Hiya,
I'm running a new campaign with some of my players using characters from an old campaign. I already know that this group in particular are good at squashing things in wildly unexpected ways.
I'm doing this session kind of willy nilly, since I haven't had time to plan. I need a magic user baddy that would have other magic users at his/her disposal to continuously (or at least seemingly continuously) scry a small town or village...possible a small city. I figure it can be as simple as Big Baddy having leverage over the other (lower level) magic users like family held captive, or them just being followers of Big Baddy.
I'm terrible at end bosses and have failed to supply a good "end game" in the past. I'm not too concerned with the boss' ulterior motives as he/she will be on the periphery at least for today.
Also, if someone uses scry, do they hear and see just the person being scried, or do they hear and see the people around the person being scried?
TLDR:
Help! Need magic-y bad guy!!
Cleric/Oracle with Leadership.
Wizard/Sorceror (Starsoul) with Leadership.
I'm diggin' the Starsoul thing, since they have greater prying eyes at 17th lvl. For a group of 4 PCs at lv 10, is lvl 17 too high or too low as an encounter? Also, assuming I need additional baddies for the Big Encounter would monsters be more appropriate than humanoids?
Ok, sorry, but my coffee almost did go *splat* on the keyboard when I read the title of this thread.
Anyways. On a more serious note, lvl 17 (CR16) is far over the top. For a 4-PC group a very hard encounter would be with a NPC at around level 14 (CR13), details can be found here.
Ruyan.
OOoo I like this. I was definitely hoping to go for a village/town being afraid of doing or saying something to get them killed by Big Baddie. The level also helps keep within the party's level.
What level is the CR for the Bad guy's encounter?
I was throwing ideas around in my head a while ago of having 3 summoners (1 dual Xbows of awesome, 1 element breathing monster, and 1 super grapple god) and a necromancer leading them.
To make the fight even better everyone would be wearing armor, the Eidolons bracers of natural armor, and after the required +1 there would be spell storing, the spell stored would be "Ghoul Touch" and the Necromancer would have his Int as high as possible to make it as deadly as possible--naturally, the spells do not discharge from time so they wouldn't have to be from his current casts per day.
I have found that a single enemy as the "boss" is just begging to be killed. All it takes is one grapple and he is done. Therefore I always recommend having at least as many monsters as there are players, and for the boss encounter to be epic. Include one CR(APL-1) enemy for each player for this effect.
Other possible flavor options include:
Dragon Disciple, Magus, Eldritch Knight, Bard, Oracle, Cleric, Witch, Adept, Anti-paladin, Wizard, Sorc, .etc.
4 PCs at lv 10
This is actually what I had in mind when I was building my ideas for these crazy summoners.
Ok, so
Level 10 Summoner (CR 9) Light Xbow build
Summoner: (Small)
Feats: Rapid Reload, two weapon fighting, Deadly Aim, Improved Two Weapon Fighting, precise shot
Spells: 0-any, 1-lesser rejuvenate Eidolon, Infernal Healing, DM discretion, 2-Cat's Grace, Haste, DM Discretion, 3-Dimension Door, Rejuvenate Eidolon, Invisibility (Greater), DM Discretion, 4-Stone Skin, Communal
Equipment: +1 light crossbow (2335gp), +1 light crossbow (2335gp)
Evolutions: (2=2) Limbs (arms)
Attributes: Str 8, Dex 19, Con 12, Int 7, Wis 13, Cha 14, BAB 7/2
Crossbow, light (+1 [size], +4 [dex], +7 [BAB], +1 (magic), -2 [Dual Wield], -2 [Deadly Aim]=9/4 or 11/6 without deadly aim.
Attacks: (2 Crossbows, light +9/9/4/4 (1d6+5), or 2 Crossbows, light +11/11/6/6 (1d6+1)
Eidolon: (Small) (Serpentine)
Feats: Rapid Reload, two weapon fighting, Deadly Aim, Improved Two Weapon Fighting
Evolutions: (2/2/2/2/4=12) Limbs (arms), Limbs (arms), Ability Increase (Dex), Ability Increase (Dex), Flight (Magical)
Equipment: +1 light crossbow (2335gp), +1 light crossbow (2335gp)(12,750 gp), Belt of Incredible Dexterity (4,000gp STRETCH)
Attributes: Str 8, Dex 28, Con 11, Int 7, Wis 10, Cha 11, BAB 8
Crossbow, light (+1 [size], +9 [dex], +8 [BAB], +1 (magic), -2 [Dual Wield], -2 [Deadly Aim]=15/10 or 17/12 without deadly aim.
Attacks: (2 Crossbows, light +15/15/10/10 (1d6+5), or 2 Crossbows, light +17/17/12/12 (1d6+1)
Yes, they both shoot 4 times a round for a grand total of 8 shots.
