Illasera - planning a boss encounter

[Braininthejar2]

For my one player Baldur's Gate 2 campaign.

Setup: the bhaalspawn Illasera has decided to hunt down the PC - rather than search for her, she attacks the Druid Circle in Trademeet - she knows it's the best way to get the PC angry. Now she waits.

the terrain: the circle is a holy cave on a hill in the middle of partially swampy forest. Since Illasera is an archer, she'd rather fight outside, in the clearing outside the cave.

the forces: The party is level 18 and consists of the PC and 8 NPCs (totally my fault :smallbiggrin: ) and two animal companions. The PC will probably summon elemental swarm before the battle.

Illasera is an epic ranger, accompanied by her party (levels 16-20, work in progress) with a bunch of level 4 "elite mercenaries" hired to serve as fodder.

expected tactics:

The PC - scout in wild shape to identify targets > summon elementals > drop a large area save or die > shapechange into a beholder, keep the casters in the main eye cone for the fighters to whack, use other eyes to shoot the remaining enemies - if threatened in close combat, shapechange into glabrezu.

The party:
Minsc, Jaheira, Solaufein - close combat (Jaheira will pre-buff for increased claw damage, Minsc will be given flight)
Ian - buff his quickloading split arrow crossbow and shoot
Imoen - flight/greater invisibility/ hunter's eye > ranged sneak attacks with orbs of force or reserve feats.
Amnelath - put a double veil bubble over herself, Ian and Viconia - use high level dispels, reciprocal gyre, and orbs of force as needed.
Airie - fly up, turn invisible, attack with sonic area effects, dive in with a quickened heal if things go south.
Viconia - high level save or suck, or insta-kill spells.
Animal companions - sniff for invisible rogues.

The enemies:
The enemy party has arrived by astral travel - they can be taken down with dispels, but will return for more next chapter.
Illasera - use her bhaalspawn spellike abilities to move around the battlefield, fullattacking from maximum range, prioritising any exposed casters.
Enemy wizard 1 - his team's primary caster - will focus the PC, trying to take down her shapechange.
Enemy unseen seer - serves as her team's radar, reducing the element of surprise - will look for and expose invisible party members, then try to hide and snipe
Enemy minotaur berserker. - will deactivate the magical collar that keeps him docile, then ran amok on anyone who tries to engage his side's casters.
Enemy wizard 2 and 3 - a pair of twins hired by illasera for this job - will use flight and mirror image, then focus Amnelath with spells that dispel her veils, trying to set her up for Illasera to shoot.
Enemy ? - some kind of highly mobile close combat type, possibly two - will intercept as needed to keep his casters out of close combat.
Mercenaries - will die (they don't have the luxury of astral travel). Illasera has gifted them with some cheap magic cloaks and armor, to make them look less uniform - in effect some of them look like named NPCs, which paints a big target on their backs.

Concerns:

Illasera will capture some druids alive for torture, putting them on improvised racks among her forces, to prevent the PC from just dropping a frostfell on the whole bunch.

However, the PC scouting abilities still give her some opportunity to scout her enemies. My chief concern is how to prevent the villains from being caught unbuffed - they can't buff beforehand, because then the PC will just outwait everything that isn't persisted. So I need some kind of early warning system when the party is coming.

Also, anything beyond what I've already done to keep the casters alive through the first round?

[Braininthejar2]

I should have just posted the last paragraph, without the whole wall of text before it, shouldn't I? :smallsigh:

[J-H]

Use Detect Teleportation and/or Delay Teleportation, for 1 round of warning. Wish can also be used to counteract a mass teleport ("I Wish they had arrived 3 rounds later and in the cave."

Use the War Weaver class (Heroes of Battle) for one of the NPC wizards to distribute a bunch single-target buffs to many allies as a single standard action.

Use counterspelling to block some of the dispels and AOEs.

I don't know if you took my suggestion to look at CPsi. There is a PsyWar power in there called Inconstant Location that lets the Psywar teleport once per round as a swift or free action for 1 round per level. It's perfect for Illasera. Damp Power from CPsi also will help shut down the AOE damage spells. The Ranger Class makes, at best, mediocre archers. They have no special bonus to archery aside from a couple of free feats. Fighters are better, as are psychic warriors, and heck, even Soulbows.

