Near Epic Challenge

[maurmink]

A friend of mine asked me to put together a series of monsters for him to fight, basically to test his powerplaying skills.
He is a huge powerplayer, so instead of trying to put it together myself, I decided to turn to the greater wisdom of these forums.
The encounter level should be 22, because he wants to have 8 characters, each level 20. These are the builds:

Warblade 20
Swashbuckler 3 /Swordsage 3 /Fighter 2 /Barbarian 2 /Dervish 10
Monk 2 /Swordsage 3 /Shadow Sun Ninja 10 / Master of Nine 5
Duskblade 20
Druid 10 /Planar Shepherd 10
Psion 20
Wizard 20
Cleric 20

The only thoughts I have is to get him to fight two tarrasques, but he'd probably fry them alive.

Suggestions!

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Use a crab.

[Arakune]

Pseudonatural paragon crab.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Well, that was implied.

[mostlyharmful]

Two succubusses with fiend of possession 6, a little under CR but Im feeling generous..... see how long he stays a powerplayer after half his team suddenly turn evil and nova the rest with no sense of self-preservation... he he he:smallwink:

[Kristoss]

Two succubusses with fiend of possession 6, a little under CR but Im feeling generous..... see how long he stays a powerplayer after half his team suddenly turn evil and nova the rest with no sense of self-preservation... he he he:smallwink:

+1

Also try building an encounter with a suicide bomber Balor. Thats 100 points of damage in a 100' radius.

[Baxbart]

Blah...

Druid 10/Planar Shepherd 10



Thats your problem right there. You don't even need an 8 man party... the caster side of the party will probably... er... annihilate any CR 22 you put in front of them - especially if he is the optimisation king you make him out to be.

Make it a CR 26-27, let him bring those 8, that'll be more fun because frankly he'll walk over most things with that much cheese stuffed into his shoes.

[mostlyharmful]

Thats your problem right there. You don't even need an 8 man party... the caster side of the party will probably... er... annihilate any CR 22 you put in front of them - especially if he is the optimisation king you make him out to be.

Make it a CR 26-27, let him bring those 8, that'll be more fun because frankly he'll walk over most things with that much cheese stuffed into his shoes.

Hence you take that cheese and you make it your cheese....

[leperkhaun]

Disregarding the time cheese with planar shepard.

At best your mobs will be facing somethign like a 20th level druid Balor......

throw in Cleric and Wizard........ its gonna hurt. more so if the PS uses 3/day wish cheese.

[maurmink]

The fiend of possesion is a good idea..

I was toying around with this:

Ghost Half-Fire Elemental Voidmind Troll

Trolls have regeneration, right?
Which means that any damage, with the exception of acid and fire damage, is nonlethal.
The Ghost template makes him Undead, with all traits thereof, including it not being subject to critical hits, etc... And nonlethal damage!
The Half-Fire Elemental grants immunity to Fire, the Voidmind grants immunity to Acid.

So it is basically immortal, with a few nice abilities to boot...:smallbiggrin:

[leperkhaun]

Im pretty sure that undead cant have regeneration. Thats why you always see Fast Healing instead of that.

[SamTheCleric]

I wouldn't call that immortal.

You're undead. Meet the cleric... and if he has the sun domain... his turning is a greater turning and you're now dusted with a simple die roll.

[olelia]

Regeneration
Creatures with this extraordinary ability recover from wounds quickly and can even regrow or reattach severed body parts. Damage dealt to the creature is treated as nonlethal damage, and the creature automatically cures itself of nonlethal damage at a fixed rate per round, as given in the creature’s entry.

Certain attack forms, typically fire and acid, deal damage to the creature normally; that sort of damage doesn’t convert to nonlethal damage and so doesn’t go away. The creature’s description includes the details. A regenerating creature that has been rendered unconscious through nonlethal damage can be killed with a coup de grace. The attack cannot be of a type that automatically converts to nonlethal damage.

Creatures with regeneration can regrow lost portions of their bodies and can reattach severed limbs or body parts. Severed parts die if they are not reattached.

