Hey there,
Right now Im working to improve the final encounter of kingmaker 3/6. The Lich by himself is a little bit boring as BBEG as he probably won't challenge my players that much at. I already made up another encounter including masses of undead (my Lich made Zombies out of all inhabitants of varnhold) so I wanted to have not too many participants in this fight. So I planned on giving him a pet - a fast zombie purple worm. Now my idaea is that he DDs inside the worm whenever he's short on HP and channels to heal himself and the worm while the pet still tears apart my PC.
Now I'd like to know what you think about this and how to further improve this tactic. Maybe I need to change some of his prepared spells to have more DDs and slightly improve his ability to channel energy. Will this Channel hurt PC right next to the worm as well?
And then I consider adding something else to distract the party from attacking the worm (as it will drop fast when 5 PC attack him like crazy, even though he has tons of HP) but I dont really have a good idea yet. The fight will take place in a huge chamber where the party killed the undead inhabitants of varnhold before, so everything will be full of corpse - is there a way for my Lich to make use of that? Or can you think of some kind of mechanic that will make this fight more interessting?
Thanks in advance!
Wasum
Well, since you have all those corpses...perhaps a toned down verison of the Charnel Colossus?
Mass swarm Shadows FTW. I dont care who you are...getting touched by 4-6 shadows a round each draining 1d6 str = dead target.
SO hows this....
Lich sends out a large skeletal team of hill/frost giant skeletons. No big threat but enough to make the melee characters get a woody to show off on. So they all charge the group to gleefully hack and slash away at the poor skeletons. The wizard giggles and tosses his fireball and the cleric casts a show off spell
No worries for there is the downfall...
Two teams of 6 shadows pop out of the wall/floor and its touch, touch, touch on the mage and the cleric. There is NO way with the shadows going on surprise (deny dex) that the mage or cleric can live through that. No way. So two dead party members in one round. The shadows sink back in.
Even in the case that you rule the priest and mage can yell out as they get zapped, the melee are already engaged in fighting and at least one round away. No worries. Shadows disappear. Rinse and repeat for two more.
With the cleric and mage down, there is no way to win.
So I ask you, what lich in his right mind wouldnt have shadows in the walls?
Alright assuming you are talking about the end boss of "The Varnhold Vanishing"
In which case it's Vordecai who is an 10th Level Wizard (Necromancer) Lich Cyclops correct? Since he has just risen, and doesn't have the caster level for his Create Greater Undead, (Nor for his phylactery to work) I'm not seeing alot of shadows/wraiths/spectres being generated. (Unless of course you want to add them.)
If he dimension doors inside his purple worm, would he not also be subject to the damage? (The swallow hole) Now while his DR may kick in to effect alot of that, some might bleed through.
You say party won't be challenged by him...(Going by the adventure assumptions.. aren't they around level 9-10?) I'm guessing that adding a few of the cyclopean zombies in the room with big V to slow them down (Maybe give them armor, better weapons, and I forget if they have the advanced template or not (a sort of "Honor Guard") while he lays into them.
If you want to bolster this army of former Varnholdians, have you looked at the hungry fog monster (I think it's bestiary 3). It's basically a fog that does negative energy damage (giving those zombies extra hp! to help waste those party resources!!) And maybe once they have re-slaughtered the villagers, have their hatred take form as either a spectre/wraith (or a couple) while they are fighting the cyclops guards to strike them in the back. (Or toss in another souleater at the party!)
This does however leave you open to Death Ward shutting them down pretty hard (but luckily those Cyclops zombies should be putting in the hurt with physical damage, and big V has a pretty good spellcraft check and alot of dispel magics (if im not mistaken) to help remove it.)
And also I believe V has been scrying/knowledge of them every since they step foot in his tomb (Thanks to his eyeball) so he should be familiar with their tactics.
Sorry for the bit of a rant (been a while since I ran this, he gave my party fits (with phantasm killering the rogue on round 2, and mind controlling the barbarian.)
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@Taason: I think you misunderstood the point of this thread.
The point was to make the fight more interesting. Not to kill the PCs.
Killing PCs is easy. Nobody needs advice on how to do that.
Having those Varnholdians risen as incorporals sounds like a good idea, this should really annoy them! The fog monster is great as well, this could even come into play aearlier when fighting those inhabitans the first time!
But how would he do that? Maybe a power of his artifact as well? Or is there another way to male that work somehow?
And the purple worm loses swallow whole when he is transzombified, so I guess V would not take any damage would he?
And yea, V knows everything about the party. For example that there is a life oracle that could be annoying - what could my lich do to somehow counter it?
I dont really like the shadow advice as it seems to just kill the party.
