Post/Author/DateTime	Post
MortalPlague 02-06-06, 06:48 AM	I'm coming up on the final session of a campaign, and I'm looking to make it a good one. The players have an army and are going to lay siege to the city to fight the High Priest and restore one of the characters to his rightful throne. It's going to be a pretty good battle, but once the characters reach the throne room, I hope to have the toughest fight in store for them. I have a party of six characters, with one or two being particularly potent while the others are at least reasonably tough. A single enemy goes down quickly, and even the group of four I had earlier in the campaign only stood up for a few rounds. It was a good fight, but for this battle, I'd like it to last. How can I give my High Priest some serious staying power? I haven't fully statted him out, but I'm considering going Cleric 3/ Wizard 3/Mystic Theurge 9 (characters are all L13). I was going to give him a couple of tough bodyguards (fighters, likely L11 or 12), and then a mass of reasonably tough undead. He could heal his undead with mass inflict wounds while damaging the party at the same time. Are there any tricks I should use to keep him in the fight a little longer?
nosoupforyou 02-06-06, 07:05 AM	Wand of Heal. Make him a Lich. Damage Reduction and fast healing go a long way. Stoneskin. Unfortunately he can't cast Tenser's Transformation unless you make him a bit higher level. I find that most arcane BBEG's do well to let loose a Heal and then a Tensers to try and turn the fight around. Just my tips, maybe combine them with some others for better effect. - SOup
MortalPlague 02-06-06, 07:14 AM	Lich is out of the question, since he's a very public figure and would be immediately noticed and denounced if he became undead himself. Stoneskin works well. Two characters have adamantine swords, but it'll work against the others certainly. :) Wand of heal is another good suggestion, I'll make sure to use that.
Ander00 02-06-06, 07:43 AM	By RAW, there is no such thing as a Wand of Heal, as wands can only take spells of 4th level or lower. A Staff could work, but it'd be rather expensive (for example: the average 15th level NPC could afford a Staff of Life with about a third of the charges left, and not much else). Perhaps looking into the spell Shield Other and the power Share Pain will give you some ideas on how to make his bodyguards do their jobs better ;). cheers
Oof GruumshNoLike 02-06-06, 07:49 AM	Try "kamikaze" enemies. Maybe they carry some type of explosive device or drink a potion that causes them to explode when they hit 0 HP. I think I saw a spell in some book that causes undead to explode on command, I don't remember what book though. Be careful with devices though. If your PC's get one from an enemy then the PC's are even more powerful. My PC's got ahold of just a couple ounces of gunpowder from a captured enemy stronghold and caused me some major headaches (yeah, I know, my fault).
Fenris78 02-06-06, 07:52 AM	Improved Toughness if you've got a feat spare, will give you an extra 15HP which might help in a pinch. Any type of contingency spell that allows him to get healed automatically when he gets wounded could help (there are a few, I forget what they are called though). Greater Vigour isn't a bad spell either, 4hp back a round for 25 rounds, nice to cast before he gets into combat. A Cloak of Displacement could really help as well, even the minor one means 1 in 5 attacks miss automatically and the effect is always on. If he's got fighter allies then buffs like Mass Bulls Strength, Prayer, Circle of Vigour, Mass Cure Moderate Wounds etc etc could make a huge difference. Repulsion is a great 6th level mage spell that should keep him nice and safe from the melee fighters in the group.
nosoupforyou 02-06-06, 08:01 AM	Hey, he's the damn DM...if he wants there to be a wand of Heal, then by god there's a wand of heal. Anything goes mate. Why would Lich be out of the question? There are some very powerful illusory spells. And if he's a charismatic/devious leader, anybody close enough to realize he's a Lich is also close enough for him to have killed with no questions. - SOup
Ander00 02-06-06, 08:15 AM	Of course, though personally I prefer the PCs and NPCs to play by the same set of rules. Also, the wand would be a very potent and expensive magic item and of course end up in the PCs' hands after the combat. Why not just take a few scrolls instead? Do your PCs usually have things like Glitterdust, Invisibility Purge or See Invisibility prepared? If not, perhaps an allied invisible cleric or favored soul could serve much the same purpose, but freeing up the BBEG's actions that would otherwise have been taken by using his wand/staff/scroll. If he is planning to use Mass Inflicts a lot, you could consider giving him the feat Tomb-Tainted Soul from Libris Mortis, so he could also heal himself in the process. cheers
Bane 02-06-06, 08:31 AM	I'm going to suggest a Dual Wand Wielder. You've made a character who can use pretty much any wand he chooses, let him use more than one at once. I suggest using wands with Bestow Curse. The DC's will be low, but the high number of saves forced should push one through fairly soon. Of course, that one will either lower their wisdom by 6, or lower their saves by 4. Now future curses will affect that character more readily. Use some other wands like Ray of Enfeeblement and Ray of Exhaustion, and they'll be in the fight for their lives fairly quickly. In any case, if they win, most of the equipment they'll get is disposable, and missing a fair number of charges. This helps you keep the cash where it should be.
