Difficult Solo Encounter, Please Help

[NeoSeraphi]

So last night I was playing a game, and I got into a fight with my DM over the monster she homebrewed. It...didn't end well, so we stopped playing. Now I'm in the middle of the fight, and we're probably going to pick it back up tonight, so I need some advice.

My character is a level 7 Half-Celestial Aasimar Dawnblade (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=190289)//Rogue//Fighter (Tristalt, also thanks to Jiriku for making such a great class, it's working real well!).

Here's his character sheet (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=307087)

Now the problem I have is that my character had to go after the monster that killed his teammate, and it's very difficult for him to fight alone, but retreating is most likely impossible by this point (and even if it were, I chose the Order of the Righteous Blade for my Knightly Order in the Dawnblade class, so if I fled, I would break my oath and not get my class features back until I came back and killed the monster WITHOUT class features)

Spells that I have used already:
Cure Minor Wounds x3
Cure Light Wounds x1
Cure Moderate Wounds x1
Cure Serious Wounds (Dawnblade Spell) x1

Protection From Evil x2 (Half-Celestial SLAs, 1 currently active)

The homebrewed monster is a True Neutral construct dragon with a breath weapon in a 30 foot cone that forces a Fortitude save against poison (so my +4 racial bonus against poison applies). Failing the saving throw results in poison of 1d6 Con/1d6 Con and being decelerated as the psionic power for 12 rounds. The DC is Fort 24, and my total Fort save (racial bonus included) is +13.

Successful save negates the poison and halves the duration of the deceleration. The DM firmly stated that she would not allow magic/psionic transparency so my SR doesn't affect this breath weapon.

During the first round of combat I successfully saved against the breath weapon, slowing me for 6 rounds. My character flew back 40 feet and waited. The dragon bit me, and I was forced to save against poison again, this time I failed it. After that I got mad because she was using a monster with all these Con-based abilities when it didn't have a Constitution score and we fought and it ended.

So now here I am. I'm trying to make it up to her, so please, no one hate on the monster. Just tell me how I can beat it. I'm limited to one move/standard action per round, and am totally alone. I have the Battle Blessing feat, so I can cast as a swift action and then channel my blade as a standard action. I can Smite 9 times per day, and I can spontaneously inflict, though I don't know how high the dragon's Will save is. I have been poisoned, so I will be taking 1d6 Constitution damage.

Additionally, my Str and Cha are both 2 higher than they appear on my character sheet, temporarily. It is an enhancement bonus, so it wouldn't stack with the Bull's Strength I have prepared. Any suggestions?
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[Lord Ruby34]

Can you describe the terrain you're fighting on?

[NeoSeraphi]

Ah yes, my apologies. I'm fighting ontop of an electric barrier (it doesn't hurt me because I'm airborne) inside of a building. The dragon, I believe, takes up a 20x20 square, but we never actually discussed its size. The building is a steampunk clock tower like place. I don't think I have anything useful to work with against the dragon.

Edit: The barrier acts as kind of like a "ceiling" that I got through because there was a hole in it that has since closed up. The barrier is transparent and it is something like fifteen feet to the ground below.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

First of all, breath attacks are supernatural, so neither spell resistance nor power resistance will ever apply to them anyway.

Second, "if you retreat from a combat in which any of your allies remain alive" would most likely allow you to retreat from this fight without repercussion, assuming you would be able to. The prohibition on retreating only applies to when you would be leaving behind an ally to do so.

You failed to provide a link to the character sheet. Assuming you're something like Dawnblade 7// Rogue 7// Half-Celestial 4/ Fighter 3, that's a 7th level tristalt character. This creature has special attacks at DC 24. Assuming they're Cha-based, and it has an extraordinarily high Cha score (20 would be unfairly high), it would have at least 18 HD, putting it at around CR 10-12 for a dragon. Even with a tristalt character, this is considerably unfair considering action economy, and it gets to automatically screw your action economy on top of that.