Regeneration does not restore hit points lost from starvation, thirst, or suffocation.

Attack forms that don’t deal hit point damage ignore regeneration.

An attack that can cause instant death only threatens the creature with death if it is delivered by weapons that deal it lethal damage.

A creature must have a Constitution score to have the regeneration ability.

Bolded for reference...but that is the main reason why undead can't have regeneration.

[Chosen_of_Vecna]

He doesn't seem to be much of a power player if you ask me. No PrCs for the Wizard and Cleric, probably doesn't know about the Unarmed Swordsage variant. I'm not sure you couldn't get away with killing him off with a couple Tarrasques.

[Tsotha-lanti]

Eight ECL 20 characters against a EL 22 encounter, and it's supposed to be a challenge? Are you kidding?

Make it EL 26 (that's average level +4 for a challenging encounter, +2 for double the number of people in the party) and you're cooking.

Or is that one ECL 20 character against an EL 22 encounter eight times?

[FinalJustice]

If this will form a group with one mind behind, you can expect full coordenation, albeit at loss of multiple points of view. If he is able do to this much of bookkeping by himself, throw the prismatics at him. Think, if he goes for the Planar Shepherd time cheese, the spellcasters can stuff an ungodly ammount of buffs into this party, expect Greater Ironguard for everyone, Greater Channel Celestial for noncasters so they get some neat cleric casting, etc... etc... etc... That means you will be facing eight super sayans, full casters and full BAB (for the meleers) with a collective mind. Prismatic Dragons to boot, and remember to protect yourself against Shivering Touch.

[Chronos]

I was toying around with this:

Ghost Half-Fire Elemental Voidmind TrollThe standard solution is to use the Learnean, Multiheaded, and Half-Clay Golem templates (the so-called "Ikea Tarrasque (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20160)"). The only way to kill it is using Disintegrate (which only does 1d12 damage). And it's only a +7 to CR from those templates, which means you have plenty of room to find a glass cannon creature to stack them on.

[Indon]

I'd say, face them against a level 22, epic PC.

Use an Enchanter Wizard, give them this variant (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/specialistWizardVariants.htm#cohort) and have the cohort be another (level 20) PC class. Use your Wizard's one or two Epic spells for, say, this (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/spells/contingentResurrection.htm), and this (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/spells/lordOfNightmares.htm).

Remember, this epic Wizard gets epic wealth by level.

[GoC]

Advanced (+4HD) paragon choker with 6 levels of artificer. Cheese out with 700,000gp of magic items (definitely grab something with a +30 to spellcraft checks). Remember to use the stupidly high spellcraft checks to get all those spells!

[Eldariel]

8 level 20 characters = EL 24. 8 optimized level 20 characters = way more. I say put 'em up against a Demilich. That could be sufficiently challenging; few epic spells, automatically quickened level 9 casting, magic immunity, DR Big/-, relatively high AC, a bunch of resistances and huge speed. Oh, and the whole Phylactery-stuff; immortality et al.

[Solo]

Batman (Incantrix/Archmage)
Ozymandias (The Non-Core Build)
Stabbity Rogue
Big McLargeHuge (Hulking Hurler)
Smashy (Ubercharging Barbarian/Fighter)
DMM Clericzilla
Fleshraker Druid
Giacomo's Monk*

That should be enough firepower for ya'


*Being as no one has ever actually seen this build, we cannot help you create one.

[puppyavenger]

The fiend of possesion is a good idea..

I was toying around with this:

Ghost Half-Fire Elemental Voidmind Troll

Trolls have regeneration, right?
Which means that any damage, with the exception of acid and fire damage, is nonlethal.
The Ghost template makes him Undead, with all traits thereof, including it not being subject to critical hits, etc... And nonlethal damage!
The Half-Fire Elemental grants immunity to Fire, the Voidmind grants immunity to Acid.

So it is basically immortal, with a few nice abilities to boot...:smallbiggrin:

You mean The IKEA Tarrausque?

