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for a high level game (lv20s) i'm planning this to be the final encounter, but i'm wondering if its too powerful an encounter, being two CR21+ creatures as follows
Ragnok Lord of Oboctus, King of Dust, The Deathless One
CE medium outsider
Init +6 Senses darkvision 60ft; perception +26
Defence
AC 57 touch 15, flatfooted 52 (+29 natural armour, +5 dex, +14 armour, +9 shield)
HP 20d10 430+200 temp
Fort +27 Ref +12 Will +12(+5 fear)
DR 20/- immune fire, electricity, poison fast healing 15 resistance acid 15, cold 20, sonic 5
Offence
Speed 10ft
Melee
+4 adamantine keen scimitar of speed +43/+43/+39/+34/+39 (1d6+26) 17-20/x3
Statistics
STR 36 DEX 22 CON 40 INT 28 WIS 22 CHA 24
Base Atk +20/+15/+10/+5; CMB +33 CMD 49
Feats: diehard, endurance, toughness, power attack, cleave, greater cleave, cornugon smash, dazing assault, dazzling display, weapon focus (scimitar), greater weapon focus (scimitar), deadly stroke, shatter defences, penetrating strike, greater penetrating strike, shield focus, missile shield, spellbreaker, ray shield, improved shield bash, greater shield focus, shield master, weapon specialization (scimitar), greater weapon specialization (scimitar)
Skills:
Bluff- +29
Stealth- +28
Intimidate- +38
Diplomacy- +27
Appraise- +29
Use magic device- +27
Perception- +26
Sense motive- +26
Spellcraft- +29
Knowledge (dungeoneering)- +32
Knowledge (engineering)- +32
Languages : common, abyssal, infernal, draconic
SQ +2 to bluff and stealth, +8 intimidate, darkness 1/day, immunity to electricity, poison and fire resistance acid 15, cold 20, sonic 5, +14 natural armour, DR15/-, immune to sneak attack and critical hits
Agonized wail- 120ft 20hd or less will save DC26 or shaken 1/minute
Baleful gaze- 60ft fort save DC26 1d4 strength, con and charisma drain 1/minute
Torturous touch- melee touch attack, fort save DC26 or take 2d6 slashing damage + 1d6 dexterity damage, creature falls prone and helpless of 1d4 rounds
Diamond armour- +15 natural armour, +10 temporary hit points per hit die
Diamond blade- +4 keen scimitar of speed which can’t be sundered or disarmed
Adamantine limbs: all natural attacks count as adamantine weapons
Eternal- true resurrection after death in 2d6 minutes (may only be permanently slain if killed by a solar angle)
Summon- 1/day 8 Babaus
Telepathy 100ft
Natural weapons count as chaotic and evil
Touch of chaos- 9/day melee touch opponent must re-roll and take worst die in next die roll
Chaos blade- weapon gain anarchic weapon quality 10 rounds per use 5/day
Fury of the Abyss- swift action to gain +10 bonus in melee attack, damage, combat maneuver for 1 round, -2 AC, 9/day
Touch of evil- touch attack to sicken for 10 rounds, 9/days
Scythe of evil- weapon gains unholy weapon quality 10 rounds per use 5/day
Spell like abilities:
Greater teleport at will
Disintegrate at will
Protection from law/good 6/day
Align weapon (chaos/evil) 6/day
Magic circle against law or good 6/day
Chaos hammer 3/day
Dispel law/good 6/day
Animate object 3/day
Word of chaos 3/day
Cloak of chaos 3/day
Summon monster IX 6/day (evil or chaotic)
Doom 6/day
Rage 6/day
Planar binding (demons only) 6/day
Unholy blight 3/day
Create undead 3/day
Blasphemy 3/day
Unholy aura 3/day
Weapon mastery –scimitar
Equipment- +5 stoneplate spiked, +5 heavy steel shield spiked
Ecology
Environment Oboctus
Organisation solitary
Treasure quadrupled standard
Magmahut Champion of Oboctus
CE colossal undead
Init +12 Senses darkvision 60ft; perception +47
Defence
AC 44 flat-footed 31, touch 4 (+40 natural, -8 size, +5 dodge, +7 dex)
HP 464 (32d8)
Fort +19 Ref +17 Will +25 (+4 channel resistance)
DR 10/-; immune acid, electricity, fire, critical hits, flanking, precision-based attacks, bleed, paralysis, poison, sleep, sonic and stunning, undead traits fast healing 16 vulnerable to cold SR42
