Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber
Here's an email sent by one of my players to all of the other players....
Okay, here’s some strategy for the Dragotha fight.
I have a list of spells I think we need to make sure we have (buffs and counters). I think we should break the bank if necessary on this one. I’d rather live and spend a lot of money then die. The casters need to figure out how many spells slots they can devote to this. The rest will need to be scrolled.
Thoughts?
Dragotha is likely to have allies with him, but we don’t know for sure yet
Will likely his best save
Fort likely worst
Immune to all mind affects
Immune to poison, sleep, paralysis, stun, disease, death effects
No crits, energy or abiltity drain damage, fatigue and exhaustion
He WILL be vulnerable to positive energy (so heals will hit for 150 a pop—with 3 heals Matt, Hil, Sam) that’s 450 damage
We’re going to need to be buffed all to hell, and we MUST be able to get a dimensional lock in the area
We’re going to have to be hitting him with greater dispels at the start
Chris—read the spell gave strike, and buy a wand of this—it’s a swift action
Spells we’ll want
C=cleric, D=Druid, W=Wizard
Name c
Duration
Benefits
Misc
Heroes feast c6
12 hours
Breakfast of champions
1d8+10 hit points from 20th level caster, +1 morale to attack and will and immunity to fear
Bears Endurance C/D/W 2
10 minutes
+4 con
Not everyone will need
Barksin D 2
10 min/level
+5 to natural AC
Just for melee?
Break Enchantment C /W 5
Just in case
Blur W 2
1 min/level
20% miss chance
True seeing negates, but hopefully he won’t have it or we’ll dispel it off him . Displacment is better but it only lasts rounds
Bulls strength
See beastland ferocity
Cats Grace w/d/c
10 min
+4 dex
I don’t think anyone will need this
Death Ward C 4/D5
Min/level
Immune to death spells, effects, energy drain,a nd negative enrgy
Everyone needs this (mass is C 8/D9)
Dimensioanl Anchor C/W 4
Min/level
Will prevent dragotha from fleeing
Ranged touch attack
Dimensioanl Lock C/W 8
SR negates—even better cuz it prevents reinformcements but a high level slot
Disrupting Weapon C 5
Round/level
Will save or die
Only lasts rounds but I don’t think a save makes you immune in the future, and it only takes a 1
Enlarge Person
Min/level
-2 to dex and -1 to hit but +2 size to strength and negates reach
Mass is level 4
Faerie Fire D1
Worth having if we have invisible creatures
Fire Shield
Round/level
Half damage to either fire or cold, and creatures attacking take ad6+15
Slaughter can cast this right before the start of a fight (mass)
Fly
Min/level
60 feet
Sam, Chris, and John HAVE to have this (mass version is level 5)
Owl wisdom
10 min
+4 wisdom
Not everyone will need
Freedom of Movement
10 min/level
Various immunites
Everyone should have this
Mass Heal C 9
Not sure if matt will have this, or if we want to invest in a scroll, but this would be a nice oh shit thing to have on hand (breath weapon recovery?)
Invisibility purge c3
1 min/level
5 ft radius/level
Worth having
Magic Vestment c 3
Hour/level
+5 at level 20 enhancement bonus to weapon and armor
Everyone should be at plus 5 if possible
Greater magic weapon c4, w/3
Hour/level
Get everyone up to +4 (+5 at level 20)
Sam, chris, lisa, john need this
Haste W3
Round /level
+1 bonus to attac (untyped), +1 dodge to ac and reflex, 30 feet movement, extra attack with full attack action
Mass Resist Energy C/D3 w 4
10 min/level
30 points resistence per attack
We should probably have this for the 4 major energy types
Protection from energy c/d/w 3
10 min/level
120 points of absorbtion
We should have this for fire-see also energy immunity
Prot from evil
Min/level
+2 defelection/ resistence, immunity to possession and summoned creatues
Probably worth it for the possession and summoning immunities
Remove blindness/deafness C3
Just in case
Reniove Curse C 3 W4
Just in case
Renove Disease C/D3
Just in case
Remove Fear C 1
Just in case
Remove Paralysis C 2
Just in case
Lesser restoration c/d 2
Just in case
Greater restortation c 7
Just in case
Spell Resistence c5
Min/level
Resistence 12 plus caster level
This might be too expensive for minimal benefit—, but the mass version is only level 7
Stoneskin d5/w4
10 min/level
150 points of physical absorbtion
A must for all melee, useful for all
True Seeing c5/d7/w5
Min/level
Everyone needs this in some capacity
Greater Dispel
Anyone who can cast this (which is sam, hil, matt, and myself) should probably have at least one
Anti Dragon Aura C/W 3
Min/level
+5 luck bonus on ac and saves vs dragons (at level 17)
One spell will cover everyone
Assay Spell Resisstence c/w 4
Overcomes SR for dragotha and is an instant cass. Make sure you have this
Aura of Evasion C 5/W6
Min/level
Gives anyone within 10 feet of the caster evasion vs breath weapons, and a +4 bonus if they already have evasion
Beastland ferocity D 1
Min/level
Lets us fight and take actions between -1 and -9 and give a +4 ehancement for strength
Blessed Aim C1
Min/level
50 ft radius, +2 morale on ranged attack s
Mass Conviction c 3
10 min/level
From an 18th level cleric gives us a +5 MORALE bonus to saves (stacks with resist bonuses)
Divien Agilty (c 5)
1 round/level
+10 enhancement to dex
Doesn’t last long but might be worth hitting lisa or sam with
Divine protection C2
Mi/level
+1 MORALE to save and AC
Save is overwritten by mass conviction but the AC bonus is still good
Energy Immuntiy c6 d6 w7
24 hours
Immunity to fire (see also fireward)
Well we know that this is coming…
Fell the greatest foe C3
Round/level
+4d6 damage to all attacks against colossal creatures
It’s rounds, but that’s a lot of bonus damage we can add to team physical attacks--
Fireward D 5
Hour/level
20ft cubes per level—no fire magic works in the radius
No saves, so we could have hil just cast this at the start of the fight, but do we want to use the round for this
Forutnate Fate C 7
10 min/level
If hit with a killing effect immediately casts heal
We all NEED to have this
Owls Insight D 5
1 hour
Grants wisdom bonus equal to half caster level (insight)
Hil should cast this on herself, sam, and matt
Recitation c 4
Round/level
+2 luck to AC, attacks, and saves
Has to be cast in combat, may not be worth the action
Renewel pact C 7
Permanent until triggered
Basically cancels out the first time we’re hit with a spell effect (ability damage, fatigue, insnatiy, etc)
Costs 500 gold but we should each have this going in
Mass restoration c 7
Worth having this at least on a scroll for an oh shit moment
Revenance c4
Brings subject back to life for 1 round per level at half health—dies afterwards
Good to have this handy if a caster goes down
Reviiviy C 5
Stabilizes at -9 if cast the round after death
Scroll
Mass shield of faith c4
Min/level
+5 (cl 18) defelction bonus
Spark of Life C3, D 4
Round/level
Eliminates ALL undead protections/ immunities
Requires a touch attack and has a will save and SR, but this opens a ton of options—our heal damage trick won’t work though
Stalwart Pact c 5
1 round/level when triggered
Once triggered (half health) gaisn 35 temp hps, dr 5/magic and +2 luck on saves
Costs 250 gold but it adds 35 hp to everyone essentially
Undead bane weapon
Hour/level
An extra +2 bonus to the weapon plus 2d6 damage
Worth it for all physical attackers
Take a look at death pact in the Spell compendium—you sacrifice +2 con PERMANENTLY, but upon death you are instantly hit with a true ressruection spell. It would take a wish to get the con back, and the spell costs 1000 gold. I think this may be worth it nevertheless
Also, Chris, the artifiact you had came ‘alive’ near dragotha, and gave you the following powers
+10 insight to beat sr, +2 insight bonus to save dcs (oh boy), immunity to fear (and everyone within 30 feet of chris) and a +10 luck bonus to will saves
Now I remember why I converted to 4e. :)
Sounds like your players are pretty sharp on the rules/options. Either 1) make sure they make all have their stuff ready to go (and all the adjustments calculated), or
2) mess up their buffing preparations with an ambush.
