My group currently consists of an elf enchantment-focused cleric of Calistria, a two-weapon-fighting ranger, a rogue, and a gnome fire elementalist. They're going to be joined by a dwarf druid with a bear companion. There will be multiclassing and I'll make sure they're 3rd level by the time they meet Nualia, so they'll likely be:
1. Elf Cleric of Calistria 3 (Lust and Trickery domains)
2. Gnome Fire Elementalist Wizard 3
3. Dwarf Druid 3 w/ bear
4. Human Rogue 2/Fighter 1
5. Human Ranger 2/Titan Mauler Barbarian 1 (or possibly Ranger 3)
With five PCs and an animal companion, it's obvious that I need to buff Nualia to keep her at the chapter-ending megabadass she needs to be, and there are, as I see it, three ways to do it:
1. Cleric 5/Fighter 2. This would give her third-level spells and another channel die but no iterative attack. She would probably concentrate on dropping a PC fast and then reanimating the corpse as a zombie.
2. Cleric 4/Fighter 3. This would give her an iterative attack. She would be the same as she's written in the book, but tougher in melee without any more flexibility.
3. Rebuild her from scratch as an antipaladin, which would make her a juggernaut with less spell flexibility and let me unleash the awfulness that is antipaladin.
Now I don't want to TPK the party but I've never been one to quail at a PC death or two, so I don't mind making her epically tough. Which build strikes the best balance?
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When I ran my group through this (currently in the middle of Hook Mountain Massacre), I rebuilt Naulia as an Antipaladin7 (of Lamashtu).
My group is 6 players (Tiefling Alchemist, Aasimar Paladin, Half-elf Ranger, Half-elf Rogue, Human Wizard, and Dwarf Cleric/Fighter).
Due to some happenings earlier in the campaign, Erylium was with Nauliam along with her hounds.
As a result of the fight, Naulia ended up killing the PC Paladin, who was already at negative HP, with a negative energy channel.
Hope that helps.
-Skeld
At the moment I bumped up my Nualia to a Cleric 5/Fighter 2, and gave her the Channel Smite feat. She'll be facing a party of 5 as well, with an animal companion. Currently they will probably face her in the temple, along with the two hounds that are stationed there.
I recommend only changing the tactics:
1. Have one of the yeth hounds standing guard outside, so that it can alert Nualia to intruders so she can be prepared with buff spells.
2. Have her send out the other hound.
3. Have her fight the party at the doorway, or in the hallway to prevent flanking.
4. [this may not be a problem for you, but I always forget] Remember how soft cover works. Party archers might not have an easy time of it.
5. [this also might not be a problem for you, but worth noting] Be sure you know absolutely everything about Nualia: which spells are included in the stat block, which aren't, what they do, etc.
I can't speak absolutely for you, but this would have changed everything with the experience my players had.
But lastly:
Malfeshnekor is the big threat in this adventure. Nualia is a misguided soul that took the wrong path in life, ended up being a pawn. She wasn't even doing too well in figuring out how to release Malfeshnekor. Some group of adventurers figured it out in minutes, she spent how long? Well, it's not specified, but it's probably longer than a few minutes!
I wouldn't worry about beefing this up too much.
I find a handful of extra mooks always helps.
I was running a 6-PC party at the time. I rebuilt her as a straight 7th level cleric, replacing her bastard sword with a falchion. I gave her a third yeth hound. I also had another NPC ally with her-- a 5th level rogue with the poisoner archetype.
It was a pretty tough fight, but no PCs died.
One re-build option would be Cleric/Divine Scion. The DS prestige class is from Inner Sea Magic, and the artwork for it _is_ Nualia.
Just a one-level dip in DS allows her to start taking Weapon Specialization, Improved Weapon Focus, and Improved Weapon Specialization - without the Fighter-level pre-requisites! (She still needs to take them in the right order.)
But lastly:
Malfeshnekor is the big threat in this adventure. Nualia is a misguided soul that took the wrong path in life, ended up being a pawn. She wasn't even doing too well in figuring out how to release Malfeshnekor. Some group of adventurers figured it out in minutes, she spent how long? Well, it's not specified, but it's probably longer than a few minutes!I wouldn't worry about beefing this up too much.
