Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Sulacu 07-05-07, 11:29 PM	Okay, this is my first time creating an epic encounter; I'm doing it for a friend's campaign. It concerns the 'Archmage/Adjudicator/Prime Consular' of a very large city. The campaign is designed around a party of Chaotic Neutral/Chaotic Evil characters that invoke demons and commit all kinds of atrocities to agin power. Basically it's one 30th level 'boss', with a 24th ECL Rakshasa cohort and a shiatload of soldiers between level 3 and 10. I've written up the two most important characters. It is sort of a study of mine, to see what I can maximally accomplish in terms of ability when I get the chance to create a character from the ground up. I've tried to squeeze as much as I can from a 30th level character in terms of spell power, attack and defense on a full 30th level player character budget with a little bit of tweaking. Syl Female Human Wizard 5/Fighter1/Eldritch Knight 4/Cleric 8/Mystic Theurge 7/Archmage 5 Size/Type: Medium Humanoid (Human) Hit Dice: 5d4 (Wizard) + 1d10 (Fighter) + 4d6 (Eldritch Knight) + 8d8 (Cleric) + 7d4 (Mystic Theurge) + 5d4 (Archmage) + 270 (400 hp) Initiative: +8 Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares) Armor Class: 50 (+8 Dex, +5 natural, +12 armor (+8 death ward mithral chain shirt), +10 shield (+9 light mithral shield). +5 deflection (ring of protection +5)), touch 23, flat-footed 42 Base Attack/Grapple: +17/+25 Attack: +6 axiomatic heavy mace +32 melee (1d8+14) (additional +2d6 against chaotic outsiders) or +5 composite longbow (+8 Str) +30 ranged (1d8+8/×3) Full Attack: +6 axiomatic heavy mace +32/+27/+22/+17 melee (1d8+14) (additional +2d6 against chaotic outsiders) or +5 composite longbow (+8 Str) +30/+25/+20/+15 ranged (1d8+8/×3) Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft. Special Attacks: Spell-Like Abilities, Spells, Turn Undead Special Qualities: DR 5/adamantine, immune to death spells, magical death effects, energy drain and negative energy effects (+8 death ward chain shirt), protection from arrows, resistance to fire 15, spell resistance 40 Saves: Fort +27, Ref +20, Will +28 Abilities: Str 27, Dex 27, Con 28, Int 36, Wis 27, Cha 29 Skills: Climb +12, Concentration +41, Craft (Alchemy) +31, Craft (Armorsmithing, Weaponsmithing) +23, Craft (Bookbinding, Weaving) +25, Decipher Script +25, Diplomacy +14, Jump +16, Knowledge (Arcana) +46, Knowledge (Religion) +46, Profession (Apothecary) +24, Profession (Scribe) +35, Search +31, Sense Motive +22, Spellcraft +53, Swim +10. Feats: Armor Proficiency (all), Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Empower Spell, Greater Spell Penetration, Leadership, Magical Aptitude, Quicken Spell, Scribe Scroll, Shield Proficiency, Simple Weapon Proficiency, Skill Focus (Spellcraft), Spell Focus (Evocation), Spell Focus (Enchantment), Spell Penetration, Tower Shield Proficiency, Weapon Focus (heavy mace), Widen Spell Epic Feats: Automatic Quicken Spell ×2, Multispell, Improved Spell Capacity Environment: Amanrath Organization: Archmage and Prime Consular of Amanrath (variable) Challenge Rating: 30 Treasure: Triple standard (including +8 death ward mithral chain shirt, +9 light mithral shield, ring of protection +5, +6 axiomatic heavy mace, +5 composite longbow, robe of the archmagi (neutral, but black and red engraved in color), greater vestment of power, mantle of epic spell resistance, shirt of ironskin, amulet of natural armor +5 and belt of magnificence +6) Alignment: Lawful neutral Deity: Lendor Specialized School [Wizard]: None Prohibited School [Wizard]: None Domains [Cleric]: Law (law spells at +1 CL), Protection (touch 1/day, grants target a resistance bonus of +15 to one saving throw). High Arcana [Archmage]: Arcane Fire (9th), Arcane Reach (7th), Mastery of Counterspelling (7th), Mastery of Shaping (6th), Spell Power (5th) Spells Known Wiz (CL 20th: 4/8/7/7/7/6/5/4/6/5/1/1/1/1): All cantrips plus 1st—burning hands, cause fear, charm person, disguise self, feather fall, identify, mage armor, magic missile, magic weapon, ray of enfeeblement, summon monster I; 2nd—daze monster, mirror