[3.P] Mini-plot arc boss: The Enchantress and the Illusionist

[Novawurmson]

Got a mini-boss battle coming up for my players, and I wanted some fresh ideas for the fight.

Background:

The party is tracking down the mcguffin, stolen from the bank by the Bad Enchantress (name changed) and her partner in crime, the Big Scary Hogoblin Half-Dragon (actually a kobold illusionist, name changed).

The players know that the BE and the BSHHD are working together, and they know she has magical control over a Cleric of an Evil-ish God, though they don't know her larger schemes, and they don't know her associate's true nature.

My questions:

1. What are some fun feats/PrC's/spells/character building options for an Enchantress and an Illusionist? They're not necessarily both going to be Wizards - I'm thinking Sorceress for the Enchantress and maybe some Magus levels for the Illusionist. The party is level 12 and optimized heavily for damage, not so heavily for anything else. I'm especially looking for options to improve survivability against a mostly mundane damage team.

2. What are some fun tactics/battlefield/setting options for an Enchantress/Illusionist duo team? What are some special ways of making the fight memorable?

[HunterColt22]

Charm person always leads to funny situations. My DM nearly made our Druid who was wildshaped into a black dragon nearly have a hawt make out session with a lich mind flayer due to a failed will save. I was laughing, and also slamming my head on the table because of the horrid possibilities that were about to unfold. Feat wise you might want to look up nymph's kiss, its a feat that increase charisma based skill checks by 2.

[Yukitsu]

Mmmmm, my favourite schools of magic together. :smallcool:

Illusions are at their most fun when mixed with real things. Make players guess, what's real, what's not. Make them waste resources against things that aren't really there, have them hold back against things that really are. Use shadow magic in particular.

Enchantments aren't best when cast directly at the target you want to kill. The best enchantress will find "pets" that they can easily dominate, but whom are very hard to kill directly. Another way I play the archetype, is to take massive diplomacy and charisma, and have my enchanter type characters run planar binding spells. This is RP enchanting, which can be easier or harder depending on your play style, but since you're the DM it's no problem.

Mixing the two, the enchantress leading a swarm of very real beasts and demons mixed among illusory beasts and shadow beasts can really ruin a party's day. If they rely too much on true sight, the shadow beasties can still hurt them, even if they aren't really real.

Splitting the group into chunks via shadow walls is one of my favourite tactics. Depending on saves etc., some people will be able to walk through a shadow conjured wall, while others will not. They also separate out who in the party has strong and weak will saves. Those who have the most trouble getting through walls are the ones the enchantress can most easily dominate.

General misdirection, walls, conjurations and other control spells are heavily multiplied when you have good illusions flying around. Just keep in mind the combo is a bit susceptable to dispel magic, but honestly, this sort of villain tag team has no real reason whatsoever to actually put themselves in any sort of danger.

[Novawurmson]

The more I think about it, the more I want to have the Hobgoblin Half-Dragon be real...but dominated by the enchantress, while the kobold is just walking around invisible. That way, the enemies get a melee beast right off the bat (I'm thinking Magus/Urban Barbarian for the Hobgoblin). More enchanted/diplomacy'd evil minions could be a nice touch, too.

What are shadow walls from?

[Yukitsu]

The more I think about it, the more I want to have the Hobgoblin Half-Dragon be real...but dominated by the enchantress, while the kobold is just walking around invisible. That way, the enemies get a melee beast right off the bat (I'm thinking Magus/Urban Barbarian for the Hobgoblin). More enchanted/diplomacy'd evil minions could be a nice touch, too.

What are shadow walls from?

You can create a wall of X using the shadow conjuration spell, which can emulate a wide variety of conjuration spells. The shadow line of illusions are core too, which is a nice plus.

A shadow spell is part real. If someone fails their will save against it, they believe it's 100% real, and can't get by it. If they succeed, it has a % based effect on them (which by my reading of it, means they have a % chance of walking through one). You can summon creatures, walls etc with it and just generally make a real mess of an enemy. The shadow line of spells isn't great for damage. If they pass the will save to disbelieve a damage based shadow conjuration, they take only a tiny fraction of the damage.

There is also shadow evocation, which for the damage reason mentioned above, is also sub-par for the most part.

2 important things to know, the duration of a shadow spell remains the same (potentially permanent) and the people who can't get past those walls by default are the weakest against direct domination, giving the enchantress a non-meta way to target the best enemy for control.