for 1 round
* Khala casts another area dispel over himself, brings down the webs and Deylah's magic weapon but fails to bring down the blade barrier! He is forced to move out, taking another... 53 points of damage! This is enough to trigger his pact, and he uses it. After a flash of light, the wastrilith suddenly appears in Khala's place. In the blade barrier... he makes the Reflex save and hops out next to Deylah.
* Fipple points and yells, "EEL!" Hoping that Deylah keeps her senses to attack, he casts a grease at its feet, forcing it to be flat footed...
* Sarah runs up and casts her holy word! It affects him! (rolled a 2 eek, plus 18 = 20 SR, that's cutting it close). It requires a Will save of 27 for the wastrilith to avoid being banished. It rolls a 5+15 = 20. Not enough. The wastrilith is forced back to the Abyss!
* Deylah decides to attack nearest, but before she can reach Fipple next round, she comes to her senses.
So... now what...
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Fipple says, "What was that? Did he turn into another eel demon? Or is he dead?"
Sarah walks over, looks at Borigard, and rests her face in one of her hands. "I don't know."
Deylah looks at the pearl, then the others. "So, what should we do?"
Sarah says, "We'll do what Borigard started. We're destroying this pearl."
Fipple thought for a moment. "It looked like Khala was slowly healing as we hurt him. Maybe he simply retreated."
Sarah responds, "It's possible."
Fipple hesitated. "Or maybe... [Knowledge check(the planes) = 25] he had some sort of pact with the eel creature? Remember when we were fighting the eel back at the entrance, he would freeze us with that unholy word, then some of our spells would go down at the same time? What if they had some sort of connection and Khala was casting spells through him?"
Sarah pondered. "If you're right, and all they did was switch places, then he will likely come back after he's healed. We better destroy this pearl now, then tomorrow we can come back and finish the job. If the eel is truly gone, then it's likely that Khala can't use that trick again."
Deylah slouched. "Why do these big bad guys always have to be so hard to get rid of!?"
Sarah took command. "We can't dwell on that right now." She casts Dispel Evil on herself, then touches the pearl. Its enchantments flow off from it like a rotten stain washed from jewelry. "Fipple, can you get us out of here?"
Fipple replied gently. "Certainly. I should be able to take us directly outside."
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RETROSPECT #2
I would award CR's for this encounter, even though Khala is not yet killed.
This encounter is one of those examples where I have a hard time imagining the actual strategy someone might use to fight effectively. It looked at first as though Borigard might handle himself ok, then all of a sudden WHAM, he's down. From only one opponent. Had I suspected something like that might happen, I would have at least healed him with Sarah a little. All of Khala's free dispels at 20th level of ability didn't help matters.
Also, I can see where parties could get real frustrated with this fight. Finishing the fight without someone dying is hard enough, then the wastrilith shows up.
An experienced set of players would probably have handled this encounter quite differently from a tactics standpoint and done much better. I appreciate that the people at Paizo designed encounters to entertain and challenge experienced players rather than coddle the new ones (otherwise it would be very boring for the veterans). It also shows me that I have to pre-think a little better. Again, I haven't played these characters from 1st level, so they aren't exactly ironed out. I do enjoy the web + blade barrier maneuver, though :)
And oops, looks like I goofed on Sarah and Fipple's hp's after the first round, I didn't apply the unholy blight damage. Didn't much matter.
How would(did) you handle going toe to toe with Khala?
It seems to me there are three primary things that works best with him:
1. Keep an effect on him that forces him to dispel the effect, since he can do it so easily. This prevents him from using attacks and allows everyone else to cause him damage without suffering any.
2. Don't ever, EVER, let him get full attacks. Use Spring Attack or just swing once and move, but keep the number of swings he gets on you to a minimum. Displacement is fine as well, at least on average you're only taking half damage.
3. Forcing him to lose his Dex (blindness, grease) just before the meleers get their swings is a great way to help them hit. Delay so that you can cast those effects and the meleers can swing together.
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Borigard looked weak. Sarah watched him with concerned eyes.
Sarah: "I think next time I should take some of the damage you suffer."
Borigard: "Out of the question!"
Sarah: "You're not the only strategist here! Keeping you in the fight is just as important. I should be able to withstand a few hits, then I can heal us both. It's better than you taking the full brunt."
Borigard: "Very well, but make sure you get out of the fight or at least break the enchantment if it comes to that. Without you, we are done for."
Fipple: "I'll prepare more defense spells, too. Maybe some that I can cast at the same time as damaging spells. It might help."
Deylah: "I can't even get close to him without suffering from those infernal eyes."
Borigard: "Then try your bow. You might not be able to strike him in vital areas from that distance, but at least you'll be out of harm's way, and you're more likely to keep the enchantments on your weapon."
Deylah: "That's... an idea. So, how should we approach this time?"
Borigard: "Same way as before. Just check those corners."
