This week we've got the final fight against the BBEG and I need him to be full of awesome. He's an 11th level cleric with the Madness and Destruction domains and he'll be facing off against a party of 6, 8th level PCs built using the Epic array:
1/2 elf rogue
human barbarian
human sorcerer
human bard
human monk
elven ranger with animal companion
We're using fast progression and high fantasy, which means I've got 32,700 gp to spend.
Help me make this fight memorable. :)
Hyrum.
Stan!: How the hell did you TPK us like that?
Hyrum: I was trying out this new option that Owen piecemealed together for an upcoming SGG product line.
Stan!: Ah. So we're not dead after all?
Hyrum: I didn't say that.
What kind of material are you allowing?
Anything from Paizo and (of course) Super Genius Games.
Hyrum.
Super Genius Games
"We err on the side of awesome."
Both the the Barb and the Bard can be taken down a peg with Calm Emotions, but a single Cleric will have significant trouble from the Barb and Monk getting close, so they will need a minion, if not a team.
I want to keep it a CR 12 encounter, but could go to 13 if needed, so a team could work too. (Summon minions maybe?)
The monk has a glass jaw. I wouldn't worry about him. The barbarian couldn't crit if his life depended on it, either.
Hope that helps. :P
What I mean is, Spellcasting enemies against a party are not threats. If the party goes first, they rush, and the spellcaster can't do a thing. Unless you all them to start out prebuffed, which is kind of cheezy.
The cleric knows the PCs are coming and will have prepared accordingly. He's not 100% buffed but will have a few longer duration spells up.
Well, the best advice I can give is to not have him go up against the party 1 VS 6. Throw in some giants, a vampire (and some lesser undead), a young dragon (with levels of sorcerer added) and a bunch of minor demons. Allow him to support his own troops for the first couple of rounds, then death knell those who disappoint him. He could even have a prisoner or thrall who gets vampiric touched when he gets low on hp.
Have him chug a fly potion, or use a blink item or something that will give him great mobility (cloak of the mountebank?) . Have the fight take place in a large area with lots of terrain features that make the place special (flaming pits, toppling pillars, artworks that could catch on fire, catwalks, etc.)
I would strongly consider making him an outsider (native) rather then a humanoid. Not only will it give you all kinds of skills, abilities, and other benefits, it will also make you immune to some encounter ending spells like hold person.
Whoa, I just noticed no cleric or paladin in your party... If this guy really starts pumping out the negative energy, and using damage spells, the party could really be in trouble!
OK, it is a little far out... but how about a corrupted Bralani with 8 or 9 levels of cleric? (I was going to suggest the mystic theurge corrupted Illlend, but that doesn't quite work out at your CR.)
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Ok, well, lets see what we can figure out...
The barbarian, monk, rogue, and animal companion will likely rush in.
The ranger may or may not.
The sorcerer will probably pepper from a distance.
Your cleric, at 11, has 6th lvl spells available.
The sorcerer has maybe 4th lvl spells.
You'll definitely want to make use of the madness aura.
I'd stay off the destruction aura unless you decide to add more mobs.
A planar ally spell might be interesting, depending on your cleric. You can nab a planar ally of up to 12 hd in trade for some payment.
Really, there are a LOT of things you can do to make this interesting. Can you be more specific about the event?
What background do these folks have to one another. Whats the alignment of the cleric? What location is the fight happening at? How long does the cleric know the party is coming before they get there?
Oh, some especially entertaining uses of spells:
Shield other is fantastic to use on a temporarily charmed player, as long as you're in an enclosed area. Blade barrier is *always* nice.
Dispel magic, greater can knock off some of their magical weapon bonuses.
True seeing is important to negate invisibility spells, illusions, and the like.
Word of recall is a must-have to give your cleric that last chance to escape from the pcs -- possibly making for a recurring villian.
If he's evil, then channel energy can do some nice aoe damage.