Don't forget to give her a bow with the Splitting enchanment for double the attack rolls and damage. Don't use standard arrows; mix explosive arrows, the ones with the acid burst, arrows of dispelling, arrows of sleep, and poisoned arrows in. With Haste (5 attacks) + Splitting (x2) she can force 10 saves per round with specialty arrows.

[Braininthejar2]

The ones I gave her last time the party narrowly missed her did vile damage - making in-combat healing impossible.

In the hour since posting the thread I've come up with invisible stalker sentries - they should give the villains some early warning - and as long as wizard 1 is not surprised, he can timestop and buff himself. (also thinking of making him a master specialis abjurer, for better conuterpelling and some buff busting)

I've used psionics before when running the illithid compound, but I must say I'm not too confident with using it yet (my big problem now is time - it takes me ages to prepare hostile adventuring parties at this level.)

[Calthropstu]

For the results of this battle, please play Baldurs Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal

Isn't Illasera an epic level character?

Regardless, I like to use divination spells for this. My personal favorite is prying eye. It gives you several eyes that will fly back to you if they see someone approach. An invisibility circle used after casting them will make them impossible to spot.

Also, a nice set of traps before they arrive will be prudent.

[Braininthejar2]

Invisibility has too short a duration. And without it, they won't be hidden well enough - the PC druid has a pretty absurd spot level when buffed :smallcool:

Still, it's a logical countermeasure the villains would employ.

Traps would be good if they didn't have a berserker in their party - he won't remember where they are once he goes off.

Yes, Illasera is epic. Still thinking on what other equipment to give her

[J-H]

The ones I gave her last time the party narrowly missed her did vile damage - making in-combat healing impossible.

I've used psionics before when running the illithid compound, but I must say I'm not too confident with using it yet (my big problem now is time - it takes me ages to prepare hostile adventuring parties at this level.)

Varying what arrows she uses makes it harder for her targets to adapt.

Making her a psywar will take a bit longer, but it'll deliver a much more believable "One of the Five" than a mundane ranger who somehow got to epic and is able to command wizards who are much more versatile than she is. Ranger 21 is a pretty gimped build. Picking out 20-ish powers for a Psywar will still be faster than selecting spells prepared for a wizard 17.

She might be able to hire a shadow druid, revenge for Faldorn and all that.

I don't think your 4th-level mooks will do anything except absorb 1-2 attacks each. They probably will not even pose a threat to the party, unless they're doing something like using Wands of Magic Missile (CL 9). Hmm, mooks with Wands of Magic Missile readied to disrupt spellcasting....

A few spells from the SRD:
Prismatic Wall or Prismatic Sphere are good BFC for the wizards to use.

Power Word: Stun is a good way to knock out a squishy. It's No-Save on anything up to 150hp. A Wizard 18 with maxed D4HD and 18 CON (from items) has 144hp. Power Word Blind hits anything up to 200hp.

Dimensional Lock has a 20' radius and lasts days/level. A few of those scattered around will force CHARNAME to teleport in where Illasera wants her to.

Symbols of X (weakness, death, pain, etc) make effective "traps."

[Braininthejar2]

Absorbing 1-2 attacks each buys the real villains a round to act - that's exactly what 'fodder' means. :smalltongue:

Yes, they are more versatile - though she has some SLA'a for free for being a bhaalspawn, which make her better than a ranger of the same level - they listen to her because she's godsblooded, and they aren't - there is potential for profit that they simply cannot realize without her.

(3 AM here so, sadly, that's the most coherent contribution I can make right now)

[J-H]

Aside from her SLAs, an archery Ranger-based Illasera is completely shut down by a simple 3rd level spell- Wind Wall. It doesn't matter if her arrows are Epic, Wind Wall blocks them.
Unless she started off her career with a really good group around her, or unless she started with the SLAs, I still don't see Ranger Illasera surviving to 20.

In the original, she was supposed to be an Illusionist/Thief. That at least has more versatility than Ranger does.