nosoupforyou 02-06-06, 08:40 AM	I would steer away from the "wandslinger" idea. Just me. Unless your campaign is fairly high tech or very high magic, it's just not worth it to compromise the feel. One thought is this however. Have a couple backup casters. Have them cast helpful spells, like Tasha's Hideous Laughter and Darkbolt. If the PCs all focus on the cannon fodder first, they'll come across a stumbling block real quickly when the realize that they're being torn to shreds by the 2 6th lv. sorcerer assistants. Also, changing their focus will take at least one round to effectively go through but once it's on the two casters, they'll go down fast. - SOup
Morka 02-06-06, 09:30 AM	If the fight occurs on the BBEG ground, use it to your advantage. The whole area should be filled with a Unhallow spell to boosten the undeads. The warrior bodyguards should be fanatical: they should have a big onyx gem incrusted in the mouth, and a contingency Create Undead spell cast on them, so when they die, they automatically raise as ghasts. The BBEG should also have a few cleric lacquays with the task of boolstering the undeads. Also, add a few Inflict Wounds traps. There also should be an evil outsider fighting with him. He should be able to cast Planar Ally and get a 12 HD outsider: Glabrezu, Hezrou, Vrock if the BBEG is CE, or Barbed Devil, Bone Devil, Chain Devil, Erinyes, Hellcat is the BBEG is LE.
Fenris78 02-06-06, 09:39 AM	If the fight occurs on the BBEG ground, use it to your advantage. The whole area should be filled with a Unhallow spell to boosten the undeads. The warrior bodyguards should be fanatical: they should have a big onyx gem incrusted in the mouth, and a contingency Create Undead spell cast on them, so when they die, they automatically raise as ghasts. I like this idea! *yoink* :evillaugh
gleep 02-06-06, 11:32 AM	We have a BBEG who knows he is about to be attacked (that army outside is a big tipoff). He would stack things so far in his favor that, like Morka indicated, the PCs should have a difficult time even getting close. And it's that "getting close" that should help provide most of the drama. If the PCs have used up most of their resources just getting to the throne room, that climatic final battle will be that much sweeter. Toss lots of minions at the PCs, get them to use up their area effect spells and quick healing options. Have some serious bodyguards outside the throne room that the party has to deal with first (and if they don't, have those guards attacking the party from the rear later). And I'd drop the mystic theurge idea, instead make two BBEGs! One a wizard, one a cleric, twins that have been working together. Both displaced and invisible, with a THIRD person actually on the throne altered to look like the BBEG. And note that a cleric with the reach spell feat and bestow curse is extremely nasty. :D --gleep
MortalPlague 02-06-06, 08:03 PM	These are some top notch ideas, for the most part. I really like the one about contingency raising the two bodyguards as undead, and wandslinging might be a good one. Since this is marked as the last session ever in this campaign, the gear they get a hold of is not a problem. I don't want to load up the BBEG with gear, but I don't mind giving him a few potent items either. For the record, one of my characters has Arcane Sight and See Invisibility permanently upon his eyes, so the hidden cleric wouldn't work so well. Also in reference to the last one, the idea of two is a good one. I've already established that a mysterious wizard has replaced one of the PCs (who used to the the representative of the Archmage's council). This wizard could serve to bolster the defenses.
