Plots & PlacesPost your PCs and NPCs for others to reference and enjoy. This is also an alternate location for long-term campaign and plot development. These can be system neutral or relate to any game or system.
My D&D PCs are looking for a greater challenge fighting monsters. they've figured out almost everything that I know and have developed a strategy to take out every monster. the only thing I have that can challenge them is a flight of five prismatic dragons that are fully aged from the epic level handbook.
That's a good Idea, I could use some of Sepulchres charachters and some of my own creation to make a rival party for my charachters. I've already been looking through some of the Eadric et al thread for Major NPCs and Demon Lords. I have found that Grazzt with a bodyguard of six Mariliths can hold off my charachters, especially on Grazzt's home plane.
sorry, I misspelled that, it's supposed to be sepulcrave, not sepulchere, my English teacher has been pounding the alternate spelling into my head for weeks.
I think I can help you, but I have to ask: How powerful are your characters? What classes and levels are they? First you say you need five Great Prismatic Wyrms to challenge them, then you say Grazz't (presumably referring to Sep's build) with six marillith bodyguards can stave them off. But those encounters are so far from equivalent that it's ridiculous.
If the PCs can fight Great Prismatic Wyrms, they should have literally nothing to fear from grazz't, never mind the marilliths. But if the mariliths can interfere with them, even one Prismatic should mash them like a steamroller on mealy potatoes.
They have a wizard around 69th level who's devoted all of his epic feats to epic spellcasting, first to have it an option, then epic skill focus for spellcraft and other spell boosting feats, an arcane archer around 70th level, with a +20 Holy Power, Sonic Blast, Keen, Unerringly Accurate, Lawful Power, Greatbow, a fighter who's taken every specilization and critical hit booster availible to boost up his +15 Holy Power, Lawful Power, Keen, Throwing, Returning, Fire Blast, Bastard Sword. The fourth member of their party was a cleric of Pelor, who normally protects the wizard but was temporarily killed, which allowed a marilith the ability to swing at the wizard a couple of times, breaking his concentration and keeping him from contributing to the fight. which is why they had issues fighting Grazz't, who at the end of the Savage Tide adventure path ascended to Demon Prince, when they normally take on Prismatic Dragons.
Ah. You weren't joking when you said extremely, then, I see. That's pretty far above the waters I normally swim in (Nothing above lvl/HD 50 is my general rule) but I'll see if I can help you all the same. Here is my suggestion: The return of Tharizdun, at the head of a world-devouring horde of Elemental Evil. This has menace (The players will probably be the only ones in the multiverse who have a shot at stopping it), it has scope (They'll have to fight in all kinds of areas on many different planes, and you can probably force them to make some hard choices about that since even these heroes can't be everywhere at once.) and it has a justification for the sudden appearance of many grotesquely powerful monsters. Also, the gods will be busy tag-teaming Tharizdun (and he will be busy killing gods) so divine interference on either side is accounted away. At the end, of course, the PCs will have to bail out the few remaining gods and seal Tharizdun away again. (And as he's spent his power fighting gods, he can be however powerful you want him to be at that point, depending on how hard you want the fight to be, and if you want the PCs to re-imprison him, slay him with a macguffin or genuinely beat him up in a battle royale.
Stat blocks are coming in my next post, but it'll have to wait a little. It will include:
Tharizdun (At CR 75, assumed to be the big end-boss guy)
The four Princes of Elemental Evil, empowered by Tharizdun to justify why they are suddenly CR 60-70.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
and various powerful elemental creatures.
Also, I hope you are good at running battles with many combatants, because if not, you will have trouble justifying why every monster these near-gods meet seems to be able to give them a worthwhile fight. I've assumed, since you're still playing with lvl 70 characters,, that you're pretty good at running big, complicated battles, because that is really the only way to keep this from being anything more interesting than an exercise in subtracting big numbers from one another.
I should be fine at large battles, I've already put hem through multiple mass combat sequences in various wars, And I think that running ten powerful monsters should be easier to run than half an army, not trying to get cocky, but I think I should be able to handle it.
On its way to destroy their world - they have to get to it - and destroy it first.
Maybe having to deal with inhabitants on this creature who have prophesied(sp?) the ending of their own world (the creature) and believe that ending to be related to the PC's (and they are right!).
The destruction could require any number of insanely/seemingly impossible tasks... some of these, all of them, I don't know.
1/ Rid the planet(creature) of it's primary water sources (kill the oceans)
2/ Rid if of it's food source (no idea there)
3/ Destroy it's heart... maybe this is at it's core - something that takes a long time / many adventures to get to
Anyway, that's just some random stuff off the top spewed out here real quick.
Away!
__________________
Dark Water Campaign run in the Last Lands
----=====----
Yes, I could use the four princes of elemental evil, and thrazidurn and put them in a situation where the PCs have to stop them in a short amount of time to avoid some cataclysmically bad event that could destroy the world as they know it. I don't know how the princes of Elemental Evil work but do you know if they can stop the use of their element? because that would seriously screw up the PCs
Sorry for bugging out on you. I got daunted by the vastness of the task, started procrastinating, and then I had lots of RL stuff to do. Here is a start, anyway. All the upcoming statblocks were made by Kain Darkwind over at Dicefreaks, modified by me. (Switching out feats etc. to make them more effective).
First up, Tharizdun's human form. This is what the PCs find when they come to defeat Tharizdun and rescue the surviving gods after beating the Horde of Elemental Evil.
