How to Counter an OP Bloodrager and Come and Get Me?


Advice

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So I have a player who is using an Abyssal Bloodrager Primalist. They're 15th level and reaching the end of the campaign, and I'm looking to design a fight against an NPC that can actually challenge her. Between rage, Demonic Bulk, Long Arm, and Come and Get Me she pretty much pulverizes anything that attacks her.

Are there any melee builds that might stand up to her? Come and Get Me is just a killer.


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INVESTIGATOR with SAPPING OFFENSIVE.

There's no save and it triggers on a hit (against your studied target), so with a full-round attack you have a ~99.9% chance of affecting your chosen quarry.

For ease of use you could even take RANGED STUDY so you can affect them from outside their AoO range.

Alternatively, Sapping Offensive only requires 5 levels of Investigator, so you could have a group of mooks who make use of this talent attack the party (Bloodragers usually have low AC, so 5th level enemies might even hit). This would mean the Bloodrager can target down the mooks to remove the penalty, but then every round they're doing that is a round you've bought for your boss.


Appropriate defensive effects; horrific doubles and spell storing armor loaded with frigid touch can hurt the bloodrager hard as they attack.

There are ways of avoiding AoOs. Several spells: burst of speed, grace, teleportation effects. Spring attack. Rogues with the slow reactions talent. Dirty tricks which blind, or I suppose any effect which blinds. Cover or total concealment.

I bet it's possible to make a build which has even more reach than your bloodrager. Hitting them from 60' away avoids AoOs entirely too.

Do you know anything about the NPC? There's so many possible solutions that it's hard to know where to start.


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Hmmm... it strikes me that Spring Attack was almost certainly not written to protect against CaGM, but checking the wording it appears to prevent the AoOs.

This would probably be a case of "specific trumps general", but which is more specific?

(Advanced Player's Guide pg. 74): While raging, as a free action the barbarian may leave herself open to attack while preparing devastating counterattacks. Enemies gain a +4 bonus on attack and damage rolls against the barbarian until the beginning of her next turn, but every attack against the barbarian provokes an attack of opportunity from her, which is resolved prior to resolving each enemy attack. A barbarian must be at least 12th level to select this rage power.

Source PRPG Core Rulebook pg. 134

You can deftly move up to a foe, strike, and withdraw before he can react.

Prerequisites: Dex 13, Dodge, Mobility, base attack bonus +4.

Benefit: As a full-round action, you can move up to your speed and make a single melee attack without provoking any attacks of opportunity from the target of your attack. You can move both before and after the attack, but you must move at least 10 feet before the attack and the total distance that you move cannot be greater than your speed. You cannot use this ability to attack a foe that is adjacent to you at the start of your turn.

Normal: You cannot move before and after an attack.

Sovereign Court

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Good old Fire Shield type effects(like Water Shield, Profane Numbus, Thorn Body, etc).

You might get some push back from "melee weapons with reach" clause, but point out that the weapon they are using doesn't have reach(probably) they are using natural reach from Longarm/etc.

Caustic Blood is fairly significant. Every attack is followed up by a Ref/half for 15d6 (at max level) followed by another 7d6 Ref/negates the next round. Example, 6 attacks, save or take 90d6 followed by 42d6. Toxic Blood is similar (though lower level) except its save or take Con poison damage.

Blade Snare and check for a grapple every time they attack. If they are grappled they can't use 2h weapons or make AoOs. Similarly, Resinous Skin for Reflex or weapon gets stuck (though its ambiguous what type of action that strength check is to get the weapon back).

Normal anti-rage effects, like Waves of Fatigue.

Blindness or some other way of restricting vision.
Acrobatics, you are flatfooted if you are forced to make a balance check(well DC 10 or higher). For example, a Severely sloped (>45°)(+5 DC), Icy(+5 DC), Gravel(+2 DC) Greater than 3 feet wide(base DC 0) is DC 12. Maybe combine the two with Sleet Storm on a Slightly sloped (<45°)(+2 DC) floor.

Creatures with Spines/Quills/Thorns like Spine Dragon(CR16), Porcupine, etc.


Caustic Blood is a big one. Throw it on a Warpriest and they can cast it as a Swift Action as they move in to engage.


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Without getting to a point where you're building to counter a specific player (which is pretty antagonist between player and GM) you could easily include more ranged and spell casting enemy party members which can do their job outside the bloodragers reach.

Don't fight the character with melee attacks and it'll be alight.

Hit the bloodrager with a confusion effect or dominate person and watch as they rip apart their own party.