Talanall 02-06-06, 09:08 PM	There are several things you could do to make this BBEG more dangerous. First of all, I suggest using planar binding and planar ally spells copiously. Planar binding is especially attractive because it's essentially cost-free. Your BBEG, as a wiz/clr/mystic theurge, is likely to be able to use the spell to good effect. Elementals are one of the easier things to call using a binding spell, but you could also add some demons or devils to the mix (as appropriate to the BBEG's alignment). There is another way you could take this BBEG, though. If you wanted to go straight cleric, you could actually use undead creatures to make this a really dangerous encounter. It involves the judicious use of a rules exploit. You'd need this character to command a spawn-producing undead that gains control of its spawn (the classic for brokenness is a wraith, but shadows also work, and a vampire is probably the least broken and most flavorful if you're looking for ways to give this BBEG some henchmen). The BBEG commands this single spawn-making undead, which then exerts indirect control over an entire horde of undead critters. A vampire is unusually scalable, since it can have either vampire spawn or vampires of its own. Wraiths are probably more powerful. Which ones you choose is really up to you, but a few commanded spawning undead and their spawn could really spice up an encounter with a cleric like this one. The other advantage is that this is a really inexpensive thing to do, so there's no great reason why an evil cleric wouldn't do it.
Kadasbrass 02-06-06, 09:31 PM	A lich doesn't have to be known as a lich, Hat of Disguise does wonders for hiding unsightly rotting flesh, and perfumes too. But there is a feat from Libris Mortis that lets you be healed by negative energy. With the feat you could use those mass inflict spells to heal the BBEG, Undead minons, and harm the party all in one nice package.
CatReactor 02-06-06, 10:20 PM	If you actually are serious about using udead, you should definitely get yourself a copy of Libris Mortis. There are a whole slew of feats in there that pump up undead created by the person with those feats, as well as a nifty Theurge-like class that focuses on necromantic abilities while simultaniously granting dual progression on arcane/divine arts as well. Someone mentioned this earlier, but one of the corpsecrafter feats (the ones that beef up the undead you create) makes it so any undead that you make that falls in battle releases a burst of negative energy (1d6 per HD, I beleive), which can be conciderable if you send a press of zombies as fodder for the PCs while the BBEG pumps himself up behind them. Also, spells like Glitterdust are not PC only - in fact, any sort of blindness can be crippling for the PCs, mainly because it makes EVERYONE invisible, not just one person, and can't be overcome by spells like See Invisible or Invisibility Purge. Finally, fixing spells like Deeper Darkness to PCs and then tossing AoEs in at them is great fun - often, it gives you one or two rounds of glee while you pound them with fireballs before a cleric can get a Daylight spell off to counter it. Better yet, summon yourself some demons who can see through magical darkness ahead of time, and have them get up and close with the cleric (or other spellcasters) so they can take AoO's against it as he tries to cast. Because the DC of low-level spells like Glitterdust is fairly weak, you might want to concider tossing in a Highten Spell to make it a little tougher. Oh, and one other trick I've learned about blind things: If you've got a fighter with reach weapons (and, hopefully, a good STR and Improved Trip), a blind person can't move without provoking. Add that with your ability to make trip attacks with your AoO's, and you've got a way to keep someone in a single location for as long as they remain blind. Blindness, in any form, is a frightening thing in the right hands.
Shadowmancer 02-06-06, 10:43 PM	The most annoying bbeg i've come up with was similar. He was in a room filled with wall of fire and fireball traps. Throw in a few iron golems (or ironwyrm from Draconomicon), summoned fire elementals, and a few summoned devils, all of which are immune to fire.
Thantrax 02-06-06, 10:54 PM	I've been using a fairly high level cleric recently myself, so I feel the need to contribute some more Divine WRATH! You want a guy with staying power? Complete Divine or the Spell Compendium is your answer. 1) Stalwart Pact : In a nutshell, it's a spell that lasts until triggered. When the cleric is reduced to half HP, it gives him 5 temporary HP per caster level. at his level, that's 60 HP. That might even bring him above his normal maximum. As well, saving throw bonuses and some damage resistance make those HP more difficult to remove the next time. 2) Renewal Pact : 7th level and thus a level beyond his casting, but perhaps a fellow priest has made him a scroll for a rainy day? Again, a spell that lasts until triggered. It's triggered the first time the target is ability drained, nausiated, blinded, ect... When it happens, the next round the target is hit with a Heal spell. Pretty much anything that Heal will fix, it will kick in and save the guy. 3) Anti-Life Shell : 6th level, just within his abilities. Keeps anyone alive outside of the sphere, a good 10 feet! Nobody will be able to melee him with that up. Combine that with a Resist Energy for the party's favourite energy dealing spell and you've got a tough nut to crack. 4) Spell Resistance : 5th level, nothing slows down offensive spellcasters like spell resistance. It's been the bane of our wizards in the current campagin! 5) Extra HP : Aid will give temporary HP. Divine Might gives temporary HP. A Bear's Strength spell also can give an added boost of HP. All of these spells need to be cast shortly before the fight begins though, thanks to limited durations. 6) Shield of Faith, Divine Favour, Righteous Might. Throw up these spells and even your Mystic Theurge should be a respectable frontliner. Could be good for the final push when the PCs break through his bodyguards. Until then, probably rely on his own arcane magic. 7) If you have Complete Arcane, the Practiced Spellcaster would be a great feat to give this guy, possibly for both Cleric and Wizard. Those three levels of effectiveness can make a lot of difference.
