zerrund - kinda confusing build... need help validating (poss. spoiler)

[wyld]

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so i used hero lab (3rd party character creation app) to build out zerrund, just to double-check because it seemed wonky.

a few questions:

- spells: each spell level (1-4), there is an extra spell-per-day stat'd out for him, which would seem consistent per level, but i can't see how. he has 6/5/5/4 (plus an additional specialized spell per level) stat'd out, but in hero lab, it shows he should only have 5/4/4/3 (plus an additional specialized spell per level).

- enlarge spell metamagic feat: he has 3 enlarged magic missile and 1 enlarged charm person -- this makes no sense what enlarge spell does; it's not as if he would cast these at targets with 100% range increase (esp. magic missile) for these spells... the party is going to be right there in the room?

- why does he have an enchantment spell when he is an evoker and his theme is wrath?

- why waste a feat, stat'd him with intensified spell when none of the spells have intensified?

- now the kicker: "without his arcane bond, zerrund must succeed at a concentration check (DC = 20 + the spell’s level) when he casts a spell to avoid losing the spell as he casts it" -- **then** "if he fails to cast a spell in this way, his rage compels him to make a slam attack [slam +5 (1d4+1 plus grab)?!!!] against a foe on the next round rather than cast a spell." -- wtf lol

it seems the writer attempted to nerf him because he "suffers from an overwhelming sense of wrath that hampers his judgment" -- ok, i'll give you that, but this is just a poor, poor, useless build for the sake of depowering the guy.

i know with the current party, he won't stand a chance to to anything at all before getting utterly obliterated -- at best -- after 2 rounds.

[Kiniticyst]

A flying caster with DR15/- and 10 fast healing and you think your current party will obliterate him?

Also, with that slam + grab he can use squirming embrace to deal even more damage and cause the target to be nauseated, he also doesn't even need to spend any action or even roll to maintain that grapple.

So with fly then ice storm or elemental wall or block off the ranged PCs, whenever a martial PC finally figures out a way to get up to the flying Zerrund they'll do hardly any damage (which will be healed on zerrund's next turn anyway). Then zerrund grapples them so they can't use their two-handed weapon (even if they pass the nauseated save) so they'll definitely do no damage for the fight. Then they're free to drop empowered scorching rays for average 46 damage to whoever they want. If he fails his concentration, he can grapple the squishies/ranged PCs and put them out of the fight.

Even if the party wizard has full health at the start of the fight, avoided the elemental wall/ice storm, rolled average on all their hit die, has taken favored hit points every level and has 12 Con.. if any of those scorching ray dice rolls slightly above average, that's enough to drop them outright.

Also keep in mind the party will be nowhere near Zerrund when he appears, when I ran this fight I had to hold back a lot to not wipe the party and the fight dragged for a long time. The martial's took so many rounds to get to him, then couldn't get to him when he flew away. The archer couldn't do enough damage to make any progress through his DR and fast healing so the fight turned in to: keep the kineticist alive as he's the only one who has a hope of hurting him/killing him.

As for the weird spell choices/metamagics, it's supposed to represent someone who was once a real person who held a high position in a kingdom. Having charm person makes total sense for him as does having enlarged metamagic so he can cast spells from inside the massive chambers of hollow mountain or rain down his wrath on the streets of xin-bakrakhan.

[wyld]

thx for interesting tactics scenario. some good points. maybe i underestimated the fly. but even with dr/15 and fh 10, party’s damage output can still get his go down pretty quick.

here are a few things that nerfs him:
- there is a chance of failure when he cast any spell. if he doesn’t succeed in getting a wall up, the ranged pc will take him down. and if he fails an offensive spell, he’s just wasting actions.
- if he fails at casting a spell, it’s written that he would spend next round not casting another spell.
- he can only get a free grab if he hits with slam attack — his slam attack is +5... that’s nothing. he would have 10%-15% to hit any pc with a +5 melee.

as i see it, he might get a couple of offensive spell in, but most of the time would fly around or ineffectively make melee attacks. once he’s on the ground, he would be susceptible to getting grounded (there is a solid grapple-build pc as well as spells to do this) and be at the mercy of the melee pcs gang-up.

i don’t want to run an encounter where he’s in the air all the time, evading attacks until he runs out of spells (his motivation is wrath, insane, and raging to kill party, expends action to fly in and engage in melee whenever spell fails). i also don’t like to run npcs that do things outside of they’re prescribed morale write-up, doing other tactics that i think would be good, but not necessarily tactics npc should take.