Help me tweak the last battle in TotB [spoilers]

[Mathius]

My PCs are are going to be facing the Aberrant Promethean soon and they are fully aware of how tough he is. They are level 6 and will not make 7 by the time they face him.

I have halfling Cav who is devastating on his wolf and does not have to worry about AoO on his charges due to Ride by attack.

Rogue Xbow user trained in UMD

Sorc trained in UMD

Cleric with the freedom domain not trained in UMD. Good at healing bad at combat.

Druid Gish with Dino companion with 29 AC.

The problem is that the PCs will under no circumstances compel their friend from court to do anything and as far as they know the AB already took him out, twice (fell off the lightning tower). I figure that the fight will actually take place on the roof instead of L3. I want the Bondslave thrall to effect the AB as well but be harder to use.

I figure that 4 PCs will use it and the cavalier will engage the AB along with the druids dino. The dino will only be good to take hits and to flank due to low damage output.

I want different effects based on how many PCs can make the DC 15 check to use bondslave (will find all the clues). I know they will also want to use it as move action so I was thinking of allowing that with a -5 penalty.

I was thinking flat footed for the first effect. (rogue can SA with Xbow) and no AoO if the Cav has to reposition to charge again.

I was thinking of using stunned for the third level effect and Dominated for 1 round for the fourth. I am not sure what DC for will save should be if they try and have it harm itself of jump of the tower.

I do not know what the second condition should be since staggered will come from the sorc.

The lightning will be big factor since their is thunderstorm going on (3d10). The sorc has grease so getting out of grapples will be easier and the AB will have time starting them if he takes the -20.

The flesh golem from town is my get out of TPK free card. If things look very dire he will show up and sacrifice himself to save them. He will also catch the first PC to fall of tower after they fall 40 feet to his level.

Sorry for rambling. Thanks for any help

[Rynjin]

If they were "fully aware" of how tough the thing is I doubt they'd be going up there without their big fleshy backup.

That thing is one BAMF.

[Rakshaka]

Something to keep in mind with the lightning is the very real possibility of the AP getting struck and healed by it, as well as losing the staggered condition. Alternatively, I would be very careful giving the PCs a full dominate ability on the AP, as they're likely to just one-shot it off of the tower (which could prove anti-climatic, especially if it happens too early).
If I were to make the Bondslave thrall the mechanism to weaken the AP, I would probably have it escalate like so:
1)Staggered
2)Confused
3)Nauseated
4)Dazed

I would make the last result extremely difficult to achieve since keeping the AP locked down with the machine might also prove anticlimactic if its too reliable or easy. Perhaps lightning strikes on the AP break any Bondslave effects..

One final thing to keep in mind is that the AP is mindless. It has no reason in its tactics, even if shredding a PC to pieces would prove most advantageous (unless it goes berserk). It might randomly Cloaker-moan multiple times or cover everyone in webs or try to paralyze everyone with tentacles before "going for the kill" This one thing should make the fight more manageable; the Aberrant Promethian has no motivation other than whatever its chaotic impulses might be.

[Brun IronBender]

Good conditions. Thanks will post more later.

[Mathius]

I like conditions 2 and 3 and 4 but I want something that allows SA in spot 1.

[Rakshaka]

How about Blind? That way he's still a threat but can have SA inflicted on him.

[Charlie Bell]

You should understand that the first time he hits a PC, that PC is dead. Nobody will be able to escape the grapple/constrict. The AP will hit even the dino on an 8 or better. The roof probably will not allow the cavalier to make any kind of charges because the shutters will probably be closed if the PCs have not cleared all of the webs out of L3 in order to find the lever.

I just ran this fight Friday night. My PCs were 7th level and the AP straight one-shotted two of them. The only thing that ultimately saved them was when the Beast showed up.

[MurphysParadox]

Yeah, and all the AP needs to do is ready an attack for when the Cav gets close enough, then wrap him up and choke him out.

My party did things with lantern archons and fire that made the fight somewhat uneventful. Didn't get to kill anyone.

[Brun IronBender]

The sorc has grease so I think that will give the cav a chance to not be grappled.

Lots of rules questions about the AB

If the AB is staggered does it still get the extra move action from quickness?

Can is full attack and take a move action?

If it grabs someone successfully after making an attack does it do constrict damage?

Would choke apply to tentacles?

If a person is grappled in the tentacles at the start of the AB's turn and it takes a standard action to maintain the grapple what happens?

Do str penalties effect attack or damage rolls?

Do dex penalties effect AC?

If the AB takes the -20 penalty on its grapple check does it have to move the victim adjacent? Can it move with out grapple check? Can it move the Victim?

