| Mathius |
Please check my math if you are willing since I figured in many buffs on sheets.
This encounter is the 5th encounter my players will be facing this day and it is a replacement for G8 in Wake the Watcher and I expect they will go straight on to the end from here with only minor resistance. The plot I came up with is that Zhabh-boath sold his soul, and that of his followers, to and agent of Harborym if he would get rid of all the migo. Harborym is keeping his deal through the PCs and would really like to collect their souls right away. Harborym in turn would like to capture or claim the body of the dark young as prelude to imprisoning Shub-Niggurath. The cleric will be offer a tuning fork attuned to hell and scroll of plane shift. The problem is that he worships Cayden but the player really wants a fork and this will be his first chance to get one.
The party that I DM for has 5 players and is highly optimized and at about a 40 point buy (made a mistake there). I would very much like to tax the resources of the party and make them sweat in the final encounter. I am not to worried about killing them since the cleric has two breath of life spells-prepped and meta-magic rod of reach. Since there a 5 players I gave my self budget of 30000 exp and only broke it by 400 exp. This group had 5 rounds to buff up and Init will be rolled for round 6. There is no surprise round but folks will be flat footed until their init because they did not know the when the PCs would show up.
The cleric cast the following spells in order during his 5 rounds of prep; Protection from Energy Communal(fire 20), Spell Resistance, Wall of Fire, Fire Shield, and Spell Immunity (2 unknown spells). Earlier in the day he cast magic vestment and shape stone to build a bunker in the middle of the room. While he was selfishly casting on himself his mooks all drank a potion of blur and feed the following potions to the Rift Drake; Bull’s Strength, Cat’s Grace, Bear’s Endurance, Blur and Magic fang. One of the mooks has been imbued with spell ability and used it to cast Barkskin and Shield of Faith on the drake. As a house rule you can Imbue with spell ability to grant buff spell to another instead of limited schools. He will also cast Shield other on cleric. Lastly there is a bride 1st level expert who has used UMD to cast Prayer and Bless from scrolls the cleric made.
As the battle commences the PCs have just run down the hall skipping G3-7 and sealing it behind them with a shape stone. In front of them is buffed up cleric concentrating on a wall of fire and 7 active mooks who are good team grapplers just itching to test their fire resistance by dragging the party through the wall of fire repeatedly. Along with that is a Rift Drake that will start of with clinging corrosion to slow and damage the party. After that the drake will use flyby attack and speed surge to hit and run. Since I dropped the critical feats for Improved Vital Strike the drake will hit quite hard and has enough HP to survive 1 charge from the caviler. The caster mook will try and stay out of combat so that shield other can function.
The cleric will start off by activating both of his auras and then will attempt to split the party with Wall of stone. After that he will use either bestow curse or hold person along with his rods on the split party. Once the party is back together he will use Greater Command to slow them down. Damage spells will come last on his choice of actions. His last ditch escape plan will be to cast sanctuary and attempt simply run away. For his move actions he will use quicken selective channel to damage the party. He will be doing this from the inside of a bunker with arrow slits that grants him improve cover. I figure with shape stone his bunker can be 2 inches of stone witch is just about hard enough to require a full attack from someone to break though.
Lastly the bride is equipped with 3 scrolls of dispel magic and will try to save her husband with them if needed. All of the consumables fit within the limited use budget for NPCs though the cleric had to steal from the mooks to buy the scrolls. The potions that the drake used were within the budget for the mooks.
For the record my party eats through CR 10-11 with almost no effort and has routinely handled APL
+5 encounters for the length of the game. In book 2 they handled the entire final dungeon including the boss at then end with no rests. This was done despite max HP on all enemies. They believe in hitting hard and taking out the biggest threat first and usually do it on the first round. This encounter is meant as test since there are two big threats one is tough enough to last in open for a time while the other is well protected.
Druid that reveals in wild shape but does gish very well, companion hits okay but has save and AC in the stupid high region.
Blaster Sorc with fireball and meta magic rods of dazing and maximize, the party as whole bought them for her.
Cleric with travel and good domains that plays like a god wizard and really loves movement and stone spells.
Ranged rogue that demoralizes anything and gets to dispel magic with SA, cohort is grappler that makes my mooks look sad. Bane bow and SA after first hit on all shaken targets.
