Killing the Xixecal at Non-Epic Levels

[Asklepian]

Howdy folks,

Our party in an ongoing campaign has accidentally unleashed the Xixecal on the world, which I consider somewhat regrettable. Not my fault.

Anyway, we need to kill it pretty much as fast as possible. Consider us having about a month of time available with which to plan and put things together. We have 500,000g available all told to spend on things. Unfortunately, the big problem here is that we're not quite epic level yet, and we're dealing with an epic level monster.

So, here's where I'll break down the party that we already have available:

1. Level 18 Githyanki Duskblade (mildly optimized)
2. Level 19 Elven Ranger 10/Horizon Walker 9 (not optimized)
3. Level 18 Human Cleric (mildly optimized)
4. Level 18 Half-Celestial Sorcerer (not optimized; built as blaster)

Core rules only, except:

1. Epic Level Handbook
2. Psionics Handbook
3. PHB 2

Other things might be allowed by the GM on a case by case basis.

So... that's what we've got going on. I'm excited to hear what you guys can come up with. Thank you for your help ahead of time.

Oh, and if you have any more questions, I'll be happy to answer them.

[TheCountAlucard]

Some other details would be handy here; what world is it? Any odds of a divine intercession? Are you guys the highest-level characters around, or are there epic wizards going around, doing stuff? How much gear do you already have?

[Dracomorph]

Can the sorcerer chain-gate Solars?

I mean, it's an abusive, munchkiny tactic, but you're facing an epic monster.

[Milskidasith]

It hits you with it's blasphemy and you all die.

No seriously, that's it. I really can't see a way to win unless your DM intentionally plays it as dumber than it is.

[UglyPanda]

Ah, Xixecal, an abomination.

Let's look at the stats.

*Looking*

*Looking*

*Looking*

Yeah, you're hosed. You need Energy Immunity (SpC pg. 80) on your entire party to get close to it for starters. Don't even think about melee with this thing, so that leaves the Horizon Walker as an item caddy or cheerleader. You can't hide from it due to the massive listen and spot checks as well as True Seeing. You have no chance of beating the spell resistance, so you need to use spells that work around it...

If your DM is forgiving, he might let you do a sidequest to reseal the thing. If he isn't (Or he's just stupid), then you either need to cheese it or give up, because that Blasphemy is gonna kill you.

[The Glyphstone]

That, or hire an NPC Frenzied Berserker Ubercharger with a fiery weapon to oneshot it.

[AstralFire]

If it wasn't for the core-rules-only bit, I'd say it's time one of you started chanting Pazuzu.

[UglyPanda]

Is it even possible with an ubercharger? I can't figure out the math.

The enemy:
AC 58 and 1,676 hp, 20 DR, Regeneration 30

[Chrono22]

Yes it's possible. Whether that holds true for your party depends on the group composition and individual skill.
Looking over your classes... no. You're hosed... unless the sorc has access to some wish spells and is willing to take a big exp & gp hit.

[Tavar]

I'm not sure if you can do it with the rules allowed, but one version of the ubercharger apparently did over 40,000 damage per round, and it'd be easy at that level to get some form of wraithstrike. Thus, Touch AC of 3.

[The Glyphstone]

In core, probably not, since that rules out Leap Attack and (more importantly) Pounce. I didn't read the OP fully enough.

With a generic barb8/FB10, you could be dumping 18 points into a ShockTrooper Leap Attack for +144 per swing from Power Attack alone, x5 with Haste for about 720 damage. A Flaming weapon will bypass its Regen and double the damage, so that would make 1440 damage from the Power Attack. That leaves 246 damage to do, over 5 attacks, roughly 50 damage per swing - easily doable.

EDIT: With the DR, another 100 damage needs to be dealt, so effectively 70 per swing without including Power Attack. Harder, but possible.

[SurlySeraph]

Blasphemy only works within 40 feet, so if you can keep your distance you're OK. Sure, it has 140 ft speed and Haste. It doesn't have Fly. Cast Fly or Overland Flight on the entire party, and stay above it.
It does have means to get you there, though. It can summon a white dragon 5/day. Have scrolls of Dismissal or Banishment handy for them. Use Mind Blank so it can't use Dominate Monster or Hold Person on you. Meteor Swarm is still an issue, but you can use Spell Immunity, Rings of Counterspells, or Energy Immunity for that.

