Not that it was a problem, but the Nexus fight took my players from 12:30pm until 8:30pm. And none of my players stalled or anything, from what I can recall I don't belive any of the players/monsters turns taking more than 5 minutes. I lost track of how many rounds, but at least 150 minions were killed... after about the first 30 I decided to start keeping track.
All the melee-ers got stuck facing Tusk for at least 10/15 rounds, he was a real beast. Meanwhile the two wizards did their best to stop te minions from getting too close. The warlock ended up teleporting past Tusk and decided to run for the controls, but ended up in a one-on-one versus Myrissa running around the steel pillar while everyone was fighting Tusk.
It wasn't until around the 30th round when Myrissa died, and about 40 until everyone else made their way up there (the warlock decided to blast minions and clear the way for them, rather than start the sequence). And after the water started to fill the room and everybody but the wizard were headed up the ladder (according to the description of the room, it's 100 ft up. But according to the map the highest grate is 40ft off the floor. So, my ladder was 60ft. to the hatch.) I had another "Tusk" show up and played it off as another "general/warlord/leader" leading the minions like the one they faced before. He almost killed the wizard, but the dwarf battlerager fight dropped off the ladder and faced him one on one while the wizard climbed to safety, and between him and every one else doing ranged stuff shooting down the hatch got him to 5. He started to climb the ladder after them, but the water level rose and killed him (he was "chasing" the dwarf up the ladder).
My players loved this fight to no end and compared it to the most epic fight they ever participated in (defending a shoreside town from 987 pirates coming from over the horizon in 47 ships. They were 14th level, 3.5, Eberron). And as a DM this was the most pleasurable fight i've ever ran, although after 5 hours of nothing but hundreds of minions I had to toss another "tusk" in, but it worked well and gave them a little scare that they wouldn't survive.
Also, a question. Where does the hatch open to? I can't seem to find a answer, i'm probably overlooking it.
So how was your's?
I won't go into the blow-by-blow details (you can read those on my campaign journal), but it was a rough fight, made easier once Tusk and Myrissa dropped, but it was in no way a sure thing after that. Unending waves of minions are dangerous.
The hatch leads up. Presumably, it's in another part of the Vents, one not as easily accessible from above, since Kalad would probably direct the PCs there if that were the case. Wherever the ladder leads, it leads out of the Nexus, which rapidly becomes unsafe. At that point, the mod's over, and I'm yet to hear of a party that hasn't had to take a few in minutes in real life to say, "Man, I thought we were going to die there. THAT WAS AWESOME!"
A note to someone above, there are 8 sets of stairs, each rising 10 feet. I had the last bit of surface slope upwards so that the hatch was 10 feet above the top of the platform, and it worked well. It was a close call, and my players laughed for no less than 5 minutes when our dragonborn ranger was first to climb up and through the hatch, and seeing a lever there he pulled it. I informed him that the hatch had shut and he heard a loud 'click,' and ALL of the players below thought that he had locked them in the flooding chamber. The player's face was red and we all had a long laugh at the thought of that unfolding, and then I informed them that another pull of the lever re-opened the hatch. Good stuff. Our Paladin and cleric both went down twice, and it took most of their resources to re-stabilize them. That's when the mentality turned to 'screw Tusk, I want to live!'
We made that rule BECAUSE of the Nexus fight. Man, what a brutal fight!!
We started at 10:15pm, and finished after 2:30am (this was before the house rule was created). Even at 2:30am, Myrissa and Tusk were still alive, but their situation appeared hopeless, because the water level was so high (and rising).
Without a doubt, this was the most epic and fun fight of the adventure path for us so far -- and one of my players comment, "You should try to find a way to make every boss fight like that".
The final fight in Umbraforge was tame by comparisson, in that there really wasn't one. I haven't dug deep enough into Lost Mines to see how that fight goes, but my first pass look is that the "boss fight" is weak in that adventure, too.
Oh well, the can't all be "Nexus" fights -- otherwise the Nexus fight wouldn't be as memorable as it was.
How did you guys let the party out of the room after it had filled with boiling water?
Also, for my nexus fight I decided to add more minions then they said to... rather then roll 1d6 and determine which door they came out of, I continually increased the number of d6 by every other round. After the 6th wave I rolled 1d6, the same the next round, and every other round it increased by another d6 to determine where another 3 minions would come from. I stopped at 8d6, so in the end I had 24 minions coming in per round. But they still enjoyed it, I feel as though if I hadn't made that descision it wouldn't have been so epic. Then again it wouldn't have lasted 8 hours, but it didn't matter.
