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We've just finished raiding the fort, the dam does its minor break, the big snake comes out, and then Black Magga surfaces. In 8 rounds, my PCs had her dead.
Yep, four level 9s took down a CR 15 bad guy. They were all badly damaged, all within 1 hit of dying, but they managed to get up on rooftops, keep her going back and forth between the scout and his "skirmish" cold iron arrows (and magic bow), and the Evoker/Master Specialist who kept dropping BIG Orb of Fire, Hailstones (both no SR), and Greater Fireburst (rolled a 20 for Spell Penetration) spells on her.
When she dropped to about 80 hp (from 217, I didn't soften her up first), she tried to flee, and the Cleric put a Wall of Stone between a couple of houses so she couldn't escape (although how he explains that one to Mayor Shreed will be... interesting). Now that there's a 20-ton carcass of a monster "older than the gods" gracing Turtleback Ferry as its town centrepiece (although it's probably not winning any Tidy Town awards this year) the PCs have ideas on cutting her up, making armour from her (I was just going to use the rules for Dragoncraft armour), and our wizard is dead-keen on cutting out her heart and bathing in it (as she aced her Knowledge [local] check to get rumours about the beast).
Does anyone have any ideas? Has anyone else actually managed to kill Black Magga? Also, should I actually allow the PCs to become "invulnerable to divine magic" (I can see some cure wounds spells failing spectacularly) like the legend says, or just have it be a rumour (an icky, black, messy rumour)?
Any help would be appreciated.
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My first question is: why didn't Black Magga just smash down the wall, or why didn't the floodwaters do some damage?
As for divine immunity, I rather doubt it. Of course, you could then happily inflict all kinds of nasty things on your wizard, knowing there is no priest capable of healing the complications. But folk lore has a nasty way of being wrong... If you must give the wizard a bonus, maybe make it SR against divine powers, but I'd couple it with a drawback; some kind of deformity or curse from the Mother of Monsters (who might be "blessing" the poor sod in her own way...)
just make him unable to selectivly lower his SR, that's curse enough when the cleric needs to heal him
SR = to 13 + his level (a little better than average) sounds fair, especially if they can't lower it willingly. I'd suggest awarding all the PCs in a similar fashion (perhaps from equipment made from her, from your example) in exchange for half or more of the XP they'd get. You don't want them to be too powerful for the adventure path and as a plus, really thematic items are more memorable than XP!
Examples: Maybe the scaled armor now gives its wearer Cold Resistance 20 and constantly stays warm, a reminder of all the fire magic used against it. The arrows that were fired against her miraculous survived and are +2 Bane arrows that aren't destroyed just by using them. A number of the creature's teeth (equal # to the PCs) survived, they can be expended for either Cure Critical Wounds, Restoration, or Shield of Faith at CL 20th.
Since it's a legendary monster it's a good excuse for some weird and fascinating loot =)
Black Magga went down like a chump in my game. Despite the entire party falling prey to her Breath of Madness and getting confused. The knight won initiative, then succeeded in her Knight's Challenge to have Black Magga focus on her. Then the madness. But the dice weren't in my favor, and the party warmage (having read the Book of Lamashtu [and rolling really well on a Knowledge check]) correctly interpreted "immune to divine magic" as "high SR" and got two turns of conjuration spells in on her. And the knight, having gotten a freedom of movement from the cleric pre-confusion, was able to not be grappled, rolled amazingly and, one crit later, the beast was dead.
Since I'd staged the Black Magga fight down at the river before the party got to Turtleback Ferry (the original thought was that the PCs drive her off, then she sheds one of her tentacles as an argoth for that scene), the party arrived at the town, Wisdom drained and bloodied, rescued some people... then screams as Black Magga slams into the town, ruining the just-evacuated church... then cheers as the villagers see the gaping hole in her chest and her head lolling helplessly.
As for the bathing in Black Magga's blood bit, I'd say give him SR (not immunity) to divine magic, undroppable for that cure spell fun you mentioned. It's appropriate to the genre, how a monster slayer gets some of their power. For fun, let it only be temporary... but refreshable if the PC commits some sacrifice to Lamashtu.
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Limerick "The Zealot" Fancypants, Brewmeister, my gnome ranger 4/cavalier 6 of the Order of Vengeance (Ragathiel) needs to add the name "Black Magga Slayer" to his name.
We arrived at the dam just as some dude we should've killed earlier opened the floodgates. We used him to close it again, but by then the Black Magga was already awake and busted the whole dam.
Limerick rolled a natural 20 on his Knowledge [Nature] check to identify the thing (this is my first time playing in Golarion). The DM gives us a listing of DR, SR, and immunities.
All of the other players are begging off and I'm like, "We're supposed to be heroes! To quote Captain Kirk, 'Risk is our business.'" They're still hemming and hawing about it because we only have one weapon among the whole group that will bypass the DR (a +1 cold iron longsword).
It's late in the session and everyone wants to just table it for next time. Limerick turns to our sorcerer and says, "Give me the longsword and I'll end this in right now." He's tempted, but the group doesn't want to get into a major fight right now.
As a player I reply, "No, give Limerick the longsword and this'll be done in 30 seconds in real time." Now they're intrigued; even the DM's eyebrows shoot up. He does warn us, "If you do, somehow, manage to kill the Black Magga, there will be serious consequences."
I just quote the mantra of the Order of Vengeance:
"Reapers we shall be, for thee, my Lord, for thee.
Power hath descended forth from thy hand
That our feet may swiftly carry out thy command.
So we shall flow a river forth to thee
And teeming with souls shall it ever be.
In nomine Ragathiel, Iomedae, et Sarenrae."
I'm given the sword. I then mount up on Spear Tip, my dire giant bumblebee and fly into the Black Magga, telling the DM that I want to use all four of my hero points to carve out its black heart.
