Help finish a boss character for a fire themed encounter.

[TheOrcnextdoor]

Hey folks, my group will be finishing an arc vs a fire themed cult trying to fully restore an evil diety (portfolio of. Fire, destruction, war, chaos)

The head Cleric is there, He is a level 8 cleric. The only Cleric that the diety is capable of granting power to through a ruby gem in which it's last vestige of power remains in the material world. Anyway, onto the crunch part.

he is built with a 20pt buy (1 for 1) same as my PCs. He is a hell-spawn teifling. His domains will likely be Fire and Destruction

Stats of the following:

Str: 18
Dex: 12
Con: 14
Int: 10
Wis: 18
Cha: 12

Now, I want this guy to be challenging, he is after all, the only recipient of this dieties remaining strength. The party will be a group of 6 PCs, all 6th level. So, I come here to ask for advice from the lovely folks at paizo.

Some good feats/Spells to give him would be good.

He will have some "mooks" as well as a partner in a Level 5 Sorcerer, (elemental bloodline, fire) any suggestions for the low threat mooks would be helpful too.

Also any flavorful ways to add a more memorable encounter via the environment would be welcomed. The fight will be in an underground chamber the size of a smaller temple, underneath another, larger temple.

As said, he is a NE diety with the domains (fire, destruction, war, chaos, Evil, Trickery)

[Dastis]

What class/style are the pc's? This can change the encounter style a lot.
Ex: if they have access to plenty of cold damage fire elementals become much weaker. If they have fire res/evasion/good ref then fire blasting is weaker

Enemies:

Bossman- use ash and rage subdomains, flaming two handed/deities favored weapon, power attack, and prepare some buff spells. The Deception domain might be nice to give him some good defensive options

Sorcerer- burning hands abuse. Intensified spell, spell focus(evocation), spell specialization(burning hands). Pre fight use mirror image, mage armor, and shield to stay alive. Efreet bloodline and tattooed sorcerer for more fire. The tattoos can be ritual burns for flavor

Mooks- magma elementals are much better than fire as they are not just damage. I believe there is a feat series dedicated to using torches as a primary weapon if you wanted to use humanoids. Oil canisters make fine thrown weapons with throw anything. Some rouges with evasion would be great if you wanted to have sorcerer using aoe stuff

The Battlefield:

Where the battle takes place is arguably more important than the enemies for making a good boss. Basically add in stuff to make positioning and tactics worth the effort. Pillars of lava, stairs leading to a grand alter, shallow channels of oil, grand chandeliers, walls of continual flame, steam vents, low spiked ceilings, etc can make things a lot more interesting. Let the boss and maybe the sorcerer use these well but let a few mooks accidentally crisp themselves. In short keep the environment a factor in the fight but make sure the players can figure out whats going on

Tactics:

Bossman- opens with wall of ash special ability. He then spends several rounds dumping buff spells on himself. This should give the players 2 or 3 rounds to deal with the sorcerer. Afterwards he runs in, turns on rage, and starts swinging

Sorcerer- casts a defensive buff and runs to directly behind the wall. Afterwards he runs forward an starts blasting probably killing a few mooks. He will always use burning hands from behind a wall of mooks not caring if he burns a few off. He will most likely be focused until Bossman comes out

Lava Elementals- set the ground on fire to limit player movement options then burrow. They pop up and down throughout the fight spreading lava forcing the players to keep moving or burn

Rouges- open with a volley of oil. They then try to close melee lighting their torches with all the available fire. They try to set up flanks. They aren't to smart and they are being burned by the sorcerer so it shouldn't be to hard for the players to stop this from getting to crazy

[Skyler Malik]

I would say turn your level 8 Cleric into a Cleric 5/Diabolist 3, just cause its cool, and turn his fire based spellcasting into Hellfire, to to mention he can have an imp familiar and he can give him some wands to go around healing the sorcerer and him, or try to screw over the the party with wands of grease.

[TheOrcnextdoor]

Ah yes, the party comp. Ok.

We have a half-orc battle cleric(Crusader) wields a Falchion. Pretty much as you'd expect, keeps up with the bar-bar when buffed up.

