Boccob as a BBEG? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Boccob as a BBEG? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Ringmereth
12-05-04, 10:31 PM So, my inordinately large gaming group has been asking me (normally a player) to DM a game for quite some time, and I've finally given in. One of our in-jokes involved a campaign on the moon, and such is our setting. Sorta. Kinda. It's not really relevant. The game is basically an epic level campaign with a focus on planar travel within a really big sphere-prison-moon in a gigantic demiplane. After the players gain a couple levels and reach said sphere, they do some exploration, find various creatures that obviously were contained there for the good of the multiverse, and eventually find a very, very powerful wizard. Herein lies the problem.

This wizard was the creator of the spherical prison the players are exploring, and he is trapped in. It was comissioned by Boccob himself as a place to store those who abused magic (which gives me an excuse to populate the place with min/maxed hostile magic users). Unfortunately for him, he was imprisoned within as well, and since the only way out of the demiplane and it's attached demiplanes is to have come in through the single portal, he's stuck. He wants to defeat Boccob, who he views as a diety who cares about magic only for magic's own sake, and ascend to godhood as a better caretaker of magic.

And that's my problem: how can I have a bunch (6-8) of 30th level PCs (or somewhere around that) take on and defeat a powerful deity, even with the assistance of a 50th level wizard? I don't want a slaughter, I don't want them to be specators in a ginormous spell battle between Boccob and the mage, and I want to stay more or less within the rules. Which is another problem-I don't have Deities and Demigods, so I don't really know much about how strong Boccob is and what it would take to defeat him.

Does anyone have any suggestions for rescuing my plot, or failing that, altering it so as to be possible?
Aeromus
12-05-04, 10:54 PM If they are 30th level... then by all means slaughter them. Epic level games "should not" always end in PC winning. Else they wouldn't be epic.
Ringmereth
12-05-04, 11:28 PM Well, that's the level I'm expecting them to be at that point, perhaps higher. And I'd like to give them a fighting chance of winning in some fashion. It'd be a rather lame ending, I think, if they just suicidally attacked Boccob and all died in a round. I'm looking for some sort of plot device that would permit them to win, or at least not die pointlessly.
TRCEttin
12-05-04, 11:40 PM Boccob's level 40. 6-8 30th-levels and a level 50 wizard might be able to take him, if they're prepared.
Maniacal_Cackle
12-06-04, 12:06 AM Perhaps the level 50 has discovered how to bring a deity to a mortal level for a short time? So the wizard could perform a ritual to weaken Boccob to mortal level. This leaves the focus on the PC's, seems fairly plausible (I believe somewhere there is an artifact to kill a deity by itself, so yeah....) and still has the wizard doing something crucial.
Vintar
12-06-04, 12:31 AM But the spell requires all of the mage's power to maintain (can't even maintain outside buffs) - so the fighting is up to the PCs.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Ringmereth 12-05-04, 10:31 PM	So, my inordinately large gaming group has been asking me (normally a player) to DM a game for quite some time, and I've finally given in. One of our in-jokes involved a campaign on the moon, and such is our setting. Sorta. Kinda. It's not really relevant. The game is basically an epic level campaign with a focus on planar travel within a really big sphere-prison-moon in a gigantic demiplane. After the players gain a couple levels and reach said sphere, they do some exploration, find various creatures that obviously were contained there for the good of the multiverse, and eventually find a very, very powerful wizard. Herein lies the problem. This wizard was the creator of the spherical prison the players are exploring, and he is trapped in. It was comissioned by Boccob himself as a place to store those who abused magic (which gives me an excuse to populate the place with min/maxed hostile magic users). Unfortunately for him, he was imprisoned within as well, and since the only way out of the demiplane and it's attached demiplanes is to have come in through the single portal, he's stuck. He wants to defeat Boccob, who he views as a diety who cares about magic only for magic's own sake, and ascend to godhood as a better caretaker of magic. And that's my problem: how can I have a bunch (6-8) of 30th level PCs (or somewhere around that) take on and defeat a powerful deity, even with the assistance of a 50th level wizard? I don't want a slaughter, I don't want them to be specators in a ginormous spell battle between Boccob and the mage, and I want to stay more or less within the rules. Which is another problem-I don't have Deities and Demigods, so I don't really know much about how strong Boccob is and what it would take to defeat him. Does anyone have any suggestions for rescuing my plot, or failing that, altering it so as to be possible?
Aeromus 12-05-04, 10:54 PM	If they are 30th level... then by all means slaughter them. Epic level games "should not" always end in PC winning. Else they wouldn't be epic.
Ringmereth 12-05-04, 11:28 PM	Well, that's the level I'm expecting them to be at that point, perhaps higher. And I'd like to give them a fighting chance of winning in some fashion. It'd be a rather lame ending, I think, if they just suicidally attacked Boccob and all died in a round. I'm looking for some sort of plot device that would permit them to win, or at least not die pointlessly.
TRCEttin 12-05-04, 11:40 PM	Boccob's level 40. 6-8 30th-levels and a level 50 wizard might be able to take him, if they're prepared.
Maniacal_Cackle 12-06-04, 12:06 AM	Perhaps the level 50 has discovered how to bring a deity to a mortal level for a short time? So the wizard could perform a ritual to weaken Boccob to mortal level. This leaves the focus on the PC's, seems fairly plausible (I believe somewhere there is an artifact to kill a deity by itself, so yeah....) and still has the wizard doing something crucial.
Vintar 12-06-04, 12:31 AM	But the spell requires all of the mage's power to maintain (can't even maintain outside buffs) - so the fighting is up to the PCs.