Perhaps start off as pc's enter the room with dispel magic, greater on them, followed by ethereal jaunt *if you go with candle -- see below*. Float around the room firing off channel negative energy spells. Pop in and use your madness aoe, confusing the party. Then fire off command, greater. Good options here are flee and approach. Send most of the party away, and hit the low-will save barbarian with your single-target madness attack with the penalty to his saves. Then activate a symbol of persuasion that you just happen to carry around for emergencies.
Using imbue, give the barb shield other, and have him use it on you. Fire off a few hold persons, maybe a spiritual weapon or two. I imagine that if you have the spiritual weapon attack the rogue, you'll be able to keep track of him that way.
Blindness/deafness is a great spell to use against low fort save characters *cough sorcerer cough*
WIth 32000g in gear to spend on the cleric, we could make him even more dangerous.
First thing that comes to mind is the necklace of fireballs. Trigger the whole thing for good times. 8700g
Headband of inspired wisdom for 16000
Boots of speed or possibly a gauntlet of rust depending on how mean you want to be. 12000g
If you don't like the necklace thing, and the cleric knows the party is coming, a candle of invocation is nice and mean. That'd push your cleric up to 7th level spells. Notably here are repulsion, regenerate, holy word, ethereal jaunt, and destruction.
Alternatively, you could go with a phylactery of negative channeling 11000
boots of levitating 7500 *keep him out of reach*
Headband of cha +2 4000
And some beads of force to contain, for example, the rogue and the sorcerer. at 3k each, you can still afford 3 beads and still have 500g lying around in your pockets. :)
If you'd be willing to cheese a couple more cleric levels he should definitely cast Repulsion :)
You want the fight to be memorable?
Forbiddance plus Symbol of Persuasion plus Wind Wall plus Silence.
If laid out correctly, depending on terrain, the fight can be staged where the party enters the silence area (negating most magic) while the Cleric is protected by Wind Wall (reducing many ranged attacks) forcing the party to close - into range of the Symbol of Persuasion.
That should be pretty memorable, one way or another.
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You wanted it to be a CR12; but he's 11th Level; assuming its a standard race that's a CR10.
Using one shot items like necklace of fireballs and beads of force reeks of cheese to me.
Spend some of the gold on a planar ally; he knows they are coming and even a powerful cleric worries about being that heavily outnumbered. Sounds like a demon summoning is in order.
If he knows they are coming, if he has any illusionary spells i.e. mislead have him use it as they are approaching; let them blow their best spells etc. on his illusion if they are not careful.
Action economy means this CR10 encounter will be plowed through by 5 PC's and an animal companion unless he has some allies; don't make this fight 1 against 6 or I can almost guarantee it won't be memorable.
spells and equipment have been suggested above so I won't tread on that path.
Consider making terrain his friend. if comes down to a party vs BBEG cleric, then correct terrain will prevent everyone etting a good shot at him. He lauds chaos, how about a primitive mirror maze to confuse ranged targets (could function similiar to entropic shield) or a room with ledges and narrow access points.Or, a watery pit with dire crocodiles laying in wait, access to the cleric available only by a narrow walkway.
also, pointless allies. a dozen adept 1/warrior 1 acolytes will slow down an encounter. the chance of actually hurting a Pc is pretty small, but they are likely to not understand the lack of threat they possess and waste rounds slaying them, or undersestimate the power of their numbers and fanatacism and lose some resources. in any case they barely affect the CR but do extend the encounter, (you can have two flanking him each aiding his AC, and two behind him, laying ready with CLW, for instance, and leave two six man squads flanking the room)
batts
I want to keep it a CR 12 encounter, but could go to 13 if needed, so a team could work too. (Summon minions maybe?)Both the the Barb and the Bard can be taken down a peg with Calm Emotions, but a single Cleric will have significant trouble from the Barb and Monk getting close, so they will need a minion, if not a team.
I cant explain how much I advise providing minions at the very least. No good BBEG cleric or no lacks minions, it just wont be a good fight. With 6 PCs there should be at least 10 enemies in the fight if you want it to be a big one. All clerics have followers, why wouldn't a powerful cleric keep a few body guards on hand?
