Call for ideas! How can a melee party stop a dread mummy? No casters!

[Odessa333]

Ok, my brave and adventurous companions, my players have worked themselves into a pickle and I need ideas to throw them a bone. The task before them now is to take down a dread mummy without spells.


This beast has a REALLY nasty ability, being 'resistant to blows."

"Dread mummies take only half damage from melee and ranged weapons, natural weapons, and falls. Apply this reduction before applying damage reduction."

Not to mention it has DR5/- after that.


The party is level 13, and by their own foolishness the cleric and wizard separated from the team and are now prisoners. The fighter and monk are all that's left, are trying to rescue the other two, and they know they have to deal with this thing (so it's not so easy for me to remove it from play now). They have time to prepare, a lot of money to burn (100,000K) but neither has UMD and NPC's can't enter the 'cursed area' for plot reasons.


If all else fails, I can have the casters get lucky to free themselves, but I'd like there to be consequences to their splitting up when I warned them not to do so. Still, I don't want that consequence to be TPK either. The fighter is a new player, not very optimized, so I've thrown him some stronger gear (+5 Gear and the like). The monk is a min/max machine that has changed my opinion of monks forever. She's even said 'taking the mummy on alone would be a good challenge' so she might fight it solo. Still, this thing takes less than half damage from every attack they have.

Do they have a chance? I'd love some ideas for how they could win this fight.

[khachaturian]

at party level 13, DR 5/- is pretty trivial even after halving damage. even a completely unoptimized fighter 13 should have a strength of at least 24. with power attack and the two-handed archetype, a full attack from a nonmagical greatsword gives you on average

(36/2 -5) x3= 39

if you put an enhancement like flaming, undead bane, holy, it's even easier. but, i would worry a lot less about DR than about how you are going to manage creeping doom, control winds, and earthquake

[lumberingmenace]

Toss some alchemist fire at it early. It will take double damage from fire and will have to Waste actions putting itself out. The fighter should boost himself at the right time with a few potions and oils. Bulls strength, cats grace, and bears endurance will be good right before the fight to increase damage and saves. All pretty cheap items i might add so they can use the 100,000 gp to put flaming a bow for the fighter and keep his distance if he is outclassed in cqc and still have tons of coin left over.

[ace rooster]

Toss some alchemist fire at it early. It will take double damage from fire and will have to Waste actions putting itself out. The fighter should boost himself at the right time with a few potions and oils. Bulls strength, cats grace, and bears endurance will be good right before the fight to increase damage and saves. All pretty cheap items i might add so they can use the 100,000 gp to put flaming a bow for the fighter and keep his distance if he is outclassed in cqc and still have tons of coin left over.

Seconded. When in doupt, set it on fire. Holy water works too, if resistance to fire is an issue. If you are in with a good temple then it will be really cheap. If money is an issue then use standard oil. Tanglefoot bags can keep it out of melee range if it doesn't have a good reflex save, and keep it slow even if it does. A potion of heroics: quickdraw will allow a TWF to throw as many items as he would usually get attacks. Flaming arrow oil costs 300gp, and can do up to 50d6 of fire damage, which can be added to already enchanted arrows. It can also be applied to shuriken, and the monk can flurry them. Accuracy oil can increase the range inc to 20ft.

What ranged abilities does it have? You don't have to kill it fast if it can't kill you. Melee seems like a really bad plan if that is it's core ability.

Basically the melee party needs to accept that it is probably better to not use melee. From there it is pretty easy.

[Socksy]

Okay, the first thing they need is an item granting flight. Like, a lot of it. How about a flying carpet (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/c-d/carpet-of-flying)? (30, 000 GP)

Worried about disease? Get them a periapt of health (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/m-p/periapt-of-health) each, bringing the total up to 45,000 GP.

Next, get them a good source of fire. How about a type IV Bag of Holding (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/a-b/bag-of-holding) (10,000 GP) filled with Alchemist's Fire (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment---final/goods-and-services/herbs-oils-other-substances#TOC-Oil-Alchemist-s-Fire). How much fire, you may ask. Well, the book doesn't say how much is in each flask, but it wouldn't be too out-there to assume it weighs a bit less than water, being oil-based. So each 1lb flask is about half a litre, or 0.01766 of a cubic foot. It's pretty obvious we'll reach the weight limit before the volume limit, so that's 1,500 doses of Alchemist's fire. Total cost so far, 95, 000 GP.

Get on that flying carpet and kite the thing for 1,500 3,000 minimum damage.

[Krobar]

They have 100k to spend? If I recall correctly a Ring of 3 Wishes is just under 100k. Have them buy one, wish for a Decanter of Endless Water, then wish that instead of water it spew forth Alchemical Fire whenever activated. Then point it at the mummy and say GEYSER!