|
Didn't you ask this question somewhere else? I vaguely remembering answering it already. :P
It's a standard minotaur with the fiendish template. Give it DR 5/Good, Resist Cold and Fire 10, and 1/day as a swift action is can give itself +6 to damage against one good target as it's version of Smite Evil.
Just curious Sc8rpi8n do you have a stat block for the Minotaur in the Grey Garrison? I did one up myself but Wasn't sure how much to put into the Great Axe it will wield.
Thanks in advance.
Hi Raltus,
Well what I did is use the Half-Fiend minotaur that is on the Bestiary 1. The fiendish minotaur seemed too weak for me.
It worked great, dealing awesome damage while being easy to hit. If you want to create a better challenge, I don't think any more modifications are needed.
Just remember that if you kill a character with the x3 crit modifier (as I did), when they activate the wardstone at the end of the adventure the character should be revived.
Quick update: I have included advanced versions of the demodands for Herald of the Ivory Labyrinth in the document. They are still easy to defeat, but should be able to get a few hits before dying.
I didn't do the stringy demodand because I don't have the miniature (I got the set for this AP), so I am planning on replacing all of those with slimy demodands as they almost have the same CR.
He can already hit very hard for that level (more than a few obituaries from his axe). If he isn't much of a challenge to your PCs then make him a half fiend (stats for that are in the bestiary) or give him a level of barbarian or something.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I almost forgot to give you a recounting of my last big encounter, the fallen fane.
The encounter setup was as established in the document, with two waves of enemies that the players had to face in quick succession.
Prior to the fight, the mother of one of the PCs (the tiefling paladin of Sarenrae) was kidnapped by Vang's retrievers while traveling to Drezen in the company of other crusaders, and brought to the fane. There, Zanedra executed a ritual that linked her to the mother, so the damage she took was tranferred to her. If the NPC died, her soul would go directly to Baphomet.
The effect was dispellable (CL 14th), and required a dispel on both characters to end the effect.
I calculated that the NPC could withstand up to 60 damage before dying.
So the party travels to the place the giggling quasit told the survivors of the attack. They find the cave entrance, and the paladin (who has the touched by divinity campaign trait) bursts into flames and gets the bonuses listed in the AP.
At this point it's worth mentioning that I added an extra benefit: while the combat lasts, the divine energy inside the character bursts every 5 rounds (max. twice), healing every character for 100 hit points and giving back 1d4 mythic uses. This was intended to be some short of "failsafe", a mythic boon from Sarenrae to help them clean the fane.
Then they start buffing, and casts like 2-3 spells on each one. They enter the cave, and when they reach the stairs flanked by the statues, see Zanedra near the Baphomet statue with a dagger on the neck of the NPC (she was unconscious and resting on the statues' outstretched arms)
During this, Exorius has been at the top of the entrance, hidden and looking for the characters. As soon as he saw them, he teleported inside the fane's right room (one of those with beds), succesfully summoned his brimoraks, and then teleported outside again.
Svennarobeth waits in the tunnel below the statue, invisible. The glabrezu is on the room to the right. Both wait for Zanedra to summon them.
The combat starts, and the first one is the inquisitor, that moves up to Zanedra (high speed + fleet charge) and hits her for good damage. You can imagine the horror on the player's faces when the wound appears on the NPC's body...
After that, the first enemies appeared: antipaladins and brimoraks. The little demons threw an awful lot of fireballs for moderate damage, and the antipaladins went to defend Zanedra and flank the paladin (who had moved almost near the statue)
The cleric and sorceress stayed in front of the stairs, dropping a mythic holy smite and other blasting spells. Then the surprise came in the form of Exorius mounted on his drake. He flew through the corridor and hit the cleric for a good amount of damage.
On the next rounds, the brimoraks where obliterated by area spells (they did their job), and the antipaladins used their smite good to harass very effectively both the paladin and the dwarven cleric. They got solid hits before dying. They moved towards the stairs, as the paladin had to use relentless healing to bring back the cleric after a charge from Exorius (see below). They were able to do their job thanks to Exorius aura, the profane bonuses from the Baphomet statue, and smite good.
Exorius found a target on the dwarven cleric, and charged him along with the drake, knocking him unconscious an killing him. He damaged the sorceress too, but she moved to the center of the room to avoid him and get a better position to use her spells.
That is when Zanedra ordered the glabrezu to join the fray. He moved to the central room and used power word stun on the sorceress, but I rolled like crap so she was stunned for only 2 rounds.
Zanedra and the inquisitor got into a strange fight. The PC tried to dispel magic on the paladin's mother, thinking that was the solution to undo the curse that linked her to the evil summoner. He got one dispel, but discovered that wasn't enough when he attacked Zanedra again (after dispatching the two antipaladins that where with her) and almost killed the NPC. Zanedra tried to weaken the inquisitor with her spells, but he made every save (her save DCs are too low, but I expected it).
Our friend the glabrezu saw a juicy prey on the stunned sorcerer, and full-attacked her (rend included), almost killing her.
Exorius started attacking the paladin after he came to heal the cleric, and knocked him unconscious (and almost dead) twice I think. Exorius is connected to the paladin's backstory, so that's why he was interested on him. The paladin's mount (lion) started attacking the rift drake, it was fun seeing both beasts battle it out.
When the cleric killed the drake, Exorius found himself on the ground, but kept the pressure on the paladin, who spent almost the entire fight having to use his swift actions to heal. I think he finally got to smite Exorius on the round he fell.
Since the sorceress was in a pinch, the inquisitor left the NPC in the top left corner near the statue and moved down to the glabrezu and attacked it, trying to help his comrade. At one point, the sorceress casted a dismissal spell on the glabrezu and it failed the save. This was important because it allowed the group to dedicate more characters to Exorius, who proved to be more difficult than they expected.
Before the inquisitor could go to battle him alongside the paladin and cleric, Zanedra called for Svennarobeth, who charged forward, dealing good damage on the inquisitor with pounce. Sven was buffed to the gills with Zanedra's spells (mage armor, shield, barkskin, etc), and got an amazing AC. He fought the inquisitor for 3 rounds I think before getting killed.
In the last 2 rounds, only Zanedra and Exorius remained. At this point the players had very little mythic power uses left, even after receiving one "fire blast" and recovering some of them. Finally, with three melee characters hitting him, Exorius fell, dead dead.
