Damn, Scorpion, that sounds like a fine fight. Could you detail the different effects characters could suffer each round and how the buff removal/dispelling damage was distributed exactly? Or are those in the statblock document?
@Porridge, Caius
Yeah it seems I'm still able to challenge my party at this level. We shall see what happens once they get a few more levels/tiers under their belts :-)
I added Scorizscar and the effects recently, that's why you don't remember seeing them before. Frankly, I thought this fight wasn't that important, but as the game progressed I felt like it could be a good chance to see how a powerful non-mythic foe fares against mythic characters. And so the changes were born...
@magnuskn,
All the details are in the document, just after the statblock. I think I have been thorough enough with the mechanical descriptions, but if you need additional information don't hesitate to ask! :-)
Thanks, I'll look it up. :)
I have added Pyralisia, the rain of embers to the document. Since she will be in the same fight as Staunton, I tried to make her more of a spellcaster than a melee monster.
Hope you like her.
New update: I have included some details for the encounter at the Fallen Fane, and a new monster to defend the place.
My idea is to lure the group there after kidnapping one of the PC's relatives and sending a message. It seems I'll be able to pick one from the Touched by Divinity character, so for now all goes according to my plan :-)
Exorius will show up as he is linked to the TbD character's backstory.
There they will be ambushed in what I hope will be a challenging encounter, and the prisoner will be used (in some way I have yet to devise) to make things easier for the bad guys to win. Maybe some short of ritual that links Zanedra and/or Svennarobeth to the prisoner, so the damage gets split between the two. That will surely make the sorceress think twice before using those pesky mythic fireballs.
I'm also working or graveknight Staunton, so hopefully I'll be able to post him soon.
Ok, so graveknight Staunton is on the document now.
Well, that wasn't my idea... but I'm sure you could make it work :-)
Using an apocalypse locust as a mount (as you suggested) is what I had in mind in case I wanted to use him that way.
Your comment reminded me that I totally forgot to add an ability for him to fly supernaturally, by using insects as wings (much like deskari).
Oh well, I suppose I'll do it tomorrow.
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Hi again. Thanks for the kind words Scorpion.
I'm finally happy with the mythic thanadaemon. I've posted it up in the minions directory for now.
I also noticed I hadn't dropped any caster levels for the Blackfire Adepts (oops!), so I have rejigged them to be correct. The end result is that they lose 2 spells known and the breaching ability, but they gain the 9th level sorcerer bloodline power. The also shouldn't have had the 11th or 13th level bloodline spells, I've removed those too.
I've also gone through the encounters in books 4 and 5, cross referenced them with Scorpion's stuff and come up with a list of candidates for upgrades and how I'm thinking of changing them (not set in stone). I'd appreciate comments, suggestions or requests if there are any.
Book 4:
Demoniacs: Add 3-4 levels of demoniac (CR ~14-15)
Book 5:
Half-fiend great cyclopes: Change to Advanced Mythic Half-fiend great cyclopes (CR 19)
Demodands: Advance HD and/or create a Ineluctable Prison Warden template. Tarry (~CR 16), Stringy (~CR 18), Slimy (~CR 19), Shaggy (~CR 21)
Labyrinth Minotaur: Warden template (same as demodands) and/or a mythic simple template (thinking one or a combination of agile, divine or invincible) (~CR 20)
On a different note, my table finished off the Ivory Sanctum last session. I ran the last encounter using Thanurel's map and Xanthir update, Scorpion's Retrievers and 4 of my blackfire adepts (plus the Glabrazu summon). It was a challenging fight - probably the first that has really made the PCs sweat in the AP - but went down pretty much how I expected it to. The highlights:
- Wizard (riftwarden orphan) quotes princess bride at Xanthir.
- Glabrazu dies before acting to the paladin (expected).
- Retrievers surprised the party with their HP and second eye beam. Scared the wizard with the disintegrate beam. Both dead by the 3rd round to the rogue and paladin, both had 2 turns.
- Anticaster wizard was cocky and decided not to counter the globe of invulnerability, then immediately regretted it when his empowered chain lightning (non-mythic) did nothing.
- Wizard's fly spell dispelled, black pudding summoned below him.
- Rogue ran up to Xanthir and hit him once (having already full attacked and killed a retriever) for negligable damage. Xanthir was unimpressed and introduced him to mythic magic missile, quickened magic missile and minions who can also cast magic missile. Rogue dies, Xanthir heals to full next round.
- Cleric, having had Freedom of Movement dispelled, suddenly found the mythic black tentacles that had been scoffed at more troubling than expected. Then after escaping with the assistance of the paladin, was promptly bullrushed back in with a telekinesis.
- Wizard, out of spells, casts antimagic field with his last mythic point and hides in a corner. Summoned black pudding mindlessly oozes towards the wizard and winks out.