Deylah (mumbling to herself): "And hope Khala isn't around them..."
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Due to having 2 negative levels, Borigard loses heal mount and resist energy. He is -10 hit points and takes -2 on skill checks, attack rolls and saves, and has a paladin level of 12th for purposes of turning and smite evil.
Sarah's new prepared spells:
0: cure minor wounds, detect evil, detect magic, light x2, read magic
1: divine favor (x2), remove fear (x2), shield other (x2), shield of faith, protection from evil
2: aid (x2), align weapon (x2), silence (x2), spiritual weapon (x2)
3: dispel magic (x2), prayer, magic circle against evil x2, protection from energy
4: greater magic weapon (x2), neutralize poison, holy smite, divine power
5: dispel evil (x2), righteous might, spell resistance, flame strike
6: greater dispel magic, heal (x2), blade barrier (x2)
7: holy word, destruction, power word blind
Fipple's new prepared spell list:
0: dancing lights, light, detect magic, prestidigitation, ray of frost
1: grease (x2), magic missile (x2), feather fall, color spray (x2)
2: scorching ray (x6), web, mirror image (x2), glitterdust (x4)
3: empowered magic missile (x2), haste (x3), displacement (x2)
4: empowered scorching ray(x3), dimension door (x2), minor globe of invulnerability
5: quickened grease, empowered fireball, overland flight, cone of cold, break enchantment
6: disinitegrate, chain lightning, quickened web, greater dispel magic (x2)
7: quickened fireball, quickened displacement, reverse gravity
Deylah, due to having 1 negative level, is -5 hp, and takes -1 on attack rolls, skill checks and saves.
...
Fipple once again teleported them to the Nimbus temple, and they lit their torches and descended.
Borigard said, "Let's be careful this time. If Khala can't escape like he did last time, he's either going to be more careful, or much worse."
Deylah commented, "Why are we even checking corners!? The torches light us up from hundreds of feet away anyway!"
Sarah reasoned, "Well even if they know we are coming, I'd rather you see them before they see you so you can tell us what's there."
They made their way to the pool room, and now had to decide how best to approach.
"We should probably try scouting from above again. We'll take whatever advantage we can get, just be ready for the worst."
Sarah and Fipple began casting spells...
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Borigard received a magic circle against evil and a greater magic weapon. Deylah received an align weapon and greater magic weapon.
She once again activated her invisibility ring, just in case, and approached the opening on to the balcony. Soon after, she came back.
"From where I was, I could tell there is absolutely no light in that room, I can't see a thing."
Sarah said, "Do you want to try to peek over the edge?"
Deylah thought about it. "I don't know, how far can he see in the dark?"
Fipple reasoned, "If it's pitch black in there, and he's in there, probably far enough."
Borigard decided, "Better not then. Let's work our way to the lower entrance."
"Sounds good to me", Deylah said, relieved.
As they approached the southern opening, their torchlight illuminated the walls.
"Stay here", Deylah said, as she carefully crept up the halway just enough to make out any details. At first, she thought it was just as black as before. Then she saw them: Two pairs of hot white eyes, slowly blinking in the far distance. "I can see him."
"What's he doing?"
She paused. And paused again. "Nothing."
Borigard wondered, "What's he waiting for?"
Fipple answered, "Us, I would gather."
Borigard readied himself. "Well, let's not disappoint him then. We'll all go into the room together and split up. Deylah, you take the right side of the room, and make sure you're 40 feet away from me!"
Deylah pulled out her bow. "Roger that."
Borigard continued. "Sarah and Fipple, you take the rear sides of the room. You might also want to stay split up, we don't know what he has planned, and the fewer spells he can cancel, the better. Everyone ready? On your casting, Fipple. And remember, that might just be an image."
Fipple started with a displacement on Borigard, then Sarah cast a Dispel Evil on herself, following by a haste from Fipple.
And in they charged.
(more tomorrow, not even I know what happens yet!)
Think Sarah forgot to tag Borigard with the Shield Other spell she promised him ... oops ...
Betcha Khala has Readied an Action (and is no longer flat-footed due to being plainly aware of the PCs presence) to Counterspell too ... this should get interesting fast ... :)
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You prophet you :)
Actually I debated about the shield other, but it's a range spell so she figured she would wait for the best time to cast it rather than just cast it now and have it dispelled.
Khala had hunted around the temple after they left last time and couldn't find them, and he knows why. He plans to rectify this.
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Here is the third battle in its entire sordid detail.
In all fairness to myself, I did go back and rewind a round a few times either because I forgot about some effect and had to redo a round, or someone was going to die when I should have clearly seen this the round before. This battle represents the party performing at their most efficient, making the right decisions (but I didn't redo a strategy when I realized it wouldn't work).
There is also one major detail I totally lost as I played out this fight. In shuffling actions as I rearranged tactics, somehow the retriever was never killed. If you'll permit me a couple mistakes, barring anything too major, this is basically how the whole thing played out.