Have the Wizards bring summons of their own, if possible. If you do keep Illasera as a Ranger, give her a really, really good animal companion. Like, advanced Fleshraker with permanancied Buffs including Fly good.

Confusion on the CHARNAME summons might work well, too. A lot of elementals have weak saves for their HD.

[Pronounceable]

I'm no expert (or even proficient) in all the myriad itty bitties of 3.5, but the key to make awesome boss fights is usually phases. Especially with sudden dramatic changes.

Blow up the cave. I'm sure some high level magic can manage that. Let the battle start inside the cramped cave, Illasera takes some damage or loses some flunkies, then BOOM. Open sky for unimpeded shooting of explosion survivors who thought this was gonna be close quarters battle (assuming she's packing flight, which she obviously should). Major baddies are all fine cos they had fire immunity through potions or whatever. And not only the npc druids died, their circle is stomped. Set fire to the forest too when she's retreating (I presume she's not dying here), that should rub it in even further.

Also apply more pressure than this. Illasera should've captured as many druids as possible, then start killing captives once PC is close. Make her unique power Spawnsense, that'll make her useful to Fivers as a bloodhound and explain her presence among them (befits ranger as bonus), she can start her mooks' buffing and npc executions for goading when her senses start tingling. Coupled with the cave surprise, this should severely cramp the good guys' style.

If you want Illasera to be a particularly nasty recurrer, attempt to permakill companions instead of prioritizing PC (there's more where they came from anyway). Astral copied attackers means they can come back every day at full strength, whittle down PC's group until they're too weakened to continue. Which is admittedly more of a caster tactic suitable for Sendai, you might wanna save that trick.

Also, Illasera's favored enemy is Bhaalspawn and she's taken every possible feat/item/doodad that buffs her against it. That's just common sense.

[Braininthejar2]

In that case, the only way to get rid of her is to find her quickly - probably casting discern location on one of her teammates - there she'd have an advantage of home ground... until the player uses her usual shortcut of bringing the whole compound down with earthquakes.

What do you think Illasera's hideout should be? Perhaps some guild hall hidden in plain sight in the middle of a large city?

[J-H]

Far, far away. The Zhentarim suggestion isn't bad.

The trolls are endemic to the druid grove area; if you do the Limited Wish quest, you actually run into a Trollish shaman, even if you exterminated all the trolls on the map. What happens if Illasera's wizard Dominates the trollish shaman, and then the trolls get buffed with Bull's Strength, and Resist Energy? Add some nets and tanglefoot bags for fun times taking down flying characters.

[Braininthejar2]

I don't want to use too many summons... it's already a 17 character battle with 4 casters per side. It will take ages.:smallsigh: (enjoyable ages, if I'm good with the destriptions, but still)

Also, I don't want to overoptimize - there are already several serious threats that need to be handled simultaneously here. I want to make the fight interesting, not wipe the party.

[Pronounceable]

Perhaps some guild hall hidden in plain sight in the middle of a large city?
A good guy temple in a good guy city. Silverymoon maybe. Or Baldur's Gate for a blast from the past.

I don't think Illasera would have a permanent residence, she's weakest Fiver and even if every Fiver were completely loyal and upright and trustworthy, she has no guarantee that this is so. She wouldn't have made it past 20 without healthy paranoia, no sprawling secure stronghold for her (which would be weakest Fiver stronghold anyway). She should squat anonymously somewhere crowded, ready to bolt at any minute to some other small safehouse. PC will be doing more than enough stronghold busting already, no need to add one more to the pile.

[Braininthejar2]

Silvermoon might be overkill - you don't go inside a good guys' mythal if you're paranoid. But any big slum where an adress given by discern location won't be of immediate use, and a high level battle would set the whole street on fire...

Definitely moving from city to city... each hideout fitted with enough defenses to give her an early warning if someone invades - she does astral travel after all - she can't have her throat slit in her sleep.

I had the player's bhaalspawn abilities get stronger with levels - she got as far as break enchantment (based on her reaction to dreams) before Irenicus ripped it.

If it works the same for Illasera, it would be something like a half-fiend template - so the astral travel thing might be her SLA rather than her cohort's spell.

