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arguskos
2009-04-21, 11:42 PM
*SPOILERS!* I know you guys read this forum, so don't read any further. I'm trusting ya'll here. Don't make me regret it. :smallwink:







So folks, I have this level 11 mage that'll be fighting my ECL 9 party in a few sessions, and I was thinking about a brutal necromancer wizard. Does this spell list look good?

Spells/day: 4/6/6/6/5/3/2
Spells:
0- light, guidance, detect magic, read magic
1- magic missile (3), shield, moilian (+1d6) death's call, expeditious retreat
2- web, false life, moilian (+2d6) scare, moilian (+2d6) kelgore's grave mist, glitterdust (2)
3- moilian (+2d6) mass curse of impending blades, haste, moilian (+2d6) vampiric touch, displacement, blink, (not sure here)
4- otiluke's resilient sphere, moilian (+3d6) burning blood, orb of fire, ice storm, greater mirror image
5- moilian (+3d6) waves of fatigue, split moilian (+3d6) enervation, moilian (+3d6) necrotic skull bomb
6- repeating moilian (+3d6) enervation, split repeating moilian (+2d6) ray of exhaustion

You'll note that I used Arcane Thesis on both Ray of Exhaustion and Enervation. He also has Black Lore of Moil applied to TONS of spells. The idea is to use Waves of Fatigue to fatigue the party, then slam them with split reapeating rays until everyone is exhausted, negative level'd, and mostly dead. Then, he uses a few AoE's like Ice Storm, Necrotic Skull Bomb (an INSANE spell, btw), and Grave Mist in conjunction with Web and Glitterdust to end it.

The party is a 7-man group, consisting of the following:
1. dwarf Fighter 7/Barbarian 2
2. human Wizard 9
3. human Rogue 1/Paladin 5/Shadowbane Inquisitor 3
4. human Beguiler 6/Assassin 3
5. human Psion (telepath) 9
6. human Fighter 5/Rogue 4 (NPC, plot)
7. human Cleric 5/Shadow Adept 4 (NPC, plot)

Do I need to tone the necromancer down a little? Boost him some? Note that he's not a Focused Specialist, since I don't need the extra spells really. He also has a scroll of Wall of Force he'll be using in the fight. Oh, and he has a Contingency to teleport away if hurt seriously (1/3 or less life).

Any suggestions, or does this guy look pretty challenging?

MeklorIlavator
2009-04-21, 11:49 PM
One problem: Action Advantage. I forget who it was, but there have been instances of level 6 parties taking down level 11 characters by sheer weight of actions. I'd add some necrotic minions. They don't have to be really powerful, but they should be a road block so that he isn't totally swamped.

arguskos
2009-04-21, 11:50 PM
One problem: Action Advantage. I forget who it was, but there have been instances of level 6 parties taking down level 11 characters by sheer weight of actions. I'd add some necrotic minions. They don't have to be really powerful, but they should be a road block so that he isn't totally swamped.
You know, I was thinking about that. Maybe some Large zombies with lots of HP, just to soak hits? Perhaps 3-4 bugbear zombies, they have a good amount of life.

MeklorIlavator
2009-04-21, 11:54 PM
That would probably work. Also, where is he meeting them? He doesn't seem to have too much mobility, but that might not be an issue(if indoors with a normal ceiling it won't matter). Also, make sure that they zombies are high enough that they won't be auto-turned. Perhaps leave them a 25% chance to be turned at most.

arguskos
2009-04-21, 11:59 PM
That would probably work. Also, where is he meeting them? He doesn't seem to have too much mobility, but that might not be an issue(if indoors with a normal ceiling it won't matter). Also, make sure that they zombies are high enough that they won't be auto-turned. Perhaps leave them a 25% chance to be turned at most.
Yeah, they're in a dungeon. He's the pet of a red dragon, and is guarding a prisoner the party is trying to free. If they kill him, they get the key. If not, he kills them all. :smallamused:

My current thought is that he'll use the zombies to soak damage while he does his exhaustion/neg. lvls trick, and if he gets too badly damaged, he'll pop a Greater Mirror Image and get out of there with Wall of Force and Expeditious Retreat.

Draken
2009-04-22, 12:05 AM
Personally, I would suggest skeletons over zombies. Making tougher zombies is easier than making tougher skeletons, but if you have acess to some bigger bones (and as the DM, you have), you can make bigger skelies, which are just better than zombies at the duty of harassing the party.

But with seven people... This could be the just plain mean DM in me speaking but I would recomend an intelligent undead cohort, possibly with Lifebond to make him more resilient, bruiser type, of course. On Doubt, maybe even an undead controller himself. If you follow this advice, I recommend Frostburn's Winterspawn. He gets magical armor, sword and javellin your players can't take for their own, he gets rebuke undead, fire (cold) shield, a small gaze attack. All of this for 12 HD and a CR of 9.

arguskos
2009-04-22, 12:10 AM
Personally, I would suggest skeletons over zombies. Making tougher zombies is easier than making tougher skeletons, but if you have acess to some bigger bones (and as the DM, you have), you can make bigger skelies, which are just better than zombies at the duty of harassing the party.

