The game I'm currently running is reaching its final stretch. The party has succeeded in eliminating most of the threats in the cultist lair hidden below the city, and I'm planning to have a final massive assault on the town before the BBEG steps in to face the party.
Three of the cult's high priests remain, all three of them gestalted at level 20: a mesmerist/court bard, a warpriest/inquisitor (infiltrator/preacher archetypes), and a master summoner/brown-fur transmuter arcanist.
The issue I'm running into right now is... the party never fails their saves. The group dynamic's gradually shifted from almost exclusively martial to almost exclusively spellcasters of some kind, so Will saves aren't really an option at this point since the only ones with any real chance of failing would be either the gunslinger or the ranger in the party. I haven't used many Fortitude save effects, but that doesn't seem likely to work either considering the group's class choices (ranger, warpriest, druid, gunslinger, summoner, witch, sorcerer, and cleric).
Without changing classes, are there any specific spells that I should look at to get around their absurdly high save bonuses? Or should I just settle for making them roll Reflex saves multiple times a round and take the half damage when they pass the save?
Look for spells that offer no save or still an effect when the save is made.
Spells like fireball (ref) or storm bolts (fort) do half damage on a save. Terrible remorse leaves the target staggered for one round on a save. If you go over the spell lists carefully you will find other spells like these. From burning disarm, to devouring darkness, to polar midnight.
What about ranged touch attacks?
Maybe just have the warpriest/inquisitor self-buff, and have the mesmerist/court bard buff the master summoner/brown-fur transmuter arcanist and friends? Or are they three separate encounters?
Maybe de-buffing witch or shaman minions? Re-skinned as cultists, they can still have robes and creepy masks and shiny daggers, but they'll be chanting or cackling while spamming Evil Eye, Misfortune, and ill omen and Quickened ill omen. Also, give them the Scar hex and Minor Healing and Major Healing hexes to support the BBEG. Ability Focus and Accursed Hex to make the saves harder, and usable twice per creature.
BBEGs NEED minions, but not all minions are thugs.
Ray-gun wrote: Look for spells that offer no save or still an effect when the save is made.
Spells like fireball (ref) or storm bolts (fort) do half damage on a save. Terrible remorse leaves the target staggered for one round on a save. If you go over the spell lists carefully you will find other spells like these. From burning disarm, to devouring darkness, to polar midnight.
I found euphoric tranquility, which is probably one of the best lockdown spells I've ever seen.
SmiloDan wrote: What about ranged touch attacks?
Maybe just have the warpriest/inquisitor self-buff, and have the mesmerist/court bard buff the master summoner/brown-fur transmuter arcanist and friends? Or are they three separate encounters?
Maybe de-buffing witch or shaman minions? Re-skinned as cultists, they can still have robes and creepy masks and shiny daggers, but they'll be chanting or cackling while spamming Evil Eye, Misfortune, and ill omen and Quickened ill omen. Also, give them the Scar hex and Minor Healing and Major Healing hexes to support the BBEG. Ability Focus and Accursed Hex to make the saves harder, and usable twice per creature.
BBEGs NEED minions, but not all minions are thugs.
The main issue with touch attacks is that the warpriest/inquisitor and bard/mesmerist don't have much in the way of useful ranged touch spells on their spell lists.
The original plan was to have them as separate encounters.
* The summoner/arcanist was going to be focused on summoning hordes of minions with her gate SLA before bombarding the party with offensive magic. When she got low enough for her contingent heal spell to activate, she'd cast time stop, then use Improved Share Spells to split the duration of shapechange and transformation between herself and her familiar.
* The inquisitor/warpriest was going to be focused on throwing numerous defensive buffs on himself before harassing the party by constantly disarming and tripping them with his whip.
* The bard/mesmerist was supposed to use her hypnotic gaze and satire abilities to neuter a target's Will save before either crippling them with strong enchantment spells or turning them against the party.
The BBEG is a demigod with multiple forms the party has to bludgeon through, so I'm not sure they'll really need minions taking part in the fight.
8 PCs v. 1 NPC?
That's a big action economy discrepancy. That's 8 chances of Natural 20s(on attacks)/1s (on saves) to deal with. With Quickened spells and iterative attacks, figure at least 1 guaranteed hit or effect on the BBEG every round.
There are a few creatures I was considering adding to the BBEG fight, would having them constantly respawning maybe 2-3 rounds after they're defeated be sufficient?
Maybe. Basically, they're distractions so all 8 PCs don't focus on the BBEG. They also extend the length of the combat so the BBEG can use a few different, interesting abilities against the PCs.
For example, if the BBEG has 3 interesting attacks, but dies in 1 round, 2 of those interesting attacks are just wastes of space on the monster's stat block.
I've got a rough idea hashed out for two of the minions. They're sort of "manifestations" of four minions that the BBEG was using as prison wardens for the beings that the party has sought out to aid them against the main villain.
One was a giant piranha with hydrokineticist abilities, and its manifestation is going to focus on using water blast against enemies it can't reach and latching onto the PCs with its jaws.
Another was a giant mechanical goat, and its manifestation would focus on keeping the PCs from positioning themselves effectively through bull rushes and overruns.
I'm not sure what to do with the other two, since they were a Large swordsman (built as a warpriest with the Soldier of Gaia archetype) and a pair of giant flying, fire-breathing worms.
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