Round 1:
- Borigard 126/126 hp, -2 on rolls, magic circle against evil, greater magic weapon, displacement 12, haste 13
- Sarah 93/93 hp, dispel evil 12, haste 13
- Fipple 85/85 hp, haste 13
- Deylah 81/81 hp, -1 on rolls, greater magic weapon, align weapon, haste 13
* Borigard rushes in and takes the left side of the platform. Khala is resting on the far platform, past the water. Immediately, Khala lets out a howl, a gate opens, and out steps a retriever.
* Deylah rushes to the right side front of the platform.
* Sarah Steps in to the right side back.
* Fipple steps in and casts a disintegrate at the retriever, striking and causing 84 points of damage! (Constructs + disintegrate = bad!)
...
Round 2:
- Borigard 126/126 hp, -2 on rolls, magic circle against evil, greater magic weapon, displacement 11, haste 12
- Sarah 93/93 hp, dispel evil 11, haste 12
- Fipple 85/85 hp, haste 12
- Deylah 81/81 hp, -1 on rolls, greater magic weapon, align weapon, haste 12
- Retriever 51/135 hp
* Khala steadies himself. Borigard wonders what he's up to.
* Suddenly, four large kopru rise out of the water and into the air. All of them extend evil appendages at the party. Evil thoughts swim in their minds (dominate), and all save except Deylah.
* The retriever fires a petrification ray at Fipple, and strikes, but Fipple saves!
* Borigard charges the retriever. It takes a free bite but misses because of the displacement! Borigard brings his sword across and strikes with 5 points of Power Attack, causing 30 points!
* Sarah notices that Khala seems to be staring at Fipple and attempts a greater dispel in case it's an image. It fails.
* Fipple starts to cast a scorching ray at the retriever but is stopped by Khala's greater dispel. Fipple narrowed his eyes... "So, that's how you want to play..."
...
Round 3:
- Borigard 126/126 hp, -2 on rolls, magic circle against evil, greater magic weapon, displacement 10, haste 11
- Sarah 93/93 hp, dispel evil 10, haste 11
- Fipple 85/85 hp, haste 11
- Deylah 81/81 hp, -1 on rolls, greater magic weapon, align weapon, haste 11
- Retriever 21/135 hp
- koprus - (B)102/120, (S)102/102, (D)102/102, (F)102/102
* A kopru dives at Borigard and lashes out its tail. It misses because of the concealment!
* Deylah suddenly feels a compulsion to "kill the gnome", but breaks the effect! The kopru dives at her and stops.
* A kopru dives at Sarah and lashes out its tail. It strikes and catches her in its grip! She suffers a total of 48 points of damage!
* A kopru dives at Fipple and lashes out its tail. Fipple is caught and is contricted for 48 points!
* Retriever??? Hmm, no clue. As much as I'm sure you want the strict rules to be followed, at this point, I'm just dropping him from the fight, because I don't want to do this again! Arrgh!
* Borigard activates his gargoyle crown (DR 5), casts a shield other on Fipple, and rushes to the kopru strangling him.
* Deylah tumbles away from her kopru and fires a shot at Sarah's kopru, now grappling and losing Dex. She strikes for 32 points with sneak attack! (25% chance to hit Sarah, kopru is tall large creature)
* Sarah attempts to escape the grapple and fails
* Khala readies an action against Fipple
* Fipple casts a quickened mirror image, then attempts to cast a dimension door to escape the grapple. The concentration checks succeed, but then Khala hits Fipple with another dispel. The contest is 33/31 to Khala, so Fipple's spell is cancelled and he remains in the kopru's grip.
...
Round 4:
- Borigard 126/126 hp, -2 on rolls, magic circle against evil, greater magic weapon, displacement 9, haste 10
- Sarah 45/93 hp, dispel evil 9, haste 10
- Fipple 37/85 hp, shield other (Borigard), haste 10, mirror image (8) 14
- Deylah 81/81 hp, -1 on rolls, hp, greater magic weapon, align weapon, haste 10
- koprus - (B)102/120, (S)70/102, (D)102/102, (F)102/102
* Borigard's kopru charges and lashes, and misses again!
* Deylah's kopru charges and lashes, and misses!
* Sarah is constricted for 43 points!
* Fipple is contricted for 52 points! (but the damage is split between him and Borigard, so each take 26)
* Borigard takes full swings on Fipple's kopru with -5 Power Attack and hits 3 times, one was a crit, for a total of 119 points!
* Deylah tumbles away and fires once at Sarah's kopru, striking again for 30 points of sneak attack.
* Sarah Once again tries to escape, but lacks the strength. She could feel her own death approaching, and worse, that of her friends.
* Fipple feels a tugging on his body as he resists being flung by Khala! "What does he want with me!?"