I find Malfeshnekor to be anticlimactic, honestly. Yes he's a big bad guy, but when the party fought Tsuto I beefed him up to Monk 2/Rogue 3, gave him 3 goblin buddies, AND had him ambush the 2nd-level PCs in a position where he could run around getting flanking, and they still took him down (albeit it was a challenging fight). The party will be 3rd level (at least) when they breach the sanctum, so there will be three casters with access to 2nd-level spells, two big tough armored guys with two-handed weapons, and two animal companions. Malfeshnekor's by himself and doesn't have room to maneuver -- he's going down hard.
You could always restat her as an inquisitor. I can't help but think that would make her more dangerous. Especially if Elyrium or a yeth hound is around to flank with(though Elyrium will need a reach weapon). Heck, she started this whole thing, throw some goblins in there as well.
You could always restat her as an inquisitor. I can't help but think that would make her more dangerous. Especially if Elyrium or a yeth hound is around to flank with(though Elyrium will need a reach weapon). Heck, she started this whole thing, throw some goblins in there as well.
I've been strongly considering giving her some goblins. It seems like some should be present for what will be, for all intents and purposes, the climactic battle of the book. Giving her, say, a few goblin archers in the far corner of the room might make the fight more...interesting.
Well this past weekend my group faced Nualia. I restatted her slightly as a Cleric 5 Fighter 2, and changed her ability scores to an 18 point buy (as written she only has a base strength of 12 and as such doesn't qualify for the Power Attack feat. She raised Bruthazmus, 6 goblins and 2 goblin dogs as zombies with animate dead.
When the party went down to the second level again, they first ran into a yeth hound, Bruthazmus and 2 goblin zombies. The party barbarian failed his will save against the hounds baying, along with Orik who'm they had taken along, so they both fled back upstairs. They moved ahead after this encounter, and fought the two goblin dog zombies in front of the double doors to the cathedral, dispatching them before they even got to act in the first round.
The party then entered the cathedral through the side door from the prison, which is when the mayhem began. Nualia was holed up in here, along with two yeth hounds and the remaining 4 zombie goblins. The barbarian once again failed his will save against the hounds, along with Orik, and the player threw his d20 across the room, naturally frustrated.
They were both panicked and fleeing for 4 rounds. The second yeth hound only succeeded in scaring off the ranger's snake companion, since two of the players elected to burn a hero point to reroll their save.
A very hard battle followed, as the party ran into the bottleneck of the door, with the yeth hounds and the goblins streaming out. Nualia had plenty of time to cast her buffing spells for the first five rounds, and threw in a negative energy channel at one point.
The monk was in a lot of trouble, dropping in and out of unconsciousness as the party was doing their very best to keep her alive. I warned them that the yeth hounds would go for a coup de grace kill if they got the chance, but with some well spent hero points and spells from the sorcerer and witch, they managed to keep the monk alive, who used stunning fist on one hound, and stunned and blinded the other hound with a spell. I was rolling extremely well, as the hounds barely missed and was usually rolling fives and sixes on the damage rolls. I even got in a high damage crit after rolling 20's twice on both the hit and the confirmation roll.
After four rounds, Orik and the party barb were back in the action, Orik went on to assist the party with the yeth hounds and the last remaining goblin, while the barbarian charged Nualia on his own—which turned out to not be the smartest idea. Orik rushed in to lend some aid, but Nualia pretty much cleaved our barbarian in half in two rounds. With her bastard sword, claw attack, Power Attack, Channel Smite, Ferocious Strike and Fury of the Abyss, the barbarian with his bad will save and mediocre AC went unconscious after three attacks, upon which Nualia used her claw attack to tear out his throat. -18 hp, and we have our first casualty of the campaign.
It was an epic fight, and I was worried that it was too hard, but the party thoroughly enjoyed the challenge. The barbarian player has already been busy statting up a magus for his next character.