ArendK
2014-04-28, 07:33 AM
For some reason, I'm reminded lately of a BBEG fight that one of my old groups had with Vol in Eberron; I rebuilt her using the same stat generation and such they were using, but keeping the class and templates. I think I dropped the actual specialization for necromancy on her, but still kept her focus on necromancy. The party had managed to destroy her phylactery after retrieving it from the Tomb of Horrors (where she hid it). So they just had to stop her once.
For the inevitable confrontation, they assaulted her in Illmarrow Castle; they just went through the fortress taking hits and burning resources like candy. They depended on a barbarian/fighter to just drop guards and foes and prayed they brought enough healing to keep him usable for the final battle.
Because I knew they didn't have the same level of optmization needed to hang with Vols power if I played her to her intelligence and powers (they were 14 level I believe); I actually let them get close. The paladin and barbarian closed ranks eagerly, then realizing in part that it was a trap; a series of walls of corce closed off a section of the room that contained the melee classes and a few other undead monstrousities, followed by a cloudkill for that room. Round by round, the characters inside started struggling between losing CON, and their undead foes unbothered by the mist (boneclaws I think).
That left the now panicking (out of character, as he was expected to get between the casters and the Lich) rogue, wizard, and cleric left with Vol and a mummy. Amazingly, everyone made their saves against the Mummy's fear effect; but that left the cleric torn between trying to get the brutes out of the wall of force or facing the Lich Queen. The wizard started slinging as many damaging spells as he could muster, but to no avail. Eventually, the barbarian, who had been using an adamantine greataxe the entire time, realized if he couldn't do damage to the wall or ceililng, he could probably do something about the floor to get out. So the barbarian smashed the floor enough for him and the paladin to finally escape (each with about 6 CON left, and they were hurting).
I had Vol toy with the party for a long minute; webbing the casters and summoning a spidery-esque demon while they worked to get free while stalking the rogue around the pillared room. Even with his suredeath weapon (allowed him to crit on undead), he wasn't able to sustain or creep up on Vol to get that all important strike off.
The barbarian raced through the fortress with the pally right behind him huffing and puffing the whole way.
The rogue managed to pull of a feint maneuver and caught Vol flatfooted in melee. The damage staggered her, to which she responded with her paralyzing touch; the rogue barely failed and dropped. At this point, the barbarian enters, charging hoping that he can drop the lich with his massive magical hammer. The lich was up on initiative before the barbarian could get to her, and as I perused the plethora of spells remaining, my eyes stumbled upon another gem I figured I wouldn't have time to use when I prepped it. An empowered Ray of Enfeeblement. And to make it worse, I rolled a six for damage. 16 points of strength damage hurts any strength build. The strike that made it through barely scratched Vol.
The cleric, meanwhile, managed to escape the web, banish the demon, and free the mage by setting fire to the webbing. At this point, they were running short of ideas. The cleric was down a lot of spells after trying to keep everyone else alive throughout the assault; beyond a few remaining re-buffs and "artifact" spells (spells that are significantly stronger than their level should be, but have incredibly strict requirements about when, where, and how they are prepared and they can't be prepped again after they are cast) primarily meant for healing damage. He was looking through his spell list remaining, and after seeing the devastation that Vol inflicted almost effortlessly, and stated that with their weakened condition, they couldn't hope to defeat Vol. So to save the party, he gathers those he can (the paladin had just walked into the room unaware of the conversation, huffing and puffing from the armor and his reduced Con). Vol used a ranged touch version of the poison spell to the mage who was still flinging magic missile, followed by a ranged touch of idiocy (dropping the mage to 16 intelligence, very important later). I took the time to play up that Vol wasn't even concerned at this point with the party gathering. She was delighting in torturing the mage through ability damage.
So we have the mage on one side of the room, and the remaining bits of the party on the other (about 120 feet or so). Vol is between them, and the paladin still has no idea what the cleric is up to. The cleric starts yelling at the mage to get over to them, so the mage books it.
Vols response? She wasn't done with this mage (he was an Aerenal Elf, so there was an in-character reason for this torture). Her response? Ray of Enfeeblement, still empowered. Since the spell has it's limits, the mages 10 strength goes to 1. He couldn't even stand. He about half-way there.
In lieu of any other alternatives (and not wanting to be clustered together for fear of fireballs or another cloudkill), the cleric pulled the trigger on his Word of Recall. Away from Illmarrow they went.
The paladin, whose player agreed with the plan as being the best option, was not happy in character.
The barbarians rage ended, and he wasn't far off from the mages condition. For all his gear, he could pretty much just lay there.
Switch gears to Illmarrow again; Vol is watching as the mage is running out of ideas; no more magic missiles, wands are empty, and being down to 16 intelligence decidedly put a damper in any plans the mage had.
So the player decides to throw caution into the wind; his one remaining 6th level spell; disintegrate, smirking as he is writing something down to hand it to me.
Spell Resistance; mage was prepped for that through feats and a few items, and ate right through it.
Vol had a fairly strong save for being undead and a mage, so I wasn't stressed about it. The minimum DC of 19? Should be a breeze.
I roll a 3. Total of an 18. I quickly do the math on the remaining hit points Vol has
I quickly run down the math in my head. Since all HD switched to the D12 upon lichdom, plus a few bonuses since her mother was a master necromancer herself (Corpse-Crafter feat anyone?), plus her being healed through negative energy fireballs, she was still sitting at a comfortable 140 hp. The Lich Queen would survive another day.
I turn the card over from the player, and read it. Part of me wanted to smile, part of me wanted to bust out some cheese. But in the end, I thought it best that it ended the way it ended.
