Battle Suggestions

[ewoods]

This is my first time posting so I hope I'm in the right place. I'm the DM for a group of 9 people in a 3.5 campaign. We've been playing this campaign for about two years now and our next game will consist of an epic battle that has been culminating since they were level 1. All of the characters are level 19 at this time and will level to 20 if they survive the fight. Their enemies consist of several minor recurring villains, plus a black dragon that has been the antagonist since the very first game. When they were 1st level characters, the dragon took over their town and enslaved everyone in it. They were practically the only ones who escaped. Now that they're almost epic level, they've returned and challenged the dragon to a fight to free their town.

Here's the setup that I have planned. I want the dragon to have somehow linked himself to all 10,000 people in the town. He's got about 1000 HP (not the typical black dragon from the MM) and the idea is that for every hit point he loses, 10 townspeople also die. So if the characters do nothing to break the connection and end up killing the dragon, all 10,000 people would also be dead. In theory, since the party is decidedly good (all but two are lawful good) they won't continue harming the dragon knowing that they're also killing innocent townspeople. As I said before, there are also some mid-level recurring villains who will be there along with some low-level minions, and the party has a few mid-level allies as well.

So I'd like some input. First, I don't want the link between the dragon and the people to just be "DM magic." If at all possible, I want there to be some actual rule mechanic at work here. Second, there has to be a way for the characters to circumvent the link, so I need a loophole somewhere that's discoverable mid-battle but not obvious. And third, what do you think of the idea in general? Too hard/easy? I've got my DM blinders on so I could really use an outsider's perspective.

Thanks in advance!

[Rei_Jin]

The first two thoughts that come to me are Epic Spell (based on the Shield Other and Share Pain spells/powers) or a variation on the Armor of the Dread Emperor (Book of Vile Darkness, page 111). Beyond that, you'd be looking at DM Fiat I think.

[ewoods]

Thanks for the response! Yeah, I'm sure there's going to need to be some DM magic in there, but as much as possible I want it to be based on something that actually exists, or a variant of some kind. I like your suggestion, and the dragon would definitely have epic level spell access, so that's a possibility.

[Tvtyrant]

Use the Friend Shield magic rings and have them be continuous; the dragons rings connect it to two people, who each connect to another person until you have a pool of HP from everyone in the town. Don't have the town realize there is a dragon on the other end, so it just seems like a good way to keep anyone from dieing.

[Rejakor]

An Epic Spell would work, or a lesser artifact version of the black armour.

I'd have it give him a big ol' well of temporary HP. You could be nasty and make it 1 for each person, or you could just make it an extra 1000hp, 1 for each 10 people. So once they sever the connection, he still has is own, 'real', hp.

Not sure what seed you'd use for the Epic Spell, but the spellcraft DC would probably be fairly low if you mitigated it with the sacrifice of linked participants when you lost health.

[Rei_Jin]

Epic Spell would definitely be the route I'd take then, if your dragon has enough Caster Levels to warrant it. Perhaps something like this...



Life of my Minions
Abjuration
Spellcraft DC: 35
Components: V, S, Ritual
Casting Time: 1 day
Range: Self only
Duration: Permanent
To Develop: 315,000 gp; 7 days; 12,600 XP. Seed: Reflect (DC 27). Factors: + Change effect area to connected minions (Ad Hoc +50 DC), Gain temporary hitpoints equal to 1/10th of minions connected (Ad Hoc +50), Increase Caster level against Dispelling by 10 (+20 DC), Change Duration to Permanent (x5). Mitigating factor: Permanent loss of all but one hitpoint (Ad hoc -250 DC), destruction of own soul (Ad hoc -250 DC), destroys connected minions (Ad Hoc -250 DC), Increase casting time to 10 minutes (-18 DC), Increase casting time to 1 day (-2 DC) Burn 1,000xp upon casting (-10 DC)


The caster expends his own life essence, tying himself to his minions. This is a dangerous spell to use, but it empowers the caster in ways beyond mortal magic.

Firstly, he binds each of his minions with a silver string to himself, simulating the silver cord that binds their soul to their body. The next step is the most risky, in that the caster dismisses his own soul and destroys it to power the spell, leaving him with 1hp. This causes his minions souls to be bound to his form, so that any harm he takes affects their bodies instead of his.

