Very powerful sorcerer - Encounter planning

[Puke]

Hey there !
So, I'm running a new campaign. My party started lvl 1 with a score of 0 in their abilities. They have 64 ability points to spend. Yes it's not much.
I did it this way because the world is brand new and they are not heroes yet. They are very strong peasants et young aventurers.
When I mean : the world is all new, I mean it started to exist 150 years ago.

Game : D&d 3.5, Abeir-Toril : New Realms custom settings (Toril map, forgotten realms universe, but the world has been reset by Ao, and things are being put back in their places following the general story line. There is only four gods and they are player characters).

It's almost a full custom setting.

But here comes the real goal of this topic : my players are going to face a dark sorcerer, and I want it to be really challenging.

Magic is not stable because there is no weave. Wizard, sorcerers and other arcane users are always very lucky or very smart people. Note that smart =/= intelligent here.
The players are in a dungeon looking for a white dragon whirmling to free it from the dark sorcerer. The dark sorcerer is known to be a breeder and a maker of chimeras. So he may have some powerful creeps under his control.


I want to make a powerful opponent, considering this :

- Magic is not stable, there is no spells written in spellbooks, characters have to invent their own spells using the Ars Magica system.
But the sorcerer may use 3.5 spells because he had the time to research it.
- Players are 7 characters of 6th lvl.

I'm going to try it myself but I wanted to ask you guys how you would do this character ?
What his level would be ? How would you make this encounter ?

[Tiri]

My party started lvl 1 with 64 ability points to spend. Yes it's not much.

Assuming this is in reference to the point-buy system, I would like to point out that standard values for point-buy are 25 and 32. 64 points is not what most would call 'not much'.

[Puke]

They start with 0 in each ability and have to spend 64 points. This is not a "buy points system".

Ex :

Str : 18
Dex : 12
Cons : 16
Intel : 6
Wis : 6
Char : 6

It's ok for a barbarian, but it becomes hard it you want to make a paladin.
They are not weak, but they are under the average of the roll 4d6 keep 3 we are used to do.

I edited so it's more understandable. Ty for pointing it out.

[Telonius]

To make it challenging but not a TPK, you will need to give him some minions. 7 against 1 is not going to work, unless he's so far above the party's level that he's basically untouchable.

[Puke]

That is precisely the point.
I'm not used to manage such big parties so i don't know how to manage the CR with the minions.

Any ideas ? The match MUST NOT be frustrating. They will have to use their brains and their abilities correctly or they will die.

It will be in a dungeon, mobility will not be in their favour.

[ATHATH]

I'm going to just leave this (http://theangrygm.com/return-of-the-son-of-the-dd-boss-fight-now-in-5e/) here...

[Puke]

I'm reading it.
I'm laughing hard.
It will rather help me.

Thank you sir.

Still open for more answers tho !

[Telonius]

LOL!

Although there's actually a monster type in 3.5 that works kind-of similarly to the "two snakes" idea. In Fiendish Codex 2, I believe it's called a Legion Devil.

EDIT: Anyway, back to the minions. Some of his chimeras could help him out, obviously. Does he have any other allies, cultists, fellow mad scientists?

[ATHATH]

I'm reading it.
I'm laughing hard.
It will rather help me.

Thank you sir.

Still open for more answers tho !
Here's the follow-up to that article, if you want it: http://theangrygm.com/elemental-boogaloo/

[Puke]

LOL!

Although there's actually a monster type in 3.5 that works kind-of similarly to the "two snakes" idea. In Fiendish Codex 2, I believe it's called a Legion Devil.

EDIT: Anyway, back to the minions. Some of his chimeras could help him out, obviously. Does he have any other allies, cultists, fellow mad scientists?

My first draw was a fight including :

- The Powerful Sorcerer (he his not powerful because of his lvl but because he is well prepared)
- A chimera including the white dragon whirmling he stole to the party.
- Some other chimeras, not completed (because a chimera is CR7... I must give em handicaps).