As for Zanedra, enraged as she was at the loss of her eidolon, went to the NPC and attacked, killing her and sending her soul to her horned lord in the Abyss. The player's jaws dropped. They realized that they had left the NPC unprotected and unconscious near the priestess (with good reason, because they had to move elsewhere to survive). Zanedra then teleported to the Ivory Sanctum, where the players will probably find her corpse.
After this, the statue of Baphomet started to move, and the PCs had two rounds to prepare. On one of this rounds, they received the second mythic boon. They healed and moved to the statue, so when it animated it was basically surrounded. They were scared when they realized it had two turns, with damaging attacks. One crit nearly killed the inquisitor, but in the end the fact that the golem spent nearly half the fight blinded due to a glitterdust spell negated a good number of attacks because of the total concealment roll.
The combat finished, and a good amount of roleplaying was done as Sunlord Thalachos appeared before the characters and the paladin's fired went throught the floor, walls and ceiling, cleansing the shrine and turning it back to its original form. Unfortunately, nothing could be done for the NPC.
After quite a memorable talk with Sarenrae's herald, the paladin picked the remains of his mother, realizing that he will have to go to the Ivory labyrinth to get her soul back, and put her in the new sarenrite altar.
Then the party went out of the cave and sealed the entrance off...
After the game, the players commented on how this encounter felt quite mythic, and the pressure was high throughout the combat. I have left all the roleplaying details (too much to write), but those were awesome too.
|
|
More later, but I managed to blasphemy all but one party member during my Jerribeth fight, and that player (Mordekay, the sorcerer) ended up fleeing back to the Vault of Graves with Jerribeth hot on his heels. He showed up in an empty audience chamber and begged for an intervention.
Nocticula took the begging, killed Jerribeth, and took Mordekay as a vassal. Ate a mythic Tier and he shifted to CN since he lost Beyond Morality as it was his last Tier path choice.
As for Zanedra, enraged as she was at the loss of her eidolon, went to the NPC and attacked, killing her and sending her soul to her horned lord in the Abyss. The player's jaws dropped. They realized that they had left the NPC unprotected and unconscious near the priestess (with good reason, because they had to move elsewhere to survive). Zanedra then teleported to the Ivory Sanctum, where the players will probably find her corpse.
... After quite a memorable talk with Sarenrae's herald, the paladin picked the remains of his mother, realizing that he will have to go to the Ivory labyrinth to get her soul back, and put her in the new sarenrite altar.
That's an awesome tie in to the Ivory Labyrinth.
My party felt a little under-motivated by the plot hook in book 5 ("Why exactly are we are going to the Abyss for some weenie CR 15 herald?"). Having something like this to provide additional motivation would've made this part of the AP much more compelling.
Well done!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
@Lochar,
It seems your sorcerer had a rough time :-) details, details!!
@Porridge,
To be honest I was kinda hoping that they wouldn't save her, so they had a powerful motivation. I think in the end makes for a better story, although I will think about how to improve the herald's role in HofIL.
And now another battle description where I tested another one of my statblocks. In this case, it's Vorimeraak the mythic vrock.
So after dealing with the cultists at the Fallen Fane, the party investigated a specific area inside the lava canyon, lead by the inquisitor, who was feeling a strange pull to that area. Since I didn't used the barbarians as the adventure suggests, I basically combined Exposed to Awfulness with Stolen Fury (the player picked specifically Exposed to Awfulness). This means that the character needed to deal with the ritual to complete his mythic trial.
The backstory here is that the Molten Scar allows the demons to use the abyssal energies in two ways. The first one is as per the adventure description (turning people into demons). The second one allows them to irradiate enemy settlements as long as the lava rivers reach them underground. This doesn't cause a visible effect, but when the demons attack and people is splattered with demon blood, different things can happen: they mutate, acquiring demon traits, they turn chaotic evil, etc... this is what happened to the character. After his town was irradiated, a group of demons attacked and a babau nearly slaughtered him. After his inquisitor mentor saved him, he realized that something inside him had changed...
The ritual is conducted only on certain nights, and that's when the character feels the pull. Vorimeraak, as a mythic demon, can start the ritual, but then needs a huge amount of energy to keep it going. To generate that energy, she has a flock of 25-30 standard vrocks, that chant and dance maddeningly as the ritual progresses to create lightning waves with their dance of ruin. The demons enter into some short of trance where the energy in their bodies goes out of control, making them spontaneously use some of their spell-like abilities. This creates the ilusion that there are more than a hundred vrocks (mirror image) when in fact the flock is smaller.
The abyssal crystals on the left side allow vorimeraak to harness the abyssal energy. It can be projected as a powerful lightning bolt to the westernmost island (the one with the blackened rock) or to make the energy flow through the lava far away.
To avoid the "we fireball/shoot arrows at them to death", I covered the entire area with a cloud of energy and steam (a secondary effect of the ritual), crossed here and there by lightning. The group entered the cloud while flying, and appeared at the Molten Scar just 30 feet over the lava.
The fist thing they see is Vorimeraak, with her six wings (as per the mythic adventures description of a mythic vrock), and then the thousands of vrocks in caves on the walls surrounding the scar. Vorimeraak is standing at the tip of the rocky arm to the South, where a scroll made of human skin contains the incantations necessary to pull off the ritual (if you are mythic). Three vrocks join the fight from the caves, positioning themselves near the walls.
Before starting combat, the players took some damage from a dance of ruin that exploded just at that moment (I rolled randomly). From this moment, every three rounds a new dance of ruin will burst, dealin, damage appropiately. I was suprised to see that none of my players casted resist energy (lightning) before entering the cloud, as they clearly saw lightning strikes inside it.
Initiative is rolled and Vorimeraak goes first. The inquisitor and the sorceress are the nearest targets, so I rolled randomly to pick one of them. She uses fleet warrior to move next to the sorceress and full-attacks her, dropping her into negatives. That of course makes her fall (the fly spell requires a modicum of concentration) into the lava, and taking more damage, she dies.
