Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Orihalconis 10-29-07, 08:32 PM	I'm prepping my players to enter the first of at least 5 major boss-level fights: a Lich cleric of Vecna with a small army of undead at his command. PT setup: Dwarf Bard 9, Dalamir with Monk, Henge Yokai (Oriental Adventures) Aer, cohort(formerly a PC) (cohort has Vow of Poverty and due to a discussion with the player, the monk is also level 7, we agreed he wouldn't level for the next level or so so it works for the leadership feat) Half-elf Barbarian 9, Esseanna Gnome Wizard 9, Boddynock Gnome Rogue 9, Ryogard Dwarf Paladin 9, Shidate Human Cleric 8(NPC), Silas (my players never get his name right, he's been referred to I think here as Cyric by my player-advisor) The setup: Ever since being tricked into liberating the lich's phylactery from a place where it could not regenerate the lich's body, the PCs have been basically at war with the lich and his forces, crossing a city-sized ship to a series of cities (whereupon the campaign quickly became a High Magic setting) to gather the keys that unlock the path to his citadel. They got all the keys and are now en route, so the big question is: what do I throw at them before the big guy himself? I have a few ideas rolling about right now, both my own and from an advisor of mine that is also a PC. 1. There will be several NPC clerics to fight the hordes of zombies and whatnot that populate the dead cities on the outskirts of the island. This saves the players time (I have received complaints about throwing zombies one after another at the group when they were level sixish, so I don't throw things at them that'd be "pointless"), while the PCs encounter several more powerful undead (I was thinking 2 pairs of CR 9-10s). 2. At my PC's advice, there will be a decoy trap for the PCs in which a skeleton dressed as a lich, in combination with the lich's magic, will probably convince the PCs that he IS the lich. Upon his destruction, one or several Greater Shadows will descend on the players. Question 1: How many Shadows? I kind of want the PCs to survive this session, but don't want a pushover fight either. My advisor says 3, I was thinking 1 or 2 at the most. The shadows will attack as soon as the skeleton bites it. 3. Applying some house ruling, I'm making the castle a hall of mirrors inside, mirrors arranged so that the lich's vision can see them from his throne room, thus letting him fire off things like Flame Strike without having to put himself in immediate danger. His other 2 spells are True Sight (the Rogue has Dust of Dissapearance and he knows it) and Spell Resistance (a 9th-level wizard, a cleric and a paladin who wears a Major Circlet of Blasting, yes he wants magic defense, he knows about the Circlet because he saw, via scrying, that the paladin has one and used it on one of his generals), both of which he'll probably have up by the time the players reach him. I was also thinking of equipping him with one or two Spiralburst Bottles to use as grenades or as traps within the treasure (see: Book of Vile Darkness) As to the room setup: The PCs will have to go through a wall of Damning Darkness (Book of Vile Darkness) to get to the lich himself. I'm not sure yet if he'll fire off his use of Flame Strike or not before this. He'll have Harm ready (be it to nuke a PC or to emergency heal himself to full HP) as his one 6th level spell. So aside from Question 1: Any advice?
Empirate 10-30-07, 08:56 AM	Several smaller pieces of advice. 1. The Lich should not fight alone. Bosses should never, ever be encountered alone, it gives the party a chance to gang up. They'll simply out-action him. A Lich needs a wall of lesser undead in front of him (Wights? Shadows? Mummies?). He's a cleric? Let him use Desecrate and bolster the undead, so they can't be turned easily. 2. Have the Lich prepare area attacks that deal negative energy damage. Mass Inflict Wounds is good to damage PCs and heal undead. Necrotic Skull Bomb is the area variant of Enervation. And so on. Since his minions are immune or even helped by these spells, try to get the PCs in a huge clustered-up melee. 3. For when the minions are gone and the Lich is out of powerful spells, he needs to have a Divine Power left (better yet: already running). That way he can melee it out reasonably. His AC should be sky-high (NA, good armor, Magic Vestment, large shield, another Magic Vestment, Shield of Faith), so he can probably stand melee for a bit. 4. Harm is all-important to get him into fighting shape again once he has taken a punishment. Don't wait too long with this. For good measure, have him prepare a second. It's also a good attack option... far better than Flame Strike! 5. Maybe pair the Lich with a called creature (via Planar Ally) instead of giving him a lot of fodder? I like Nightmares. These make good mounts for evil humanoid NPCs, have good durability, a good special attack, and if all else fails, they can go Ethereal or even Astral, presumably taking their rider with them (although this isn't stated anywhere, I'd let it happen). Do you want your Lich beaten and destroyed? If so, skip the Nightmare, take a Demon or Devil instead. Pairs of powerful creatures work much better than one boss and a bunch of minions. Not regarding the boss fight: 6. Greater Shadows are a pain. Two of them should suffice. Play them intelligently, though, use hit-and-run, never go for the straight-up fight. 7. The hall of mirrors idea is nice, but apart from the rules problems (mirrors don't provide line of effect), Flame Strike doesn't deal much damage. This is easily healed before the final fight, so the Lich will have wasted one of his attack options, while the PCs will only use up some wand charges or other low-level healing. 8. For monster options, how about two or even three Eyes of Fear and Flame? Each paired with a Hulking Corpse (or whatever its name was, from Libris Mortis) as a bodyguard. Should make for a challenging fight-before-the-bossfight.