[Braininthejar2]

Speaking of Bhaalspawn powers, what should I give Imoen? the Ascension mod gave her dreams and SLA like the PC got, but she had nothing unique to her.

Perhaps something to increase her odds of survival? There was that one bhaalspawn npc who would teleport away whenever he got startled, so there is a precedent for non-violent bhaalspawn talents.

[J-H]

In one of the mods, she ended up getting powers that followed the BG1 trend. Cure Light Wounds, Delay Poison, etc. They upgraded throughout TOB until she had Heal 1/day and Regeneration 1/day.

[Braininthejar2]

In one of the mods, she ended up getting powers that followed the BG1 trend. Cure Light Wounds, Delay Poison, etc. They upgraded throughout TOB until she had Heal 1/day and Regeneration 1/day.


the Ascension mod gave her dreams and SLA like the PC got, but she had nothing unique to her.

I'm looking for something more

[J-H]

Heal and Regeneration are great panic buttons for anyone to have.

What is Imoen known for?

Cheerful, happy personality & optimism
-Resist Fear, 2x/day
-Turn it around, give her a 2/day Cause Fear type effect, 30' radius, with no HD cap
-Gain DR/good to emphasize the darkness of her powers
Being sneaky (pickpocket, etc)
-2x/day Improved Invisibility with the bonus effect of the Darkstalker feat (LoM, makes her immune to blindsense, mindsight, etc)
-Give her a couple of class features from Arcane Trickster
Using arcane magic
-3/day apply a free metamagic feat on the fly to a spell. Possibilities: Fell Drain, Fell Frighten, convert 1/2 damage to Vile
-Apply sneak attack dice to spell damage at longer range
-Spectral Hand (30' range) Vampiric Touch 3/day.


Ineluctable Echo (Spelltouched feat, UA) is not very useful most of the time, but would be fitting.

Stat boosts as the Five die and the esssence grows stronger would be in order. In ToB, I think she just got +1str/+1 dex. +2 dex/+2int, +1 str/+1 con is probably more in line with 3.5. It could be handed out over time, and would be inherent but not preventing use of tomes or wish to get further increases.

Free maximizing or a +2 DC boost 3/day on some of her Bhaal-like signature spells would fit, too. Pick things like Cloud of Knives, Vampiric Touch, Phantasmal Killer, Symbol of Death, Finger of Death, etc. Bhaal wants her to be more like he was.

[Braininthejar2]

She already is an arcane trickster :smallbiggrin:

(actually, rogue-sorcerer-unseen seer-arcane trickster. Everyone knows that straight entry into Arcane Trickster sucks)

So she has non-detection from Unseen Seer too.

[Mr Adventurer]

Can any of your PC group cast Disjunction because that would wipe out the travelers. It would be my tactic in their place.

[Mr Adventurer]

In the hour since posting the thread I've come up with invisible stalker sentries - they should give the villains some early warning - and as long as wizard 1 is not surprised, he can timestop and buff himself. (also thinking of making him a master specialis abjurer, for better conuterpelling and some buff busting)

At this level, surely the party has continuous See Invisible? Even just the spell, at CL20, lasts 200 minutes.



Regardless, I like to use divination spells for this. My personal favorite is prying eye. It gives you several eyes that will fly back to you if they see someone approach. An invisibility circle used after casting them will make them impossible to spot.

The eyes are spell effects, not creatures or objects, so aren't legal targets for Invisibility?

Invisibility should be more or less worthless at this level.

But also Invisibility Sphere does not work that way.

[Calthropstu]

At this level, surely the party has continuous See Invisible? Even just the spell, at CL20, lasts 200 minutes.



The eyes are spell effects, not creatures or objects, so aren't legal targets for Invisibility?

Invisibility should be more or less worthless at this level.

But also Invisibility Sphere does not work that way.

hmmm, didn't think of that. though the eyes are... created. So should count as objects. Could be an interesting discussion. The eyes have a hardness, and hp. So they should be valid targets in my opinion. They are, in essence, copies of your eyes.

[Braininthejar2]

At this level, surely the party has continuous See Invisible? Even just the spell, at CL20, lasts 200 minutes.

