Magnificent Monster?

[sambouchah]

Over the past couple sessions we switched dungeon masters. Our new one has been having a hard time coming up with good challenges. Last session it was an illithid, twelve kobolds and 8 grimlocks. Against a party of ECL 10 lizardfolk druid/Sorcerer/Beast master, level 6 monk, a level 10 Kobold rogue, a level 11 monk and an ECL 12 Gnoll ranger. We(the party) also slayed an adult black dragon in two turns, and took down an elite fighting squad of pugilist orcs(10 of them all with 8-15 class levels).

So after seeing how powerful we are, he tasked me with coming up with a big scary deadly monster for us to fight. I was thinking 20 HD chimera, with the phrenic and spellwarped templates. Should I do anything else to it should that be enough to put us in our place or should I give it more HD or templates?

A big thanks from the DM and from myself, Sam

[Telonius]

"A" big scary monster probably isn't what will give you a huge challenge, unless it's capable of killing one of the party in a single round. No matter how big and scary it is, it still loses action economy to a full party. He was on the right track with multiple foes.

I'd say something size large or larger (guessing the Monks will have a harder time grappling them, assuming they're built to grapple), preferably with archery backup, and maybe some aerial combat as well.

So ... how about a Centaur troop, with some Gargoyle allies, all with class levels? Maybe sprinkle in some Warlock levels for the Centaurs ranged support, they could make for some interesting debuffing while the others Trample when they can.

[sambouchah]

"A" big scary monster probably isn't what will give you a huge challenge, unless it's capable of killing one of the party in a single round. No matter how big and scary it is, it still loses action economy to a full party. He was on the right track with multiple foes.

I'd say something size large or larger (guessing the Monks will have a harder time grappling them, assuming they're built to grapple), preferably with archery backup, and maybe some aerial combat as well.

So ... how about a Centaur troop, with some Gargoyle allies, all with class levels? Maybe sprinkle in some Warlock levels for the Centaurs ranged support, they could make for some interesting debuffing while the others Trample when they can.

I'll suggest that to him! Sounds like a challenge

[Shining Wrath]

Hordes of Allips (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/allip.htm) draining all the wisdom from your party?

Stumble across a Formian (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/formian.htm)hive?

Ethereal Marauders (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/etherealMarauder.htm)?

[Deaxsa]

Hordes of Allips (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/allip.htm) draining all the wisdom from your party?

Stumble across a Formian (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/formian.htm)hive?

Ethereal Marauders (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/etherealMarauder.htm)?

a note on the formians: abeils from MM2 are pretty much the same thing, but can fly. it adds another level to the combat, which would make it all that much more difficult, too.

[ksbsnowowl]

Your party is roughly an EL 11 party.

Eighteen CR3 Legion Devils is an EL 11 encounter. You will have a hard time against them.

Each devil will only get one attack, but due to their numbers, the normal +8 longsword attack and +3 longbow attack, will gain an additional +68 to attack. If I'm remembering correctly that each Legion Devil has 19 hit points, collectively they will have 342 hit points. And I do mean collectively.

[Phelix-Mu]

My vote is a scattered, progressive encounter against a large number of arrow demons. These things can be quite effective in large numbers, and the fact that they attack from a good range away makes them very effective against melee characters.

Have them scattered out, maybe in the process of eliminating the populace of some village that the local archmage/evil bastard has slated for bulldozing as part of his new "Redecorate the Countryside" initiative. Have the arrow demons encountered in groups of 4-8 (check their stats, they have many attacks each, so 8 may be too many based on the average AC of the group). The groups are scattered around the village, and the archers aren't grouped together (demons aren't well-organized, and this avoids fireball massacre).

Anyway, I think the best tactic for a monster is something that will force the group to take damage/expend resources just to get in range to hit the enemy. The basic way to do this is give the enemy a big terrain advantage, flying, or something of the sort. Flying is pretty old hat, though. The second way to do this is a moral challenge; forcing the pcs to protect npcs while fighting the monsters, put out fires, single combat duels, etc.

And...GOOD LUCK. Hopefully you can give the DM some tips for the future of the campaign, too.