Xanesha in Skinsaw Murders

[Spyderz]

There was no kinda TPK against the Lamia. I ran this encounter yesterday. The only survivor was the player who couldn't make it yesterday. She's virtually unkillable by the party at a CR 4 above the party level...my party was L6...they'd have made L7 at the end. The tank...when he was flanking, hasted, and above her...needed a 15 to hit...and that was after having his Str buffed to a 26. Everyone else needed a natural 20 to hit. She does after all have an AC of 34. It's listed as 26 in her stat block, but given she buffs with Mage Armor, Shield, and Haste that aren't part of that 26, it goes up by 8 (she already had 1 point of AC.) On top of that she's immune to mind affecting...which shut down the fey blood sorcerer, who only had a couple other spells to attempt that weren't. One was magic missile...shut off by the shield...the other was shut off by the SR18...which at 6th level with bonuses still left only a 50/50 shot of getting a spell off on them. On top of all that...even when she was hit (rarely) the mirror images applied. So then when it was her turn to attack, she averaged 3 hits a round (out of her 4 attacks) which had her doing an average of 48 points a round on a player, so she killed one person a round except the round she stopped to recast (recasted haste after it was dispelled). I ran it as written and even played her less smart than I might've, and it was still a slaughter.

Having read through the entirety of RotRL, there are only 5 other opponents with an AC that rivals hers. 1 being the other lamia matriarch, 1 being the creature from the Stoval Deeps, 2 being Dragons, and Karzoug. At the end of the campaign when the party is 10 levels higher, she still wouldn't be an easy hit for any but the fighters.

I'm curious how nice the DMs must've been on any run through that the party won...since I know that at least have of my players are fairly hard core about maxing out their characters abilities. I'm also curious how any group of the 4 iconics could manage it.

[Gorbacz]

There werea at least several "how to deal with Xanesha" threads a while back. Use your search-fu :)

[Greg Wasson]

On page 53 of Skinsaw murders, under her stats in the TACTICS section within the paragraph begining "Before Combat". after describing how she buffs herself, the next sentence says, "These effects are incorporated into her stats."

I took this to mean her BUFFED stats are the ones listed. This seems to be a prevailing theme on the BBEG's throughout the campaign.

That said, it still was a near wipe for my party. The silence spell was the nasty bit, and it was the paladin smiting her that seemed to carry more weight than anyone else. The fight took several rounds and the party ranger failed a save vs her mask. Most everyone was unconcious or near zero hp. Actually, the rogue was relatively untouched.

Between Lucretria (renamed Lucinda in my campaign) and Xanesha, my players developed a healthy fear of the Fateless. 'Course they waltzed thru the two guarding the way to Mokmurian's library.

Greg

[Sir_Wulf]

I've run the scenario twice.

Spoiler:

The first group went in loaded with spider climb, which allowed their casters to remain outside the silence spell's area. They went to work debuffing her with repeated dispels so their buffed-up mainline fighter could hit her efficiently. The group was pretty badly torn up, but forced her to dimension door out. She appeared again when they reached Fort Rannick and were better prepared to handle her.

The second party thought it unwise to fight her in her lair. They lured her out by summoning creatures to undermine (and eventually collapse) the tower. They had a sorcerer with multiple ranged touch spells, including a ray that bypassed her SR. He went to work, spamming her with attack spells while the rest of the party blocked her from getting to him. She eventually fled invisibly, returning in Hook Mountain.

[Spyderz]

Sadly my search fu is weak.

Perhaps it normally does stat blocks that way...but in her stat block...it includes +1 AC from her tunic but none from the mage armor spell which would increase it by 3 more, there is not listed in her stat block for the shield spell, which is another 4, and there is none listed for haste which is another 1. This nets her buffed AC as 34, not the 26 listed.

I actually used a GM caveat to not end the story there since they had discovered that the place was apt to fall at any time and had the falling bell weaken the structure so it collapse. Still most everyone was dead by then.