- Paladin finally gets a new air walk cast, runs up to Xanthir and almost takes him out, but Xanthir survives because the paladin was only able to smite a single worm.
- Xanthir can't take another round of paladin and decides to dimension door to the secret complex entrance for a teleport the next round. Wizard can't counterspell because of the antimagic field.
- Cleric spends a mythic point for a locate object on Xanthir's staff and gets a direction that has to be within the range of the spell, party charges off down the tunnel to try to catch Xanthir.
- Black pudding no longer phased out from the antimagic field reappears and eats the rogue's body.
- Xanthir escapes to become a recurring villain that the wizard gets to quote princess bride at again.
@Patto,
Nice fight with Xanthir, thanks for sharing the details. It seems you now have a nice recurring villain.
Your thanadaemon looks good, but I'm afraid it won't work for my group. They seem to always try to cast death ward before going into a big dungeon, so I tried my hand at a non-mythic version of the monster, hopefully I made it powerful enough to last at least 2 rounds. When creating it, I tried to focus on his martial skill with the quarterstaff. I think it will surprise my players to see a lich-looking monster beat them to death with a stick :-)
As for the minions, at this point I don't have any specific advice sorry.
Now the updates:
- I have included the thanadaemon in the document.
- I have updated the devastator, as it will be the construct that Aponavicius keeps inside her lair. It replaces those useless iron golems. It doesn't have the same sinergy with Pyralisia regarding fire attacks, but it has immunity to fire and she can exclude allies from her aura and sp-like abilities, so it shouldn't be a problem. You can give it the ability to absorb fire damage if you need to.
You can instead use the construct along with aponavicius, empowering her with those juicy enhancement bonuses to Strength and Charisma that the aura of corruption gives.
With this statblock, I consider Part 1 of City of Locusts to be done for now.
Hey Scorpion,
monster design question again. Why does the harvester only have only a+21 to hit (yours is +22 with weapon focus). A 20 HD aberration should have a +15 att, str 41 is another +15 and -4 for size. Should be a +26 attack bonus, any ideas?
Or do have other ideas for critters to use in this spot? It feels like a very weak creature.
Hi Seannoss,
Well I checked the numbers and you're right, it's an error. It seems that the original statblock in the Tome of Horrors Complete has it, and I didn't notice it when updating the stats. Thanks again!
I have updated the document.
I agree that it's not the strongest creature in the adventure (quite the opposite), but its ability to project the tentacles through the qlippoth runestone makes it difficult to replace without altering that encounter too.
I will try to add some abilities in the future to make it more challenging.
Yeah, I read the ability, what I was trying to say is they will expect a monster like this one to energy drain them. I will try to surprise them going with the physical combat route :-)
They have protected themselves from negative levels and energy because they suffered a lot of them in the dungeons of Drezen (spectres and vampire), and then at the Eagle Rock encounter (the Lord of Swarms can fire mythic enervations). And on this evening's session they will likely fight Skullgrym the mature nabassu at the family crypt, who can also inflict negative levels with his gaze and enervation sp-like ability.
Well my PCs didn't even get close to the runestone so its mostly a waste of space. They took Nocticula's advice to heart... they found river and went up river.
Thanks for looking, I wasn't sure if they had assigned it an odd penalty for multi-attacks or something.
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Yesterday we did the Family Crypt fight, using Skullgrym's statblock.
I changed the setup so Sesker's Gully is an abandoned town after a huge demon attack. One of the demons (skullgrym) found the way to bind the spirits of those he consumed (be it the flesh, bones or even ashes). The thing is, after consuming the remains of the mos prominent family in town, he found himself bound to the tomb (wich in my homegame is a huge dwarven crypt under Torag's protection). Although he couldn't leave, his new minions did the outside work for him (we are talking about fallens). Long time after, Skullgrym managed to control other creatures, like the deadly drocha swarms. Undead couldn't touch him, but he couldn't control more than 4 of them at a time. He longed for a more powerful soul to consume, and that of course is the mythic soul of the PC with the Child of the Crusade trait.
The town was deserted, and the entrance to the family crypt was located on the riverbed wall near to Sesker's Gully. A set of stairs excavated into the rock lead down to a cave where the mausoleum entrance lies (it is basically the same as in the adventure map, but much bigger). It is here where the PCs first encounter Alrys, and talk to him. He is used by Skullgrym to lure them into the tombs. After Alrys dissapears, I described a long set of stairs that descended into the dark, and after each landing there was a room with several stone sarcophagi. At the bottom of the stairs was the final room, where the more important members of the family where buried. One of these was Alrys.
The room was big, and rectangular in size, with six stone sarcophagi on the floor near the walls. On each of the walls was a big dwarven statue, 30 feet in height. Skullgrym's lair was behind the head of the statue at the end wall, a small alcove repurposed as some sort of study and nest.