Are they doing the buff-and-teleport thing?
Check the Campaign Journals section of these boards for the thread Allen Stewart posted; it was called something like 'Killer DM runs Age of Worms'.
It might be useful for you to see what he did for his party's fight against Dragotha, and you could always cross-post this topic over there on the chance that either he or one of his former players will respond if they don't spot this here...
God I hate 3.5 sometimes :P
Also glad I am running this in path in 4E
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
This threadsreminds why the Spell Compendium is an EVIL book.
Why don't you use the Spell Compendium and replace Dragotha's spells with some? Or give him another level or two...
We had a level 19 Paladin which used ALL of her Lay-on-Hands in the first round on combat. Great move, me thinks.
Cheers! :D
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Give him one level of Sorcerer, then say this with me: Mordekainen's Disjunction. Or, Mage's Disjunction, if you're using Pathfinder. Or Wish. One of the two (three) will do.
Personally, I think it is awesome that your players are prepared. It is much better than them doing nothing but drawing swords and charging in.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
I actually had my players use the Disjunction trick against Dragotha. His AC dropped by like 12 points, IIRC, and he lost his protections against most of their tricks.
TriOmegaZero wrote: Personally, I think it is awesome that your players are prepared. It is much better than them doing nothing but drawing swords and charging in. Agreed. This is a terrific buy-in on the part of your PCs. It seems almost a shame that they must all die.
First, if they're buying all these preparations anywhere near Dragotha's sphere of influence, the dracolich will hear tell of it. After that, it's "Sing Along with Admiral Ackbar" time.
The Wand of Gravestrike trick won't work. Casting it from a wand increases the casting time to a standard action. Imbue With Spell Ability would let the rogue cast it however.
Dragotha's got a big hoard and his mantra should be "Monkey see, monkey do."
2 words: Project Image.
That, plus Disjunction will make all these little toys go Bye-Bye right quick.
Also: Contingent Greater Dispel when targetted by Greater Dispel, Spell Turning, and at least 1 Ring of Counterspells w/ Greater Dispel Magic in it are key for any boss-monster.
-t
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
psionichamster wrote: 2 words: Project Image.
That, plus Disjunction will make all these little toys go Bye-Bye right quick.
Also: Contingent Greater Dispel when targetted by Greater Dispel, Spell Turning, and at least 1 Ring of Counterspells w/ Greater Dispel Magic in it are key for any boss-monster.
-t
Dragotha is, unfortunately, only a Wyrm Red Dracolich and thus casts spells as a Sorc 17, ie, no 9th level spells. Scrolls, staves, or 1 extra level of sorcerer, though, those are options.
Gurubabaramalamaswami wrote: The Wand of Gravestrike trick won't work. Casting it from a wand increases the casting time to a standard action. Imbue With Spell Ability would let the rogue cast it however. This was fixed in the Rules Compendium, and I think that in the Errata also:
Rules Compendium, Page 85 wrote: Activating a spell trigger item takes the same amount of time as the casting time of the spell that the item stores, but activating the item doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity.
Gorbacz wrote: This threadsreminds why the Spell Compendium is an EVIL book. No kidding! :)
Dragotha's a draco-lich great wyrm dragon. He's literally ancient, so you need to revise his known spells roster due to the presence of the Spell Compendium at the table. As suggested above, a single level of sorceror would give him a CL of 18th and access to 9th level spells - plenty to level the playing field along with his original write up. Above all, do not forget that the more intelligent dragons tend to have full access to clerical spells lists, including two or more domains.
Some PHB/DMG suggestions that will work wonders:
Dust of Disappearance on himself.
A widened anti-life shell from a scroll [in the form of a giant stone tablet] is well within Dragotha's Use Magic Device skill check range. It effectively makes him impervious to melee attacks, providing a 20' radius impenetrable barrier to almost any player character. Since he will use spells and breath weapons for the first several rounds, the range is perfect for his needs.
Any and all non-morale (morale buffs won't work on him, as he is undead) buff spells from ALL the class lists - that do not conflict with his alignment components - are within his realm of access in terms of "gear". CL 20 scrolls are not terribly expensive (for him), and frees up his own spell casting for offensive actions. Look at the durations.
2 counterspelling rings loaded with greater dispel magic are a must. As is a greater spell immunity keyed to five spells. I would consider heal, mass heal, disintegrate, maze and one other nasty bit from the Spell Compendium as selections.
Other defensive spells include mage armor, shield, various protection from energy spells (especially cold!) layered over resist energy spells, protection from good (to thwart good-aligned summoned critters from gnawing on him), repulsion (set to, say, 65') and so on.