But with seven people... This could be the just plain mean DM in me speaking but I would recomend an intelligent undead cohort, possibly with Lifebond to make him more resilient, bruiser type, of course. On Doubt, maybe even an undead controller himself. If you follow this advice, I recommend Frostburn's Winterspawn. He gets magical armor, sword and javellin your players can't take for their own, he gets rebuke undead, fire (cold) shield, a small gaze attack. All of this for 12 HD and a CR of 9.
The Winterspawn you say? Hmm... this seems quite promising... *goes and looks at it*

Me likey!! Me likey quite a bit in fact! Only issue is that it's cold-based (impossible for environmental and social reasons, like the fact that the mage's boss is a RED DRAGON :smallbiggrin:). I can just flip everything to fire though, and it'd work quite nicely. I think I may do that, esp because he can use a nearby hallway to block access to the mage (due to how they're encountering this wizard). This... could be excellent! Thank you so very much Draken!

monty
2009-04-22, 12:16 AM
Oh, and make sure that all your undead were created by a Dread Necromancer with the Corpsecrafter feat in a desecrate, for all those fun bonuses.

Keld Denar
2009-04-22, 01:38 AM
I'd suggest ogre zombies over bugbears. Large creatures block more squares than medium ones.

Another choice if you want something big and beaty, hydras are the ultimate zombies. Zombies biggest weakness is the single standard action thing, but hydras can attack with all of their heads as a single standard action. A zombie 5-6 headed regular hydra would be a decent choice. It'll provide an actual physical barrier, and a psychological barrier, since while it won't be able to reach the party on its own if they are mobile, they also won't be able to approach the necromancer for fear of taking 5 bites to the face! That would be more imposing than an undead dragon.

Biffoniacus_Furiou
2009-04-22, 05:50 AM
+1 on the Hydra Zombie, that's just mean.

Add Freezing Fog and Nerveskitter to his spells. Give him the feat Destruction Retribution and a lot of not-too-powerful zombies hiding (typically buried in the sand/snow/etc.) around where the PCs will be entering the battle. The smaller the better because you can fit more in, try to pick something with 2 or 3 HD so the zombies will have 4 or 6 HD. The PCs will probably mow through them the round after they emerge, and sustain a fair amount of damage in the process with no actions required from the villain. If the PCs have used Flaws just give him Corpsecrafter and Destruction Retribution for free, assume he has two flaws that have no effect on the encounter the same way most PCs pick them.

Nycters from MM3 would be a superb choice, there could have been a community of them living in the cave that the dragon exterminated so he could move in, and dozens of their zombified remains can be hanging from the ceiling when the PCs enter. They can fly down and swarm the PCs with bites and terrifying eyeless-halfling-bat-faces, and when the PCs destroy them they explode for 4d6 negative energy damage each.

At level 11 the Necromancer can make up to 44 HD of undead via Animate Dead (48 with a Ring of Arcane Might). He would have probably released his highest HD minion and used Command Undead to regain control over it, which would probably be the 10 HD (5 headed) or 12 HD (6 headed) Hydra Zombie. He can have 7-8 Nycter Zombies from Animate Dead alone (6 HD each), most of the PCs should make the DC 15 Reflex save for half damage vs Destruction Retribution, so it should either deal a fair but not overwhelming amount of damage or at the very least provide some annoying little critters to get in their way.

For his spells, be sure to include Freezing Fog and Nerveskitter. I'd also say he cast Contingency just prior to resting so it takes off yesterday's spells/day, set to trigger something like Displacement or Blacklight on himself at the start of the fight. Split Ray of Dizziness is another excellent choice if he didn't drop Enchantment. Stinking Cloud and/or Pyrotechnics (smoke cloud) are also good spells to throw in the mix, considering the undead minions will be immune to the debuffs. You want him to win initiative, he can even cast Heroics prior to combat to get Improved Initiative and just include Nerveskitter in his initiative bonus. He can throw out an AoE like Freezing Fog right at the start, the Nycter Zombies will swoop down on their initiative, and the Hydra can sit just outside the edge of the fog ready to mangle anyone who runs out. They'll take constant damage for staying in the fog, plus the bats will be blowing up on them, and he can focus fire them if they run out a few at a time. I'd give him a Lesser Rod of Quicken for a debuff before the fog, like the moilian mass curse of impending blades. He shouldn't spend any actions buffing himself unless the PCs try to hide out in the fog, and even then he can throw in a necrotic skull bomb to get them worried enough to go fight him.