Tactics: these guys know they will have problems consistently hitting armored foes, so they use their range 60 to target less armored targets.
At the beginning of combat the summoner casts Stoneskin, communal on himself and the Eidolon, next he casts Invisibility Greater on himself, and the next round on the Eidolon.
The Eidolon and the summoner stand right next to each other, they move forward and backward at the same pace. If they are attacked in melee the summoner steps back behind the Eidolon and casts dimention door to a safe location that they can attack from.
The Eidolon focuses on shooting targets that are not in melee, the Summoner tends to do the same, but does not have a problem shooting into melee since he has precise shot.
Round 4: Pew Pew,Pew Pew,Pew Pew,Pew Pew!
My experience is that the BBEG is better built mechanically to be deadly. I tend to use 5-bad-bands, so this tends to be 1 member of the 5-bad-band works as the boss of a level, or a step of the story only for him/her to escape at the last moment.
The "dark chick" tends to not be part of the battle unless there is a 5th member of the party. Either way there should be a monster who is (APL-1) who can be part of the fight.
This equates to the battle with the BBEG has the BBEG, The Dragon, The Evil Genus, and the Berserker. With the Dark Chick, and perhaps a Goon Squad in there as backup if you have more than 5 PCs.
Think about the last encounter of The First Steps: Part 1, it is pretty difficult for a party to get killed, but if all of the enemies were built for offence then it would be pretty easy for the party to get killed if they don't use tactics.
Do note: that the members of the 5-bad-band should be CR (APL-1), so for NPCs who have NPC gold they should all be level (APL) since NPCs are at CR(levels - 1).
Wait, Big Bag Guy?
Santa Claus.
Okay, okay...a little typo there...TBH I didn't even notice till someone pointed it out.
*sidenote* one of the PCs is a kind of crazy bard and has started telling stories about hunting the Great Deer Deer and their leader Santa...na. So he wears all red and leads them to destroy people...sigh.
I am so not DM fluent...
Um, considering what RuyanVe said further up, the summoner baddies seem rather tough...but my PCs are jerks and tricky tricky bastards, so I think it just might work.
My problem is that I don't entirely understand (re: barely understand)half of what just happened in your explanation. Forgive me for my ignorance as its usually my husband who does the DMing and the forum thing here.
I rarely use magic users of any kind when playing but for some reason keep choosing them as my end boss. (what the hell am I thinking)
Also, is there room for someone in that baddie group to have prying eyes? I sort of used it already in the 1st session...
I rarely use magic users of any kind when playing but for some reason keep choosing them as my end boss. (what the hell am I thinking)
First off don't bother using magic users as your end boss if you are not familiar with using magic users. Big Bad can easily be "The man, behind the man" and therefore we never actually see him and he escapes after his minions are defeated.
Try out this instead:
I am assuming there are only 4 PCs you should try this setup, and then encounter.
The PCs enter the building within which they want to fight Big-Bad. The thing is that what they do not know is that big-bad is actually that level 20 necromancer who would basically just flat-out kill them within the first round with Weird. So to save them the humiliation of being murdered by a guy in a skirt lets get more creative.
So, have you ever seen Howl's Moving Castle? Its a great movie, go watch it. In Howl's Moving Castle (HMC) the entrance to his house is entered by his gate spell being keyed to a specific door. Twist the knob and go to that door. Big Bad now has something like this, except he has taken all the guess work out of it and the door from which the PCs are going to pursue him through leads right to the FINAL BOSS ARENA, but what is this, there is a complex 82 or something toggle door thing that requires a key for them to pursue big-bad beyond the FINAL BOSS ARENA? Drat! Well, at least Big-Bad has been foiled!--or so they think. DUN DUN DUUUUUN!
So, basically the players see an ominous figure that they think is big-bad, and pursue him. Regardless of how the PCs move they can never catch him, if they do catch him he was expecting it and they are paralized via Ghoul Touch the moment they come out of their teleport or dimension door, and therefore remember nothing of what big-bad actually looks like.
They pursue Big-Bad who politely waits for them at each corner so they can follow him, and it is impossible to cut him off, again Ghoul Touch or the offending player is simply found unconscious, but unharmed.
Eventually big bad VERY LOUDLY slams a door. Now he uses dimension door or teleport (quickened no less!) to get to the 82 knob door, and go where he wants to go. He doesn't actually go into the arena and the initial area can be filled with 1HD skeletons or something relatively harmless to give the impression that there is supposed to be resistance.
What the heroes probably do not know is that the moment they step through this door they have stepped through a gate spell, and behind them, once they come through the doorway, is a doorway pitched in darkness that leads to a lethal drop into the deepest parts of the Darklands, in other words it cannot be traversed.