image, scorching ray, summon monster II, tasha`s hideous laughter, touch of idiocy; 3rd—displacement, fireball, heroism, suggestion, summon monster III, vampiric touch; 4th—charm monster, confusion, fear, greater invisibility, stoneskin, summon monster IV; 5th—break enchantment, cloudkill, feeblemind, gelid blood, permanency, summon monster V; 6th—antimagic field, chain lightning, contingency, globe of invulnerability, mass bull`s strength, mass suggestion, summon monster VI; 7th—finger of death, greater teleport, insanity, mass hold person, prismatic spray, simulacrum, summon monster VII; 8th—blackstaff, greater shout, maddening scream, mass charm monster, spell engine, summon monster VIII, symbol of insanity; 9th—abyssal army, dominate monster, gate, mass hold monster, meteor swarm, mage`s disjunction, power word, kill, summon monster IX, time stop, wail of the banshee, weird. Clr (CL 15th: 6/7/7/7/6/5/4/3/2): See Cleric Spell list. Usuall Standard Spells Prepared Wiz (CL 20th: 4/8/7/7/7/6/5/4/6/5/1/1/1/1, Spell DC 23 + spell level (25 + spell level for Enchantment and Evocation)): 0—daze ×2, message, resistance; 1st—cause fear ×2, sleep ×3, ray of enfeeblement ×3; 2nd—mirror image ×3, tasha`s hideous laughter, touch of idiocy ×2; 3rd—displacement ×2, fireball ×3, suggestion ×2; 4th—charm monster ×2, confusion, fear, greater invisibility, stoneskin ×2; 5th—break enchantment ×2, cloudkill, feeblemind, gelid blood, summon monster V; 6th—chain lightning ×2, contingency, globe of invulnerability, mass bull`s strength, mass suggestion; 7th—finger of death, mass hold person ×2, summon monster VII; 8th—blackstaff, greater shout, mass charm monster, spell engine ×2, symbol of insanity; 9th—abyssal army, dominate monster, mage’s disjunction, power word kill, time stop; 10th—prismatic spray (widened); 11th—globe of invulnerability (empowered (up to 6th level spells), widened (20 ft. emanation)); 12th—mage’s disjunction (widened (80 ft. burst)); 13th—energy drain (quickened) Clr (CL 15th: 6/7/7/7/6/5/4/3/2, Spell DC 18 + spell level (20 + spell level for Enchantment and Evocation)): 0—create water ×2, guidance ×2, purify food and drink ×2; 1st—bane ×2, bless ×2, divine favor, ray of hope, sanctuary, protection from chaos (Domain); 2nd—death knell ×2, hand of divinity ×2, living undeath, magic circle against chaos ×2, shield other (Domain); 3rd—axiomatic storm, contagion x2, create food and water, dispel magic ×3, magic circle against chaos (Domain); 4th—dismissal, restoration ×2, poison ×3, spell immunity (Domain); 5th—break enchantment ×2, dispel chaos x2, revivify, spell resistance (Domain); 6th—create undead, harm, planar ally, symbol of persuasion, antimagic field (Domain); 7th—dictum ×2, greater shield of lathandar, repulsion (Domain); 8th—greater planar ally, shield of law, mind blank (Domain) Possessions Magic Items Weapons: +6 axiomatic heavy mace, +5 composite longbow (+8 Str) Armor: +8 death ward twilight armor mithral chain shirt (arcane spell failure 0%) Shields: +9 light mithral shield. Wondrous: blessed book (12,500 gp), shirt of ironskin (90,000 gp), greater vestment of power (200,000 gp), robe of the archmagi (75,000 gp), belt of magnificence +6 (200,000 gp), amulet of natural armor +5 (50,000 gp), crystal ball (true seeing) (80,000 gp) Epic Wondrous: mantle of epic spell resistance (260,000 gp) Rings: ring of protection +5 (50,000 gp), ring of regeneration (90,000 gp) Staff: Evocation (Charges: 50) (60,000 gp) Serrakh Male Rakshasa Fighter 1/Eldritch Knight 9 Size/Type: Medium Outsider (Native) Hit Dice: 7d8 (Outsider) + 1d10 (Fighter) + 9d6 (Eldritch Knight) + 119 (200 hp) Initiative: +7 Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares) Armor Class: 36 (+3 Dex, +10 natural, +8 armor, +5 shield), touch 13, flat-footed 33 Base Attack/Grapple: +15/+19 Attack: Claw +19 melee (1d4+4) or +4 anarchic scimitar +24 melee (1d6+8/15-20/×2) Full Attack: 2 claws +19 melee (1d4+4) plus bite +14 melee (1d6+2) or +24/+19/+14 melee (1d6+8/15-20/×2) Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft. Special Attacks: Detect thoughts (DC 20), Spells (Sorcerer 7) Special Qualities: Change