The monster is neutral aligned, so either it's being controlled by another creature or it has an Int score and some sort of motivations. Find out what it wants, or find out who its master is. Presently this is not a fight you can win toe-to-toe. It gets to breathe and then follow up with full attacks, you get a single attack or move and even if you make the save the effect lasts until its next breath is available. Either the fight is completely unfair, or there's some sort of gimmick to the fight that you've somehow missed. For example, if it makes a habit of charging you, see if you can get down near the barrier directly between it and the dragon, then ready an action to move out of the way if it charges you. There's no takesies-backsies, so it would charge forward into the electric barrier and likely take considerable damage. However, having the actions to set that up may be difficult considering the slow effect. If there's nothing in the room that you can use to gain an advantage, then fight the creature until your character dies and explain again just how unfair that creature was. A six round slow even on a successful save, usable every 1d4 rounds, is considerably unfair to throw against an entire party, to put a solo character against something like that is just unacceptable and looks like the fight is intentionally stacked against you.

[NeoSeraphi]

First of all, breath attacks are supernatural, so neither spell resistance nor power resistance will ever apply to them anyway.

Second, "if you retreat from a combat in which any of your allies remain alive" would most likely allow you to retreat from this fight without repercussion, assuming you would be able to. The prohibition on retreating only applies to when you would be leaving behind an ally to do so.

You failed to provide a link to the character sheet. Assuming you're something like Dawnblade 7// Rogue 7// Half-Celestial 4/ Fighter 3, that's a 7th level tristalt character. This creature has special attacks at DC 24. Assuming they're Cha-based, and it has an extraordinarily high Cha score (20 would be unfairly high), it would have at least 18 HD, putting it at around CR 10-12 for a dragon. Even with a tristalt character, this is considerably unfair considering action economy, and it gets to automatically screw your action economy on top of that.

The monster is neutral aligned, so either it's being controlled by another creature or it has an Int score and some sort of motivations. Find out what it wants, or find out who its master is. Presently this is not a fight you can win toe-to-toe. It gets to breathe and then follow up with full attacks, you get a single attack or move and even if you make the save the effect lasts until its next breath is available. Either the fight is completely unfair, or there's some sort of gimmick to the fight that you've somehow missed. For example, if it makes a habit of charging you, see if you can get down near the barrier directly between it and the dragon, then ready an action to move out of the way if it charges you. There's no takesies-backsies, so it would charge forward into the electric barrier and likely take considerable damage. However, having the actions to set that up may be difficult considering the slow effect. If there's nothing in the room that you can use to gain an advantage, then fight the creature until your character dies and explain again just how unfair that creature was. A six round slow even on a successful save, usable every 1d4 rounds, is considerably unfair to throw against an entire party, to put a solo character against something like that is just unacceptable and looks like the fight is intentionally stacked against you.

Well, I forgot to mention the DM told me I shouldn't attack it out of character when I went looking for it (I had to fly over 15 miles, looking for it, before I found it), but I told her I was roleplaying my character, as he's an avenger. So I don't think there's a gimmick, as she didn't want me to fight him and I went against her OOC in order to not be a metagamer.

The dragon's move speed is definitely farther than 40 feet per round, so there's no way I can escape.

[Lord Ruby34]

Well you could try to collapse the tower and hope for the best, like say pinning one of its wings.

That's probably a really bad idea, so save it until your super desperate.

What items do you have? A Feather tree token would be excellent here. I usually keep one or two on my characters at all times.

And yeah, we'll need your character sheet if we're to help you weasel your way out of this one.

[NeoSeraphi]

Well you could try to collapse the tower and hope for the best, like say pinning one of its wings.

That's probably a really bad idea, so save it until your super desperate.

What items do you have? A Feather tree token would be excellent here. I usually keep one or two on my characters at all times.

And yeah, we'll need your character sheet if we're to help you weasel your way out of this one.