The paladin and the inquisitor attack Vorimeraak, but the mirror images mostly protect her (I forgot to ask them to roll saves for the dazzled effect of mythic mirror image when they removed one). The paladin's lion flies down to the lava and picks up the body of the sorceress before it melted (I ruled they had one round to pull her out of the lava if they wanted to try to revive her). The lion eats like 3 attacks of opportunity (one from Vorimeraak) but survives and carries the body to the big island on the east side.
The standard vrocks go, two of them charge at the paladin and inquisitor, doing little damage (the players have a stoneskin wand). The third goes and releases a stunning screech, affecting both the cleric and the lion. Cleric loses his turn due to the stunning.
On the next round, the cleric finally moves (eating attacks of opportunity), and channels/casts breath of life on the sorceress, bringing her back from death (he had to roll very high on the healing dice, and he managed to do it!). The party cheers in excitement.
The paladin and the inquisitor keep working on Vorimeraak, while she uses her spores and nearly knocks the inquisitor unconscious (he would have fallen into the lava and died). The paladin realized after a full attack that hovering isn't one of his strengths, and fell to the ground, again eating like 3 attacks of opportunity. He was prone and badly injured.
I tried to use vorimeraak's block attacks ability, but I never got to roll over a 4-5 on the die, so all the attacks hit her.
The fight ended on the third round. Just before a new dance of ruin triggered, the paladin, prone and injured, casted a holy smite (he used either his trait touched by divinity or the mythic ability Divine Source), overcoming Vorimeraaks SR, and killing her in a gorgeous nuclear bomb of goodness (I miserably failed her saving throw, even after surging).
After healing, the party then proceeded to investigate the scroll and try to undo the ritual on the inquisitor. They passed the skill checks I called for, positioned him in the blackened island, and the crystals released a huge lightning bolt that struck him. Instead of resisting it (I called for a fortitude save but he chose to fail it, wisely I must say), he took the damage (and survived), just what he needed to do. The abyssal energy was gone and the player got his mythic tier!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Our foray into the Shattered Star AP will be coming to a pause soon, and we'll be returning to the last book of WoTR. In preparation for this, I've tried to sketch all of the suggested changes to the first part of City of Locusts.
I've combed through the comments in this thread again, and I think I've caught all the suggested changes. But if I've left anything out, please let me know!
City of Locusts, Part 1: The Defense of Drezen
(*s appended to creatures with updated stats)
- Change the initial "surprise attack on Drezen" to an all-out attack that the party has military intelligence about (so that the party will know in advance who the leaders of these armies are, and appreciate the significance of their fights against them).
EX: Have the party receive military intelligence indicating that Deskari's forces are grouping for a final all-out assault on the crusaders, with three of the most powerful demonic armies marching towards Drezen: (1) an army of fiendish treants and other plants march from Undarin, led by fiendish treant Carrock; (2) an army of fiendish vermin and fiendish drakes march from the Winged Wood, led by the succubus Zelmisdria and the mythic green dragon Azrivauxus, and (3) a massive army composed of every kind of demon marches from the Wounded Lands, led by the Marilith general Aponavicius herself.
Give the party a few days to help Drezen prepare, and encourage the party to research their opponents in advance (e.g., read the relevant bits of the Worldwound book).
- Battle Encounter 1: Carrock and group of powerful Ulkreths burst through the first line of Drezen's defenses, and start tearing into the walls surrounding Citadel Drezen. (Party faces Carrock* and 4 bolstered Ulkreths* (with new Ulkreths replacing fallen ones until Carrock is defeated).)
- Battle Encounter 2 (replacing A. Demons in the Tower): A large group of fiendish drakes, led by Zelmisdria and Azrivauxus, soars over the walls and starts attacking Citadel Drezen itself. (Party faces Zelmisdria* and Azrivauxus*.)
- Battle Encounter 3 (replacing B. Opening the Portal): A demonic portal from Aponavicius's lair opens under Citadel Drezen, and a group of demonic locusts emerge and start slaughtering those in the citadel. (Party faces 4 Ancient Apocalypse Locusts*.)
- Aponavicius's Lair: The party enters the portal to Aponavicious's lair to confront the Marilith herself. (Opponents by initial location: C1. Devastator*, C2. Pyralisia*, C3. Grave-Knight Staunton* (guarding the door to the projecting pool) and Aponavicius*.)
I think you have done an astounding summary of the changes, Porridge!
On a first glance I think you haven't missed anything.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Alright, so you wanted details.
The evening started with the group getting contacted by Nocticula as they became notorious. While she invited them to the Vault of Graves, none of them know what it was. Taking some time to rest as she warned them about the defenders, the party paladin started asking around. I set it as 1d4 hours and a Diplomacy check for Gather Info at the same DC as the K: Local check.
7 hours later, Steelmane finally manages to get the info and they head out.
As expected, they trounced through the shadows and the coloxus, no troubles.
When they opened the door to Nocticula's area, she welcomed them in warmly and hit them with her aura. Both the cleric Brother Peter and Steelmane rolled natural 20s. Mordekay and Rogar both failed and stood there, entranced at her words.
As she wasn't bothering to actually attack the party, Peter shook the two out of their trance and conversation commenced. Steelmane did most of the conversing and the party learned that Nocticula knew about the crystals but didn't care too much one way or the other, but the party provided an interesting way to get a minor favor out of the good gods and still keep her hands clean.
Steelmane, child of Iomedae that he is, immediately stated that they couldn't make any deals on behalf of the gods. Nocticula stated that was fine. The fact that she'd help them was enough to make her mark. As their talismans didn't ping, they agreed.
Nocticula made her offer of a single question, an item, or *flaring her wings, the runed names flaring* the offer of ascension under her. Which, obviously, pinged.
Brother Peter asked about his followers and the fact that one of them had been cut off in death in a prayer to him, here on the Abyss. Nocticula responded that the other half of his divine power was collecting the souls of those who didn't worship her.
Steelmane asked how to close the worldwound. Nocticula replied that while she didn't know how it was opened, it would likely take recreating and reversing the ritual that opened it.
Rogar asked for Gloves of Elvenkind. Nocticula gave him the pair of gloves, made from a skinned elf. The gloves included the bits of hair on the back of a man's hand, fingernails, the whole nine yards.
Mordekay wondered to himself how he could ascend from an Aasimar to a Half or Full celestial without dying. Nocticula answered, stealing his question because she'd been conversing mentally with them, that it would require the sponsorship of one of the good gods and whatever they required of him.
