Mind Shards of Pandorym

[danielxcutter]

So, I've been reading Elder Evils again, and it seems like Mind Shards of Pandorym are really powerful. Unlike pretty much all of the other Elder Evils(save the Worm That Walks) in that book, it's a caster-type, and hoo boy is it good at that. Manifests as a 20th level Telepath, a bunch of psi-like abilities at ML 20 as well, swift action Vampric Ego Whip every 1d4 rounds, immunity to sonic damage of all things... the list goes on and on. At least it doesn't have the physical stats of it's peers, but frankly it doesn't really need them.

Anyways... I'm curious about a few things, specifically related to it's combat abilities.


I presume it's the strongest in the book, yes... how does it fare compared to other monsters that have epic CR, like the Abominations from the Epic Level Handbook for example? A good deal of it's powers are mind-affecting, but it has plenty of other offensive tricks up it's... pseudopods. You get what I mean.


Even if you don't count the allies it may have, like Lucather Majii or Obligatum VII, even if you don't consider that the Sign completely shuts off conjuration and nerfs divine spellcasters heavily, fighting a mind shard is going to be really, really, really hard... how high should you get your PCs to? Obviously you want them to be at least ECL 20, but honestly, Mind Shards aren't easy foes even at the right CR if my impression of them is correct.


Speaking of fighting a Mind Shard - what tactics should you deploy? How would you control your Mind Shard as a DM, and how would you combat them as a PC? Assume mid-to-high levels of practical optimization. What about when you include Obligatum and Lucather?




...well?

[ExLibrisMortis]

Obligatum VII is terribly weak. You can probably ignore it altogether.

Lucather is a full caster. He doesn't have the straight-up power you'd expect from an Incantatrix (say), but he's still throwing around 9ths. Dangerous fellow, but if he's up against a four-man party with at least two full casters, he'll lose.

A mind shard is really nice, but death ward + mind blank shuts down a lot of its abilities, including vampiric ego whip and Mental Subjugation. It's basically the same as Lucather; you don't want to fight him without full casters of your own, but bring a couple of 17th-level cleric-wizard-psion types, and you'll do fine (keep the psion away from the shard, though).

[The Viscount]

Pandorym may have an Epic range CR, but like, say, the Solar, its a very powerful caster with some other abilities. It doesn't have epic abilities, just a lot of regular abilities. Its vampiric ego whip is indeed a strong power, but the party is a minimum level of 21, and as such should have immunity to mind affecting effects. Pandorym is a real pain for divine casters and manifesters, but if the party doesn't contain them then half of its abilities don't do anything. The only other thing of note to avoid is enchantment spells, which you wouldn't be casting anyway, since it's immune to mind affecting effects. The undead it can summon are so behind in CR they can be dispatched within a round of assault, an AoE spell or two will suffice. Pandorym's SR is only 35. That would require a roll of 10 (just below even odds) from a wizard with nothing helping. There are monsters in the regular CR range with a wider gap, if a lower value. However a wizard of level 21+ is bound to have various increases to caster level, so it might actually be reasonable to use SR:yes spells.
Pandorym's AC is 39, which is respectable but not impenetrable. A buffed frontline character shouldn't have much trouble hitting with a ghost touch weapon. Epic and good is annoying for DR, but simple enough to bypass for high level characters.
Pandorym indeed has a selection of strong powers and PLAs, but they're capped at ML 20 and almost all are offensive. The at-wills are divinations or useless "utility" so aren't relevant. Telekinetic sphere is thankfully limited so it's just a matter of dispelling it when it comes up. As you mentioned immunity to mind affecting protects against some but not all of its powers.

In terms of preparing for it, remember that Pandorym's sign only shuts off calling, summoning, and teleportation. You're still free to make orbs of force to blast it with. Obligatum can rather safely be ignored since it focuses on attacking the prison and can't actually overcome the 30 hardness.