Charnel Colossus sounds good as well but how would my Lich do that? Cast animate dead on the zombie corpses? That should not work I guess. Any other idea?
Well, I was thinking more "spontaneously arisen" corpses.
The villagers corporate into the huge undead mass that is the Charnel Colossus and come for revenge or something...but are snared by his ability to Command Undead?
Maybe work it into something that is both a threat, but something they can use against the Lich (break his control, and the Colossus will turn on him).
4chan had the old idea of the lichotron: a lich whose every bone but one (his "core" bone, usually the skull) are all demilich servants bound to its will, riding around in a (weird templated)troll-flesh golem suit. (and generally in command of lots and lots and lots (and lots) of undead, given how huge the different bones' animate/control dead buckets are
so something like the available power of ~200-something high level wizards/sorcerers/clerics/druids/antipaladins/anyone-who-decides-to-do-the- rituals-for-lichdom wearing an outer "body" that constantly regenerates.
more of a thought excersize than a real character/BBEG draft though.
as for those pesky positive energy spells, stick to a desecrated area, grab protection from good, and crank those saves and touch AC as high as you can go. if the lich is a sorc/oracle/antipaladin/(3pp) cabalist magus(?) he's hilariously SAD, especially if he had 'sidestep secret' or 'natures whispers' mysteries, or the divine grace equivalent for antipaladins
The joy of the artifact is that, it has the powers that you the 'GM' decide it has! (Besides those listed in the book)
But as for the villagers hatred rising up as a spectral undead.. heck there are no rules for it (unless one uses create greater undead) (But its plot! I'm pretty sure in the entry its listed (for spectre/wraith) that it's something about dying and hating the living, jealously etc etc.)
Now while maybe the wraith/spectre /incorporeal monster may hate big V, that negative energy damage does nothing but heal him (yay undead!). So that just makes it even more frustrated, so who does it take out its rage on?? Why the party of course! Those fleshlings... not knowing how good they have it!!
(Don't forget that big V is also a necromancer and can control the undead (if they get riled up) with the channel negative energy power from his school (POWER OVER UNDEAD) (Unless I am horribly mistaken).)
As for the mists? They are attracted towards graveyards, sufferings. (Heck maybe he sealed it into his coffin/tomb with him during earthfall (giving him temporary hp or healing him just in case!) and over the thousands of years being stuck with the guy, they form a sort of bond. (Or maybe in payment for keeping him fully healed/safe for all that time he gave that fog the village of varnhold as payment/reward). Adds a level of nastiness.
If you want to twist that knife even more... as the party hacks through the members of the town, they see their souls slowly feeding the fog that grows bigger!!!
What does the life oracle do that is such a problem?? The desecrate will really stack things in your BBEG's favor (the bonuses on HP/Hit/Damage/saves for all the undead will give them more staying power).
Thats actually a good advice, I really shouldnt care to much about how to make it possible by RAW.
Now there is just the question what exactly would make the fight the most interesting. Adding such a fog, some kind of flesh golem or just a few incorporals... I kinda think fog would be great as he wont deal too much damage what could easily cause a tpk while still making the fight a lot more challenging... on the other hand the flavour of a flesh golem kind of thing would be cool too...
Mhh
What you could possibly do.. (and as always your mileage may very as groups differ).
Is while the party is slashing away at the mooks (zombified Varnholdians) is having big V take an action (move, standard, full, (whatever suits your fancy), to use his 'spooky lich/necromancer/artifact powers' to 'animate/activate' a monster of your choosing, (either a flesh golem, an incorporeal, an undead cyclops, another soul eater) Have it take a full round to 'wake up' if you want, or lumber onward towards combat.
Gives you the opportunity to both show off his cool menagerie of monsters, his cool powers, and a bit of a 'dial' in which you can turn it up if the party just seems to be mowing through (or turn down, 'Oh no he ran out of minions! or.. if they have managed to piece together a bit of his back story 'It looks like he hasn't regained full mastery of his powers! We better strike him down before he has time to regain his strength!!').
I'm sort of imagining the party wading their way through undead bodies as big V animates and throws more and more minions at them (to both drain resources and stall for time (either real or imagined)) until finally it is them vs him!
I'm not sure about too many minions - the fight right before V includes lots and lots of undead as I already mentioned, so Isomehow prefer to not have too many other stuff creeping arount the battlefield.
I now had the idea of adding an undead raven swarm to support V and his giant worm. It would fit in great as V has a raven familiars and already killed one of those when the party caught it. Do you think this would be a good idea?
As far as I also liked the idea of a flesh golem or something similar made of the corpses I will just have those zombie bodies start "living" as soon as the artifact is close to them, making them somehow immobile zombies attacking everything close to them.
What do you think about that?