I have a good idea of what the fight could look like : the sorcerer waits in the grand room, the dragon chimera comes from the shadows, and some other chimeras comes in their bakcs.

But I don't know what level I should give em...

Remember the party is : 7 PC of 6th level. That would give us a CR 9 right ? But a CR 9 not able to one shot the players...

[Piggy Knowles]

How many members of the party are capable of flight?

[Puke]

We have 2 spellcasters, they both are capable to flight using spells.

But remember it is in a dungeon.

[Piggy Knowles]

We have 2 spellcasters, they both are capable to flight using spells.

But remember it is in a dungeon.

Sure. My thought, though, is to still use environment to make this a particularly memorable (and dangerous!) encounter.

White dragons are from cold mountain climates and like water. So, as the party travels through this dungeon, they often hear water moving or see small rivulets or streams - nothing deep, just a trickle of cold flowing water that increases in frequency and quantity as they approach the end.

At the end of the dungeon, it opens up into a large, cavernous area. The air is chilly but dark, and the sound of water is strong. They can hear wings flapping through the air. If they bring a strong enough light source or have low-light vision they see that it has opened to a small underground mountain that an icy stream runs down. The mountain is incredibly steep, with scattered ledges just big enough for one person to stand on leading up its face. Some of these are covered with water from the stream running down the cliff face. At the top, the sorcerer sits with the white dragon wyrmling in its nest, performing strange signs and rituals.

Flying through the air are "chimera wyrmlings" - just big brutish creatures that will clearly grow into chimerae one day or are perhaps failed attempts at breeding chimerae, but do not have their full strength or their breath weapons. However, they are big and strong and clumsily fly around.

In order to approach the sorcerer and the wyrmling the party must either fly or climb the cliff face. Meanwhile, they can barely see where they are going, and they will be periodically attacked by the chimera wyrmlings who attempt to bull rush the party back down the mountain. The sorcerer focuses his efforts on those who choose to fly. The wyrmling periodically uses its cold breath, but NOT on the party. Instead, he uses it on the stream itself, causing a slick of ice to form where ever the water is trickling down. Any party member caught in such an ice slick must make a Balance check or slip back down (success means they can continue moving at half speed - but don't forget that anyone using the Balance skill without at least 5 ranks is flat-footed). The underground cliff isn't so tall that falling down it spells death - but it'll hurt, and it'll mean they have to climb back up again.

So you've got a big multipronged battle where they are fighting the environment (darkness, climbing, ice slicks, being bull rushed backwards) as much as they are the sorcerer. The sorcerer can use big thematic spells up top, flinging bolts of lightning or area dispels toward the fliers or bringing down obscuring fogs to further confuse the attack. Ideally you'll end up with a memorable, difficult battle that will require careful strategy and thought, without being completely overwhelming for a party that thinks and works together.

[Puke]

It is a neat idea and I can picture it quite clearly in my mind.

The last fight they did they were bullied by incorporeal undeads (they do not have magic weapons). The ghosts came out of the walls and did some hit and run to exhaust them.

The dungeon is not suited to do it the exact way you pictured it but i'll keep it and adapt it this way :

The players are crawling deeper in the dungeon. They do ear a stream of water and echo of their voices. They follow the noise and enter in a gigantic cavern.
The only way to cross it is a tiny bridge, very badly damaged by the time. At the end of the bridge is the sorcerer, doing rituals on a platform. They do see the light coming from the platform but the bridge is in the dark.
The players may ear the growl of some monsters, chimeras certainly, coming from above. They don't see what is underneath because it's in a deep dark, but they understand there is... something.

When they approach, either the dragon under sorcerer's control or a chimera threaten them, using his breath to create ice on the ground so crossing the bridge becomes very risky.
So they have to flight to reach the platform safely, but they can try without flying.

If they fall, they will die, eventually, if they hit some rock spikes. Or they may survive, falling into a very cold and fast stream of water that may make em faint if they fail a fortitude save.


The difference with your idea is that if they fall, they might not come back before the end of the encounter, swiming in a very cold water and trying to climb back to the bridge.