|
In my campaign so far, lone wizards have typically been a quick fight for the PCs. The one exception was Zyrxog, but he was more than your standard caster (that Mind Blast alone being quite deadly), and he had melee backup.
We ended the last session with the group Wizard teleporting the worm naga sorcerer out, battling with him a bit, then ignoring him and teleporting back in. He had Death Ward, Fire Resistance, and the like up on him, so there was little the naga could do to him. There are only four rooms left to explore, all of which I am sure they will cover the next session. They are the Harbinger, three Kyuss Knights, the room with the suggesting fountain of worms, and the Overworm room.
I want to make the Harbinger a battle to remember, even if it means me pulling out all stops. I don't wish it to end in a TPK, but if it comes to that, so be it. Here is the party composition right now, what my plan is, and what I expect them to do.
The Characters
Laela - CN Human F Barbarian (Wolf Totem variant) 13
Laela is the longest lasting of the group and, so far, has not died. She has come amazingly close plenty of times, but being the group's highest base damage dealer, they try to keep her alive. The wizard Felnorn (Norny) has formed a particularly close bond with her, and tries to get her out first if he must make a choice. She wields Skull Lash as her primary weapon (legacy Heavy Flail), enjoys trip attacks, leap attacks, and general damage.
Campaign Time: The Whispering Cairn - Now
Felnorn - NG Dwarf M Wizard (Abjurer) 13
Felnorn, or Norny as the group calls him, is the crazy and eccentric wizard of the group. Despite the act he puts on as a show of lacking intellect, he knows his spells well, and has been the savior many a time of the group. He was able to rescue two of them when fleeing the Ocular demon, was responsible for Dismissing Kelvos and one of his Sword Archon buddies, prismatic spraying Swords of Kyuss and a Wormcaller into easiness, and holding his own against the Worm Sorcerer. Being an abjurer, he has access to antimagic field, but only breaks it out in situations of extreme difficulty. He has only used it once against the Ocular Demon, but I foresee him possibly using it against the Harbinger, as the idea of a Spellweaver Lich is frightening to him. For those that want an interesting read, and something that explains him better than I can, his background is here.
Campaign Time: Hall of Harsh Reflection - Now
Ivan - NG Human M Cleric of Heironeous 13
Ivan came along with Tobias mid-way through the Champion's Belt, when two of the other team members were killed by the Alkilith Demon. Ivan is a fairly standard cleric, and has a powerful turn undead (Empower Turning feat, along with a Phylactery that increases his cleric level by 4 for turning). He is most noted for that ability against undead, along with enchanting Laela's flail with Holy Weapon, Healing the party, and keeping a quick rez prepped (I forget the spell name, the one that lets you effectively insta-rez a party member if you get to them within a round). He doesn't have a very high AC, but being a cleric, can keep himself alive fairly well.
Campaign Time: Champion's Belt - Now
Tobias - LG Human M Crusader of Heironeous 13
Tobias joined at the same time as Ivan, for reasons explained above. He is not too bright, but fashions himself as the party's meat shield. With his tower shield and full plate recently traded into Manzorian for better equipment, his AC has reached an astounding 33. Most creatures have a hard time hitting him, and most try, as he always places himself in front. He even goes so far as to march foward and set off traps, though that has been less necessary since the party met Nerali (see below). He enjoys Elder Mountain Hammer and Divine Surge as his favored strikes, but also makes good use of ones that can heal him or his party.