The problem now is its DR, regeneration, and fast healing. To get through the DR and regen with cheap weapons you can get +1 Outsiderbane weapons and cast Greater Magic Weapon, Bless Weapon, and the Lawful equivalent of bless weapon on them, but that takes a lot of spell slots. I would recommend Mighty longbows with adamantine arrows. And be prepared to re-cast the weapon buffs, because with that AC you'll be plinking at it for a long time.

The obvious problem there is that it still has fast healing, and it's going to be hard to make bow damage stick even piercing its regeneration. Now, I know that there's some spell somewhere that stops the target's fast healing from functioning. I'm pretty sure it's not in the approved sources; I think it was in a Forgotten Realms book. Beg for it. If you can get that cast, then you're set. You can do permanent damage to it and just hover above it whittling away at it until it dies. If not, you need to do more damage faster. Hiring a bunch of people to help and having them fly up with you plinking at it with the same bows you have would work, though it'd be expensive to arm them and none of them would hit much. Of course, it'd be nice to kill it faster.

Nothing's getting through its spell resistance, but if the sorcerer can get Orb of Fire (Complete Arcane) that's not an issue. Slap a bunch of metamagic on it and it'll do respectable damage. I'm not sure what spells your cleric can use on it, but there's probably something.

[UglyPanda]

What about the possibility that it just doesn't care that it's being attacked and runs the hell away?

It also has a really really high AC, high enough that it's hard to hit with characters that don't specialize in bows.

Other things:
You need a few See Invisibilities and/or True Seeings, because while you can't hide from it, it can hide from you.
Its breath weapon is a 300 ft cone. You need to deal with that somehow.

[gallagher]

i think i have it:
cast rope trick
have a contingencied rope trick ready for when you cast plane shift
plane shift to a friendly plane
big baddy is killed in the ensuing black hole

it is kinda dirty, but if it works you just got an easy win.

[InkEyes]

1. Sell all your gear, pool the money together and hope you can use that to bribe a dragon to fight it. Prismatic Dragon would be best (even a juvenile young adult one could probably might stand up against it in a fight).
   
2. Candle of Invocation Cheese (see gate suggestion above), you can even get one with a Wish/Miracle spell!
   
3. Divine intervention, no seriously get the cleric a grater strand of prayer beads item that can summon his god's emissary and have it deal with it. If you're lucky the death of the emissary might even draw the god's attention and he/she will come down to sort it out.
   
4. Baste the Horizon Walker in honey barbecue sauce. Buy a bag of holding and a portable hole. Give both items to the Horizon Walker and hope the Xixecal is hungry enough to eat him. Place the bag of holding in the portable hole (or the other way around I always forget which way works best). Rip a hole to the astral plane in the Xixecal's stomach. Hope having a rift to the astral plane causes indigestion or something and he dies.
   
5. Acquire a method of opening a rift to the Elemental Plane of Fire large enough for the Xixecal to fall into. Let nature take it's course.

... that's all I got.

(edited many times for typos)

[Myrmex]

This thing can't fly.

Get someone mounted on something with a good fly speed, and spirited charge it with a +6 flaming holy axiomatic adamantine lance (you can have some spells put on it to make it flaming, holy, or axiomatice, temporarily, if you can't scrounge the cash together, I think), using deep impact to make those touch attacks, while full out power attacking. That should net you 80 damage per charge, which healing/regen reduces to 20 damage per charge.

Eventually it will just ready action blasphemy against you, and you will die.

So nevermind.

[Occasional Sage]

Find a new game.

[SurlySeraph]

Acquire a method of opening a rift to the Elemental Plane of Fire large enough for the Xixecal to fall into. Let nature take it's course.

Precipitate Breach or Precipitate Complete Breach, from the Planar Handbook. The first is 5th-level and you'll have to cast it twice if you want something creatures can fall through, and even then it's only a 20% chance of falling through if they walk over the breach. The other is 9th-level, and creates a 10-foot portal between planes plus a 10d10 foot radius that has the traits of both planes. Both have 10 minute casting time and 0 range, unfortunately.

So you'd have to either convince the Xixecal that your casting isn't a threat (more plausible than it sounds, Xixecals have -1 Sense Motive) or lure it over a hole in reality without it noticing. The first is more plausible. Either way, you'd have to immediately follow up your casting with several castings of Solid Fog to prevent it from escaping the breached area. Its inability to see in the fog could cause it to stumble into the portal, though that's somewhat wishful thinking.

Actually, I'm seeing possibilities with that -1 Sense Motive. "Hey Mister Xixecal, I'm going to cast a spell on you that'll make you even more powerful! It totally isn't a Plane Shift to the Plane of Fire, no need to bother rolling your ridiculously high Spellcraft." OK, so the last part makes it a problem, but convincing it to let you poke it with an item of Plane Shift might be doable.

