[PF] Help me build a drow BBEG and her cohort

[Frosty]

So, I'm nearing the end of the my campaign. This encounter I'm building is the fight before the climatic showdown with the avatar of a god (they will get to rest and do other stuff before the actual final showdown).

The party, after having went Chrono-Trigger and ramming their airship into the drow city's ritual tower (so they can get inside and bypass most of the defenses), are fairly hurt (most of them between 1/2 and 3/4 of max HP). The spellcasters (especially the wizard) have spent almost all of their 8th and 9th level spell slots. Their goal: To stop an epic magic ritual that will kill all non-drow elves. To do so, they must slay all the assistant ritualists in the room (who will be concentrating on the ritual and not fighting, but they can replaced easily if the PCs lose) *and* the Mistress of Rituals, a noble-drow high priestess. There is an elf in the middle of the ritual circle, ready to be sacrificed. Killing the elf only delays the ritual until another elf can be brought to the chamber.

With the priestess is her cohort, a male noble-drow Wizard of exceptional power. Protecting those two will be either 2 other high-level drow, or perhaps some sort of spider demons. They should be martial type characters.

So, can someone help me build the Priestess and her Cohort? A good climatic ending to the story arc which is very close to the end of the campaign? The party is hurt and used much lots of their most potent spells. But, the martial types in the party can deal a LOT of damage, and have high to-hits.

The party: Elf wizard (Counterspell expert) 20, Human Ranger (Guide) 20, Human Cleric (Freedom, worships Cayden Cailean) 20, Goliath Fighter 19 (Mobile Fighter, Goliath ported over from 3.5)

Noble-Drow High Priestess: Cleric 20
Noble-Drow Wizard cohort: Wizard 18
Drow fighter-type 1 OR Drow-themed monster: ???
Drow fighter-type 2 OR Drow-themed monster: ???

[Deca4531]

Well if you want extreme power use the good one Divine meta & persist meta combo, maybe with a few other meta magics so she can buff her body guard.

the build i used when i made my own was something like this:

LV1 Cleric 1 (PHB pg 30)
LV2 Archivist 1 (HoH p82)
LV3 Archivist 2
LV4 Archivist 3 ((gain 2th lv spells))
LV5 Archivist 4
LV6 Archivist 5 ((gain 3th lv spells))
LV7 Sacred Exorcist 1 (DotF p68)
LV8 Sacred Exorcist 2 ((gain 4th lv spells))
LV9 Sacred Exorcist 3
LV10 Mystic Wanderer 1 (MoF p36) ((gain 5th lv spells))
Lv11 Mystic Wanderer 2
Lv13 Sacred Exorcist 4 ((gain 6th lv spells))
Lv14 Sacred Exorcist 5
Lv15 Sacred Exorcist 6 ((gain 7th lv spells))

[Frosty]

Pathfinder only materials please. :smallsmile:

[Deca4531]

Pathfinder only materials please. :smallsmile:

*facepalm* lol totally missed that part. :smallredface:

[Frosty]

Okay, I've given it a bit more thought, and I've refined the options a bit, although I'd still appreciate some help (especially with the Monk, since I have no experience building those).

The cleric will have the Evil and Trickery (Deception) domains.
Melee brute #1 will be an Adamantine Golem
Melee brute #2 will be a Maneuver Master Monk.

Still looking for feat and spell advice for the cleric and the wizard, and looking for build advice for the monk. I really want the monk to be able to annoy the ranger and fighter, mostly by Disarming and Tripping. Should I go Monk 18 for that?

[Andvare]

What options do the party have for seeing in total, or near-total darkness?

[Frosty]

The elf has low light vision. They can probably cast the Daylight spell if needed, although I'm not sure if the cleric prepared that spell. They haven't had to deal with total darkness much before.

[Andvare]

Hehehehe. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/arg-feats/greater-drow-nobility-drow) That only requires a level 5 drow. Now you can couple that with a couple of fetchlings (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/arg-feats/improved-dark-sight-fetchling) and some earth elementals (they have tremorsense, and can be summoned). That would certainly piss off the martials.
Deeper Darkness has the advantage that it is only cancelled by Daylight, not suppressed. And since it is an at-will power...
Though that might be a too cruel trick on an ill-prepared party, and perhaps not what you are looking for.

