Sorry but my money is on the party, especially if the cleric is smart enough to run with a D.Anchor right off the bat.
You have 7 (!) PCs.
This fight will probably be over pretty quickly.
I would recommendend adding a few CR 7-8 demons in the mix (Nabasu?).
Then you are extremely lucky because I just about always prepare it or have a scroll or some such and it is on the cleric's list (and honestly an abyss traveling sorcerer should probably have taken it as well).
With that out of the way your main problems are going to be party size and the paladin, as well as fun things like arrow of law.
Well, good luck beating the demons SR with your scroll of dim. anchor....
Thats only a 15% change (need 18+).
If you wanted to be a jerk, you could probably disarm some characters and throw their stuff off of the bottomless cliff. I'm sure they'd love that. ;-)
Personally, I think spamming Unholy Nimbus every round will be annoying enough.
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If you wanted to be a jerk, you could probably disarm some characters and throw their stuff off of the bottomless cliff. I'm sure they'd love that. ;-)
Personally, I think spamming Unholy Nimbus every round will be annoying enough.
Or, since your a Huge Demon, simply pick up one of the PC's (Probably the slow, heavily armored Dwarven cleric) and throw them into the bottomless pit. As you said flying is not an option, hopefully your sorcerer will think fast and throw a feather fall spell. Thus, allowing the dwarf to drift to the side of the pit, and eventually climb back out, but that should still knock the PC out of the fight for a few rounds.
Or just teleport behind the PC's and bull rush them into the bottomless pit. The nalfashee already has the improved bull rush feat, it should be pretty easy to accomplish. The sorcerer, cleric and rogue are probably your prime targets.
Your demon has a 23 intellect, he's plenty intelligent enough to come up with great tactics and to use them to the greatest effect. Sure, the PC's will still probably crush him, but you can definitely make the fight epic and memorable, and still have the PC's win.
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Teleport
Summon Vrocks (does not matter if it fails but 50% works great)
Teleport (later losers).
End of fight as far as nalfshee is concerned. Then he uses his considerable diplomacy +22 to recruit a few more demons. Demons of all power levels. He uses some to scout and find the party. Then they attack.
Weak demons run in first. PCs start doing their thing. Stronger demons pop in to middle of fight and throw down their debuffs (dispel magic, slow, etc).
Now you have a fun fight.
He has Awesome Blow, so this is totally an option. However, it means spending a round to take a single PC out while the other PCs concentrate their attacks on him. Likely outcome: a couple of dead PCs and a dead demon.
Or, since your a Huge Demon, simply pick up one of the PC's (Probably the slow, heavily armored Dwarven cleric) and throw them into the bottomless pit.
That's why I (half-jokingly) suggested disarm instead; he could disarm three PCs in a single round, potentially.
Don't forget to give the demon some gear :
- amulet of natural armor +1
- belt of strength +2
- bracer of armor +2
- elemental gem (earth x2) (use bullrush freely, do not forget unholy aura effect)
- dont forget greater area dispel targets all objects in the area, spells such as GMW, Align Weapon, Magic Vestment and the like have a good chance to get dispelled in addition to one spell on their person and he can use it at will.
- Smite is a (su) ability, dwarf resistance only works against spells.
- Dont forget to use reach, if you manage to daze the close combat damage dealers take 5'steps away while attacking them when/if they recover they will provoke another attack moving closer and will not be able to make a full attack
- feel free to get some distance and dispel, slow, feeblemind freely after you summon vrocks countering spells with dispel or a blast of lightning at the right time is fair play
- fighting defensively is a valid tactic especially if they are ignoring the other summons to deal with him quickly
First, APL is the average party member level, +1 if there are 6 or more members of the party, or -1 if there are 3 or fewer members of the party. So your party's APL is in fact 10, not 9, just to bear in mind.
Second, I think your nalfeshnee is a good challenge, but single monster bosses are always at a significant disadvantage, especially to such a large party (even if it is a CR 14 creature). If you feel you want it to be a little more challenging without overly weighting the fight to the monsters' advantange, I would throw in the assistance of a bunch of very low level demons--say dretches or quasits. The point of these guys is basically to act as speed bumps, keep your melee-heavy party from being able to dive right in and flank him. It doesn't matter if these guys are so weak they can't hurt your party, they're still hit point sinks that buy time for the nalfeshnee. This gives the nalfeshnee time and space to try and turn the tables to his advantage--attempt to feeblemind a caster or greater dispel some of the party's buffs before wading or summon additional help.
Note that if he does successfully summon additional help (by which I mean vrocks or hezrous), I agree with the posters who said he should then try to greater teleport away and escape--but of course leave a juicy clue as to where he's going/what he's doing next so they can have a rematch.
If you are still worried about him being too hard, on the other hand--maybe put into the room some kind of object that if a party member gets to it, it weakens the nalfeshnee (gives him straight up -2 to everything or halves his current hit points or something). It would be a great goal for the shadowdancer to try to get while the melee experts are wailing on the demon.
There's no reason you have to stick to the stock spells-prepared list, you can certainly choose other spells that would better suit the demon and it's purpose of guarding the bridge for whatever reason.
Not entirely related to the demon, but how have all the other encounters you've requested advice on turned out? You know, the white dragon, the worm that walks (or whatever you chose to do for that encounter).
