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I have put my hand up to GM Book 4 and this Friday night will run a wrap-up session for Escape from Old Korvosa. The PCs have managed to survive their encounter with House Arkona. However, they are now spoiling for a fight and want to bring the pain to the Arkona on their turf.
Now, our GM for the adventure path has scaled back the power level so that we are between 13th-15th level at the end of the campaign. However, one of the rakhasa would be challenge enough for the PCs! So I need to adjust the encounters to make it more balanced.
However, does anyone have tips on how to conduct a fight between the PCs and House Arkona. I think it could end in a bit of a wipe, but I do want to give them a chance. This is my first time at GMing in ages and my first time GMing Pathfinder.
The group consists of:
LG human paladin of Abadar 7 (plus LG human cleric of Abadar 5 cohort)
LN human arcane duellist 6/rogue 1 (plus LN human fighter 5 cohort)
LE dwarf rogue 7
N human rogue 1/wizard 5 (enchanter)
N human sorcerer 7 (fire elemental bloodline)
N human witch 7
The group has emphasised roleplaying over combat for most of the campaign. However, I do want to give them a chance to pull this off.
Does any one have any tips on how I can run the fight while not appearing to simply hand victory to either side?
Well, from my own experience I can say that Rakshasas have great defenses ( high AC, good saves, impressive spell resistance ) and Bahor and Vimanda are even better at that, but they are lacking in the offense department. Their attacks may hit most of the time, but they do pitiful damage.
So the fights were mostly an exercise in frustration for both the players and me, because I couldn't dish out enough damage to seriously threaten the PC's and the the PC's needed ages to wear down the Rakshasas. The fight was especially unfun for the Wizard and Sorcerer, since the best they could do at that level to Bahor and Vimanda was to dispel their buffs. Having to roll an 17+ to get through the SR wasn't really something they liked.
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Great, thank you Magnuskn! I was worried about the challenge a group 7th-level characters might have against the rakshasa.
Apparently, the rakshasa are CR 8 now instead of being CR 10. So your post gives me a good indication of what to expect for my three main spellcasters.
It sounds like House Arkona needs something else to threaten the PCs a bit more!
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You also have a large group (6 PCs and 2 cohorts). If they use appropriate tactics (focus on just one or two of the Arkonas at a time) they probably won't have much of a problem as the cleric can keep them healed up (although a single 5th level cleric for a group of 8 is a bit on the low side).
If they know they're going up against rakshasas, the paladin can prepare Bless Weapon twice (just the ability to auto-confirm all crits is a nice advantage from the spell), assuming he has the bonus spell slot.
Plus, the arcanists can focus on elemental spells that do their damage indirectly such as using summoned monsters. Lantern Archons are good for this because their light rays are (Ex) and overcome all DR. So use a Summon Monster IV to get 1d3 of them and have them focus on one rakshasa at a time.
There used to be a devil or demon that had Dispel Magic at will, but I don't see that on the 1 thru 4 Summon Monster spells so maybe it's gone. Or maybe I was thinking of the Babau Demon which is on the SM5 list...
In any case, they can do it. It'll be tough if they're haphazard about it, but it will certainly be a memorable fight for them. :)
Great, thank you Magnuskn! I was worried about the challenge a group 7th-level characters might have against the rakshasa.
Apparently, the rakshasa are CR 8 now instead of being CR 10. So your post gives me a good indication of what to expect for my three main spellcasters.
It sounds like House Arkona needs something else to threaten the PCs a bit more!
No, the CR 10 is correct, they have been adjusted upwards in Pathfinder. Remember that Curse is a 3.5 campaign. However, only their durability and spell resistance were made stronger. They may hit a bit more, too, but as I said, their damage output is pitiful. If you seriously want to threaten the group, use their spellcasting extensively. They have lots of lightning bolts and magic missiles available, but the layout of Arkona Mansion makes good use of those difficult, since they were threatened most of the time and had to make their concentration checks. Of course they don't have Combat Casting, so those checks are difficult for them.
Bahor is the only one who really can do some serious melee damage, but he needs someone he can flank with to do that. You can have him feint, of course and with his Bluff check and his AC, he will be able to pull that off.
In the case of my particular group, they left after clearing out the labyrinth and came back two levels later after they finished A History of Ashes ( they came back to Korvosa, because I also moved Scarwall. I made it so that it had been the castle of the Hellknights... the old version manifested over Citadel Vraith and the Hellknights got possessed ). So they had an easier job of clearing out Bahor and the four Rakshasas.
But at the level your group is at, they managed to kill Vimanda, the Darksphinx and that other four-faced thing down in the living labyrinth, only that it took them ages, until the Paladin got his smiting on.