Give him a Belt of Giant strength and set him in a small room behind a narrow hall so they can only fight him one at a time.
With crocodiles and fireballs too!
Here's the setup I'm thinking, not counting equipment, just bodies in the fight:
11th level Cleric: 9,600 xp (CR 10)
2 flesh golems: 6,400 xp (CR 9)
1 intellect devourer: 4,800 xp (CR 8)
4 Otyugh: 4,800 xp (CR 8)
I'm really iffy on the intellect devourer. It's thematic, but leaving me kind of meh.
Hyrum.
Love the flesh golems and the otyughs.
How about changing the intellect devourer for an aboleth with a few levels of sorcerer wizard or witch? It could use its illusion magic to really mess up the party when they first enter. And Skum! Everyone loves Skum!
I would also recommend using the animate objects spell on some bizarre objects, and play up the madness theme.
So the fight will most likely happen tonight,although the PCs (being PCs) might push it until next week. Either way I've swapped out the intellect devourer with 3 phase spiders. Should be fun!
Hyrum.
Consider using a Holy Warrior Cleric from PFCS. Sacrifice your domains and domain spells for d10 HD and +1 BAB/level. Build him out as a twohanded melee monster. You still have your base cleric spells and channels. With Righteous might, Protection from Good, and Divine Power. He will be swinging for 4 attacks per round and hitting for 40+ damage per attack with power attack.
For spite have him using weapon enhancing spells on a mundane weapon.
For spite have him using weapon enhancing spells on a mundane weapon.
Thats just wrong!
For spite have him using weapon enhancing spells on a mundane weapon.Thats just wrong!
Heh.
So they got to the fight but we ended before it started. Next week will be the big showdown and the players sure go spooked when I set up the area with all of the minis. :D
Hyrum.
Super Genius Games
"We err on the side of awesome."
For spite have him using weapon enhancing spells on a mundane weapon.Thats just wrong!Heh.
So they got to the fight but we ended before it started. Next week will be the big showdown and the players sure go spooked when I set up the area with all of the minis. :D
Hyrum.
Super Genius Games
"We err on the side of awesome."
We'll be expecting status updates from Stan! I'm sure. =D
For spite have him using weapon enhancing spells on a mundane weapon.Thats just wrong!Heh.
So they got to the fight but we ended before it started. Next week will be the big showdown and the players sure go spooked when I set up the area with all of the minis. :D
Hyrum.
Super Genius Games
"We err on the side of awesome."
Boss fights should be big! Minions are always key to a dramatic battle. The players walk in the door, see the massive horde with the big bad evil guy behind it (or among it). Insert scene from order of the stick "do we run?" "nope, charge"
For spite have him using weapon enhancing spells on a mundane weapon.Thats just wrong!
But I love the look on players faces after this.
Ok, 3 of us died, but we killed the bad guy, and now we have his uber awesome sword of death. Hopefully we can sell it to cover the cost of resurrections...
24 hours later at the pawn shop
WTF do you mean the sword isn't magic anymore!!!!!
Tonight's the night! If you're up for it Stan will be posting regular updates via Facebook. Should be a good time. :)
Hyrum.
[Super Genius Games
"We err on the side of awesome."
Tonight's the night! If you're up for it Stan will be posting regular updates via Facebook. Should be a good time. :)
Hyrum.
[Super Genius Games
"We err on the side of awesome."
UPDATE plz
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Here is my submission for what could have been a great CR12 "boss fight":
The Lair of Lady Ayma Ionescu
Lady Ayma rests in her lair in quiet solitude and contemplation to her shrine of the god of Madness. She jealously guards this lair as both her safe haven for rest and as a spot to commune with her god in how to bring the world to its knees through manipulation, paranoia, and despair. Lady Ayma does not like visitors, but she is eager to test heroes that think they can best her. If for no other reason, she covets their magical gear, which she plans on dismantling or trading them so that she may craft cursed items to distribute to hapless leaders of the land.