Of great relevance is Pandorym's utterly embarrassing +2 to initiative. The party will likely go first. An ubercharger with pounce can be expected to deal around 200 points of damage reasonably. Assuming the arcane caster wants to deal damage there are many ways of doing it, but I'll be crude and choose Transdimensional Empowered Maw of Chaos. We'll say that we're using Metamagic School Focus, Arcane Thesis, and Practical Metamagic to cast it as a 9th. The spell is uncapped, so at level 25 will deal 27d6 (assuming no cl boosters beyond arcane thesis), average once empowered of 141 points of damage. If said wizard is shapechanged into a monster like a chronotyryn they can cast this twice a round for average 282 points of damage. If this is excessive action economy breaking we can just say that the party has a second caster with similar methods dealing comparable amounts of damage. This puts Pandorym in the negatives with the last party member doing whatever they want to inflict the last few points and account for lower rolls from the rest of the party.

This is all just using the progression rules for epic levels. Epic Magic breaks the encounter like it breaks every encounter, because the party can just put in the time crafting an epic spell with no save and no SR that turns Pandorym into delicious pies.

[danielxcutter]

Obligatum VII is terribly weak. You can probably ignore it altogether.

Not surprised. I mean, come on, they didn't even give it Power Attack? :smallannoyed:


Lucather is a full caster. He doesn't have the straight-up power you'd expect from an Incantatrix (say), but he's still throwing around 9ths. Dangerous fellow, but if he's up against a four-man party with at least two full casters, he'll lose.

He's a caster, but he's only ONE caster. I see.


A mind shard is really nice, but death ward + mind blank shuts down a lot of its abilities, including vampiric ego whip and Mental Subjugation. It's basically the same as Lucather; you don't want to fight him without full casters of your own, but bring a couple of 17th-level cleric-wizard-psion types, and you'll do fine (keep the psion away from the shard, though).

Divine casters are also heavily vulnerable - Divine Enervation and Divinity Siphon hurt a lot. Still, very good point.


Pandorym may have an Epic range CR, but like, say, the Solar, its a very powerful caster with some other abilities. It doesn't have epic abilities, just a lot of regular abilities. Its vampiric ego whip is indeed a strong power, but the party is a minimum level of 21, and as such should have immunity to mind affecting effects.

Even at much lower levels, protection from mind-affecting abilities are available, after all, so good point.


Pandorym is a real pain for divine casters and manifesters, but if the party doesn't contain them then half of its abilities don't do anything. The only other thing of note to avoid is enchantment spells, which you wouldn't be casting anyway, since it's immune to mind affecting effects.

Hmm... Not that you're wrong, but don't most parties at least have one divine caster? Then again, the sign already hits them hard... I dunno.


The undead it can summon are so behind in CR they can be dispatched within a round of assault, an AoE spell or two will suffice.

No arguments here. Moving on.


Pandorym's SR is only 35. That would require a roll of 10 (just below even odds) from a wizard with nothing helping. There are monsters in the regular CR range with a wider gap, if a lower value. However a wizard of level 21+ is bound to have various increases to caster level, so it might actually be reasonable to use SR:yes spells.

I mean, unless you're fighting a monster with the Pseudonatural(ELH) template, most monsters don't have totally impenetrable SR after all.


Pandorym's AC is 39, which is respectable but not impenetrable. A buffed frontline character shouldn't have much trouble hitting with a ghost touch weapon. Epic and good is annoying for DR, but simple enough to bypass for high level characters.

In terms of AC: I see. Around how much would a typical frontliner have to-hit at that level?

In terms of DR: The alignment part is so easy bypass at that level it's not even funny, but epic DR needs an epic weapon to penetrate without ignoring DR altogether. That being said, what methods are there to do so? Besides getting an actual epic weapon, of course - it's entirely possible, of course, just that I want to know if that's the *only* way.


Pandorym indeed has a selection of strong powers and PLAs, but they're capped at ML 20 and almost all are offensive. The at-wills are divinations or useless "utility" so aren't relevant. Telekinetic sphere is thankfully limited so it's just a matter of dispelling it when it comes up. As you mentioned immunity to mind affecting protects against some but not all of its powers.

