Need monsters to learn a mid level party [3.5]

[faceroll]

I'm going to pick up the gauntlet of DM for a bit, and the party has reached about 10th level. So far, I've been the only experienced spellcaster player in the group, and most monsters have been melee brutes. They have had no experience with the horrors that lurk in 6th level spells and monster manuals.

I need to get them to appreciate the importance of
a) knowing thy enemy
b) respecting thy caster
c) preparing thine spells

What are good monsters for them to fight that will have them going "oh dear god why"? There will be 4 to 5 of them; a fighter, a fighter, a fighter//monk, a pixie rogue//warlock, and a cleric. Don't ask about the random gestalts. :smallsigh:

I want to have relatively small encounters with monsters either being totally unbelievably badass or just super canny and annoying and deadly. But I also kind of want them to be puzzle monsters. If they can learn its weakness, combat is over in like 4 rounds instead of 15.

[Kol Korran]

hmmmm... i'll need to think about this some more, but of the top of my head- Rakshasa (1 or 2, or maybe combined with some underlings. maybe Rakshasa Zakya from ECS? maybe some underling demons/ devils?):
- assuming different forms they will have trouble finding what it is. and if it fights them in somewhere settled, it can "vanish into the crowd", and come back later.
- you got a lot of weapon using types- his DR (15/piercing AND good) will be very annoying. it's high SR will mean the warlock will have problem affecting it too. once these two problems are dealt with (with spells, weapons, and maybe magic items) the rakshasa can be done with pretty easily.
- properly chosen spells can make this guy deadly. if you do not pick underlings, give it a few levels in sorcerer
- rakshasa are fiendishly smart. play them so.
- don't forget- it can buy and use tools too! (wands, scrolls)

[LansXero]

Couple the rakshasa with some naztharune ones? shadow-jump should throw them for a loop, and they have decent damage with all that dex and sneak attack.

[Saint GoH]

Adamantine Horror perhaps? They are pretty vicious.

+1 to rahkshasa of any type, I personally like the Nastharune.

Also, take the time to develop a party yourself. Surely these can't be the only adventurers in the world. Create a party of similar size and take your time with them. Play your newly created Anti-PC squad with tactical intelligence. Most of all, play your Anti-PC squad with ruthless intent.

[big teej]

I recommend the Adamantine horror, along with its full compliment of lesser clockwork horrors (as mooks before fighting it of course)

I find this creature to be a perfectly balanced and loveable encounter for teaching new players about the game

on a more serious note, I'd go with an ogre mage along with an ogre/orc mixed warband. then again, this could be complet bubkis

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Umber Hulk and Drider, just go with the typical Sorcerer spells known. Buff both with Mage Armor, distract them with Silent Image (an open treasure chest overflowing with coins should be easy enough) then throw a Web on them and spam Lightning Bolt. The Umber Hulk can stand nearby and engage anyone who gets free and comes after the drider, and use its confusing gaze on everyone stuck in the web. Extremely simple tactics, potentially deadly for an extremely simple-minded party. Switch the Umber Hulk's feats to Multiattack, Combat Reflexes, and Ability Focus: Gaze, and the Drider's feats to probably Improved Initiative, Ability Focus: Poison, and Improved Toughness. Remember he gets Faerie Fire as a spell-like ability.

Two Gauth Beholders, replace Iron Will and Improved Initiative with Ability Focus: Gaze and Ability Focus: Eye Rays (+2 DC to all of them). They should be flying up high near an alcove, or down below a bridge preferably suspended over lava, or in an alcove beneath a treacherous path along a cliff face. They can fly out, use eye rays, and fly back even without Flyby Attack. With Flyby Attack, they can spend a standard action to force an opponent to save vs their gaze attack and still get behind cover. Note that they can consider half the party to be in one 90-degree arc and the other half of the party in another 90-degree arc, thereby being able to use at least four eye rays every round. Opponents who won't stand toe-to-toe should give them a lot to think about. Be sure they use Exhaustion every round until everyone's been hit.

A Greater Shadow, using spring attack to leap out of the wall/floor, strike, and retreat. It should attack like this twice, then spend a round moving to a new spot, then strike only every other round always from a different direction. It shouldn't ever provoke AoOs from anyone. If it takes any damage it should stop attacking and just hide in the wall until they start to move on, then get one more hit in and then wait again. If they try to continue on, it strikes again, if they wait it out, it just waits them out. Extremely annoying, give it Evolved Undead once if you think it will be too easy to turn. If they get it below 50% HP it should leave them alone until the next day. Make some kind of opponent somewhere who can heal it (such as the Gauths) or an evil shrine that does negative energy damage to anyone who touches it so it has some way of curing its damage between harassing them.

[Cuaqchi]

Use a conjuration based Spirit Shaman and laugh as they burn through mountains of resources before you Tree Stride away unhurt. If you feel that the mission has been accomplished change things up for the next fight; otherwise, lather, rinse and repeat.

[faceroll]

Those are diabolical and exactly the sorts of encounters I've been looking for. They've just been fighting random encounters of 100 orcs.

[faceroll]

Hey, an update for those of you interested.

I ran Biff's 2 Gauth Beholders, and it was glorious. I ended up fudging it a little, but I think it did a really good job showing the party their weaknesses and how higher level D&D has more threats than just HP damage.

Put the combat in a dwarfhold on like a 15 foot wide, 100 foot long bridge. The Gauths hid in the stalagtites above, then would come down and fire on them. Between sleep, stun, and paralysis, and exhaustion, I locked the party down exceptionally well. They won with now casualties. The pixie was the hero, being able to fireball them to death without risking a stun. She used a wand of fireball that was found in loot.

But yeah, in the end, I played the encounter suboptimally because by the end, 3 party members were paralyzed.

Also, only the cleric had a crossbow. No one else had a ranged weapon. Lulz.

Thanks you guys, I'm definitely going to come back to this thread for ideas and let you know how they went down.