I’m just reading Here there be Monsters in preparation for the next game session. One thing is bothering me though. Olangru’s tactics are a little, well… Lame.
He has an Int of 13, not a genius, but at least smart enough to know how to use his powers for the best effect. In his tactics section they just have him fighting melee until he dies. With his spell like abilities I think he could be a lot more dangerous to the party.
The party consists of a human ninja, an elf bard, a dwarf fighter, a human sorcerer and a human ranger.
The ninja will be hitting him flat footed, at a FF AC of 27 he should be pretty safe, though he will never be able to catch the ninja either.
The elf, the dwarf, the sorcerer and the ranger can all be disposed of easily with his abduction ability. He just grabs them, teleports out of his layer to the top of a high tree and leaves them there. The whole process takes 2 rounds.
I know that tactic wouldn’t be much fun for the players, but I really think that’s what he would do.
Also, I suppose he would be a melee fighter, but if an enemy was too threatening for melee (for example, when the ninja pulls some crazy sh*t I didn’t think of, something he does at least once per session) he would use his telekinesis. In fact I think that would be the best tactic for dealing with the ninja, pick him up from across the room and pin him to the wall.
any thoughts?
(I always plan for the ninja to do something unexpected)
In fact I think that would be the best tactic for dealing with the ninja, pick him up from across the room and pin him to the wall.
If you're going to pin him anywhere, I recommend the fire pit. :D
I do think there's a point where you have to dumb-down Olangru's tactics a little bit, or he can just smear most parties that attack him. The abduction ability, plus pounce+skirmish, is pretty awful.
I had both Olangru and his harem focus on hit-and-run terror tactics for most of the adventure. In fact, the first time the party actually saw all of them was an ambush in the jungle ruins near the entrance to the Shrine. That attack had my PCs sweating, but they survived it and came back strong in the harem room by using an anticipate teleport spell to even the odds. The final fight with just Olangru and the golem was much easier for them, though still challenging.
What worked for my group was to give them a taste of the bar-lguras' tactics, then let them learn from that and be able to handle them in the Shrine. It sounds like your party is good at thinking on their feet as well, but YMMV. I think it is a good thing to be careful with these demons. If played to the hilt, they can definitely wipe out a party....
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The elf, the dwarf, the sorcerer and the ranger can all be disposed of easily with his abduction ability. He just grabs them, teleports out of his layer to the top of a high tree and leaves them there. The whole process takes 2 rounds.
The problem with Olangru particularly is played intelligently he is a TPK waiting to happen.
Start Invisible, pounce on the spell caster (with a good chance of knocking them into minus hit point with his skirmish damage*). Touch the nearest low will save character (the party tank for example) and abduct them to say 3 miles above the ground and let them drop. Olangru has boots of levitation so he can do that trick, the other Bar-lagur can't (they could still teleport so that you end up dangling over the edge of a cliff or that fire pit for example).
Go invisible again teleport back, pounce, and pick another weak will character to abduct to massive falling damage.
If you play them exploiting the Greater Teleport at will and Abduction ability like that they are certainly worth more than CR5 and CR9.
I did use Olangru to teleport our party Sea-elf directly above the fire pit and drop him, but the player luckily remembered the chain hanging from the ceiling so I gave him a Reflex Save to grab it. Tense moment for him there.
*Weird that he's a Scout when they are listed in the Fiendish Codex as advancing by HD not class levels. Scouts with Pounce are just unbalanced... although at least his levels are not non-associated.
I’m just reading Here there be Monsters in preparation for the next game session. One thing is bothering me though. Olangru’s tactics are a little, well… Lame.
He has an Int of 13, not a genius, but at least smart enough to know how to use his powers for the best effect. In his tactics section they just have him fighting melee until he dies. With his spell like abilities I think he could be a lot more dangerous to the party.The party consists of a human ninja, an elf bard, a dwarf fighter, a human sorcerer and a human ranger.
The ninja will be hitting him flat footed, at a FF AC of 27 he should be pretty safe, though he will never be able to catch the ninja either.
The elf, the dwarf, the sorcerer and the ranger can all be disposed of easily with his abduction ability. He just grabs them, teleports out of his layer to the top of a high tree and leaves them there. The whole process takes 2 rounds.
I know that tactic wouldn’t be much fun for the players, but I really think that’s what he would do.
Also, I suppose he would be a melee fighter, but if an enemy was too threatening for melee (for example, when the ninja pulls some crazy sh*t I didn’t think of, something he does at least once per session) he would use his telekinesis. In fact I think that would be the best tactic for dealing with the ninja, pick him up from across the room and pin him to the wall.
any thoughts?(I always plan for the ninja to do something unexpected)
Here's how my players handled Olangru and company. As a party of 5 well tuned PCs, I had to change up tactics a bit. Initially, as written, the demons are arrogant so their abduction of Urol (and Amella, in my case) went well and gave the party a little scare since they were fairly unprepared. So when the party first entered the Harem, I played the demons the as written. They slew one Bar-l at which time the demons t-ported away, the party was severely injured and retreated.
On their next foray, the party buffed heavily before entering the harem hall. But I had already planned to have the demons waiting with readied actions to Dispel Magic as one by one they entered the hall thru the portal. Also put an illusory wall of stone along the edge of the upper area to the floor, apparently limiting their movement. After a couple of rounds of debuffing the party as they enter, combat began in earnest. The PCs won they day but were somewhat depleted on spells so they were planning on retreating again. This group, fully loaded, would make short work of Olangru, so either I couldn't let them leave or I would have to add more demons to the fight with Big O. I sent a telepathic message to the party that the hostages would be sacrificed shortly and that got them to press forward.
The fight with O was still pretty easy (an Enlarged, Raging, Power Attacking, greataxe wielding, Barbarian and a Smiting, Cleric of Destruction will do that) and the subsequent battle with the construct was a suitable threat but they still won out.
I made one serious gaffe, I forgot the Mobility AC bonus vs. AoOs, so I didn't take as much advantage of Pounce as I should have during this battle, but the outcome wouldn't have changed much even if I had.
Your party's lack of a Cleric will make this a difficult series of encounters as all these opponents can dish out alot of damage to low AC characters.
Remember, for Olangru to abduct someone they have to fail a will save. There are several threads floating around here discussing the viability of the abduction ability, I suggest you search for and read those, and decide how you want to handle the ability.
Cheers!