Within my campaign, I am DMing for six characters played by PCs with solid tactical instincts. Aside from a few close calls, they have done exceptionally well against everything I've thrown against them. There have been very few fatalities.
I was, therefore, considering increasing Zyrxog's effective level just a little bit -- specifically, using the Fleshwarper PrC from Lords of Madness. That particularly seemed to fit, given Zyrxog's created minions. Anyways, I was going to make him a sorcerer 7/fleshwarper 2, giving him an effective caster level of 8.
Additionally, his "elder secret" or whatever it's called was going to be the "Secret of the Destrachan", which makes the being who grafts it immune to all sonic damage.
With my PCs rapidly approaching the final confrontation with Zyrxog (they're in the outer caverns now, but haven't passed the naga), do you think this makes him a little too heavily powered? Particularly given the numerous reports of TPKs against Zyrxog to begin with?
I would advise not to change him. His offense is *very* tough.
I have run Zyrxog against a well rounded group of 5 PCs that frequently uses solid tactics (but has no expert players). This group had defeated all that had come before with no troubles. I had given them all hints beforehand (appearance including mind-blast; they took time to research mindflayer strengths and weaknesses; stocked well on appropiate expendables (scrolls of panacea, globe of invulnerability, potions of owl's wisdom).
I then ran Zyrxog as written (but check for mindblast math, the DC is slightly off), and he almost annihilated them - first PC death in campaign, several *very* close calls, loooong fight, lucky critical smite evil in the end.
What makes him so dangerous is the combination of a scary offense (empowered lightning bolts and scroching rays, for many round to come AND mindblast) and a solid defense (high AC, levitation at will, SR, displacement).
Long story short: Unless your party has unusually high Will-Modifiers and a very strong ranged offense that ignores SR, do not change him. IF you still want to: Ability Focus (mind blast), 2 caster levels for improved invisibility or mirror image (greater), and 3 potions of CCW will make him a god.
I have run Zyrxog against a well rounded group of 5 PCs that frequently uses solid tactics (but has no expert players). This group had defeated all that had come before with no troubles. I had given them all hints beforehand (appearance including mind-blast; they took time to research mindflayer strengths and weaknesses; stocked well on appropiate expendables (scrolls of panacea, globe of invulnerability, potions of owl's wisdom).
I then ran Zyrxog as written (but check for mindblast math, the DC is slightly off), and he almost annihilated them - first PC death in campaign, several *very* close calls, loooong fight, lucky critical smite evil in the end.
What makes him so dangerous is the combination of a scary offense (empowered lightning bolts and scroching rays, for many round to come AND mindblast) and a solid defense (high AC, levitation at will, SR, displacement).
Good to know. I ran my PCs through the outer edges of Zyrxog's lair this past weekend, and though there was one fatality (due largely to stupidity; the chaotic neutral bard decided to jumpstart hostilities against the naga with arrows and she promptly went invisible and retaliated with a phantasmal killer that splatted him) they did quite well on the whole.
I rejiggered the drow into a band of dolgaunt monks and a dolgaunt priestess of Pyremius with a rust monster and ogre zombies for support. The zombies went poof when the Radiant Servant of Pelor stepped up, more or less as I was expecting, the rust monster (being naught but a trained animal) went running when it dropped below 1/4 hp, and the monks were, sadly, less than effective despite being buffed with bless and interfaith blessing. The priestess scared the crap out of them, though, hammering the party with a flame strike and the RSoP with a sound lance before grappling said RSoP with a balor nimbus up. The wizard-enlarged goliath spiked-chain fighter managed to intervene in the grapple and got the cleric out (at 2 hp), and the priestess rolled a nat-1 on her slay living touch attack (which may or may not have saved the goliath; Fort save on a fighter, after all) and promptly got shredded by the spiked chain.
But it was against the octopins that the party's planning really had a chance to shine. The RSoP prepped the party with magic circle against evil and conviction to grant an effective +5 to all saves, and with that in place they were mostly unaffected by the trio of slow-gazing beasties.
I did manage to get some solid hits on the goliath with the octopins flanking him (yaaaay rend!), but for the most part the party's ACs are too high to consistently hit (upper 20s) with the +10 BaB the minions have. Meanwhile, the goliath is swinging attacks at 8 (BaB) +6 (STR) +1 (weapon) +1 (WF) +2 (melee weapon mastery: piercing), or +19 overall. The damage he's handing out is 2d6 (large spiked chain) +9 (STR, two-handed) +1 (weapon) +2 (weapon specialization) +2 (melee weapon mastery again) -- 2d6+14 in all.
