| Kohlhaas |
We're currently in Book 2, but since I like to plan things in Advance, a question came up.
I'm both trying to confront the Party with named enemies before they are fought, as as written, they often have a single encounter until they are dealt with (Kyre Ekodyre comes to mind).
For Oughhorthan, I came to the Idea that the Opera was (by Thrune Agents) and still is trapped in a way that the Pit Fiend is summoned to the Great Hall as soon as the Silver Song is being performed on stage, which took out some of the earlier Ravens as they weren't aware of the sabotage and thus only two of them were present.
As for the current Ravens, they will be aware of what happened and may take precautions, but a RAW CR 20 Devil still be a bit much for a non optimized party, even though we are running with 7 players if no one drops out till then (long story).
I want it do be more of a gimmick fight then a straight slugfest with the performance taking several rounds and actions by the singers other then keeping up the performance needing further Skill Checks, so they would need to be protected while the Devil is trying to take them out.
Thoughts I had so far about how to lower the CR:
-Enabling the "All Weapons count as Silver" and "Teleporting/Planar Travel is hard" Boons of the Song immediatly.
-Having the Pit Fiend be stunned with surprise for the first round as he was neither aware that the trap still exists nor that it was in danger of beeing triggered at all.
-Having him appear with negative Levels/reduced Spellcasting could be a hard solution, but it feels pretty gamey, but could be explained with him not being able to materialize himself completly due to the song?
-Generally enhancing the Song of Silver to include the DC 25 Caster Level Check for all Spellcasting by Fiends (outside the Temple of Asmodeus or other unhallowed sites).
-Getting help by an aprrition of one of the Old Ravens 1/round, doing something appropriate to their classes to the Fiend as Revenge (could be used as another hint that the process of dying in Kintargo is getting f$&@ed with by the Soul Anchor, keeping some of the Essence of powerful Kintargans still around).
Questions:
1) Am I overcorrecting and a foreseeable encounter like this should be manageable by 7 PCs with Alternative Bonus Progression at around Levels 13-14 (I've raised the Levels a bit as I want to run it as aL evel 1-20 campaign)?
2) Do you have any Ideas for other ways to make him a still viable threat but without just steamrolling the party?
I'm happy for any and all feedback!