She then told them to step into the pool to be whisked away to the island.
They did so, only to get dumped onto the pier where I had them roll init. The flayed angel floated like a corpse in the water and I described it as the flayed body of a planetar. The party was going to do something about it, but the angel got the highest init and attacked.
Reflex DC 15 for the water is stupid, by the way. Everyone had to roll a 1 to fail, and no one did.
Rogar opened a mythic dimension door to the land, hilariously opening it exactly 20' from the runestone. So when he went through, I took an AoO on him.
I managed to grab Peter as well when he came through, and nearly killed him with grapple/constrict/drop and repeat. Note, I didn't realize your document had upgrade the harvester so I actually was using the stats from the book.
The party managed to kill the Angel after a few rounds and got far enough away from the runestone that it couldn't reach. Peter dropped a few Mythic Heals to fix Con and Str damage (Mordekay flew into the water to get the +3 unholy greatsword and found out that full immersion in the water negates ANY save on the poison)
They waited an hour to allow Peter to reclaim his spells and Mordekay used that time to contact Arueshalae, his girl friend [remember this] through the chaotic pact. Everyone has it as Arueshalae is redeemed, but Mordekay follows Desna as well and asked her to use Commune with Power to ask about the sponsorship. Desna agreed, but there would be tasks before it would happen.
Using the Spherewalker staff, the party put on their waterwalking shoes and headed upriver.
By this time, full dark had fallen when the party made it to the lake with the barge. I ruled that there was a peak of light that illuminated the lake for a moment, showing the beached barge in the center of the lake.
The party figured it was a trap and was going to go around it, but wanted more info first. Mordekay dropped daylight onto an arrow, True Striked, and shot at the ship. Rolled a 1. I ruled it flew well over, illuminating for a moment a man standing on the ship.
Peter dropped a mythic Daylight onto another arrow, Mordekay True Striked again, and this time actually hit the barge. It illuminated a man and a couple of dead bodies lying around. The man stepped up, looked towards them, then pulled the arrow down and snapped it, ending the Daylight spell.
Curious now, and willing to spring the trap, the party ventured up. Rogar led, putting up invis and the party staying 100' further back. When Rogar was in about 50', Kestoglyr saw him with See Invis and called out to him, asking if he brought a message from her and if he was being recalled. Rogar, irritated about being seen invis, called back a question of who is 'she'?
Silly move. Kestoglyr decided that maybe their deaths would grant him her grace again. Everyone else was too far back when Kestoglyr rushed him. I'd chosen dimensional anchor as the unhallow effect with hilarious results, as Rogar couldn't Mirror Dodge out of the way. By the end of the battle, the party was down to about half mythic power and spells due to multiple Mythic Heals having to be used for Negative Levels from Bodak gazes.
Poking around the barge, the party decided they could use it if they broke the anchor. They did so and the barge slipped free. With nothing to pull it, the current started it back the way they'd gone. Cursing, they cast Water Walk again and continued heading up river. 8 miles up river is the River Gate, which I'd replaced that encounter with Jerribeth.
Jerribeth had been scrying on the party the entire time, so she knew when they were close so she had plenty of buffing time. When the party got up to near her, she called out for the usurper to return her power and die.
Obviously, Peter would rather not have died, so initiative was rolled.
Jerribeth got the highest and started off with a Deeper Darkness and Quickened Mythic Blindness/Deafness on the Paladin. Sadly, even a DC 26 wasn't enough to touch him. I'm making a point to invest in Heighten spell and Mythic Heighten from now on, I think.
Jerribeth let them cast Daylight and Steelmane started charging towards her. On her turn, she tried to augment Dust of Twilight, but rolled a 2 and couldn't dispel Peter's daylight. She did get him to fatigue with it though.
A few rounds in, Jerribeth has burned through about half her Mythic Power and hit the party with a Mythic augmented Harm, failed to Dismiss Steelmane, and almost shattered Radiance due to the 15th level effect of Wrecker. The only thing that saved Radiance was the fact that Steelmane had taken Legendary Item twice and as a minor artifact that wasn't its destroy condition.
Steelmane hit Jerribeth down to -50 or so, but thanks to Hard to Kill and Mythic Die Hard, Jerribeth teleported away.
The party readied actions, including Rogar to Mythic up a dimensional Lock on her, when she returned.
Jerribeth took a few rounds to Heal herself up, dropped another Mythic Harm, and then teleported back to where Peter had been last.
Unfortunately for her, everyone had moved. Rogar locked her down, Steelmane charged, Mordekay took a shot at her, and Peter did something, can't recall offhand.
Irritated and now dimensionally locked, Jerribeth burned a mythic point to cast Blasphemy as a Divine Source SLA. She hadn't wanted to do so as Peter was still close and got caught in it as well. Most everyone made their save for partial, however the save wasn't high enough with the -4 penalty to not be kicked out of the plane for 24 hours.
Mordekay and Steelmane's mount were the only two left with Jerribeth severely mad.
Mordekay threw up a emergency force sphere while she was out of actions, then on his turn teleported back to the Vault of Graves as there was only one person he knew could save his bacon at the moment. Steelmane summoned his mount back to him. I have yet to keep this mount dead, it's funny actually.
Jerribeth took a moment to dispel the lock and then Greater Scryed for him. Teleporting to him, she found Mordekay in the empty Vault of Graves. Seeing Jerribeth, Mordekay quickly shouted out he would give Nocticula anything if she saved him.
Yes, at this point I paused the game. "Anything?"
"So long as I live through this."
Suddenly Jerribeth shifts, and is dead is pieces with Nocticula standing over Mordekay. She smiles at him, running a finger across his cheek. "You won't be needing this anymore." and she shatters his bond with Arueshalae. "Until your companions return, let us see how well you hold to your bargain."
Nocticula moves the two of them to her private bourdaire. Mordekay manages to survive the 24 hours, but pays by having to accept her Profane Ascension, loses a Mythic Tier (Which lost him his Beyond Morality), and takes a shift from CG to CN. If he hadn't had Beyond Morality protecting him and needing to lose the tier to get to his alignment, it would have been a shift to CE.
Mordekay previously was a hunter of demons. Now, he is a hunter of demons under Nocticula's banner. He now worships Nocticula and had to give up his white robe of the archmage to Rogar because it was hurting him.
