Kelvos only killed one of my PCs, but it was a close fight all around. It was the surprise round, actually. Got off a destruction, and the party jester rolled a 2 on his Fort save.
The party jester had also just sold his death ward armor to afford a ring of freedom of movement, so it was kind of his fault.
The actual combat was long and grueling indeed, but repeated use of greater dispel magic eventually one the day. I do admit, however, that I didn't play him as smart as I could have, which might be the reason my entire party didn't get killed then and there.
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In light of this juggernaut's array of potential carnage, I am asking any viewers about their experience with this guy. Did he result in a lot of party deaths?
Thanks for your input.
Charles is right about the arcane + divine bonuses overlapping. Also, I agree with Charles about the fact he needs to be tipped off before buffing.
During my experience, he kicked my PCs butts pretty badly (killing one via Destruction, I think, who was then brought back via Revivify or something similar - I was pretty loose with those spells). His guys helping him certain made it difficult, as did the Blade Barriers that I seem to remember. I considered my PCs at that point underpowered for the given adventure, but only a bit (5 PCs, 1 level below the suggested range).
I am just ready to run the Spire of Long Shadows. I am examining the power and abilities of all the bad guys in this deadly adventure. Besides the Harbringer, I think Kelvos can be a potential party killer. Although his 65 hit points look meager at first, once he has an opportunity to cast some "buff" spells, he becomes very deadly. For instance, if he has chance to cast Righteous Might (+8 Str., +4 Con. and +4 Natural Armor Bounus due to size, Divine Power (+6 Divine bonus to Str.), Bull's Strength (+4 arcane bounus to Str.) and Bear's Endurance (+4 to Con.)on himself. He has a 43 Strength!!!!, a 23 Con, an AC of 36 (40 for good creatures due to his Protective aura), and 40 extra hps due to the Con modifiers). This guy would be a wrecking machine weilding a HUGE +4 Unholy Greatsword +30/+25 3d6+28 +2d6 unholy damage.
Besides his impressive melee stats, his spells are unbelievable. Slay Living, Destruction, Chain Lightening, and Prismatic Spray all can be very lethal.....especially when cast by an invisible opponent (thanks to Greater Invisibility).
In light of this juggernaut's array of potential carnage, I am asking any viewers about their experience with this guy. Did he result in a lot of party deaths?
Thanks for your input.
Kelvos and crew was the first whuppin the party took from me. They opened his door right after defeating the beetles encounter already having been alerted to there precense by that same encounter. I showed some mercy and allowed them a tactical retreat after hammering them to start in the room, then having the sword archons chase them back to the other side of the obsidian ring. They buffed again on the next day and tried to enter the ziggurat as quickly as possible. By doing that the party of 7 was spread out along the grounds between the ziggurat and the ring. Kelvos and the archons were hiding inside the top entry ways (i adjusted the top of the zigguat slightly), he saw the party buffing then starting buffing him as the archons. As the party ran in , the archons had reading actions to pounce. The battle was nasty as the archons dropped quickly, but with Kelvos invisible and pretty much forgotten about he dropped plenty of death from above on them. I ended up turning the party wizard to stone with prismatic spray then dropping another with slay living. He walled himself off at the entry way leaving the party separate at the top of the spire and at the bottom. One really quick pc ran down the other stairs into the zigguat and right into Kelvos with two worm swarms chasing him up the stairs. The party ended up finishing him inside the ziggurat in the main chamber.
This is of course a generalized account of the battle it was pretty back and forth between both groups. This battle took 3 sessions for us to run , but was by far the best. He was there first wake up all call that they would not be able to walk over every encounter just because they have had an easier time in previous modules. If your party has adequate resources and the ability to get much needed scrolls of death ward and raise dead then don't hold back in the least. Mine group did have the resources, with that being available this module cost them a bit of treasure but they learned a valuable lesson for later.
I made many, many changes to "Spire of Long Shadows," including removing the obsidian wall, dropping the eladrin and sword archon, and moving the Spire onto Taboo Island (Dungeon #145).
