Hi all,
after last month's NightCrawler encounter, I'm building up a new one, a major end of story climax battle.
I'm intending to use the following map:
Lava map from the Haunted Temples map pack that I own.
I've got 6 players, all level 14, a Barbarian, a Sorcerer, a Bard, an Oracle, a Zen Archer and a Paladin.
I'm intending to use an Immortal Ichor and a beguiled NPC Unbreakable fighter (level 18) under the Immortal Ichor's influence that serves as it's bodyguard.
The prismatic sphere has an artifact underneath it that has caused a rift/merging of realms with the nightmare world. There are multiple ways of closing it, and that's what they're really there to accomplish. Underneath the floor tiles, there's a the nightmare realm world, and you can enter it from the room close to the artifact by willing it (and you end up on the other side and from there you can venture into the nightmare realm, as long as the artifact is still functioning)
to make matters worse, the nightmare realm is being invaded by another evil diety that wants to use the artifacts portal/merging of realms as a springboard to launch it's demonic forces into the prime material plane.
There's 2 armies in the nightmare realm... the forces of the slain deity (the immortal ichor) trying to keep the other demons at bay. The Immortal Ichor could call for help when pressed... letting them teleport in to aid, but doing so weakens their position and it could risk in those forces getting overrun by the much bigger army of the other bad guy deity. The PC's know about this going in.
The main objective is getting them to close the portal/switch off/destroy the artifact. Immortal Ichor + NPC Fighter will try to defend... and there will be some very minor low CR outer planars involved to stand in their way to frustrate them.
Teleportation magic like Teleport and Dimension Door is warded against in this room, so that simply won't work. (home team nightmare creeps know the password of course so can get around it)
The Sorcerer has two scrolls of Disjunction, but would need to get past the Prismatic Sphere effect first before able to cast the spell on the artifact directly. (Though the Barbarian has Spell Sunder)
I had an idea of plating the area around the artifact (20' across) with plates of 'Wall of Iron' on the floor. ; the artifact while active causing a magnetism effect. ; drawing people wearing metal armor or holding metal weapons to the wall of iron floor.
I was thinking of employing a mix of the Magnetic Field spell and the mythic use of the Wall of Iron spell
Still not sure how that exactly would/should work out though. Suggestions are welcome.
Any further ideas to further spice up or make this particular encounter more memorable?
@Mathius>> Thanks for the tip. Sounds like a feasonable idea.
As for the bodyguard type build, I was trying to get that done stamped out in this thread instead.
Any idea on how the magnetism effect would work when the magnet side is the floor?
In general, I like (as others do) to look at action economy stuff. 6 level 14s are going to have a lot of actions. Unless I'm looking wrong, the Paladin is already high enough that it'll negate regeneration of the ichor as long as it smacks it every round...
Looking at the bodyguard,I see some stuff buffing his otherwise piddly WILL save..but only vs mind affecting, otherwise it'll be its weakspot. Is there a particular reason his AC needs to be that high? Could it be brought down and still be hard to hit but then using that to round him out a bit more in other areas? What kind of +hit is this group running?
As a foe I'd probably be inclined if I had the spell, to throw a Slow spell on him, making him staggered for 14-ish rounds, as a level 14 caster would have a decent chance vs his will save.
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I third the idea of adding more, lower CR baddies to add action economy to the bad guys' favor.
And don't forget the ichor's corrupt ally ability. Every thrall of the ichor is revived one round later as a juju zombie. Juju zombies retain their class levels and abilities, their int score, and get several buffs, plus they gain DR, several resistances, and toughness as a bonus feat. So they're actually stronger than any martial mook that they pop up from.
With a veritable small army of expendable allies, the ichor should absolutely be trying to avoid direct combat. It should be very far in the back, putting up walls of insect plague, disrupting people with telekinesis, and trying to mind fog into quicken charm person to defend itself if that barbarian gets close. Plus, as a 20 HD baddie, he can cast creeping doom 75 feet away and direct the swarms to the full 100ft range of the spell.
This ooze is possibly smarter than any of your PCs; make sure you give 'em some solid tactics.
@Pizza Lord>> I would reckon they are blind yes. As Oozes are, but their blindsense covers for that. They should be able to have enough worth of blindsense to be able to use its Spell-like abilities for being able to target them as such. (or the critter wouldn't make much sense at all) ; but by being blind they're immune to gaze attacks, as all oozes are by default.