Offensively, his opening gambit should be disjunction (stripping all the party's buffs in one go - the items loss is really of no concern, so you could agree with them to waive the non-potion gear saves - as long as baddies similarly do not have to save for their non-potion gear) followed by a metamagic rod quickened maze on the cleric of the group. Also, it is likely he will pull any surviving minions into "rear guard" position, to respond to his call, falling on the party from the rear after the appropriate amount of time. Once the disjunction hammer falls, Dragotha should be whipping out a greater quicken metamagic rod (or version of same) and proceed to isolate the party members via maze (barbarians, fighters and rogues - although dropping one on a cleric buys him at least a full round or two without the nuisance of a high level cleric in his face), forcecube (divine casters - perhaps even putting one around the aforementioned cleric's return point from the maze), feeblemind (arcane spell casters) and then unlimber the breath weapons. Direct offensive measures include horrid wilting, waves of exhaustion (for direct damage and greatly hosing the entire group, respectively).
- Disjunction, quickened maze (cleric) on round 1. If they are able and prepared to counterspell his first disjunction, quicken a second, or Dragotha is in deep, deep trouble.
- Quickened Waves of Exhaustion, feat-enhanced fire breath weapon on round 2.
- Death as you see fit starting on round 3, forcing the players to engage him.
If they are held off by the anti-life shell, he will eventually destroy them all. He moves faster and has a LOT of spell casting firepower at his disposal. Note that the lair itself is in the belly of a place that utterly hoses most things [teleporting] in and out!
From the "other books":
Lifeward from the Spell Compendium will also handily thwart positive energy things (spells and such) without resorting to greater spell immunity.
If you want to get ugly, give him the Craft Contingent Spell feat and load him up with a series of buffing and defensive spells that activate when he 'decloaks'. Since they are magic items, a disjunction won't do a thing to them - and given his Will bonus, I would load up an extra 1 or 2 'empty' ones to eat the automatic failures. Remaining contingent spells could be multiple cones of cold (or anything similar - although greater shout comes to mind as particularly effective) that trigger when he unloads with his breath weapon.
He could also have 'named' summonable critters of low hp - all keyed with high-CL contingent-crafted death throes - that he nukes with his breath weapon (along with the party), detonating the critters in turn. The critters don't need to really DO much of anything other than explode en masse.
My PCs have their act together in such a way that I have to basically redo every encounter. After the destruction of the phylactery and the obliteration of the dragon strike at Kongen-Thulnir, Dragotha is NOT about to sit around at the Tabernacle and wait for the heroes to wade through his minions, using hide from dragons and dimensional lock... it'll be curtains in seconds. He will remain in strict seclusion until Kyuss rises to power, at which point the world will already be doomed, Dragotha the first general to a god... or, at least that's the idea. ;-)
There's plenty to keep the group occupied at the Tabernacle without giving them the free kill with a cornered dracolich. I'm still not sure what I'll do with the treasure hoard. If given one week's time, could the occupants of the Tabernacle move the entire hoard to another safe locale with the resources available? I'm very skeptical about that. It might be interesting to make finding the hoard a necessary side quest (one of the items is vital, perhaps containing a piece of Balakarde). Maybe I'll just leave the hoard as-is, with the assumption that once Kyuss returns, the heroes will be obliterated and Dragotha can reclaim his treasure. Perhaps...
Crust wrote: My PCs have their act together in such a way that I have to basically redo every encounter. After the destruction of the phylactery and the obliteration of the dragon strike at Kongen-Thulnir, Dragotha is NOT about to sit around at the Tabernacle and wait for the heroes to wade through his minions, using hide from dragons and dimensional lock... it'll be curtains in seconds. He will remain in strict seclusion until Kyuss rises to power, at which point the world will already be doomed, Dragotha the first general to a god... or, at least that's the idea. ;-)
There's plenty to keep the group occupied at the Tabernacle without giving them the free kill with a cornered dracolich. I'm still not sure what I'll do with the treasure hoard. If given one week's time, could the occupants of the Tabernacle move the entire hoard to another safe locale with the resources available? I'm very skeptical about that. It might be interesting to make finding the hoard a necessary side quest (one of the items is vital, perhaps containing a piece of Balakarde). Maybe I'll just leave the hoard as-is, with the assumption that once Kyuss returns, the heroes will be obliterated and Dragotha can reclaim his treasure. Perhaps...
Dragotha could easily relocate his entire hoard by himself.
If your Dragotha is relocating elsewhere, I suggest that he occupies his time with crafting a new phylactery (which he most certainly has the capability to craft anew). Once his essence is secured once more, then he will engage ... to kill ... bwahahahhahahhah!! :)
Dragotha is no fool. He knows who the PCs are and by now should have observed them to learn their capabilities. Since Dragotha now knows who and what the PCs are, chances are he knows their strengths and weaknesses, thus he has developed several plans around thus strengths and weaknesses. I would treat Dragotha as a very smart and canny opponent and thrash the players.
Oh, and kudos to the Players for putting such foresight into this adventure, but just remember, if the PCs have access to the Spell Compendium, so does Dragotha.
Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber
Wow I didn't expect such a response. Thanks for the advice everyone.
Last session, my players, down two PCs (4/6 present), finished up everything in Dragotha's house. The rogue snuck ahead and spotted Dragotha - and Dragotha also saw the rogue - and then the rogue quickly scooted away. The party was down the only cleric, and it was late, so I let the rogue get away. But now the PCs have seen the final room, which helps them time their buffs.
The teleport in thing doesn't work as well in my game - I have a house rule that after teleporting any further than you could have dimension doored your naseous for 10 minutes and nothing can overcome it. And it's the 3.0 naseous - no standard actions, just move actions. So no one teleports far. I also don't let them teleport/DD through substantial quantities of tabernacle wall. I forget if it's in the adventure - but in my game the worms extend into the astral plane, so teleporting through tabernacle infested walls lands the teleporter with a healty infestation.
But they will buff, and buff hard. That doesn't bother me - what bothers me is my guys also getting jumped. At this level if one side buffs and the other doesn't the encounter is a waste. So I just want to make sure my guys buff too.
I say my guys because I boosted Dragotha's room. My players will meet Dragotha + Mahuudril + Xyzanth (from KotR - they never finished him off) + 3 large shadesteel golems (someone on these boards suggested that) + a shadow truly horrid umber hulk (I have the mini) + a death giant (I have the 4th edition Death Titan mini which is almost the spitting image).
The umber hulk is good because all campaign the druid's been crawling through the walls (I forget her PrC right now). With her worried about infestation in the tabernacle, and me having a burrowing umber hulk - for the first time I will turn the tables on her.
I'll need all those bad guys too. My party has 7 PCs L19-20. Two of those PCs have cohorts and 2 have animal companions for a total of eleven "things."
These are all good ideas for me to sort through (especially yours Turin - I'm glad I'm not a PC in your game). Keep
em, coming. I don't allow quickened metamagic rods for anyone, but I think I can salvage the rest. I want what everyone DM wants from these fights. One PC to survive with 1 hp, and then they get the giant horde and raise everyone else.