Mind Blank and it's like does help a lot, but it's still a competent blaster. Also, it has both Dispel Psionics and Shatter Mind Blank, so it's probably wise to pack a spare Mind Blank or something... it's a powerful manifester, but it's not a tricky one. You'll need sufficient numbers crunch-wise, but you don't need a bunch of out-of-the-box tactics I guess.


In terms of preparing for it, remember that Pandorym's sign only shuts off calling, summoning, and teleportation. You're still free to make orbs of force to blast it with. Obligatum can rather safely be ignored since it focuses on attacking the prison and can't actually overcome the 30 hardness.

"Only" is an understatement considering the power of those spells, but the point still stands... Orb of Force is great, though Mind Shards do have a pretty good touch AC. Might want to prepare True Strike or something.

If you're fighting a Mind Shard in the first place, that means Obligatum or someone else managed to damage the crystal enough... on the other hand, Obligatum is still kinda weak, and there's not that much room for improvement even if you totally overhaul it's classes and feats. It's certainly not as much of a threat as a Mind Shard, or Lucather for that matter.


Of great relevance is Pandorym's utterly embarrassing +2 to initiative. The party will likely go first. An ubercharger with pounce can be expected to deal around 200 points of damage reasonably. Assuming the arcane caster wants to deal damage there are many ways of doing it, but I'll be crude and choose Transdimensional Empowered Maw of Chaos. We'll say that we're using Metamagic School Focus, Arcane Thesis, and Practical Metamagic to cast it as a 9th. The spell is uncapped, so at level 25 will deal 27d6 (assuming no cl boosters beyond arcane thesis), average once empowered of 141 points of damage. If said wizard is shapechanged into a monster like a chronotyryn they can cast this twice a round for average 282 points of damage. If this is excessive action economy breaking we can just say that the party has a second caster with similar methods dealing comparable amounts of damage. This puts Pandorym in the negatives with the last party member doing whatever they want to inflict the last few points and account for lower rolls from the rest of the party.

Arcane Thesis is kind of broken and uberchargers aren't always permitted, but there's plenty of ways to deal bunches of damage without cheese anyways. Your point still stands.


This is all just using the progression rules for epic levels. Epic Magic breaks the encounter like it breaks every encounter, because the party can just put in the time crafting an epic spell with no save and no SR that turns Pandorym into delicious pies.

Technically I think Elder Evils are immune to polymorphing so you can't literally turn it into delicious pies, but yeah, Epic Spellcasting/Manifesting is broken. Most DMs don't allow PCs to abuse it too much precisely because of that.

[Doctor Awkward]

The key to the difficulty of Pandorym's Prison is not just the creature's present. It is the setting in which you must fight them.

First of all, Obligatum VII has an adamantine longsword. He ignores the hardness of the prison when he attacks it.

Secondly, the entire complex is covered in an Aura of Entropy put in place by the gods to ward off intruders. It produces the following effects:

Living creatures do not recover hit points or ability damage through rest and natural healing. Magical healing works normally.
Undead that have been turned only remain so for 5 rounds.
Fortitude saves to prevent permanent level loss take a -4 penalty.
Any living creatures that dies inside automatically rises as a random undead after 1d4 minutes (zombie or ghoul for creatures with Intelligence lower than 6, and random intelligent undead for anything higher), with a 10% chance of it's mind and body separating and becoming a random incorporeal undead (such as a ghost, wraith or quell) and a random corporeal creature (like a bodak or forsaken shell).


Thirdly, to reach the crystal chamber where you fight the encounter the players must cross two additional effects called the Outer Circle of Binding and the Inner Circle of Binding. Simply passing over the Outer Circle causes corporeal creatures to become nauseated for 1d4 rounds with no save. It also automatically extends any necromancy spell cast within it, and any attempt at casting a conjuration spell needs a DC 30 + spell level Concentration check or it automatically fails. That's any spells in the Conjuration school, which is an entirely separate effect from the Elder Sign. The Inner Circle of Binding causes any living corporeal creature that crosses it to suffer 1d4 points of Con drain and 1d4 points of Wisdom drain with no save. They must also succeed on a DC 30 Fortitude save or be stunned for 1d4 rounds. Inside the Inner Circle, all necromancy spells are automatically extended and empowered, undead get a +8 Turn Resistance, and conjuration (summoning, calling, and teleportation) effects are cease to function as the Overwhelming Elder Sign.