@Ectar & @Losoball>> Well, yes, having the bad will save is what got the NPC susceptible to the Ichors Corrupt Ally ability (with Mindfog) in the first place, so boosting it now would lose the logic of how this bodyguard type ended up in its service. ; it's supposed to have a weakness with the Will save because of it's high AC they'll only hit it on a 20 (Although the Barbarian can hit in the AC 60's if you count spells like Heroism, Good Hope, and Bardic inspiration, those bonuses do add up while raging) ; it will defend the Ichor with it's Bodyguard + Combat Patrol + Vanguard feats + Saving Shield making the Ichor harder to hit and after it dies it will rise as a juju zombie servant (and being undead it'll have to worry about Will and Fortitude saves a lot less the 2nd time around)
Shouldn't add too many mooks at once though (2 per round would be a good number), as the Ichor will also be summoning stuff like Insect Plague and Creeping Doom on it's own. ; and otherwise the combat will take forever to resolve. ; anyone an idea for good mooks to use for this purpose? ; should be some sort of demons given they could easily teleport in from the nightmare realm side. Maybe make an 1d6 random table on who/what heeds the call or something?
For the magnetic field I'm just going to go with the wording of the Mythic Iron Wall augmentation I think: (Mythic doesn't really factor into it, as the artifact powers it, but I'm assuming Mythic rank 5 for it so it'd be CL20 (artifact was created before it's deity died and became an Ichor) + 5th Mythic tier for a CMB of +25, or +30 if they're within 5 feet of it) ; not everyone wears metal. (and maneuvering around it helps as well). Just substituting the word 'wall' with 'floor'. (as the wall of iron plates lay on the floor)
If you expend two uses of mythic power, one side of the wall (your choice) has a powerful magnetic charge that attracts metal within 10 feet. The wall automatically attempts a combat maneuver check to pull once per round against any creature that comes in range wearing metal armor, wielding a metal weapon, or otherwise carrying a significant amount of metal.
The wall's CMB is equal to your caster level plus your tier. If the combat maneuver succeeds, the creature is pulled 5 feet closer to the wall. The wall gains a +5 bonus on its combat maneuver check if the creature is within 5 feet. If the wall succeeds at its check against a creature within 5 feet, the creature is pulled up against the wall and is treated as grappled.
Dropping metal items or removing metal armor allows a creature to free itself from the wall. The magnetic charge fades after 1 hour per tier. Wrenching an item away from the wall requires a successful Strength check (DC 10 + the wall's CMB).
except the magnetism effect won't stop until the artifact is destroyed or deactivated.
Also, letting the Ichor use it's telekinesis to 'hurl' (telekinesis lets you do a Bull Rush Combat Maneuver) someone into the magnetic field can be a fun tactic. ; doing it this way won't allow for a saving throw (that they're more likely to succeed on) ; but the defense against it this way is their CMD score instead of a save.
Sounds like an EPIC encounter!!
I think you need an epic music intro for your epic boss fight, if it was me I would probably go with the intro to Metallica's Master of Puppets or Megadeth's Symphony of Destruction.
@Boomerang Nebula>> Both good picks, thanks :-)
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I'd personally go with NPC humanoids that the ooze charmed as mooks. Built in explanation of why they're there, and more things to raise as zombies.
This combat WILL probably take awhile. Lots of bad guys, incremental damage, at least one; possibly many more that must die twice. Just a lot of moving parts, but that's okay.
Epic fights are long. The hard part, I find is keeping all of the PCs invested the whole time. Try to target each one with something at least once a round; nobody should feel "safe" to stand on the back and cast spells unmolested.
Concern for the life of their characters followed by the elation of victory is how to get them to remember an epic fought.
In my opinion.
@Ectar>> Except this is taking place at the bottom of a crevice/ravine cavern in polar type temperatures and conditions. Humanoids would quickly freeze to death without some sort of cold resistance in order to get there. Once there, given it's got its fair share of lava, temperatures aren't that big of a problem anymore of course :-) ; though a previous adventuring party that tried their hand at it and failed could also work of course.
But using demon mooks that can teleport in from the army on the nightmare realm side makes more sense cause they can whammy up the spellcasters that think they'll be safe by staying in the back. They'll just not come back as JuJu zombies after they die but that's okay, having one critter coming back is bad enough as it is already when it has that high an AC.
Was thinking on:
1d6 table (2 per round, until artifact is destroyed or deactivated)
1) Demon, Hezrou (CR 11)
2) Demon, Gibrileth (CR 11)
3) Demon, Xenarth (Ichor Shark) (CR 10)
4) Demon, Coloxus (CR 12)
5) 3 Demon, Nabasu (CR 8) instead of just 2
6) 5 Demon, Dretches (CR 2) instead of just 2
and that for a maximum of 6 rounds. More creatures teleporting in from the defense line will trigger an offensive from the other evil deity's army, trying to push forward when the nightmare critters camp are apparently leaving their posts in defending the chokepoint.
How's that? Adventure party gone wrong or demons?