Rood_Inverse 02-06-06, 11:20 PM	I don't know if it would work... I once heard a trick about inscribing/paining large explosive runes on the backs of your undead minions. When they're far enough away, read the runes (they should be large enough to read from a distance) and watch them detonate around the PCs. There was also a trick, I totally forget how, that would cause all the zombies to detonate in some sick chain reaction, without requiring runes being inscribed on every last one. Hrm...
tiercel 02-06-06, 11:59 PM	Buff spells. Serious buff spells. They make a huge difference in high level combat, and more so for a Theurge, who has a hojillion spells per day and very little likelihood of actually burning through them all in the Climactic Combat. Key: freedom of movement -- getting grappled / stuck / tied down is a real bore. Don't let it happen to you! spell resistance -- silly annoying PCs with all their magical attacks. Let them roll off you like water off a duck's back mirror image -- a disturbingly effective spell, because it's pretty hard to do much of anything to you (except area effect spells) when you can't be targetted! spell turning -- nothing is sweeter than making a would-be hero eat his own destruction, etc..... You might need a scroll for this, but what rainy day were you saving it for? ring of counterspelling -- I mean, come on, you are a spellcasting BBEG, and Mr. Arcane Sight PC is going to see you lit up like Times Square on New Year's Eve. One of those little punks is going to try and get rid of all your buff spells. (Plus, your caster level isn't all that great compared to theirs unless you've been loading up with Practiced Spellcaster feats, which is often not a bad idea for a theurge.) Obviously, spell turning helps here too. unhallow -- oh heck yes ... you want that protection from good benefit ... hedging out all those annoying PC summons, safe from mental influence (though note that part could cut both ways), and undead bolstering... plus you can stack a bonus spell effect there. Lots and lots of good choices there... from simple ally buffing (bless, aid) to special protections (resist energy, invisibility purge) to nasty effects against intruders (dispel magic any non-follower who walks in, or dimensional anchor them as they walk in so they won't be teleporting away). desecrate -- check this one out... not only are your undead seriously buffed, especially if your unholy shrine is there, but any undead created within the area of a desecrate have more hit points than normal. Now explain to me why you would ever NOT create undead inside a desecrated area.... resist energy -- caster level 12+? Energy resistance 30 will seriously ruin their day if they are planning to use fireballs and lightning bolts to do anything to you. Oh yeah.... and you have plenty of 2nd level slots, dontcha? project image -- now we are just getting mean. They don't even have any idea that they aren't really even fighting you, at first. Even when they see through your illusion, you can still use it as a weapons platform while you hide someplace secure. Sure, you have to have line of sight to your image, but that doesn't mean you can't be hiding behind an illusionary wall or ceiling panel while your image lays waste to these mewling invaders who are not worth your physical presence! glyphs of warding (and the greater versions, obviously) -- or, more to the point, any traps (other trap spells, or just traps mundane or magical you have loaded up on) ... you're getting free actions every round they step on something that could damage, incapacitate, or seriously inconvenience them. Note: undead aren't just for fighting. You can have hidden undead whose primary purpose is to lie in wait and spring traps, giving them a trigger potentially far away from the effect...... nystul's magic aura -- what? you might be confused here for a moment.... but if you're planning on using magical traps or illusions at all, you don't want Mr. Clever Boy to walk in with arcane sight and see your defenses all glowing. Use the aura, and hide all your nasty little surprises -- they'll swear there wasn't magic there! (Alternatively, paste an aura on everything, so that those pesky invaders won't be able to tell what is what since the whole place is lit up like Vegas.) Of course... you could go way over the top.... and have The Cult of the BBEG Experience. This really depends on your BBEG being pretty seriously egomaniacal, or have a devilish interest in really, really messing with your PCs' heads: Face the PCs in a hall of mirrors. While under the effects of mirror image and displacement, hiding behind one of a number of illusionary mirrors while actually using your projected image to confront them. Have of the hall lined with statues. Of you. Some of them are actual minions, glamered to look like statues of you, or hiding within/behind illusions of statues of you... some of them are minions under the effect of the statue spell... some of them are golems, carved in your likeness. Of course, some of them are probably just nice statues, but you can light them up with nystul's magic aura and then booby-trap them to do something nasty to anyone who pre-emptively attacks one. Have a few illusions running (say, programmed or permanent variety). Naturally, they are also of you. Use the veil spell to make your minions (undead or otherwise) also appear to be you. Polymorph if you like, or get your spellcasting minions to use alter self so that some of them are disguised in non-illusionary ways to look like you. Have a simulacrum or two of you running around. Keep some combination of nystul's magic aura, nondetection, and mind blank going to prevent people from telling who is really you.... And, of course, have a clone of you ready to boot up in case the little punks get lucky. (May work best if your BBEG looks like Hugo Weaving or John Malkovich, heh.)