For every ten minions so bound in this manner, the caster gains 1 temporary hitpoint. This means that every point of hitpoint damage he takes causes the death of ten minions.

When the casting of the spell is complete, the silver cords become insubstantial and can only be seen with a True Seeing or similar spell, and only affected by a Silver Ghost-Touch Slashing Weapon. Severing a cord removes one temporary hitpoint from the caster, and frees ten minions from the effect.

If the minions attached to the caster are killed, for every ten minions that die he loses 1 temporary hitpoint.

Due to the dismissal of his own soul, and the binding of others souls to him, the caster ceases ageing, and cannot die of old age.

Should the effect be dispelled, (it is cast at Caster Level +10) the caster is left with only 1 hp. Should they die, they are unable to be restored to life without the direct intervention of a deity.

[Diarmuid]

Do you plan on giving the party any hints about this connection and have you figured out how the can go about severing it?

[ewoods]

I'm not going to give them any hints, but the battle will be taking place in the fields in front of the town, so they should see citizens dropping during their first volley of attacks and figure it out pretty quickly. I love that epic spell that Rei-Jin created (hope you don't mind if I steal that)! With the idea of a silver string or a ring or something on everyone's hand, that would give the party something to remove to break the link. Not sure how they'd do that quickly though. Seems like a one-at-a-time thing, unless the dragon also wore some kind of invisible token that could be removed/destroyed once detected.

So the dragon bound his soul (i.e. HP) to his minions, using a piece of string as a material component. The party won't figure out the link until the townspeople start dying as they attack the dragon. The dragon would keep attacking as they try to figure out what's going on. The string that everyone wears is invisible, but the party does have a lantern and a pair of goggles of true seeing, so they have a way of discovering it. They might try to remove those strings, but if they're smart they'll deduce that the dragon wears a matching string that severs all links when removed or destroyed. And then it's just targeted sunder attempts until either the dragon kills them or they destroy the link. Does that seem like it could work?

Does it seem pretty balanced for a party of 9 level 19 characters?

[Rei_Jin]

I wrote the spell for you just now, so I would love to see you use it.

In regards to the silver threads, the image I have is of 100 silver ropes going from the dragon to the minions, invisible to all but Trueseeing. Each of those 100 ropes fans out into ten strands (the ten minions attached to them) so the PCs have 100 ropes to attempt to sunder.

They'll need Ghost Touch Slashing weapons to do so, Ghost Touch is a magical property you can gain with a spell or an enchantment. Silver can be gained through Silver-sheen, an alchemical item. Perhaps have them come across a cache of vials of it somewhere, as a plot device.

If you want to, you could have the ropes become visible when the dragon takes damage and the links are severed, which would give them another clue.

The cords are, of course, part of his horde and the monetary reward for beating him.

Edit: And with nine PCs, you have a possible 9 cords being severed every round, which means that your PCs have to survive 11 rounds against a dragon attacking them. Tough, but doable, especially if they play intelligently.

[Diarmuid]

So the players have no way to avoid killing likely hundreds if not thousands of innocent npc's....that seems a little harsh to me.

Now, I'm not saying hand the plot to them on a silver platter but a 19th lvl party is likely to nova pretty big trying take this big beast down, so if you're thinking they'll notice after a few people are dead you may way to rethink your intention.

[Rei_Jin]

If the PCs are smart enough to try and get some information on their foe (as they should be at this level) and they use divination, the DM can easily drop hints that they shouldn't just attack this thing head on. If they actually try scouting, they could possibly even talk with one of the townsfolk who tells them about this weird "ritual" that they underwent with the dragon that left them feeling weird ever since... I'm sure that they could work it out.

Of course, should they start severing cords, the dragon WILL notice, and the battle will be on.

[ewoods]

I was actually expecting quite a few casualties at the start, but you're right that it might be excessive. Depends on who goes first really. Not so worried if the ranger goes first, but it could be a problem if the wizard wins the initiative roll.

I guess I'll play it by ear. If they're smart enough to do their research (they usually are) then they might get a hint or two. But I am sort of looking forward to seeing their faces when 500 innocent bystanders suddenly drop dead on the first hit. :smallbiggrin:

I really appreciate your help guys! The game's coming up soon and I was in a bit of a fog about this.

[Malkav]

They'll need Ghost Touch Slashing weapons to do so

Transdimensional Flamestrike Flaming Sphere?

Edit: Flamestrike is instantaneous.