The room itself is subject to extreme cold conditions, as noted here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/environment.htm#coldDangers); 1d6 points of nonlethal damage per minute with no save, with a Fortitude save (DC 15, +1 per previous check) for an additional 1d4 nonlethal. Anyone wearing metal armor or otherwise coming into contact with any metal are affected by chill metal, as the spell. All nonmagical flames are extinguished and all other light sources provide only half the normal illumination. The text is unclear as to whether the violet pall emanating from the crystal actually provides and illumination in the room at all.


Then there is the matter of the creatures themselves.

Obligatum is rightly considered a non-threat, aside from one issue: the kolyarut's at will enervation ray. This is point and click 1d4 negative levels every round to a random party member. This is in addition to the massive load of AoE fell drain metamagicked spells Lucather has prepared. "Oh but Death Ward--" yeah, yeah, we're getting to that...

Lucather, even with his by-the-book spell loadout, has a caster level of 18 and 3 instances of dispel magic prepared. His spellbook also contains Disjunction and time stop. Counting all relevant effects in the area, he has 35 effective HD for the purposes of being turned, and this is before potential Elder Signs, and his ability to shut down any divine spellcaster in the room with Intercession.

Then there are the 6 Dread Wraiths hanging around the room with them. By dogpiling a single target (after it has been dispelled and enervated) with their Constitution drains, each time their target fails a save it becomes increasingly difficult to save against subsequent attacks. They are capable of averaging 27 Constitution drain in a single round, which is more than enough to outright kill any target.

And then there is the mind shard itself...
Not only is it also capable of Pisonic Dispel and Psionic Disintegrate (for pesky equipment), but it also has the option of simply casting Null Psionics Field (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/nullPsionicsField.htm), marching over to the party and pummeling them to death. It's important to note here that the psionic version of antimagic field does not address incorporeal creatures at all...


And all of that is just by the book. There are extremely simple modifications that can be made to severely ratchet up the difficutly. Firstly is dropping Obligatum's levels in Occult Slayer for something that doesn't suck (Tome of Battle). You can also adjust Lucather's spell load-out, and swap out his two useless metamagic feats for Chain Spell and something else (for a really dirty trick, you can apply Explosive spell to any of his AoE's to throw them up against the Crystal Prison, which will then, as the text notes, subject the person to the effects of a prismatic wall for as long as they remain in contact with it.

After that it's just tactics. Don't have Obligatum ignore external threats as the text suggests, have him work with the undead to dipatch the party first. Use Lucather to Chain Dispel the party's buffs and equipment, or just blow it up entirely with Disjunction.

Honestly, this encounter is only not utterly devastating if the party knows exactly what to expect going in.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Thing is, when you consider the entire scenario, the fight does get harder (as you explain), but it also gets easier, because Obligatum VII is the start of the encounter, and he sucks.

Obligatum VII can't normally damage the crystalline prison, because hardness 30 is not negated by adamantine (only hardness under 20 can be bypassed by adamantine). However, the scenario pretty much requires that it can, so let's give it that. It takes it 4-5 rounds to release a mind shard, so it should be fairly straightforward to nuke or cc it first; The Aura of Entropy is pretty much irrelevant (insofar it has any noticable effects at all, death ward will counter it), the only question is whether you can get across the circle of binding in time.

The circles of binding are interesting, and annoyingly block LoS/LoE, but if you destroy the walls, the circle's effects end, too (as per magic circle against evil, referenced on page 88), and the first can be teleported across. You should probably smash the outer wall first thing; the inner circle is what keeps mind shards locked in, so you might want to leave that intact and attack through the door. In the best-case scenario, you have some non-living party members (I'm thinking necropolitans primarily, but astral construct works, too) who can simply ignore the circles. Passwall through the two walls and slapping a grapple on Obligatum VII (Grapple +22) will let a 9th-level party finish the job in one round (theoretically, of course).