Thanks for the suggestions - those are some good ideas. The NPC is a champion of Asmodeus, so fighter, cleric, warpriest, and rogue levels would all be appropriate. Had not considered Caustic Blood - sounds fantastic! With Combat Reflexes she gets 3 attacks of opportunity per round when raging, so if she has multiple opponents there's only so many attacks she can respond to. There will be others in the combat, principally an enchanter, a bard, some more basic guards, and some Nessian hell hounds, the latter of which I could nerf to give them a trip attack like a wolf.

The bloodrager will have the rest of the party with her, but I was hoping to focus the combat on her since she normally just wades through everything. And to be clear, I have absolutely nothing against the player or the character, just looking to up the challenge for her since they're entering the home stretch of the campaign and the combats should feel more desperate.


Slap the cRogue Talent Mien of Despair on a Negotiator Bard with Dazzling Display... even better if that aforementioned Negotiator Bard is VMC Cavalier, and got Dazzling Display from Braggart...

Mien of Despair wrote:
When a rogue with this talent successfully demoralizes an opponent using the Intimidate skill or performs a successful feint against an opponent, the opponent loses any morale bonuses and cannot benefit from any morale bonuses for 1d4+1 rounds.


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I'd go with a Quick Dirty Tricks Master Slayer to counter your Bloodrager PC.

You can make your blind really powerful if you take the Underhanded Trick Rogue Talent to get the Improved Dirty Trick, because Underhanded Trick Rogue Talent makes your Blinded effect unable to be removed in the 1st round it's active.

Now even though she has Imp Uncanny Defense, you can still make SnA's against her reliably. So Slow Reactions Rogue Talent is starting to look attractive, because it relies on dealing SnA dmg and prevents the target from making AoO's, which is CaGM's strength.

This is probably plenty powerful enough to counter her and give her a decent fight. But now it's up to you about how high you want to crank up the heat.

You can add things like Spell Storing Weapon w/ Bestow Curse stored, Hellcat Stealth/Pounce feats (for guerilla warfare tactics), or Sap Adept/Master feats + Bludgeoning weapon if you want to.

For a Quick Dirty Tricks Master build, I usually like TWF builds with boots of speed for on-demand Haste, but this works fine with a 2hander as well. Dealer's choice.

I'd go something like this:

Slayer12 / UnchainedRogue3 (pick any race that is human or one-off from human, so you can get the Human Slayer FCB 1/6 Slayer Talent)

The 3 levels of URogue is for the Dex to Dmg on weapon and more SnA dice.

lvl1 R1: Dirty Fighting, Weapon Finesse (free), SnA 1d6
lvl2 R2: Underhanded Trick, Evasion (free)
lvl3 R3: Agile Maneuvers (for Dex to Dirty Trick in lieu of Str), Finesse Training - Dex to Dmg (free), SnA 2d6
lvl4 S1:
lvl5 S2: Weapon Focus: Kukri, Ranger Combat Style: Two-weapon Fighting
lvl6 S3: SnA 3d6
lvl7 S4: Quick Dirty Trick, Slow Reactions
lvl8 S5: +2 Studied Target x2
lvl9 S6: Improved Critical: Kukri, Ranger Combat Style: Imp TWF, Bonus 6/6 Slayer Talent: Combat Trick: Greater Dirty Trick, SnA 4d6
lvl10 S7:
lvl11 S8: Skill Focus (Stealth), Rogue Talent: Fast Stealth
lvl12 S9: SnA 5d6
lvl13 S10: Dirty Tricks Master, Ranger Combat Style: Greater TWF, +3 Studied Target x3
lvl14 S11:
lvl15 S12: Hellcat Stealth, Advanced Slayer Talent: Hunter's Surprise, Bonus 6/6 Slayer Talent: Feat; Accomplished Sneak Attacker, SnA 7d6

With 14 BAB & GrTWF & Haste, you should be at 7 attacks per round, and your first attack of the round should be a Quick Dirty Trick. With Greater Dirty Tricks, your PC will be forced to use a Standard Action to remove it, and she cannot remove it in the 1st round it's applied due to Underhanded Trick. So in the 2nd round, Sicken her, and then in the 3rd round, Nauseate her, and now she can only perform Move Actions until the group helps her.

This build can put out a lot of damage and conditions, and even Stealth as a Move Action while being actively observed by the PC's, albeit w/ a -10 penalty, and your Stealth is Full Speed with no penalties. You're only -1 BAB from full 4/4 BAB (but we make up for it with Weapon Focus), and only -1d6 SnA away from full SnA progression, so that's pretty snazzy.

