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View Full Version : Help with a Boss (Randomizer keep out!) D&D3.5



Jair Barik
2010-06-04, 06:37 AM
So I'm DMing a solo game on these forums for The Randomiser (if you are the randomiser please stop reading here and leave:smallsmile:) and have made a dungeon boss. It is not the BBEG but I expect it to become a recurring character. At the moment the character (Stiekel the very blasty Kobold Sorceress) is level 7 (coming up to level 8 before this encounter hopefully) with a level 5 Poisondusk lizardfolk, level 5 Elven Ranger, two level 2 blackscale Lizardfolk barbarians, a level 7 Divine Mind who specialises solely in healing and three Psions who I don't expect to be in the encounter. They are searching for one of the nine swords within the heart of the long lost ruins of an ancient dragon civilisation in the middle of the desert. We are well aware of the irony caused by the players decision to have a party of nine people go on the expedition.

Okay now some details on the boss

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=212934
He is not in fact the owner of the tomb but the blue dragon mentioned in this note that the party is using to navigate the tombs I have put much money into this project and so have no intention of leaving anything up to chance for the potential rewards that my task will bare will far outweight the expenses I have acquired. With a good sword in hand and a sturdy suit of leather I do not fear the risen dead but regardless of this I have hired the best help I can for the task ahead. So as to avoid betrayal or trouble from the locals I thought it pertinent to hire my help from closer to home. My hired muscle consists of a half ogre, a troll and a pair of Gnolls. All dumb as a post but i hardly expect any of them to see a share of the treasure wether they survive the jouney or not. One of my Psions, a man by the name of Kreoss will be teleporting us there and back while Joon will be escorting me through the catacombs. Kreoss intends to teleport us about a mile outside of the ruins for reasons of paranoia and supersition. Finally the wyrm Beyul will be joining us to guide us past many of the problems that only those bearing draconic blood may pass. He is an idiot of a blue dragon, even for his younger age but is more than willing to help us so long as I provide him his elixer.

Deciding which tomb to loot out of Gecis was a hrad decision. Not one of the well known ones as they have likely already been emptied, and not one that I couldn't find any information on. That is why i have settled upon the tomb of the Gold dragon Gargagrz. Its location is known as was the dragons insatiable greed but getting into the tomb has always been a task far too difficult for any treasure hunter in the past. Much research and divining has proved difficult but I have finally worked out how to reach the treasure safely.

First of all its location. From the ancient records salvaged by the dragons one can build a map of what the city used to be like but sadly most of the details are gone. As far as I am aware the nearest entrance to Gargagrz lair is blocked so we will be taking the spiral turret passage instead, it is easy enought to locate once you are in the ruins.

Having reached the bottom of the spiral we will come to the labrinthe. I have made a map of a safe passage here and will copy it precisely into my final notes.

(a map interrupts the writing here)

The next problem is descending the pit but thankfully i am more than capable of doing such a thing. It is estimated to be approximately 200ft deep. Once we reach the bottom of the shaft we are in the dragons lair and must be cautious. The great hall door is likely trapped but I have aquired a key so all is good. The great hall itself is a fake built to lull thieves into a false sense of security. As far as I can tell the dragon flew across it to avoid the traps that riddled the floor. I have no idea how his servants crossed though but with my resources I need hardly worry about such a minor detail. Once in the true great hall it is of vital importance that you turn left, then right, then straight then left again. All that glitters is not gold. This should take you up to the antechamber to the dragons sleeping chambers. The door can only be opened by those bearing a trace of draconic blood or a shared ancestry to the dragons, a means for keeping those who were not its servants out I presume. The antechamber itself has a guardian of some sort which we are more than prepared to fell. After this is another trapped door which i have the key for and then the dragons hoard. The only defence of the hoard is long dead and so all the treasure will be ours for the taking. We cannot fail!
he is not meant to be the smartest of dragon and could potentially be diplomacied through. He has no magical powers of his own and joined the intial expedition on the promise of getting the potion needed to ascend to Dracolichdom, believing that as Liches were powerful casters being a dracolich would bestow him magical powers. This plot has long been in the pipe line, recent events have not influenced it. My problem is that I am worried that if things do go the combat route the player may feel left out if the Spell resistance holds out. I have tried to keep the NPC's lower level than him (excluding the heal bot) but want to check what the playground thinks.

Runestar
2010-06-04, 07:23 AM
Remove the dracolich template. I feel the loss of con makes it too fragile (unless you give it extra hp), and its paralysis abilities just aren't fun (the party is either immune to it via freedom of movement, or they get taken out of the fight entirely). It is powerful though, but not really worth +3cr, IMO.

I think you can afford to go with 2 juvenile blue dragons instead. Or 1 juvenlie + a few mooks to split up the party's attention (some hobgoblin npc could work well).

Alternatively, if you want an undead dragon, consider statting up either an adult or mature adult blue dragon with the skeleton template from draconomicon tacked on. Give it an int score (say via the animate undead spell from spell compendium if you feel you must justify it using in-game mechanics) and call it a dracolich.

However, I can foresee the fight being quite lop-sided, in that the dragon has obscenely high attack rolls (the template lets the dragon retain its bab, so it misses only on a 1) but crap AC, so it is a race to see which side novas better/faster.

If you went adult, you end up with cr7 (on paper at any rate), and if you a few more points of cr, consider either spellstitched (complete arcane) or evolved undead (libris mortis). :smallsmile:

Jair Barik
2010-06-04, 09:29 AM
The template is pretty much the reason it is there though. From a story perspective this is the sort of creature I want. Thanks for the advice though. Hoards of mooks I think are pretty much out of the question (there has already been a seige battle and he's just finished fighting of the mooky undead hordes followed by Zombie white dragon outside. If I stick undead hordes in that battle too it may feel a bit samey.

Edwin
2010-06-04, 09:37 AM
If the amount of hp worries you, just max half and average the rest?

12*6 = 72

6.5*6 = 39

39+72 = 111 hp.

That should just about make up for a half decent Constitution score.