Additionally, Mordekay may take no Atonement spells to go to any good alignment. As he personally and purposely chose his path, there will be no easy way back if he wants a good alignment back.
Brother Peter asked if with Jerribeth now dead, if he would be getting the full power of the followers et all. I told him no, as Nocticula upon killing Jerribeth took all her mythic energy so no more freebies. Though he can now actually deny clerics that don't match his chosen alignment since Jerribeth can't grant in his place.
Quite a story. I hope at least one of my guys rejects Nocticula's gifts, so that the others get all jealous when she gives the +5 morale bonus to Will saves in module six. :p
Yeah, what a story... in my opinion these are the things that stick into the player's minds after the campaign is over. It kinda reminds me of my barbarian player in Age of Worms
Did the flayed angel and kestoglyr do their work? anything in particular that you think could help them be more challenging?
|
|
The angel was an interesting enemy mainly because of the harvester. If it hadn't been for the harvester and a badly placed dimensional door portal, then they would have easily handled it. Though the lesser globe of invulnerability did allow it to shrug off a scorching ray and another low level spell.
Kestoglyr didn't have much of a chance to use any of his graveknight abilities. The sacrilegious aura would have been useful if the party cleric didn't have a +24 to Concentration even before feats. The main danger there was the 30' gaze attacks of the bodaks.
All in all though, they did their job of eating up the cleric's resources to keep the rest of the party topped off. Since the cleric has taken Extra Mythic power three times between feats and paths, 'How much mythic power and spells does he have left' is usually my barometer.
A detailed write-up of how the Scoriszar encounter went is in my own campaign coverage thread. It was quite the epic fight and with some upgrades of my own might have been even a touch too much for the party of my players. They had to end it in a pretty unconventional way and I had to be a bit permissive to allow it, but otherwise there was some potential for a TPK, which I'd like to avoid. Two and a half dropped characters, one stable at -14 (then later turned to stone), one turned to stone and one dead animal companion. Also a partly disintegrated cleric at 3 HP. 30d6 hurt, man. ^^
BTW, what's Tenacious Grapple? Your statblock of Scoriszar had that ability under SQ's, but I couldn't find it in the bestiaries or mythic adventure, at least not at a quick, frustrated glance. It's probably hidden somewhere in the monster section of the book...
@Lochar,
Thanks for your comments. I'll take them into account when revising the stats.
@Magnuskn,
Seems to me you had the mythic fight you were looking for! It is important that you improvised and allowed them to use the talisman, I think mythic requires it to some degree. I imagine your players will remember this fight for quite a long time :-)
BTW, the warp effects are supposed to end when Scorizscar dies, but I suppose you wanted to create more statues out of your characters hehe
About tenacious grapple, I talked about it earlier in this same thread. Here you have the text of the ability, and how I use it in my games repeated (so everyone can understand how it interacts with the other game elements in a statblock):
Tenacious Grapple (Ex)
An (monster name) does not gain the grappled condition when it grapples a foe.
My houserule regarding grappling monsters with abilities such as tenacious grapple, or when taking the -20 penalty to CMB:
- First, you make the cmb check to grapple as usual.
- If the monster succeeds, on the next round he can attempt the CMB check to maintain the grapple as a free action (instead of standard) and decide if you want to damage, move, etc. Then you have your normal actions. If you decide to full-attack, you cannot attack with the natural weapon used to start the grapple.
So far this houserule has made grappling creatures viable in my games.
Ah, thanks for the explanation. :) Well, I thought that the chaos warp was related to the sub-plane Scorizscar was residing on. Anyway, the encounter really was good, I hope it sets the tone for the rest of the book. :D
I almost forgot, I have added the Son of Shax (unique mythic babau) to the document.
He is supposed to replace Lord Stillborn. I'll start building his partner, Shaorhaz the Glutton of the Green (replaces the Filleted Man), as soon as I can.
Very nice. :)
Shaorhaz the Glutton of the Green is finished, and added to the document.
Next is Diurgez Broodlord.
Joe,
Sometimes GoogleDrive doesn't preview the file correctly, but if you download it should be fine. I have re-uploaded the file just in case.
Thanks! Glad you find my work useful.
Mr Sc8rpi8n_mjd, i reiterate my appreacement for your wordrous work.
Since soon you are gonna stat Areelu Vorlesh, will you be open to suggestion from us readers?
I've already examinate the character and the encounter and, instead of maximazing her damage output and such, I statted her up emphasizing her control over the worldwound itself, granting her a few "extra lifes" so that she may actually represent a menace to all the party by herself.
If you are interested to a four hand job (or more hand job (by the way, four hand joy is an italian expression that means work made by more people on the same thing) let me/us know.
Errr, yeah, "hand job" also has another connotation for most people familiar with the english language. ^^
@Lochar,
Kestoglyr has a +1 keen halberd, but he's using the antipaladin's fiendish boon (weapon) to apply an additional +4 bonus. If you take a look at his SQ section, you can see an asterisk near this ability. That means it is already applied to the stats.
@Pnakotus,
Thanks man! It is encouraging when a lot of people like your work.
I'm always open to suggestions, as you can see I used Lochar's Staunton as the basis for my own. Areelu is still quite far because now I'm creating new statblock and also updating/modifying the rest as my party progresses through the campaign. It may take a while to reach her.
As others have done, I suggest you post your statblock and encounter setup, so everyone here can benefit from your work :-)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
@likrin,
To access the document, just go to my first post an click on the "link" link that you'll find at the end. That will get you to the file on GoogleDocs, and from there you can download it to your hard drive. I don't think you need a google account to download it.
In case it doesn't work, just PM me your email address, and I'll send it to you.
New update: today we played the Arueshalae's redoubt rescue mission. I mostly played it by the book, with two exceptions. First, I changed the derakni demon with another Hezrou. Second, I applied the advanced template to Jaruunicka and added rake to her special attacks (2 claws +23, 1d6+11), so that she could trigger the rend when grappling. This is an ability annis hags had back in 3.5
Ok so in this fight there were no mythic enemies, and I supposed that would make it easier. To my surprise, the monsters faired pretty well (even those low-CR grimslakes) and one character even died.