Campaign Time: Champion's Belt - Now
Nerali - LN Duergar F Ranger 13
Nerali is the most recent addition to the group, having met the party after they bested Moreto. She had been tracking the ghoul herself, and decided to accompany the group. She was accompanied by a dire badger originally, but she was killed against the Ocular Demon, and her dire badger burrowed elsewhere. She was later true resurrected in Magepoint, and has yet to decide if she wants another companion or will be content to replace the ability with something else. She has her favored enemies specced as +4 (Undead) / +4 (Abberations) / +2 (Goblinoids). She wields a Warhammer and Buckler-Axe, and thanks to Manzorian, recently had them upgraded to a +1 Ghost Strike Undead Bane Warhammer, and a +1 Ghost Strike Buckler-Axe (on the Axe part). She is a two-weapon fighter, obviously, so her to hit isn't as high as she'd like, but she can definitely carve undead down to size when she hits them. Thanks to a variant, she also has sacrificed her Tracking ability (though she did take the feat) in exchange for Trapfinding, Disable Device, and Open Lock.
Campaign Time: A Gathering of Winds - Now
Sorry if that was a bit too much information. Moving on.
My Plan for the Harbinger
After reading numerous other threads in the archives about this guy, I plan to steal a couple ideas for him. His Listen, as pointed out, is more than high enough to hear when the party battles the Overworm. Thus, he will have his defensive spells that are 1 minute/level prepared. If they go after the Kyuss Knights and don't immediately go to him, he will just cast them again. Most likely, if that happens, the party will end up resting, so he will have full spells the next day anyways. The party usually takes some time in front of each door to search it, talk about things, and such before going in, so at the very minimum he'll have a couple rounds to prepare.
The *must* of preparation comes from another idea from an old thread. That being the Force Wall on the opposite end of the room, a Major Image of himself behind it, and his actual self Greater Invised. Ideally, Norny won't open up with an Antimagic Field off the bat. He was pretty cautious about it last time, but may not be so cautious this time. The Harbinger will, of course, talk for a bit, and the party will definitely reciprocate. I know they will want to kill him, so they will most likely leave for a bit to prep before attacking. This may involve resting, which would lead back to the Harbinger getting his spells back. *If* that occurs, the Harbinger may try to buy himself some time by Arcane Locking the door for when they return.
When they decide to fight him, the ideal progression is this. Laela, Tobias, and Nerali are the highest melee threats. Laela appears the strongest, especially with the possibility of a holy flail, Tobias looks the hardest to hit, and Nerali is somewhere in between. He will almost definitely open up with a Maze on Laela, probably eliminating the threat of her for the whole battle, as her int is +0 and she would need a natural 20 to escape. This is partly a nicety on my part, but makes sense for the boss. He does not want to give her the chance to save, and I don't necessarily want to TPK the party (also, the group seems to rally around Laela, and she has the bag of holding with their loot. I'm not that evil). Assuming his major image trick is still working, that could buy him another round or two to send off a chain lightning, or two if the first one did well. Keeping the damage spread out will prevent Ivan from being able to focus his healing. He will essentially keep up the damage dealing spells, along with Prismatic Spray, until they are all dead or retreating. When Laela comes back, his choice with her depends on a couple things. If most of the party dies, he will let her go, with a parting word to 'play her part in the coming Age, and leave the Spire be'. If almost everyone died, he may attempt a Plane Shift on her, or some form of damaging spell. Most likely, she will flee in either event. She is brave, but not foolish.
What I expect the Party to do
In terms of preparation, there will probably be Death Ward on the wizard and cleric. Norny keeps a number of spells on himself at almost all times. He has the four Heart spells from Complete Mage, Greater Resistance (+6 to all his saves), and recently Adamantine Wings. He will most likely try 'end the battle fast' spells, if he doesn't have his Field up. This includes Disintegrate, Prismatic Spray, etc., and can easily augment his first spell with an Assay SR to overcome the Harbinger's SR easily. Laela, Tobias, and Nerali will attempt to engage the Harbinger in melee, though if the plan goes accordingly, hopefully Laela won't be around. Ivan will most likely use Holy Weapon on Laela's weapon, then try a Turn Undead (maybe, he might realize the futility in it), and then spells like Moonbeam, and other high damaging spells against undead.