[Ambrus]

*SPOILER*

Our 6th level group killed her last game with no losses on our side. Knowing she was a lamia matriarch (thanks to earlier cast object loresights on the note she left Aldern) we figured it was best to try and take her down before she had a chance to cast defensive buffs. So we prepared ourselves against any mind tricks she might pull on us by having everyone buffed with protection from evil and then moved the whole party up to the rookery level with the liberal use of transposition spells and my air elemental familiar running relay back and forth (the same tactic we used in the sawmill). Then we climbed up into her lair quickly. The fight was drawn out due to Xanesha's exceedingly high AC and by the faceless stalker reinforcements that came up from below. One helpful move was to disarm her of her pesky spear via my air elemental, its flyby attack feat and a potion of true strike. The same combo failed to relieve her of her mask however; which ended up leaving my character petrified. Between our flurrying monk, smiting paladin and ranger and rogue peppering her with arrows, Xanesha and her stalkers were very slowly whittled down to the point that she tried to flee the tower via flight. Thanfully, my air elemental succeeded in chasing her down and downing her (literally) with its wand of magic missile; causing the lamia to crash in the Irespan's shadow far below.

Solid intelligence/recognizance and good tactics are what allowed us to defeat her.

[Aeshuura]

spoiler:

I avoided this TPK quite by accident. Since the beginning of the campaign, I have worked to have the PCs ancient heroes from Thassilon "reborn". Xanesha recognized them for who they were, even if they didn't know themselves. In fact, I had made it that they were, in her eyes, the people that she idolized as a young lamia near the fall of the empire.

They actually have gotten her to join them against Karzoug (through a lot of talking, and leveraging her feelings about her "heroes".) They even managed to get Pharasma to lift her curse (leaving her a normal human, I rebuilt her as a human Arcane Duelist.)

I am actually happy with the way it turned out. Now they are focusing on the Kreeg Clanhold, and have failed to take out Lucretia, which only leads to more drama in the future when the two sisters face off later!)

[Twowlves]

I ran this encounter for my group this past weekend, and while it was no cakewalk, it was certainly never close to a TPK.

At the Seven's Sawmill, they quickly defeated Ironbriar. I had developed the Justice before, as the presiding judge of the trial of Tsuto, Lyrie and Orik, so they knew who he was. They stabilized him and interrogated him, detecting and dispelling the lamia matriarch's charms. He proposed a deal, information for his freedom, and they took it. He told them she was a mighty combatant, had spell resistance, could cast arcane spells, and that she could bend even the strongest to her will. He also mentioned the Scarecrow.

The druid used Speak with Animals on the ravens, then did a fly-by of the Shadow Clock. The cleric went to Usher's Hall and the Halls of Virture to get a city planning document showing the original blueprint of the tower (and subsequently found documents detailing the scheduled repairs and condemnation of the tower). After a shopping spree that consisted of scrolls of Fly, Invisibility, and Good Hope, plus potions/scrolls of Cat's Grace, Bull's Strength and Bear's Endurance. They waited until just after dawn, then went out onto the Irespan, buffed up (including Magic Circle vs Evil, to stop her Charm Monster/Suggestions), cast spells and drank potions, then flew down into Xanesha's lair.

Needless to say, she wasn't totally buffed up. She had Mage Armor on, and Invisibility. Only the party Bard and Wizard had See Invisibility up, so they lead off with a Glitterdust just after she cast Mirror Image. The dwarven ranger was Enlarged and moved in with Lead Blade up, and the tank/cleric started off with Prayer before also being Enlarged and moving in. The druid loaded up with heal spells and wands and in small air elemental form zipped around the fight healing nearly every round, while the wizard flew outside the tower propper, helping Dispel Magic along with the bard (who had Inspire Courage going, as well as the aforementioned Good Hope). Xanesha never got Haste or Shield up, nor Fly, but she did cast Silence (quickly dispelled by the bard). She still had an AC of 29, and Mirror Images for a while, and only the ranger could hit her with any frequency. Only one person failed their save for the spear's Crushing Despair effect, and the Medusa Mask was also ineffective. She meleed like mad, and when she got low, she Dim Door'd one level below. While the party's buffs were fading, she was healing herself and rebuffing, but with a druid in air elemental form with a +20 or so perception, they quickly found her and went right back at it. A couple of failed rolls while trying to cast defensively, plus a punishing hit while trying to cast without it greatly whittled away her effectiveness towards the end. She died trying to defensively cast Dimension Door again, after being cornered in the clockwork room of the tower.