We'll see.
Kudos to your players for their prep work. Whenever I'm running an undead BBEG I always lace his lair with a pinch or two of dust of sneezing and choking, strategically placed to erupt at key areas such as just inside the entrance or directly in front of said boss. If you're feeling particularly outmatched, stick a pinch in his mouth and have him breathe it with his death wind at the party. Its very likely they'll make the Fortitude saves but they will still be stunned regardless.
Much of what I did to prepare Dragotha for my player's characters was outlined by my friend and comrade Turin the Mad. Keep in mind, that Dragotha at statted in AoW was created mainly using only the PH & DMG with some notable exceptions. Your players (assuming you are using the 3.5 rules system) have tremendous amounts of material (from all the 3.5 splat books) available for their use that is beyond what Dragotha was prepared for when created. Therefore, don't be hesitant in making use of many of the recommendations that Turin gave you.
Several of Turin's suggestions in particular were immensely useful in dealing with my PCs. The Rings of Greater Counter spells with Greater Dispel Magics; the LifeWard spell; the AntiLife shell spell; and having Dragotha cast a Mordenkainen's Disjunction were all immensefully helpful. In a straight=up fight with no buffs, Dragotha should beat the PCs, so since your PCs are likely to use a Disjunction on him, he should return the favor.
I also found it useful to have 2 of my players 3 confrontations out in the cavern outside Dragotha's lair (where there is a sea of green slime). Any PC that is hit with a Disjunction while flying will fall into the green slime and die instantly. That could help.
All in all, I killed a total of 10 player characters with Dragotha, before one of the Players used a broken rule/misinterpretation of the Arcane Strike feat to screw me. If played intelligently, up-gunned to account for the new materials available in the newer splatbooks (especially the Spell Compendium), and with adequate preparation, Dragotha's virtually unbeatable.
I say my guys because I boosted Dragotha's room. My players will meet Dragotha + Mahuudril + Xyzanth (from KotR - they never finished him off) + 3 large shadesteel golems (someone on these boards suggested that) + a shadow truly horrid umber hulk (I have the mini) + a death giant (I have the 4th edition Death Titan mini which is almost the spitting image).
WTF! Okay, with these additional help (Mahuudril & Xyzanth alone will do the trick) this encounter is UNWINNABLE by the PCs unless you hand it to them out of charity
drsparnum wrote: <other stuff>
I want what everyone DM wants from these fights. One PC to survive with 1 hp, and then they get the giant horde and raise everyone else.
I sincerely hope that you meant "the enormous hoard", and not a massive throng of giants! :)
Good luck on accomplishing your aims for that battle. Please let us know how it turned out.
Bellona wrote: drsparnum wrote: <other stuff>
I want what everyone DM wants from these fights. One PC to survive with 1 hp, and then they get the giant horde and raise everyone else.
I sincerely hope that you meant "the enormous hoard", and not a massive throng of giants! :)
Good luck on accomplishing your aims for that battle. Please let us know how it turned out.
Oooo ... a treasure horde that animates and moves itself ...
I've seen even published products messing up the "hoard" vs. "horde" issue. It can lead to some very funny sentences! :)
Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber
Well they faced him and won. No PCs died, even though I gave Dragotha all of his buddies. I will post the summary below shortly. The PCs seemed to really enjoy the fight though, and Dragotha got away, so it's not a total loss. It sets up a nice climax of Kyuss + Dragotha + Vermirox vs. The Marauders (my party).
Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber
December 6
After Valon had spotted Dragotha and then withdrew, the Marauders returned to Silverymoon. Commander Dennis Slaughter knew that tomorrow his highly skilled platoon would face its greatest threat yet, and he aimed to prepare his crew for battle. He sent Valon into the city with a list of scrolls for purchase. Valon’s eyes widened when he glanced at the list. He didn’t need an exact figure to know that Slaughter’s list would cost a princely sum.
The warmage read the ninja’s reaction, and assured him, “every copper well spent. Dragotha’s hoard should exceed that amount several times over. Not to mention the priceless value of actually surviving the fight.” Valon nodded in agreement, and, silent as ever, headed into the city.
Next, Slaughter sent Lieutenant Judel Maccabeus to the University of Silverymoon to locate a competent wizard. There Judel found Dr. Sparnum, who agreed to cast sending, to deliver a message to Dutch in Alhaster. The context of the message got to the point: get here to Silverymoon at the Ardent Legion HQ, we need you.
Dutch received the sending and sighed. The city of Alhaster had fallen into ruin. Undead wandered the streets. Large bands of refugees huddled any place the undead had not completely overrun. Strange clouds of green mist had also appeared around the city. Dutch didn’t know anyone who had ventured into the mist voluntarily, but he suspected it wouldn’t do that person any good. Finally, Zeech had completed his monolith in the southwest corner of the city. The sending caught the sacred fist at a bad time - he did not want to abandon his city, where he held great avoirdupois in every way. The sybarite had defended the Deluxery against several waves of undead with his friend Salvador Marino over the past couple of days. But he had not heard from Slaughter in a few months, and he knew the warmage’s quest likely related to the terrors that had befallen Alhaster.
Dutch cosseted Glamorous, and persuaded her to head to Silverymoon alone first. So moments after Dr. Sparnum had cast the sending at the University, Glamorous appeared at Ardent Legion headquarters. The eyrines spent a few minutes recovering from her teleport nausea and then asked the powerful Ardent Legion commander why he had called for her baby. Slaughter rolled his eyes at having to deal with the slutty devil pet of Dutch, but told her to tell Dutch that the Marauders prepared to face Dragotha on the ‘morrow, and could use his assistance in the coming battle. Glamorous agreed to carry the message and teleported back.
Dutch heard Glamorous’ news, and Dutch and Salvador sussed up a wizard who could teleport them to Silverymoon, and headed to the Gem of the North. Dutch suspected the quest against Dragotha related to the problems that had befallen Alhaster, and thought striking against the enemy might present a better strategy than waiting to run out of spells and die in a Deluxery overrun by undead.
Almost an hour after Dr. Sparnum had cast the sending, Dutch strolled into the Ardent Legion headquarters with his friend Salvador. Dutch found Commander Dennis Slaughter pouring over various compendia that described druidic, clerical, and wizardly magic. The warmage, in his métier, seemed to relish the battle planning. Dennis looked up and nodded gruffly when he saw Dutch. No doubt Slaughter didn’t approve of whatever dalliance he believed had delayed the sacred fist, but Dutch could tell his arrival nevertheless pleased the warmage.