The Largest Threat
Antimagic field is my biggest worry. If Norny opens up with that, the Harbinger is pretty much done. Even without magic, the three melee characters are more than enough to take him down. I am open to any suggestion I can get on handling this, or countering it. I don't want to preemptively nullify it, the Harbinger hasn't seen Norny use this (even if we want to assume he knows all that goes on in the Spire, which is a big assumption, Norny hasn't used it once in here), but knowing what could work against it would help me play the Lich in all his intellectual glory.
Final Notes
I don't want to pull the Knights of Kyuss away from the other room. The Harbinger is arrogant and over-confident, and unless the party shows their intent to attack at least once, won't see the need to pull the Knights away. Though I'm still debating this.
Also, this last thing is more of a rules question. Maze sends a character to a labyrinth plane, effectively. If the Harbinger gets that off on Laela right off the bat, and Norny then casts an Antimagic Field, would that bring her back? Is she still technically in the room, or is she gone, and they must wait for her to find her own way back or for the spell to end?
Thanks to all who read through this entire thing. I welcome any advice I can get. :)
The Harbinger was one tough cookie.
Repulsion was the worst of it. Only one PC got past it, and he was mazed as a readied action instantly. Prismatic spray, chain lighting (killed the half-orc fighter), power word blind, power word stun, the possibility of dealing over 300 damage with six magic missiles in one round (that obliterated the sorceress)... Hideous.
My group tangled with the Harbinger and the overworm at the same time. It was almost a TPK. The scout was swallowed whole on a surprise round and was digested in the next round. We were all scared that the campaign was going to end, and it turned out to be one of the best moments we've had at the table in 10 years.
Without a doubt the most difficult boss battle in our Age of Worms campaign so far.
In fact, the entire module was surprisingly difficult. In the first encounter, we had four eviscerator beetles, three swords of Kyuss (with their awful negative energy blasts), a wormcaller, and two... TWO worm nagas who wreaked terrible havoc with their enervations and slay livings... Not to mention the one Kyuss Knight who was slicing and dicing with his unholy greatsword... Tough module.
|
|
How many players were in the group? That sounds like a mighty huge encounter for the first one. Also, over 300 damage with 6 magic missiles? That'd be 30 of them, at 30d4+30, for a max of 150 damage. Am I missing something? :)
I'm not at all worried about the encounter being tough, in truth. My biggest worry is that anti-magic field. Not too sure what to do about that, should he choose to use it.
You're not missing anything. That was a typo. It's closer to 200 with the empower rod. ;-)
If he uses anti-magic, have the Harbinger disintegrate or prismatic spray the roof, sending tons of stone down upon the warded PC.
The Harbinger wouldn't have been any threat at all if they were at full strength, but after the lake of worms and the Kyuss knights, they had VERY little left in the way of resources. You might save the backup and pull it in only if they happen to hit him at full strength (I didn't, but the group was on party #3 attempting to finish that adventure, and I didn't have the heart to kill any more of them just then).
In my opinion, Makar's greatest asset is his access to Limited Wish and his ancient knowledge of arcane spells to utilize it effectively: i.e its perfectly acceptable to give him any spell you can think of our of any splatbook if you think its going to make the fight climatic. Some options include Project Image (to have him fight out on the Sea of Worms, raining spells. Completely fooled my party), LifeWard (a glaring weakness for him, especially with all of your divine spellcasters), Ray Deflection (also from Spell Compendium), Otiluke's Dispelling Screen, and anything else you can think of to help him. If you really want to be mean, use it to raise Kelvos or the Angels of the Worm. I think the above suggestion of Wall of Force is the best answer to anti-magic, but keep in mind it will only buy him time since the duration on Antimagic is 10min per level versus the Round a level of Wall of Force. The very second he sees Anti-magic, he should use Limited Wish to duplicate Dimension Door, fleeing if within range (I think it is) to the top of the shaft. I highly doubt any group of 4 PCs can easily ascend a verticle shaft with Anti-magic up, forcing them to at least take it down if they either want to escape or confront him, let alone contend with the sea of worms. In either case, he can bide about 2-3 rounds before re-immerging. This is one of those bad guys that I give a lot of respect to; he is thousands of years old and pretty significant mental stats to show for it. There's no way, no matter how arrogant, that he should just stand around and get killed. I like your plan so far, it sounds like you've got some tough PCs who can probably dish out a lot of damage, so good luck!