Beefing up Stealth:
Ring of Chameleon Power gives a +10 competence to Stealth, and at-will Disguise Self.
Greater Invisibility adds an additional 20 while moving, +40 while not moving.

Now you're looking at a Stealth DC of: 15ranks + 3classskill + 6skillfocus + 10chameleon + 20-40greaterinvis + Dex = 1d20 + 54 while moving, 1d20 + 74 while standing still, and this is without including Dex Mod or +1/10DC for every 1ft you are away from the target making the opposed Perc check. Also, you can have up to 3 Studied Targets at this point in time, so you can gain a +3 Stealth vs 3 of the PC's. There are other ways to boost Stealth even higher, like Child of the Moon trait, Reduce Person, and Greater Heroism buffs, but it's up to you whether you want your stealth to be ghost-like or god-like.

Even while being actively viewed, your minimum Opposed Perc DC will be 55.

If you want to wait 1 level before you attack the PC's with this guy, I would recommend putting your lvl 16 in URogue4, you'll get Debilitating Injury, +1 BAB, +1 Reflex, another Rogue Talent, and Uncanny Dodge, which is far better than +1 BAB & Slayer's Advance from Slayer13.


Claxon wrote:
Hit the bloodrager with a confusion effect or dominate person and watch as they rip apart their own party.

This is a big one. The scariest moments in our campaign are when either my Bloodrager or the Gunslinger are hit with a Confusion spell.


MrCharisma wrote:
Claxon wrote:
Hit the bloodrager with a confusion effect or dominate person and watch as they rip apart their own party.
This is a big one. The scariest moments in our campaign are when either my Bloodrager or the Gunslinger are hit with a Confusion spell.

Yeah, I second this too. Give that Slayer up there a Sorcerer buddy who can Dominate Person, but I wouldn't use the dominate on the Bloodrager PC (not right off the bat, anyway), but rather Dominate the PC who can help the Bloodrager remove Blind or Nauseate.


Ryze Kuja wrote:
Even while being actively viewed, your minimum Opposed Perc DC will be 55 45.

That's not including w/e Dex Mod you have, nor the +1/10DC for each 1ft. distance from the target. That's just actively viewed and a nat 1 roll on the d20.


What about Opportune Parry & Riposte?

Or a whip?

Lots and lots of basic minions with reach weapons... seriously, how many AoO can this Bloodrager possibly make in a round?


Dimensional Savant... or any other teleport pounce... does your Bloodrager have Teleport Tactician? Didn't think so... bye, Felicia!


VoodistMonk wrote:
Dimensional Savant... or any other teleport pounce... does your Bloodrager have Teleport Tactician? Didn't think so... bye, Felicia!

What about a Swashbuckler1/EldritchScion14 w/ Dimensional Savant :D


Ryze Kuja wrote:
MrCharisma wrote:
Claxon wrote:
Hit the bloodrager with a confusion effect or dominate person and watch as they rip apart their own party.
This is a big one. The scariest moments in our campaign are when either my Bloodrager or the Gunslinger are hit with a Confusion spell.

Yeah, I second this too. Give that Slayer up there a Sorcerer buddy who can Dominate Person, but I wouldn't use the dominate on the Bloodrager PC (not right off the bat, anyway), but rather Dominate the PC who can help the Bloodrager remove Blind or Nauseate.

I concur. We had rings of counterspell, the Liberation domain ability and later Spell immunity and Greater Spell immunity specifically to make sure our chainsaw wielding barbarian did not turn on us in our Iron Gods game.


Wow, a lot of great ideas here - will need to read up on a lot of them as I'm honestly not familiar with them. The problem/advantage with Pathfinder is there's soooo many options!


There are over two dozen monsters with at-will Dimension Door... if you wish to throw Dimensional Savant on a monster to go toe-to-toe with your Bloodrager. Sometimes it is just a little too convenient when the party meets another playable character race that just happens to be the yin to their yang. Using a monster may make it a little less obvious that this encounter is specifically designed to counter the Bloodrager's shenanigans.


@OP We could slightly derail this thread into a "Pimp My CR15 Encounter" thread if you want. What are the other PC classes? And what setting are you in-- is this an AP or a homebrew world, and are you in a cavern, city, mountainous terrain? What/who are they after? What's the mcguffin?

Silver Crusade

Honestly, I don't see why this is an issue. Its not particularly a scary build, or even a strong one. Its fairly generic/mediocre.

Disarm combat maneuver is a more mundane way of dealing with it, which still gives him options (grappling, etc) A swordlord build would probably manage it, hell a well built dex fighter likely could get AC high enough to not worry about the barbarians attacks.