As levels go on, I learn the system as much as the player does. With invisible enemies I've mostly been using blindsight so far. :smalltongue:

It's not so bad - sometimes doing things the wrong way makes the game more fun (the final fight with Irenicus was epic precisely because the party was split wrong - the moment Minsc was free of tanking the demons and could run into the PC's antimagic cone, Irenicus took a pickaxe to the forehead.

Anyway, back to Illasera. I meant to finish writing her up yesterday, but real life distracted me. Assuming I'm keeping her as a ranger, how would you equip her?

So far I have
gloves of dexterity+6
greater bracers of archery
cloak of elvenkind (possibly upgraded)
a belt with potions for some minor buffs
quiver of elhonna - some magic arrows.
composite longbow +3 (split, increased range, bhaalspawnbane, also arrows turn invisible in flight - not enough for precision damage, but enough to negate some defensive measures)
third eye-clarity

Even with the safehouses counting against her wbl, she can still afford a lot more. WHat would you give her for armor?

[J-H]

The Force ability (MIC) lets her arrows bypass all physical DR and do a bit more damage.
Boots of swiftness (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#bootsofSwiftness)
Mantle of Epic SR or Mantle of Great Stealth. Both have advantages.

Give her an Animated shield for more AC, probably with a cold resistance effect on it. Mithral Chain Shirt is likely her armor if she's got a really high DEX. Soulfire (BOED) enhancement for immunity to death effects.

[Pronounceable]

against her wbl
Nope. Just chuck that, wbl is possibly the worst mechanic of DnD history. There's more than enough diddles and doodles DM needs to deal with at this level, you don't have time to waste on counting beans.

Give her artifacts. I'm guessing PC has stuff like Crom Faeyr and Flail of Ages and a dozen others, so Illasera and all other Fivers need to be swimming in artifacts too. At the very least, she needs immunity to death-drain-stun-paralyze, a whole bunch of resists to most commonly used elements (fire, cold, lightning, acid) and flying. The stuff you gave her are far too vanilla. Make up Bhaaly artifacts, even Sarevok had his sword and armor and he was like 15, bonus points of them not being too strong once PC takes them.

[Braininthejar2]

Can any of your PC group cast Disjunction because that would wipe out the travelers. It would be my tactic in their place.

Amnelath has chain dispel. The villains will make sure to spread out.

[Braininthejar2]

The Force ability (MIC) lets her arrows bypass all physical DR and do a bit more damage.

They already have a bow like that. from the rakshasa lord in Suldanessalar battle.


Give her artifacts. I'm guessing PC has stuff like Crom Faeyr and Flail of Ages and a dozen others, so Illasera and all other Fivers need to be swimming in artifacts too. At the very least, she needs immunity to death-drain-stun-paralyze, a whole bunch of resists to most commonly used elements (fire, cold, lightning, acid) and flying. The stuff you gave her are far too vanilla. Make up Bhaaly artifacts, even Sarevok had his sword and armor and he was like 15, bonus points of them not being too strong once PC takes them.

I don't want to be too repetitive with equipment, with all the bosses needing the same immunities. That's why I asked about something interesting.

The party... doesn't have either of those weapons actually. :smalleek: The PC is a druid, and doesn't care that much about loot, so she didn't look for the flail, and the illithid lair in Anthakla didn't come up at all. They do have a pair of powerful weapons from the elder brain's treasury (I tried random treasure generation to see how it will come up - ended with a +5 holy pick, and +5 prismatic burst spear - unoptimised but very cool visually) and an evil druid staff that replaced Blackrazor in the test of greed.

[Pronounceable]

The party... doesn't have either of those weapons actually. :smalleek:
PC is not, in fact, swimming in artifacts? How strange. Then Fivers shouldn't either.

That said, definitely give Illasera (and every other Fiver) at least one Bhaaly special snowflake artifact loaded with goodies that ignores all those silly magic guidelines (which are for squares). Such as the +8 longbow of +all damage plus permanent freedom of movement and deathward and skittles, Bhaalbow of Asskicking and Nametaking. Or Illasera's Wondrous Plotarmor which has all the stuff you want on it.

