Trial of the Beast: Party fights Abberant Promethean "alone".

[McBaine]

I'm currently running Trial of the Beast as a GM
I'm putting spoiler tags, just in case:

Spoiler:

The group will be reaching Schloss Caromarc soon. There is a strong possibility that they will not call the Beast of Lepidstadt to aid them against the Abberant Promethean for several reasons:
- They may not get the clues of Waxwood that it is to dangerous to fight alone or simply son't care, because NPCs always warn of big threats, but they (the group) are the main characters and are the ones who pull through when others don't.
- They may not get how to call the Beast, because the Bloodbound Thrall is on the roof and they may not understand the implications soon enough or want to "clear" the room before going to the roof.
- Even when they are aware of the possibility to call the Beast, I'm not sure they would take it. Using the Beast who has a child-like mind to do their bidding is not better than what the Whispering Way did. Especially in a fight of live and death.

So, what can I do to make a successful fight against the Abberant Promethean possible without the Beast of Lepidstadt.
When they arrive, the party will most likely consist of:
- Dwarf cleric of Iomedae (Good and Law Domain) Level 7
- Half-elf ranger (archer build) Level 7
- Human monk Level 7
- Elf druid (animal companion: hawk) Level 7
- Elf rogue (two weapon fighting with fighting finesse) Level 6

It may be that they get two guest players for the evening but that is not sure:

- Gnome Sorcerer (Black dragon bloodline) Level 5
- Human Fighter (sword and bord) Level 4

The Abberant Promethean is CR 11, but I think there are ways to do it. Having a Scarab of Golembane lying around somewhere in Schloss Caromarc would be a great advantage. What other gear or tactics could work?

When they realise they are up against golems (Flesh golem hound at Vorkstag and Grines Chymic Works and Caromarc, Tower Guardian and the Blind one) they probably get some adamantine weapon blanch for the ranger's arrows. The rogue can use Waxwoods ring of invisibility to get in position and sneak attack for +3d6 damage with each weapon, then make a five foot step back so the raging golem goes for a summoned critter (summon nature's ally) instead (it always attacks the nearest enemy). A fire spell does no damage but slows the promethean for 2d6 rounds so it can't use full attacks.
Keep the slow effect up, shoot adamantine blanched arrows at him (precise shot FTW), keep summoning critters, so the promethean keeps getting flanked by the rogue for sneak attacks. The melees can do full round attacks and then step back 5ft to avoid being targeted (thanks summoned critters) and one has the scarab to ignore the DR. The priest is on healing duty and stays with the ranger at the adamantine trapdoor where the fleash golem does not go anyways. Seems doable.

Any hints or tips? Did I forget something with this encounter?

[Bart Vervaet]

It's not impossible for 5 characters to deaet the promethean on their own, but chances are there will be one or more fatalities.

In my campaign, I'm making a few changes to this encounter. Instead of the apparatus calling the beast in, I'm going to have the beast lying dead in the room, killed by the promethean, and the apparatus has the power to revive the beast.

I think that the sight of the beast dead in the room will be a very powerfull warning that the promethean is not something they can beat on their own, which will force them to look for other options.

[archmagi1]

I have no real advice for the encounter other than plenty of GM nudging that "This big device that has not been plot foreshadowed is very important. Spend some rounds climbing it and turn it on."

Also, make the beast show up 1 or 2 rounds later instead of the what? 7 rounds in the book.

[Ben the Red]

Like Bart, I had the Beast "dead" in the room, caught up in the Promethean's webs. I had a Beast sized hole in the side of the tower. A PC flew up, saw the beast, saw the Promethean, the level, and the ladder. Waxwood did get the message across that the apparatus had to be used to revive the Beast.

Note on your third concern:

Game of Thrones (TV):

Hodor has a childlike mind, but doesn't seem to mind/notice when Brann controls him to fight. And everyone loves Hodor!

The clues are all there for the PCs, if they choose to ignore them, then they are up for a tough, but not impossible fight. By ignoring the hints, they risk their lives, but victory will be all the sweeter.

[McBaine]

About the last point... Is there any difference in XP if they manage to defeat the Abberant Promethean alone? Say, when there are 5 Players and the Beast, the XP gets divided by 6 and if they manage to do it alone, it is divided by 5? Or does it not matter?

And yes, the dead Beast lying in the room and reviving it is a better way than just having it showing up out of the blue in seven rounds... (heck, seven rounds is a lot of time in a pathfinder fight).

Well, we will see tomorrow what they do - if they make it that far the next session. Thanks.

[Ben the Red]

I didn't count the Beast being there against them, just divided whatever CR 11 Promethean is worth to the party.

[Rakshaka]

The biggest things to watch out for is the

:

Constrict and Quickness abilities. Stress the nature of the wounds on the beast, walls, and anything else. With any luck, your Druid will be packing Freedom of Movement. Otherwise, its going to hit someone for 8d6+18 dmg a turn, which will usually result in a couple of dead PCs. You can slightly mitigate this by having the A.P. make sub-optimal choices during combat (it has no intelligence score) such as using its Web and Moan abilities. In this way you can buy your Pcs time to kill it or for the beast to come to the rescue. I really like the idea of getting The Beast to the lightning spire in an attempt to revive him...

[captain yesterday]

i used sub-optimal tactics and got rid of paralytic tentacles, no beast, worked fine for us

[Pan]

I had the beast there as the players climbed through the trap door. The PCs manuevered around as the promethean was fixated on the beast. Soon after the beast was defeated. By using the device in the tower a PC was able to catch a lightning bolt that re-charged the beast and brought him back into the fight. The sorc even hit the beast with a lightning bolt to haste him up. My players ate-it-up. Of course they have to be open to using their environment in a combat-as-war menatality and I know this does not work for all types.

I wish I had advice on scrapping the fight as written but I had an absolute blast and so did my players. I guess I just wanted to write about it. Cap. yesterday's idea sounds reasonable.

[captain yesterday]

to be honest, my idea was born out of incompetence rather then ingenuity, i had forgotten about the tentacles and then the party was having such a crazy time in the fight i totally forgot about the beast until towards the end, by then it was turning in their favor, it was a long fight, they blew thru every expendable item they had and 3 out of 4 people were in negative hit points at the end (one was a half-orc so was still awake) certainly was memorable and is one of my favorite adventures.