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What is your party composition?
What are their builds?
Looks like his biggest weakness is it's AC. I'd say burst the thing down as fast as possible. Battlefield Control the other mobs through usage of Stone Wall, Black Tentacles, and Summons. BSFs in front, damage machines in back, support in between.
However, sadly, we won't know what strategies to suggest to you if we lack sufficient knowledge of whose what and what is who in your group.
This is a common problem with large parties. Offensively their power is additive (if anything a 6-man party is closer to APL+2 in terms of offenses alone) but defensively they've got the same individual HP/AC/saves. This can be problematic when you throw a powerful enemy at them, and you're right to fear this blasphemy ability. Too many missed saves and your party is going to be in serious trouble. With that said, the size of your party does give you some leeway in that it's less likely for all of them to fail that save, but on the other hand losing a key party member (like that Paladin) could shut you down even if most people save.
Blasphemy is the danger , while not as bad as Holy word if the Demon uses it while in melee with one PC that PC is dead from a coup de grace while he is paralysed for 1 round even if he saves.
SR should mean he bounces about 50% of all spells, Not sure about the saves but I would expect a lot of the party to make it. With the demon I would move adjacent to the archer, blasphemy coup de grace him , then try and take down who ever was not paralysed . It is going to depend on how well they cope with the paralysis, but without that Blasphemy it should be an easy victory. I would say if he gets the Bloodrager and the Paladin with Paralysis he could win.
In a very similar fight I came very close to a TPK using Holy word , which is slightly worse as it blinds as well as paralyses on a succesful save.
It is a +4 CR fight which means there should be a chance of the pc's losing
Edited because I failed to read properly
It is a +4 CR fight which means there should be a chance of the pc's losing
We don't know what the rest of the encounter looks like, but the demon itself is CR 11, so on its own it's an APL+1 encounter, which should be fairly mundane. Its caster level is 14, but its CR is much lower than that.
Does the party know what they are going to face? so long as they are not all within a 40' radius, they can't all be affected by it. Also, If the party stocks up on remove paralysis, those unaffected should quickly be able to release the affected. Better yet a pre-cast Freedom of Movement on the party will negate the paralysis for 10 min/cl (i.e. the whole combat). Such a spell is often a good choice for the first round anyway, especially if you know you are facing something nasty, but pre casting means that they are not reliant on winning initiative.
Well, the first thing you can do is a 'preview'- the monster you linked to has 2 uses of that ability per day. That means that you can use it once on NPCs in front of the party (presumably, you should put some kind of obstacle so the party doesn't charge in, and you do not need to handwave why the demons didn't attack them; starting off at the top of a cliff/chasm might be good).
Let the party watch some warriors at attack this thing, get paralyzed, adn then quickly coup d'graced. That will let the party get an idea of what they are dealing with (either they id the SLA, the demon, or just realize "that thing has a nasty ability and the GM is purposefully telling us that before the fight").
After that, it is all about what the party has to help. If they lack good spells, then maybe throw some scroll onto the cannon fodder in the ability demo above (the idea is that those guys came in with a plan... and died before they could do it). Protection from outsiders seems good (level 2 scroll, gives double bonuses compared to regular protection from [alignment] spells; only works on specific subtypes).
(presumably, you should put some kind of obstacle so the party doesn't charge in, and you do not need to handwave why the demons didn't attack them; starting off at the top of a cliff/chasm might be good).Archer Paladin. Anything within 550 feet that looks evil (y'know, like a demon, not talking murder hoboing) is going to get smote and unloaded on.
That's not even getting into the issue of flying.
Let the party watch some warriors at attack this thing, get paralyzed, adn then quickly coup d'graced.The party would intervene to try to save the warriors.
Those were suggestions on how to set up the 'preview'. You can find your own environmental obstacles that would prevent effective intervention- maybe the event is happening outside of the castle, and the party can only see it through the arrow slits in the wall (wide enough to see, not wide enough to actually just out of, especially in armor).
Maybe the paladin going crazy adn taking pot shots is the entire reason why the enemies flee (although... if tehy all have teleportation...).
Heck, maybe just have it happen outside of teh party's view (they hear a battle going on, but arrive too late) and they hear the dying words of the last man (exposition dump man!).
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Best case scenario for the PCs is if they can take the demon down to half health before it takes its first action and trigger its Rage: Of course, doing at least 95 damage while it's still flat-footed might not be likely.
Otherwise, Blasphemy and its relatives are very nasty against lower level creatures (like your PCs) regardless of whether or not they make their DC20 will save.
Fail:
- Dazed: The creature can take no actions for 1 round, though it defends itself normally (mostly a moot point, unless you are actually immune to paralysis).
- Weakened: The creature's Strength score decreases by 2d6 points for 2d4 rounds.
- Paralyzed: The creature is paralyzed and helpless for 1d10 minutes.
- Weakened: The creature's Strength score decreases by 1d6 points for 2d4 rounds.
- Paralyzed: The creature is paralyzed and helpless for 1 round.
The one round of paralysis might not be fatal on a successful save if the PCs aren't actually in melee (a proper coup-de-grace is a full action) but it will still be painful when the minions attack, and the demon has a second use of this ability up its sleeve still. If the minions happen to go before the boss and move into melee before the Blasphemy goes off, you are looking at serious PC casualties.