* Fipple realizes he's free of the kopru, says, "Alright, that does it", stands up, and casts an empowered scorching ray on Sarah's kopru, frying it utterly (As I went back and looked at my notes, Fipple has accidentally struck Sarah once for 27 points - somewhere I lost track of things, and I REALLY didn't want to do this fight over again! So, I fudged. Sue me :) )
...
Round 5:
- Borigard 100/126 hp, -2 on rolls, magic circle against evil, greater magic weapon, displacement 8, haste 9
- Sarah 2/93 hp, dispel evil 8, haste 9
- Fipple 11/85 hp, shield other (Borigard), haste 9, mirror image(8) 13
- Deylah 81/81 hp, -1 on rolls, greater magic weapon, align weapon, haste 9
- koprus - (B)102/120, (D)102/102
* Borigard's kopru approaches and swings full on Borigard. All attacks miss!
* Deylah's kopru lashes out its tail and grabs her, and contricts for 43 points!
* Borigard turns around and attacks his kopru full. -2 Power Attack, 2 hits, 60 points of damage.
* Deylah tries to use Escape Artist to escape. Fails.
* Sarah stands up and casts Mass Cure Serious Wounds, curing 35(B), 32(S), 21(D), and 39(F)
* Khala casts a feeblemind on Sarah! And she saves!
* Fipple casts a scorching ray at Deylah's kopru, and deals 5 points after fire resistance. Sucky rolls.
...
Round 6:
- Borigard 126/126 hp, -2 on rolls, magic circle against evil, greater magic weapon, displacement 7, haste 8
- Sarah 34/93 hp, dispel evil 7, haste 8
- Fipple 50/85 hp, shield other (Borigard), haste 8, mirror image(8) 12
- Deylah 59/81 hp, -1 on rolls, greater magic weapon, align weapon, haste 8
- koprus - (B)42/120, (D)97/102
* Borigard's kopru attacks him full, all miss!
* Deylah's kopru tries to constrict and rolls a 1! It fails!
* Borigard attacks his kopru full with -5 Power Attack - 2 hits, one crit. The kopru is cut down.
* Deylah attempts to escape. Failed.
* Sarah runs over to Deylah and uses her Neutralize Poison spell as a Cure Critical Wounds. Deylah is cured 29 points.
* Khala casts a targetted dispel on Fipple, bringing down his haste, mirror image and shield other.
* Fipple casts an empowered scorching ray on the kopru and causes 12 points, but also hits Deylah twice for 39. Whoops.
...
Round 7:
- Borigard 126/126 hp, -2 on rolls, magic circle against evil, greater magic weapon, displacement 6, haste 7
- Sarah 34/93 hp, dispel evil 6, haste 7
- Fipple 50/85 hp
- Deylah 42/81 hp, -1 on rolls, greater magic weapon, align weapon, haste 7
- koprus - (D)85/102
* Deylah's kopru constricts her for 47 points! She's at -5!
* Borigard charges Deylah's kopru with -9 Power Attack and Smite Evil. Total damage is 55 points.
* Sarah casts Heal on Deylah.
* Fipple feels himself being tugged but fails the save by 2! He is flung across the chamber and lands on the platform on the other side of the water (taking 9 points), right in front of Khala! He closes his eyes! He hears Khala's voice in his head - "After you are dead, I will hunt your friends until they have joined you!"
* Fipple casts mirror image defensively (6 images), eyes closed. He could use dimension door to escape, but that would leave him with none! What to do...
...
Round 8:
- Borigard 126/126 hp, -2 on rolls, magic circle against evil, greater magic weapon, displacement 5, haste 6
- Sarah 34/93 hp, dispel evil 5, haste 6
- Fipple 41/85 hp
- Deylah 81/81 hp, -1 on rolls, greater magic weapon, align weapon, haste 6
- koprus - (D)85/102
* Borigard takes full swings on the kopru with -5 Power Attack the first hit downs it!
* Deylah stands up and takes a shot at Khala. The arrow goes right through him!
* Sarah delays, waiting for the right moment...
* Khala suddenly appears next to Fipple, this time, the real one. He sneers at him. "Escape, whelp! Flee and leave your friends here!" Fipple notices the heat of the evil form looming over him.
* Sarah casts Destruction! And it beats Khala's SR! Sadly, he saves with a natural 20. 36 points of damage on Khala.
* Fipple yells out - "Sarah, wait on me!" Sarah acknowledges.
...
Round 9:
- Borigard 126/126 hp, -2 on rolls, magic circle against evil, greater magic weapon, displacement 4, haste 5
- Sarah 34/93 hp, dispel evil 4, haste 5
- Fipple 41/85 hp
- Deylah 81/81 hp, -1 on rolls, greater magic weapon, align weapon, haste 5
- Khala 223/250 hp (fast healing)
* Borigard yells out, "Fipple, what are you doing!?" There was no reply from him. He looked down and saw a potion vial rolling away from the dead kopru. He reached down, picked it up and drank it, and took flight.
* Deylah did the same. Except the yelling.