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Mmmmm. I didn't see the frigid temperatures mentioned; I inferred from the lava map that it'd at least be warm ^^
As a random thought: What if both scrolls of disjunction fail to destroy the artifact? Even if they've got a 20 caster level, that's only a 1 in 5 chance of destroying the artifact each. Not fantastic odds. Plus, the sorcerer has a chance to lose all spellcasting. Forever.
@Ectar>>
1) Either they convince the Ichor that even though 'her' Realm might be lost to the invading Deity's army, this one doesn't have to be lost as well. Given it's her artifact and the Ichor is a leftover part she can turn it off. If they manage to persuade her to do so, they can dispatch of her, or let her go (though I doubt they will, they'll have to be careful of their words in what exactly they promise in return, with two Lawful Good members in the party.) ; an option for the social character that invested in Bluff or Diplomacy to shine.
2) A Clan of Frost Giants delved the remainder of a broken magical item from a glacier of a previously destroyed companion artifact of the deceased diety, that functions as a sphere of annihilation if put back together. They have a Frost Giant NPC that has this thing and is helping out because of mutual interest (by stopping the invasion threat he's hoping to secure a position on becoming the new Frost Giants Tribe Jarl) ; yes they're Lawful Evil but it's a bigger threat out there.
3) Failing option #1 or #2, they try their luck with the scrolls. (and as you stated, not a sure thing)
4) As a last resort option, a defecting Glabrezu teleports in and offers the party it's Wish spell in exchange for asylum and safe passage, in order to deactivate the artifact. (It can't use it itself, a mortal has to accept it) ; this would be with the invading deity's army breaching through the chokehold defenses in the nightmare realm and rallying towards the portal for a sure doomsday scenario outer planar full scale invasion. Moral dilemma, especially with the strings attached that come with it when the one doing the wish will find a Mark of Treachery on him afterwards. ; if they refuse to make the deal...
5) They fail. ; and if they can't flee in time, well, then their monster hunter's organisation's backup character group takes center stage next session I reckon. :-P
Maybe make inquisitor cultist mooks? Or anti-paladins? Or aberrant bloodragers? Or maybe swashbucklers?
I'm trying to think of a Charisma-based melee type that is relatively easy to run, but still have some fun and easy special abilities. Charisma-based because juju-zombies use it for Con stuff. Give the mooks relatively low Con and high Cha. You WANT a bunch of mooks to die and come back as juju-zombies.
@SmiloDan>>
@SmiloDan>>
** spoiler omitted **
Oh well, hitting things with blades is fun too. ;-)
Found another critter that might fit the bill.
a Mother of Oblivion beasty.
Imagine this thing being 'on the nightmare realm side' ; on the flipside of the artifact, reaching through the realms with it's tentacles, attacking in the prime material plane? With it's 20 foot reach it wouldn't be bothered by the prismatic sphere over the artifact (which is only there on the prime material plane side of course)
Gnarly.
Well,
I ran the encounter last Saturday.
They triumphed in the end but it took almost al day to run.
They opened up with casting one of their Disjunction scrolls on the baddies, and with a 40 feet radius that were a lot of saving throws to be rolled for items and stuff. With adjusting tacticus because items weren't functioning as they should.
In the end the sorcerer failed her save on the second casting of the Disjunction on the artifact though, by one... Even the bard allowing a reroll didn't help it so now she no longer can cast spells. Wonder to handel it as a curse effect.
She also has levels in the dragon disciple prestige class... And technically no longer fulfills its class requirements either. Which is rather brutal.
Anyone any ideas on how to handle this one?
Just going to run it as a Curse effect I suppose. Letting her keep her Dragon Disciple levels/powers for now (though without spellcasting ability, she'll need to take a new level in a different class for now) ; and then we'll have to get her a quest in order to somehow appease some deity to restore it. (and the fallen Paladin just got redeemed on this one) ; oh well, never a dull moment :-)
Well,
I ran the encounter last Saturday.
They triumphed in the end but it took almost al day to run.
They opened up with casting one of their Disjunction scrolls on the baddies, and with a 40 feet radius that were a lot of saving throws to be rolled for items and stuff. With adjusting tacticus because items weren't functioning as they should.
In the end the sorcerer failed her save on the second casting of the Disjunction on the artifact though, by one... Even the bard allowing a reroll didn't help it so now she no longer can cast spells. Wonder to handel it as a curse effect.
She also has levels in the dragon disciple prestige class... And technically no longer fulfills its class requirements either. Which is rather brutal.
Anyone any ideas on how to handle this one?
If you want to play by the RAW make her retire her character, having bravely sacrificed her magic to destroy the artifact.
or introduce a quest line for her to get it back...
I would take a level of Fighter, and then try to go into Eldritch Knight once you can cast spells again. Pick up Improved Initiative or some other combat feat that works especially well with spellcasting.