shape, damage reduction 15/good and piercing, darkvision 60 ft., spell resistance 37 Saves: Fort +27, Ref +15, Will +15 Abilities: Str 18, Dex 16, Con 24, Int 19, Wis 16, Cha 25 Skills: Bluff +31, Climb +9, Concentration +27, Decipher Script +24, Disguise +26, Intimidate +14, Jump +18, Listen +13, Move Silently +13, Perform (Act) +17, Sense Motive +18, Spellcraft +24, Swim +19. Feats: Armor Proficiency (all), Combat Casting, Greater Spell Focus (abjuration), Improved Critical (scimitar), Improved Initiative, Improved Natural Armor, Shield Proficiency, Simple Weapon Proficiency, Spell Focus (abjuration), Tower Shield Proficiency, Weapon Focus (scimitar). Environment: Amanrath Organization: Cohort of Syl Challenge Rating: 20 Treasure: Double standard, including +4 axiomatic scimitar, +4 death ward twilight armor mithril chain shirt, +4 small mithril shield, ring of invisibility, ring of fire resistance 30 and a wand of fireball (CL 10th) with a random number of charges. Alignment: Lawful evil Spells Known Sor (CL 16th: 6/8/8/8/7/7/7/5, spell DC 17 + spell level (19 + spell level for Abjuration)): 0—detect magic, flare, light, mending, prestidigitation, ray of frost, read magic, resistance, touch of fatigue; 1st—charm person, color spray, identify, protection from chaos, shield; 2nd—blindsight, blur, daze monster, major resistance, mirror image; 3rd—dispel magic, fireball, lightning Bolt, magic circle against chaos; 4th—confusion, resilient sphere, stoneskin, thunderlance; 5th—break enchantment, cone of cold, dismissal, wall of Force; 6th—chain Lightning, greater dispel magic, mass suggestion; 7th—prismatic spray, spell turning. Possessions Magic Items Weapons: +4 axiomatic scimitar (72,315 gp). Armor: +4 death ward twilight armor mithral chain shirt (65,250 gp). Shields: +4 light mithral shield (17,159 gp). Wondrous: belt of magnificence +2 (25,000 gp), robe of the archmagi (75,000 gp) Rings: invisibility (20,000 gp), greater energy resistance (fire) (44,000 gp) Wand: fireball (CL 10th) (Charges: 50) (22,500 gp). The battle will take place in a large, circular council chamber, with different levels and tribunes. There will be about fifty 'elite' soldiers with them (ranging from level 6 'soldiers' to three level 9 'lieutenants' and one level 13 'captain') using elite arrays and state-equipped (mostly fighters, although the lieutenants and the captain have two or three levels in rogue. There'll be about twenty court mages as well, sixteen 7th level wizards, three 10th level warmages and one 15th level high priest (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/High_Priest_%28DnD_Class%29). My questions are the following. I have really hurt inside when I had to discard the ability to cast epic spells; I felt it was much more interesting to severely increase her spellcasting prowess involving dozens of her spells. Three feats to allow her the ability to cast quickened all spells of 6th level or lower as well as the ability to cast three spells per round against expending two feats just to be able to cast three epic spells at a Spellcraft DC of about 60, 65? That would be bad value... or is it? How would you have organized her epic feats? Also, what do you suppose should the Challenge Rating of this encounter be? I'm not really good at pinning that part. Possible Strategies Focused Spamming of death effect spells Syl is really great when it comes to focusing spells. Have one really strong enemy against you that could possibly hurt you badly? Potential strategies include casting three poison spells in one round for a max of 3d10 Con damage. Arcane Reach high arcana allows for her to deliver touch attacks at 30 ft. distance, eliminating the chance to incur AoOs. Have some more annoying enemies? Also, want to damage multiple characters more effectively than any weapon ever could, by partially unavoidable Con damage? Spam a few cloudkills, followed by a mass hold person to keep them in the cloud. How's that? Keep that quickened energy drain (13th level) for a really dangerous situation, where a party is forced to depend and buff an already Con drained character to go in to try and rake in