MrPhil
2021-03-17, 09:12 AM
***many spoilers for savage tide follow***
Hi Playground,
I've been running the Savage Tide Adventure Path with 3.5 rules and I've played it pretty much by the book so far.
In the last couple of session, my level 11/12 party consisting of Melee Rogue, Necromancer Warforged, TWF ranger, sword/bow Ranger and druid clashed with the Kopru boss inside his ziggurat.
For those unfamiliar with the story, the ziggurat is the production center for some nasty stuff the party needs to shut down.
The ziggurat is sourrounded with many Kopru, dark naga and Kopru behemoths.
Inside is the Kopru boss' chamber where the top Kopru, a CR14 cleric is minding his own business, unaware that he about to assaulted.
Under the boss' chamber is a room filled with acid pools, is where the production actually takes place. Lurking in here is a Bilewretch, a Cr13 acid based giant tick monster who can spit acid and attack with four tentacles for acid damage. He also loves to roll about in the acid pools, enjoying fast healing 15 whilst at least partially submerged.
Last time, my party chose to teleport to the top of the ziggurat, rather than employing any tactics to divert the monsters outside.
They immediately tangled with the three Behemoth Kopru set to guard the entrance. Much carnage and lost HP later, they take to violence to open the door to the structure.
Much urgency, becaue the monstes are converging on their position from all sides, which they fend off with fireballs and summons.
With all the noise, the Kopru boss has time to cast his buffs and drink his potion.
Once they get inside, Mr Kopru floods the chamber. The party has water breathing and shape change so we have a fight. Kopru, with his cheaty extra actions from a prestige class, puts up a good showing and squeezes the rogue unconcious. Nevertheless, he has lost a lot of HP and descides to relocate to the lower chamber, sealing the door with a wall of stone.
Party take time to recover and buff and seal the entrace from the outside with their own wall of stone. The Kopru is ok with the dely, he is healing himself with a wand.
They summon a dinosaur to cover their entrance and bust into the lower chamber.
It goes well for the party - Kopru is hit with maximised enervation and ray of enfeblement pretty much shutting him down. Thanks to the enervation, his attempts at displelling all fail.
Due to the terrain, and the necessity of keeping within the Necromancer's circle against evil for fear of the Kopru's mind control, the party are unable to bring enough attacks to bear to significantly injure the Bilewretch, who heals most of the damage coming his way whilst lashing about with his tentacles.
In the end, the party teleport away to lick their wounds. The plan is to buff up and teleport back into the lower chamber.
Here is where I'm a little bit stuck.
The party has had some trouble, but in their first attempt they were worn down by three behemoths before facing the fully buffed boss and were unsure what they were facing.
In the second attempt the party will be buffed and the boss won't be plus he's already used his potion and most of the chanrges on his CLW wand.
My players would no doubt enjoy a one sided fight, but the Kopru boss is no idiot and will be thinking about how he can defend himself and what lessons he can learn from the first fight.
Question is:
What are reasonable responses for him to take and how much would that change the difficulty of the encounter?
Bonus question: The Kopru Cleric has Dimensional Anchor on his spell list. Now that he knows the party are teleporting, it seems reasonable that he'd try to stop them running off again.
I have no problem throwing a hard encounter at my players and that spell would ramp up the tension, which would be great. However, I want to be sure my players have a fighting chance and I'm not just dropping them into the middle of an unwinnable fight with no way out. What would you do?
TLDR: Party fought a boss Kopru, balied out half way through. What counter measures, reinforcements, horrible spiked traps should the Kopru be thinking about. How much is too much?
Thanks for your Thoughts.
Hi Playground,
I've been running the Savage Tide Adventure Path with 3.5 rules and I've played it pretty much by the book so far.
In the last couple of session, my level 11/12 party consisting of Melee Rogue, Necromancer Warforged, TWF ranger, sword/bow Ranger and druid clashed with the Kopru boss inside his ziggurat.
For those unfamiliar with the story, the ziggurat is the production center for some nasty stuff the party needs to shut down.
The ziggurat is sourrounded with many Kopru, dark naga and Kopru behemoths.
Inside is the Kopru boss' chamber where the top Kopru, a CR14 cleric is minding his own business, unaware that he about to assaulted.
Under the boss' chamber is a room filled with acid pools, is where the production actually takes place. Lurking in here is a Bilewretch, a Cr13 acid based giant tick monster who can spit acid and attack with four tentacles for acid damage. He also loves to roll about in the acid pools, enjoying fast healing 15 whilst at least partially submerged.
Last time, my party chose to teleport to the top of the ziggurat, rather than employing any tactics to divert the monsters outside.
They immediately tangled with the three Behemoth Kopru set to guard the entrance. Much carnage and lost HP later, they take to violence to open the door to the structure.
Much urgency, becaue the monstes are converging on their position from all sides, which they fend off with fireballs and summons.
With all the noise, the Kopru boss has time to cast his buffs and drink his potion.
Once they get inside, Mr Kopru floods the chamber. The party has water breathing and shape change so we have a fight. Kopru, with his cheaty extra actions from a prestige class, puts up a good showing and squeezes the rogue unconcious. Nevertheless, he has lost a lot of HP and descides to relocate to the lower chamber, sealing the door with a wall of stone.
Party take time to recover and buff and seal the entrace from the outside with their own wall of stone. The Kopru is ok with the dely, he is healing himself with a wand.
They summon a dinosaur to cover their entrance and bust into the lower chamber.
It goes well for the party - Kopru is hit with maximised enervation and ray of enfeblement pretty much shutting him down. Thanks to the enervation, his attempts at displelling all fail.
Due to the terrain, and the necessity of keeping within the Necromancer's circle against evil for fear of the Kopru's mind control, the party are unable to bring enough attacks to bear to significantly injure the Bilewretch, who heals most of the damage coming his way whilst lashing about with his tentacles.
In the end, the party teleport away to lick their wounds. The plan is to buff up and teleport back into the lower chamber.
Here is where I'm a little bit stuck.
The party has had some trouble, but in their first attempt they were worn down by three behemoths before facing the fully buffed boss and were unsure what they were facing.
In the second attempt the party will be buffed and the boss won't be plus he's already used his potion and most of the chanrges on his CLW wand.
My players would no doubt enjoy a one sided fight, but the Kopru boss is no idiot and will be thinking about how he can defend himself and what lessons he can learn from the first fight.
Question is:
What are reasonable responses for him to take and how much would that change the difficulty of the encounter?
Bonus question: The Kopru Cleric has Dimensional Anchor on his spell list. Now that he knows the party are teleporting, it seems reasonable that he'd try to stop them running off again.
I have no problem throwing a hard encounter at my players and that spell would ramp up the tension, which would be great. However, I want to be sure my players have a fighting chance and I'm not just dropping them into the middle of an unwinnable fight with no way out. What would you do?
TLDR: Party fought a boss Kopru, balied out half way through. What counter measures, reinforcements, horrible spiked traps should the Kopru be thinking about. How much is too much?
Thanks for your Thoughts.