My friend is running his very first campaign and I’m about 100 miles away so I can’t really help him too much accept over Facebook.
He also somehow ended up with it being a one shot started at 15. Which is obviously stressful the final boss is a level 18 cleric of Lamashtu and her adult rift dragon friend and he needs help making it.
I’ve never been a fan of clerics myself so never made one, I’ve offered him some advice, like prepping a plane shift to deal with the party wizards maze spell and such. I’ve told him to come to you guys for further advice but I think he’s stressed about time and maybe a bit shy or something so I’m making this thread.
Please come dump your tips for making a level 18 cleric of Lamashtu with the chaos demon sub domain as one of her domains. I believe she’s human.
Thanks everyone!
I’ll ask him. I’m gonna guess he’s going for other casting because the final boss being a buff bot isn’t very dramatic and he’s already finding the idea of DMing stressful enough I doubt he’ll want to deal with summoning.
EDIT: yeah aggressive spell casting is the route I believe
Are the domains set in stone?
The madness domain is actually rather strong for a pure caster. It's 'touch of madness' ability is designed as 'buff at a terrible price', but that terrible price works really well as a debuff on its own- pick one out of saves, attacks, and skills. Gain 1/2 the cleric's level (9 in this case) in bonus on the one, and the other two get that number as a penalty (-9). If you put it on skills, then that means a huge debuff to saves and attacks.
This is pretty good for an aggressive spell caster- target one character with touch of madness, and then have the cleric target that person hard with Save or Suck spells.
The cleric could also use this as intended- what does a boss character care about skills? And if it is a pure caster...who needs attack rolls? But huge saves? That means that the party wizard can't take it down in round 1 (this isn't screwing over the wziard entirely- there is a big dragon to target, after all).
He wants demon but the other is free.
I’ve sent him the link so hopefully he’ll see this and I’ll let you know what he thinks.
Adding to lemeres' suggestion, if he is going pure caster cleric, then you could still use guided hand + a conductive, spell storing falchion, to be prepared for when they inevitably will want to engage the "squishy". Touch of Madness + Bestow Curse is going to hurt badly if you're taking a -9 penalty on your save. Action economy!
...But hey, we're talking about an 18th level cleric, here. The typical wizard shenanigans of preparations could arguably be up and running, i.e. have / be on your own demiplane, have your own undead army of necrocraft minions and planar allies, do your daily divinations to know what monsters are coming your way - etc.
Gate in some more buddies to help you fight. Euphoric Tranquility whoever is willing to get within touching range, before you tell them just how you're going to give them a facelift for the good Mother. Frightful Aspect could work well together with this. Anything that attacks you, makes you look even more bestial - which auto-causes the frightened / shaken condition.
Speaking of debuffing / SoS spells, Waves of Ecstacy + Quickened Hallucinogenic Smoke ensures also that the party will take some penalties to everything regardless of whether they save or not, which makes them more vulnerable to whatever you'll toss out next with the dragon or yourself. Also, with their saves down, Polar Midnight is a thing, if you really want to scare the party.
Also, don't forget your "nope" spells, such as Freedom of Movement, Anti-Life Shell, get yourself one of those breath of life one-time use amulets.
Miracle -> Contingency (Heal) also seems like a fairly useful preparation to make.
This is just off the top of my head, though. I'm sure others will have a lot more to contribute.
Those are some nice ideas Pounce I’ll send him your way.
I think it may be planning on riding a dragon so I don’t think long spears would be that applicable.
He also queried do you think of a level 18 Cleric and a CR16 dragon vs 3 Level 15 PCs with crafting feats and downtime for boosted wealth sounds like a good final boss fight?
(Party is wizard, barbarian and as yet unknown)
The trick for a cleric of the mother of monsters is to have.. monsters.
Her ability to debuf with the madness domain is so great - but only so long as others are around to take advantage of the debuff.
Take the archtype that gives your party bonus to initiative.
Take Evolved Summon Monster as all your feats. Create monstrosities. Make the party cry.
The trick for a cleric of the mother of monsters is to have.. monsters.
Her ability to debuf with the madness domain is so great - but only so long as others are around to take advantage of the debuff.Take the archtype that gives your party bonus to initiative.
Well, there is the rift dragon (which has hold person, murderous command, and a breath weapon that staggers when it does damage). So overall, a lot of stuff to mess with the party's action economy.
Having more bodies on the field always helps, of course. But I think that they have basic stuff to mess with saves when you also include the cleric in the following second and third rounds of the touch of madness.