The encounter started as the players buffed themselves in Drezen and then teleported to the ruined fortress. I supposed that, due to the description that Arueshalae gives, characters had enough knowledge to try to teleport there ("viewed once" category). They teleported next to the tower where Arueshalae hides.
Touching the ground aroused the grimslakes that were under the ground, and combat started. The big worms emerged and bite the PCs, mostly failing, but once or twice they got to do some damage (but they always failed the marrow drain). They got used as flanking buddies by the hezrous, and two of them did quite a lot of damage to the paladin after he was knocked prone by the rift drake's tail.
Then the two drake riders came flying, one doing an attack along with his mount; the other commading the drake to spit his acid, failing to slow the characters (but doing respectable damage). For most of the fight, they charged around the battlefield, doing very good damage with the drake's pounce and the rider's lances. They suffered heavy damage from the sorceress' empowered fire snake spells. Once the drakes died, the riders where taken care of fast.
Since the enemies have telepathy, the two hezrous joined the fight early on, casting blasphemy and attacking/grabbing characters. One of them died fast after engaging the inquisitor wielding Trever Vaenic's sword.
The bebilith arrived on the second/third round and attacked the sorceress, that had moved away from the grimslakes and hezrous, hitting her with a nasty rotting bite! That same round, the cleric recognized the danger it posed and casted a dismissal. The bebilith fails the save and goes back to the abyss.
The will-o'-wisps appeared when the inquisitor was very low on hit points after battling the hezrou and getting hit by a charging drake rider. Their shocking touches knocked him unconscious, and a third w-o-w executed a coup de grace, killing him. He was revived by the cleric, using a mythic breath of life.
After the hezrous and more than half of the grimslakes died, Jaruunicka appeared, and air walked next to the sorceress. Next round she full-attacked her, grabbing and rending. Next round, she maintained the grapple inflicting damage, and then raked with the claws, triggering a rend. The sorceress was unconscious and still grappled...
I think it was at this point when Arueshalae appeared, and started firing arrows on the hag, doing some damage. Then she helped killing the drakes so the meleers could kill the riders more easily.
Combat went for a few more rounds, where the inquisitor tried to kill the remaining will-o'-wips, the paladin was finishing the grimslakes, the cleric helped the paladin and healed the sorceress, and she tried to cast a spell to escape but failed due to the concentration check.
In the two final rounds, the paladin finally got to smite Jaruunicka and killed her after a full-attack, before she could finish the sorceress. The remaining two w-o-w fled after becoming invisible.
And then we had an incredible RP scene with Arueshalae.
Overall I'm very satisfied with the combat, even if they were normal enemies they put good pressure on the party (they almost exhausted their mythic power uses per day). The players were also happy to be able to survive such a large number of enemies (20 in total), and expect the Ivory Sanctum to be hard as hell so they welcome the addition of Arueshalae to the group for this mission.
You'll have to send me a mail with how that RP scene with Arue went, I'm very interested to hear about how you played her and how your players characters reacted. :)
My players finally finished up the 2nd leg of Shattered Star, and we've turned back to WoTR.
A couple questions came up during the Carrock fight that I thought I'd flag. (I just made decisions about how to treat them during the fight, but I'd be curious to know what was intended!)
1. Carrock has "plaguebearer (DC27)" listed under special qualities, but doesn't have the Spores ability listed anywhere... Is the plaguebearer ability supposed to be the Spores ability? (I assumed that it was.)
2. Should Life Bubble suppress the spores? (I ruled that it didn't, but I wasn't sure about this.)
3. The slam attacks of the boosted Ulkreths require a DC 30 fort check to avoid petrification, and "Each successful hit beyond the first increases the DC by +2." I wasn't sure whether these DC increases were supposed to just apply to further successful hits by the same Ulkreth in a single turn, or to successful hits by the same Ulkreth over any number of turns, or to successful hits by any number of Ulkreths in a single turn, or to successful hits by any of the Ulkreths over any number of turns. (I decided to just have the DC increases apply to further successful hits by the same Ulkreth in a single turn, mainly because I was lazy, and didn't want to keep track of how many times each player had been hit by each Ulkreth. But this may have made this part a little easier than intended.)
Here's a report on how the Carrock + boosted Ulkreth fight went.
Overall, the Carrock fight went pretty well. It lasted 6 rounds, and the party had to sweat a little to get through it (expending about 3 mythic power apiece and a reasonable amount of party resources). They weren't pressed as much as they have been in some of their other fights, like the fight against Baphomet, and no one died. But the difficultly level felt about right, especially since they're going to be facing about half-a-dozen mythic encounters in relatively quick succession.
Preliminaries: I boosted Carrock's HPs (giving him 24HP per d8 HD, boosting him to 1058 HP), but otherwise played him as stated. Carrock started the battle with the following buffs up: Barkskin, Resist Energy (Fire), Protection from Energy (Fire), Freedom of Movement and Air Walk.
The party has pretty powerful ranged attacks, and they started the fight with missile-fire from about 400' away. But Carrock and the boosted Ulkreth's rock-throwing abilities are pretty nasty, and the party quickly realized that they were outmatched, especially after Carrock used Druidic Magic to cast Fickle Winds on himself and the Ulkreths.
The sorcerer then cast an Invisibility Sphere to hide the party (they all have Mind Blank up), and Dimension Doored the party 30' above Carrock. But a suspicious Carrock cast an Antilife Shell before the melee-ers could engage (the sorcerer counterspelled the first casting, but Carrock used Druidic Magic to cast it again as a swift action), and that kept the party at bay.
After an unsuccessful attempt from the cleric to cast Greater Dispel Magic on Carrock (reflected by Carrock's Ring of Spell Turning), the sorcerer succeeded in getting it down, and the melee-ers got to charge in and use Fleet Warrior to make some pretty devastating full attacks. The Ring of Blinking helped keep Carrock standing for a bit, but See Invisibility and True Seeing spells allowed the melee-ers to decrease their miss chances to 20%, and the Paladin's shared smite allowed them to ignore Carrock's DR. All told, Carrock went down after a little over 2 rounds of melee combat. And since an early critical from the Paladin (who has Stunning Critical) kept him staggered pretty much the whole time, he wasn't able to use effectively fight back in melee. (I had him cast his most powerful offensive spells instead, but these ultimately didn't hurt the party that much.)
