Prepping For An Unknown Monster

[Afgncaap5]

tl;dr - How would you prepare for an unknown monster that could be almost anything higher than CR 15 when you're CR 10?

Yesterday in a weekly D&D session, we accepted a job to retrieve four mine carts filled with adamantium from a dwarfish mining company. Pay's good, and they'll pay double if we can slay the monster that ran the original miners out of the mine. We're level ten, and I have reason to believe that the challenge will be CR 14-17-ish, with an actual fight against the monster potentially being worse. The only description we have a dwarfish survivor of the incident is that it was a "blasted worm straight from th' bowels o' hell" and that it killed pretty much everyone.

We wanna prep for a powerful unknown. I've already suggested that the cleric cast an Auger, Commune, and Scrying spells to see if we can figure out what we're dealing with or how best to deal with it, but given the lack of information on hand (and the likely high will save of whatever we scry upon...) there's a chance that won't work. I've started looking over a list of worm-like enemies, and am hoping that we won't have to deal with a Nightcrawler.

Another wrinkle is the fact that while this is a D&D 3.5 game, the DM keeps using Pathfinder monsters. We keep saying "No, they're harder to fight!" and he keeps saying "But their bestiary softcovers are actually for sale in stores and only cost twenty bucks!" So since I don't know Pathfinder as well, I can easily seeing myself missing something if he doesn't pull a monster from the Monster Manual.

And I thought about a purple worm, but that seems too weak for the kind of build up we're getting. I suppose it could be a dragon, but a dwarf would probably spell that with a Y instead of an O, so... yeah.

Anyway, any suggestions on the best way to prep for a hasty departure?

[Kayblis]

Given the brief description, it's probably a magical beast like the Purple Worm, but harder. They usually have a pretty bad Will save and giant brutes have terrible Reflex saves. Scrying/Communing is a good idea here. This will test if the creature does have a bad Will save as expected.

Suggestions for the encounter? Well, if you have a Wizard, cast Ray of enfeeblement on it the first time you see it to test if there is any Spell Resistance. If there is not, it's weaker now and you can hit it with classic Slow, Kelgore's Grave Mist and maybe follow up with Ray of Exhaustion(penalty stacking to move speed starts hurting a lot here). This is a debuff set that neutralyzes most brutes and pretty much locks them in place. If it does have SR, you can keep it at bay with Wall of Chains/Stone and buff the team. A Cleric has some Round/level spells to burn in those situations and the Wizard can buy him time to do so. The rest of the team benefits greatly from Displacement and Haste while fighting any big beast.

EDIT: Would be good to know the party composition. Having a second caster is a huge boon in versatility to a team with a Cleric.

[zlefin]

first question: is the fight one you actually can win (due to high optimization party/monsters weak for their CR). Given the listed CR numbers, if there isn't an optimization edge I'd chose to not fight and find another job, unless the DM has a history of providing tough but beatable monsters.


If I were to try for it anyways, I'd feel free to burn through resources to get any advantage I can, including burning XP on things like planar ally.

I'd also try to just recover the adamantium, rather than worry about defeating the monster. So strategies like teleport in/out, heavy stealth, and using summons (preferably ones with some way to get through easy, idunno if earth glide would let them carry the ore with them) to run in/out.

[Fizban]

I've already suggested that the cleric cast an Auger, Commune, and Scrying spells
Three divinations and none of them being the correct Divination. Arcane Eye not a bad idea either.

Unless you get information, you don't prepare for a fight. This is a textbook site-based adventure where the PCs/players get to set the pace and have no reason to engage except on their terms. So if you don't know what it is to prepare before you find it, then when you find it you leave and go prepare anyway.

Big scary worm monsters include the Neothelid. Which is also just about the only monster I've seen that the plan of "teleport away and fight it tomorrow" might be a really bad idea.

[Talverin]

The creature itself may be a lower CR than that, but with 'environmental advantages' boosting its' effective CR.

An ambushing, burrowing creature can be incredibly effective, especially in confined spaces like a mine where only the party will have limited mobility.

However, burrow (A feature a lot of worm-like creatures have) normally only works on dirt, not stone, so something that lets you limit mobility would be helpful. Walls of stone blocking open dirt, opening a spiked pit below it when it tries to burrow down; mobility-limiting options will reduce the degree of advantage it has over you.

Also, acid-resistant armor and a small creature with something pointy or explosive can make 'swallow whole' a bad idea.

[Afgncaap5]

In our weekly roleplay chat group, we've had some players go talk to survivors, and our bard rolled bardic knowledge on the stories and a sketch and determined it was, in fact, a Pathfinder monster known as a Hollow Serpent. Doing what research I can without just looking up the stats for it, it sounds like my assessment of "it sounds like a nightcrawler, but it also sounds weaker than a nightcrawler" is about spot on.

Would Death Ward be a decent strategy here? Nullifies various negative energy and wasting effects, though probably not a lot of other things.

Regarding Arcane Eye, I don't think that's an option. We've currently got...

Swashbuckler 6/Fighter 4 (me, Daring Warrior build)
Cleric 10
Bard 10
Wizard 3/Cleric 3/Mystic Theurge 2/Spellsword 1 (she died at one point, so she's a level lower)
Elementalist 9 (using Spheres of Power retrofitted and debuffed for 3.5, a "wind mage")
Gladiator X/Fighter X (not sure what the composition is, and not really sure what the Gladiator class is like... it's a homebrew thing that the DM approved, kind of like a barbarian but geared for fighting individual opponents and wearing them down over time.)

[Kayblis]

If what you'll fight is anything like a Hollow Serpent, don't even try to fight it. It's an intelligent undead, with great numbers all around and pretty much no weakness. Get in and out as fast as you can. Earth Glide may help you here, ask your DM about bringing items with you on a glide. Also, summons are great to keep monsters busy, so summon a lot of stuff to leave behind as food.