lordhack
2009-06-01, 06:33 PM
Hey all, have a quick question on how difficult it is for a party to fight higher level elites. The party is level 3, a Fighter, Druid, Bard, Avenger and Warlock, none of which are terribly optimized, but hardly weak either. Their next adventure will be to investigate a recently abandoned temple of Bane. It was built by Hobgoblins, and was a nearly impenetrable fortress at a key location, so the fact that it's just been abandoned is a major concern. The reason it has been abandoned is that Bane is creating an avatar for himself there, which has caused various side effects, the dead rising and attacking randomly, various dark creatures gathering ect.
At the end of the adventure, I'm going to give them (mostly the Avenger) a chance to clense the temple, severing its connection from Bane, and preventing the avatar from being created. They probably won't realize that's what is happening, but knowing the party, they're pretty likely to try. I started it as a skill challenge, but seeing as how religion seemed the only real useful skill, with perhaps Arcana and Nature being able to provide a bonus to religion checks, I wanted something for the other party members to do.
I decided the Avatar, in its incomplete form, could rise and attack them, and a Hobgoblin Hand of Bane seemed like a good creature to use for that. However, even though exp wise it doesn't add up to a full encounter for them, it would clearly wipe them out. At the very least, its defenses need to be lowered, and I think I will allow successes in the skill challenge to sap his HP as well. While the rules for lowering and raising a monsters level in the DMG have worked well, I don't know how much I should lower him, or how much it would really help.
I think I may just lower all his defenses by 4. Does that seem reasonable? Or do you have a recomendation on a solo monster of about their level that could easily be refluffed? Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance for suggestions, and for reading my wall of text, probably added more details than I needed to.
At the end of the adventure, I'm going to give them (mostly the Avenger) a chance to clense the temple, severing its connection from Bane, and preventing the avatar from being created. They probably won't realize that's what is happening, but knowing the party, they're pretty likely to try. I started it as a skill challenge, but seeing as how religion seemed the only real useful skill, with perhaps Arcana and Nature being able to provide a bonus to religion checks, I wanted something for the other party members to do.
I decided the Avatar, in its incomplete form, could rise and attack them, and a Hobgoblin Hand of Bane seemed like a good creature to use for that. However, even though exp wise it doesn't add up to a full encounter for them, it would clearly wipe them out. At the very least, its defenses need to be lowered, and I think I will allow successes in the skill challenge to sap his HP as well. While the rules for lowering and raising a monsters level in the DMG have worked well, I don't know how much I should lower him, or how much it would really help.
I think I may just lower all his defenses by 4. Does that seem reasonable? Or do you have a recomendation on a solo monster of about their level that could easily be refluffed? Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance for suggestions, and for reading my wall of text, probably added more details than I needed to.