|
I'd have to say add Life Ward really really add Life Ward if only because it stops Bolt of Glory dead,at 13D12 damage it's likely to finish the fight in a single blast with only slightly better than average damage and if they still have the karma beads from the games then it could be higher, its also a ray so Ray Deflection may be a good option though I'm not sure how it actually works.
|
|
Life Ward is definitely a good idea, and I think I'll add that to his defensive prep. The biggest threat is still that Antimagic Field. Dimension dooring away seems to be the best option, then possibly taunting them telepathically from wherever he goes (possibly the library). Though that AM field might even prevent telepathy, so I'm not sure.
Project Image is a good idea, but would be impossible I think. It's a 7th level Sorc/Wiz, 6th level Bard spell. With Limited Wish, he can only do a Sorc/Wiz spell of 6th or lower, or other spells of 5th or lower.
I think a couple things will occur should this happen. First, he'd use Limited Wish to dimension door to the upper levels, preventing the group from following (no one's flying mister field with it up) unless they want to disband the field. Now, I'm not sure how he could keep an eye on them. He could, of course, get word from the Knights of Kyuss or the Wormcallers/Swords in the other room telepathically to find out if the field drops, but otherwise I'm not sure how he could scry on them. A limited wish could do it, but would that work through the AM field?
The party, if this happens, could choose to dispel it, port out, and rest to get it back. Of course, the pattern could just repeat, since he can do the same. I think I can eventually force them into a fight against him without the field. If they do choose to take him on without it, hope Norny gets close and then manifests it, he might be able to find a way around. Ideally, he could maze Norny before the dwarf got close (though he'll probably get out quickly enough) causing him to waste at least one round.
We'll see how it goes, I have a lot of prep work to do, heh. :)
While some parties have definitely struggled against the Harbinger, in my opinion (and personal experience, having DM'd this a while ago now), he has a couple of key points working against him, which I'd recommend you fix up before running it:
1) the terrain set-up is truly horrible (for the Harbinger). The huge worm in the pool of worms is fine, that works well as a bit of a screen for him, but the Kyuss Knights are stuck off in a side-room with no way to actually get into the battle (IIRC they have no ability to fly, and the Harbinger can't grant them that either, especially not en-mass). If you can fix this, the Harbinger can truly get some meat-shields to help screen him from a lot of PC hurt. I missed this one, and basically they stood around being useless before walking through along the bottom of the lake of worms (which took too long).
2) he is very vulnerable to anyone that can get into melee range of him; even a good ranged threat is dangerous (but more easily countered). Yes, you can try all the diversion trickery and engage the PC's with his meat-shield's, but if the initiative goes bad for him a good party could easily toast him in the first round or two, simply by flying up and bashing him, grappling, etc.
Personally, when I DM an arcane caster, I don't plan on the NPC lasting more than 1-2 rounds - anything else over that is a bonus really, and means your initial tactics were very sound. If you plan on using your best spells and tactics half-way through, the NPC is dead before the battle has even started...
In my game, the party had plenty of flight ability, and the party's big spell-caster used her own diversion tactic so that she was out of range of the fight but casting though a proxy. The huge worm tied up the PC's for a bit, and gave the Harbinger time to get buffed up; he then came and had a quick chat while (if I remember right) some of the spell-casting Kyuss undead air-walked around and also made a pest of themselves with their mass negative energy power (at this stage, my group hadn't worked out they should have some kind of death ward on themselves as a matter of course). Anyway, once the Harbinger appeared, I think I got off about 1-2 spells before he was grappled via a Telekinesis spell. With very little in the way of verbal-only spells, he couldn't escape, and could only use one word spell at close range - the fighter killed him from range with a lot of arrows.