Prior to the fight, Skullgrym succesfully summoned 4 babus and located them hidden between the wall and the stone sarcophagi. Their main purpose was to serve as flanking buddies and to dispel buffs.
Skullgrym also casted silence on his axe, and then waited hidden in his alcobe to use telekinesis on the hidden mechanism that lowered the stone door so the entrance was blocked.
His objective was to kill the PC with the CotC trait, so he could absorb his soul and gain mythic power. He could do this by himself, or using Alrys. The mechanical benefits of this was Skullgrym being healed by a small amount (I think 50 hitpoints or so), and gain the surge and whatever mythic power uses the character had at that moment.
So the PCs went down the final spiral stairs and the paladin, who was first, entered the room. He didn't saw Skullgrym, and he casted telekinesis to close the stone door.
Then Skullgrym proceeded to fire enervation rays at the paladin, giving him quite a lot of negative levels, then summoned Alrys and one drocha swarm to the fight.
Meanwhile, the rest of the party tried to destroy the door with an adamantine weapon, but after seeing it auto-repair damage (it was magically reinforced), the sorcerer carried them to the other side using dimension door. They had seen the room before the door closed, so they decided to appear in the middle of the room.
From here, the battle turned into utter chaos. The babaus flanked with Skullgrym and the fallen when they could, and dispelled quite a lot of the PC's buffs (mostly heroism and freedom of movement).
Alrys always tried to full-attack his relative whenever possible. I improved the fallen statblock so for example their attacks were against touch AC (othewise they will have failed nearly always, they have a low attack bonus), and automatically confirmed crits against the PC with the trait. He wielded an axe and got a bonus to damage rolls, so it hurted. I also changed the agent of despair to a penalty on Will saves, so it helped Skullgrym land his vampiric link on a PC.
If Alrys is defeated in this fight, he can return on the next turn, raising again from his sarcophagus. When he dies for the first time, Skullgrym summons another fallen (if this one dies, it stays dead). The PCs managed to kill him once. He tried to flank as much as possible with his fallen buddy or the babaus.
There were only two drocha swarms in the fight. One appeared at the beginning, and when it died Skullgrym summoned another. They basically chased the paladin and the sorceress around, doing good damage and draining blood (Constitution damage). It's a good thing that the sorceress likes area spells, as they contributed to defeating the swarms faster. I didn't tried to use the death attack, as the save is very easy.
Skullgrym spent most of the fight in the air, throwing enervations, and doing flyby attacks. The negative levels affected the PCs most of the fight, but the cleric managed to death ward the paladin (he had like 6 negative levels), and the babaus never managed to dispel it. On the other hand, the sorceress ended the fight with 5 negative levels, that lowered significantly the power of her spells.
After seeing Alrys die for the first time, he tried to enervate the CotC PC (who was suffering a lot of pressure from the fallen's attacks) but my dice hated me and I rolled a 1. I also tried to use the Death-stealing gaze actively to kill him, but he got lucky and succeeded at it. I never used the vampiric link because I was either using the swift for a quickened sp-like ability, or to recast a constant sp-like that the dwarven cleric had mythic dispelled the turn before (unholy aura was very important).
In the end, he landed and fought hand to hand with the paladin and the inquisitor, who was being harassed by the drocha swarm. His passive constant death-stealing gaze inflicted quite a lot of negative levels on the sorceress (a pity she never was inside the silence radius) and the paladin's mount.
The turn before he died, Alrys did a critical on the dwarven cleric, killing him. That allowed Skullgrym to eat his soul, heal, and... gain no mythic power uses because the cleric was already dry :-) (he was later resurrected using the scroll in the secret stash)
The next turn, the inquisitor and the paladin put an end to Skullgrym with their full attacks. The players had won but they were badly hurt and one of them was dead.
So we had another great fight, the players fought intelligently by dispelling Skullgrym's buffs and focusing on the swarms (they are evil!). The inquisitor also was a pain in the butt with his bow, hitting skullgrym several times.
All in all, I'm happy with the result.
Well done. I still will go more by the book, I think, because I frankly want to get this part of the AP over with, to get to the more interesting stuff in the later books. Although I will happily use your upgraded stats, add some enemies and make that crypt larger to accomodate them all. :)
I also see that you did an upgrade for Skulgrym somewhen lately, which I'll happily use, too. :)
Yesterday we did the Family Crypt fight, using Skullgrym's statblock. ...
Sounds like another great encounter! I'm really regretting not using these stat blocks earlier...
So we had another great fight, the players fought intelligently by dispelling Skullgrym's buffs and focusing on the swarms (they are evil!).
I love swarms, for this very reason.