“Dutch, we need your mighty fists and spells. Tomorrow we go to face the undead dragon Dragotha in his lair. Will you assist the Marauders?”
Dutch clarified if battling Dragotha would help Alhaster, which faced a massive undead infestation. Without hesitation Slaughter assured the Sacred Fist that it would. The warmage’s absolute certainty gave Dutch pause, but after a moment he agreed to help.
The warmage didn’t recognize Salvador, and Salvador introduced himself as a gypsy king. When Slaughter inquired about his skills more precisely, Salvador elaborated on his spellcasting powers. Slaughter proudly introduced Dutch to his two new loyal soldiers, Abel, the sui generis warforged fighter, and Sharde, the stained glass golem. Phiery introduced the rest of the Marauders to Salvador with his customary brio. At that moment Agretha strolled in.
Dennis Slaughter, Salvador Marino, Dutch, and Agretha sat down to discuss the groups’ magical battle preparations. Based on the conversation, Dennis added still more spells to his long list. Ninety minutes into the conversation, Valon returned dumping a sack on the table. The sack tipped over, and scrolls spilled everywhere. Dennis immediately handed Valon a second list, and Valon turned right back around. After six hours of planning, four separate trips by Valon, two dry run rehearsals, and over 100,000 gold pieces, the Marauders completed their battle preparations. That night they slept atop a pile of expensive scrolls, knowing tomorrow they would face down their greatest threat to date – the original undead dragon – Dragotha.
December 7
The Marauders awoke on a day that would live in infamy, teleported just outside the Tabernacle of the Worms, and prepared all of their magical enhancements with durations of greater than one hour. Phiery, Slaughter, Sharde, and Salvador teamed up to destroy the worm doors, each member using only renewable resources. The team destroyed each door in a few seconds, and proceeded directly to the shaft with the cold green liquid. Along the way, the team encountered no resistance.
Salvador and Slaughter each cast dimension door, and each carried one-half of the Marauders to the top of the shaft. Slaughter dropped his team on the north side of the cold green river, and Salvador deployed his team on the south side. Almost immediately, two gargantuan earth cancer centipedes attacked the adventurers with great celerity, although the Marauders destroyed the pair with barely a scrape. Commander Slaughter ordered the team to then cast every magical enhancement with durations of at least ten minutes.
The Marauders moved forward to a bend in the tunnel. The exact path of the tunnel seemed somewhat different than yesterday, possibly because of its living nature. The heroes faced off against a second pair of earthcancer centipedes, again defeating the pair easily. Nevertheless, the party advanced to what Valon estimated represented the last bend in the tunnel before Dragotha’s lair. Commander Slaughter ordered the heroes to enact every single propitious magical spell available before the battle. Bearing the lineament of massive magical enhancement, the Marauders – warforged fighter Abel; stained glass golem Sharde; Sacred Fist Dutch; the phoelarch Prince of Mechbia, ranger Lieutenant Phiery; elven rogue champion gladiator Valon; dream dwarf druid Agretha Deepseer of the Saltheart clan; gypsy king Salvador, the wizard druid; Commander Dennis Slaughter, warmage leader of the Ardent Legion and apparent successor to the leadership of the Confederacy of the Silver Marches; Lieutenant Judel Maccabeus, marshal of the Ardent Legion; and former member of the Blessed Angels, the eyrines Glamorous – rounded the bend. The team had trained for this moment all their lives, and the heroes paused a moment to remember the travails of this quest thus far. The teams sedulous efforts had led them first to Lashonna, then to the Isle of Last Resort, and then to Kulgen-Thulnir. The group also remembered those this quest had taken: Oban, Max, and even Rhelyx.
A short way down the hall, the Marauders saw their chief opponent in his lair. The tube-like tunnel opened into a vast cavern lit by the undulant green glow of a huge ziggurat built of worm-infested stone. It appeared that a small structure once stood atop the ziggurat, but now nothing remained but a great jagged hole. One could only guess what object had filled that hole for the tutelary Dragotha. The green liquid that ran down the passageway to the west gushed from this wound, cascading down the front stairs of the ziggurat in a chain of miniature waterfalls.
Two ledges overlooked this cavern. The one to the north was only fifteen feet high, while the southern one was nearly thirty feet off the ground and in the southwest corner of this ledge lay heaped an amazing mound of treasure. Atop this heap of treasure sat a box nearly matching the look of the phylactery the Marauders had destroyed in the vault beneath the Citadel of the Weeping Dragon. Although unfinished, this box appeared nearly complete. The ceiling rose to a dizzying vaulted height of nearly a hundred feet.
Dragotha’s retinue also accompanied him. Three large shadesteel golems hovered near their undead dragon overlord, and a pair of iron golems flanked the entrance. In one corner nested Mahuudril, in her avolokia form. In the other corner, the fang dragon Xyzanth, still smarting from his defeat in the giant city, licked his poisonous lips. Only Valon and Dennis, their see invisibility powers active, could see Mahuudril and Xyzanth. The rest of the Marauders relied on true seeing, which did not have the same range. In the two remaining corners, and momentarily out of sight, loomed a shadow truly horrid umber hulk, and a death giant. The umber hulk had long served as Dragotha’s faithful servant. Dragotha had recently recruited the death giant to his retinue, a sign of respect the heroes posed to the undead dragon. When Valon had rounded the bend yesterday, Dragotha had spoken to the rogue – taunting him about how his quest actually served agents of the very cause he sought to stop. Today the original undead dragon spared no words, not even to mock the Marauders.
Both groups knew any discussion would only lead to battle, and so wasted no words.
Slaughter modified a firestorm spell, converting it into electricity. The storm filled most of Dragotha’s lair. Slaughter saw that the spell left Dragotha almost completely unhurt, and cursed as Xyzanth dodged the effect entirely. The warmage remembered Xyzanth had pulled the same trick in Kongen-Thulnir. However, the warmage had cut his chops building golems for Silverymoon, and he knew the storm would slow the pair of iron golems.
Glamorous, having finally reached the pinnacle of her powers, attempted to summon additional assistance from hell, but none heeded her call.
Salvador had worked late into the night yesterday to plan his opening salvo. He began with a greater dispel magic which he cast with impossible speed. However, Dragotha’ ring flashed momentarily and the spell fizzled. Salvador paused only a moment to reassess, and cast a second greater dispel magic. This time Dragotha’s other ring flashed, and the spell reflected back on poor Sal. However, Salvador’s own greater ring of counterspells then flashed, and the spell fizzled harmlessly. Touché. Salvador planned for a long fight.