MortalPlague 02-07-06, 07:13 AM	(May work best if your BBEG looks like Hugo Weaving or John Malkovich, heh.) "Malkovich? Malkovich Malkovich. Malkovich!" :D Tiercel, those are some vile and sinister ideas you've presented. I'm definately going to use projection (originally I was going to use a major image, but projected ones are better). And some of those spell ideas are wonderfully dastardly. I have a list of spells I"m going to use for certain. Blasphemy is one of the higher ones; since this guy will certainly have 'practiced spellcaster', he'll have a couple levels on the PCs. Weakening the strength of everyone in the room can only work well. Blade Barrier will be another good one to prevent them from closing. Deals 1d6 per level (reflex for half) to anyone approaching the caster. Ouch. The explosive undead will be useful here, as suggested earlier in the thread. I'm thinking advanced zombies or skeletons, probably CR 5 or so. Some wraiths to make things more dangerous. And for the bodyguards, I'm going to go with a pair of iron golems. Fireball can do wonders for healing them. :) Thantrax; I really like that Stalwart Pact spell, and I'll definately use that. Likewise for spell resistance. Thanks for all the great replies!
Fenris78 02-07-06, 07:33 AM	*snip*everything he said*snip* Spot on, especially the Stalwart Pact spell - and the Practiced Spellcaster feat is very nice, not looked at that before. That Anti-Life Shell spell is good as well, maybe better in some ways than Repulsion which is a level higher for a cleric (same level I believe for the mage though).
Bane 02-07-06, 09:18 AM	Zombies with Contingent Enlarged Fireballs. As soon as one zombie dies, they'll all go up like fireworks. This is bad for everyone who had them engaged in melee. If it looks like the PC's are just going to ignore them and push their way through to you, there's no reason that you can't toss out an Undeath to Death to get things started.
tompulsar 02-07-06, 12:01 PM	There is also my favorite lame trick. The Invisible Support Lacky(TM) Need a heal for you BBEG? Have the invisible little cohort use a scroll. Need someone to teleport them away? Same guy. Your players will hate you.
kinjojones 02-07-06, 03:14 PM	May not be appropriate for your BBEG but Trolls with resistance to energy or protection from elements (Fire and Acid obviously) on them.
MasterRookie 02-07-06, 04:18 PM	Lich is out of the question, since he's a very public figure and would be immediately noticed and denounced if he became undead himself. Not true I've had a lich hide using a disguise self item. As long as he has it he retains the apearance of a normal human being.
bartleby42 02-07-06, 04:31 PM	Why not have the fight up to the BBEG, then the BBEG runs to a back room after pulling the drape off of a mirror of opposition? It's been done before but it is my favorite way to make min/maxed chars cringe. If you want things to go badly for the PCs this is a good one. This way not only will they be fighting BBEG but themselves (or at least 4 of them). Have the BBEG work more as a support role to the anti-party fighting the party. Always a fun trap.
Tolby 02-07-06, 09:54 PM	Another good defensive spell is mirror image. Can really slow the front line fighters down. At his level he could also have a quickened one prepared. Bulls strength is a good spell to make things last a few extra rounds. Illusion spells can also divert characters away from the real fighting. Shield another was mentioned. Shield another with regen on both the participants is even better. In my games I let shield another stack so if you have two shields on yourself everyone takes 1/3.4 people every one takes 1/4