Sadly, as soon as my players learned that one of their major opponents was Deskari "lord of the locusts", they purchased three Swarmbane Clasps. This has made swarm encounters much easier for them... :(
Remember that Swarmbane clasps only do so much...
Yeah, the big change it's had on my encounters is allowing the players to do full weapon damage to them. This has allowed my party's archery-based ranger to take out several swarms in a single round...
Which is fine. But a bit anti-climatic. (I miss having players fumbling with fuse grenades, and desperately hoping that they'll go off before the swarm has moved across the room... sigh...)
@magnuskn,
Well I try to think of this part of the module as an opportunity to test the strength of the party against high CR encounters. The story is also flowing quite well, with a few changes that I introduced. This, and that my players are awesome.
Yeah, I have made some minor upgrades to Skullgrym and Vorimeraak, taking into account the numbers my players can get. As I told earlier in this thread, I remade the encounter at the Fallen Fane, with a new two-enemy-waves setup. Tomorrow we play again, and since Vang's retrievers and Exorius have managed to kidnap the paladin's mother on her way to Drezen, I presume that is the encounter we will play.
there are other monsters that have been changed, like Ylleshka and Hepzamirah. For now they only have an increased AC, but I have more ideas that may be implemented in the future.
@Porridge,
I would have loved to provide these stats earlier to see more detailed descriptions of this fights from other GMs, but...
The drocha swarms are nasty, with the death attack, good damage and blood drain. For the record, I assumed the blood drain happened automatically, since the standard monster ability requires a grapple and the swarm can't do that.
My players don't have access to al the splatbooks (only to those elements that have a presence in the mythic adventures hardback), so I don't have to worry about those clasps.
BTW, are you going to resume your campaign anytime soon? Aponavicius' lair is finished, and I'll start working on a nasty mythic Terendelev in the next days. Just curious. Your descriptions are very useful.
@Lochar,
Sorry man, I forgot back then to thank you for posting your graveknight Staunton. It really helped me to establish a baseline when building my own :-)
@Scorpion: Yeah, I'd consider adding HP. Much more HP. I had another eye opening experience this evening, into which I'll go in detail in my thread after I've finished supper. Let's just say that damage output by the PC's is getting stupid already at tier three.
Yup...as noted tier three is where it hits the fan if my guess is right.
@Lochar,
I hope the statblock is as good as you expect! I'll make her double-nasty, just in case :-)
Your comment makes me wonder how far in the AP you are at the moment. Any good fights lately?
@magnuskn,
I feel your pain. It is a shame when a boss goes down in one or two hits. We all know it happens from time to time but the mythic rules makes it much easier. Did you used the "block attacks" mythic ability to protect Vorimeraak? that can negate even a crit if you reach the attacker's roll. I just wanna know if the ability was useful in general in this combat.
The first thing I talked with my players before adding the first mythic tier was Mythic Power Attack. I told them that the "double the damage before applying the crit modifier on a critical hit" is troublesome, because it can generate a lot of damage and stops play since it is something you have to calculate outside of your normal damage. We all agreed to not apply that part of the feat. Aside from that, the rest of the mythic stuff is still played by the book with some minor interpretations.
If something like the vorimeraak crit starts happening too often to the bad guys, I'll seriously consider applying Porridge's x2 hit points on bosses.
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PCs just became notorious in Alushinyrra last game as we quit for the night.
Bit of background on my players:
My Eldritch Knight sorcerer PC Mordekay (Riftwarden Orphan) is an Aasimar, and took the feat to get wings. He's also making time with Arueshalae since they're both followers of Desna. I allowed the burgeoning romance to be one of her trials at the end of Book 3 and it pushed her over the edge and redeemed her fully. So they make an interesting couple, though Arueshalae stayed behind in Drezen to protect the city. His Book 3 trial was a spellbook crafted for him by Terendelav as a child with a sketch of him as a baby and his parents in the front cover, gifted to his parents. If he'd taken more after T than his wizard parents (which he did), the frame around the picture can be moved to the first page of any spell scribed into this specific book. After a number of days equal to the spell level, the spellbook acts as a Page of Spell Knowledge for the framed spell.
Next up is Brother Peter (Exposed to Awfulness), semi-divine cleric of Iomedae. He's currently in a major theological argument with Jerribeth as I skipped the barbarians and Jerribeth became his Book 3 trial. Beating her allowed him to overcome the soul wounds from his childhood and he stole a portion of her power. He's got a 'free' Divine Source out of it and took Beyond Morality because the Source comes with a shift both chaotic and evil. Jerribeth (your stats) managed to escape, ticked off and insane with rage. Both Jerribeth and Brother Peter are now technically the same 'god' with regards to Divine Source. I've rebuilt Jerribeth as a Glabrezu Oracle 14/Heirophant 7 nightmare that they'll likely be facing either this weekend or next. Jerribeth has two copies of Divine Source, the second of which is the 'stolen' power.