[Braininthejar2]

Well, a prismatic burst +5 spear counts as "+8" cost-wise. so they do have something (also, despite the size of the group, barely anyone uses actual weapons)

That reminds me... the PC still has that cloak made of Tazok's skin (she tends to dissect 'monsters' she kills, and she got really peeved when he came back from the dead.) - she's meant to make it a magic item for ages, but Ian never had the time to properly enchant it. Perhaps Caspenar can make something out of it. :smallconfused:

[Mr Adventurer]

You can't 'just' chuck WBL. You need to take account of the effect of equipment on the actual challenge of the opposition, as well.

[Braininthejar2]

The wealth guidlines say she should be several times the wealth of a player, even as an NPC.

So I ended up equipping her with slightly better equipment than the players have, filling all the slots.

Her signature bhaalspawn ability is "shadow of god" - her ranged attacks do vile damage, and whenever she teleports or blinks, she sheds most of the debuffs affecting her.

I hesitate to give her more damage - with split, haste and rapid shot, that's 12 shots per turn. Since vile damage can't be healed before the end of the battle, it's kind of a big deal - at worst, she might be killing a character every other turn.

[J-H]

Well, she is supposed to be a very fast-moving, deadly assassin. At this point in the game, if the bosses aren't killing party members (or coming very close) then it's not a real challenge.

Don't forget to give her some arrows of Dispelling.

[Braininthejar2]

That is true too. But a bit troublesome in a campaign where the player is non-ressurectable by design. :smallamused:

Her party already has 4 sources of dispel (that last close combat guy is a duskblade) so she's free to focus on whoever loses her defences.

[J-H]

Well, the player character is probably not the one who'll be easiest to kill. The arcane casters are probably squishiest.

I figure Illasera would still carry some arrows of Dispelling out of habit and paranoia - after all, she didn't always have major backup, and mages can always be bribed. Same with arrows of detonation, biting, etc. Force arrows too, so that she can fire through a Wind Wall.

If you're an archer, varying your arrow loadout is one of the only ways you have to be versatile in 3.5.

[Braininthejar2]

Hmm...

Airie is squishy, despite flying
Imoen a bit less so, but she's also a bhaalspawn, so no coming back for her (and a serious punch to the player if she loses her now)
Amnelath is an initiate of the sevenfold veil - her squishiness relies directly on how long Illasera's support wizards can stay up.

The PC is a druid, and a rather tough one - but her casting makes her a priority target.

For anyone grounded (not flying or dispelled) the minotaur berserker is the other big threat. with five attacks per round, he's bound to crit at least once during the battle, and with his strength he doesn't even need to.

[Braininthejar2]

Scratch that...

Due to a small shift in the plot, the player met Illasera early, and nearly died

(she saw the ambush from high in the air, and should have avoided it altogether, but the player was very tired after work, and despite being warned decided to bomb them with spells. A serious error of judgement)

Long story short, if I hadn't fudged the declaration to have the salvo go at Jaheira instead, the campaign would have ended there and then.

With the split bhaalspawnbane bow I gave her at your suggestion, a full attack from Illasera will kill the PC, period.

Fortunately now she knows that. Hopefully she will plan accordingly. :smallwink: Because she will have to fight her sooner or later.

[CaPtMalHammer]

Lots of fun options. I like the setup a lot, use the terrain the NPC's advantage, entangle or control spells, use the swamp for gas traps of confusion traps etc, trip wires that grapple. be careful adding to much grapple or it really slows a combat down. Wind Wall is an issue for an archer but there are counterspell amulets etc that a DM can employ to negate those little issues a player may through out.

I also agree phases are good start simple and build a good arc to a battle. the battle should start off even. the PC's should gain some advantage when the twist happens to make them feel like they are going to lose, in the end they triumph but don't come out unscathed. At this level its possible to kill PC's. I always leave it an option if they make poor choices but is never my ultimate goal as a DM.

Story is the major thing.

[J-H]

That's great. Players should have near-death experiences occasionally to keep them feeling challenged, paranoid, and like they aren't on a railroad to victory. Also, this helps show that despite not being a spellcaster, Illasera the Quick is one of the deadliest people on the battlefield.

Did the player get to see her Inconstant Location Bhaalspawn power in play, or is that still a further surprise?

The big battle should be fun!