It also doesn't instant kill them, like caustic blood would. (its disgusting on high HP enemies, like giants)

Another Idea- throw swarms at them. Instead of 3 really strong Orcs, throw 12 decently strong ones. Sure, they may go down in a hit or two, but they will certainly hit the barbarian, they will hurt the barbarian, and the barb can only make 3 AoOs.


Ryze Kuja wrote:
@OP We could slightly derail this thread into a "Pimp My CR15 Encounter" thread if you want. What are the other PC classes? And what setting are you in-- is this an AP or a homebrew world, and are you in a cavern, city, mountainous terrain? What/who are they after? What's the mcguffin?

Well, this is actually a slightly modded version of CotCT, with the encounter against Vavana Dashi and the false simulacrum Ileosa. The Church of Asmodeus is allied with Ileosa as they stand to gain from the contract she struck with Sermignatto, so they have their champion (whether this be a warpriest or something else) currently assigned to Ileosa's defenders to protect their investment.

The PCs just hit 15th level as there's 7 of them so I slowed their advancement. But their action economy advantage is just too significant. They consist of:

Bloodrager abyssal primalist
Slayer
Draconic sorcerer
Monk
Cleric of Desna
Eldritch scion
Druid mooncaller

The official encounter calls for:

Vavana (enchanter 9)
Simulacrum Ileosa (aristocrat 1/bard 9)
3 x Grey Maiden Palace Guards (fighter 9)
3 x Nessian Hellhounds

I was going to add the Asmodeus champion and, possibly, Togomor (wizard 7/bloatmage 9).

Other than a battle against some devils and possible minor encounters with guards during the attack, there's really only this battle and the final confrontation with Ileosa (I'm placing the Sunken Queen directly under the city and skipping all the boggard stuff). The Red Mantis are not in the castle and have been dealt with already.

The bloodrager is basically a crit fisher, using a +1 keen elven curve blade, with bloodrage, power attack, demonic bulk, long arm, and come and get me (she gets 3 attacks of opportunity per round with combat reflexes) and is usually buffed with bull's strength, among other things. She's pretty easy to hit, but sucks up damage, gets heals from either the cleric or druid, and with so many other PCs if I target her with more than 2 enemies the other PCs run rampant, unless I want to have a LOT of enemies to tie them all up, which makes for really, really long combats.

I appreciate the feedback. Sorry if it seems simplistic for some, but I don't do a ton of builds and we don't use all the handbooks so I'm not as savvy on all the options and synchronicities.


So Caustic Blood does 1d6 damage per caster level per attack? So if a 15th level warpriest gets hit 3 times by the bloodrager, the bloodrager will take 45d6 damage or Reflex for half (average damage 157.5 or 78.75 for half)? And since the duration is 1 round per level this will last for 15 rounds?

Um, ouch? Am I reading this right? I have a feeling if I used this at our table my players would not be amused. I like the concept, but are there any suggestions for nerfing this, or is it a commonly accepted spell.


Each time the bloodrager hits the 15th level warpriest they take 15d6 acid damage, save for half. The spell lasts on the warpriest for 15 rounds.

Workarounds are things like casting protection from elements or resist elements on the bloodrager, shooting the hell out of the warpriest rather than hacking them to bits with a sword, using a bludgeoning weapon, or using a reach weapon (not natural reach, a reach weapon).

This is a normal spell. As noted in several posts above there are many ways to win against Big Dumb Fighters.


Seems wrote:
I have a feeling if I used this at our table my players would not be amused.

Are your players the type that want to steamroll all opposition but whine the moment they take any serious damage or debuff? Because if they are, trying to find a way to handle this bloodrager will have the same result no matter what.

Maybe I'm just stuck in my ways when it comes to D&D but part of the game is finding solutions to obstacles, and some times your standard operating procedure doesn't work.

Silver Crusade

Bjørn Røyrvik wrote:
Seems wrote:
I have a feeling if I used this at our table my players would not be amused.

Are your players the type that want to steamroll all opposition but whine the moment they take any serious damage or debuff? Because if they are, trying to find a way to handle this bloodrager will have the same result no matter what.

Maybe I'm just stuck in my ways when it comes to D&D but part of the game is finding solutions to obstacles, and some times your standard operating procedure doesn't work.

TO be fair. For many BSFs, "standard operating procedure" is their only operating procedure.