I'll mull it over, and might come back with something, but Monks aren't my forte :smallwink: .

[3WhiteFox3]

Are you giving the Drow full WBL as PCs?
The cohort gets NPC WBL from Leadership, but what about the other two?
Is there any reason you made the Wizard a cohort instead of just a regular creature?
As it is right now, the cohort should actually be level 17 since that's the highest a cohort can go.

What sort of optimization advice do you need? As it's set up right now, the 20th level Cleric and the 18th level Wizard are probably going to able to clean up shop by themselves. Especially against a beaten down party.

Here's some spell advice.

Wizard:

9 -

2x Mage's Magnificent Enclosure and Time Stop. Cast Time Stop, cast MME (on the last and second to last round within the Time Stop) around the Wizard and Cleric. Their spell casting is now shut off and they are in a 10' radius spherical wall of force for 17 rounds.

If you've got more spell slots.

Foresight: can help if the party is getting the drop on the drow.

Disjunction: can be cast on one of the martial characters to strip away buffs/magic items.

Gate: bring in 2 Ice Linnorms or other appropiate beatstick monster.

Wall of Suppression: can be used instead of Disjunction to suppress any spell or magic item (with a caster level equal to or less than the caster) that passes through it.

8 -

Power Word Stun: If the characters currently have less than 151 hp

Maze: No Save, just be taken out of the fight for 10 minutes.

Moment of Prescience: Big boost to one attack roll, skill check or save.

Rift of Ruin: Battlefield control with decent damage, and once it's served it's purpose it can be turned into summons.

Wall of Lava: More battlefield control, it's very difficult to move through or break and it does damage.

Touch of Tranquility: Another no save, just be incapacitated for 15 rounds, if you attack them they get a Will save, technically they also become helpful to you but Diplomacy isn't intended to be used on players.

That's just 8th level spells and I didn't cover anywhere near all of the good ones just some that seem like they'd be useful here. I'll see about covering some more later.

[Karoht]

Just commenting on a few things here

Maze: No Save, just be taken out of the fight for 10 minutes.Int check DC20 to break out. In fairness, it will guaranteed lock down someone for a round. Depending on their Int bonus, possibly many rounds.


Wall of Lava: More battlefield control, it's very difficult to move through or break and it does damage.Move though it? People do that? Maybe if you're immune to fire, sure.
The other dangers is the move action Pathfinder version of Orb of Fire, every round. Ranged touch, 60ft range from any point of the wall, no save, 10D6 fire damage. And I think they burn for half that damage for another round or two after.



You said they're in a tower? With a big gaping hole in the side now? Awesome.
Aqueous Orb. Pick up a party member or two, the roll them out of the tower and drop them to their deaths. They won't be able to fly while stuck in the orb, and it's an easy reflex save to avoid, move action to control as well. I've always wanted to trigger a TPK with a Katamari Damacy move.

Also, Spectral Hand + any touch attack spell you want. Fun times. Especially in the dark. I recommend Ghoul Touch. Poison based Paralysis + stanky cloud. Low level trick, sure, but fun. And a good villian is supposed to take their time with the heroes.

[Frosty]

We have a gentlemen's agreement. Mage's Magnificent Enclosure's doesn't exist, and Gate is really only cast in cinematic fashion. Disjunction is on the table, however, as the party has been using it effectively.

We can drop the wizard to level 17 then. Cohort status or not it's really just flavor to show that the Priestiess is in charge. These two characters do not have PC wealth levels. They have standard NPC wealth for their level.

They do not need to be horribly optimized in terms of spell selection as long as it is thematically appropriate. I want effective, but not cheesy and preferably not too many "well, you're out of this fight so prepare to be bored for the next hour while you try to find the exit to the Maze while your party fights." Nothing more cheesy than Magical Lineage (Chain Lightning), and applying Dazing Spell to it. And even then I'll probably nerf Dazing spell to just being Dazed for one round and Fatigued for the rest of the duration. The wizard will be a Universalist, so he can use do that trick as 6th level spell slots a few times before he runs out. Then he'd need to have prepared some as 8th level spells.