* Khala takes full melee swings on Fipple! "I will crush you in my tail, you will flee or die!" 4 images are brought down, and Fipple takes 20 points of bite damage!
* Fipple turns and casts cone of cold in Khala's face! Khala takes 9 points of damage (save plus cold resistance, more sucky rolls). Then, Fipple casts a quickened web on the area with his back to Khala, enough to catch the fiend in the strands!
* Sarah takes the cue and slams a blade barrier on top of Khala. He suffers 50 points of damage. Sarah then yells to Deylah - "Deylah! get just out of range and be ready!" Deylah acknowledges.
...
Round 10:
- Borigard 126/126 hp, -2 on rolls, magic circle against evil, greater magic weapon, displacement 3, haste 4, fly
- Sarah 34/93 hp, dispel evil 3, haste 4
- Fipple 21/85 hp
- Deylah 81/81 hp, -1 on rolls, greater magic weapon, align weapon, haste 4, fly
- Khala 178/250 hp (fast healing)
* Borigard flies and lands 10 feet from Khala with his back to him, preparing next round for a 5 foot step.
* Deylah hovers 35 feet away from Khala over the water.
* Khala casts a greater dispel on his area. The blade barrier and web go down. Miraculously, Fipple's mirror images (albeit 2) stay up! Borigard loses his fly ability.
* Fipple says, "On my cast, Borigard!" Borigard acknowledges, and Fipple delays...
* Sarah nervously delays until she knows Deylah can act.
...
Round 11:
- Borigard 126/126 hp, -2 on rolls, magic circle against evil, greater magic weapon, displacement 2, haste 3
- Sarah 34/93 hp, dispel evil 2, haste 3
- Fipple 21/85 hp
- Deylah 81/81 hp, -1 on rolls, greater magic weapon, align weapon, haste 3, fly
- Khala 183/250 hp (fast healing)
* Borigard delays.
* Fipple casts another mirror image defensively (8 images!) then averts his eyes and casts quickened grease at Khala's feet! Alas, he meets Khala's confusion gaze and fails. Fipple will be confused for 2 rounds.
* Borigard takes a 5 foot step towards the now Dex-less Khala with his eyes shut and swings with his remaining Smites and -5 Power Attack! Two hits for a total of 84 points! AND... Khala rolls a 1 on his save during the first strike and FALLS! Khala is down to 99 hit points!
* Deylah delays... and groans. Prone targets are harder to hit with ranged weapons...
* Sarah casts Power Word Blind! And it beats Khala's SR exactly!
* Deylah floats in 5 feet and takes her shots. One hit, 38 points sneak attack! She was at -8 to hit from a prone target and firing into melee. Then she shuts her eyes. Khala is down to 61 hit points.
* Khala attempts to stand up. "Once your mage is dead and you can't escape, I will kill you all while you flee!" Borigard brings down his blade. A CRIT! 65 points! Khala falls unconscious!
...
Khala's hulking form falls limp to the temple floor. Borigard raises his blade without hesitation and sends it through Khala's heads. A ghostly roar erupts in the cavern as Khala slowly begins to dissolve. Fipple begins babbling incoherently as the sounds become a reverberant blur against the surrounding walls of the temple.
Borigard stands there as Good's witness, watching Khala's body succumb to the inevitable, when suddenly he feels Fipple kicking him in the leg violently. He steadies himself, looks back, and sees the two evil visages of the true Demogorgon glaring back at him, if only for an instant, as they fade away into the darkness. Then all falls silent.
Borigard looks down at Fipple. Fipple suddenly stops, sees that he's holding Borigard's leg, and looks up at him. Borigard smiles and pick Fipple up and holds him out in front of him. Fipple looked back, and their eyes met.
"Do you mind?" Fipple asked.
"Oh, sorry." Borigard answered, and put him down.
There was a calm over the room. There were no loud cheers or dancing, but their hearts were lighter than they had been for some time.
Quietly, they made their long trek back to Farshore. The jungle seemed different now, the taint of evil slowly draining away. Borigard was looking forward to giving Livinia another reason to celebrate.
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RETROSPECT #3
My apologies for the mistakes and fudges in the last fight, but I did half of it late last night and had to keep flipping around in my notes. I guess I missed some details. I didn't realize Sarah was so low on hit points and that the retriever hadn't actually been killed (but one cleave from Borigard probably would have taken care of that, assuming he avoided getting stuck in its mouth).
Khala's whole plan this time was to kill Fipple. Period. With no way to escape quickly, it would have been a simple matter for Khala to hunt them down and obliterate them. Apparently, the little gnome's got more tricks up his sleeve than Khala does :)
Again, I'll welcome any comments about how you would handle this fight, and hopefully you'll even get some new ideas from it!
Oops, looks like I made another goof, too. Fipple didn't have a quickened mirror image, he had a quickened web. Fortunately, that part didn't matter. Bleh. I'm exhausted.