The minions seem to melt away.
Of course, the goliath won't be hugely effective against Zyrxog, what with the levitation keeping him some 40' up, but I wouldn't put it past the party to pull something out of their asses. The +5 bonus to all saves alone, and the fact that the wizard went into Divine Oracle, means that they'll most likely stand up pretty well against the corrected mind blast DC of 20.
The other difficulty is that the RSoP's reliance on magic circle against evil makes the stone brain effectively useless. It can't dominate anyone inside the area of effect, so the whole "Will save vs. domination and even if you succeed you lose 1 WIS" thing kind of falls flat.
I'm considering upping its abilities, maybe with an at-will dispel magic or the like. Otherwise the PCs march in, go "Hey, an odd cerebral statue surrounded by benches and manacles in a mind flayer lair! Let's smash it now!" They're genre savvy that way. *grin*
Sometimes, I think it is important to have the players get a win- when they have the right tactics and the right spells, things go their way.
There is still plenty in the Halls that can trip them up, like a Vrock statue and whole workshop of cursed magical items. If you really want to make combat a bear, you could always consider consolidating the monsters. Have the advanced Octopin retreat to Zyxog's Cathedral of the Mind, helping the Mindflayer fend off the attack.
Personally, though, my band had a really hard time with this and I ended up with 4 deaths (out of six). If your group has done better, then kudos to them. I tip my hat.
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Zyrxog's lair was one of the more deadly encounters of my campaign.
Actually, Big Z incapacitated the entire party and could have eaten their brains at leisure. Instead he scribed Psionic Seals on them and coerced them into being his agents...at least until the city was overrun with wights and he chose to plane shift out of town.
I decided NOT to bump up Zyrxog substantially, effectively giving him a caster level of 7 (with two levels of fleshwarper, for the Secret of the Destrachan. Surprisingly, the sonic immunity never came up, largely because their first direct encounter with him ran very, VERY short. Their expedition into Zyrxog's lair went something like this:
"We break down the exterior door as the gnome bard sings support."
DM: "Wait, magic circle vs. evil means no mental control?"
"... I smash the stone brain into shards of rubble." *roll roll* "Right, so... with the goliath power attacking that takes... um... three rounds max?"
"Now don't go anywhere near that vat until --"
"Oh gods oh gods razor-tipped tentacles everywhere aaaaaaaagh my spleen the pain ow ow ow --"
"-- and the next time I tell you not to go near the f~*$ing vat, DON'T GO NEAR THE F&$#ING VAT!"
"This is the creepiest damned trophy room I've ever seen in my li-- wait, is that a voodoo doll of me?"
"My manifested-force disembodied elven piranha jaws nibble the demon-statue to death."
"We spike the doors to the trophy room shut, climb up the rope, and hide inside the magician's extradimensional hidey-hole."
(At this point, with the party NOT blocking the entrance to the sanctum, I had Zyrxog call in a favor -- he went to an outside supplier and paid top damned dollar for a particular construct.)
"OK, everyone rested? We're all buffed with protective and augmenting spells? We know that down this corridor is the mind flayer's sanctum, but not what kinds of minions he might have waiting for us. Nonetheless -- chhhhaaaaaarrrrrggggge!"
WHAM WHAM WHAM.
"-- oh s+##, is that a clay golem? --"
crackleVATHOOOOOOOOOOM.
"-- oh S**&, was that ANOTHER overcharged lightning bolt? --"
RIP SHRED TEAR CLAW.
"-- oh crap, he's got MORE of the tentacled razor-claw things?!? --"
crackleVATHOOOOOOOOOOM.
"Run for it! Run, godsdamnit, RUN!"
*cue Terminator music* ("It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It's doesn't understand pity, or remorse, or fear, and it absolutely WILL NOT STOP until you are DEAD.") *clay golem bashes down the spiked-closed door*
They BARELY squeaked out a successful retreat -- I almost had the rearmost character charbroiled with a lightning bolt, but his patron deity protected him with remarkable success. (He got out with just 3 hp because he made his Reflex save -- otherwise said empowered lightning bolt would've dropped him to -22. I rolled like a GOD.) They'll no doubt come back better prepared for round 2 of the assault, so I'll have to have some fresh surprises waiting. *evil grin*
Hell, he might've done quite a bit more damage to them -- possibly even a fatality or two -- if the wizard hadn't dropped an Evard's black tentacles to slow down the mind flayer (who was pursuing on foot as the party tried to retreat up the curving corridor back towards the trophy room; the golem just bulled straight through it with his large size and his enormous strength). (I'd added a wand of dispel magic to Zyrxog's possessions; that was pretty much the only thing that let him get free of the tentacles after some really bad grapple-check-escape rolls.)