XP 12800
Male skum cleric of Harborym10
NE Medium monstrous humanoid (aquatic)
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +14
DEFENSE
AC 33, touch 12, flat-footed 33 (+11 armor,+4 Shield, +2 deflection, +6 natural)
hp 130 (12 HD; 2d10+10d8+30)
Fort +16, Ref +13, Will +21 (prayer)
Resist cold 10 fire 20 all 5 ½ cold plus evasion SR 22 Immune: Magic Missile
Deflection Aura (+2 deflection to AC and CMD to allies with 20’)
Aura of Protection (+1 Deflection and resist all 5 to allies with 30‘)
OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft., swim 40 ft.
Melee Spear +12/7 (1d8+1)
Ranged: Fire Dart +10 touch (1d6+11) range 30
Special Attacks channel negative energy 7/day (DC 17, 5d6) Selective and Quicken,
Domain Spell-Like Abilities (CL 10th; concentration +15)
Cleric Spells Prepared (CL 10th; concentration +15)
Key to spell prerperation:possible use in combat; domain; uncast; spent
A number indicates the order in witch the cleric will cast buff spells if giving the unlikely chance.
5th (3)[DC 22] Greater Command, Wall of Stone, Spell Resistance, Fire shield
4th (4)[DC 21] Unholy Blight, Imbue with Spell ability, Protection for Energy Communal, Spell Immunity, Wall of Fire
3rd (5)[DC 20] Bestow curse x2, Dispel Magic, Fireball, Shape Stone, Magic Vestment
2nd(6)[DC 19] Hold Person, 1 Aid, 2 Bear’s Endurance, 3 Cat’s grace, 6 Spiritual Weapon, Barkskin
1st(6)[DC 18] CLWx2, Sanctuary, 4 Entropic Sheild, 5 Shield of Faith Shield
0 (4)[at will] Detect Magic, Guidance, Resistance, Spark
D Domain spell; Domains Fire, Protection (Defense)
STATISTICS
Str 11, Dex 10, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 24 (17+3 inh +4 ehn), Cha 12
Base Atk +9/4; CMB +9; CMD 19
Feats Great Fortitude, Selective Channel, Extra Channel, MultiattackB, Quicken Channel, Lightning Reflexes, Scribe Scroll
Skills (Prayer) TBA
Languages Aboleth, Common
SQ amphibious
Headband of Inspired wisdom +4, Mw Full Plate, Gold holy symbol, Holy symbol, MW spear,
Fine clothes(100 GP) Lesser Meta-magic rod of reach, bouncing MW spear
XP 1,600
Male skum Fighter 2 (Unarmed Fighter), Barbarian 1
CE Medium monstrous humanoid (aquatic)
Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +9 [Prayer]
DEFENSE
AC 22 [20], touch 15[13], flat-footed 19[17] (+5 armor, +3 Dex, +2 natural, +2 Shield ) [-2 Rage]
hp 79[89] max (4d10+1d12+27) [+10 Rage]
Fort +12[14], Ref +8, Will +5 [Prayer]
Resist cold 10 Fire 20 20% miss chance (Blur)
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft., swim 50 ft.
Melee bite +12 [14] (1d6+6[8]), 2 claws +12 [14] (1d4+6[8]) [Prayer, Bless]
Special Attacks Grapple + 12 [14 Rage or ally] {16 Rage + ally}(1d6+8), Rage (9 rounds),
STATISTICS
Str 20, Dex 16, Con 20, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 4
Base Atk +5; CMB +10[12] (+12[14] Grapple); CMD 23[25] (grapple 25[27]) +2(4 large foe) with adj ally
Feats Coordinated Defense Multi-attack, Improved unarmed strike, Snapping Turtle, Snapping turtle clutch, Improved Grapple, Coordinated Offence
Skills [Prayer] Intimidate Swim +21 Perception +9
Languages Aboleth, Abyssal, Common
SQ amphibious,
Gear 350GP +1 Chain shirt, Cloak of Resistance +1, MW Armor Spikes, MW manacles Potion of blur
Rift Drake CR 9
XP 6,400
CE Large dragon (earth)
Init +9 [Cat‘s Grace]; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent; Perception +15 [Prayer]
DEFENSE
AC 32, touch 17, flat-footed 27 (+5 [CG] Dex, +15 natural [barkskin]), -1 size +3 deflection [SoF])
hp 209 (11d12+55) [+22 Bear’s Endurance]
Fort +14[BE], Ref +12[CG], Will +8
Immune paralysis, sleep; Resist acid 30 20 % miss [Blur]
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft., climb 20 ft., fly 60 ft. (average) Speed Surge
Melee bite +23 (2d8+15), tail slap +16 (1d10+6 plus trip) [Bless, Prayer, Magic Fang, Bull’s Str]
bite +20 (2d8+24), tail slap +16 (1d10+15 plus trip) [Power Attack]
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special attacks: clinging corrosion, pounce, savage bite, Improved Vital Strike [4d8 or 2d10], Flyby Attack
STATISTICS
Str 29 [BS], Dex 21 [CG], Con 24 [BE], Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 11
Base Atk +11; CMB +21[BS]; CMD 36[BS CG]
Feats Vital Strike, Improved Vital Strike Flyby Attack, Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (bite)
Skills [Prayer] Climb +18, Fly +16, Intimidate +13, Perception +15, Sense Motive +12, Stealth +15, Survival +14
Languages Draconic
SQ speed surge
Please be hard on my design and let me know if there more I can do or if I am being unfair. I suspect that the bunker will be broken early and cohort will grapple the cleric and that means that he is all done except for the crying. Greater command will not work for long since I know the cleric has circle vs. evil. If they still fail the save he has dispel magic. If the he thinks to close the arrow slits with shape stone the drake will spend an action to shatter the bunker otherwise he is stuck.
