Fellow GMs - I need some help building a winter witch BBEG for my home group to face at the end of my current adventure arc. They are about to enter a Winter Witch's ice spire base deep in Irressen territory on an assassination mission for a Linnorm King. I've set up the idea of the Witches as powerful evil masters of cold and death who steal children across the border to trap their souls in porcelain dolls and steal their youth for eternal life - but I don't know the witch class very well at all. What are some cool tactics she could use when they face her - I'm looking for flavorful combat ideas - hex/spell combos etc. that are thematic and effective. The party is pretty powerful at Level 10 average. They have it All - barbarian cleric wizard ranger rogue occasionally a paladin and/or bard too.
Any ideas welcome - would love to incorporate environment and/or magic items too.
Cheers!
Slumber will shut down anyone who fails their will save. If you are high enough level to take major hexes make sure you grab split hex. This will let her put the debuffs out faster.
As a caster make sure she has a wand of shield and mage armor to buff herself with before the fight.
The ice tomb + hoarfrost hex is a nasty winter themed combo witches can do at high levels.
Look at the cold patron. Lots of good damage for witches there and it it synergies well with their abilities.
Vomit swarm is a wonderful spell.
Accursed Hex is going to be important for her. It lets her try to use misfortune/slumber on someone if they have already passed their save once that day.
Black Tentacles is also a great delay tactic for witches. She should also fight in a room where she can take advantage of the fly hex. Because it is a hex and not a spell there is no way to dispel it.
An interesting combo I have found. Witches get both Beguiling Gift and Sempia Snake Sigil. Have the witch cast the sigil on the book then give it to a person with beguiling gift. They are out of the fight for days if they fail both saves. Something to do after misfortune has gone up.
evil eye/misfortune/cacle is a nice way to seriously debuff any melee type
This is a great debuff method but if she is the BBEG then she isnt going to have the time to do this. This role is more of a support role. Well, it can be achieved if you lower her level and give her lots of stronger minions. This way she can be a battlefield control while her minions rip the party up.
Deside what level encounter you want this to be. Also, Do you want her to be a ~14 level witch with some weaker minions (at higher level she will be deadly due to her save DC's being higher) or you can make her level 10-12 with some powerful minions around her. Not sure how you built her up in the story.
Also, audit your players character sheets. The better you study them the easier it will be for you to build and epic encounter that pushes them to the edge but doesnt TKP them. When you just build an encounter without knowledge of the party it seems to either be too easy or too hard.
I'm having a similar problem right now. One thing I'm struggling with is how unfun single-target debuffs are for PCs. Slumber and its ilk basically tell one member of your group to go sit in the corner for the next couple hours (I have a big group). Does anyone have suggestions for dealing with this?
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I'm having a similar problem right now. One thing I'm struggling with is how unfun single-target debuffs are for PCs. Slumber and its ilk basically tell one member of your group to go sit in the corner for the next couple hours (I have a big group). Does anyone have suggestions for dealing with this?
Do any of your PC's have the uber powerful Leadership feat? Have them play the cohort for a few rounds til their main character is up and running.
Is the player going to be out for a while? Have him roll dice for some of the BBEG's minions. Have him outright run the monster if you trust him/her.
I'm having a similar problem right now. One thing I'm struggling with is how unfun single-target debuffs are for PCs. Slumber and its ilk basically tell one member of your group to go sit in the corner for the next couple hours (I have a big group). Does anyone have suggestions for dealing with this?
Its a standard action for one of the other party members to wake them, I dont see how they will be sitting in the corner for couple of hours.
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I'm having a similar problem right now. One thing I'm struggling with is how unfun single-target debuffs are for PCs. Slumber and its ilk basically tell one member of your group to go sit in the corner for the next couple hours (I have a big group). Does anyone have suggestions for dealing with this?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't another PC spend a standard action to wake up the sleeping person?
Edit: The point I'm making is that if the party is willing to work together, even if each one of them falls asleep sometime during the encounter, they can be woken up by another PC and then the slumber hex won't work on the roused PC for 24 hours. It's not as big a hindrance as people make it out to be for a party.
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As a lot of people have mentioned, Slumber is a PC hex for the most part. When enemies use it, players are usually pretty good at waking each other up, which changes it from an easy setup for a coup de grace into a glorified Daze. None of that means your witch shouldn't take it- a Slumber on the wizard or other ranged fighter can force melee to disengage for a few rounds if they want their spellcasting support back.
As far as thematic things you can add- consider animated stone statues or ice sculptures of her victims for her minions. (What, ripping off The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe for winter witch ideas? Never.)
Consider also: an ice wall that the PCs have to break through after dealing with her minions. Give her Flyby Attack, and she can use her flight hex to stay behind the cover it provides.
And finally, your best option to shut down their casters is almost certainly the Agony major hex. It nauseates, requires Fort saves, and can be cured with a single successful save, so it won't completely shut them out of the fight.