Third is Steelmane, my Paladin and son of Iomedae. If you'll recall from a long time ago, I'm letting this player playtest his campaign book by running a MLP Earthbound pony. He has a mount, nicknamed Angry Horse due to several facts not the least of which is the fact that Steelmane does ride his mount. Steelmane is a major damage dealer of the party with his lance. Steelmane doesn't know it yet, but mother dearest will be offering him the mantle of Herald at the end of Book 5.
Finally is Rogar, who is an unfortunate PC due to his player. While my other three players have accidentally broken mythic several times, he is the player who I think James Jacob aims at as 'target audience.' An Arcane Trickster (sorcerer/rogue) with Chance Encounter, he's pretty much failed at his trick. Low CL means he can't break SR, and pretty much all of his spells have SR. He's kinda related himself to party buffer and sighs a lot. Mythic haste/bless, etc. I've poked at him a couple of times with offers of sidequests and/or special mythic powers but he's not shown any interest. On offer now is if he takes the time to cultivate his link with Arueshalae due to his campaign trait, he could spend mythic points to borrow any one of her defenses or SLAs. He's not biting on the quest offering and I don't want to just give it to him outright.
So anyways, you wanted to know about good combats. For reference, I run this online through roll20 and am using your stats for pretty much everything. I've warned the players that after their pretty much trouncing of Book 3, I'm taking of the kiddie gloves and and running the NPCs like the horrible monsters they are.
Entering the Midnight Fane, the PCs immediately trigger off the Deskari Golem. The magic mouth goes off and I pop up the initiative box and get the players to roll. As the golem had like a 4 init, I again described what happened and asked the players what they did.
They opened with damage.
The golem managed to survive, mainly due to the Ash Giant getting curious and opening the door to his room in the middle of the first round, giving the PCs two targets.
The golem got off a full round of attacks and scared the sweet baby jesus out of the players with the corruption ability, especially my two sorcerers who are used to Mirror Dodging out of the way and almost learned the hard way how to explode on command. Rogar nearly went down, but Brother Peter and augmented Mythic Heal (Now with Restoration goodness) made a mockery out of damage and ability drain. Spillover healing was good as well.
The incubus opened the doors in round two, and basically became a long conga line of targets, though I did get some decent damage off on squishies who again weren't used to not being able to Mirror Dodge.
They proceeded south to the lab, where 'fallen Yaniel' tried to talk them into submitting, before then attempting to dominate them. It's much easier to do full round spells when your Project Image literally can't be interrupted because everyone's failing their Will saves.
Mordekay was dominated, but saved by a Protection from Evil for a second, surged, save.
A mythic fireball was dropped into the room to try to kill her and the alchemist, which I ruled started setting off the Nahadryian mixtures. Three rounds later the lab explodes and Minagho comes flying out of her room, shrugging off AoOs as she flees towards the rift and the Goristro Thugs in there.
The players take a moment to heal up from the partially completed elixirs that exploded onto them for lots of negative energy damage. No one was coming, so they took a look into Minagho's room and found Yaniel, fixed her, and got the paladin his holy avenger lance.
Yaniel was barricaded into the room as PCs and Queen ventured forth again. The door to the rift room had been closed, so they ignored it for a moment and hit Ursathella and her Ash Thug playmate. Dangerous fight, as the Mythic Cloud kill was strong enough that save failures were automatic death, of which two did. Dispel Magic by the Avenger, then Quickened(meta rod) Mythic Heal by at range fixed one player and the spillover got the second on his feet, followed by a life bubble on everyone. As Ursathella had them stuck in the hallway, it was actually a decent battle as she cast spells while her giant played roadblock. If'd I'd played her insane the way the book called for, I'm fairly certain I wouldn't have gotten past round one. Mythic Power drain scared the players.
After Ursathella, the players finally got to the rift room and nearly lost the Queen when the two Goristro Thugs quite literally batted her almost all the way through the room and into the machine. One more hit would have gotten her eaten. Rogar kept throwing his CL 11 spells at the thugs, and couldn't get the 16 he needed. So he basically hid in a corner.
Ibaheniel was interesting. No save Touch of Chaos on the blackfire gave him three extra rounds to live while he tried to bleed people dry, and though his save DCs were pretty low he didn't have anything else to do with his swifts but toss out the lightning.
The bebiliths were nothing to mention.
With Arueshalae in their heads and a good K: Planes check, they skipped the Vazglar Shrine with a teleport.
On arrival, I had an interesting person talk to them. The paladin asked if they were evil, he laughed at them and asked who wasn't, but didn't attack and walked away. Party was befuddled that I didn't throw them into combat immediately upon city entrance.
