Level 15 boss fight

[Steve Danials]

I've got five players, all level 15, lined up for a final boss fight tonight. It's just a fun romp, but I always seem to massively underestimate them, and after hearing my wife leveling her Warpriest (using the playtest data for the Advanced Class Guide), and knowing that I have a monk, catfolk rogue, ifrit elemental sorcerer, and gunslinger waiting on top of that, I'm feeling less than optimistic.

Thoughts for a challenging (though not wholly overwhelming) fight? Seriously, any help is appreciated. I'm especially unsure when using the CR guides in the rulebooks - the fight they had last week was a beefed up hydra whose heads regened the next round, and the severed head spit out 1d6 beefed up dredges.

I think the fight lasted...three, maybe four rounds, due to the sorcerer blinding the hydras heads, and casting fireball, plus the warpriest doing 1d12+9 damage and having greater cleave. I'm still new at DM'ing, so while I'm sure I could find something that would be challenging (I was thinking one big heavy that either moves, or acts as artillery, while 4-6 other, slightly less powerful melee/ranged enemies keep them at bay) that isn't just "here's the highest monster I could find plus some popcorn minions."

Thanks!

[Create Mr. Pitt]

Add some traps, illusions, or custom devices/tricks in the battle, that'll even the odds a bit. Maybe have one of the villains control a device that controls some of the terrain around the room. Make it possible for a perceptive player to gain control of it. Either way, forces them to use some turns and provides interesting tactical choices. Make the room more interesting, that's one of the best ways to even the odds and still have big bad with some decent minions.

[Moospuh]

do swarms. not many classes have ways to deal with swarms, and even so, many of the times, spell casters have to waste an aoe to kill them, which is a plus.

or do spring attack vanishing creatures. people wont be thinking about readying an action if they are dealing with sneak attack each time and them running away

[Nearyn]

Five character party - APL 15

You say you are fairly new, and you don't want -too- hard of a fight, so I suggest a challenging encounter. So CR = 15(APL) + 1 = 76.800 experience point budget. Although you -could- make it a hard encounter for 25.600 extra experience to toss around

Arunabhasa Kills the Light - Common Rakshasa Fighter5 - 51.200 exp:

CR 15 - Exp 51.200
LE Medium outsider (native, shapechanger) Fighter 5
Init +9; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +14
DEFENSE
AC 29, touch 16, flat-footed 23 (+4 Armor, +5 Dex, +1 dodge, +9 natural)
hp 192 (10d10+5d10+90con+15Toughness+5FC)
Fort +13, Ref +13, Will +9
DR 15/good and piercing; SR 25
OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft.
Melee +1 kukri +20/+20/+15/+15/+10/+10 (1d4+6/15–20 blinding fort DC 25), bite +15 (1d6+2)
Special Attacks detect thoughts
Spells Known (CL 7th)
3rd (5/day)—lightning bolt (DC 17), suggestion (DC 17)
2nd (7/day)—acid arrow, invisibility, minor image
1st (7/day)—charm person (DC 15), mage armor, magic missile, shield, silent image
0th (at will)—dancing lights, detect magic, ghost sound (DC 13), mage hand, mending, message, prestidigitation
STATISTICS
Str 18, Dex 20, Con 22, Int 13, Wis 13, Cha 18
Base Atk +15; CMB +18; CMD 34
Feats Combat Expertise, Dodge, Improved Critical (kukri), Improved Initiative, Weapon Finesse, Critical Focus, Toughness, Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Greater Two-Weapon Fighting, Blinding Critical
Skills Bluff +21, Diplomacy +17, Disguise +24, Perception +14, Perform +17, Sense Motive +15, Stealth +18, Use-Magic-Device +19; Racial Modifiers +4 Bluff, +8 Disguise
Languages Common, Infernal, Undercommon
Combat Gear Potion of Cure serious wounds (3), Potion of Fly, Dust of Darkness; Gear +1 Kukri(free), +1 Kukri (2308gp), Belt of Giant Strength +2, 50pp and 92gp
SQ change shape (any humanoid, alter self), Bravery, Armor Training, Weapon Training(Blades, light)
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Detect Thoughts (Su)
A rakshasa can detect thoughts as per the spell of the same name (CL 18th). It can suppress or resume this ability as a free action. When a rakshasa uses this ability, it always functions as if it had spent three rounds concentrating and thus gains the maximum amount of information possible. A creature can resist this effect with a DC 19 Will save. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Technically adding 5 fighter levels only makes him CR 14, but he has gear as a 5th level PC, rather than an NPC, raising his CR by 1.

6 Hounds of Tindalos - 19.200 exp

1 Greater Magma Elemental - 6.400 exp

I'm not gonna dictate where or how you run this encounter, but here's a suggestion.

the boss fight:

The PCs enter a rectangular room (as part of a dungeon? Manor? whatever?) The room starts with a raised section of floor, leading into a fighting pit, leading into a another raised section of floor, leading into a further raised section of floor.