Basically, if you take the circles as fixtures, you'll have trouble, but if you look at them as objects to be manipulated, you can bypass a lot of their effects. It depends on the DM whether you know how the circles work; a Spellcraft check with detect magic should reveal that they are using magic circle rules, though.


Regardless of all that, I absolutely agree on the dangers of greater dispel magic/greater dispel psionics. For an ECL 20 party, you can expect caster levels in the mid-20s to about 30, and additional defenses, such as dispelling buffer or a spellblade, but even so, Mordenkainen's disjunction and the mind shard's greater dispel psionics are potentially lethal. Still, better than being hit by some 9th-level spell, right?

(incidentally, disjunction might be able to destroy the prison in one go, and will certainly remove the dimensional anchor that keeps the crystal in place, allowing you or Lucather to plane shift it anywhere--a very nasty trick to pull, as DM, but very spectacular...)

[Vhaidara]

In terms of AC: I see. Around how much would a typical frontliner have to-hit at that level?

Popping in because while the rest isn't my forte, i can math

If we look at a level 20 character (and hell, let's just use a fighter 20 with some standard buffing for simplicity)
20 BAB
Str started at 16, got 10 from levels and books, 6 from item, is now 32 for +11 (total +31)

Just with Str and BAB we hit on an 8. +1 weapon boosted to +5 via Greater Magic Weapon and an extra +1 from Haste puts use at +37. Our first iterative hits on a 2, with no feats and just 2 commonplace buff spells. Pandorym's AC is honestly kind of awful.

For a little perspective, swap fighter to barbarian and rage gives us 8 more Str, now we hit on a 3 with our second iterative, on top of having Haste and Whirling Frenzy (so 3 attacks at the top iterative). And we've got pounce now, so charging is a go

[Doctor Awkward]

The circles of binding are interesting, and annoyingly block LoS/LoE, but if you destroy the walls, the circle's effects end, too (as per magic circle against evil, referenced on page 88), and the first can be teleported across. You should probably smash the outer wall first thing; the inner circle is what keeps mind shards locked in, so you might want to leave that intact and attack through the door. In the best-case scenario, you have some non-living party members (I'm thinking necropolitans primarily, but astral construct works, too) who can simply ignore the circles. Passwall through the two walls and slapping a grapple on Obligatum VII (Grapple +22) will let a 9th-level party finish the job in one round (theoretically, of course).

Basically, if you take the circles as fixtures, you'll have trouble, but if you look at them as objects to be manipulated, you can bypass a lot of their effects. It depends on the DM whether you know how the circles work; a Spellcraft check with detect magic should reveal that they are using magic circle rules, though.

Two things:

1. The circles of binding are not on the walls, they are explicitly engraved into the floor (see page 88). In fact, the map on that same page clearly shows several places where the walls have been broken through.

2. This quoted text, and nearly everything else in your post, is speculation that goes well beyond the scope of the module. A DM would be well within his rights to say that the party is here to prevent any further destruction to the prison complex and that fudging the circles of binding, while theoretically possible, could easily result in an immediate loss as Pandorym's entire consciousness could be set free.

In fact, the very last paragraph in the chapter states, "The influence of the circles of binding and the presence of the crystalline prison make this encounter substantially more challenging than the creatures’ Encounter Levels might indicate. A victorious party should receive 125% of the normal XP for the encounter." Additionally, the last paragraph describing the Inner Circle on page 89 says that if Pandorym's mind is freed from the prison, the entire hallway containing the diagram will collapse. These two things suggest that the designer's did not intend to give players the option of messing with the circles at all.

[ExLibrisMortis]

1. The circles of binding are not on the walls, they are explicitly engraved into the floor (see page 88). In fact, the map on that same page clearly shows several places where the walls have been broken through.
Right, so you'd be free to break the walls to get quicker access to Pandorym's prison. Not a bad deal, especially since walls are easy to patch up afterwards.


2. This quoted text, and nearly everything else in your post, is speculation that goes well beyond the scope of the module.
Not really. It's simply game mechanics applied to the module (and as a 3.5 module, 3.5 mechanics are within its scope). The first binding circle is as important as you say, the second has no specified effect on Pandorym.