Looks like I was off on the Mass CSW numbers as well, Sarah can't cast a MCSW for 39 points. It was 2:30am. Yech. Maybe I added a 10 somewhere as I quickly tallied dice rolls. Fortunately, Fipple's hit points never dropped below 10, so it's not an issue.
I'm beginning to think a wizard with Quicken Spell is a LOT more useful than a sorceror, too...
I wonder how it would have been ruled if Khala defensively casted Fly and just rose 5' instead of trying to stand...
By the way, I do believe I'm done with the testing now. I think I found out what I needed to know. Khala is beatable, but I don't see it happening without having to find out his strengths the hard way, retreating, and getting around them. Good luck to your players!
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One of the big rewind points was that in the first attempt of Battle #3, Sarah had cast Righteous Might on herself to escape the kopru's constricting. That would work wonderfully (a creature can only constrict smaller ones - wrong, see below, dang 3.x) except that you can't cast a somatic spell when you are grappled. There are a small number of cleric spells that only have verbal components (Miracle, Holy Word, Power Words, Word of Recall, etc.) but of all of them, Greater Command is probably the most useful. You can always take the Still Spell feat which opens up many possibilities in that regard as well. EDIT: After looking more closely at the rules, becoming Large cancels the Improved Grab ability, not the contricting, so once you're being constricted, you're stuck, but at least becoming Large gives you a better chance to escape.
When Sarah cast her Mass Cure Serious Wounds (she consumed her Holy Word for that, by the way), it was unclear to me exactly who was within 30 ft. of each other, especially since Borigard suggested everyone remain 40 ft. apart. That was another fudge. I didn't use the mini's this time. Deylah was tumbling away from her kopru and Borigard ran to help Fipple, so it was possible that Fipple and Sarah were too far apart. That would be a good reason to have Widen spell.
Borigard and Deylah were well aware from previous encounters that the koprus use fly potions to get around in battle, that's why they knew what the potions were. I didn't bother giving the party any potions (yet), but I would have at least given Deylah a few Cat's Grace, and everyone a few Fly potions.
And after all that fighting, they never figured out that he was immune to flanking :)
Blade Barrier DOES require SR checks, and I was making sure they were succeeding. One thing I never ended up using, though, was Khala's Dodge ability and Combat Expertise. I keep forgetting those!!!
Wonderful Playtest, Your methods were concise and delivered the information. It made for good reading. HOWEVER when I was reading it last night you ended JUST before the third battle and I had a conniption. I wanted to know how it turned out and you treacherously LEFT! :) Lucky for my players it was last night and not tonight considering I'm DMing them (homebrewed adventure no connection to the STAP) but I'd have been annoyed to the point of doing them harm and they woulda had YOU to blame! :)
All kidding aside your playtest has made me want to run the adventure in some form for my players sometime soon, especially since when I played through it I ended up dying two rounds in. Thankfully the party managed to kill him and bring me back afterwards.
Good work on the playtest and thank you for sharing.
Nice work Pygon. I like reading this kind of stuff, to see how different tactics are addressed.
I have a suggestion should you wish to do this kind of simulation again. Use average damage in place of rolling it, it removes some of the luck (good and bad) and may give you a better feel for how a group will do on average. You could even take 10 on saves and attack rolls.
Cheers!
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Thanks, I might consider that. But sometimes taking 10 (especially when it comes to Khala) leads to constant failure, and fights like these usually involve strange turns of events (a crit to finish off Khala, Khala tripping(!!), and Deylah escaping constrict damage on a 1!), so I wanted to track it like an actual session at a table.
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One ability Khala has that I never saw you use was his Acidic Spittle that also automatically bestows 1 negative level. He has to make a ranged touch attack at a bonus of like +26 and does 6d6 acid plus one negative level. In the later fights it might not have been the most effective tactic, but when they were engaged by the Skulvyns and Retriever especially, having Khala peppering them with that spittle attack can be very demoralizing. You used his Dispel Magic ability to great effect, and personally I think the caster level 20 greater dispel at will is one of the abilities that takes Khala from being a tough boss fight to a potential TPK every time. No amount of buffing will save you if Khala can dispel you until they are dropped.
One other point to make is that I noticed you use all straight class core classes and races for this simulation. That makes sense as a baseline, but I would point out that part of the reason that Khala is so fearsomely powerful is to challenge groups that aren't just using core rules. A Warmage for example, can put a crazy hurting on a creature like Khala in a hurry. Another point is that if they party had played through the adventures up to Khala, they should have had at least one lesser rod of empowering for the wizard that would have been taken from the Skinwalker acolytes. That would have given him 3 empowered fireballs a day on top of whatever he prepared. I found your simulated parties AC to be rather low for a 14th level PC group. Following the guidelines for NPC's in the DMG, an average 14th level paladin has an AC of 24, and that is with NPC wealth limits. A PC Paladin could be even higher, so I think the AC of 23 for the Paladin is too low for what a PC should have at 14th level.
