Halloween Session

[WeaselGuy]

So, for Halloween this year, my group had a couple ideas floating around, ranging from a full blown Call of Cthulhu campaign to Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. I got lazy and didn't do the prep for RToEE, and the guy that was going to do CoC has been too busy working on wedding plans to get any DMing practice in. That being said, I decided to do a one shot, take down Cthulhu session. i pretty much have the area mapped out how I want it, with a cabal of level 14 Cloistered Clerics outside the first door, a pair of Illithid Half-Dragons guarding door number two, a Neothelid hiding under the cavern floor guarding door number 3, and finally Ole Squid Face himself, sleeping underwater in a huge cavern at the end, waiting to burst from the inky depths and annihilate those that disturb him from his slumber, ushering in the grand apocalypse.

So. As to why I'm here. CoC's statblock for Cthulhu has him listed at 42HD, with a CR of 34. The Neothelid has 25 HD and a whopping CR of 15. The two Dragon-Squids are going to add up to 20 HD each, and I don't know what their CR will be. Same for the half-dozen level 14 Human clerics.

What level should the party be? My first thought would be level 30, it's what I've told them to draw up. I just worry that any one of them can 1 shot the first 3 encounters, although to be honest, those guys are just there to deter lesser adventurers. Is 30 too much for Cthulhu? I doubt it's not enough, knowing how my group plays. Any other random advice?

The party so far:
-Pixie Lich Sorcerer/Mindbender/Loremaster/Archmage/Fatespinner
-Human Paladin/Epic Paladin Tank/Mounted Combatant
-Some form of Cleric (He normally plays Human, would probably go DMM Persist)
-2 or 3 other players, lower optimization levels on them. One has played a Dread Necromancer, the other a Knock-Down Monk, the third a TWF pounce Barbarian

tl;dr - Is level 30 enough or too much for a CR 34 Cthulhu?

[atemu1234]

Best advice? Boost up the Neothelids a bit. Advance them, maybe template them up to a reasonable amount. Depending on optimization, a CR 15 monster could be oneshotted, but maybe CR 20-25 not as much so.

[WeaselGuy]

That sounds pretty good, I saw in their block, under advancement, they can progress up to 45hd, so maybe bump them up to 35 or so... what would be a good, realistic template to add onto them?

[Dalebert]

I got lazy and didn't do the prep for RToEE, and the guy that was going to do CoC has been too busy working on wedding plans to get any DMing practice in.

This is a recurring problem--people failing to prioritize D&D. :smallamused:

[atemu1234]

That sounds pretty good, I saw in their block, under advancement, they can progress up to 45hd, so maybe bump them up to 35 or so... what would be a good, realistic template to add onto them?

Refluffed Half-Dragon would probably work, as would half-farspawn (be warned, I'd have to check the wording of the template. Maybe it can't be applied to aberrations) or those kinds of templates. If you dip into pathfinder, you could use the Advanced simple template, basically just +4 to all stats, which is always useful.