The DM turns to each other player and asks, "Are you going to contribute any of your hero points to this foolish endeavor?" To their credit, each and every one of them said, "Yeah, all of them."
So, the DM likes a good story and treated it as a cut-scene. The Black Magga dies, its body dissolving away as Limerick and Spear Tip are both bathed in the heart's black blood.
Sarenrae descends from heaven. She uses her sword to cut off one wing and her scythe to remove the other as her flaming hair cools to just very bright read. She explains that the Black Magga's heart was the key to the Runelords' deity (Lasona, Lashonna, I can't remember) and Sarenrae's fall is required to balance the scales.
Spear Tip and Limerick are completely immune to divine magic and unable to be perceived by divine beings.
And we both gained Mythic Tier 1.
Mine was... interesting.
I'd already incorporated Mythic into the campaign through the Runewell, so the group had a method of overcoming damage resistance. I chose to have the combat at the dam, with the PCs sent to open the floodgates (so the dam wouldn't burst) and seeing Black Magga ripping her way through 20 ogres and an ogre fighter.
More amusingly, Lady Sasha with her monstrously high Diplomacy had talked the trolls into helping. That lasted for one troll being energy-drained to death with a critical hit (well, the energy drain left it below 0 hit points) at which point the trolls turned tail and ran away. :D
The PCs burned through much of their Mythic to ensure spells overcame damage resistance and in four rounds wiped out Black Magga with minimum damage taken in return. Magga's corpse then sank back into the water so they had part of a tentacle left of it and that's all. Oh, and gaining their 2nd Mythic Tier, seeing Black Magga IS in essence a Mythic beast. ;)
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My hellknight charged (flying) with a x4 crit weapon, scored the critical (and power attack, mind you), forcing a mass damage check. I rolled a 1. Plus the critical card pulled was a beheading. Combat ended at round 2. Sigh.
I gave him the flaw of "enemy of Lamashtu", and a hero point. He was happy. Still braggs about it.
My GM for RotRL tripled the HP of the Black Magga (admittedly we're pretty optimized so everything gets hp maximized then doubled normally) so we did not manage to kill it before it ran away.
She also had the Black Magga pick up villagers and proceed to try to run away with them and eat them so we were more focused on not letting it eat them than we were specifically with killing it.
After it escaped we swore to track it down and kill it. When there is time. We have a world to save from Karzoug.
My hellknight charged (flying) with a x4 crit weapon, scored the critical (and power attack, mind you), forcing a mass damage check. I rolled a 1. Plus the critical card pulled was a beheading. Combat ended at round 2. Sigh.
I gave him the flaw of "enemy of Lamashtu", and a hero point. He was happy. Still braggs about it.
You know massive damage rules are optional? And are really terribly bad. And unless you're going to apply it to both NPCs and PCs you just shouldn't use it.
It's so easy to reach a point where you can do 50+ points of damage in s single attack that it's just a bad rule.
I don't understand how your groups dealt with the flood.
My party could have killed her - but the flood (which requires very very hard swim checks to work within) kept them from being able to do things like:
Fight from the tops of buildings - too far apart to leap between - as soon as she gets to one... CHOMP.
Grapple her - how do they get *to* her to grapple?
Etc.
One of the party members was drowning and it took about half the town to save them pulling on a rope... :)
My players literally backed her like a cake. I rolled for her 1 on save against witch’s Ice Tomb hex. After that, guys just rushed to keep the ice cold with cantrips/orisons using local casters. Summoner got via his abilities a group of badgers (or other rodents with burrow speed), who dug a pit. Then the party managed to fill it with all possible flammable material they and villagers could find. After that, they pushed Magga into the pit, stone shaped a roof with a small hole for air, and summoned some lava elementals inside. Using environment rules for high temperatures, they cooked her to crispy death.
I don't understand how your groups dealt with the flood.
My party could have killed her - but the flood (which requires very very hard swim checks to work within) kept them from being able to do things like:
Fight from the tops of buildings - too far apart to leap between - as soon as she gets to one... CHOMP.
Grapple her - how do they get *to* her to grapple?
Etc.
One of the party members was drowning and it took about half the town to save them pulling on a rope... :)
Well, my group arrived in Turtleback Ferry the flood was already full force. I believe we used air walk to travel back there and seeing the flood happening from up above we buffed ourselves with better flight spells and water breathing spells. Most of the party is ranged so just needed a safe spot nearby, and the melee characters could breath in water so just had to get close initially.
As I mentioned, I altered the scenario so Magga was fighting them at the dam. They had four rounds to drive her off lest her weight break the dam. Seeing they had one Mythic Tier each... they succeeded. Though it took a lot of Mythic to do it. ;)
I had the meeting with the Magga yesterday, on the board of the dam after they finished the first part of the ogres ...
I was using the CR 18 mythic version from legendary games, mythic rune lords III. We had 6 Pcs of level 10+ (good equipment, very good combos).
The idea was to scare the pcs, having the Magga start "eating the bodies" of the ogres killed by them until she tied to bite one of them, but the fighter of the groud ... decided to stay there and attack. The magga rised from the water, and ... natural one.
He got hasted and he got 3 crits with a dormant artifact weapon that, for those 3 rounds, did awoke.
Basically, the fight laster 3 round, in with the ancient monster missed 2 times with an improved vital strike (the third one did hit for 93 damage!) and was able to grapple everyone except him ... In the end, the Magga escaped ... and that character jumped in the water to stab it a final time. He did strike again the beast and it plummet to negatives ... and he had a choice: to keep the beast dead forever by leaving the now awaken artifact blade or retrieve it and have the beast sleep for "a time" and then return (they were -15 meters in the water). He choose the latter ... we shall the revenge of the monster!