[Animefunkmaster]

Ideas: First, throw a party at him... otherwise you could be overwhelmed by the number of actions he can perform alone.

Lycanthropy is a great friend, 1/2 cr for animal hd... find things that are based on hd like this template:Phrenic (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/monsters/phrenicCreature.htm)

Forget the fact that his manifester level will be through the roof, through magic/psionic transparency he will have crazy spell/power resistance.

I believe a Warforged Master of many forms can pick up regeneration, has a con score, and is immune to nonleathal damage. If you want an unkillable go with that. Also, there is a crusader stance that makes you immune to hp loss and a strike that will allow him to use heal.

[Zincorium]

Incarnated colossal animated object infected with devastation vermin (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monsters/devastationVermin.htm) entomanthropy.

CR 12. 160 hit dice. Perfectly legal. No rational way of accounting for it.

[GoC]

Another idea:
32 of the kittens in my sig.:smalltongue:

[mostlyharmful]

Another idea:
32 of the kittens in my sig.:smalltongue:

Now that's just MEAN!

[bugsysservant]

Lessee, things that are more powerful:

Incantrix
Initiate of the Sevenfold veil
Ur Preist
Sublime Chord
Ur Preist/Sublime Chord/Mystic Theurge
Spontaneous diviner/ultimate magus
Heavily DMM invested cleric
Cleric that ups caster level and pours WBL into ioun stones for holy word
Locate city suicide bomber. (Hey, you all suddenly died. From a level four spell cast by a level seven wizard. Have a nice day.)

[Ascension]

Locate city suicide bomber. (Hey, you all suddenly died. From a level four spell cast by a level seven wizard. Have a nice day.)

The last Locate City Bomb thread found several ways to easily neutralize its effects. I'm afraid it won't be enough.

[nargbop]

Master of Many Forms. A good twenty-level build of this class can, as an immediate action, change into a 40 HD creature with pick-and-choose abilities of another creature.
That is to say, a creature with high SR and AC, and , say, regeneration.
Then, the next turn, change again to fit the party's changing tactics. Avoid fireball damage, they try lightning, COOL he's an advanced baalor squeezing your puny mortal fleshbags.

[bugsysservant]

The last Locate City Bomb thread found several ways to easily neutralize its effects. I'm afraid it won't be enough.

Everything has weaknesses. Everything. But you only need one level seven follower of a higher level character with leadership to see if they are prepared. Considering that it will take out the party if they aren't, its definitely worth a shot. Plus, I didn't say it would be enough. I said it was more powerful. If you want enough, use the other eight suggestions I supplied, or some of the other ones.

[Eldariel]

Batman (Incantrix/Archmage)
Ozymandias (The Non-Core Build)
Stabbity Rogue
Big McLargeHuge (Hulking Hurler)
Smashy (Ubercharging Barbarian/Fighter)
DMM Clericzilla
Fleshraker Druid
Giacomo's Monk*

That should be enough firepower for ya'


*Being as no one has ever actually seen this build, we cannot help you create one.

That list is totally lacking Chuck.

[Rift_Wolf]

That list is totally lacking Chuck.

If you give it stats, it can be beaten. This is why Chuck isn't on the list.

[Chronos]

One point to remember about the Locate City bomb is that it allows not one but two saves, both of them very low DC. It's great for killing peasants, but highly unlikely to work against high-level PCs, even if they aren't prepared for it.

[Indon]

*Being as no one has ever actually seen this build, we cannot help you create one.

I think I can help make a potent one. CR 22, right?

Step 1: Create CR 14 spellcaster-type, focusing on templates that would raise caster stats.
Step 2: Give 14 levels of Monk. As a non-associated class for a caster-type creature, it raises the CR to 21.
Step 3: Give 1 more level of Monk. Now you're at CR 22.

[wodan46]

How about a Dragon-Lich?

Only thing that can beat cheese mages is... well another cheese mage, frankly.

[Eldariel]

If you give it stats, it can be beaten. This is why Chuck isn't on the list.

Not THE Chuck, this Chuck (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=993832)!