Those are good points. They're pretty smart players, so they'll need to redirect the bloodrager and let the monk and others deal with the champion. I shouldn't complain - I did say I wanted to challenge them!


invisible or stuff to blind (mist spells + goz) make aoo impossible.

take an unchained rogue with darkvision and the see in darkness rogue talent (get him an item that has eclipsed Continual Flame or permanent deeper darkness). nab him the major magic 'frostbite' sla and one hit on the barbarian (especially before he rages) make him fatigued until the non lethal damage is gone. add the fact it's all going to be with sneak attack and...

no save fatigue = no rage (if he didn't start one. can always try calm emotions or something similar to get him out of rage)


The official encounter calls for:

Vavana (enchanter 9)
Simulacrum Ileosa (aristocrat 1/bard 9)
3 x Grey Maiden Palace Guards (fighter 9)
3 x Nessian Hellhounds

Make those 9 levels of Bard be the Negotiator archetype for Simulacrum Ileosa... give it max ranks in Imtimidate. We are building to try beat the Cleric/Druid/Monk's Wisdom/Sense Motive with Dazzling Display... the Bloodrager is just collateral damage. Lol. Not really, but at least they can't say that they were singled out.

However, Mein of Despair, yeah, that IS for the Bloodrager. No morale bonuses for you.

Those Hellhounds are definitely going to need Haste casted on them... one bite attack just isn't going to get it done... assuming they all pretty much open up with their breath weapons. And will all probably be dead before they can use it again. Might even double the number of dogs, just for fun... CR calculator be d@mned... they're just dogs.

Put two Hellhounds on each of the Cleric/Druid/Monk... the three Fighters attack the Bloodrager... and the Bard spams Dazzling Display every 1d4+1 rounds.

Those three Fighters each get one Improved maneuver feat... one gets Trip, one gets Disarm, and the other gets Sunder... that demoralized Bloodrager is about to have his day ruined.


Tbh, if you have 7 PC's, then I think you should be advancing your encounters about 20-30% (~3-5 CR) above their APL and use that as a metric to gauge how they do. If they steamroll an APL+5CR encounter, maybe throw an APL+6-8CR at them.

Since they're lvl 15, I'd stay a good starting point would be to create a CR20 encounter, and use that as the gauge.


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Seems wrote:
So Caustic Blood does 1d6 damage per caster level per attack? So if a 15th level warpriest gets hit 3 times by the bloodrager, the bloodrager will take 45d6 damage or Reflex for half (average damage 157.5 or 78.75 for half)? And since the duration is 1 round per level this will last for 15 rounds?

Each hit (with a piercing or slashing weapon) will deal 15d6 acid damage, Reflex for half. They will also take half that damage (7d6) on after one round, Reflex negates.

The 15 round duration is how long the spell is effective on the protective target, not how long people take acid damage, just in case my reading of your question was wrong.

Also, note that it has a 10 foot 'squirt' so it will work against most reach attacks but also note that it sprays in the direction of an attack and can clearly hit another creature first. This means if a piercing or slashing attack comes from a direction where the barbarian is between the attacker and the recipient (such as an ally shooting past the barbarian), the barbarian will take that damage too. While it doesn't look like the rest of the party are archers, it's good to remember.

Seems wrote:
Um, ouch? Am I reading this right? I have a feeling if I used this at our table my players would not be amused. I like the concept, but are there any suggestions for nerfing this, or is it a commonly accepted spell.

Ways to make this less of a 'Gotcha!' killer move is to have one of the lower level casters cast it on the recipient. It won't last as long and will do less damage. You could also consider leaving a hint somewhere prior that the PCs should expect some sort of acid. Whether it's a note found that talks about 'the lord' or 'the master' or 'someone' recently making their blood into an acidic weapon or having some wandering guards mention all the acid burns and scorch marks in the master's training area lately. At that point, it's up to the PCs to cast some Protection from energy or resist energy spells and mitigate the damage themselves. By giving fair warning, then you can not feel as bad about using certain methods.

You could even leave a specific note about the upcoming enemy having been studying the caustic blood spell and allow one of the party casters to make a Spellcraft check to get the spell details. A smart party, would then at least know about both the acid damage but also the fact that if the barbarian uses a bludgeoning weapon, they'd be fine (or they can dispel the effect). There's plenty of ways that the PCs can mitigate or even negate caustic blood. If they choose (or fail) to do so after a reasonable foreshadowing, then that is not your fault.


With 7 PCs, you could probably add in some low-level apprentices; 5th-level or so. You could use simple spells or wands to give the encounter some oomph (and also to mitigate the obvious disparity between PC and enemy action economy.