The boosted Ulkreths had a good time wailing away at visible party members throughout. With flanking bonuses and the Greater Magic Fang effect of the spores, they were able to hit often, and the party took a fair amount of damage from them, occasionally having to burn mythic power to re-roll saves against petrification. But the Ranger and Paladin used Invincible Stand as soon as they engaged with Carrock, and this allowed them to weather the Ulkreth's attacks pretty well. And the other two party members stayed invisible, making them hard to target.
(The con-drain effect of Carrock's spores is potentially pretty nasty, and I ruled that it bypassed the party's Life Bubble. But, as the players reminded me, everyone in the party has a Ring of Inner Fortitude (Major), so the the spores didn't end up posing much of a threat. I thought this was fine, though. I made it very difficult for them to get those rings (an item they've been lusting after for about 2 books), and they ended up paying far more than market value for them. So it was nice to let them finally enjoy their toys a little.)
Anyway, a couple things stood out to me about this fight.
First, the Paladin's recently-acquired Stunning Critical feat (which staggers the target for 1d4 rounds even if they make the save) is really nasty. Because of it, Carrock was never in a position to effectively make melee attacks against the party. And Carrock didn't seem to have any good way to combat this, since Heal doesn't remove the staggered effect... But hopefully this feat will be less of a worry when they face higher-mythic-ranked opponents with the Unstoppable ability.
Second, Mind Blank + Invisibility really is a game changer. It gives the party a way to more or less take a "time out" from combat when things get hairy. Two well-timed Invisibility/Greater Invisibility spells on heavily wounded characters made a huge difference in this fight. (I guess I knew about this before, but I hadn't really seen the party take advantage of this before. I'm looking forward to having this tactic used against them, when they encounter the Son of Shax...)
Porridge,
Right now I'm on holidays, so I can't answer your questions. By tomorrow night I'll be back at home, I will do it then.
|
|
Second, Mind Blank + Invisibility really is a game changer. It gives the party a way to more or less take a "time out" from combat when things get hairy. Two well-timed Invisibility/Greater Invisibility spells on heavily wounded characters made a huge difference in this fight. (I guess I knew about this before, but I hadn't really seen the party take advantage of this before. I'm looking forward to having this tactic used against them, when they encounter the Son of Shax...)
Note to self. Have scrolls of invisibility purge (yay evocation!) handy...
--Edit
And just to note, I meant for my players pulling this trick.
Second, Mind Blank + Invisibility really is a game changer. It gives the party a way to more or less take a "time out" from combat when things get hairy. Two well-timed Invisibility/Greater Invisibility spells on heavily wounded characters made a huge difference in this fight. (I guess I knew about this before, but I hadn't really seen the party take advantage of this before. I'm looking forward to having this tactic used against them, when they encounter the Son of Shax...)Note to self. Have scrolls of invisibility purge (yay evocation!) handy...
Yeah, a good idea. Wish it had occurred to me...
EDIT: Looked it up and realized Invisibility Purge isn't on the druidic spell list. Oh well.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
@Porridge,
Here you have the answers to your questions:
1- Plaguebearer is a blight druid ability. You can check the archetype in the advanced player's guide (page is listed in Carrock's statblock, near his class, levels, etc). Spores appear in the "Aura" section of the statblock.
2- No, Life Bubble doesn't help against it. It is not a poison effect, it's more like the vrock's spores attack but without the "similar to a disease" text. Carrock is a mythic opponent and should be able to overcome player's defenses as much as they do against other enemies.
3- The effect is supposed to apply to further successful hits by the same Ulkreth on each round (attacks of opportunity also count for this ability). I have clarified the text in the document. If I have time, I'll do the full Ulkreth statblock.
About your comments:
- IMHO, Stunning Critical cannot be used against a plant creature because they are immune to the primary effect (stunning). Staggering Critical should work fine. This is how I would rule it, so please let's not get into a RAW/RAI argument. I agree that Carrock doesn't have an answer to the staggered condition beyond having two turns, but that's ok. I'm sure your players were happy when they crippled and then killed him. :-)
- Mind Blank + Invisibility is a great combination, but remember that an invisible creature can be detected and pinpointed even if they are using Stealth. Invisibility gives a nice +20 bonus if you move, but I'm pretty sure those paladins walking in full plate are fairly easy to spot when you have a +44 Perception modifier. And let's not forget that the players cannot see each other so certain tactical decisions are harder to pull off under this "invisibility cloak" (unless telepathy is involved).
Again, thank you for the detailed description! It will surely help me and other DMs when we get to City of Locusts. Fights at this level are very hard to DM (lots of things to remember), so I think you did a great job.
@Cat-thulhu,
Here you have what I sent magnuskn. It is hard to remember everything that the players said, so a lot of details are missing:
During combat she thelepatically asked them about what enemy to target every round, to maximize her help.
After the combat in the ruined fortress ended, Aru approached the characters. The first one to talk was the paladin, asking if she was the one that sent him the dream (I made her appear as a shadow, so I didn't have to reveal her picture at that moment), she answered yes. She explained that after the characters contacted her using sending, she tried to get some info on them using her commune with power ability (it could be a trap, and she's cautious).
Then the cleric of Torag asked about how she became a "good" succubus, and I thought this was a moment as good as any other to explain her backstory. And so I did. The players liked it, specially the part about "even demons can dream". It also helps that the cleric's player used Shalelu Andosana from Rise of the Runelords as his character (he joined the campaign on the second module), and likes Desna as a deity.
The inquisitor of course tried to detect evil on her, just to be sure. Surprisingly, he didn't use detect good... The cleric rolled sense motive, since he is the character that tries to think most of the time with the brain instead of the heart. The others were very excited to meet such an interesting character.
After that, Aru explained them that she wanted to help them in the war, using the intel she had obtained. She also told them that she understood how difficult could be to trust a succubus, and of course would understood if they didn't want her help to assault the ivory sanctum. She was a bit conflicted because even if she knew that the majority of the crusaders won't accept her, she didn't want to use her change shape to avoid the inevitable confrontation. She basically wants to be accepted as she is, even if that is the hardest way. She flat-out told them that in case a conflict erupted, she would try to flee, harming no one if possible.