So, after the PCs take care of the no-xp skeletons that were left there as a distraction they see a large curtain that is slightly open at the bottom--just big enough for a single person to walk through, but it is a curtain so they can move through it without issue. As they approach the curtain a Magic Mouth begins to speak:
"Come forth, and face me. I have you where I want you, and you've nowhere to run."
Ahead of them, cloaked in darkness, stands a figure, or for the DM I should say a figment or an illusion. When the PCs approach this form they trigger a trap that brings 4 very nasty monsters out of stasis, but all of these monsters know they are each other's allies and therefore do not attack one another. What the PCs do not know is that they are actually, in fact, standing on a plateau in the middle of the darklands that looks, through clever use of illusions, like a self contained area. Once the trap to engage this battle is activated the illusions go away revealing the area to be quite open, spacious, and offering no places for PCs to try and hide in. The monsters who have just come out of stasis know that these adventurers are their prey.
The battle consists of the following monsters:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/magical-beasts/hydra/pyro hydra/pyrohydra-8-headed
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/undead/witchfire
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/dragons/dragon/-primal-ma gma/magma-dragon-juvenile
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/hell-hound/ness ian-hell-hound
Note: Every single monster here is immune to fire, so have them spam their breath weapons and AOEs on the party every time they are available. The breath weapon for the Magma Dragon can be used as a standard action each round, so just spam the hell out of that. Since the fight is taking place on a disk--Key Word: DISK--there are no walls, and the outside is a giant pit-trap, however lets not kill them for falling off, instead just have a teleport field about 30 feet down that teleports them 30 feet above the center of the disk resulting in a grand total of 6d6 for falling off.
Expect the party to try and focus down the targets one by one--well, if they want to live that is--so focus on surrounding them and then breath weaponing them into oblivion. These monsters have been in stasis for a while, they are probably hungry.
Don't worry about the summoner, just use monsters--they are deadly enough as it is.
Here
PERFECT!!!!!
Gorby?
*sidenote* one of the PCs is a kind of crazy bard and has started telling stories about hunting the Great Deer Deer and their leader Santa...na. So he wears all red and leads them to destroy people...sigh.
Ahem...so I got that wrong. They were the extra-dimentional deer known as Star Bucks who are ruled over and controlled by the large red devil known as Santana. *sigh again*
, details can be found here.
Ruyan.
Ooo Thanks
4 PCs at lv 10This is actually what I had in mind when I was building my ideas for these crazy summoners....
*THIS*? I couldn't cram that much in my mind on a good day! I am sooooo not cut out for this baddie building stuff >.<
I mean, you basically just laid out everything I need for that encounter and it's all purty n stuff and I hardly speak Pathfinder (wait...that language must be Common here...)I had to read it like 4 times to understand what just happened up there. Is Evolutions exactly as it sounds? Something that's evolved on the person/thing? Or is there something more complicated involved here?
Take a look at the GMs Guide to creating challenging Encounters thread and document. It's got a very well thought out approach to structuring boss encounters (it's all about the action economy).
Also, remember that your Mage or Sorcerer can be equipped with several scrolls of Prying Eyes. That way, you can justify the spell usage without having to have a super high CR big baddy. Just remember to include their value in your calculation of the rewards the group can win by winning the fight.
seconding the GM guide.
also, BBEG idea: throw a level 12-ish dhampir antipaladin (or any other race with the knight of the sepulcher AT) with leadership,
flanked by his human invulnerable rager/urban barbarian "tankbarian build" cohort (take the superstitious powers and the fiend totem line instead of the usual beast totem line and the two can team up for massive fear effect stacking if you give them shatter defenses, cornugon smash, and dreadful carnage) and a few other minions to keep them from getting swamped.
tack some cruel weapons on to them and watch the blood fly.
[Are] Evolutions exactly as [they] sound?
It is the Summoner(1)'s class abilities. They summon an "Eidolon" which is a permanent pet that only goes away when they become unconscious or send it away.
Eidolons get "evolution points" to spend on "evolutions". The build uses the "Limbs (Arms)" evolution with some others to take advantage of the summoner class.
Of course this is just one single monster. I still recommend you use the 4-monsters below instead:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/magical-beasts/hydra/pyro hydra/pyrohydra-8-headed
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/undead/witchfire
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/dragons/dragon/-primal-ma gma/magma-dragon-juvenile
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/hell-hound/ness ian-hell-hound
1- http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/summoner
Well, the first 2 sessions have gone swimmingly. The GM's guide to Creating Challenging Encounters was really helpful.
While I didn't use all of any suggestion, I did use some and mostly got inspiration from those posts.
Thanks a bunch!! ^^