Looking at the party composition, I'm seeing a lot of decent Base Will Saves, but none of these classes are actually Wisdom based, so only the paladin seems likely to actually succeed on average, so 3-4 PCs will presumably be 'out for the duration' (the Bloodrager should have the worst save, but raging will offset that a bit).
The only real drawback to this spell is that it is centered on the caster: A 40 foot spread is pretty nice, but ranged characters might be able to stay out of the AoE (although a ranged paladin probably wants to keep fairly close for Point Blank Shot).
Main concern is the CL14 Blasphemy... [...] If the party was one level higher or the CL was one lower that wouldn't be an issue.
You already know the answer to your non-question (because there is no question in your post): just reduce the CL of the demon by 1.
Pretty sure Enervation can do the trick if you don't want to houserule the monster. Winning the initiative and killing the demon before it gets to act is also a valid scenario (smiting paladin + caster dim-dooring the frontliners into melee position for full-attacks).
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You already know the answer to your non-question (because there is no question in your post): just reduce the CL of the demon by 1.The question is: "Is this unfair for a CR11 monster?"
The witch can try to sleep enemies an infinite number of times per day at a higher DC. Witch can Baleful Polymorph at a higher DC. Witch can Fear at a higher DC (which is an actual AoE). This is all at level 9 (and the witch is effectively a CR9 creature).
And that's just one PC out of six. I've been told repeatedly that Pathfinder becomes rocket tag at higher levels. So the answer might very well be "Yep, this is expected of this kind of enemy. If they don't paralyze several group members then they're weak."
The problem here is Blasphemy (and its sister spells): In this particular case, it goes from 'Possible TPK' against level 9's to 'nearly a waste of an action to cast' against level 10's, which makes calculating a CR really difficult (as a +2 encounter, many PCs could die if everything doesn't break in their favor, while as a +1 encounter, the PCs are more likely to die of boredom). Offhand, I can't think of any other spells in the game with dramatic break-points like that.
Full Disclosure: I played an Semi-Mythic Oracle in 'Wrath of the Righteous' who stacked caster level buffs on Holy Word. I think I was at +8 Caster Levels (3 from feats which were doubled to 6 by Spell Perfection, 1 from a trait and 1 from an Ioun Stone) and I quickly decided to not cast it if I didn't have to (or if everyone (including the GM) really wanted to 'skip' an encounter and get to the interesting stuff) because it was little more than a 'I Win' button.
That being said, yes, there is a lot of Rocket Tag at higher levels...
The question is: "Is this unfair for a CR11 monster?"
Thank you for the clarification.
No, I don't think it's unfair and yes, I think this kind of opposition should be expected at high level.
Otherwise, high-level encounters would just be low-level encounters with bigger numbers.
The PC can defeat the demon in one round, it is "fair" to expect that the demon can do the same against the PC.
The PC can defend themselves, especially if they know about the Blasphemy and its paralysis effect: Freedom of Movement, Enervation (to reduce the CL), Silence (makes people immune to sonic effect), or simply focus fire on the demon... probably other tricks.
Gathering intel instead of charging blindly is a thing. Identifying the main threat and PC coordinating their actions instead of playing solo is a thing. That's why lemeres suggested you to introduce "preview encounters".
Yes, high level is "rocket-tag" style. While not ideal, I still prefer this to HP-grinding combats.
My 2 cp
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Spells like "Sleep" to coup de grace an entire party exist at level one...
You missed my point.
Spells like "Sleep" allow a save to negate the effect.
At low level, you can just charge pretty much each enemy you're facing without knowing anything about him. If you have "good numbers and a half-decent luck", you will most likely succeed.
In your case, the save is irrelevant: Blasphemy at CL=HD+5 says "You're paralyzed, no save" and the demon can do it twice per day. So:
round 1: demon casts Blasphemy, PC are paralyzed, minions move into position and attack (or are already in position and coup-de-grace)
round 2: demon casts Blasphemy again, PC are still paralyzed, minions coup-de-grace the PC.
At high level, running blindly into the next fight should get you killed (unless your build is specifically designed to do so, like a diviner wizard with huge initiative, immunity to surprise, a random auto-win combo and an "escape button" contingency) because you are now in the "no save, just lose" territory. You must know what you will face in order to prepare the appropriate countermeasures (even if it is as simple as "ok, we have to engage that guy first and finish him before he can act"), you can't only rely on luck and good stats anymore. Being able to know your opponents (strengths and weaknesses) before facing them becomes more important than your DPR.
At least, that's what "playing a high-level encounter" means to me. Otherwise, it would just feel like playing at low-level with bigger numbers.
That's how I'm used to play and that's why I don't think the demon is an unfair encounter. If you play differently, which is 100% your right, you'd better reduce the CL by 1.
Ah. So, say the spell only paralyzed on a failed Will save. Would it then seem like a low-level encounter to you?
I would say "mid-level encounter" (he still can fly, see invisible and teleport at will), but yes: without his "I win, No save" option, your demon is mainly a melee brute in combat. You don't really need knowledge or tactics: luck and/or good saves will suffice.
=> fail the save, the PCs can't act and will probably lose the fight=> make the save, the demon has wasted his turn and it'll probably be enough for the PCs to win the fight.
Again, that's my experience, with the play style at my usual table, so... Expect table variation.