I am not sure what spells to make him immune to and do not want to just pick fireball and call lightning since I know my party uses those as primary blasting. Since Reflex is his lowest save it makes sense that he would pick spell that target this but I would love chart of spells to roll on to help pick. I can also see scorching ray, enervation and ray of idiocy on this list despite my party not using them. Fireball would be even less likely due to his fire resist 20.
Thank you in advance for any input.
| Mathius |
I like to design complex and optimized encounters because this is the kind of encounter that my players have fun with and don't just steamroll.
Is there something in my title, design, or presentation that discourages folks from giving feedback?
I would appreciate either feedback on the encounter or about how to better present it so that it will get a look from those who enjoy mechanical complexity.
| Corcus |
Have you considered having some sort of dominate on the cavalier? Turn the tables and have him charge the party?, or have the cleric set up the battlefiend to disallow charging. At this point the BBG should know how the party generally rolls in their combat. So custom tailor the battlefield to shut them down.
A scroll of Maze would be hilarious for splitting them up.
Grapple the sorc, split the cavalier off/attack his will save. For the cleric, have the drake focus it.
As for the druid, separate like cavalier.
Rogue and cohort, will saves will be their bane most likely.
| Matthew Downie |
It's probably because your question is really long...
Not that the information isn't relevant; your question is very complicated and is based around specific (overpowered?) characters.
The Rift Drake looks very powerful for CR9 - I assume that's due to the buffs.
The question of what you cast spell immunity for is a tricky one. If he has no knowledge of what the PCs have been casting recently, you could make a list of common spells and roll a dice to pick one.
Overall it sounds like you've thought it through pretty thoroughly and you're better qualified to judge it than any stranger on the internet is going to be.
| Mathius |
Thank you both for the input. We have had many battles were the BBEG sets things up to prevent charging then it whole party plays, how do get the the cav a charge. That is actually quite fun.
Corcus I was planing on using your tactics but you are right about targeting the cleric with the drake. Maze would be great but a bit pricy for scroll and scroll save a usually low. Great idea once I start throwing 8th level spells at them. I might go for a scroll once the consumable budget is higher.
The rift drake is powerful but is also under 9 buffs. (Bless, Prayer, Shield of faith, Barkskin, magic fang, blur, and +4 str, dex and Con).
I hope I did the math right for the all buffs.
I would love a list of 10 spells of 4th level or under that do not do fire damage and target ref or have an effect with no save allowed.
| Corcus |
Grease, Create Pit, Mad Monkey Swarm
One of my favorite combos, create pit under a player, grease the sides, cast mad monkeys into the pit. Giggle
-Wind Wall- will help shut down the rogue
-Stone Shape- is more useful than you might think, use it was cover
-Glyph of Warding- sprinkle them everywhere, most parties tend to not even bother with checking for traps when they see the BBEG
-Symbol of Slowing- Handy
-Control Summoned Creature- If they summon, turn it on them
-Rest Enternal-, this might be an option against the cleric with breath of life
What are their alignments, target those for protections
-Silence- Forces movement
-Deeper Darkness- Cant attack what they can't see
Lesser Planar Ally!
Some choices to consider
Vargouille
Barghest
Nightmare
Xill
Half-Fiend Minotaur (One of my picks)
Bearded Devil (Harder to heal)
Babau (target the druid with this one)
Xorn
Hope this helps some more
| Mathius |
Thank you all! Ran the encounter last night and it went great. The Cleric got turned into a chicken but his channeling and the wall of stone he got of let the drake do its job. The mooks never once got a grapple of but they pinned down the the party and forced them to spend action eliminating them instead of going after bigger targets. One character died but was saved with breath of life. Then encounter ended up right where it should have.