For instance, two apprentices each armed with a simple wand of ray of exhaustion will still have good chances to hit (touch attack) and on a failed save, targets will become Exhausted and drastically drop the target's Strength and Dex (and ability to run or charge). Even on a successful save, they are still Fatigued (minor Strength and Dexterity penalties but still can't run or charge), but even then, a hit from a second shot will make the target Exhausted regardless, since the two Fatigues will stack.

I often say this, but a web and aqueous orb combo seems pretty strong without being game breaking. Having one of the casters use web for battlefield control and one or both apprentices using wands of aqueous orb and having them roll them through the webs or park them on top of trapped targets is both effective and visually descriptive. Even having one apprentice use a wand of web before switching to aqueous orb would work if the other casters don't want to waste a web spell.

The orb will keep PCs from burning the webs (at least in the orb's area) and it will extinguish fire spells. Note that PCs trapped in the web will have cover out to 20 feet of webbing between attackers and total cover with more, but the aqueous orb could still be directed back and forth even if the apprentices can't necessarily see past the webs or all the targets (targets trapped in the web probably couldn't be picked up and carried along though).

Also, since moving the orbs is a move-action, the apprentices can spend one action moving them over targets, then ready an action to move them again if they see another target come into view or to intercept other target (or even attacks if they see them, since the orb will hinder most projectiles like passing through 10 feet of water, typically –4, and also dispel fire spells passing into or through it). Even without that, most charges and movement will be disrupted at least a little by suddenly having to move/swim through 10 feet of churning water, possibly wrecking planned attacks.

Using wands at 5th-level, that's only 5 rounds of an orb, but they could still conjure multiple orbs if they end up with an available standard action to burn, possibly just positioning them as short-term, temporary 10-radius barricades or strategic blockades to be moved when needed.

Also, web causes targets to be grappled while aqueous orb causes entangled, which are two separate conditions and also further Dexterity penalty with Fatigue or Exhausted, making targets much easier to hit (cover from the orb and webs notwithstanding.)


Great suggestions! Yes, I already buff all the fights as the AP was designed for 4 PCs, so I typically use a combination of advanced templates, increase the number of enemies, and/or add a couple of levels to NPCs.

So I added a 15th level warpriest with TWF and agile kukris, with improved critical, critical focus, and bleeding critical, and the greater disarm chain. I'll give him Caustic Critical and Righteous Might, increasing his reach, and I'll work in some sort of hint about the acid, even if they rush straight to the throne room and just get a Perception check to detect the faint acidic tang hanging in the air.

Will look to see what other adjustments are helpful. There's another major spellcaster (wizard 7/bloat mage 9) I can move to this encounter, who was just going to be another one off encounter they would steamroll. Plus I can have additional waves of guards responding from other areas of the castle. We're at the point where I'd rather have fewer but harder encounters than a string of insignificant ones.


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The Caustic Blood isn't a "Gotcha!" Move. If Bloodrager is too stupid to stop taking the attacks of opportunity, then he won't shrivel up and die.

How many d6s will he eat before Pavlov kicks in? The order of operations isn't "Bloodrager hits him 5 times and then Caustic Blood makes him explode."

Each hit triggers it immediately. Even your most unga bunga rocks for brains Barbarian will figure it out.

Silver Crusade

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Scavion wrote:

The Caustic Blood isn't a "Gotcha!" Move. If Bloodrager is too stupid to stop taking the attacks of opportunity, then he won't shrivel up and die.

How many d6s will he eat before Pavlov kicks in? The order of operations isn't "Bloodrager hits him 5 times and then Caustic Blood makes him explode."

Each hit triggers it immediately. Even your most unga bunga rocks for brains Barbarian will figure it out.

Excuse me, but my Unga Bunga barbarian would keep attacking simply to try and assert dominance. I might die, but so will they. And my clan mates will bring me back.


I'm starting to see the humor in this!


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rorek55 wrote:
Scavion wrote:

The Caustic Blood isn't a "Gotcha!" Move. If Bloodrager is too stupid to stop taking the attacks of opportunity, then he won't shrivel up and die.

How many d6s will he eat before Pavlov kicks in? The order of operations isn't "Bloodrager hits him 5 times and then Caustic Blood makes him explode."

Each hit triggers it immediately. Even your most unga bunga rocks for brains Barbarian will figure it out.

Excuse me, but my Unga Bunga barbarian would keep attacking simply to try and assert dominance. I might die, but so will they. And my clan mates will bring me back.

Yeah, the real super Unga Bunga has a Ring of Evasion and Superstitious so this doesn't work anyways on him.


If the warpriest casts caustic blood while the party can see him, they get spellcraft checks to identify the spell. Less cool than the foreshadowing suggested but also much simpler.


