Enhancing the final fight

[Meckerdrache]

In a few weeks it is finally happening: My group will encounter Dahak.
https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=1596

But i'm a bit worried. I've read several times now that some groups experienced this battle as too easy. Especially with my group this could be the case. Their PCs are highly effective and the teamplay is well-coordinated after 2 years. The two dwarven fighters dont allow any spells to be cast against them while limiting or forcing movement of their enemies, the heals of the hellknight oracle and the bard dont allow the fighters to die while buffing and exploiting weaknesses and the paladin protects the spellcasters.
While it is fun to watch them outsmarting even difficult enemies with their powerful abilites, I need this battle to be a real nailbiter. Does anyone have an idea to make this battle really special without using the elite template? It would be fine for me, if some PCs or even most of them don't survive.

[Fumarole]

Keeping Dahak in the air during the fight could help you out. Maybe bring in an ancient red dragon to fight alongside Dahak to give the party something else to worry about. Perhaps the Adamantine Fen is itself a high level hazard (with its own initiative), dropping rocks on the party from the ceiling or spraying acid/fire from the Well of Venoms in the center of the chamber.

It seems like you have five PCs, correct? So do I. Making the Adamantine Fen a level 20 complex hazard brings the encounter budget to 200 for a party of five, maintaining the difficulty a four PC party would have. Maybe also add in the ancient red dragon to make the fight even harder than ordinary (a budget of 230 now). My party isn't particularly efficient, so I think I might just do one or the other for my game when they get to this point (some time in 2024 I suspect).

Also, this thread should definitely have a spoiler tag, though I would hope players could recognize from the title that they shouldn't read this.

[Meckerdrache]

Thanks Fumarole. Yeah, 5 players. I don't want to bring other creatures, but the hazard is a good idea. Maybe more the one, getting more dangerous as the fight goes on.
I thought about an encounter with phases like in some PC games too, but i have no good idea about that yet.

I love your session reports btw. Have fun in Kovlar.

[Fumarole]

I thought on this some more and have created some hazards. Perhaps one of these could work for you?

They can be found in the Community Created Content thread here.

[Meckerdrache]

These are great. Now i need to make some test battles. I don't want to kill my whole group with both of this hazards - at least not before dahak is down :)
They seem to be balanced though. And i love that the adamantine fen one escalates with the wounds of dahak. Thanks again.

[Fumarole]

You're welcome. Do let us know how your finale goes, and how these hazards play out, if you use them.

[Meckerdrache]

The Battle is over.
I'm a little bit disappointed because i didn't challenged my group enough. With all my build-up to this moment (NPCs told them their good bye, feeding interested players lore about Dahak, dramatic music and soundsets and so on) my players thought that not all of them will make it out of there alive, even saying "Buckle up, it´s time to die" - even when the last pc in this campaign died 10 levels ago. In the end, only our paladin was close to 0 HP.

We had so much fun with this campaign over the last 2 years. We talked about Age of Ashes and our hobby in general for hours after the battle and the epilogue. It was a wonderful experience.

I used both of your hazards. I described the cave as the embodyment of Dahak's hate and so my players guessed right that making the Manifestation angry would make this place dangerous. It was fun to use the Fen and the Well and my players seemed to have fun interacting with it. They even used Aid to help with the prayers of the paladin - the only one legendary with religion. I think the DC of 48 was a little to high even for level 20 PCs.
The damage of the hazards were in a good spot. Dahak needed at least 150 HP more to shine though. And i should have used the push ability of the wing attacks to get the flying fighter and paladin off his back to get some spells off.

[The Gleeful Grognard]

Meckerdrache wrote:

The Battle is over.

I'm a little bit disappointed because i didn't challenged my group enough.

How did you approach the fight mechanically with dahak, how did they approach it as players?

I am a fan of fully utilizing the 200ft fly speed to get him into the tunnels for healing and possibly to strip a debuff (also big fan of using dispell magic on a holy runed weapon he is hit by, players will have backups, inezra generally makes of that. But is unlikely that they will have holy runes on both weapons)