How about this for a set of conditions?

1. confused with out the targeting parts and the following chart.
Act normally
Moan High fear/low nausea
4d6+9 damage to self
Web attack

2. Blind

3. Shaken

3. Stunned

[MurphysParadox]

Great question; not sure. Staggered says may take one or the other; quickness says can take extra move. I'd say Yes, but you're the final arbiter for your game.

Maybe not. Originally thought Yes but it says full attacks are full round actions which cannot be coupled with standard or move. It is, again, up to you. I think it is more there for the tentacles trick that I describe below (and to let it double move and still attack).

Immediately on the hit according to the FAQ. So you attack; if you hit you roll grapple; if you succeed you constrict.

Yes because the choking is active on any grapple and the tentacles grapple.

The creature continues being choked, taking 2d4+9 damage, and requiring a DC 17 fort save or become paralyzed for 6 rounds. Really the idea is to move up to a guy, hit them with the slam, grab them, constrict them, use the quickness move action to transfer them to the tentacle. The target is choked during his turn, can attempt to escape (same DC as if the Promethean is holding the guy with the original slam attack). Then on the AP's turn the tentacles automatically force the paralyze check and do the damage. He can then choose not to continue the grapple and move on to another target... or just coup de grace the paralyzed guy.

The key point is that the tentacles do damage/paralyze any target held in them at the start of the AP's turn; he doesn't have to attempt to continue the grapple.

Strength affects attack and damage rolls with melee weapons. Unless using weapon finesse at which point you're doing dex for attack.

Dex is used to calculate AC, so yes, penalties to dex mean penalties to AC (standard -2 stat = -1 modifier though).

The self-damage may be a bit much; perhaps just do nothing and drop whatever he's holding? Though if you do have him hit himself, don't forget the DR!

[Mathius]

In this case I am going to replace shaken with exhausted. That combined with blind will give some hefty penalties.

[Christopher Van Horn]

I believe the real thing to do with this guy is prepare. You know what he is and that he is coming. You can avoid and deal with him at range initially and can make a plan to stop him. The adventure gives a lot of opportunities to gather information about the Promethean. When he is dealt with as a known, unintelligent quantity he is easily doable. The problem is a party who just kicks in the door and doesn't figure out what they are up against is gonna get smashed very very fast.

[MurphysParadox]

Unless they are a party of five level 7 characters with haste and 7 lantern archons and lots of fire. My party just steamrolled it and then went back to see what those funny chalk lines the bard noticed while rushing through the room. Sigh. I think it took 3 rounds? Almost killed the druid though, so that's something.

The most frustrating thing about the guy is his DR 10/adamantine. At this level, the players probably won't have any and don't do a huge amount of damage. And considering being in melee effectively means you're going to get grabbed and choked out, it is hard to go toe-to-toe with the guy. So if you happen to have a squadron of augmented mobile laser batteries that hit touch AC and ignore DR firing 2 blasts each every turn... it can be a touch easier.

I like what you're doing with the fight. It'll be interesting and has a good bit of variety compared to a normal mutual beatdown.

[Mathius]

Thanks, they do spent a lot of time looking at the prof has done and found his notes on the AB. They know what they are facing and I think they plan on facing him on the roof. Once they touch down on the roof I will have the AB try and break through the shutters and succeed when the time is right. I think that most of them will will try and control the machine while the cav and dino take it on in melee. Since the rogue has a high UMD I am going to allow operating that machine as a move action if you take a -5 penalty. That will allow him to SA with XBow if the AP is blind. They also obtained a scroll of teleport and I thing they are going to send someone on shopping trip to Absolum to gear up. Scarbs of golum bane and it might occure to them to buy a couple of scrolls of freedom of movement to avoid being grappled. They will at least have grease. I am not giving them the LAntern archon idea.

The sorc will probably also use the device as a move and cast grease or keep it slowed. The cleric may not even use the device if his healing is more needed.

Henry, what they named the flesh golum will save thier bacon if things go south but they think he already dead since they saw the AB toss him from the top the lightning tower.

[Mathius]

The short story is that they won. Everyone except the cleric used a scroll of freedom of movement. The Druid used spider climb on both animals and they climbed straight up to the roof. Once there they waited for AP to break out and then went to town while superbuffed. As it turns out two cav charges really does the trick. That did about 140 HP while the rest of the group did the other 40 HP.

Scarabs of Golem bane and druid sucking up the AoO so the cav could withdraw made all the difference. Still the FA on the Cav left him with only 7 HP and the druid went down to -11 but did when it was his turn to get hit.

All in all it was hard for them but with planning not all that hard and they did not even need any of the help I offered from the stormcaller.