Hell, if you can get spell storing returning throwing weapons of Plane Shift, just chuck those at it until it rolls a 1. You'll have to hit it, though, and it'll have to fail its save...

Damn, what's that trick that lets you get good range on touch-range spells? Because ranged touch Plane Shift until it fails the save is starting to look like the most viable option here.

[Myrmex]

Hire a manifester to manifest plane shift? Use a potion of glibness to beat his sense motive check.

[THE_BIG_CHEESE]

This thing's CR is about double your character level...without some serious intervention (though quite likely considering the threat that a xixecal presents to both good and fiery kind in the world) or a 7th level wizard (joke) I don't see this happening...Have the Sorceror get a scroll of wish and sacrifice themselves to the creative whim of the DM when they wish it dead? Awaken the Tarrasque and lure the two into a potentially unending battle with each other? Get yourself a sphere of annihilation (via knowledge, luck, giving the DM food, or the 3rd edition annihilate spell that gives you one for 1 round/caster level, though good luck finding a cleric of Tharizdun high enough level to cast that and still coherent/dumb enough to not let a xixecal wander around for a bit)? I mean there are only so many "Oh Feces" buttons out there, and most (except for wish) depend on a kind DM (Not so sure on that one if he intended for this to be a remotely possible encounter.) Or, and I don't think this is entirely implausible, you could level up a bunch in the month you have.

[Chrono22]

I have a solution, but does relying on hypothetical NPCs count? I made a level 10 wizard/10 red wizard that could beat this thing a long time ago... using core.
The strategy I'd use revolves around a combination of circle magic, leadership, gate, and wishes.
Do the circle magic ritual with my underlings to raise my caster level to 40.
Gate in a great wyrm force dragon (75 HD monster). Send the force dragon to the ethereal plane, and command him to attack the aberration. He can attack it from the ethereal without having to worry about reciprocation.
If the dragon can't defeat the Xixecal, he can at least hold it off long enough for me to engage a strategy that can.
Cast Wish three times to generate a 75000 gp gem. The experience loss is a shame, but dealing with demigods can be painful. I then use divination magics to learn this particular Xixecal's name.
I then cast Trap the Soul on the Xixecal, using a sizeable body (perhaps of a dead force dragon?) as the trigger object. Assuming the Xixecal tries to consume the dragon, it will "accept" the trigger object. It becomes trapped within the gem, with no save and no spell resistance.
I then take the gem to my personal demiplane. I permanently animate it, as per animate objects. It now qualifies as a creature. I cast Imprisonment upon the animated 75000 gp gem. It becomes entombed in a state of permanent suspension, in the center of my demiplane.

Then I make tea, read my newspaper, and walk my dog.
The going rate for these services:
A little over 122600 gp.. more if you factor in the expense of my minions' spells. Might as well round it out to 150,000 gp.

[sambo.]

i think you're up the proverbial creek of crap in a badly made barbed wire canoe with the absent paddle.

as i see it, that thing will have a whole bunch of white dragons as allies and you'll go further into the kaka.

if you have access to a Wish spell, something along the lines of "I Wish We Hadn't Unleahed That Thing Onto The Prime Material Plane" oughta cover it.

otherwise, start gating in high-powered allies &/or pray for divine intervention.

[Myrmex]

-1 Sense Motive at near epic levels makes this a cake walk. Just talk him into going back into whatever was holding him prisoner.

If you need the sense motive ranks, use Psychic Reformation (4th level power, replicate it with Limited Wish if you have to) to retrain them. Costs a little xp, though.

[crazedloon]

well with psionic magic transparency

sorc wish to reform the past couple levels (depending on how much extra xp he/she has) dump the useless sorc levels for archmage (if the feats are not there you may need to go back a few more levels just to gain feats)
grab Mastery of Elements with archmage
cast overland flight on self (or have the cleric do it)
now sit back at a safe distance and cast a Mastery of Elements acid arrow (now fire)

you have enough slots that it will die (feel free to add metamagics to speed it up) it takes 4d4 damage each round which is not reduced by anything for 7 rounds. which is 28d4 per arrow (average of 98 damage per spell)

the big guy will now be busy dispelling the arrows (or he will die to them) thus leaving your group with action economy to throw more ranged spells (fire preferred) if the ranger wants to help have him get the flaming/lawful enchantments on a bow

[imperialspectre]

Xixecals are actually pretty weak, like much of the ELH material. You'll need a little bit of cheese to win in a core-only game, but not that much.