Battlebliss was where my party learned to delay actions to break up someone with mythic improved init and dual init from getting a bottom of the round AND top of the round attack. The party all charged Gelderfang who'd taken his first action to just piss them off with a weak suggestion. High AC and one use of Mythic Dodge for the Paladin's smiting charge meant no damage that round.
Gelderfang literally never had to move more than a 5' step once. He ripped into the paladin and smacked him with pretty much every hit. Then full rounded him again as the top of round 2, dropping and killing Steelmane.
Brother Peter relentless mythic Heal'd him back to full while the paladin took Amazing Init to stand up, then a full round of attacks and with the +4 (he fell onto the right platform) did some decent damage.
Rogar had his one shining moment (because I used the standard SR and not yours) and got a maxmized mythic Enervation off on Gelderfang, giving him a total of -8 to swings and -2 to damage.
Gelderfang then stepped up and beat Brother Peter into the ground. Quite literally the only thing that saved him was Rogar's sickening him and Exposed to Awefulness' ability to heal some damage when going unconscious due to demon. Brother Peter has 22 Con, and was at -40 and stable.
The party then managed to full round Gelderfang unconscious, then killed him.
The party played nice with Vellexia, but as part of Brother Peter's attempts to impress her revealed he was a god (Divine Source).
The next day, Nezzirus showed up and made his offer. The players declined (from the safety of a rope trick in a inn room), and Nezzirus left.
When they came downstairs, they found the guy from their first day, he mentioned Nezzirus had made an offer to all the other demons to share, because of rumors of one of the PCs being a god.
Turns out the strange guy was actually a Advanced Thanoptic Titan and wanted to kill god-boy.
Rogar was useless, Mordekay's sole purpose in the entire fight was emergency force sphere which the titan proved capable of smashing through to get to Brother Peter, and a smiting Steelmane was doing 120+ points of damage a round to a CR 23 creature. Steelmane barely saved against an Imprisonment and Brother Peter was big Healing during the times force sphere was down. Four rounds, and they took down the Titan.
Mingaho part 2 was a cakewalk in comparison.
The first thing I talked with my players before adding the first mythic tier was Mythic Power Attack. I told them that the "double the damage before applying the crit modifier on a critical hit" is troublesome, because it can generate a lot of damage and stops play since it is something you have to calculate outside of your normal damage. We all agreed to not apply that part of the feat. Aside from that, the rest of the mythic stuff is still played by the book with some minor interpretations.
Just to be clear, RAW, isn't (non-mythic) Power Attack damage already multiplied with critical hits?
(Although the wording for Mythic Power Attack is confusing, I took Paizo's stance to be this: "power attack damage is always multiplied on critical hits, for both the mythic and non-mythic power attack feats". Here's the thread I found discussing this:
Link.
In any case, right or wrong, this may explain why my estimate of Mythic Power Attack has diverged from that of some of the other posters. They're interpreting the feat as doing two new things---(i) increasing normal power attack damage, and (ii) allowing this damage to be multiplied by critical hits---whereas, as I've been understanding things, (ii) isn't anything new---this was the case for the ordinary Power Attack feat too.)
EDIT: Just re-read the threads on this more more carefully, and realized that (RAW) Mythic Power Attack bonus damage is doubled before the critical multiplier is applied, and then multiplied again by the critical multiplier.
Wow. That's so ridiculously absurd that this way of understanding the feat didn't even occur to me.
No wonder people have been complaining!
(And it shows I should read things more carefully: Scorpion described this in precisely the right way above.)
My players don't have access to al the splatbooks (only to those elements that have a presence in the mythic adventures hardback), so I don't have to worry about those clasps.
Yeah, letting them get their grubby little hands on the Ultimate Equipment book might have been a mistake...
BTW, are you going to resume your campaign anytime soon? Aponavicius' lair is finished, and I'll start working on a nasty mythic Terendelev in the next days. Just curious. Your descriptions are very useful.
Definitely.
Right now they're in the middle of the 2nd book of the Shattered Star AP, so we're going to finish that first. But after that, we're coming back!
I feel your pain. It is a shame when a boss goes down in one or two hits. We all know it happens from time to time but the mythic rules makes it much easier. Did you used the "block attacks" mythic ability to protect Vorimeraak? that can negate even a crit if you reach the attacker's roll. I just wanna know if the ability was useful in general in this combat.
I didn't even see it, to be honest. My printer is only black and white and as such your enhancements in red don't stand out when I print the character sheets. It's really hard to remember every new thing that is possible with the rules. ^^
But Vorimeraak would have had to roll really high to block the attack, anyway. The Paladin rolled a 17, had divine favor on him and a smite and mythic power attack active, so his attack roll would have been around a 40. Vorimeraak, even with mythic Heroism active, has an attack bonus of only +20. Ergo sum, the attack in all probability was about unblockable.
