Our group had relatively little difficulty with Xanesha. You can see our method of dealing with her right here in our play-by-post thread. Party consisted of a fighter, ranger/transmuter, cleric, bard, evoker, and ranger all level 6 (I think) at the time. I don't honestly know if the GM fudged any of her stats, but we sent her packing rather handily. It's definitely a winnable fight. Maybe our party composition is to blame for our ease.
A hate to point this out, but the GM did nerf her.
And so it bears repeating ...
But I also expected her to kill a lot more of the party than she did. Xanesha IS a great boss villain and she requires some party teamwork to take out.
Xanesha is a lousy boss villain.
And with other factors, such as the physical location forcing the heroes to "Stand or Die," she is also an example of poor encounter design.
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A hate to point this out, but the GM did nerf her.
Encounter Area E6 (The Skinsaw Murders page 53) is on the roof of a Clock Tower. There is no cover to speak of.
In her tactics, she "and then silence on a timber near the entrance to her lair." (Also The Skinsaw Murders page 53) - so bards do not sing and (unless they have the Silent Spell metamagic) casters do not dispel her buffs.
Fair enough. Was not aware of that as a player, and that tactic would certainly push the encounter from surprisingly easy (apart from the fact she got away) to OMG We Are All Going To Die territory.
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You do bring a good point up though Mothman. Those who say it's an impossible encounter always appear to assume that she fights to the death... Sometimes it's more fun for her to run away....
She doesn't fight to the death, she doesn't need to.
After your party has expended resources getting past the Scarecrow and the Faceless Stalkers you then have to fight her in an environment that gives her all of the aces.
She fights, kills you, and still has most of her hit points...
You do bring a good point up though Mothman. Those who say it's an impossible encounter always appear to assume that she fights to the death... Sometimes it's more fun for her to run away....She doesn't fight to the death, she doesn't need to.
After your party has expended resources getting past the Scarecrow and the Faceless Stalkers you then have to fight her in an environment that gives her all of the aces.
She fights, kills you, and still has most of her hit points...
... and because of the 180ft climb (and I mean inside the tower), you don't have the option to run away either.
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You do bring a good point up though Mothman. Those who say it's an impossible encounter always appear to assume that she fights to the death... Sometimes it's more fun for her to run away....She doesn't fight to the death, she doesn't need to.
After your party has expended resources getting past the Scarecrow and the Faceless Stalkers you then have to fight her in an environment that gives her all of the aces.
She fights, kills you, and still has most of her hit points...
She tried to run away from my players and they stopped her.
They decided to go straight to the top, and dropped in on her in her lair in the top room of the tower. She had no warning and so could not prepare.
The bard got charmed and so taken out of the fight. The barbarian made several good rolls to save and did most of the damage.The tactic of not attacking through the obvious route is quite often useful.
Every tale of success against Xanesha is one of awesome luck, DM help or clever tactics exploited to their full by experienced players.
Most parties just die.It's cool that your party managed that but that doesn't mean she isn't hugely over-powered.
There have been many long threads about this, James Jacobs and Richard Pett conceded that she way overpowered years ago. I have even seen posts by JJ where he has referred to 'not making that mistake again'.
Most descriptions of this fight begin with: "The most powerful person in our group was turned to stone and pushed off the building..."
I feel the need to disagree a bit.
Xanesha was refreshingly difficult without an easy way for my relatively new players to just get away if things got tough. Malfeshenkor was stuck in his room, they figured that out real quick.
Becasue of a party death due to the bells, they retreated and rested up. when they came back, they were able to make it to her pretty much at full. she had the whole group down excep the ranger. She was flying about casting scorching ray and the ranger was full attack with rapid shot and gravity bow. It came down to the ranger finishing her off before she got down to the hit points that her entry states she would flee at.
My new payers LOVED that battle and still talk about it. they admitted that if it was a TPK, they would have been a tad pissed but them the chance for vengeance would have been awesome. The one experienced(ish) payer said it was his favorite fight, evenm though he spent most of the time bleeding out.
Greatt tactics or a perfectly built group will take her down without as much drama, but for an average group its a refreshing fight that lets players experience the all too often forgot about posibility of death, maybe permanent depending on if they can get a PC raised.
Now, is she very tough, hell yes, overpowered even. But once in a great while facing soemthing overpowered is great, as long as the DM can help the next group that comes in by maybe having her not have the mask on this time (maybe that was the last charge?) better tactics, support from NPC's and the like.
SOon i will be playing this as a PC and my DWARF Fighter is going to charge up them damned stairs, probably get hit by a bell, and if he survives, look to get stoned by Xanesha. It will be a glorious death or a great victory. His vengeance seeking brothers and maybe a sister are ready to seek revenge against xanesha and her allies!
Not sure you realize, but this threads previous last post was ..2 years old? ;)
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Not sure you realize, but this threads previous last post was ..2 years old? ;)
Which means... that we were discussing the old Xanesha.
The foe MundinIronHand describes as:
Now, is she very tough, hell yes, overpowered even.
is, presumably, the updated and toned-down Xanesha in the anniversary edition.
Not the hasted, flying, silence deploying, AC34 TPK-machine we all knew and loved (to hate).
Necro!
Another thing that at times can have characters not fight at full strength and use all their options is the treasure factor.
If Joe Ogre sunders Larry Platemail's sword(A viable tactic) Larry is down his +1 sword and has to cough up 2K+ for a new one.
Now Larry can return the favor on Arnold Antipaladin's +1 sword, but that sword is supposed to be the treasure! Sundering weapons and armor can deprive the group of funds unless the GM is willing to toss some extra in.
Necro!
Another thing that at times can have characters not fight at full strength and use all their options is the treasure factor.
If Joe Ogre sunders Larry Platemail's sword(A viable tactic) Larry is down his +1 sword and has to cough up 2K+ for a new one.
Now Larry can return the favor on Arnold Antipaladin's +1 sword, but that sword is supposed to be the treasure! Sundering weapons and armor can deprive the group of funds unless the GM is willing to toss some extra in.
Hardly a major factor. Very few NPCs have really pricey items.
Besides, what good is the bad guys' loot if they're hacking you and your allies into chunky salsa with it? Sunder away! Same for the NPCs / monsters - if Larry is impossible to damage, that armor's gotta go!
Also, make whole works wonders.