First, we have the Blasphemy to deal with. This is the xixecal's most threatening ability, but a Greater Spell Immunity (Blasphemy) spell solves that for you. While you're at it, pick three other spells on its SLA list that allow SR and that you don't want to have affect you and name those in the Greater Spell Immunity too.

Duplicate this casting for every party member (take it as a Sorcerer spell known, since Sorcerers can learn Cleric spells by RAW, or have the cleric do it).

Second, we have to evade the xixecal's powerful melee attacks. Even a blaster sorcerer can have Overland Flight, so just slap that on the party.

Third, we have to do enough damage to take down the xixecal. This part is actually hilariously easy. If the sorc's built as a blaster, this means at the minimum we should be looking at Arcane Thesis: Scorching Ray, Empower, and Maximize. You'll have the Metamagic Specialist variant from PHB2, so you can Quicken one of these too. Since making the touch attacks is fail-on-a-1 at this level unless the DM is cheating (using material you're not allowed), you have a 95% chance of doing 2(24+2d6), average 62, 6 times every round (3 rays per casting, 2 castings per round). That's an expected damage per round of just over 350, out of 5th and 8th-level spell slots, so the sorc alone kills the xixecal in 6 rounds (if you're worried about conserving 8th-level slots, grab a Rod of Quicken, Normal - either cough up the relatively-trivial price at your level, or do what I'm going to explain below).

Fourth, if the sorc needs help killing the xixecal, the Cleric can Maximize Flame Strike (also with Rod of Quicken if necessary) and the Duskblade can Channeled Pyroburst. As previously mentioned, the Horizon Walker is basically irrelevant.

Fifth, it's possible that the xixecal could have Boots of Flying or something like that, so you'll want to BC it with something. I suggest a Solid Fog around his ankles, where it won't interfere with your Scorching Ray targeting.

Sixth and finally, if your party has made poor optimization choices (or choices not geared towards killing a god-slaying abomination) up to this point, I urge you to Limited Wish and duplicate Psychic Reformation on yourselves as many times as necessary to get the skills, feats, and spells known correct. You can also Wish for any magic item, by RAW, so a Staff of 50 Limited Wishes can be gotten either through chain-binding, chain-gating, or simply eating the 5k XP to cast the first Wish. That takes care of your PsyRef needs.

Oh, and "I wish we hadn't released the xixecal" is probably a valid Wish, so if all else fails you might try that.

[crazedloon]

imperialspectre the biggest flaw with your plan is SR 48.... thus the need to use spells like acid arrow

also while the sorc (in any of the suggested plans) is dealing with the big guy I would suggest the team deal with any summoned dragons

[Myrmex]

well with psionic magic transparency

sorc wish to reform the past couple levels (depending on how much extra xp he/she has) dump the useless sorc levels for archmage (if the feats are not there you may need to go back a few more levels just to gain feats)
grab Mastery of Elements with archmage
cast overland flight on self (or have the cleric do it)
now sit back at a safe distance and cast a Mastery of Elements acid arrow (now fire)

you have enough slots that it will die (feel free to add metamagics to speed it up) it takes 4d4 damage each round which is not reduced by anything for 7 rounds. which is 28d4 per arrow (average of 98 damage per spell)

the big guy will now be busy dispelling the arrows (or he will die to them) thus leaving your group with action economy to throw more ranged spells (fire preferred) if the ranger wants to help have him get the flaming/lawful enchantments on a bow

Psychic Reformation doesn't work that way.

Also, with Fast Healing 30 and over 1500 HP, the monster can just Blasphemy spam until everyone anywhere near him is dead before dealing with the piddling acid arrows.

[crazedloon]

Psychic Reformation doesn't work that way.

