Fighting Cthulhu


Advice


I want to experiment and let my players be demolished by Cthulhu. Which starting PC level will make getting demolished fun?


Any, it's a god. You could have fun killing them at low level, or wait for them to get cocky with all their powers and slap them down.


But what will be the most fun to die at? I don't want to kill them all in a hit.


I would be tempted to take down a high level party. just when they are all getting cocky.


3 people marked this as a favorite.
coldvictim wrote:
I would be tempted to take down a high level party. just when they are all getting cocky.

Just throw it into the random encounter table.

"You are walking down a dark and winding path, when suddenly, you are beset by an attempt to rob you by....Cthulhu. Roll for initiative."


6 people marked this as a favorite.

Remember, Cthulhu devours 1d6 investigators per turn, so don't let anybody take that class.


Make them all level 20 and give them incredible wealth by level. Then laugh as they all get slaughtered anyways.

Mythic tiers or artifacts are the only things that can really compete with Cthulu. Even then, only a lot of mythic tiers or really strong artifacts will do it.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Everything about fighting Cthulhu can be summed up in this video


CampinCarl9127 wrote:

Make them all level 20 and give them incredible wealth by level. Then laugh as they all get slaughtered anyways.

Mythic tiers or artifacts are the only things that can really compete with Cthulu. Even then, only a lot of mythic tiers or really strong artifacts will do it.

A level of 20th level characters, non-mythic can kill Cthulhu, easily. Though it obviously depends on optimization levels of the party.

Cthulhu really is not that hard.

Add in a single mythic tier, and well, Cthulhu can die in the first round. Mythic is absurd.


Maybe a really questionably built god wizard. The thing about Cthulu is that without some serious saves you just die before the fight starts. Most people can't even get to fight him.


level 20 with 10 tiers of Mythic. But don't throw Cthulhu at the outright, throw lots of horror and madness in front of them first. It will be interesting. Make them feel like they have choices, but at the end the don't matter. They will face Cthulhu no matter what. The true horror of Cthulhu is to make the players feel like no matter what they do, it will not matter. Have a lot of NPCs with them and they either go insane or die. The players will keep trying to protect them, but that will not matter, the NPCs will still die. And see how much resource they have left at the end. I think that will build up the boss fight rather nicely.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

A level 20 archer Paladin can kill Cthuhlu in a few rounds, it really all depends on how well they optimize their build to counter Cthulhu. In reality it won't be difficult.


Level 20 with 10 mythic tiers will actually destroy him without much trouble. I know of at least 5 builds at that power level that can solo him.


The best part of the bestiary entry for Cthulhu is the entry on "Non-Euclidean". I mean, Lovecraft didn't understand it either, but spheres (and every other non-flat object) is non-Euclidean; (e.g. sum of the interior angles of any triangle inscribed on a sphere must exceed 2π.) that space-time is non-Euclidean is a pretty important piece of 20th century physics. The will save for gazing upon great Cthulhu is appropriate, but probably not because of his geometry.

Now if he's not locally-Euclidean, that could be weird, but it would most likely mean he's pointy.


Just hire ME! I'll go C H O M P ! ! ! his squiggly slimy butt, chew him up, swallow him down, and ask for more.

I work cheap, too. Just feed me a few villages (full of yummy villagers, of course) and I'll be happy to beat down this puny Cthulhu upstart. No problem.


All well and good, but how many PCs to take on Nyarlathotep?


PossibleCabbage wrote:

The best part of the bestiary entry for Cthulhu is the entry on "Non-Euclidean". I mean, Lovecraft didn't understand it either, but spheres (and every other non-flat object) is non-Euclidean; (e.g. sum of the interior angles of any triangle inscribed on a sphere must exceed 2π.) that space-time is non-Euclidean is a pretty important piece of 20th century physics. The will save for gazing upon great Cthulhu is appropriate, but probably not because of his geometry.

Now if he's not locally-Euclidean, that could be weird, but it would most likely mean he's pointy.

I think you are probably right about Lovecraft not understanding non-Euclidean geometry. But what if instead it was the first postulate (instead of the fifth) that didn't hold in the presence of Cthulhu. Maybe where Cthulhu is concerned sometimes two points cannot be connected by a straight line. Or in other words from some points in space other points simply cease to exist. That would be freaky weird!

The Exchange

Josh-o-Lantern wrote:
Everything about fighting Cthulhu can be summed up in this video

That was an incredibly accurate and well-done video outlining the Mythos....I love it. My Gaming group rotates in Cthulhu mini-campaigns on a fairly regular basis and the realization that you aren't trying win but to survive and maybe help some others to survive is very different from our other games. It really adds a certain spark to the roleplay and makes you question who we are at the end of the day and how we would react if we were thrust into a real situation where that shadow in the corner suddenly sighed and blinked while we lie in bed.

As the video states, putting a lifebar on Cthulhu is a bad thing to do.....New Sean Bean Meme: One does not simply fight Cthulhu.


The only one who, as written, can seriously threaten level 20 mythic 10s is Nocticula because she has good odds of joinking 2 of them to her side.

I am fairly confident that a well built level 20 party will prevail, depending on preperation.

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Advice / Fighting Cthulhu All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.