An elf Arcanist who focuses on control and a few damage spells. Likes to boost his DCs, rather weak even for casters if stuck to in melee.

A human barbarian (invulnerable rager),(players first campaign, so while he's strong, he hasn't broken things as much as one could)

Halfling unchained rogue, focused more on social interaction/skills/stealing but isn't shabby in combat. One of my more creative players in combats.

An elf Ranger, focused on ranged combat. Huge Legolas fan. Not much else needed I suppose. Oh, has a panther animal companion.

And finally, a dwarven warpriest. Flavor wise imbues mugs of water to change them to ale which works as cure spells. More of a tank than a damage dealer.

They show a decent aptitude for planning. Though often they foil their own plans before others due to simply not believing they will work. They have however stocked up on resist energy potions, not alot but what they could find, have a small supply of healing potions sorted amongst each other, but are normally more upfront with their approach to combat. With most everyone having some form of ranged combat (since I nearly killed them at 2nd level with goblins and bows... strange how what you think are easy fights can become deadly) the only one that doesn't use ranged weaponry is the dwarf warpriest.

I like alot of those ideas as well Dastis, however the elementals I'll be using are likely going to be guarding the entrance, so not in the main chamber. I was more thinking of most of the deities followers. So humanoid. I could see the Cleric having a "personal" elemental to act as a guardian of sorts.

I agree that a good scene is just as helpful for a memorable enemy/encounter than the encounter themselves (see goblins with bows in the rafters earlier) I had considered a flowing lava river but I hadn't considered oil or actual pillars of lava though.

As for the wall of ash, most of the PCs would likely charge through it...

Edit: I've never used the Diabolist, I'll have to look into it.

[Skyler Malik]

Laugh at their Resist Energy Fire potions with your hellfire spellcasting diabolist.

[Dastis]

Good idea on the diabolist. Combine with the Cleric blaster build ftw. Would have to move some stats around though as you want more Charisma. Maybe pick another type of Teifling

Mwahhahaha:

Theologian(fire), Intensified fireball
Feats: Spell Focus(evo),Spell Specialization(fireball), Varisian Tatoo(Evo), Empowered Spell
Traits: Metamagic Reduction(Fireball), Whatever

That should be able to burn through Resist energy :D
IF your going to make the bossman pure damage the sorc should be control of some sort to keep the fight from being nothing but a damage fest. Would also note that at lv8 he can use fireballs from more than 800ft away....

Yeah the point of the minions and terrain barriers is to keep the layers occupied while bossman buffs up. Yeah they will charge through it if they could.

How about a few minions that spend the first round strapping barrels of gunpowder to themselves then just run at the casters. Perhaps a martial type that immolates himself to add fire damage to his attacks. They are fanatical right?

Good party comp so no real observations there. Might want to give the imp a few buff scrolls like protection from arrows, cure, remove paralasis, etc. Don't give him an answer to everything but a few counters are expected(they have resist fire pots). Love the grease wand idea as well

[TheOrcnextdoor]

I do like the look of Diabolist, the imp sounds hilarious, likely would work well against the cleric and warpriest, but the DC would be too low for the others really.

That said, I like the idea of channeling hellfire instead of negative energy, will likely add this as flavor. I also planned the sorc to be the raw blaster. With the cleric having a couple to use at range, then pick up the Nodachi and start going to town in melee.

I'm not sure if the followers would be that fanatical, after all afterlife in service to demon or devil deities isn't usually fun filled. Now, I'm thinking of having some younger kids, orphans, the loveless, etc that they picked up and brainwashed/tricked into believing that they are part of the family. Could have most of the ones determined as "useless" pull the black-powder thing, which would be new as guns and powder is still a lesser known discovery. I kinda like that tinge of dark here. Suicide kids. Good dilemma of morality for the warpriest and cleric as well. The barbarian probably won't care much haha.

I'm thinking, on top of a fire elemental as a guardian and the sorcerer, about 5 level 4 fighters. And a few of the suicide kids.

I also can't really change much about the Cleric save feats/spells and -slight- modification to the ability scores as they have encountered him once before.