My OP had the link, I don't know how it went away. It's up there again now, and just in case it's being screwed with, here's the link again in this post

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=307087

I'm actually 10,000 GP behind in WBL, I was given 9000 gp to start with, because we started at 5th, then she changed her mind mid session and we started at 6th instead, with no increase in WBL, and then we leveled from one very difficult encounter while finding no loot. So I'm a level 7 character with level 5 gear.

I have a +2 Longsword, a mundane Breastplate, a mundane Heavy Steel Shield, and a wooden Holy Symbol. That's it.

[Lord Ruby34]

Do you think you can manage to cut a hole in the wall before it manages to kill you? A typical wall will have hardness 8 and 90 HP for a ten by ten square, if you can deal with that you can escape. Hopefully. Ditch your shield to attack with both hands, and hope your friend is feeling merciful.

[NeoSeraphi]

Do you think you can manage to cut a hole in the wall before it manages to kill you? A typical wall will have hardness 8 and 90 HP for a ten by ten square, if you can deal with that you can escape. Hopefully. Ditch your shield to attack with both hands, and hope your friend is feeling merciful.

Let's see...holding my weapon in two hands would add 3 to my damage, so 1d8+14, average of 18 damage per attack, and I can only make 1 attack per round...with only 17 AC without my shield...would take about 9 turns to do this, and if I'm getting hit every round, and poisoned half the time (I need to roll a 12 to save against the poison) then...I don't think I could survive 9 turns. But for now, that's my backup plan, thanks.

[Gice]

You have power attack, I bet the AC of that wall isn't going to be that high.. Two handed, that will go pretty fast (you have 2 attacks per round as well, remember) edit: nevermind, you don't.

If you're really lucky, the wall is evil and you can smite it!:smallbiggrin:

[Lord Ruby34]

Yeah the wall's AC is five you should be doing about 1d8-8+27 to it a round, you can probably smash it in about... 3 turns.

[NeoSeraphi]

You have power attack, I bet the AC of that wall isn't going to be that high.. Two handed, that will go pretty fast (you have 2 attacks per round as well, remember) edit: nevermind, you don't.

If you're really lucky, the wall is evil and you can smite it!:smallbiggrin:

Technically my Smite ability isn't alignment based, it's "anyone the Dawnblade deems as an enemy" but...I don't think a wall counts as an enemy...

[myancey]

You have neutralize poison. I know it would probably be hard to use...but it'd make you immune to the effects of this dragon's poison for 70 minutes. From how I'm reading it--it'd also eliminate the deceleration effect of the poison..but that's just me (deceleration isn't an instantaneous effect, so neutralize poison should work on it). You'd still have the initial HP damage taken from the poison--but the secondary effect wouldn't apply.

That'd at least get you some action economy back.

The poison seemed your chief concern anyway.

After that, good luck man.

[Lord Ruby34]

Technically my Smite ability isn't alignment based, it's "anyone the Dawnblade deems as an enemy" but...I don't think a wall counts as an enemy...

It's in the way, and might cost you your character his life. I'd be able to look at that wall as an enemy if I was in his shoes.

[NeoSeraphi]

You have neutralize poison. I know it would probably be hard to use...but it'd make you immune to the effects of this dragon's poison for 70 minutes. From how I'm reading it--it'd also eliminate the deceleration effect of the poison..but that's just me (deceleration isn't an instantaneous effect, so neutralize poison should work on it). You'd still have the initial HP damage taken from the poison--but the secondary effect wouldn't apply.

That'd at least get you some action economy back.

The poison seemed your chief concern anyway.

After that, good luck man.

I already attempted that. That was my first reaction to the deceleration. She said no. :smallfrown:

But I guess it would suppress any failed saves against the bite attack...that might help my survivability.

[myancey]

I already attempted that. That was my first reaction to the deceleration. She said no. :smallfrown:

But I guess it would suppress any failed saves against the bite attack...that might help my survivability.

Yeah...in that case..I'd probably be pretty mad too. The spell literally says it. That's what I like to call 'train-tracking'.