damage. Bam, extra negative levels, followed up with power word kill (by then, the chance of him having more than 100 hp is small). Getting in close to the enemy won't help them either; the Mastery of Shaping high arcana means that Syl can cast large area effect spells such as fireballs, cloudkill, antimagic field and even mage's disjunction in the midst of the two forces with impunity. Spellcaster Elimination Pesky bugs trying to get through her spell resistance, throwing everything they can at her, beware. If there's a reasonable chance of hitting such an annoying caster with a ranged touch attack, three bolts of Arcane Fire in one round, each at 22d6 or more, should really rake in the hurt. Prepare, Beware Syl and Serrakh are good friends. They'll protect eachother by any means. And they both share the conviction that luck favors the prepared. Syl is an excellent enchanter and illusionist, with a wide array of spells from every school to add to it, whereas Serrakh is specialized by his limited spell choice, mainly to abjuration and evocation. They tend to want to stay close together, Serrakh to Syl because her presence gives him the best protection he can get in the fight and allows him to remit his protection upon the other NPCs. Empowered globe of invulnerability (as I feel it fair that empowering it works that way) hedges out all 6th level spells or lower, and they can merrily cast and buff while about a hundred people are walking back and forth, fighting. While Serrakh likes to depend on Syl's power for protection, Syl depends on Serrakh to keep spamming hurt. When Serrakh is healthy and well protected, she will switch to defensive casting and readied actions, using Mastery of Counterspelling and several prepared instances of dispel magic, greater dispel magic, break enchantment, dispel chaos and mage's disjunction, as well as spontaneous mass curing spells to keep the warriors healthy, while Serrakh can lay down a smattering of evocations. Magic Item Destruction Trying to get in close with powerful magically enchanted weapons? Widened mage's disjunction + mastery of shaping can put a stop to it from up to 80 feet away; a high level disjoining attempt may prove to herald an extremely disconcerting disadvantage. Martial Approach If approached, Syl is not helpless. With heavily enchanted weapon, armor and shield, robe, vestment, shirt and mantle. she still has an arcane spell failure chance of 0 % (this goes for Serrakh also). 50 AC makes her difficult to hit, and her attack bonus is quite fair, thanks to levels in Eldritch Knight and Cleric, let alone the fact that either Syl and cohort are immune to death spells and effects and energy drain, due to the death ward property of their mithral chain shirts. Combine, Buff, Destroy The fact that Syl can cast three spells per turn with very ample choice will most likely serve to be the most dangerous mealstone of the encounter. She can protect, buff and attack all in one round, whatever the situation warrants.
Kihon 07-06-07, 01:36 PM	Your epic group should have no problem. A couple high damage spells from them and all the minions except perhaps the 15th level cleric will be gone. You don't give the groups make up, so I'm doing a little guessing but any epic wizard I've played has had time stop (so 1d4 round free) in which they cast 1d4 high level damage spells (meteor swarm, delayed blast fireball, chain lightning, polar ray, horrid wilting, you get the idea) - time stop ends and all the low level minons go BOOM - leaving only 1 or 2 characters for the group to focus on. Any high level rogue should have a dimension door handy (scroll, ability, item) to pop in behind the boss mob and engage - not to mention any of the other characters. Let's just hope the cleric doesn't greater planar ally a Solar in to help clean up. The arcane archer/ranger will surely be doing cover fire and the warrior types will be running to engage. And that's all in round one. Many possibilities because I don't know your party make up. On the other side I do like your main character build. I think you could really up the minions around the area, add in a few golems, etc...
