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I am concerned that they will mop the floor with him and I want this fight to be epic. I do know that one issue will be that the party ranger will delay his action until BBEG begins casting then shoot the crap out of him with his dominant bow thereby disrupting his spells.
I do plan to change up some of his spells to better protect him, especially since the alchemist will be lobbing dispel bombs at him relentlessly.
Any suggestions? Any way to help against the arrows? I am interested on how this fight went with other GM's
If the runelord gets initiative, he can often TPK the team before they even get to act. Timestop is nasty, yo. Don't buff him overly much.
Assuming he is aware of the party, he should probably have some defenses up specific to the situation. Even a contingency windwall will help him out a lot. If he isn't aware of the party, you should not change things around too much.
You may wish to increase his HP slightly to make him last longer, and perhaps introduce a few extra opponents to cope with the larger party, but honestly I would run it mostly as written. If your players mop the floor with him, they'll probably feel suitably heroic and all will be good.
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If you're worried about being interrupted, you could start combat with a quickened greater invisibility, displacement, or mirror image. I know illusion is a prohibited school for him, but it's worth two spell slots to be able to cast a few spells safely at first.
Personally, if I won initiative I'd start off with time stop or wail of the banshee. If I lost initiative I'd start off with quickened mirror image and prismatic wall.
If you decide you don't want to change the spells he has, you could try quickened shield and hope the archer misses, or just make sure to beat him on initiative (even if you have to "GM screen" this one).
Overall, make sure to remember that visibility is key for getting shot by an archer and hit by an alchemist. He has a lot of area affect visibility blocker spells memorized, so coat the room with clouds! You don't have to see them to horrid wilting or fireball them to death.
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It will not be long until I too have to run this fight, provided my players do not die on their way through Xin Shalast. I say this so you know that I have not run this fight, and so you know I am not speaking from experience, only hypothetically.
With regards to the Ranger prepping actions.
The first thing the party has to do is move through the portal, into Karzoug's pocket realm. As Karzoug pretty much knows exactly what is going on in Xin Shalast, they cannot really take him by surprise, and as such, he will probably see them coming, meaning he can get the drop on them, not the other way around. IF he gets the drop on them, the moment they step through, he will use his time stop, which should technically go off before anyone has a chance to ready actions to shoot at him. Once the Time Stop goes down, he starts breaking up the heroes by choking their entrance area with a billion nasty spells, then following up with another time-stop. I believe one of the spells he is stated to throw down is a prismatic wall, meaning that not only can the ranger not see him, his ammo won't pass through the wall either. Once he is through the wall, that is a different story, but once he is through the wall, he may also be in melee range of the blue dragon, which should make ranged attacks interesting.
If you want to make sure that arrows are not an issue, you can have Karzoug use Fickle Winds or have him cast spells from behind a wall of force, which means the ranger will have to move up the stairs, onto the main balcony to get the right angle to shoot at Karzoug.
With regards to the Alchemist throwing dispel bombs.
Look at the layout of the map. The alchemist does not only have to toss the bomb quite a distance, he also has to toss it upwards, and there are features in the landscape, such as the upper balcony, and the greed-prism mcguffin thingie, which could interfere with his ability to get a clean throw in. Aside from that, notice that Karzoug does not fight alone. His wardens of thunder, the rune-giant and the blue dragon can fight just as tactically as your players, breaking up their tactics, ready'ing actions to respond to them, and so on.
As a final note, Karzoug has had about half the campaign to regularly observe these interlopers. By this point, unless the whole party wiped in xin shalast, and these are entirely new heroes, he should know the ins and outs of their tactics, their preferred means of attack and defense, and how to best deal with them. He may not be able to leave his realm, but his servants are, and he does not lack the finances either. His servants would be perfectly capable of securing objects he needs for him in the outside world, meaning that whatever his brilliant level 20, 10.000 year old-practically-the-inventor-of-transmutation-magic mind can device, he can probably have ready for the fight.
As a GM you ALWAYS possess the power to make an encounter challenging, because you have absolute power.
If you want to go with the book and roll with the dice, as I usually advice GMs to do, then I suggest you make sure you do Karzougs mental stats justice and make sure he is well-prepared to deal with these bothersome adventurers, who have brought him nothing but misery.
Hope it helps.
-Nearyn
Do not use a single boss as the boss fight. Action economy will not be in his favor. I don't know how buffed your group is, but he will get stomped.
Devon a readied action will also interrupt a quickened spell, and he can not cast illusion spells unlike a normal wizard who can just burn two slots.
Having someone(maybe a magus) dedication to harassing the alchemist will slow him down.
Having a melee brute(giant with class levels as an example) bother the ranger might work. Have some lower level caster dispelling the party's armor and weapons also a good idea.
List of spells you could use
1.Protection from arrows
2.Sum monster 7-9
3.Resist energy
4.Time stop
5.Invisibility,Greater
6. Force cage (Against the alchemist)
7.wail of the banshee
Also it gives the order of spells he uses.