Tharizdun
Medium Outsider (Air, Earth, Elder, Evil, Fire, Water)
Hit Dice: 60d8 + 1560 (2040 hp) Initiative: +20 Speed: 80 ft., burrow 80 ft., fly (perfect) 160 ft., swim 160 ft. Armor Class: 113 (+18 deflection, +12 Dex, +30 divine, +13 insight, +30 natural), touch 83, flat-footed 88 Base Attack/Combat: +60/+90 Attack: Axe +120 melee (1d10 + 30 /19-20/x3) Full Attack: Axe +120/+115/+110/+105 melee (1d10 + 30 /19-20/x3) Space/Reach: 5 ft. / 5 ft. Special Attacks: Alter reality, aura of decay, elemental fury, summon elementals Special Qualities: Damage reduction 55/-, darkvision, elemental traits, immune to acid, cold, electricity and fire, regeneration 50, spell resistance 85 Saves: Fort +86, Ref +80, Will +81 Abilities: Str 50, Dex 35, Con 46, Int 35, Wis 37, Cha 46 Skills: Acrobatics +45, Bluff +81, Concentration +81, Climb +53, Diplomacy +93, Disguise +81 (+87 acting), Escape Artist +75, Fly +83, Intimidate +87, Knowledge (arcana) +75, Knowledge (history) +75, Knowledge (nature) +75, Knowledge (the planes) +75, Knowledge (religion) +75, Linguistics +75, Perception +76, Sense Motive +76, Spellcraft +81, Stealth +75, Survival +76, Swim +83 Feats: Ability Focus (alter reality), Bounding Assault, Cleave, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Fly-by Attack, Great Cleave, Improved Critical (axe), Improved Fly-by Attack, Improved Initiative, Improved Sunder, Mobility, Power Attack, Rapid Blitz, Spring Attack, Swim-by Attack Epic Feats: Damage Reduction x5, Dire Charge, Epic Toughness x 4, Epic Ability Focus (alter reality), Epic Fortitude, Epic Reflexes, Epic Will, Superior Initiative Climate/Terrain: Tharizdun's Prison Organization: Solitary (unique) Challenge Rating: 75 Treasure: A safe new world. Alignment: Neutral Evil
Alter Reality (Ex): Tharizdun can produce the effects of any spell up to 39th level as a full round action. The DC to resist any such effects is 94, the caster level of the effect is 30th. (Remember that as this is done as an extraordinary ability, spell resistance does not apply and antimagic is not effective against it. Although it can still be dispelled as normal, I think)
Aura of Decay (Ex): Within 500 ft. of Tharizdun, every object and creature must make a Fortitude save (DC 88) or take 40d6 points of disintegration damage. This counts as disintegrate for any purposes such as destroying walls of force or immunity.
Elemental Fury: 200 ft. radius burst, 40d10 fire, 40d10 cold, 40d10 electricity and 40d10 bludgeoning damage. Reflex DC 88 half. At will, every 1d10 rounds.
Summon Elementals (Sp): At will, Tharizdun may summon up to 100 HD of elementals from each primal element. He may not have more than 100 HD from a single element serving him at any time.
Elder: Tharizdun has an effective Divine Rank of 30 for purposes of interacting with divine powers and entities.
Regeneration (Ex): It is unknown if any type of damage deals lethal damage to Tharizdun. Presumably a specifically designed epic spell cast upon him after his nonlethal damage exceeds his hit points by 780 points could prevent him from regenerating the damage. Specific major artifacts may also be capable of dealing Tharizdun lethal damage.
Possessions: Tharizdun wields a +10 waraxe of ruin that deals vile damage.
I don't think I've ever seen the Princes of Elemental Evil statted with the ability to deny use of their element, but I can make a version that has such powers if you want one.
Last edited by Asha'man; 15th April 2009 at 11:04 AM..
Thanks for the stats! the immunity to all the elements except sonic will be a problem for the PC's, seeing as there are'nt any good sonic spells, so it should be a problem. the Aura of Decay will definitely be a huge problem, seeing as the PC's fortitude saves are'nt very high in some cases. I don't even think the princes of elemental evil should just be minor boss battles, easy wins and just ways for the PC's resources to be drained before their battle with Thrazidun.
The PCs managed to temporarily save the world and keep tharizdun from destroying it, but they know that they can't defeat him AND the four princes of elemental evil, so they hopped back in time (Using Timereaver, from one of the Dragonlance sourcebooks) and are training by seeking out powerful dragons to kill and loot. Asha'man if you could send me the stats for the tricked out princes of elemental evil that would be great, for the first encounter they only fought Tharizdun and barely beat him, only forcing him to run.
You could always pit them against the gods themselves. Maybe send them on a mission to destroy Lolth in her own home, or set them against Graz'zat and all his hellish minions...
Deities and Demigods (3rd Edition) has some pretty useful info for fighting the gods, if one were so inclined.
I don't quite want top put them up against the gods yet, looking over the stats in Deities and Demigods it looks like the PCs can handle them, but it'll be difficult trying to work out how the whole pantheon will change, as a struggle for power over the followers of the defeated god, I'm just not set up to handle that yet, but I will definitely keep it in mind as an option and start working out possible repercussions of the death of a god.
I'll start to need the princes of elemental evil+ immunity to their elements pretty soon, my characters are getting a little headstrong and think that they might be able to beat tharizdun within a month, which they may be able to, I don't know, but I probably have a month tops until they go for him again.
Linear Mode
And yet another word from our sponsors