Sulacu 07-06-07, 04:32 PM	The party consists of six characters: There is a Half-Orc Barbarian 16 / Ranger 13, an Elf Wizard 29, a Human Fighter 4 / Cleric 13 / Blackguard 7 / Hierophant 5 (my character) and her Hezrou cohort, a Half-Elf Cleric 20 / Paladin of Slaughter 4 / Thaumaturgist 5 with a Glabrezu planar cohort, a Knight 20/Dwarven Defender 10 and a Troll Rogue 10/Assassin 9. He's cool. I wasn't sure about the minions yet. I figured that I shouldn't overdo it, because it's still a mortal place that we're in and we can't have the run of the mill soldiers be too strong. In that regard, perhaps, I can spike up the minimal soldier and grunt levels to 10 and the maximum to 20. I do think that Syl alone makes for a rather very difficult CR 30 encounter, so I'll be looking into other ways to elevate the encounter. The idea about golems is quite good. I also had the idea of putting in five Clerics of 21st level, each with the Epic Spellcasting feat. Those five clerics would sacrifice one of their epic spell slots each to make a ritual summoning in an isolated corner of the council hall (and the place is huge. 200 ft. across, circular. domed room, easily. Great wyrms could be spreading their wings in there). I almost also thought of putting in an Atropal (CR 30 Abomination), but two CR 30s would be a wee bit too much. One of Syl's preferred tricks is to Greater Planar Ally in a Pit Fiend for added difficulty, but that is usually done in preparation as the spell takes an agonizing 10 minutes to cast. Luckily, they'll certainly know that the party is coming at least that many minutes ahead. Not only does the party contain those six characters, but they also contain a large horde of lower level soldiers and what not. Think of the battle as an all out war. Amanrath is a metropolis that is under siege. Alltogether, it's about a million warriors locked in battle. The council chamber is the epitome of the battle, where the party and the most powerful antagonists lay down their stand. To keep it somewhat bearable, there's our party vs. Syl, Serrakh, any would be summons and cohorts, and about fifty to seventy more men on either side. (Oh, for added insight, the events are 'scripted', as it were. In case of victory, Syl and Serrakh flee the council chamber and escape the city). Oh, and PS, Solars are 22 HD, which lies out of the reach of non-epic summoning spells.
Kihon 07-06-07, 04:57 PM	The Golems are nice because of their magic immunity, not too many - maybe a couple of Iron Golems near the Boss and four stone ones around the room. Average level of the low fighters 10 -- which means the wizard still needs to boom around, but at least a few might be standing. You don't need 5 high level clerics - just two, both with Mass Heal memorized x3 each :). Every round one of them heals all the bad guys, the other does something like destruction, holy word, whatever. Make sure to have your boss drop dimensional anchor on the group so they don't teleport, dimension door, or summon help. A few symbols pre-cast on the floor hidden under a large rug that everyone knows about but the bad guys. A stone golem picks up that troll and tosses him into the middle of the carpet, and all five symbols go off. I like the idea of main boss summoning help after a round. Perhaps some type of 'forbiddance' spell could be cast by the clerics also to help out. That should help make it harder.
Grandmaster_Kane 07-06-07, 06:24 PM	Dont forget that epice traps are your friend. Also paragon advanced beholder with some golems or a dragon could be exciting If they just poped out of nowhere to aid your enemy in the middle of the fight. Of course youd have to think of a exsplanation like a extra dimensional pocket or something.
Sulacu 07-06-07, 06:50 PM	Sorry, Kane, that wasn't really what I was looking for. Plus, I'm not a big fan of Paragon and Pseudonatural templates. Things don't just 'pop out' in RPs where I DM or work with the DM to enrich his campaign. I prefer to keep it somewhat simple. Plus, I think I'll take up Kihon's suggestion about casting dimensional anchor, which is a pretty good idea. I could even have serrakh follow it up by blanketing a portion of the area with dimensional locks to avoid summons. That makes extradimensional pocket space useless though. The idea about two clerics is cool, too. 21st level, Epic spellcasters that have mutual shield other spells activated and all that. Bunch of Iron and Stone golems, perhaps even one Mithral golem. Maybe I should throw in an artificer loaded up with Repair Damage spells.
Kihon 07-06-07, 11:05 PM	That's good too, now you have the idea. Get classes that help each other out. Don't forget about the personal bodyguards of the main boss - they would probably have at least one sniper (maybe)? One higher level ranger that's stationed about 30 feet in the air on a platform with an improved invisibility spell on them - shooting specifically at that potentially nasty wizard. Whatever you decide, I think you have the idea. Good luck.
rob_douglas 07-09-07, 11:53 PM	any epic wizard I've played has had time stop (so 1d4 round free) in which they cast 1d4 high level damage spells (meteor swarm, delayed blast fireball, chain lightning, polar ray, horrid wilting, you get the idea) - time stop ends and all the low level minons go BOOM Unless you were using Delay Spell, which has its own limitations in the above scenario, you can't do any of that in 3.5E - you might be using 3.0 rules. As it is, the spells go off in the same time stream as the Time Stoppped Wizard, and cause no damage instantaneously to the targets, though they can destroy unattended objects. If you use Delay Spell, you have to guess when the Time Stop will end, unless you maximize or intensify it. Anyway, as for the party taking on this wizard and his cohorts, I don't recall their levels, but if they are around ECL 25+, they should have no problem with taking him out. His CL20, should mean all his spells are dispellable and resistable by the party casters. As for traps, yes, he should have a series of Symbols around for safe keeping. ROB