Also, the enemy may have been caught unprepared since they REALLY didn't expect any adventuring party to break through (the Monk and the Wizard are around because they are her bodyguards) that quickly. The airship they had literally crashed into the structure like 2 floors below the ritual room. They'll have buffing time, but not enough time to set up any extra defenses.

[Frosty]

So...anyone have any more ideas?

[Andvare]

That hole does scream to be used.
Hydraulic Push (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/h/hydraulic-push), for example. Used by the wizard as a quickened spell against the two casters (because it will never succeed against the two martial characters, and will probably have a low chance of success against the cleric).
Or bullrushing lightning elementals (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/elemental/elemental-lightning/greater-lightning-elemental), with a CMB of 34 against people wearing metal, probably like that ranger or the fighter. And if either of them uses a bow, well it is also a CMB of 34 to disarm them (and the elemental will keep the bow if it succeeds). And that is only a CR 9 creature, potentially from a lowly level 7 spell. They should have at least a CMD of around 40 (10+bab20+at least 10 from dexmod+strmod), so it should not be an automatic success, but possible. You could enhance it with a Wall of Fire Lightning (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/metamagic-feats/elemental-spell-metamagic), though that is more for flavour, as they will probably laugh at the damage.

[Frosty]

The hole is not on the level where the ritual is. It is 2 levels lower, although I might change it to "You've interrupted the Ritual" if it can make the fight more interesting. The problem is that the entire party has Fly, Mass cast on them.

[Karoht]

The hole is not on the level where the ritual is. It is 2 levels lower, although I might change it to "You've interrupted the Ritual" if it can make the fight more interesting. The problem is that the entire party has Fly, Mass cast on them.Hardly a problem to neutralize without being cheesey.
What's the weather outside like? High winds can shut down the fly spell quite easily, before we get into weather/wind magics. Now, I'm not saying you should have the weather/magic block the party from getting in, but it would certainly be funny if some party members were shoved outside and had difficulty flying back in. It would buy the badguy's time without saying "you get to sit out all fight long" to a player or two at a time.

Dazing Spell + Anything is awesome. One of them is a Cleric? Can I recommend Spiritual Weapon + Dazing Spell + Toppling Spell? Toppling Spell will reliably keep anyone with a low CMD tripped/prone, the Dazing Spell component would make the lockdown absolute. Maybe just keep to Spiritual Weapon + Toppling or Dazing, but not both. Remember, the round after you cast Spiritual Weapon and designate a target, it gets to attack as many times as it's caster could. So if that caster is a Cleric with 3 attacks per round (BAB 11 or higher) the person is making 3 saves per round VS Dazing. Against the Fighter it might be a pain, the ranger might have a 50/50 chance of avoiding the trip, but anyone else it should be pretty easy to keep them locked down.
This is why Dazing might be better. Saves might be consistantly higher, rather than CMD's which are going to vary across the board. Dazing + Toppling might be a little much though.
Remember, the weapon is easily removed with a Dispel Magic, so one of your casters can 'save' a party member. Kind of adds to that whole 'combat as a puzzle' motif.

Fun Trick if you want something silly.
Cast Project Image, followed by Meld with Stone.
The party sees the Wizard create an illusory clone, followed by melding into stone.
Preferably make the stone he chooses to be a bit obvious. IE-A stone column. The wizard appears to hide behind it to break line of sight, then the illusion of him pops out from behind the pillar.
The wizard can then transfer his consciousness to the illusion. The wizard can then cast spells from the illusion. Line of effect between the wizard and the illusion is drawn from the edge of the stone he is melded into, ergo it is not broken, ergo this trick works. The party will eventually interact with the illusion and figure out something is up. Dispel magic can shut down the illusion. A host of spells can force the wizard out of the stone, Earthquake is a particularly deadly choice.
It's a great trick if the Wizard is extremely hurt and the Cleric is too far away to help.