Am I evil for doing this? :P
Besides, if I might quote your original post, "My players loved this fight to no end and compared it to the most epic fight they ever participated in." Sounds like you're doin' fine!
My players made the mistake of sending the dwarf cleric... alone.. to run around and try to get to the control panel. Tusk took off after him, while Myrissa and the horde took on the rest of the party.
After tons of drama, 3 PCs are dead, the other two had to withdraw. They are going to get re-inforcements. They're going to go get the FreeRiders to help them go back in, recover the bodies and seal the tunnels.
The orc horde will be in there... eating the remains of their characters. Tusk will be wearing all their magic items. It is going to be completely insane.
All in all it was very tense and the players enjoyed it. I had to use a lot of adaptation to keep the encounter from being a nearly-instant wipe from the caliber of the monsters vs. the party layout. Three tough soldiers plus three ranged damage dealers on a difficult map would be a tough fight no matter what, even without having to climb ropes and spend actions activating a control panel.
Without a doubt, this was the most epic and fun fight of the adventure path for us so far -- and one of my players comment, "You should try to find a way to make every boss fight like that".
The final fight in Umbraforge was tame by comparisson, in that there really wasn't one. I haven't dug deep enough into Lost Mines to see how that fight goes, but my first pass look is that the "boss fight" is weak in that adventure, too.
Oh well, the can't all be "Nexus" fights -- otherwise the Nexus fight wouldn't be as memorable as it was.
The boss fight in Lost Mines was actually extremely awesome. I didn't like the rest of the mod all that much, but the last encounter certainly didn't lack drama.
Tusk and Myrissa appeared smack in the middle of my group and rolled low initiative. After Wizard, Ranger and Warlock unloaded their dailys into the cramped tunnel it took only a handful of rounds to tear them apart.
The fight against Og was MUCH harder.
By the way, if each stair goes up 10' then the upper platform is at 80'. Together with the 10' ladder to the hatch it makes the ceiling 90' and not 100' as it should be, unless the hatch is 10' lower than the ceiling for some strange reason.
By the way, if each stair goes up 10' then the upper platform is at 80'.
This is one thing that has really bugged me about Bordrin's Watch: the inability of the mapmaker to understand stairs. If stairs go up 10 feet in one square, then it's a 2-to-1 rise over run. They have some stairs that are 6-to-1, going up 30 feet in one square. Standard stairs go up at a 7-to-11 ratio (7" high per 11" deep). Look at any set of stairs and you'll see they go up about half a foot each and there's about a foot of space to put your, uh, foot.
To make the math easy, if each step had a foot of space to step on, the steps on those 10' stairs in the Nexus would be two feet tall each -- not an easy climb, but easier than the Hall of Heroes steps, which are six feet tall each. Basic math skills on the part of Wizards' cartographers would be nice.
This is even more annoying in my game, which includes two players who are architects.
This is one thing that has really bugged me about Bordrin's Watch: the inability of the mapmaker to understand stairs. If stairs go up 10 feet in one square, then it's a 2-to-1 rise over run. They have some stairs that are 6-to-1, going up 30 feet in one square. Standard stairs go up at a 7-to-11 ratio (7" high per 11" deep). Look at any set of stairs and you'll see they go up about half a foot each and there's about a foot of space to put your, uh, foot.
To make the math easy, if each step had a foot of space to step on, the steps on those 10' stairs in the Nexus would be two feet tall each -- not an easy climb, but easier than the Hall of Heroes steps, which are six feet tall each. Basic math skills on the part of Wizards' cartographers would be nice.
This is even more annoying in my game, which includes two players who are architects.
Can you imagine Dwarves using those stairs ? This was obviously a mistake from the writer. The fact that this temple/Monastery was designed by dwarves tells me they would not make such an error. Those stairs should be 3' or 5' high, not 30' high. A 30' climb in a 5' square can only be possible with a ladder (and it would be a tricky climb as well) not a flight of stairs. It simply doesn't make sense for dwarves, to put the alcoves that high.
ROB
Push/Pull/Slide can work well with Tusk, but remember that he gets a save every time you try to knock him off (and he gets +2 to saves).
Haven't noticed the +2 bonus. Thanks for pointing it out. Also, the fact that Tusk is a Large creature makes him harder to push over an edge, as if only a part of him is over the edge then he doesn't fall.
I am surprised he didn't have even an encounter level push power himself.
He can always bull rush
although the fight is much harder than any other level 7 fight i've seen tbh