BTW, what is "augmented critical"? I can't find it in the mythic rules or the normal ones?
As for mythic power attack, I feel extremely bad about nerfing something after allowing it at first. I will have another talk with the group about the power level in total of the AP and about maybe switching over to a non-mythic configuration (as Story Archer expounded upon over in the Mythic APs thread in the general adventure path forum), but I am not that hopeful that they want to do it, since its a lot of work for everyone. And players are lazy. :p
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@magnuskn
the "augmented Critical" is just a note about how a specific weapon uses a non-standard Critical range or multiplier.
Example: Vorimeraak's natural attacks have a threat range of 18-20/x2, but has no feats or abilities that would normally allow for this, so the SQ "augmented critical" is added so that it is not viewed as a mistake.
or at the very least that's how i read it
Possible, although I'd like to see if Scorpion (who wrote in that ability) says the same. :)
@Lochar,
Wow, thanks for taking your time to write such a detailed description! It helps a lot, and you even gave me some new ideas for my game.
Nice character backgrounds, and I would absolutely love to see that Jerribeth statblock. I like your concept of a "theological fight", it gives a nice touch to an already interesting background.
I remember the Ponyfinder, I even bought the pdf after reading your post long time ago :-)
Do you think swapping call lightning for chain lightning on Ibaheniel's statblock would make for a more interesting fight? It could give some multi-target damage and keeps the lightning theme.
What about the Demonic Knowledge ability? Was it useful in keeping him alive for a little longer? In my game I'll probably let him start the fight with some additional buddies already summoned to give extra targets to the players.
@Porridge,
That's good to hear. Let's hope the statblocks can do a decent job against your players!
@magnuskn,
Augmented critical is exactly what Joe Burn said. In 3.5 it was an ability some monsters had, in Pathfinder I think the name varies and sometimes it is rolled into other abilities, but basically what it usually does is increase the threat range and/or the crit multiplier beyond what would be normal.
Thanks, then. I thought I had missed some mythic ability somewhere. ^^
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@Lochar,
Wow, thanks for taking your time to write such a detailed description! It helps a lot, and you even gave me some new ideas for my game.
Nice character backgrounds, and I would absolutely love to see that Jerribeth statblock. I like your concept of a "theological fight", it gives a nice touch to an already interesting background.
I remember the Ponyfinder, I even bought the pdf after reading your post long time ago :-)
Do you think swapping call lightning for chain lightning on Ibaheniel's statblock would make for a more interesting fight? It could give some multi-target damage and keeps the lightning theme.
What about the Demonic Knowledge ability? Was it useful in keeping him alive for a little longer? In my game I'll probably let him start the fight with some additional buddies already summoned to give extra targets to the players.
I never used call lightning, as having to hand over an entire round for casting it would have been a waste of time, so yes chain lightning would have been great.
Demonic Knowledge was fun as well. Mainly because I went 'You, you, you and you all look like casters or paladins of some type. Oh, two paladins. Ignoring Smite. Cleric? Ignoring alignment channel. Sorcerer? Ignoring your favorite spell."
And as for Jerribeth, note that she's actually a bit tougher than Hepzamirah, but horribly lacks in the melee damage department.
If you use her, be careful! :P
Oracle 14/Hierophant 7
CE Huge outsider (chaotic, demon, evil, extraplanar, mythic)
Init +19(M); Senses darkvision 60 ft., true seeing; Perception +26
DEFENSE
AC 39, touch 11, flat-footed 36 (+20 natural, –2 size, +1 Dex, +8 Armor, +2 Dodge)
hp 417 (12d10+14d8+288)
Fort +27, Ref +8, Will +20
DR 10/good; Immune electricity, poison; Resist acid 10, cold 10, fire 10; SR 24
OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft., fly 60’ (good)
Melee 2 pincers +30 (2d8+10/19–20), 2 claws +30 (1d6+10), bite +30 (1d8+10)
Space 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft.
Special Attacks rend (2 pincers, 2d8+15)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 14th)
Constant—true seeing
At will—chaos hammer (DC 28), confusion (DC 28), dispel magic, mirror image, reverse gravity (DC 30), greater teleport (self plus 50 lbs. of objects only), veil (self only), unholy blight
1/day—power word stun, summon (level 4, 1 glabrezu 20% or 1d2 vrocks 50%)
1/month—wish (granted to a mortal humanoid only)
STATISTICS
Str 31, Dex 13, Con 31, Int 16, Wis 16, Cha 39
Base Atk +22; CMB +24; CMD 34
Feats Cleave, Great Cleave, Improved Critical (pincer), Persuasive, Power Attack, Vital Strike, Improved Initiative(M), Spell Penetration(M), Greater Spell Penetration, Dodge(M), Endurance, Die Hard(M), Quicken Spell
Skills Bluff +28, Diplomacy +22, Intimidate +22, Knowledge (history) +18, Knowledge (local) +18, Perception +26,Sense Motive +18, Stealth +7, Use Magic Device +17, Spellcraft +25; Racial Modifiers +8 Bluff, +8 Perception
Languages Abyssal, Celestial, Draconic; telepathy 100 ft.
