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Over the weekend, in hopes of being able to contribute to the high-level playtest, I ran the first section of Mike Mearls' "Root of Evil" adventure from Dungeon #122[i], using four pregenned versions of the iconics - Valeros, Merisel, Ezren and Kyra, specifically. As it happens, the very first major encounter of that adventure almost exactly matches the description Jason offered for one of the scenarios he wanted to see run. Here are the differences:
1) There was no buff time, save for long-term effects that were still in play from that morning. Ezren was floating around on an extended [i]overland flight spell, and the entire group had had an extended heroes' feast as well.
2) Two worms appeared on Round One through the ground, and then two more appeared on Round Two.
3) The room suffered an earthquake-like effect, requiring those standing on the ground to make a Reflex save (DC 22) or lose their actions for the round.
The PCs were all 18th level, and had had one "encounter" beforehand: a group of 15 orcs (War1) and 4 trolls, which had been largely dealt with by a single chain lightning[i] from Ezren. Merisel and Valeros handled cleanup, with Kyra providing the final fire-based touches.
When the worms appeared, Ezren made a Knowledge check and got something in the low 40s, so he rattled off dangers and weakenesses. The "tremorsense" part caught Merisel's ear, and she used her [i]wings of flying to regain the potential for stealth - thanks to the columns, I ruled that she had sufficient cover to disappear, which she promptly did (Stealth mod of +54). Valeros waded into one, forced to charge and therefore not to get his full attacks off, while Ezren zapped the other with a lightning bolt. Unfortunately, that one proceeded to bite, grapple, and swallow (and in retrospect, I have discovered I have been running 'swallow whole' wrong - never realized it takes two rounds to accomplish) Merisel after she sneak attacked, which made Kyra and Ezren both worry about which effects they could use without hurting Merisel inside the worm. Merisel had acid resistance 10, however, and was doing alright for the moment. The other worm tried to bite Valeros and succeeded, tried to grapple him and failed (nat 1), and then tried to sting him and succeeded. The issues with poison, however, are hugely magnified at 18th level - trying to poison an 18th level fighter with a heroes' feast on him is really an exercise in futility, particularly when he only needs to make one save to shake it off.
On the second round, Merisel discovered that even being grappled is not so bad, got ahold of one of her daggers, and went to town on the worm from the inside. She wasn't quite able to work herself free, but the worm was beginning to have second thoughts about its meal. The worm facing Valeros had its back against a wall, and so it couldn't get away - this meant that Valeros unloaded all 5 of his attacks (using Imp Vital Strike to drop them down from 7 attacks), including one crit that triggered Bleeding Critical (Fort save, DC 28, is pretty hard for even a purple worm to make safely). The worm was down well over half its hit points, and bleeding to boot. Two more worms appeared, however, before Ezren and Kyra got to go, and each of them was promptly chomped and swallowed. Ezren took the matter in stride, however, autosucceeding on the Spellcraft check to cast while grappled and then using finger of death on the worm. The worm actually failed its save, but still did not die - so much for SoD effects, yes? Unwounded, it was still at 20 hp, though it nonetheless triggered the massive damage rule (could only fail on a 1, of course). I still ruled that Ezren had blown a hole in the thing's neck, and he calmly stepped out and flew off again. Kyra had a few more issues - also acid resistant, but without a light weapon or any prepped spells so suited to the cause. Instead, she cast righteous might after dropping her scimitar (it was not affected by the spell, and was now a light weapon for her) and expanded in the thing's gullet, then grabbed her scimitar and prepared to cut her way free.
On the third round, Ezren used his rod of lesser maximize metamagic to maximize a scorching ray at the worm holding Merisel, while the worm that had held him fled through the ceiling again. Merisel finished cutting herself free, and killed the worm in the process. Valeros launched another full attack on his worm, got another crit and made me yelp when I realized Bleeding Critical specifically allows its effects to stack, in contradition with the usual rules on bleed effects. The worm was taking an extra 4d6 hp every action at this point, and it actually killed itself trying to hit him. That only left Kyra, who cut herself free rather easily, and then they all tore the last worm apart.
Specific notes not mentioned above:
1) The only healing the party used was channel energy, which was 11d6 (phylactery) for Kyra, who could do it 10/day. The healing available via channeling scales extremely well with level.
2) When making the pregens, I wanted to do more with the critical feats, but simply did not have the room (even for a fighter). Having to take both Critical Focus and Critical Mastery in order to have more than one critical feat be worthwhile simply took too much space, since I couldn't start buying the feats until relatively high level.
3) In a later encounter, Valeros tore apart a greater stone golem by himself, despite not having the ability to overcome the thing's DR through pluses or weapon composition. In this regard, Improved Vital Strike was extremely helpful, since it got more damage through the DR than would have happened otherwise.
4) On the other hand, Vital Strike and Improved Vital Strike seemed to work at odds in fights where the opponents could suffer the effects of Bleeding Critical, since crits are determined almost entirely by the number of times you roll the dice.