Tips with remade Nualia (Warpriest)!

[Dante Doom]

Hello guys! I1m currently gming a Rise of Runelords campaign and the party is going to confront Nualia in the nex meeting!

The currently party have this characters:

Half-orc barbarian (urban barbarian)
Drow Alchemist
Dwarf Monk (monk of the four winds)
Fetchling Summoner

They are all lvl 4 right now. They rolled the stats, so they are really above the average.
So I currently remade Nualia to make her more of a challenge for the party, but i think that maybe i went too far, and i am afraid of a TPK.

Here is Nualia

Nualia CR 5
XP 1,600
Female aasimar warpriest of Lamashtu 6 (Pathfinder RPG Advanced Class Guide 60, Pathfinder RPG Advanced Race Guide 84)
CE Medium outsider (native)
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +5
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Defense
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AC 21, touch 14, flat-footed 19 (+7 armor, +2 deflection, +2 Dex)
hp 94 (6d8+46)
Fort +14, Ref +8, Will +12
Resist acid 5, cold 5, electricity 5
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft. (20 ft. in armor)
Melee +1 falchion +10 (2d4+13/18-20) or
. . +1 keen falchion +10 (2d4+13/15-20) or
. . 2 claws +4 (1d6+4)
Ranged mwk composite longbow +7 (1d8/×3)
Special Attacks blessings 6/day, channel negative energy 3/day (DC 16, 2d6), fervor 6/day (2d6), sacred weapon (+1 1d8, 6 rounds/day)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 6th; concentration +9)
. . 1/day—daylight
Warpriest Spells Prepared (CL 6th; concentration +9)
. . 2nd—bear's endurance, bull's strength, cure moderate wounds, shatter (DC 15)
. . 1st—divine favor, doom (DC 14), obscuring mist, sanctuary (DC 14), shield of faith
. . 0 (at will)—bleed (DC 13), detect magic, mending, read magic, stabilize

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Statistics
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Str 18, Dex 14, Con 20, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 17
Base Atk +4; CMB +9; CMD 22
Feats Channel Smite, Divine Protection[ACG], Furious Focus[APG], Lamashtu's Mark, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (falchion)
Skills Acrobatics -1 (-5 to jump), Climb +4, Diplomacy +3, Intimidate +14, Knowledge (religion) +8, Linguistics +1, Perception +5, Swim +4; Racial Modifiers +2 Diplomacy, +2 Perception
Languages Celestial, Common, Goblin
SQ blessings (evil: battle companion, unholy strike, strength: stength of will, strength surge)
Other Gear +1 breastplate, +1 falchion, +1 keen falchion, arrows (20), mwk composite longbow, sihedron medallion, gold holy symbol (worth 100 gp)
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Special Abilities
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Blessings (6/day) (Su) Pool of power used to activate Blessing abilities.
Channel Smite Channel energy can be delivered through a Smite attack.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Energy Resistance, Acid (5) You have the specified Energy Resistance against Acid attacks.
Energy Resistance, Cold (5) You have the specified Energy Resistance against Cold attacks.
Energy Resistance, Electricity (5) You have the specified Energy Resistance against Electricity attacks.
Fervor (2d6, 6/day) (Su) Standard action, touch channels positive/negative energy to heal or harm. Swift to cast spell on self.
Furious Focus If you are wielding a weapon in two hands, ignore the penalty for your first attack of each turn.
Lamashtu's Mark (1/day, DC 19) Melee hit grants deformity to reduce target's CHA by 1d4 for 1 hour (Fort neg).
Power Attack -2/+4 You can subtract from your attack roll to add to your damage.
Sacred Weapon +1 (6 rounds/day) (Su) As a swift action, grant weapon enhancement bonus or certain powers.
Sihedron Medallion Allows a runelord to scry on you and speak to you.
Warpriest Channel Negative Energy 2d6 (3/day, DC 16) (Su) Positive energy heals the living and harms the undead; negative has the reverse effect.

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Im thinking in using her blessing in making her weapon keen and strike hard the PC`s with power attack and Channel Smite!!

What you guys think?

Edit: She is already all buffed and using power attack!

[Story Archer]

I actually did something very similar, remade Nualia as a 6th level Warpriest. The group will probably be encountering her next session - this is how I have the battle planned out:

Lyrie (4th level Transmuter), Bruthazmus (2nd level Ranger/2nd level Barbarian) and Tsuto (4th level Monk) will be buffed, prepared and waiting to face the PC's: three very well made 3rd level characters along with a turncoat Orik (4th level Fighter) and Shalelu (4th level Ranger). That battle won't be a cakewalk, but its intended to be an appetizer for the main event.

Its my plan to have Bruthazmus break free at some point and flee with Shalelu in hot pursuit, setting up a side quest I've put together.