Good Luck.
Also there's a adult blue dragon a warden of runes and 2 wardens of thunder.
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First, a question: do you want the players to win easily? If so, don't bother changing Karzoug's spells or tactics, or anything about the Eye of Avarice. Trust me, he's not as tough as the book makes him seem, especially to strong ranged characters.
If you want it to be a challenge, you may want to change K's listed spells. All of his spells are from the CRB; giving him some from the later sourcebooks (even if it's just the APG, UM, and UC) can really beef him up. Fickle winds comes to mind immediately, of course.
Another thing to change: when I played through it, the GM made one change to the environment that made our task much tougher: he had Karzoug set the Eye so that magical (non-winged) flight was impossible for anyone but him. PCs who wanted to fly had to change to a winged form, with all the attendant headaches involved. Made a huge difference, as his giants didn't really need to move much to be effective anyway.
Another thing I'd change is to make each current square of the map a 10' instead of a 5'. This assumes you're using the Anniversary Edition, not the original. All of K's giant allies may be squeezed by the current map (suffering movement and attack penalties; not sure why Paizo didn't notice this in their update). Gives the giants more room to maneuver and makes the PCs take longer to get to K, making the fight last longer.
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Some of the suggestions I have for you:
[spoilers]
He has a LEGENDARY Intelligence. Use it. There is a spell called Swipe in the RotR anniversary edition (and may be elsewhere) Have Karzoug snatch the bow (or any other weapon, really) and then huck it into the lake of fire surrounding the Eye of Avarice (This is the climactic BBEG fight, rules of 'nice' and 'I don't sunder PC weapons because then they will be sad, boo hoo' should go out the window.)
He has WISH prepared. TWICE! And Limited Wish. Also twice! You can use wind wall (if absolutely necessary) to negate the arrows (wall of force, wall of stone, wall of iron are more level appropriate, but Wind Wall doesn't block spells which might be important to Karzoug.
Study his spells! Know what they do, and how to set it up for devastating effect.
Use the environment. There is likely no way that Karzoug will ever be caught in melee. (Passing a concentration check to cast defensively should be child's play, and he's got dimension door to escape if necessary. Sign of Wrath will send most people scattering if they get too close.
Remember to account for all of his implanted Ioun Stones.
His glaive acts on its own, so remember that too. Casting spells and healing and such
Also, Karzoug is not alone:
Warden of Runes will likely dominate the fighter/ranger/ if Karzoug can't get the bow away. Nothing is quite as amusing to me as a dominated archer being forced to throw his own bow away, (or shoot randomly into the distance)
The Storm Giants have improved vital strike. They can hit with a single arrow that does 9d6+14! They can also cast call lightning and use readied actions to lightning bolt any of the PC spellcasters.
Awesome Blow to knock any PCs foolish enough to close with them in melee clear off their platform into the lake of fire.
There is a DRAGON! Don't forget about frightful presense, its spell-like abilities, its spell resistance (probably easily bypassed by this point, but...)
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He can easily take players out the fight round 1.
Target the guy with the low Int and Maze him out the fight, follow it with a quickened Time stop.
Throw a few buffs but also throw CC at the group during those rounds (they wont come into effect till time-stop ends). Make sure to use your quicken spells he has...use every action economy to drop spells. (quickened haste on every ally in the room. ext ext)
my suggestions for standard action CC (Prismatic wall infront of the group and a Horrid wilting ontop of the remaining group...if you get a 3rd round in the timestop....Timestop again....and continue laying the doom.)
Remember that Greater rod of quicken works on all your 9th level spells...Unload on them with the best you have and make his turn bring the TPK. This is a Runelord.
As far as preparing for the party...if ANY of them is wearing a Sehedron medallion or ring Karzoug knows your coming....if the player is a wizard or caster he even knows all the spells that person has. Those devices allow him to spy on the group. It will also allow him to know which group members have those nice bane weapons designed for him and he will not target them with a Transmutation spell. Remember Karzoug has a Int of 36. He is beyond intelligent and knows he can throw every high level spell at them because he doesn't have another fight that day.
The group should be more worried about stopping the Leng device and preventing Karzoug's return. Hardly should the PCs win the fight. Typically it is a TPK and you hope that you can destroy the portal as well as the leng device preventing the destruction of the world.
Sometimes a glorious Death is a Befitting end.
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I love the Pathfinder community. You guys rock.
I don't want to hand them the fight I just want them to feel like thier lives are indeed threatened. Even if a few players die that is ok, most of them have at one point during the adventure path anyhow. I just prefer to not TPK them.
Wind wall and fickle winds were the spells I was looking for. I do plan on splitting up the party via prismatic walls, forcecages and force walls. I just know that thier priest of Desna is going to dimesional hop them straight out. This is good though because it is starts to become damage control rather than the party being on the offense.
I'll check out the swipe spell, I can see how the lake of fire could really be used to the ememy's advantage in numerous ways.