X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
X O O O P P P PPP P P P O O O O R R R R R R X
X O O O P P P P P P P Z Z O O O TT R R R R R X
X O O O P P P P P P P Z Z O O O TT R R R R R X
D O O O S S P PPP P P P O WW O R R R R R R X
D O O O S S P PPP P P P O WW O R R R R R R X
X O O O P P P P P P P Z Z O O O TT R R R R R X
X O O O P P P P P P P Z Z O O O TT R R R R R X
X O O O P P P PPP P P P O O O O R R R R R R X
X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

Legend:
X Walls
D The doubledoor the PCs enter through
O The floorlevel the Pcs enter on. Distance to ceiling 25 ft
S Stairs leading into the fighting pit,
P Fighting Pit. Distance to ceiling 35 ft
Z Staris leading up from the fighting pit
W A summoning circle is engraved on the floor. In the center of it hovers a large, deep red, gemstone prism the size of a fully grown man.
T Stairs leading up to the raised section of the room
R The raised section of the room. Distance to ceiling 15 ft

Arunabhasa Kills the Light is, like most members of his race, a hedonistic, superficial and malicious beast. When the PCs enter he rests on of pillows and thick rugs, while he is being massaged by his concubines, 4 beautiful women, who has been subjected to the Rakshasa's charms so often that he does not even have to charm them any longer, they merely obey, so far removed from their normal selves are they.

Arunabhasa prefers to spend his days being catered to by his slaves and watch people murder eachother for his entertainment. Every now and again he needs to gather more blood for his arena, where he brings charmed and suggested people from the local communities, defeated adversaries, as well as creatures summoned from other planes via magical scrolls.

For the past 3 months Arunabasha has enjoyed the protection of 6 hounds of Tindalos, summoned and bound to do his will for 6 full moons. He always has 4 hounds with him, while 2 of them invisibly stalk the hallways of his home, watchful of intruders. If any are spotted they return to their master to warn him, and then invisibly keep a lookout near the entrance to the room. Arunabhasa casts mage armor on himself every morning and renews it as needed. If he is warned that the PCs is about to enter the room he casts shield. If they surprise him, he casts shield as he rises to meet the PCs.

As the PCs enter, the Rakshasa stands up from his comfortable rest and takes a good look at them. "Thieves, here in my demesne. You come to steal my property. Instead you will die for my amusement". At this, one of his hounds readies an action to cast fog cloud on the PCs, catching as many as possible inside the mist, as soon as its master has cast lightning bolt. His slaves watch the battle with excitement, cheering for their master and mocking the PCs, but they do not participate in the fight, and will surrender to the PCs if they are victorious, although they will be griefstruck at the death of their master.

Arunabhasa opens up by casting lightningbolt at any obvious casters. One of the hounds uses haste to buff its fellow hounds, while one of the hounds with Arunabhasa hastes its master.

The hounds then use hit and run tactics, on the PCs, using fog and invisibility to isolate weak looking targets, while using slow on obvious melee'ers. If one of the hounds are slain, or if the PCs go directly for Arunabhasa, the Rakshasa is enraged.

"You are tougher/smarter than you look! But no matter! Xeryx'vrosta of Ignus! I summon you from your slumber to fulfil our agreement! Kill these mortal wretches" At this, the giant red gemstone in the summoning circle, pulsates with inner light and melts, manifesting as the greater magma elemental Xeryx'vrosta. It attacks immediately, attempting to bullrush melee'ers away from its master, but if its master is unthreatened, it uses slam attacks, using its lava puddle ability to limit the angles melee'ers can attack it from.

Arunabhasa keeps casting lightningbolt and acid arrow on the PCs. If it seems like it doesnt work, either because of protective magic or resistances (or whatever :D), he quits that tactic and draws closer, taking care not to set himself up for a charge. If given the opportunity, he uses suggestion to suggest that heavily armored targets defend him. If his minions are taking too many losses, or the PCs seems ready to close for melee. He uses invisibility to enter melee-range with a target of his choice, targeting healers first, then full-attacking said enemy, trying to "kill their light" with his blinding critical. If he takes too much damage, he turns invisible to quaff his healing potions, then re-enters the fight. If the PCs attempt to use glitterdust to prevent his invisiblity, he uses his dust of darkness to negate the glitterdust. If the PCs use flight, he turns invisible to drink his potion of fly, before re-entering combat. If a target has singled itself out in the air, that person would be a prime target, but if the entire party is airborne, he continues his usual tactics.

[Steve Danials]

Excellent! thank you all very much !

[rorek55]

on big fights I like to through a couple of NPCs I made personally for the game at the players, added with a bunch of mooks.

[Nearyn]

My pleasure mate.

Oh and in case you wanna use anything I wrote, I just noticed that I forgot to do some stat-increases you usually do, when you add class-levels to a monster. If you want a version where I include those, just say so and I'll toss them in quickly.

-Nearyn

[drbuzzard]

OK some general points:

A) At that level, optimized characters lead to rocket tag. There is just too much damage being flung around for fights to last very long. One side is just going to die in a hurry.

B) Watch out for action economy. One big baddy never cuts the mustard. I make this error regularly out of laziness. When you have a party with many more actions than the BBEG, the latter will lose, no matter what.

C) Make the opposition diverse. Build it like a party with tanks, buffers, blasters, battlefield control. I'm also generally too lazy about this and just cook up a bunch of identical targets. One of these days I will build a properly rounded group of enemies and my players should learn how to panic.