Nualia will be watching from down the hallway with her Yeth Hound, and will send him in to shake things up if it looks like the fight is going badly (remember it can fly so it won't trigger the blade trap). Once the PC's defeat all of her minions, she will try to lure them into springing the trap and then will 'flee' down to where the Shadows lair. There she will use cast Hide From Undead and once the PC's close with her, Darkness. Her plan is to circle out of the effect of the spell and attack PC's as they emerge, occasionally channelling negative energy to hurt the PC's and heal the Shadows. She'll self-heal as a swift action when possible and reserve a Sanctuary spell to use if she needs to flee...

I'm mildly concerned that it will be too deadly a fight, but Nualia is smart and is fighting on her home turf. My PC's will have to earn it.

Ah, one other thing... one of my PC's is a Paladin of Sarenrae and has been urged by Father Zantus to 'save Nualia if there is anything of her left to save'. To that end I've decided that any confirmed critical will sever Nualia's demonic arm and will leave her Shaken. A successful Intimidate check or anything that might worsen the Shakened condition will cause her to surrender, and likely fall back into a coma similar to the one after she lost her child. Kind of a built-in alternate victory condition for the PC's to better enhance the drama.

[CWheezy]

I think having her not use the claw and bastard sword combo is a flavor failure. Yes it is not good, BUT it is super cool and she will still do a lot of damage to the PCs anyway

[Story Archer]

CWheezy wrote:

I think having her not use the claw and bastard sword combo is a flavor failure. Yes it is not good, BUT it is super cool and she will still do a lot of damage to the PCs anyway

I'm having her use a Flail in one hand and then her claw as a secondary attack (-5 attack) but the claw arm has a higher strength (+4 STR) to offset that somewhat.

[Akerlof]

I rebuilt Nualia as a Warpriest as well, but tried to stay closer to the original intent rather than completely optimize her. It's surprising how close her rebuilt unbuffed numbers came to the original buffed numbers: Her AC is 1 higher, her attack bonus is 1 lower and for 2d4+5 instead of 1d10+4 (0.5 points more on average), she has 1 more second level spell slot and a couple more hit points.

Then she can buff herself and there will be a significant difference: Keen weapon from her Sacred Weapon ability, +2/+2 from Divine Favor, all of her self targeting spells as swift actions so she can actually use them without dying to action economy.

I'm really looking forward to seeing this fight, especially since the Wizard's only spell left is Darkness, the Warpriest only has 1 spell left, and the Alchemist used up all her bombs on the Yeth Hounds in the chapel.

My Nualia build:

Nualia: CE Warpriest 6

Init +5, Perception +5

HP 51 (61 with False Life)
AC 19, Touch 11, Flat Footed 18 (7 armor, 1 natural, 1 Dex)
(AC 21, 13, 20 with Shield of Faith)

Fort: 7, Reflex 4, Will 9

+1 Falchion +9 (2d4+5 18-20/x2)
--+1 Falchion +7 (2d4+11 18-20/x2) With Power Attack
--Potential Buffs:
----Divine Favor +2/+2
----Keen: Crit Range 15-20 from Sacred Weapon
----Blessing of Str: +3/+0
----Blessing of Chaos: +0/+1d6
----Bull's Strength is already included

+1 Claw +7 (1d6+3 20/x2)
--+1 Claw +5 (1d6+7 20/x2) With Power Attack
----I made the altar in the temple a magical altar to Lamashtu out of Inner Sea Gods. If you perform Lamashtu's devotion at that altar you gain the benefit of Magic Fang for the day. Really fits well here.

Str 13 (17 with Bull's Str), Dex 8 (12 with Cat's Grace), Con 13, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 17
--I swapped her Con and Str scores to make Power Attack legal, but kept her stats the same otherwise.

Blessings:
-Strength: +3 attack for a swift action
-Chaos: +1d6 vs law for 1 minute for a std action
----I used the same blessings as her original domains instead of trying something else.

Spells:
Exactly the same a her original spells, except she adds Grace as an extra 2nd level spell.

Feats:
-Weapon Focus Falchion
-Lamashtu's Mark
-Obedience (Lamashtu) -- Another flavorful add, grants +1 Natural Armor
-Power Attack
-Toughness
-Improved Initiative

On the whole, she's got really similar capabilities to the original on paper. but she'll get more of a chance to use them since she can do a lot of stuff as swift actions. I'm hoping it will be a good challenge but not overwhelming for my PCs. Especially since they don't have much in the way of resources left.

CWheezy wrote:

I think having her not use the claw and bastard sword combo is a flavor failure. Yes it is not good, BUT it is super cool and she will still do a lot of damage to the PCs anyway

I switched it to a Falcata because one of my players uses Falcatas. With all the Lamashtu stuff floating around, he's really hoping to get a nice one at some point in time. So I figured it would be a great way to put some usable loot in the game instead of giving the head Lamashtan a weapon that will just get sold off.

I'm still trying to figure a way to let her use the claw. And if I didn't have a player who uses a Falcata, I probably would keep the Bastard Sword or something similar.

[Kudaku]

Interesting reading! Personally I remade Nualia as an antipaladin, and found that the aura of cowardice had amazing synergy with the yeth hound bay. A roughly similar antipaladin build can be found here.