Then Dragotha eagerly opened the scroll he held in his gargantuan claw, and read to the heroes. He cast a disjunction spell on the Marauders, although only unlucky Phiery succumbed to the effect. In addition to losing his ample preparatory magics, the phoelarch also permanently lost his magical bracers.
From there the room exploded into a fury of motion, beyond even the ken of the great undead dragon to track.
The umber hulk burrowed into the tabernacles gooey walls and lashed out at Phiery, trying to pull the phoelarch into the wall, but the umber hulk failed to latch on to his victim.
Agretha worked as quickly as possible to enact the powerful enchantments necessary to call one of her god’s most powerful servants – an earth monolith – to the battle. Dragotha had warned his team the druid would likely try such a tactic. Despite the warning, the druid’s tremendous magical defenses prevented the Kyuss followers from interrupting the casting. The monolith arrived and the narrow tunnel could hardly accommodate it, but the creature dutifully appeared behind the Marauders. The bulk of the monolith entered the walls, where it challenged the umber hulk. Immediately Kyuss worms infested the monolith burrowing through the earth creature. An earth cancer centipede joined the fray on the side of the umber hulk, and for some time the trio – earth monolith, shadows truly horrid umber hulk, and earthcancer centipede – engaged in a titanic struggle inside the tabernacle’s walls, almost completely unseen.
The death giant teleported right into the midst of the Marauders, eager to add fresh victims to his billowy soul cloak. He took a few overhead swings with his mighty axe, but could not find purchase in any of the Marauders magically protected flesh.
Salvador placed a prismatic wall in the entrance to Dragotha’s chambers, sealing the giant on the Marauders’ side of the wall. Plus, if any of the golems chose to pursue the heroes, they would need to suffer the effects of the wall.
The Marauders teamed up against the giant. Phiery unloaded his holy shock bow into the giant’s back right flank and destroyed the soulless creature, dooming it to oblivion. Phiery nodded with satisfaction. The once insouciant phoelarch had become grim and focused since his he had nearly lost his wife and unborn child because of this mission. He now fought for the future of gravid Rannyn. Following Phiery’s shots, the umber hulk seized the opportunity to bite into something juicier than the earth sandwich known as the earth monolith, and finally bit through the wall into the nearby phoelarch.
Agretha struggled to control Grumbar’s mighty servant, and concentrated fully on the earth monolith. She kept a low profile towards the rear, but suddenly another earth cancer centipede burst through the wall behind the Marauders, and pulled the druid into the wall. Agretha swatted at the bug, to no effect because she held her tremendous concentration primarily on the powerful monolith. Despite the bugs mandibles and legs crawling all over her, and despite her predicament of sitting within a sea of Kyuss worms which now infested her body, she succeeded in holding her concentration.
Salvador recognized the plight of Phiery and Agretha, and came to the rescue. He healed the phoelarch, and then moved to where the centipede had pulled Agretha into the wall. With lightning speed he discharged a quickened disintegrate, which destroyed the wall and revealed Agretha, still in the centipedes clutches. Next, Sal activated his magical belt to act even faster, touched Agretha, and greater dimension doored her to safety away from the centipede.
The monolith continued its struggle in the wall with the umber hulk and the centipede, but almost no noise from this struggle reached the adventurers. With the giant destroyed, and the wall separating the two groups, the battle took on an eerie calm and a momentary pause. Quickly, Salvador deduced that Dragotha’s band had no intention of plunging through his prismatic wall. With Dragotha’s second phylactery nearly complete, and with the clock ticking on the enhancement spells of the Marauders, Salvador decided time was not on his side and he dispelled his own wall.
The battle resumed.
Slaughter commanded Sharde the stained glass golem to march forward, and the heavy creature thundered into Dragotha’s lair. The two iron golems intercepted Sharde. Sharde held the advantage of moving at full speed, and the ability to regenerate. The slowed iron golems also held a pair of advantages: numbers, and superior armor casing. The stained glass golem and iron golems locked in combat with one another, construct v. constructs, tempered glass v. magic iron.
The sly avolokia, Mahuudril, had slunk forward while the prismatic wall separated the battle lines. She placed a wall of force in the middle of the Marauders, leaving Dutch and Sharde on Dragotha’s side, and the remainder of the Marauders cut-off. Dennis Slaughter reacted almost immediately, by disintegrating the wall of force. He also reprioritized the threat Mahuudril posed to the operation, and made her the heroes’ primary target. Salvador placed a personal antimagic field on Mahuudril, stultifying her, and Valon stepped forward to ultimately slice the avolokia to ribbons.
Up to now Dragotha had suffered a smattering of blows from Abel’s bow and a few other magical effects. These attacks presented only a moderate threat to the undead dragon. Moreover, his coven of shadesteel golems released intermittent negative energy bursts to keep their master hale, if an undead creature could be described as such.
However, Dragotha had seen two of his favored minions die, and decided to take the battle to the enemy. He flew from his perch and positioned himself carefully. He got within one claw’s length of Valon, who had just killed Mahuudril, but kept himself out of the range of Dutch’s full flurry. Dragotha struck Valon with his claw and paralyzed the rogue.
Dragotha’s maneuver prompted three Marauders to respond: Abel, Judel and Dutch. Abel marched forward, carrying Balakarde’s slayer fragment into the proximity of Valon, which freed Valon from the paralysis. Judel, seeing the chance to mount a major counter offensive, barked and yelled at the Marauders to double-time it in his customary hortatory speech. Dutch, motivated by the ebullient marshal’s voice, advanced on Dragotha. In his new position he unloaded his full fury on the undead dragon. However, Dragotha’s tremendous armor succeeded in blocking most of the attacks.
Judel’s words had also motivated Valon, who slunk past Dragotha and attacked the undead dragon from behind. Still, most of Valon’s dagger strikes also did not penetrate Dragotha’s tremendous armor.
Valon’s brave advance left him in a precarious place, surrounded by Dragotha, Xyzanth, and two shadesteel golems. Dragotha cut down Valon in a rapid series of bite and claw attacks. This triggered Valon’s fortunate fate spell, and Dragotha dealt nearly enough damage with his wings and tail to fell the rogue a second time.
Following his daring rescue of Agretha, Sal saw Valon’s distress and yet another opportunity for a second daring rescue. Sal created a forcecube floating in mid-air in Dragotha’s chamber. He then went to Valon, and greater dimension doored Valon into this sanctuary. There Sal tended the rogue.
Just then a new threat burst forth from the walls of the tabernacle. A gargantuan lucent worm emerged from the north side of the hallway. Plump Dutch presented the nearest morsel, and the worm tried to gulp down the sacred fist. However, Dutch’s agility and armor prevented the worm from landing any successful attacks.
