it was a pretty good battle last night, and the session lasted for an extra two hours due to the complexity & size of the battle.
The PCs were victorious, though. The party cleric casting Mass Heal on the party and the drow cleric being killed just before she could cast her own Mass Heal on her allies really changed the battle. (Note to self: need to create a dread necromancer to cast Mass Harm...)
One PC died, but the party psion did a Psionic Revivify on him and he later got helped by the Mass Heal to get back on his feet.
The drow duskblade caused havoc with Vampiric Touch on her blade before finally getting killed - twice. (She has been a party nemesis since the PCs were 3rd/4th level - this was the 4th time they ran into her) Getting killed twice meant that she was dropped, Revivified by one of the drow clerics, healed and then Vampiric Touched her way to get more hit points.
The drow sorcerer caused a lot of damage with his Greater Arcane Fusion spell - but, the PCs kept saving against his Disintegrate and Finger of Death spells, so only took the secondary damage. The encounter was too spread for him to use AoE spells like Waves of Exhaustion effectively. However, his Orb of Acid worked well as a 4th level spell. Next sorcerer will maybe be doing Greater Arcane Fusion in combo with Arcane Spellsurge.
The drow's orog fighter minions were basically ineffective due to most of the players being able to fly, and the drow wizard who did have Mass Fly memorized got killed early in the fight - before he could cast it.
The drow clerics were not as effective as I had hoped, as the PCs consistently made saves vs Mass Hold Person, Plague and Greater Command. (Domination & Tyranny domains) The best spell between the two clerics was the Chain Dispel Magic that did a pretty good job of de-buffing several party members - including some fire shields.
Oddly, the horned devil with his stunning effect from his Spiked Chain was very effective and a couple of PCs (including the dwarf fighter) spent a good part of the fight stunned.
The drow marshall was not as effective as I had hoped, as his orog fighter & hill giant barbarian minions were land-locked. The only time the minions got into melee, their attacks were countered by the Mass Fire Shield on the PCs, so they'd hit for 20-30 points of damage, and then take 18-20 back from the Fire Shield.
Overall, a pretty good encounter.
__________________ "Who's more foolish: the fool, or the fool who follows him?" - Obi Wan Kenobi
Nice to hear that you and your players enjoyed the battle.
Regarding Clerics, nest time, maybe you should consider Radiant Assault spell. Not only it deals non-energy damages, if PCs fail in a will save, Dazed for 1d6 rounds. It is very hard for PCs to get Immunity to Dazed condition. And not so easy to remove it either (Need Panacea or Heal, I guess).
PCs usually makes Fort saves. Also, Mind Affecting (Compulsion) spells are easily negated by Protection form XX or Magic Circle against XX spells and such.
And yes, Horned Devil is actually very strong in 3.5e. I throw one with some magic items in the last adventure (against 15th-16th level PCs). If one of the party's main tank was not immune to stunning condition, it would have caused a havoc I guess.
__________________ Shin Okada (AKA Japanese Protocol Droid) My Webpage
Nicely done. I can see a Drow party being taken by surprise and being out of its element by the PCs all flying. Being underground all of the time would make one push airborn assaults to the back of their mind.
If any of the drow escaped then it would make sense for him/her to plan a revenge ambush somewhere with a low ceiling to preclude the value of FLY and its ability to negate most mooks.
Sound like a great battle going on there
Really need to start playing 3rd ed
S
It was a good battle, but it was also a bear to prepare for on my part as DM, and also since we have a big party (7 players and 2 NPCs on one side) and a big group of bad guys, just a single round takes a while.
__________________ "Who's more foolish: the fool, or the fool who follows him?" - Obi Wan Kenobi
Nice to hear that you and your players enjoyed the battle.
Regarding Clerics, nest time, maybe you should consider Radiant Assault spell. Not only it deals non-energy damages, if PCs fail in a will save, Dazed for 1d6 rounds. It is very hard for PCs to get Immunity to Dazed condition. And not so easy to remove it either (Need Panacea or Heal, I guess).
PCs usually makes Fort saves. Also, Mind Affecting (Compulsion) spells are easily negated by Protection form XX or Magic Circle against XX spells and such.
And yes, Horned Devil is actually very strong in 3.5e. I throw one with some magic items in the last adventure (against 15th-16th level PCs). If one of the party's main tank was not immune to stunning condition, it would have caused a havoc I guess.
Radiant Assault is a good option if I can get more than 2 PCs in an AoE type spell and also not catch important allies in there as well.
And, the horned devil is very effective because it has a reach weapon with the spiked chain, so was unaffected by the mass fire shield (and, since the party sorcerer is an elemental savant, it's actually an acid shield)
__________________ "Who's more foolish: the fool, or the fool who follows him?" - Obi Wan Kenobi
Radiant Assault is a good option if I can get more than 2 PCs in an AoE type spell and also not catch important allies in there as well.
Maybe you can throw in some Pious Templer or Hexblade with high enough Will save. Recently, PC party of my current campaign are doing this. One of the party tank is a pious Templer with fort and will save somewhere around 30. He does not fail in will save of party caster's Radiant Assault spell unless he rolls a natural 1. So often, his player suggests other players to include his PC within the radius of the spell.
There are several other options.
An enemy cleric can use Sculpt Spell metamagic feat.
Or, if she is a Drow, she will not care much about low-rank male warriors anyway. So, let low-level drow warriors swarm on PCs. Then, nuke them all.
__________________ Shin Okada (AKA Japanese Protocol Droid) My Webpage
Still, good fight overall. Guess this both highlights the thrills and drawbacks of high lv 3e gameplay. Extremely taxing to plan, but potentially rewarding if you manage to pull it off.
Still, good fight overall. Guess this both highlights the thrills and drawbacks of high lv 3e gameplay. Extremely taxing to plan, but potentially rewarding if you manage to pull it off.
I've been able to come up with some good challenges for the group overall in terms of encounters - however, it's often so complex that afterward I'm always saying that I forgot this feat's power or that magic item's effect or similar. I'm sure some in the group say that as well, but they've been playing their characters for 17 levels now and know them pretty well - and, if there are 7 of them, somebody will remind a person that forgot.
In 1E/2E days, most campaigns I was involved with would go from level 1 to level 8/9/10 or so. So, it was a lot easier to prep for overall.
__________________ "Who's more foolish: the fool, or the fool who follows him?" - Obi Wan Kenobi
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