Gerhardt, a poor 1st level fighter, stands guard at the front gatehouse or doorway, pressed in to service by means of domination. He has no idea that Lady Ayma is a vampire, but knows he must do her bidding and fight to the death to guard the entry hallway. This tactic is merely a ruse, as Lady Ayma keeps her thrall enchanted with a status spell, such that if anything ever happens to Gerhardt, she knows to start preparing before beginning her assault on the invaders.
The entry hallway is blocked by rubble. It should take a party of adventures d4x10 minutes to clear the rubble and search for traps to make it to her shrine safely, giving her plenty of time to buff behind closed doors and set her trap. If they take too long, she will give up her desecration bonuses from the shrine she has erected and come out in gaseous form and pass through the rubble, coming out in a frontal assault once prepared.
Once alerted, she starts with the most powerful spells first, followed by placing silence on a gem on the other side of the room. She finishes with Harm, keeping it charged until she can attack, which she combines with a slam attack from a safe hiding place. She may retreat to the silence field if casters become an issue, and she can safely cast from there with silent spells.
Trap
Glyph of Warding. Just inside the doorway into her lair, Ayma has laid down a nearly invisible Glyph of Warding. The DC to detect this magical trap is DC 28. If a good-aligned character enters the room, they are subject to a blindness spell immediately (Will save DC 16).
Lady Ayma Ionescu
Vampire CR 12
XP 19,200
Female elven vampire cleric 11
Appears as Female elven cleric (hat of disguise; Disguise +18)
CE Medium undead (augmented humanoid)
Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Low Light Vision, Perception +11
Defense
AC 38*, touch 16, flat-footed 34 (+11 armor, +4 shield, +2 deflection, +3 Dex, +1 dodge, +7 natural), 20%* miss chance from ranged attacks
hp 146 (11d6+77+11 favored class); fast healing 5
Fort +14, Ref +12, Will +14
Defensive Abilities channel resistance +10*; DR 10/magic and silver; Immune undead traits; Resist cold 10, electricity 10, fire 30* SR 23*
Weaknesses vampire weaknesses
Offense
Speed 20 ft.
Melee slam +17 (1d4+9 (bludgeoning and magic and silver and evil) plus energy drain)
Special Attacks blood drain, children of the night, create spawn, dominate (DC 21), energy drain (2 levels, DC 21)
Spell-Like Ability (CL 11th, +14 touch)
6/day—Vision of Madness (Sp): You can give a creature a vision of madness as a melee touch attack. Choose one of the following: attack rolls, saving throws, or skill checks. The target receives a +5 bonus to the chosen rolls and a -5 penalty to the other two types of rolls. This effect fades after 3 rounds.
6/day—Destructive Smite (Su): You gain the destructive smite power: the supernatural ability to make a single melee
attack with a +5 morale bonus on damage rolls. You must declare the destructive smite before making the attack.
9/day—Channel Energy (Su): Channel 6d6 negative energy, either as healing to herself or damage (Will save DC 23) to living creatures in a 30’ radius). Using the channel smite feat, she can channel this attack in a slam attack, causing the smite to affect the target. The channel is not expended if the attack misses.