Yeah, Caustic Blood is cool and all, but it's not going to be the end-all people are acting like it might be. I would assume a level 15 character to have the basics covered that can seriously mitigate the threat of Caustic Blood.

How pimped out is the Warpriest to maximize the chances of landing the spell anyways?

Bloodrager is rocking at least a +13 to their Reflex save... +5(levels) +3(Dex) +5(Superstition)...

Warpriest's Caustic Blood DC is probably somewhere around 23... 10 +5(spell level) +5(Wisdom of ~20) +3(miscellaneous BS)...

The Bloodrager has to roll a 10 or better, assuming they have no other investment in their saves... then it is less than 10, with Evasion on top of it... Caustic Blood suddenly isn't scary, it's not even worth slowing down combat for...


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Both Caustic Blood and Come And Get Me are basically free damage when an enemy attacks, but the Warpriest gets to double-dip that free damage when fighting a CAGM Bloodrager. Whenever the Bloodrager attacks the Warpriest the Caustic Blood gives the Warpriest free damage. Whenever the Warpriest attacks the Bloodrager the CAGM gives the Bloodrager free damage, but that damage also triggers the Caustic Blood, giving the Warpriest MORE free damage. Basically it's twice as effective on the CAGM Bloodrager.

But how effective is that?

If we assume the Bloodrager has a +4 Cloak of Resistance then the Bloodrager needs a 6+ to save vs the Caustic Blood (I picked that number because it's close enough and it makes the maths easier). That's a 75% chance. So for every 4 times they hit the Warpriest they'll save three times and fail once - that's the equivalent of 2.5 full-strength sprays in the face. With a level 15 Warpriest that's 15d6 × 2.5 = ~37.5d6 damage, or 131.25 damage over 4 attacks, which is ~33 damage per hit. So 33 damage isn't that big a deal for the Bloodrager, but if he takes 4 hits on the Warpriest's turn and 3 hits from his own AoOs with CAGM that's ~231 damage in 1 round, not including the damage taken from enemy attacks ... so it adds up really quickly.

Now the real mitigating factor is Acid Resistance. If the Bloodrager has Acid Resistance 10 the average damage falls from ~33 damage to ~23 damage per hit and with Acid Resistance 20 it falls to ~13 damage per hit. The real magic happens when you get Acid Resistance 30, because it totally mitigates the Acid damage if you pass the save, and blocks more than half on a failed save, dropping the average damage of the Caustic Blood to ~5.6 damage per hit ... which is basically nothing. If we go back to that ~4 attacks and 3 AoOs we're looking at ~39 damage per round, which is basically fine.

So the Bloodrager could take a round off to cast Resist Energy and easily negate this spell, but if they do this then the spell has done it's work already - 1 less round of Bloodrager damage is a huge win for the enemy party, especially if the Warpriest prebuffed or used a swift action to cast it.

Is it a Silver Bullet that will end the Bloodrager's reign of terror? Nah, prob'ly not, but it should encourage them to change tactics for at least one combat.

Silver Crusade

Aldori swordlord focused on disarm. Just saying.

Though it seems a premade fight so unhelpful in this situation.


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Hm. I can't help feeling that Righteous Might + Caustic Blood may not be the best counter for a Bloodrager with 15 ft reach.

Let's say the champion Fervor-buffs and then moves towards the Bloodrager and makes a single attack. On the way they provoke an AoO from movement which the Bloodrager takes.
If it hits then Caustic Blood triggers, spurting acid in a 10 ft line, and fails to reach the Bloodrager. The Warpriest then makes a single attack since they don't have Pounce. This provokes an AoO if Come and Get Me is activated, which the Bloodrager may choose to not take since they've already seen the spell in action now.

Then on their turn, the Bloodrager can simply 5-ft step back and full-attack the Warpriest without issue. Sure the Caustic Blood will spray but it won't reach the Bloodrager. Can the Warpriest survive an AoO + Hasted full-attack in addition to whatever else the rest of the party does?
Because if they don't, then they're barely a stopgap.

And if they haven't started raged yet or can ragecycle then Greater Bloodrage allows them to free-action cast Resist Energy

Silver Crusade

Wonderstell wrote:

Hm. I can't help feeling that Righteous Might + Caustic Blood may not be the best counter for a Bloodrager with 15 ft reach.

Let's say the champion Fervor-buffs and then moves towards the Bloodrager and makes a single attack. On the way they provoke an AoO from movement which the Bloodrager takes.
If it hits then Caustic Blood triggers, spurting acid in a 10 ft line, and fails to reach the Bloodrager. The Warpriest then makes a single attack since they don't have Pounce. This provokes an AoO if Come and Get Me is activated, which the Bloodrager may choose to not take since they've already seen the spell in action now.