Kudos to may party, but in retrospect there were a number of other ways my group could have achieved the same affect too; for a guy they were quite worried about (they thought he could cast 6 of any spell, not 6 spell levels max!), he wasn't much of a threat in the end. For my part, I hadn't expected them to get there quite so quickly, so hadn't finished re-working him, meaning I had to run him as printed. Part of my plan was to give him Moment of Prescience - an excellent "get out of jail free" spell which, in retrospect, would have helped him get out of the grapple and hence make my players work harder for the win...
Project Image is a good idea, but would be impossible I think. It's a 7th level Sorc/Wiz, 6th level Bard spell. With Limited Wish, he can only do a Sorc/Wiz spell of 6th or lower, or other spells of 5th or lower.
Yup. Also remember that project image also requires a line of effect: "You must maintain line of effect to the projected image at all times. If your line of effect is obstructed, the spell ends. If you use dimension door, teleport, plane shift, or a similar spell that breaks your line of effect, even momentarily, the spell ends." (--SRD) That would cut down the utility vis-a-vis the Harbinger quite a bit, even if you swapped it for the limited wish altogether.
add Life Ward if only because it stops Bolt of Glory dead
I've said it before and I'll say it again: bolt of glory should be limited to the Glory domain (as was originally intended) or else nerfed. As written, it's a better damage spell than any sorcerer/wizard spell of the same or even somewhat higher level, and it's TOTALLY out of whack with the spell damage cap rules in the (core) DMG. If you find (as many here have) that all monsters as a baseline require a special spell just to guard against it, something is wrong.
Ohh, woops! I think I just saw the 6th instead of 6th Bard. It did buy him a round, but seemed kind of unfair since it made them fight him over the sea of Worms. With the Knights, I railroaded. I decided that no matter which of the two doors they were going to open, it was going to be the knights first and the harbringer second. This is simply because last time I ran this path, the Knights were completely skipped; there's no reason to fight them once the Harbringer is defeated, in fact its in their interest to not fight so they can escape back into the world and rejoin the cult of Kyuss. Fortunately, my PCs took the door with the knights first. Once they were defeated, I had some sort of "trigger" hit Mak'ar mentally, in that he knew that there were no minions of Kyuss left in the Ziggaraut besides him. He gave them about two rounds as they explored the Knights' chambers, and then came out, projected. This was the one place where I broke the rule of this module's philosophy that monsters do not join each other's fights, but it kept up the momentum for a climatic finale. I suppose he could simply fight them flying over the Sea of Worms...
And I agree with the Bolt of Glory spell comment completely. There's two things my splatbook wielding PCs haven't used this campaign for fear of Book of Vile Darkness reprisal: Bolt of Glory and the Belt of Battle. Who really wants Kyuss Knights, the Harbringer, Zyrxog, or any other BBEG taking another free turn after his first (My PC's don't, so we all agreed the item doesn't exist)? I could imagine giving this thing to Darl Quethos... Bolt of Glory is like an automatic 'I win' against 50% of the monsters in the campaign. It gets stupid when players start using Meta-magic rods combined with the spell. Its because of this spell that the last time I ran the campaign, Lashonna lasted 3 rounds I think. Broken.
|
If I might??
I am also prepping for this stage of tSoLS and Mak'ar presents a trove of as-of-yet unseen issues (I normally don't run games at this level).
In any case, it seems to me that Mak'ar could, by use of the Telekinesis spell,grapple away spell casters' spell component pouch and cleric's holy symbol. Once they are out of reach, just drop them in the bottom of the lake with the Wormswarm with infinite hp. After this, the spellcasters are not such a problem anymore.
Additionally, I think that Mak'ar would see any light as it entered room 6 from across the way - remember light travels a great distance and can be seen for miles away.
just my 2cp
F