[Dastis]

His cha is too low for any serious channeling. Perhaps just let him scale his off wis instead?

Doesn't mean they know that the afterlife is going to suck that bad for em. 72 virgins anyone? Also black powder doesn't necessarily mean guns have been developed yet if your not already/planning on using them

Sounds good. Other good fire themed outsiders
Fire Veela(bestiary 5) CR7
Salamander(bestiary 1) CR6
Brimorak Demon(Book of the Dammed 2) CR5
Nightmare(bestiary 1) CR5
Hellhound(bestiary 1) CR3
Magmin(Bestiary 3) CR3
Azer(Bestiary 2) CR2
Also it is easy to modify any other elemental monster to be fire. Devils are totally immune to fire so they shouldn't have a problem taking an oil bath then lighting up

Can add a magic item or two to the cleric. The boss should have at least one trick up his sleave

[TheOrcnextdoor]

I was planning on giving the boss 1/2 PC WBL in magic items. Some being evil, so the PCs would be conflicted about using or just selling them.

Other than say, +1 flaming(or evil/vicious)nodachi any ideas on magic items?

Just the standard? Or did you have an idea or two for some fun/flavorful magic items? Feel free to suggest some original ideas for that outside the"Normal"

[Val'bryn2]

Consider changing the class, say into something like sorcerer or oracle and add the template for a cleric creature, the template being a sort of mantle given by possession of the ruby, at the deity's pleasure.

[The Steel Refrain]

Oracle with the Flame Mystery could definitely work for the concept, if you were willing to consider a class change (and his powers could still come from the god).

I could see the Gaze of Flames revelation pairing well with some control spells, like Pyrotechnics (2nd level) and/or Ash Storm (3rd level) cast by the sorcerer.

Cinder Dance revelation would also give him good mobility in the difficult terrain caused by Ash Storm, perhaps allowing him to pull of a reach/AOO style of fighting, and keeping the PCs from getting off full attacks on him.

I don't like the idea of metagaming too much to counter the PCs' wise decision of buying Resist Energy gear, but the use of vision blocking and difficult terrain effects plays to theme, while also making for an interesting encounter design. They'll still get the benefit of their choices against other effects, like any damage spells from the sorcerer, or even the Wall of Fire granted by the Flame mystery.

[The Steel Refrain]

Regarding magic items, an Eversmoking Bottle could also work with the earlier suggestion regarding the Gaze of Flames revelation. More easily neutralized by the PCs than Ash Storm, but a fun option.

I also like the idea of using some of the one time use talisman options to give a BBEG some extra durability, without overly inflating the loot haul.

Good options include Danger Sense, Freedom, Healing Power and Life's Breath.

http://archivesofnethys.com/MagicWondrousDisplay.aspx?FinalName=Talisman%20 (Lesser)Sealed%20Summons

[TheOrcnextdoor]

So, I had considered making a one use magic item for both the cleric and sorcerer that works as a one-time Heal spell that activates when they reach -1 HP. I'll look into the items you suggested.

I have never really learned much on Oracle's. They never seemed to garner my interest I may look into it though.

[Dastis]

Yes agreed the players should feel that the fire resist is helping them, probably a ton. That is the reason I didn't suggest using an area dispel effect. On the other hand frequent fire users should know how freaking common fire res is and have a backup plan. Probably not the minions but at least the boss himself. Perhaps using grayflame rather than the normal flaming

Like the talisman idea. Perhaps something like

Talisman of Embers:

the wearer of this powerful amulet may act as though he possessed the feats diehard and deathless initiate. In addition if the wearer worships Prometheus(fire god), he gains fire res 10 and evasion against spells with the cold and fire descriptors. If the wearer already possesses fire resistance then his fire resistance is increased by 10

Cloak of fiery vanishing is fun. IF your using the imp, him using a goblin fire drum is great. Grim lantern is terribly thematic and even gets recharges when used with kamikaze kids. Changing orb of foul abandon to Orb of the Malevolent Blaze would be easy. Maybe a fire version of Boots of Lightning Leaping. I personally love giving enemies potions and scrolls. In this case fire trail+expedious retreat is a fun option