Cleric Spells Prepared (CL 11th, +11 ranged touch, +18 concentration, +2 vs spell resistance)
6th—silent slay living (DC 18), harm (already cast) (DC 19)D
5th—spell resistance (already cast), silent inflict critical wounds (4d8+11, DC 17), nightmare (DC 18)D
4th—freedom of movement (already cast), spell immunity x2 (already cast), inflict critical wounds (4d8 +11 DC 17)D
3rd—invisibility purge (already cast), dispel magic x2, speak with dead, magic circle against good, rageD
2nd—desecrate (already cast), resist energy (fire – already cast), status x2 (already cast on henchmen), silence (already cast on coin in pocket), touch of idiocyD
1st—deathwatch (already cast), entropic shield (already cast), magic weapon (already cast), shield of faith (already cast), sanctuary (DC 14), true strikeD
0—detect magic, light, read magic, stabilize
Domains Madness, Destruction
Statistics
Str 22, Dex 16, Con —, Int 16, Wis 16, Cha 22
Base Atk +8; CMB +14; CMD 27* (*Freedom of Movement)
Feats AlertnessB, Blind-Fight, Channel Smite Combat Casting, Combat ReflexesB, DodgeB, Improved InitiativeB, Improved Channel, Lightning ReflexesB, Silent Spell, ToughnessB, Weapon Finesse
Skills Bluff +14, Diplomacy +10, Perception +11, Sense Motive +24, Spellcraft +17, Stealth +8, Use Magic Device +11; Racial Modifiers +8 Bluff, +8 Perception, +8 Sense Motive, +8 Stealth
Languages Abyssal, Common, Draconic, Elven, Infernal
SQ change shape (dire bat or wolf, beast shape II), gaseous form, shadowless, spider climb
Ecology
Environment any
Organization solitary or family (vampire plus 2–8 spawn)
Treasure NPC gear (Mithral Full Plate Armor +2 (12,500), Heavy Darkwood Shield +2 (2,370), Cloak of resistance +2 (4,000), headband of alluring charisma +2 (4,000), Belt of Giant Strength +2 (4,000gp), amulet of natural armor +1 (2,000), ring of protection +1 (2,000), ring of counterspells (dispel magic) (4,000), hat of disguise (1,800) Disguise kit (+2 disguise), 20gp
*Effects Calculated in Stats: Deathwatch (how near death enemies are within 30’), Entropic shield (ranged attacks 20% miss chance), Magic Weapon (+1 enhancement bonus allowed on Vampire slam), Shield of Faith (+2 deflection bonus), desecrate with shrine in room (+6 profane turn resistance bonus and +2 profane bonus to hit, damage, and saves), Resist Energy (Fire 30), Silence cast on gem in pocket, invisibility purge, freedom of movement, spell immunity (immune to Searing Light, Slow, Halt Undead), spell immunity (Command Undead, Holy Smite, Hide from Undead), spell resistance, harm.
Aura of Madness (Su): At 8th level, you can emit a 30-foot aura of madness for a number of rounds per day equal to
your cleric level. Enemies within this aura are affected by confusion unless they make a Will save with a DC equal
to 10 + 1/2 your cleric level + your Wisdom modifier. The confusion effect ends immediately when the creature leaves
the area or the aura expires. Creatures that succeed on their saving throw are immune to this aura for 24 hours.
These rounds do not need to be consecutive.
Destructive Aura (Su): At 8th level, you can emit a 30-foot aura of destruction for a number of rounds per day equal
to your cleric level. All attacks made against targets in this aura (including you) gain a morale bonus on damage
equal to 1/2 your cleric level and all critical threats are automatically confirmed. These rounds do not need to be
consecutive.
Tactical Notes
Note that Ayma is practically invulnerable and could easily be a total party killer. She starts off immune to Searing Light, Slow, Halt Undead, Command Undead, Holy Smite, and Hide from Undead.
However, remember that she has spell resistance running, and if someone uses a dispel magic against her, her ring of counterspells nullifies the first one. In addition, her normal resistances, coupled with Freedom of Movement and 30 fire resistance should make her a fight for the ages, especially if she puts them on the defensive.
Combat: Remember that she starts off combat with a charged and held Harm spell (110 points of damage, save for half), and couples that with a slam, which of course inflicts 2 negative levels plus regular damage. The negative levels will reduce the opponents' hit points by 10 and give her 10 temporary hit points, so it is very possible her first attack can kill a creature. Remember that at the very least she will channel smite 6d6 points of damage on a hit if she doesn't burst a smite against all her opponents. She may use inflict wounds spells and combine them with slam attacks as well. She will target casters first, preferably a cleric, and stay on that enemy until they die. She will attack clerics first, then wizards, and then finish out noncasters at her leisure.
You can only have one spell immunity in place at a time.