Sudden Maximize. 28d6 totals out to 168. The Lich Queen had been defeated in a blast of dust. I tick off a remaining counter and have him roll damage for the poison spell; He rolls a 10 for the damage. He had 10 Con left.
It was a good conclusion to the combat.
For the inevitable confrontation, they assaulted her in Illmarrow Castle; they just went through the fortress taking hits and burning resources like candy. They depended on a barbarian/fighter to just drop guards and foes and prayed they brought enough healing to keep him usable for the final battle.
Because I knew they didn't have the same level of optmization needed to hang with Vols power if I played her to her intelligence and powers (they were 14 level I believe); I actually let them get close. The paladin and barbarian closed ranks eagerly, then realizing in part that it was a trap; a series of walls of corce closed off a section of the room that contained the melee classes and a few other undead monstrousities, followed by a cloudkill for that room. Round by round, the characters inside started struggling between losing CON, and their undead foes unbothered by the mist (boneclaws I think).
That left the now panicking (out of character, as he was expected to get between the casters and the Lich) rogue, wizard, and cleric left with Vol and a mummy. Amazingly, everyone made their saves against the Mummy's fear effect; but that left the cleric torn between trying to get the brutes out of the wall of force or facing the Lich Queen. The wizard started slinging as many damaging spells as he could muster, but to no avail. Eventually, the barbarian, who had been using an adamantine greataxe the entire time, realized if he couldn't do damage to the wall or ceililng, he could probably do something about the floor to get out. So the barbarian smashed the floor enough for him and the paladin to finally escape (each with about 6 CON left, and they were hurting).
I had Vol toy with the party for a long minute; webbing the casters and summoning a spidery-esque demon while they worked to get free while stalking the rogue around the pillared room. Even with his suredeath weapon (allowed him to crit on undead), he wasn't able to sustain or creep up on Vol to get that all important strike off.
The barbarian raced through the fortress with the pally right behind him huffing and puffing the whole way.
The rogue managed to pull of a feint maneuver and caught Vol flatfooted in melee. The damage staggered her, to which she responded with her paralyzing touch; the rogue barely failed and dropped. At this point, the barbarian enters, charging hoping that he can drop the lich with his massive magical hammer. The lich was up on initiative before the barbarian could get to her, and as I perused the plethora of spells remaining, my eyes stumbled upon another gem I figured I wouldn't have time to use when I prepped it. An empowered Ray of Enfeeblement. And to make it worse, I rolled a six for damage. 16 points of strength damage hurts any strength build. The strike that made it through barely scratched Vol.
The cleric, meanwhile, managed to escape the web, banish the demon, and free the mage by setting fire to the webbing. At this point, they were running short of ideas. The cleric was down a lot of spells after trying to keep everyone else alive throughout the assault; beyond a few remaining re-buffs and "artifact" spells (spells that are significantly stronger than their level should be, but have incredibly strict requirements about when, where, and how they are prepared and they can't be prepped again after they are cast) primarily meant for healing damage. He was looking through his spell list remaining, and after seeing the devastation that Vol inflicted almost effortlessly, and stated that with their weakened condition, they couldn't hope to defeat Vol. So to save the party, he gathers those he can (the paladin had just walked into the room unaware of the conversation, huffing and puffing from the armor and his reduced Con). Vol used a ranged touch version of the poison spell to the mage who was still flinging magic missile, followed by a ranged touch of idiocy (dropping the mage to 16 intelligence, very important later). I took the time to play up that Vol wasn't even concerned at this point with the party gathering. She was delighting in torturing the mage through ability damage.
So we have the mage on one side of the room, and the remaining bits of the party on the other (about 120 feet or so). Vol is between them, and the paladin still has no idea what the cleric is up to. The cleric starts yelling at the mage to get over to them, so the mage books it.
Vols response? She wasn't done with this mage (he was an Aerenal Elf, so there was an in-character reason for this torture). Her response? Ray of Enfeeblement, still empowered. Since the spell has it's limits, the mages 10 strength goes to 1. He couldn't even stand. He about half-way there.
In lieu of any other alternatives (and not wanting to be clustered together for fear of fireballs or another cloudkill), the cleric pulled the trigger on his Word of Recall. Away from Illmarrow they went.
The paladin, whose player agreed with the plan as being the best option, was not happy in character.
The barbarians rage ended, and he wasn't far off from the mages condition. For all his gear, he could pretty much just lay there.
Switch gears to Illmarrow again; Vol is watching as the mage is running out of ideas; no more magic missiles, wands are empty, and being down to 16 intelligence decidedly put a damper in any plans the mage had.
So the player decides to throw caution into the wind; his one remaining 6th level spell; disintegrate, smirking as he is writing something down to hand it to me.
Spell Resistance; mage was prepped for that through feats and a few items, and ate right through it.
Vol had a fairly strong save for being undead and a mage, so I wasn't stressed about it. The minimum DC of 19? Should be a breeze.
I roll a 3. Total of an 18. I quickly do the math on the remaining hit points Vol has
I quickly run down the math in my head. Since all HD switched to the D12 upon lichdom, plus a few bonuses since her mother was a master necromancer herself (Corpse-Crafter feat anyone?), plus her being healed through negative energy fireballs, she was still sitting at a comfortable 140 hp. The Lich Queen would survive another day.
I turn the card over from the player, and read it. Part of me wanted to smile, part of me wanted to bust out some cheese. But in the end, I thought it best that it ended the way it ended.
Sudden Maximize. 28d6 totals out to 168. The Lich Queen had been defeated in a blast of dust. I tick off a remaining counter and have him roll damage for the poison spell; He rolls a 10 for the damage. He had 10 Con left.
It was a good conclusion to the combat.