For the STAP, I think a straight class fighter or barbarian makes a better tank choice than a Paladin because of the benefit of the extra feats or better HP and rage for the barbarian. Having things like Weapon Specialization and Greater Weapon Specialization can make it a lot easier to get through that DR if you don't have the right weapon to do it. By the time the PC's get to Khala they have already faced several demons (Olangru, the Vrocks, Onailati, Xerkhamat etc), so having them have purchased cold iron and holy weapons is not a stretch of the imagination I think. With access to greater teleport as a 7th level spell, there is no reason the party can't teleport to Sasserine to buy gear during City of Broken Idols.
I do think that in the STAP a wizard is the best arcane caster choice because of quicken spell and the bonus feats. The cleric is fine I think, but again question some of the gear choices. For spell tactics, it looks like you focused on core only spells, but with just the spell compendium, an arcane caster has a plethora of direct damage options available that ignore SR. Specifically I am thinking of the 4th level Orb spells. Using Empower Spell, a wizard can prepare an Orb of Fire that does 21d6 points of damage on a ranged touch with no saving throw or SR allowed. Another good option is Assay Spell Resistance, which lowers the target creatures SR by 10 or gives a plus 10 to the SR checks or something like that.
Another thing I would have considered strongly, is using a Druid instead of a cleric as the divine caster, because with a Summon Nature's Ally VII, the Druid could bring in a Greater Earth elemental that would have 241 hp with Augment Summoning, an attack bonus of +26 and 2d10+13 damage (+27 attack with a haste added on). Further it would have a grapple bonus of +35, making it a very effective distraction for Khala while the party deals with his minions. Having the druid buff the elemental with a greater magic fang or something would make those numbers even better. Khala might dispel the elemental, but if he does that, he isn't debuffing the party.
Trying to remember what else worked well with Khala. Using Core, you have to get creative in what spells you use and such, but I think your party is underequipped for their level, and having played through the STAP to that point, they would be fools to not at least have some cold iron weapons and probably cold iron and holy, especially for the Paladin.
Interesting simulation. When I ran Khala myself, the party made short work of him, but they had a Crusader from ToB, a Warmage/Rogue/Spellwarp Sniper, a Druid, and a Beguiler. They had access to spells from Spell Compendium and the complete series, so they had already gotten to the point they were using spells that didn't allow SR because of the large number of Demons they had already faced to that point.
Hope these pointers help on tactics against Khala. For Khala himself, you played him well in having him sit back and use his spell like abilities to hurt the party while they tried to deal with the Skulvyns. Have Khala already summon a Retriever before they engage the Skulvyns, and then Khala's spittle along with eh Retrievers free action eye rays will really wear the party down as they try to get past the Skulvyns to get to Khala.
Hope all that helps.
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Thanks for all the feedback, Brent.
I tried to distribute the treasure that would be found throughout the STAP up to that point. There were a few items that I might have missed, including the lesser empowering rod you mentioned. There was a sunblade as well with a +4 enchantment that, according to Monte's DR rules(which I mentioned in the first post), would have gotten past the DR with no additions. I didn't bother with equipping from Sasserine because I wanted to see what STAP-only treasure would do (it's altogether likely that some parties won't have access to teleport). STAP offers very little Dex love as well, so Deylah's attack rolls and AC suffered. Note that Borigard's AC actually goes up to 28 when he releases his animated shield, which he always did (although I didn't mention it). AC 28 is pretty dang good for someone wielding a two-hander.
It's frankly a shame that all the additional supplements for DnD are needed in order to assemble parties that are so much more powerful. However, as I already mentioned, I'm glad that the encounters are set up to also challenge those parties. One thing I did find interesting was how I was able to tune how the party worked together to maximum effect to take Khala down. The simplest reason that I used the core classes and spells was that the core books are all I own, except the Manual of the Planes :) I was considering taking a 5-person party along (I also have a greataxe-wielding eldritch knight with some temp hp spells, he's quite nasty), but the Farshore pirate attack was far too easy with those 5 characters. 4 characters were just about right, so I wanted to do a similar comparison at this level with Khala. It's hard to know how things could be adjusted up or down based on party builds, and live in-session is a bad time to discover an adjustment is needed in the same encounter. I would also like to think that a core-only party can be successful here. I really don't like the idea of "forcing" players to purchase supplements to survive.
I found the dispelling from a distance tactic to actually be more effective than using the spittle. It forces the party to use up resources, or do without the buffs. When I realized that casting unholy blight all the time didn't really seem to be doing anything, I didn't think the spittle would have made all that much of a difference. I do know that negative levels, when piled on, can make a significant difference, but a lot can happen in a round (it only took 2 rounds of full exposure in the final fight to kill Khala), and it would take a while for the spittle to really harm a party.