Also, with Fast Healing 30 and over 1500 HP, the monster can just Blasphemy spam until everyone anywhere near him is dead before dealing with the piddling acid arrows.

bah you are right (been a while since I read the full description of reformation)

also the arrows can be shot from 760ft away well out of the range of blasphemy, and the damage would add up example

Spoiler

Show

round 1 :
quickend (rod) maximized empowered "Fire" arrow (4d4+.5*4d5 ~23 )
maximized empowered "Fire" arrow (4d4+.5*4d5 ~23 )
total:
46
round 2:
quickend (rod) maximized empowered "Fire" arrow (4d4+.5*4d5 ~23 )
maximized empowered "Fire" arrow (4d4+.5*4d5 ~23 )
previous = 46
total:
138
round 3:
quickend (rod) maximized empowered "Fire" arrow (4d4+.5*4d5 ~23 )
maximized empowered "Fire" arrow (4d4+.5*4d5 ~23 )
previous = 92
total:
276
round 4:
quickend (rod) quicken maximized empowered "Fire" arrow (4d4+.5*4d5 ~23 )
maximized empowered "Fire" arrow (4d4+.5*4d5 ~23 )
previous = 138
total: 460
round 5:
quickend (rod) quicken maximized empowered "Fire" arrow (4d4+.5*4d5 ~23 )
maximized empowered "Fire" arrow (4d4+.5*4d5 ~23 )
previous = 184
total: 690
round 6:
quickend (rod) quicken maximized empowered "Fire" arrow (4d4+.5*4d5 ~23 )
maximized empowered "Fire" arrow (4d4+.5*4d5 ~23 )
previous = 230
total: 966
round 7:
maximized empowered "Fire" arrow (4d4+.5*4d5 ~23 )
previous = 276
total: 1265 (this is minus 210 due to fast healing but I hope the rest of the group can throw that much at him in this many rounds....)

at this point the first arrow is done and the rest have plenty of damge to finish him off

this example used 2 rods of quicken though without them it can be done it just takes me longer to type it out

Also if you can get retrained 1 level to get Elemental Mastery I would suggest using Acid Fog for the same reason solid fog was mentioned however of course mastered into fire and replace 1 casting of arrow with a casting of this to cause him to not move (also means he is less effective with his dispell magic uses)

[Lycanthromancer]

I can think of a number of ways that you could win, using nothing but the Core 3. Some aren't even stretching the rules that far.

First, get hold of a cleric with access to 9th level spells. Miracle can move everyone and everything (except for the xixecal, of course) onto another plane for you, if you denote them as "allies".

Go find a whole bunch of REALLY HEAVY granite boulders, or something equally as dense. Have the sorcerer (or another caster) cast shrink item on them (as many as will fit inside a bag of holding), and key them all to the same password. Once the bag is full, the caster and an ally should fly up a few hundred feet above the xixecal with the bag of holding; dump it out, and have the one not manipulating the bag call out the command word to blow them all back up. Now you have millions of pounds of boulders falling on the thing's head (should deal several thousand d6s' worth of damage). Should be an instakill.

Chain-gate in some solars, and zerg-rush it.

Cast gate, pull in a hecatoncheires or twenty in its immediate vicinity, then plane shift out. Hey, you can call in as many of whatever you like (regardless of HD), but only if you don't mind not having any control. In this case, unless the gated critters are Good aligned, I'd go find a vacation home in Mount Celestia or Bytopia...

Cast gate underneath it to 'port it to the positive energy plane (a nat 1 will eventually make it explode), or the same above it to a lava flow somewhere.

Get a staff of power. Cast astral projection (probably via a lesser planar ally'd and dominated nightmare) and dimensional anchor on yourself. Run up to it while incorporeal. Break the staff. Goodbye xixecal.

Portable hole + bag of holding. Alternately, bag of holding + portable hole.

Hit a 150 Diplomacy check. Not hard to do by your level, at all. Note that there's no Sense Motive, no Will save, no nothing. It'll become fanatic to you, and you have a willing slave that will do whatever the hell you want it to. Have it consent to be plane shifted to the paraelemental plane of cold. Or fire. Your choice.

Take Eschew Materials, and the simulacrum spell. Make a simulacrum of Vecna (using EM to replace the hand and/or eye). Win.

There are others, but that'll do for now.

[icefractal]

Keep in mind it has Greater Dispel Magic at will, with a range of 820'. So using a Fly spell to attack from out of its range isn't going to work (Greater Spell Immunity won't help with this, as Dispel Magic is SR:No).

Actual flying mounts could work, but they would need their own protections, you'll need to handle:
Dominate Monster (Prot. from Evil will work)
Meteor Swarm (Resist Energy: Fire should do it, as each meteor does separate damage).
Dire Winter (Resist Energy: Cold. Could be from a wand, because you don't need as much of it).

Alternately, you could just spread out enough that GDM only hits one of you at a time, stay high enough that falling 60' doesn't bring you into its range, and recast/repotion Fly as necessary. But that only works if you can kill it before you run out of slots/potions.

Of course, there are the dragons. And the fact that if you start winning, the Xixecal can run away at 680'/round, while invisible and regenerating.