So, correcting myself: I thought (in that quoted text) that the circle would only block LoE and movement for mind shards, so it would be bad to break it, but it's even worse. It's pretty clear from the last two paragraphs of the rules on magic circle that Pandorym would be released, or at least be un-dimensionally anchored, if the circle is broken:

You can add a special diagram [...] successful diagram allows you to cast a dimensional anchor spell on the magic circle [...]
a creature cannot use its spell resistance against a magic circle prepared with a diagram, and none of its abilities or attacks can cross the diagram. [...]
The creature is immediately released if anything disturbs the diagram—even a straw laid across it [...]
(Which also ties into your first point: be it on the walls or the floor, it takes virtually nothing to break the circle; even a ten-foot pole laid across it will do (possibly the rubble from breaking the wall, too, though some is drawn on the map). Which kind of implies Obligatum VII is a stupid metal man who should've taken Spellcraft (he's got a +7), but that aside...)

The outer circle is never mentioned to be relevant to Pandorym's imprisonment, so you should be free to break it if it serves your purpose.

[danielxcutter]

Hoo boy I missed a lot. Too much to respond to each post one-by-one, so take this as a tl;dr or whatever.


Obligatum: The whole scenario does require him to be able to damage the prison... and they didn't even give it Improved Sunder. :smallsigh: Just what was Mechanus thinking?

Even if you change it's class levels and feats, at best it's still a not-so-great beatstick with Enervation as an at-will SLA. An extra body on the field is relevant and it is going to suck a lot if Lucather or the Mind Shard manages to dispel someone's Death Ward, but before that, it's not going to do a whole lot. A threat? Maybe. A big threat? Absolutely not, especially since you can just nuke it in the first few rounds.


Area: The Aura of Entropy and the Circles of Binding mean that you just have another reason to use Divine Metamagic instead of actually turning undead, for one. I'm not sure if there are any real good spells from the Necromancy school that help in this situation, and the Inner Circle, while not absurdly painful, could gobble up one of your Orb spells or a Heal if you blow the Concentration check. Not everyone has a +30 ring of Concentration after all.

The cold probably won't be a huge problem if you prepare for it, considering that we're talking about a high-level party.

I don't think most DMs are sadistic to use the magic circle rules directly for the Circles of Binding - that means they could easily rule that "Oh, you stepped on the circle. It breaks and Pandorym is free. LOL." Still, it's probably safer to leave the circles untouched, if not the walls(that one's probably a DM call).


Lucather: Well, there's certainly room for improvement in his build, but I'm mostly going by-the-book here(except maybe for Obligatum, who sucks). The Enchantment spells and Fell Drain metamagicked spells are only a threat if someone's buffs get dispelled, but as Tonymitsu and ExLibrisMortis have correctly pointed out, that is a very real possibility even by-the-book. And even besides that, he's still a caster with 9th level spells. I believe he also has Slave to Evil, which combined with his being a quell means that he's really good at messing around with divine casters.

In short: he's not an Incantrix, but he's still a big threat.

Pandorym: Or specifically, one of it's mind shards. I disagree with the "Null Psionics Field" thing Tonymitsu mentioned, as Mind Shards are not exactly built for physical combat and it also nerfs literally all of it's other allies hard. Regardless, it still has several ways to tear down your defensive buffs, leaving you open to the Wraiths, Obligatum's Enervation SLA, Lucather's enchantment spells and Fell Drain blasting spells, and the Mind Shard's own abilities.

Frontliners are probably capable of beating a Mind Shard's AC easily enough. The touch AC doesn't suck, though, so a Wizard or Sorcerer might have difficulty landing their rays without a buff or two. The SR is relevant but not absolute.

Probably not a major thing, but I noticed it's immune to critical hits and sonic? That's going to be annoying.