The Marauders continued to strike at Dragotha, while his remaining shadesteel golems fatigued from the negative energy bursts. The canny undead dragon appraised the threats and found that Phiery, an earlier victim of the disjunction affect, no longer carried a death ward. Dragotha reared up and unloaded his breath weapon upon Phiery. However, instead of releasing gouts of flame, or a cone of acid, Dragotha unleashed a death wind. The normally spry phoelarch took the ineluctable wind full in the face. Moreover, Dragotha made certain to catch his own flank, where Abel had shot a few ribs, in the wind. The wind nearly killed Phiery, while mending most of Dragotha’s wounds.
Sal had patched up the worst of Valon’s wounds, so he used dimension door to travel out of the forcecage sanctuary, heal the phoelarch and a few nearby allies with a mass cure critical wounds, and place Phiery in the sanctuary. Phiery still faced grave danger, because the death wind clung to his flesh. Even Valon activated his minor healing wands in hopes it would sustain the phoelarch, but the clinging wind continued to claw at his life. Meanwhile, out of the forcecage sanctuary, the clinging breath continued its magic and Dragotha’s wounds continued to close. Just as Phiery nearly slipped into unconsciousness, the negative energy breath expired – Sal and Valon had saved the phoelarch. As an added bonus the phoelarch did not explode in a fiery burst within the confines of the forcecage.
By now the monolith battle, through a series of 5-foot steps by the combatants, had moved into the hallway proper, so that working from west to east: 1) the monolith dueled the umber hulk and two earthcancer centipedes, 2) the bulk of the marauders huddled together unloading attacks, and 3) Dragotha and his remaining allies unloaded their own attacks. Then two more earthcancer centipedes arrived, pitting the monolith against four centipedes and the umber hulk. The monolith appeared to be taking more than he gave, but it seemed to still have plenty more it could give.
Xyzanth had been harrying Agretha. She would fly away from the fang dragon, only to have the speedy dragon fly after her and attack again. Agretha heard Slaughter call for an all out-assault on Dragotha, now that most of the Marauders flew or stood in close proximity to the undead dragon. Agretha ignored Xyzanth, broke her concentration on the monolith, and heeded the warmage’s instruction, hoping this final push would destroy the undead dragon.
Agretha cast a retributive heal on Dragotha, dealing damage to him while healing herself. Salvador and Dutch followed up Agretha’s heal spell with their own retributive healing. Abel closed to sword range and converted his bow into a sword and prepared to really dig in. The combined attacks, particularly Abel’s, left Dragotha smarting, but not dead, as the Marauders had hoped. Still, tasting victory, Sal placed a dimensional anchor on Dragotha, in case the undead dragon entertained ideas of escape.
The push against Dragotha had not stopped Xyzanth from harrying Agretha, and despite the retributive heal, the druid had begun to show signs of serious injury. Slaughter flew to Agretha, and used his greater dimension door to get his oldest ally to safety.
Frustrated by the shadesteel golems’ constant healing of Dragotha, Glamorous teleported behind enemy lines. She whipped the shadesteel golems with her barbed whip. In addition, by now Sharde had destroyed the iron golems, and moved to join Glamorous against the golems. Even Valon, back to operating condition, if not full health, joined the fray against the golems. Together, the trio of Marauders killed the trio of golems, and cut off Dragotha’s main source of healing.
Although the spellcasters had unloaded their best attack against Dragotha earlier, Abel’s arm never tired. Dragotha had stayed within range of the warforged’s greatsword. Abel had a strong sword, ample magic enhancement, and the slayer fragment of Belekarde’s soul. His creators had built him with a strong arm as well, and he swung, and swung, and swung, and swung again into the undead dragon’s scales. Almost every time his attacks hit home, and hit home hard.
For the first time in a long time, since before even the elf Valon was a babe, Dragotha encountered an individual he did not particularly want to test his luck against in a toe-to-toe fight. Dragotha turned his back on Abel and flew away, earning himself one more swat on the back. Dragotha then tried a different tactic, and cast greater dispel magic on Valon. However, Valon’s training as an occult slayer protected him, and the dispel magic reflected back on the undead dragon, destroying about half of Dragotha’s magical protections. Sal double-checked Dragotha – the dimensional anchor remained, and Salvador felt confident.
Frustrated at his lack of kills, Dragotha flew to Judel. He snapped his jaws shut with such tremendous force right on Judel’s head. The single blow would surely have left the marshal dead, except the blow missed. Judel’s head remained comfortably atop Judel’s neck, a few feet from where Dragotha had seen it. Dragotha cursed that he no longer had true seeing, and now relied on inferior blindsense. Judel nodded thanks to Slaughter, who had devised the plan to place a displacement spell on the whole platoon.
Valon, frustrated by his inability to hit Dragotha, tried a new tactic and flew after Xyzanth. The rogue normally relied on feints and trickery to expertly place his knife strikes. However, Xyzanth saw through the rogue’s tricks, and prevented Valon’s knives from hitting his vitals. Still, Xyzanth showed numerous wounds from the combat, and even Valon’s inexpert knife strikes succeeded in killing the gargantuan fang dragon.
Dragotha cursed. His four earth cancer centipedes, the lucent worm, and the umber hulk remained to him. But he had lost three of his key allies: Mahuurdil, Xyzanth, and the death giant, not to mention his five golems. In addition, he hadn’t succeeded in knocking any of the Marauders out of the battle. His odds of victory appeared slim.
Dragotha cast a targeted greater dispel magic on himself and succeeded in shedding Sal’s dimensional anchor. Free from the anchor, Dragotha activated his belt, that let him act quickly, and teleported away. It took Sal a second to realize what had happened, but once he put it together he could only shrug and kick a lose stone across the floor.
With Dragotha gone, the Marauders succeeded in destroying their remaining enemies easily. Next, the heroes destroyed Dragotha’s phylactery. Dutch estimated Dragotha could have completed the new phylactery that very day. Finally, the Marauders feasted their eyes on the nimiety of riches in the corner of Dragotha’s chamber. Because of Dragotha’s escape the victory had seemed hollow, but the treasure lessened the let down substantially.
This pile of treasure posed its own challenge to the Marauders. How to get it out of the tabernacle? As the group considered this they received a sending from Malchor, requesting an audience.