Offence
Speed 40ft, fly 40ft (perfect), burrow 20ft
Melee
2 claw attacks +30 (4d6 +26 +3d6 fire +catch fire 2d6 for 1d4 rounds DC42 +1d6 acid)
2 slam attacks +29 (2d8 +26 +3d6 fire +catch fire 2d6 for 1d4 rounds DC42+1d6 acid)
Statistics
STR 35 DEX 25 CON – INT 10 WIS 24 CHA 28
Base Atk +24 CMB +44(+2 to grapples and sunder) CMD 64
Feats: alertness, cleave, combat reflexes, great cleave, improved natural attack (claws), power attack, improved sunder, improved grapple, improved bulrush, toughness, improved critical (claws), weapon focus (claws), improved natural armour, awesome blow, snatch, vital strike,
Skills perception +44, intimidate +44, acrobatics +39 and sense motive +44
Languages abyssal, infernal, draconic
SQ crush 2d6+16, fling, grapple, rock throwing, trample 4d6+24, darkvision 60ft, rock catching, scent, summon giants, lava burn DC42, pyroclastic aura 50ft 1d6 con damage fort DC42, pyroclastic breath weapon, 1d4 rounds 70ft 32d10 (half bludgeoning half fire) DC42, fort save DC42 or suffer 1d6 con damage, ooze acid, deathless, exploding death 10ft 32d6 DC42, fiery aura 1d6, fiery death 16d6 DC42
Ecology
Environment Oboctus
Organisation solitary
Treasure standard
for a high level game (lv20s) i'm planning this to be the final encounter, but i'm wondering if its too powerful an encounter, being two CR21+ creatures as follows
** spoiler omitted **...
how many PCs... what are they?
they're a well optimised group but have no casters, all are melee types and use magic items to compensate
...how many?
Any paladin?
Ranger FE outsiders/undead?
Also, the party is 20 or 20+.
What kind of equipment do they have? Any artifacts? epic weaps.?
Whats the Party rooster?
Whats the Party rooster?
Likely a bard. They all think they're cock of the walk.
Honestly, unless they have the Macguffin Of This-Guy Slaying (which is hellaciously lame anyway), this is little more than a shambling TPK of player-annoyance. "Rocks fall; everyone dies" would be a faster and more humane end to the campaign.
My level 17 party could rock those two. Of course, finding a Solar Angle to finish him off might require the use of their 1/day miracle. The deathless one seems surprisingly weak against will saves. Dominate monster for the win!
You say that your party doesn't include "casters", so this might actually be a TPK because DR20/- + teleport/Disintegrate at will is hard if there are really only Fighters, Barbarians and Cavaliers present unless they have artifact level gadgets.
Against a "normal" party of optimized chars this combat should go like this:
1. Dominate the Deathless one
2. Force him to either disband/send away his minion or take him with you with a Teleport (force him to be willing)
3. Gate in an Solar Angel
4. Hold Monster while Solar starts to bash on Deathless, let your Fighters/Barbs... chime just so that they feel useful
5. pet your Fighters/Barbs... and go collect your reward
Also your undead colossal hulk with a fly speed of 40 (perfect) - how does this look like? Feels pretty cheese to me!
It really depends on your group. That monster is no higher than a CR 21 by my standards, but I don't know your group's builds and how good they are as players which is a big factor in what any group can deal with.
The group is, trip fighter, grappler barbarian, paladin, a cavalier and a falchion fighter
They don’t have artefacts but they do have lots of items and each has a +10 weapon and +10 armour equivalents
The Deathless one shouldn't be too hard to trip for the fighter (+10 weapon, +6 weapon training, +13 STR (or dex if finesse whip), +4 trip feats, +2 weapon focus, +1 haste = +36; with ~9k of Ioun Stones it could be up to +39, assuming you're using Seekers of Secrets). That's a 55% shot of tripping him on a given attack, without any magical aid.