I'm a little worried about the Harbinger, as I'll have him observe the PCs (and perhaps unleash a couple spells) as they do battle with the last three Swords of Kyuss. He'll easily be notified of the PCs' approach, casting mage armor, mirror image, repulsion, cold shield, false life, eagle's splendor, and invisibility before sallying forth to investigate. An immediate maze spell (readied action) will remove the first front-line brawler who bypasses the repulsion. Should any spellcasters show promise in dispelling or damaging him, the Harbinger will use greater dispelling, then in the next round unleash either 6 magic missiles (30 missiles in all!) or three scorching rays (9 rays in all!), most-likely killing the target. Should he remain undetected (unlikely with my group), greater dispelling will probably be his first standard action while the PCs fight the Swords of Kyuss. Prismatic spray, limited wish, chain lightning, two fireballs in one round, power word stun... It's going to be ugly.
As scripted, Kelvos & company are likely NOT to be spelled up, but if the PC's loudly announce their presence, then that may change. That being said, it is a winnable fight for the Player Characters. A useful tactic is to try to have the bad guys break the walls next to player characters, to infest them with Kyuss worms, which will make them take time to cure the infestation rather than fight the villains.
It is my experience that a group of 6+ PC's, or those who are high powered will get through this encounter without casualties, BUT, if your group is a by-the-book group (standard/non-munchkin'd characters), then the potential for casualties is an issue.
And by all means, if the opportunity presents itself to lay the lumber to your player's characters, then WASTE 'EM.
I liked running Kelvos so much, I had Makar raise him from the dead via a limited wish for another go at the party. He ended up sandwiching them between the Fountain of Worms and the shaft upward. I used him as a legitimate way of alerting the Nagas in the shaft of the PCs presence, an encounter that due to Windwalk was not going to happen realistically. Without his sword, he's not as tough, so I cheated and gave him an Anarchic greatsword (only +1) since my party is all Lawful Evil (the unholy effect wasn't nearly as devestating as the first time I ran it with a primarily Chaotic Good party. Come to think of it, a lot of his special abilities get nerfed by the fact that my party was Evil... Oh well, just gives me an excuse to have the Wild Watchers rip their evil butts to pieces...
Kelvos and his boys killed most of the party; the survivors got reinforcements, failed to get past him again, and were decimated down to the cleric-- who plane shifted away, failing to rescue the bodies of his companions. This is the same cleric who flame striked the ulgurstasta in "Champion's Belt," also killing Auric and one of the PCs as collateral damage; he then raised his buddy and Auric--I bring up that tidbit to show what a determined SOB the sissy elf cleric turned out to be.
Anyway, he recruited a whole new party (older characters run by the same players) and went back for thirds. THIS group finally made it all the way through, cheering mightily when they finally knocked Kelvos to the ground, grappled him there, and whalloped him. Luckily, it was the paladin, immune to disease, who got knocked into the worm soup later; and the Harbinger, by contrast to Kelvos, went down like a chump.
The up side is that the players were more excited than they'd been in the entire AP up until that point. And when they sneaked a peek at Zeech's "great project" in The Prince of Redhand, they went absolutely nuts. The name The Spire of Long Shadows now has mythic overtones among my group, much like The Tomb of Horrors.
For instance, if he has chance to cast Righteous Might (+8 Str., +4 Con. and +4 Natural Armor Bounus due to size,
It should be mentioned that Righteous Might has been included in a free errata article at the WotC site. (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/er/20040125a) The spell now only grants +4 size bonus to Strength, +2 size bonus to Constitution and and +2 enhancement bonus to natural armor as well as DR 3/good (6/good at 12th level and 9/good at 15th, I don't have the module to hand to check Kelvos' CL)
Bolt of glory is far better (vastly greater damage output) than similar spells of higher level. I'd therefore reserve it for those with the Glory prestige domain (as was originally the case), rather than opening it up for general use.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6
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Regarding Kelvos & co., I've got a rules question on which I'm interested in opinions: does the Bolt of Glory spell affect them as evil outsiders or good outsiders?
The spell description - with different effects for an "evil outsider" and a "good outsider" - isn't clear whether evil/good refers to alignment or type. Of course, Kelvos and the Angels are evil-aligned but have the Good type.
Thoughts?
Should work like bane weapons, whereby you are hosed if you are either an outsider with the evil subtype or an outsider with evil alignment (per the D&D FAQ).