I also like the idea of grounding them they love to fly around and get huge movement advantages I'll look into this. The larger room is something I'll most likely do as well.
The party wizard has an exceptionally high initiative and he has time stop as well, he is an intellent player and will also use many of the same tactics as BBEG (time stop, prismatics, forcewalls, quicken rod, ect).
Spells I know the party will have going are:
Protection from evil (no suggestion or charming these guys), mind blank, resist energy fire, acid, cold electricity communal, mass fly, holy word
The party wizard loves his dazing spells and likes to summon lightning elementals to disarm opponents.
Thanks all, I will take each and every one of those ideas into account, I like most of them, your feedack is really helpful and I am very greatful for your input.
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I just know that thier priest of Desna is going to dimesional hop them straight out.
Occlusion field. Teleport magic doesn't work in the Pennicle.
Spells I know the party will have going are:
Protection from evil (no suggestion or charming these guys), mind blank, resist energy fire, acid, cold electricity communal, mass fly, holy word
He can't cast Enchantments. The rest could be stripped by a greater dispel magic during the time stops.\
I just prefer to not TPK them.
Too bad because it is extremely easy to do.
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OK, I didn't read any of this, to avoid spoilers, but I recommend you have a TPK and then make the group start at level 1 and re-do the entire campaign.
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Regardless of how successful they've been up until confronting Karzoug, actually doing it should be a "get me my brown pants" moment. High level wizards can literally warp reality in ways no other class can. Want to make your players feel that way? Tell them, that within the rules, you will be planning for days, weeks whatever to produce a TPK. The restraining bolts are off.
Karzoug is more intelligent than any human who has ever lived on Earth. If you know the pc's have weaknesses, so does Karzoug. And he hammers on them without mercy or relent. He is fighting for his life and he has no options for retreat. Does your party have adamantine weapons? If not stoneskin and golems for everybody!
Even before the Eye make sure Karzoug is not just toying with them through his images - he should be going for the jugular. Use Mage's Disjunction to take out the Dominant Weapons - he's not stupid, those are the biggest threat to him. He should use that on them the instant they entire the Eye. When their buffs are down, use time stop, move up close and cast prismatic sphere (not wall) use the sphere to spiit the party, placing some in and some out. Then he leaves the sphere and strands the obnoxious melee types inside. Now they can run through the sphere, taking all the saves just to get at him. Or even better separate the healers.
Have his minions concentrate all of their attacks on one pc at a time, top of the priority list anyone who still has a Dominant Weapon or is healer. Why waste your time doing all that damage if some busybody is going to fix it with Heal. Take out the healer first. Do your pc's concentrate fire? So should Karzoug.
You could always try and sunder his bow or get a minion up in the rangers face so that whenever he fires he provokes AoO. Perhaps even invisible minions that Karzoug has buffed before the fight.
Prepping the room with spells as mention above both on him and in the general area will help. Perhaps have Karzoug have one last Lt who is a healer/cleric that was assigned as his personal body guard and helped oversea the ritual, have him healing Karzoug.
If you want to make it challenging fight the PC as though it was a PC vs PC fight (we do this from time to time for fun). TRY to actually KILL them. Also you can justify any prep spells as echoed above. He should not be the bond villian that has the fatal flaw. You already know what your PC's tactics are going to be, build the encounter around that to force them to find new and inventive ways to beat him.
Good Luck, let us know how it goes!
I am prepping for this fight at the moment, my main fear is Initiative winning Synthesist Summoner pounce charge. So my plans are :-
1)Permanent Prismatic Sphere set up, Karzoug starts inside the sphere, he will move out to fight
2) The party are going to be layered in defensive spells , So either I disjunction them or I prep with spells to avoid the defenses
3) Retreat back into the sphere or Time Stop when threatened then Wish to heal all injuries for K and any remaining minions
4) I intend to Karzoug to have all his enhancement spells cast before the fight , at the same time the pc's are prepping themselves
5) I intend to play on his Int 36 and his scrying on the pc's so his pre battle preperation will be based on knowing the pc's main offensive and defensive options and have counters ready for most of them.
It looks like this means using as few transmutation spells as offensive spells as possible as the pc's are prepped for that.
6)His main focus is avoiding melee so I intend to have Repulsion up, Dimension door ready and keep the distance open as much as possible.
Make sure that you are aware of the distances from where the PCs port in, and where Karzoug is on his throne. It is a good distance, and he has the advantage of elevated position.
There is also no straight lines to charge with on the first round (Even flight has to go around the soul lens/runewell).
Very Respectfully,
--Bacon
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I was surfing through the FAQ of one of the Designers / long time forum users the other day. He explained how he had challenged and nearly killed his Rise group multiple times in that final encounter. I thought I would drop the link here.
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2r7kg&page=2?Ask-Mark-Seifter-All-Your-Ques tions-Here#69
Tried to link but it wasn't working. Old copy paste.