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I've just discovered the official 2nd edition outcome of this adventurer path has Baphomet survive. Baphomet who has a massive and legitimate grudge against the PC's, a cult that is dedicated to corruption and blades in the dark and who has an official record of spending millenia working towards settling grudges against other beings. So I'm wondering do you think any of the characters in this adventure path had a good ending or did they die/fall one by one to Baphomet over the years after the end of the adventure path?
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Canon ending and table ending are vastly different things.
By the end of the campaign a lot of the PCs in the party should be powerful enough to take on Baphomet one-on-one, IMO.
Like the time oracle in our WotR game is Shyka (at least part of the time.) I think Shyka can handle Baphomet.
But since a few people's tables probably murked Baphomet a second time, I doubt he's going to show up prominently in Paizo stuff going forward. You need to have a canon ending, you want to avoid specifically undermining "something players did in a game" in deciding it.
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Yes a party can take him on and have a decent chance of killing him but this is a demon lord specialized in corruption and deceit. Once his anger cools he wont come charging in to face them alone he'll have an assasin slip poison in their food or if he is attacking them will do so with large numbers. On top of which how long will a party stay together watching each others back as they develop other concerns and drift apart? A year, 10 years? Baphomet is still working towards killing Asmodeous for his imprisonment he will definatley hold a grudge to the party who humiliated him and if he can't target them directly he can go after their loved ones.
I just don't see any reason the WotR party would stay in the Universe, since they can go anywhere else by the end of it. Like you can move to your private demiplane, or go hang out in the Outer Rifts taunting him by killing every demon you find.
Like the WotR party is powerful enough at the end that "they passed the test of the Starstone" is a reasonable ending for those characters, at which point Baphomet should be afraid of you rather than the other way around.
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I just don't see any reason the WotR party would stay in the Universe, since they can go anywhere else by the end of it. Like you can move to your private demiplane, or go hang out in the Outer Rifts taunting him by killing every demon you find.
Like the WotR party is powerful enough at the end that "they passed the test of the Starstone" is a reasonable ending for those characters, at which point Baphomet should be afraid of you rather than the other way around.
That's my point how many of your childhood friends do you still stay in touch with? You finished school and all the world became open to you, its the same here you finished the AP and can go anywhere/do anything. The wizard can retreat to their private plane to finally research the stuff they want too, the fighter can start a school to train new fighters, the druid can go deep into the forests of Mwangi to be one with nature. They're alone and isolated, each pursuing their own goals no longer a unified group watching each others backs against threats. Even if you ascend Baphomet is going to want revenge he's planning to kill Asmodeus and he's a god. I can see him waiting, letting the party grow complacent then targeting them when they can't work as a group to kill him.
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Yes a party can take him on and have a decent chance of killing him but this is a demon lord specialized in corruption and deceit. Once his anger cools he wont come charging in to face them alone he'll have an assasin slip poison in their food or if he is attacking them will do so with large numbers. On top of which how long will a party stay together watching each others back as they develop other concerns and drift apart? A year, 10 years? Baphomet is still working towards killing Asmodeous for his imprisonment he will definatley hold a grudge to the party who humiliated him and if he can't target them directly he can go after their loved ones.
At the end of the campaign the PCs are demigods themselves. Demigods of higher overall level than big B himself. Heroes that can easily come back from the dead, who can easily protect their loved ones. You're vastly underestimating how high of a power level the end player characters are at
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Very specifically:
At Mythic Tier 9 (players are 10 at the end of the campaign)
Immortal (Su): At 9th tier, if you are killed, you return to life 24 hours later, regardless of the condition of your body or the means by which you were killed. When you return to life, you aren’t treated as if you had rested, and don’t regain the use of abilities that recharge with rest until you next rest. This ability doesn’t apply if you’re killed by a coup de grace or critical hit performed by either a mythic creature (or creature of even greater power) or a non-mythic creature wielding a weapon capable of bypassing epic damage reduction. At 10th tier, you can be killed only by a coup de grace or critical hit made with an artifact.
That assassin would have to have mythic tiers and catch the PC completely unaware, which is not likely to happen to a CR 25 character.
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Very specifically:
At Mythic Tier 9 (players are 10 at the end of the campaign)
Immortal (Su): At 9th tier, if you are killed, you return to life 24 hours later, regardless of the condition of your body or the means by which you were killed. When you return to life, you aren’t treated as if you had rested, and don’t regain the use of abilities that recharge with rest until you next rest. This ability doesn’t apply if you’re killed by a coup de grace or critical hit performed by either a mythic creature (or creature of even greater power) or a non-mythic creature wielding a weapon capable of bypassing epic damage reduction. At 10th tier, you can be killed only by a coup de grace or critical hit made with an artifact.That assassin would have to have mythic tiers and catch the PC completely unaware, which is not likely to happen to a CR 25 character.
I think your overestimating the power of a single 20/10 character. THe party kills multiple high CR/mythic rank beings over the course of the AP. Not to mention finds multiple artifacts.
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I'm absolutely not overestimating the power of the single 20/10 character. I played one. At the end of the campaign, I could easily hold my own against Baphomet. I know this because as a party we two rounded him at that level. There is no doubt in my mind that I could have one on one'd him. Mythic PCs were vastly overpowered compared to mythic monsters, that was the big problem with mythic as a system.
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And I'm sure a skilled GM could create a high cr/mythic rank cr assassin that would threaten you in a one vs one fight much less striking from the shadows when your distracted and have let your guard down. I'm not saying the PC's aren't powerful I'm just saying there's a lot of equally powerful beings encountered in the AP much less roaming around the infinite planes that can be recruited to target them and it wont be an open fight against the party it'll be a strike against individaul beings not expecting a fight. For example after 10, 20 years pass will your character still be wearing all their powerful gear 24/7 365 day's a year? or might they take it off to make love/sleep/not walk around in heavy plate/etc.