If he's a STR based tripper, and he has Righteous on his Armor (costs 27k), speaking the command word to activate that will give him another +3 on his attempt, as well as additional reach (Polearm means his reach is 15-20ft). That's a healthy 70% chance of success without having to spend any prep rounds or use any exotic magical items he might have, and with only a single trip attempt. He's almost guaranteed to fall on a full attack of trips, and he can only lumber 10ft closer if he wants to actually pursue the fighter.
It won't take him out of the battle completely, but at least the fighter can make sure he rarely gets a full attack while the rest of the party takes on Magmahut.
Magmahut: No one can reliably beat his CMB, so that's out. No one can approach him without taking an AoO (except with invis), and he's got 25DEX and combat reflexes so he's not running out of AoOs.
With everyone beating on him, he should go down fairly quickly, though, especially the smiting paladin. 44AC is not very good against a level 20 party with +10 weapons; the paladin probably hits with just about all his attacks when he smites, and for significant damage that goes through all DR. +30 also isn't a very good attack roll against the level 20 party with +10 armor, especially against that smiting paladin (assuming he has pretty good CHA).
The special attacks are where the enemies become problematic. Even with all good fort saves, 42 is pretty tough (unless they all have +10 cloaks of resist, too, in which case they at least have a slim chance of beating the save). Coming within 40ft of Magmahut and then being subjected to his breath weapon means an average of 246 damage if both saves are failed and taking into account the damage from loss of CON. That's probably close to what some of the party members have for total HP, even being all melee guys.
All in all, the battle doesn't look insurmountable if the party has a lot of magical items that are actually helpful in this combat situation. The hardest part is getting a Solar to stop by and lend a hand.
@Omelite - you are assuming the fighter spent a lot of resources on tripping optimization. I know my groups fighter doesn't. On the other hand, our fighter can stun or stagger almost anything on a crit, and gets 8 chances to crit on a full attack.
That's the thing about high levels. The differences between high defenses and weak points become extremely pronounced. If a party can hit a foes weak spot, whatever that be, they can handle things easily. If they can't find a weak spot, something lower CR than the party can be a challenge.
On the other hand, any high level party should have an escape kit. If things look tough they should teleport/plane shift away and return with enemy specific gear.
@Omelite - you are assuming the fighter spent a lot of resources on tripping optimization. I know my groups fighter doesn't. On the other hand, our fighter can stun or stagger almost anything on a crit, and gets 8 chances to crit on a full attack.
That's the thing about high levels. The differences between high defenses and weak points become extremely pronounced. If a party can hit a foes weak spot, whatever that be, they can handle things easily. If they can't find a weak spot, something lower CR than the party can be a challenge.
he did say TRIP fighter...
he did say TRIP fighter...
Hey, look at that. Carry on then.
Hmm against a party of melee dudes this does seem a bit much, but if the paladin just has half a brain, they can 2 round it. Yes im looking at that share smite ability, and the redicoulus OPness of it. When the whole party smites using the paladins scores, they will whipe the floor with them in 2 rounds.
So you have to do other things to make it interesting. Dont be afraid to cheat a little with their stats too. Action economy alone favors the PCs.
Then i noticed magmahuts breath weapon. 176 damage on a failed save will probably hurt them like hell. You should adjust that to fit with their hp.
Now why not make use of terrain, minions and all that stuff? maybe give the boss a paralyzing look each round. Target one PC and make him roll a fort save or be paralyzed for 1 round as a free action. This would make it harder for the PCs to trip combo him every round. You could also try some stages to the combat, have the PCs be weakened by some minions before the fight, so they can go nuke on his arse. Maybe throwing in some hazardous weather, or water in the fight could be cool. Bull rush into the water, and good luck getting a full attack off while while swimming. A free action stomp to knock an opponent prone would also be good, ofc against CMD.
you shouldnt try to TPK them, but you also cant give them a fair fight that will be fun. So it is ok to give the boss some extra things they cant have, especially items or free action abilities.
if you want more suggestion i will have to give them later.