At this point, three of the players wanted to take her to Drezen, and the cleric explained that doing that could undermine their position in Drezen and maybe cause a riot in the city, as the people could think that the heroes of Drezen are under the control of a powerful succubus.
A long discussion took place at the table, where everyone explained the best way to do it. Surprisingly (again), the inquisitor wanted to help her, even after he has been quite vocal about distrusting Nurah (they captured her, and have been working quite hard on her redemption. It was getting late, so we had to end the game session, but in the end they almost got into an agreement to go to the ivory sanctum, and (hopefully) after emerging victorious, use that evidence to present her as a hero and an indispensable ally to the crusade against the templars.
As you can see I emphasized her shyness, goodness, and the intention to help the crusade. She also told them that the urges to do evil are still there (said something about powerful demonic auras affecting her), and even suggested using some spells on her. The cleric got the message to use mark of justice, atonement, etc to help her on the redemption path. They had very good ideas when helping Nurah redeem herself, even after a rough start (they needed a few pointers as to how to approach the redemption thing from Sosiel), so I'm sure they will successfully help Aru.
Here you have the answers to your questions:
1- Plaguebearer is a blight druid ability. You can check the archetype in the advanced player's guide (page is listed in Carrock's statblock, near his class, levels, etc). Spores appear in the "Aura" section of the statblock.
Ah, gotcha. I missed that.
2- No, Life Bubble doesn't help against it. It is not a poison effect, it's more like the vrock's spores attack but without the "similar to a disease" text. Carrock is a mythic opponent and should be able to overcome player's defenses as much as they do against other enemies.
3- The effect is supposed to apply to further successful hits by the same Ulkreth on each round (attacks of opportunity also count for this ability). I have clarified the text in the document. If I have time, I'll do the full Ulkreth statblock.
Glad to hear I managed to steer things in the right direction here!
- IMHO, Stunning Critical cannot be used against a plant creature because they are immune to the primary effect (stunning). Staggering Critical should work fine. This is how I would rule it, so please let's not get into a RAW/RAI argument. I agree that Carrock doesn't have an answer to the staggered condition beyond having two turns, but that's ok. I'm sure your players were happy when they crippled and then killed him. :-)
Good point. I hadn't noticed that plant creatures are immune to stunning... oh well.
- Mind Blank + Invisibility is a great combination, but remember that an invisible creature can be detected and pinpointed even if they are using Stealth. Invisibility gives a nice +20 bonus if you move, but I'm pretty sure those paladins walking in full plate are fairly easy to spot when you have a +44 Perception modifier. And let's not forget that the players cannot see each other so certain tactical decisions are harder to pull off under this "invisibility cloak" (unless telepathy is involved).
Definitely true!
(If you've identified the location of a creature using Perception, you do still have a 50% miss chance, though, right? This is what seemed to make this such an effective defensive tactic for my players---forcing opponents to choose between missing half the time, or switching to a different (visible) target. I was generally having the opponents choose the latter, which allowed the wounded party members to heal up. But maybe I'll have them behave differently in the future... )
@Porridge,
Yes, even if you know where a creature is, it still has total concealment, wich is a good defensive benefit (for example you don't provoke opportunity attacks). In this case, it is important to know if your monster has the Blind-Fight feat, as it allows to reroll miss chances and allows to retain the Dex bonus to AC against melee attacks from an invisible opponent (ranged attacks still negates the bonus).
Blindsense, tremorsense, etc also help a lot. Blindsight and similar abilities (for example, the lifesense the ancient apocalypse locust has) completely negates the benefits of mind blank + invisibility, unless the latter is the mythic version.
I suppose you already know these rules but sometimes it is useful to reread the basics of this complex game in the CRB and the Bestiaries (I do it all the time) :-)
What kind of invisibility are your players using? greater invisibility?
I suppose you already know these rules but sometimes it is useful to reread the basics of this complex game in the CRB and the Bestiaries (I do it all the time) :-)
No worries; I appreciate the reminders!
Another thing that's struck home after returning to the mythic rules and WoTR is how much more complicated the game is. At the start of the Carrock fight we'd forgotten about so many features of the mythic rules that we had to re-start it after a round and a half, because we'd made so many mistakes...
What kind of invisibility are your players using? greater invisibility?
I think Invisibility Sphere and Greater Invisibility are the two spells that get the most use. (The sorcerer may have Mythic Invisibility---I'd have to check her character sheet---but if so, it hasn't gotten much play yet.)
Looking ahead to the encounters to come, two more quick questions:
1. The Mythic Dragon Trait "Energy Mastery" describes some energy substitution tricks dragons can do with their spells, and adds that they can ignore a certain amount of energy resistance w.r.t. their favored element. Do they just get to ignore this amount of energy resistance when casting spells that do damage of that kind? Or do they ignore that amount of energy resistance whenever they inflict damage involving that element (including damage from Energy Bite and their breath weapon)?
2. Is the Son of Shax supposed to have the Mythic Spell-Like Abilities special ability? (Most of the mythic demons in the document have this special ability, but the Son of Shax didn't; I just wanted to make sure that this was intentional.)
@Porridge,
Thanks for the explanation!
And about your questions...
1- The second option: they ignore that amount of energy resistance whenever they inflict damage involving that element, be it with a bite attack, an aura or a spell.
2- He doesn't have the mythic spell-like abilities special ability, only a constant mythic mage armor.
Wouldn't true sight also see through mind blank + invisibility? I know its divination but it isn't cast on the subject and isn't seeking information about them.
In my opinion the text in mind blank is pretty clear:
"The subject is protected from all devices and spells that gather information about the target through divination magic (such as detect evil, locate creature, scry, and see invisible)"
True seeing is a divination spell, the information that it tries to gather is visual (the same as see invisibility).
But of course each DM may interpret it differently.
@Lochar,
Yeah, I'm still working on his statblock. Hopefully I'll finish him soon.
Ahh, true. Missed the see invis part, and was reading too much into the spell's name. Doesn't make much sense but it is written that way...and is magic.
So, once again, invisibility purge to the rescue?
@Seannoss,
It seems so :-) I dunno if there are any spells ouside the CRB that can do the same.
Update: Diurgez Broodlord is finished. The document has been uploaded again.
Yes, the ability works just like the standard balor flaming body. When he pulls people next to him with his whip, they... start dying :-)