[The Viscount]

Part of the reason that I dismissed Obligatum is that the module states "Obligatum VII ignores all interference, even damage to itself, unless it is in imminent danger of destruction." so while its enervation ray could come into play, it likely won't. Of course, imminent danger of destruction is something Obligatum isn't likely to become aware of. A regular AC of 33, as Keledrath helpfully pointed out, means that a Full BA character is just checking for 1s. Obligatum's touch AC of 12 means that a wizard 20 with a dex of 12 is also only checking for 1s. SR of 22 is probably below the actual caster level of the full casters in the party since they have to be strong enough to fight the CR 25 Pandorym shard. 156 hp is low enough that a single character's focused assault is likely to be enough to destroy it in a round. Two would almost surely do it. Obligatum's initiative is a slightly better +6, but a properly buffed party should have a member or two going before it.
The matter of DR is a RAW problem, but the designers clearly believed "its adamantine sword ignores the crystalline prison’s hardness" even if it isn't true. It's best to just act as if it does.

Lucather Majii is more worth considering. Time stop and Disjunction do demand some degree of respect, even if the default statblock doesn't have them prepared. However the initiative rocket tag is still very important for wizard fights, and Lucather's +7 is not much when the party's geared up for the big fight. For reference, the scarecrow (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1277360) is a samurai I built for a duel that never happened. His initiative roll is at +32, and that's pretty much entirely from gear and feats. Not every party member will be rolling at this sort of number, but at least some should be doing better than +7, is my point.
Lucather has some notable offensive spells, but almost no defensive spells. If he does cast time stop, what does he cast in those rounds? It's basically just lesser globe of invulnerability or prismatic wall. You can just fly over, burrow under, or teleport past the wall, and lesser globe of invulnerability isn't really changing battle.
If you do go first, which is a strong likelihood, this means Lucather hasn't readied an action to absorb spells. This means you can just zap him with a transdimensional disintegrate (considering his abysmal fort save) and then, if you rolled below average, a swift spell (like channeled soundblast or a quickened force spell of your choice, for example) to seal the deal.

For extra fun, if you don't feel like dealing with Lucather, just cast/scroll AMF and he winks out of existence while you focus on other things, or recast your buffs in the case that he fired off a disjunction.

In terms of overcoming epic DR, another way to do it would be to gain DR/epic yourself, at which point your attacks count as epic for overcoming DR.

On the subject of divine casters in the party they're certainly fairly common, but if the party knows Pandorym is going to be in the campaign, they're less likely to choose divine casters. If the players don't know they're going to be going against Pandorym, making them play in a campaign that hinders them from doing what their class is supposed to do, while leaving the arcane casters much less affected, leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

The shard and Lucather Majii are the only real threats, and both are incorporeal. Get them in an Antimagic Field so they cease to exist, then use Wish or Miracle to turn the space they occupied into a dead magic area. They'll never resume existing until someone comes along and uses another Wish or Miracle to undo it.

[Doctor Awkward]

The shard and Lucather Majii are the only real threats, and both are incorporeal. Get them in an Antimagic Field so they cease to exist, then use Wish or Miracle to turn the space they occupied into a dead magic area. They'll never resume existing until someone comes along and uses another Wish or Miracle to undo it.

Antimagic Field only winks out incorporeal undead. The Mind Shard is an incorporeal outsider. And it was called (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/spellDescriptions.htm#calling), not summoned (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/spellDescriptions.htm#summoning).

[Doctor Awkward]

If you do go first, which is a strong likelihood, this means Lucather hasn't readied an action to absorb spells. This means you can just zap him with a transdimensional disintegrate (considering his abysmal fort save) and then, if you rolled below average, a swift spell (like channeled soundblast or a quickened force spell of your choice, for example) to seal the deal.


Something else I just noticed while I was musing over Lucather's stat block (they swapped out every other stock quell feat, but left in Combat Reflexes... ****ing why?); in his possessions he has a lavender and green ioun stone (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#iounStones), with 43 spell levels remaining.

I assume this accounts for his total lack of defensive spells prepared... but something else that I'm guessing the designers forgot, along with the limitation on adamantine weapons, is that unlike the rod (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/rods.htm#absorption), the stone requires a readied action to do absorb spells.


...Personally, I'm content to blame Bulmahn.