Get him to delay until the haste, and then slow. Or buy him a lesser rod of quicken.
Nimbus until it has some effect.
feeblemind a caster.
teleport/summon/teletort.
Dispel the align weapon
Pound any Dazed PC's.
Only a 10% difference... do it... A Hezrou will give the party fits!Instead of summoning Vrocks, summon Hezrous.Lower summon chance, though.
I don't know. Vrocks using telekinesis to throw people into a bottomless pit would probably give the party fits as well.
I don't know. Vrocks using telekinesis to throw people into a bottomless pit would probably give the party fits as well.Only a 10% difference... do it... A Hezrou will give the party fits!Instead of summoning Vrocks, summon Hezrous.Lower summon chance, though.
Or somehow delaying the party a few rounds while the 1d4 vrocks do their dance of ruin and kill the party in one foul swoop.
I take it the pit has a bridge and an opposite side? How wide is the bridge? Can he teleport to the other side, forcing the party to approach him across the bottleneck of the bridge? He could also summon from there, letting the hezrou teleport to the other side and blaspheme the stragglers/ranged fighters. If he makes his summon, naturally.
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Remember folks summoned creatures cannot use their innate teleport abilities.
Now I am a little biased but using your summon of Vrocks is the best speed bump option you have to slow down the party. You have the best chance and have the chance for a greater number of them. It's also only a standard action to bring in up to 4 creatures worth of actions, which will even up the action economy issue.
Ok so when the Vrocks pop in have them mirror image as their standard, then have them move into positions to get as many PCs with their free action Spore attack and block the way to the Nalfeshnee.
The spores don't do a ton of damage but they do last a minute and will force concentration checks from the spellcasters. The mirror images will give the Vrocks some extra defense and soak up attacks from the Bbn, Paly, and Zen archer.
Once you have a wall of Vrocks between you they can full attack, use telekinesis to fling or combat manuever PCs into the chasm, or even drop a Stunning Screech!
--I'm the King of Vrock, there is none higher. Sucka PCs must call me sire!
Remember folks summoned creatures cannot use their innate teleport abilities.
Now I am a little biased but using your summon of Vrocks is the best speed bump option you have to slow down the party. You have the best chance and have the chance for a greater number of them. It's also only a standard action to bring in up to 4 creatures worth of actions, which will even up the action economy issue.
Ok so when the Vrocks pop in have them mirror image as their standard, then have them move into positions to get as many PCs with their free action Spore attack and block the way to the Nalfeshnee.
The spores don't do a ton of damage but they do last a minute and will force concentration checks from the spellcasters. The mirror images will give the Vrocks some extra defense and soak up attacks from the Bbn, Paly, and Zen archer.
Once you have a wall of Vrocks between you they can full attack, use telekinesis to fling or combat manuever PCs into the chasm, or even drop a Stunning Screech!
--I'm the King of Vrock, there is none higher. Sucka PCs must call me sire!
Vrocks are terribly weak combatants for their CR without heroism buff though.
Stunning Screech is pure awesome, 1 round of stun will cause them to drop everything they hold, lose their dex bonus and get a -2 penalty to AC. Another Vrock could scoop up a particulary dangerous dropped weapon, by hand or telekinesis, and drop it in the chasm.
The spores are unlikely to actually disrupt much spellcasting with their low damage but it is a free action, and with the smite, screeching and mirror image the damage might built up nicely still.
mirror image might prevent them from getting killed quickly, but also prevents them from possibly draining their opponents strength due to unholy aura, I would probably wait using it till one is injured for that reason
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Vrocks don't have an unholy aura so thats moot. Being summons they're speedbumps, nothing more. As such purely defensive measures like mirror image are doing exactly what you want... namely allowing your Nalfeshnee to get his more potent offensive spells or abilities into play! It'll take a round before the Unholy Nimbus goes off anyway so you need the time the Vrocks could give you.
With combat reflexes and reach you can afford to let them spend their standard action using buffs rather than attacking because the PCs aren't flying around them, they will have to move (barring dimension door or similar). Their to hit is weak sure, but their damage is high.
--Vrocking Grasp
The summon monster universal monster rule works like a summon monster spell except the duration is 1hour and whatever other specific differences may be called out. I bring this up because wouldnt that eliminate the summon and teleport away tactic? Each summon has a caster level listed with it, in the case of the nalfeshnee that is 5th, meaning it's summons wink out if more than 35 feet from it.... Am I misinterpreting the rules? Please clarify if I am.
The summon monster universal monster rule works like a summon monster spell except the duration is 1hour and whatever other specific differences may be called out. I bring this up because wouldnt that eliminate the summon and teleport away tactic? Each summon has a caster level listed with it, in the case of the nalfeshnee that is 5th, meaning it's summons wink out if more than 35 feet from it.... Am I misinterpreting the rules? Please clarify if I am.
yea slightly misinterpreting it, you are correct on the summoning and teleport rules, but the nalfeshnee caster's level is 12.. the summoning has a spell level equivalent of 5, which is useful to know for concentration checks and a few other more rare circumstances.
I do not think summoned monsters wink out after the spell range, rather it is the range at which they can be summoned. Though I am not sure on that part without rereading it.