Agretha - Dream Dwarf - Druid 15/ Earth Dreamer 5 – NG
Leonidas - Celestial Dire Lion - 12 HD
Commander Dennis Slaughter - Human - Warmage 16/Stormcaster 5 – LG
Lieutenant Judel Maccabaeus - Human -Marshal 15/Favored Soul 2 – LN
Valon Neverdo'ell - Moon elf - Rogue 4/Ninja 4/Swashbuckler 3/Wizard 2/Invisible Blade 5/Occult Slayer 2 – CG
Prince Phiery of Mechbia - Phoelarch - Phoelarch 12/Ranger 5/Paladin 2 – CG
Dutch - Human - Cleric 8/Monk 2/Sacred Fist 10 – LN
Glamorous - Eyrenes ECL 17 – LE
Abel - Warforged - Fighter 19/ Barbarian 1 – CG
Salvador "Sal" Marino - Human - Druid 3/Wizard 3/Mystic Theurge 10/Arcane Hierophant 4 – NG
Gustav "Gusty" - Air Elemental - N
I have never DM'd a party of that size. It seems as though you did a great job keeping everything together. I will be looking forward to the Kyuss battle also if you dont mind posting it.
Turin the Mad wrote: Oooo ... a treasure horde that animates and moves itself ... Goodman Games did that in a DCC. [/off-topic]
That was a hell of an epic battle. I hope one day to have a similarly epic showdown.
Wow! That description rivals some of the other great epic battles which have been described in various campaign journals on these boards. Well done! :)
Quote: Valon Neverdo'ell - Moon elf - Rogue 4/Ninja 4/Swashbuckler 3/Wizard 2/Invisible Blade 5/Occult Slayer 2 – CG How did this guy manage to be lvl 20 with XP penalty (because of the 4 base classes) ?
Erevis Cale wrote: Quote: Valon Neverdo'ell - Moon elf - Rogue 4/Ninja 4/Swashbuckler 3/Wizard 2/Invisible Blade 5/Occult Slayer 2 – CG How did this guy manage to be lvl 20 with XP penalty (because of the 4 base classes) ? With Wizard as his favored class, the rogue/ninja/swashbuckler aren't far enough apart level wise to cause an XP penalty.
Wow, great fight! And fun to read - please do keep things updated, and let us know how the battle with Kyuss goes!
Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber
Thanks for the kind words. I'll be sure to post the final battle with Kyuss.
Valon's got a good build going. He can make feints as a free action, and his bluff is high. Since most monsters don't have a competitive sense motive it usually works - and his sneak attack damage is high enough that he can lead the party in damage under the right conditions - even beating the warmage.
His biggest problem is his attack bonus. He has a smattering of levels in a lot of classes that start the attk bonus progression at +0, so if an opponent has a tough AC he usually misses. It wasn't an issue vs. Xyzanth, where he was buffed to the max - but it is usually his problem.
Quote: Valon's got a good build going. He can make feints as a free action, and his bluff is high. Since most monsters don't have a competitive sense motive it usually works - and his sneak attack damage is high enough that he can lead the party in damage under the right conditions - even beating the warmage. I hate to be the party pooper, but...
You do know that monsters can add their Base Attack Bonus on Sense Motive to beat feint, making it basically BAB + Wisdom? Since a lot of monsters have huge HD it's not that simple to faint...
And another thing... Invisible Blade can feint as a free action only once per round, as per errata.
Kyuss and Dragotha (plus the extra help) should equate to a staggering EL 30 encounter. Please wipe your player's characters out. To fail to do so would be a travesty:) Check out the final battle where my players & their characters fell to Kyuss (without the help), on my thread 'killer GM runs age of worms' for a preview.
Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber
Wow. I didn't know that Erevis. Now to pull the wool out from under him in the last adventure or not?
I'll do my best to kill PCs with Kyuss. I've been kind of lazy about scouring source books to up the baddies.
drsparnum wrote: Wow. I didn't know that Erevis. Now to pull the wool out from under him in the last adventure or not?
I'll do my best to kill PCs with Kyuss. I've been kind of lazy about scouring source books to up the baddies.
By all means yank that rug out from under the character!
Or better, use it against him!
^_^
EDIT: Wraithstrike makes a legitimate point - e mail the player prior to the game if you can.
drsparnum wrote: Wow. I didn't know that Erevis. Now to pull the wool out from under him in the last adventure or not?
I'll do my best to kill PCs with Kyuss. I've been kind of lazy about scouring source books to up the baddies.
I would be nice enough to send him an email or giving a phone call, rather than waiting until gameday so he is not unpleasantly surprised.
Dragons cheat. Liches cheat. DMs cheat. Dracoliches controlled by the DM ceat A LOT.
If your players trust you enough, you can play it like this-
Dragotha is very very very very very very smart. He's seen almost every trick that could possibly be used against him. This means he'll usually have figured out most of what a party is going to do, round-to-round.
To represent this, have each character roll their Int vs. Dragotha's at the beginning of each round. If Dragotha wins, have that player write down a rough idea of what they are planning to do that round. (don't have them be over specific, "I move to the right, take a potion, and activate a protective item", is fine) They give it to you, NOT showing it to the other players. If Dragotha fails, nothing happens.
Don't hold the players to their plans. If they have to change their plans, let them. Combat is ever-changing. Also, it's ok for a player that has no idea at all to say so.
Dragotha\the DM can now plan around the party's actions BEFORE they take them. The logic is that Dragotha is just that smart.
This gives Dragotha an unfair, but very realistic edge.
Here's what I don't understand.....how did you get your hands on that email? Is one of your players actually stupid enough to clue in the DM as to their plans?
The_Great_Gazoo wrote: Here's what I don't understand.....how did you get your hands on that email? Is one of your players actually stupid enough to clue in the DM as to their plans? Some DM's insist on it. My DM wants to know what we plan on doing before the encounter "to speed up play" we got wise to that real quick after he started changing spells and stuff on the fly. Now we just charge in with no plan and no teamwork and see who survives. Since I play the cleric with undeath and magic domains I generally always do.
Steven Tindall wrote: The_Great_Gazoo wrote: Here's what I don't understand.....how did you get your hands on that email? Is one of your players actually stupid enough to clue in the DM as to their plans? Some DM's insist on it. My DM wants to know what we plan on doing before the encounter "to speed up play" we got wise to that real quick after he started changing spells and stuff on the fly. Now we just charge in with no plan and no teamwork and see who survives. Since I play the cleric with undeath and magic domains I generally always do. I would give him false plans. :)
concerro wrote: I would give him false plans. :) I find your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter. :D
And now, I will steal all this. (plus wanted to give it a bump, because I believe there are others on these boards just about right at this point too.)
I just want to mention that if the players use the spell compendium, so should the npcs. Life ward, ray deflection, and superior resistance aare must haves for big D. And forget a level of sorceror, retrain some feats (flyby attack and hover? in a cave?) and take archmage!
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