Any suggestions for round 2, given that Zyrxog's now seen his solitary necklace of missiles fireball bounce off their high saves? With bard song, magic circle vs. evil, and mass conviction, the party in general has +4 on all saves and +6 when within 10' of the cleric. That helped them somewhat -- as did the wizard/divine oracle's prescient sense allowing him to dodge a big chunk of the AoE damage -- and Zyrxog fully comprehends that while that magic circle is up, he can't mentally influence any of the party.
In retrospect, I find myself wishing I'd gone with a flesh golem instead of a clay golem. For one, it's not quite as much of a stumbling block for the party; for another, the stitched-together nature fits better with the creepy fleshwarper atmosphere I'd built up prior to that point. *siiiigh* What can I say; improvising at the end of an eight-hour session is not my strong point... *facepalm*
Thoughts on re-doing the Zyrxog confrontation, now that the party has successfully retreated:
* send the golem alone after the PCs while they're recovering, giving that Zyrxog has at least a couple of arrows and other gear that the PCs left behind (and if the golem starts taking too heavy a toll, make it a "rental" from some other immoral criminal type in the city; as it's about to strike the killing blow it suddenly stiffens, stands straight, and turns to walk away)
* repopulate the outer caverns with otyughs that Zyrxog has charmed into taking up residence (after all, plenty of blood and food strewn about everywhere)
* the inner sanctuary is pretty well depopulated of minions, though -- any ideas for giving him anything extra in the way of shock troops?
* a tactic against the full-plate-wearing-spiked-chain-wielding-high-STR juggernaut -- one empowered ray of enfeeblement and suddenly he's down on the ground with a STR of 8, overburdened by his armor and weapons
So. Thoughts?
The second run-through? The players absolutely OWNED Zyrxog.
First off, I'd figured that I did unbalance the odds against the PCs by putting the golem in the same room as Zyrxog. Thus, I had him scry the location of the party with his pool and send the golem off after them. Of course, in the interim the party had had a chance to purchase a golembane scarab... and so when the golem turned up, the stoneskin'd goliath spiked-chain damage machine and the wizard (newly armed with ray of deanimation) ripped the golem in two within about three rounds.
The outer caverns were a bit more challenging. I'd repopulated them with a single lifeleech otyugh, advanced to 12 HD. It lurked about, then sprang in to attack and just missed nailing the scout with its initial attack. When the others moved to engage it, it quickly grappled both the goliath, the cleric, and the bard, and half the combat was them desperately trying to get free while it constricted them. Although the remnants of the stoneskin kept the goliath from suffering the worst of the damage, he did suck up quite a bit... but they coup de grace'd the otyugh before doing any healing, more's the pity.
Once they got inside, though... well, it was over pretty quickly. I had Zyrxog waiting invisibly and displaced, levitating up against the ceiling of one of the corridors, and he laid down an empowered lightning bolt... but with me rolling horribly and the mass resist electricity that the cleric had buffed everyone with (not to mention the magic circle against evil, mass conviction, and recitation adding a whopping +7 to everyone's saves, the only one who took a little damage was the wizard. The enlarged goliath double-moved in, waiting to attack, but Zyrxog hit him with an empowered ray of enfeeblement and dropped him by 15 STR. Sad to say, the penalty didn't last long -- the cleric promptly moved in with a restoration. Zyrxog hauled ass down the corridor to try to get into his cathedral for some maneuvering room and charmed the advancing goliath into attacking the PCs, but only got one swing in on the cleric as said priest moved forward to get the goliath back in his magic circle... and that pretty much spelled the end of that.
The wizard locked up Zyrxog in Evard's black tentacles, and despite two escape attempts and a wand of dispel magic Zyrxog quickly succumbed to the crushing tentacles. And that was that.
In retrospect, perhaps I should've had him waiting against a wall somewhere in the actual cathedral, prepped to ambush... ah well. Any other tactics I might keep in mind for the next time I'm running through this campaign?