[NeoSeraphi]

Yeah...in that case..I'd probably be pretty mad too. The spell literally says it. That's what I like to call 'train-tracking'.

What I didn't understand was that if I hadn't applied the +4 racial bonus against poison to the save (The deceleration shared a saving throw with the poison, and it was Fort), I would have failed it. (I rolled a 25 total, DC was 24). So if being naturally resistant to poison stopped me from being affected fully, why should neutralize poison not work on it?

But anyway, dragons have ridiculous HD and my DM likes to make races that add Charisma to their HP when they don't have Con scores, so knowing her, she probably has it with higher HP even though it's a Construct. With the immunity to Sneak Attacks and me not being able to charge (Rhino's Rush is my normal tactic), I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I just hope I can reach a wall in time...

[King Atticus]

I already attempted that. That was my first reaction to the deceleration. She said no. :smallfrown:

But I guess it would suppress any failed saves against the bite attack...that might help my survivability.

You have a solid beef here, brutha. This is specifically spelled out in the neutralize poison description.


You detoxify any sort of venom in the creature or object touched. A poisoned creature suffers no additional effects from the poison, and any temporary effects are ended, but the spell does not reverse instantaneous effects, such as hit point damage, temporary ability damage, or effects that don’t go away on their own. (emphasis mine.)

You should be getting your full round actions right about now. :smallannoyed:

[NeoSeraphi]

You have a solid beef here, brutha. This is specifically spelled out in the neutralize poison description.

(emphasis mine.)

You should be getting your full round actions right about now. :smallannoyed:

Even so, I'm not fighting her on this any more. She's important to me, and I felt awful after I tried to complain about how she was running.

So I'm just going to be a good player and play by the DM's rules. Since she warned me against fighting it in the first place, she'll probably be lenient with my Code of Conduct and say that I don't lose anything for running.

[myancey]

Even so, I'm not fighting her on this any more. She's important to me, and I felt awful after I tried to complain about how she was running.

So I'm just going to be a good player and play by the DM's rules. Since she warned me against fighting it in the first place, she'll probably be lenient with my Code of Conduct and say that I don't lose anything for running.

Fair enough. It's good to respect the DM, even when they're really wrong. DMing is a tough job, and being right is certainly not worth a great friendship....maybe a good one though. :smallbiggrin:

I'd use running away as your legitimate, go-to tactic for this session then.

[NeoSeraphi]

Thank you to everyone who helped me in this thread, especially Biffonacius_Furio for actually taking the time to look up the Dawnblade even though the OP screwed up my link to it for some reason and corrected me on my own Code of Conduct.

Well, I think I'm ready to face this dragon now! So, uh, if a mod reads this, would they please go ahead and lock this thread? Thanks!

[NeoSeraphi]

Result: I fought it. It was able to heal itself, by landing on reactors for an unknown amount of damage, though when I attacked it on the reactors, the reactors smashed and shocked me.

I immediately Neutralize Poison'd myself, so that I wouldn't have to worry about that, but I found out the dragon was immune to Inflict spells.

So, in case anyone's keeping track, it's immune to critical hits, immune to sneak attacks, and immune to my only offensive spell. It's not evil, so my Racial SLAs don't help, and because I was decelerated on a failed save, I couldn't charge, which meant I couldn't cast Rhino's Charge. Also it healed somewhere around 100 points of damage over the course of the fight.

I was dealing around 40 damage per smite. And I only had 9 smite attempts.

Finally, I was un-slowed, so I was able to Rhino's Charge again. During the course of the fight I used up all my remaining heal spells and I took 4 points of Constitution damage. I was also decelerated one more time, and the only reason that I won was because my dead teammate woke up (she's immortal and has Fast Healing 1 apparently) and hit it twice with a homebrewed water spell for 100 damage total.

I believe the dragon had close to 15d12 hit Dice, and indeed was adding its Charisma score to its Hit Points and Poison DC, despite it not having a Constitution score. But I killed it. So thanks to you guys for your suggestions, even though I decided not to run away.

Seraphi