Mythic Paths: Mythic Spellcasting, Eldritch Breach, Flexible Counterspell, Divine Source, Enhanced Ability (Cha), Divine Source(Disabled), Overcome Curse
Source: Chaos, Evil, Madness(Disabled): Sub(Disabled): Nightmare, Demon
Hierophant ability: Recalled Blessing
Mythic Power: 17/day
Enhanced Abilities: Jerribeth has a bound Succubus’ gift granting her +2 to Dex.
Mystery: Dark Tapestry
Curse: Wrecker
Revelations: Cloak of Darkness (+8 Armor AC), Wings of Darkness, Brain Drain, Pierce the Veil
Spells: (CL 14, Concentration: +28. Saves are 24+ SL)
0-
1(10)- Entropic Shield, Inflict Light
2(10)- Dust of Twilight(M), Inflict Moderate, Oracle’s Burden
3(9)- Deeper Darkness, Blindness/Deafness(M), Tongues, Inflict Serious
4(9)- Spell Immunity, Dismissal, Control Water, Death Ward, Black Tentacles(M), Inflict Critical(M)
5(9)- Slay Living, Siphon Magic, Major Curse, Feeblemind
6(8)- Harm(M), Heal(M), Planar Binding
7(6)- Greater Scrying, Insanity
Spell Immunity (These were chosen based off of my players): Holy Word, Plane Shift, Mythic Severance
And as for Jerribeth, note that she's actually a bit tougher than Hepzamirah, but horribly lacks in the melee damage department.
If you use her, be careful! :P
Nasty. (By the way, was changing her DR from "DR 10/epic and good" to "DR 10/good" intentional?)
@Lochar,
But man, melee damage is my favorite department!
Just kidding, nice work and thanks for sharing :-)
@Porridge,
Tiers don't give DR, that is something you get with ranks. If you take a look, you can see that she no longer has the abilities I gave to her. Those came from ranks too. Instead she gets all the mythic tiers' abilities
Tiers don't give DR, that is something you get with ranks. If you take a look, you can see that she no longer has the abilities I gave to her. Those came from ranks too. Instead she gets all the mythic tiers' abilities
Ah, gotcha. That makes sense.
From my experience its the melee types that are a lot more frightening with mythic rules. Spells aren't scary and its nearly impossible to have PCs fail saves
Terendelev has been added to the document.
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Of a note, the default Terendelev had 250 HP on his Soul Ward, which is outside the normal ability of a ravener but you dropped it back to 50? Although, looking at the Nahydrian Aura and vorpal enhancement, I can understand why.
Why does the Paralyzing Breath have a save DC of 37/47?
And yes, she is as atrociously scary as I'd hoped.
Hi Lochar,
The standard ravener Soul Ward has double the Hit Dice in hit points, so when reviewing the ravener template I assumed the 250 hp is an error in the adventure. Maybe the designers gave her a lot more, but the statblock doesn't explain why. The number of hit points doesn't matter much as Terendelev can recharge the Soul Ward to full by dealing damage. I have also removed for now the benefits of the magic scales (those affect the sould ward) until I can come up with an effect that doesn't make the fight too easy. I may even keep them out and allow the 4 scales to cleanse the dragon (the nahyndrian effects may still be active even if she's dead) so she can be revived or die in peace.
The paralyzing breath benefits from the mythic breath weapon dragon trait, and as such it can have the standard DC if used as a swift action, or DC + mythic rank if the dragon uses it as a standard action. The standard cold breath weapon also has two different DCs.
You can read about the mythic dragon traits just after Azrivauxus statblock in the CoL section.
Glad you like it!
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They'd probably given the soul ward 250 HP due to the fact that it could be attacked directly.
And that would be where I missed the breath trait. I kept looking for it in my books, not the document. :P
Thematically, I'll likely keep the bite only usable in the Nahyndrian Aura, and the scales will negate the vorpal ability of her head once for it's wielder, then shatter.
Those are very good ideas Lochar. I'll implement them in the document for the next time I upload it, although I'll keep the bite with a reach of sight (that way you can threaten the casters that are far away). Damage will only recharge the soul ward if it is dealt within the aura.
This is why I love this forums. You get stuck on something? no problem, there's a good chance that someone will come up with an awesome idea! :-)