All in all, a job well done!

[Revan]

The easiest way to deal with her is to put Lucretia on top of the Shadow Clock, while Xanesha manages things around Turtleback Ferry and Fort Rannick.

[coyote6]

The PCs in the game I ran killed her two weeks ago. I tossed in a wand of dispel magic with 5 charges as extra treasure, and there were 5 level 6 PCs -- a paladin, inquisitor, bard/barbarian, sorcerer, and ranger. I figured that with the extra PC, they needed extra loot -- and the guy that had the cleric decided to swap him for an inquisitor just before they found Xanesha, so there went their only source of dispel magic. So I tossed in something to give 'em a chance.

They managed to kill her, though it was a close thing. The sorcerer found the edge with no silence (with the silence centered on the door, the whole roof isn't in the spell's area), and spent five rounds with the wand. Despite bad rolling, she managed to take out the fly (on the first or second try, IIRC), the haste, the mirror image (though they might have just plinked that away), and finally the shield. Once the fly dropped, that left Xanesha unable to easily maneuver to get to the sorcerer, and she was feeling pretty confident in her ability to murderize them all. I played her as fairly arrogant and overconfident at the start of the fight, which seemed to be reflective of the adventure's suggested tactics for her.

I don't recall exactly how many rounds the fight took, but it was long enough that Xanesha's divine favor ran out! She was pasting 'em at first -- the inquisitor or paladin went to below 50% hp in the first round. But he burned every lay on hands he had on himself, and I think three or four of 'em ended the fight in single digit hp. But some timely near-crits (and maybe an actual crit) saved their collective bacon, along with some untimely bad rolls on my part.

The paladin's smite and divine bond were enormously helpful, as were the inquisitor's judgment and bane ability. The bard was basically crippled by the silence, so he spent most of his time with a wand, just outside the silence, curing folks just inside the silence. The ranger's player rolled horribly, so he managed maybe one hit, then resorted to aid another towards the end.

If she hadn't been cocky, she could probably have killed 'em all. Alas, as is so often the case, that "I can take 'em" attitude gets to be her epitaph.

(It was nearly the barbarian/bard's epitaph at the base of the Shadow Clock. He failed an Acrobatics check ["I can make this!"] to close on Scarecrow, and provoked an AoO -- which critically hit. From full hp to -11 in one shot. Oh, and the player had just joined us -- that was his first fight of the campaign, and indeed his first fight in Pathfinder. If I had rolled just a little higher than average rather than just under, or had remembered to have him Power Attack the round before. . .)

[Bran Towerfall]

my group of 7 level 6 pcs will face her next week. this battle scares me from a gm standpoint. Keep the suggestions going. I'm concerned that I might run her badly causing shouts of anger from the table. She has a lot of battle options/tactics. need to do my homework on this fight.

[Tangent101]

I actually have beefed her up with Sorceress levels as my group is... deadly. Though they're currently up against a Succubus so they should learn the fear of charming monsters and be prepared against her charms. Because if she turned the Barbarian against the group... eep?

[GeraintElberion]

Bran Towerfall wrote:

my group of 7 level 6 pcs will face her next week. this battle scares me from a gm standpoint. Keep the suggestions going. I'm concerned that I might run her badly causing shouts of anger from the table. She has a lot of battle options/tactics. need to do my homework on this fight.

If PCs turn up to the 'random tower that they don't know much about' then the combination of softening-up by scarecrow and bell plus Xanesha herself is absolutely badass. Especially the 3.5 version (twice I have had the main melee PCs petrified then bullrushed off the tower: leaving the rest in an utter panic).

So, to save them, drop clues, lots of clues, that this is a death-zone and needs research. Properly prepared parties should be okay.