Then on their turn, the Bloodrager can simply 5-ft step back and full-attack the Warpriest without issue. Sure the Caustic Blood will spray but it won't reach the Bloodrager. Can the Warpriest survive an AoO + Hasted full-attack in addition to whatever else the rest of the party does?
Because if they don't, then they're barely a stopgap.

And if they haven't started raged yet or can ragecycle then Greater Bloodrage allows them to free-action cast Resist Energy

Why is the warpriest not 5ft from the barbarian when they 5ft away?

Give the warpriest step up/following step. Barbarian cannot even attack with their reach weapon now.


You don't have to attack from 10 feet away just because you're large. Just move adjacent to them before attacking, then if they 5 foot step away they're still within 10 feet.

Besides that I think we got a bit carried away with the Caustic blood, the idea is to present some challenges for the guy with a bazillion-foot reach. We've come up with a few ideas, and the OP can use them throughout the campaign as they see fit.

Anyone have any new ideas?


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@rorek55

The bloodrager isn't actually using a reach weapon, it's just the combo of Enlarge+Long Arm that grants them 15 ft reach. So they're able to attack within the whole area.

@MrCharisma

Seems wrote:
I'll give him Caustic Critical and Righteous Might, increasing his reach

This is in response to Seems' plan to increase the warpriest's reach to counter the bloodrager's reach. Which isn't a good plan if you're working with Caustic Blood since the blood only splurts 10 ft. As you've both stated, it's much smarter to be adjacent.

Also, if you charge then you do need to attack from 10 ft away. Which is a real possibility if the Righteous Might warpriest acts first.


Any round they don't buff with fervor, a high level warpriest could use the grace spell to avoid AoOs from movement. Other spells of note are greater magic weapon and magic vestment which should be cast well before combat, and probably divine power rather than righteous might.


Wonderstell wrote:

@MrCharisma

Seems wrote:
I'll give him Caustic Critical and Righteous Might, increasing his reach

This is in response to Seems' plan to increase the warpriest's reach to counter the bloodrager's reach. Which isn't a good plan if you're working with Caustic Blood since the blood only splurts 10 ft. As you've both stated, it's much smarter to be adjacent.

Also, if you charge then you do need to attack from 10 ft away. Which is a real possibility if the Righteous Might warpriest acts first.

*Thumbs up*


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Battlefield control is what's important. Tactics and strategy will likely make the encounter more memorable than just a straight combat monster.

Using spells like the create pit variants will allow you to restrict movement and temporarily split up and negate PC actions while they extricate themselves. A save will let them leap clear (to the nearest open space), so make sure you don't position it where they can leap closer to you, unless that's where you want them to go).

Acid pit is reasonably hard to climb out of (though the barbarian might get the bonus for being able to brace against wall's at large size). This won't kill him, but it will require him to put away his weapon, climb up and redraw it (unless his allies dispel or otherwise intervene, which is also fine). Also, works if you've foreshadowed caustic blood's appearance, since that means they should've prepped acid resistance beforehand.

Hungry Pit is even more insidious. At 70 feet deep at caster level 15, it has a DC 35 Climb check, but, since it also crushes everyone every round, they need to make an immediate check or fall back to the bottom after being crushed.

Roaming pit will let you reposition the pit against enemies that leapt clear, or move trapped enemies further away or closer depending on where you want them when they climb out. It moves 20 feet per move action spent directing it, so you could sweep a 40 foot space and at least end up repositioning enemies that save if you don't drop them into the pit.

It's probably piddling at this point, but a lower-level support or apprentice caster could just harry them with a summon swarm bat swarm. It's immune to weapon damage and, while it's distraction ability is almost certain to fail against the barbarian, the constant bleed will probably frustrate them and, if you have them hovering just inside the pit, the PC will have to save again to keep clinging to the wall.


The solution is to realize that high-level PCs are comically powerful and the last glimpse you'd ever have of "challenge" or "balance" disappeared about seven levels ago.


Sandal Fury wrote:
The solution is to realize that high-level PCs are comically powerful and the last glimpse you'd ever have of "challenge" or "balance" disappeared about seven levels ago.

*looks at his game that has had PCs at 20th for a couple years with plenty of challenge for them*

Uh-huh.

Better to say that asymmetrical system mastery and optimization can unbalance the game if the GM us less proficient than players and said players don't rein themselves in.

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