Carrion Hill problem in Slaves of the Vat?

[Coraith]

Putting it in the spoilers to save space and keep from spoiling things.

Keeper Myre:

Keeper Myre CR 6
2,400 XP
Male human necromancer 7
NE Medium humanoid (human)
Init –1; Perception +8
Defense
AC 15, touch 11, flat-footed 15 (+4 armor, +2 deflection, –1 Dex)
hp 57 (7d6+21)
Fort +6, Ref +1, Will +8
Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Melee dagger +3 (1d4/19–20)
Special Attacks channel negative energy (DC 14, 6/day), grave
touch (3 rounds, 6/day)
Wizard Spells Prepared (CL 7th)
4th—enervation (DC 18, 2), black tentacles (CMB 15)
3rd—hold person (DC 17, 2), vampiric touch (2)
2nd—acid arrow, darkvision, false life (already cast),
ghoul touch (DC 16), see invisibility
1st—cause fear (DC 15), charm person, feather fall, mage
armor (2, 1 already cast), unseen servant
0 (at will)—acid splash, detect magic, light, read magic,
touch of fatigue (DC 14)
Opposition Schools: evocation, illusion
Tactics
Before Combat Myre is paranoid and casts false life and
mage armor if he doesn’t already have them active. His current
hit points include 12 points from false life.

Concern about Keeper Myre:

Is he a wizard or a cleric? He casts spells at a level of a Wizard. But then it says he has Channel negative energy 6/day It doesn't say at what level he can use the channel. We figured that meant he was using it at max available level of 4d6, so he could(and did in the game) cast black tentacles trapped our group in it for 1d6+4, entered it himself and channeled for 4d6 per round for the duration. The PCs got loose a couple times and eventually took him down, but AFTER 3 of them died. Is this working as intended? It seems like its a bit too crazy that he can channel as a full level cleric and blast people with spells like a wizard.

[bigkilla]

He is a Wizard. Necromancer is a specialist in Necromancy.

The channel negative energy is for either Turning Undead or Commanding Undead, one of the Necromancers special abilities at 1st level.

If you note all of his spells are Wizard spells and he uses a d6 for HD.

He also has opposition schools of Evocation and Illusion.

[Coraith]

gotcha, so no massive damaging of the party allowed then?

[bigkilla]

Coraith wrote:

gotcha, so no massive damaging of the party allowed then?

No, the Necromancers Channel Energy can only be used to Turn Undead or Command Undead, the Necromancer chooses which when he gets the feat at level 1.

Power over Undead (Su)

You receive Command Undead or Turn Undead as a bonus feat. You can channel energy a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Intelligence modifier, but only to use the selected feat. You can take other feats to add to this ability, such as Extra Channel and Improved Channel, but not feats that alter this ability, such as Elemental Channel and Alignment Channel. The DC to save against these feats is equal to 10 + 1/2 your wizard level + your Charisma modifier. At 20th level, undead cannot add their channel resistance to the save against this ability.

[Dave the Barbarian]

That is why I gave him a single fireball for good measure. He got their attention, and softened them up. They still beat him with relative ease.

[ThreeEyedSloth]

Every time I've ran this, the party always goes to Keeper Myre last. I think the vats make for an awesome final showdown with the Spawn. And getting worked by Black Tentacles and Enervation right before the big fight made it even more nerve-wracking and intense for the players.

[Dreaming Warforged]

I'm running it at the moment. It's the first place the players went to. They are far from optimized and made a few tactical mistakes at first. They are struggling at the moment and it could turn into a TPK. Some of Myre's tricks can really turn the game fast.

[Helaman]

we are getting our arses kicked in a CH PbP at the moment. Not sure if Dreaming Warforged is our GM or not but if he is, yep we made more than a few errors (largely based on assumptions, which is the mother of all screw ups). The zombies make great roadblocks and the DC15 Fort saves to avoid being sickened just hurts if you fail the save (most of us have) and then the acrobatics checks to avoid slipping has just been a cascade of bad rolls.

I was actually advocating running, when communication went to hell and I (the proxy meatshield) ended up charging in when everyone else was moving out... one failed Acrobatics roll saw me at the feet of 3 zombies and then a hold person spell meant the beat down was pretty nasty...