Now, if I really wanted to be cruel, I could have had Khala simply fly around and pelt the party and dispel any fly effects they would cast, but he knew that if the party was taking too much damage, that Fipple would have just teleported them out. After how quickly he tore up Borigard in the second fight just by using swings, he was certain he could rip Fipple to shreds, so that's what he wanted to attempt. Then he could teleport away, heal up, then kill the cleric. Ad nauseum.
I'm frankly nervous about taking a druid along instead of a cleric. Druids lack the restoration spell, which is so useful in so many circumstances (including curing ability damage and the aforementioned negative levels). I fought a shadow dragon in the Underdark with only a druid as the primary healer, and it wasn't pretty :)
Also, the reason I didn't have Khala already summon the retriever was because if the PC's figured that out, they could just stay back and wait for the summon to wear off, as some players very well do when they realize some opponents have duration buffs on. A viable tactic when you're fighting wars, as Khala is very familiar with.
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2011 Top 16
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It seems like you're running all the characters, so while this might measure what a core party using STAP only treasure can do against Khala I don't think it's as accurate as this shows. As Brent mentioned most parties will likely have better resoures from the Complete series, Spell Compendium, and even the Magic Item Compendium.
Now your characters seemed way too timid to me. My players would have focused on Khala first and foremost, dropping as much heavy firepower as possible on him from the get go. Secondary mooks have traditionally been mopped up as an afterthought.
Now we're currently gearing up to start the STAP at HTBM, but running it as a fully planar campaign. We're starting at 10th level, quick equip rules from the MIC (with adjustments afterward), 24d6 abilities, and the party is our reimagining of our old Planescape fiendslaying party. So my 7 PC's will have some edge on Fiends in general... but with the overall deadlyness of the Adventure Paths in general I think it works out.
Lucien Bradley: Aasimar* Ftr 2/Pal 8 (Godsmen) LG
Horny: Minotaur Ftr 2 CN
Deek: Dwarf Bbn 5/Hellreaver 5 (Ragers) CN
Cosmo Triggertripper: Halfling Rogue 10 (still building)
Arros: Human Clr 10 LN (looking at Demonwrecker from Demonweb pits)
Duklar: Tiefling Ranger or Scout 10
Renqual the Wild: Aasimar Wiz 5/Wild Mage5
*planetouched are ECL 0 in my games; immunity to 7 spells, 2 of which are buff/utilty spells, minor energy resists, and uneven scores does not an LA +1 make IMO.
I expect this combat to be interesting... I will definitely prepare it with your nasty TK manuever in mind! I loved it.
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Now your characters seemed way too timid to me. My players would have focused on Khala first and foremost, dropping as much heavy firepower as possible on him from the get go. Secondary mooks have traditionally been mopped up as an afterthought.
I can't really see how this party could have possibly gone after Khala and saved the lessers for last. In the first fight (holy word goof ignored at this point) Borigard was taken down in two rounds with all the hits, not to mention he couldn't choose his target because he was confused. In the third fight, two members were constricted by the kopru, and both Fipple and Sarah would have died if Borigard and Deylah focused on going after Khala. Charging after Khala first with everything else attacking them would have led to a wipe, there is no question in my mind. Being less timid would have been tactically foolish given the situations as they happened and the builds.
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2011 Top 16
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I wasn't knocking the builds, but in AP's a 4 man party is gonna get hammered. SCAP and AoW are downright deadly. Obviously the jury's still out on the STAP because not everyone's played through it all yet (and posted the results).
I've got a group of veteran gamers, several powergamer/optimizers among them. They, as a rule, agressively attack the greatest threat in the encounter first. I've been DMing them for years and have seen them eat Dragons for breakfast, Liches for lunch, sup on Fiends and loot the bodies for dessert. Now I have thrown near-TPK's at them on occasion (last night ended up that way!), but overall they prevail through sheer agression, bravado, and ruthless tactics. My guys are good.
I hope to thoroughly challenge them with this adventure path and threads like yours help me to no end... so I do thank you for your work which was extremely insightful. I will be sure to document my Planescape STAP in the weeks to come.
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I tested these same characters in the attack on Farshore and they did quite well, actually. Almost all their spells were used up when Vanthus finally arrived. It was with that result that I decided to test only these 4 against Khala. The results were, fair to say, surprising, and rewarding as I tuned their decisions in each successive fight.
I do understand that when a party possesses the abilities to quickly destroy a creature through extensive use of force that it is many times the best way to go about it. And when a build allows you to do that, by all means. But this party and these builds don't allow for that in all circumstances, and especially not in the fight against Khala. He had too many surprises (telekinesis, gaze attacks, immune to flanking, L20 greater dispel at will, Con damage, etc.). Bravado wouldn't serve this party at all in that respect, even though Borigard is plenty brave. Thinking first and not using resources without knowing they would work (confirming Khala wasn't an image, etc.) was the only way they could survive.
It will be interesting to see what a larger and more aggressively built party does against him.