Challenging my high-lvl group (NPCs and monsters; my players shouldn't read this!)

[Grim]

Pirate Cat:

Could you post the spell description for Sovergn wall, or at least tell me where it is. It keeps getting mentioned, but I dont actually know exactly what it does... thanks

Grim

[Greybar]

This really is a good idea, I think. My sneakiness has gotten worse since my Palm Pilot broke.

My heartfelt sympathies. My Palm has become my official GM notebook, surpassing my home computer. It gets sync'd to the computer, of course, and most of the writing happens on a computer in the Palm Desktop. Wonderful thing.

The other thing is that the Palm's memopad has no formating. This is a blessing, not a lack of features. I'm sure we all know how much time you can waste making the name of the badguy be in just the right bold font. [grin]

Anyway, my plug for the Palm is done. I should buy some stock in that or somethin'.

John

[Xarlen]

Originally posted by Ryan Koppenhaver
You can see it on
Velendo's character sheet.Speaking of which, where do Velendo's Protection from Evil, 1/week/level; Sanctuary, 1/day; and Wall of Calphas, 1/day abilities come from? Are they just standard Calphasian perks, like the brick thing? Are they related to him being a Proxy for Calphas?

Here's where the Wall Domain can be found.

[Nail]

Originally posted by Knight Otu
Look here: http://www.opengamingfoundation.org/...templates.html

Thanks!

Being from an outer plane does not neccessarily mean you are an outsider, it just means you are extraplanar.

.....riiiiiiiiight. It all makes such perfect sense.

Not to pirate PC's thread anymore :P , but:
Seems like "outsider" should be a sort of "template" type, rather than a "stand-alone" type for a creature. That is, this fiendish black pudding should be: Outsider: Ooze.

And a celestial cat would be: Outsider: animal

or whatever.

Not: Magical Beast .....sheeeesh!

[tleilaxu]

Hey PC, I know you have plenty of spare time to respond to people's individual requests, so here is one!

Your link to the DOD PCs date back to before they entered the temporal displacement plane and levelled up. Do you think you could find the current character sheets? (especially those for the characters who don't even have one, like Galthia)

thanks !

[Ruined]

I really like the various wall spells. I swiped the domain for Hedrada in Scarred Lands, since he is a lawful type, and is known to be a strong advocate of cities. And well, the stuff Velendo has done is so cool. =)

[The Forsaken One]

PC, you still got that True GHoul template around somewhere? The link which relayed to the site doesnt function anymore since the relocation of the boards.

[Crowe9107]

An idea for you PC, I see it as pure death, I personally am not this mean to my players (Killer DMs are no fun), but I am in a bad mood today. Feel free to adjust to the capabilities of your party:

The Cavern of Suck:

Environment: A huge unlit cavern filled by an underground lake/pool, a mere 30-40' deep with about a 30-40' ceiling as well. As mentioned, dark, VERY putrid smelling (perpetual stinking cloud effect), and constantly filled with the angry buzzing of undead tainted flies (an annoying insect cloud that provides appropriate minuses to attacks, AC, and Saves).

The only obvious way to cross it is by "Ye old rickety footbridge of slime coated filth and slipperiness" (TM). Please make appropriate balance checks to avoid investigating the bottom of the lake which are increased in difficulty if you make alot of sudden movements.

Swimming is frowned upon by both "Ye old true ghoul aquatic monsters of big biting (gators, sharks, piranha or whatever tickles your boat, possible giving them a spring attack for a "bite on the move")" (TM), and the very nature of the lake, which is a writhing soupy mass of "Ye old undead-corrupted maggots of stomach unsettling and small biting" (TM) whose undead taint makes them crave living flesh rather than the dead rotting flesh that normal law-abiding maggots crave (suffer a 1d6 or so for every round immersed in this ickiness). And for the piece de resistance, a true ghoul roper colony that is both perched among the stalagtites above (and in this natural cover, it is quite possible to confuse and overestimate actual number of ropers) t and the floor of the lake (the "soup" making great cover and concealment for the bottom ropers) to assist you in the crossing of the bridge (and to snag you if you are so sensible as to try to fly across). It is quite possible that if you are quite resistant to the idea of being dragged anywhere that more than one flesh starved roper will vie for your affections and you could be subject to a rend attack as a ceiling roper and a lake bottom roper play tug of war with you. If you fear that your party will simply teleport across and miss all the fun, putting a warded door on the other side is recomended.

This whole thing is fairly dangerous, and probably a tad overboard on disgusting (please adjust to what you feel tasteful), as for creepy, I think the buzzing of the flies and the chittering and roiling of the "soup" is particularily disturbing, and if the ropers hold off their attack until the party reaches the middle, the sudden suprise of an attacking swarm of slimey paralytic tentacles ought to scare the bejeezus out of them (be sure to have a moment of silence before the attack to let them know with dread that SOMETHING is coming). You can enhance this by putting up a tenacious permanent darkness effect, but I think it is a bit much.

A resourceful party SHOULD be able to meet this threat, if they are quick on their feet, and more concerned with "getting the heck out of there" than "killing da monsters". The longer you spend in this death trap, the more likely you are to be dragged under and drown and eaten from multiple sources. This should be a big XP encounter, and might serve as a main line of defense for big bad guy. Oh yeah, and put some frickin lazer beams on their heads already...

Regards

Carl W. Rowe

[Piratecat]

tleilaxu, I was just speaking to Sagiro about that. We'll work on it!

Forsaken One, here's a copy of the true ghoul template:

http://home.gwi.net/~rdorman/frilond/rul/dm/ghoul.htm

Crowe, you're a bad, bad man. I may change it to undead mutated sea bass, because it's a deadly idea. This sort of thing would occur either (a) when the bad guys KNOW the PCs are coming, or (b) as you said, a final line of defense. I especially like the flies and unliving water.

Odd... I was thinking about undead ropers just the other day, as I decided that it was too early to use them.

Update when I can manage it; family stuff and other responsibilities are currently coming first!

[Sidran]

Ok PC rulify this Cool scene Idea and I will give you three cookies


The PC's enter a large room roughly 120 ft by 80 Ft. that is gilt in Gold, Mithril, and Platinum reliefs of ancient battles, and sieges.
On the floor 4d20 Life size highly detailed Golden Orcs bow with fist to forehead towards a Giant statue of an evilly grining elve with wild hair. In his forehead a Diamond about the size of a Buckler in diameter sits in the statues third eye.

The Characters enter the room and get at least 15 feat from the door before a delayed presure traped door closes and shuts in the Party. The Floor sinks 30 ft downwards revealing a firery crimson band that runs the length of the room.
The Diamond in the Giant statues eye begins to glow a firery red, and then suddenly a young fair skinned elve stands ghostly before the statue facing the PC's

The Ghostly Illusion says
"The Doom of Aravas Is upon you"

And then the bowing orcish statues rise mechanically in unison each drawing a shimmering blade and with metallic howls advance on the Party

Each of the Orcish Statues is an Animated Object that the characters must face until all are unmoving.

While they fight, the Giant Statue rises up and begins moving towards the party ( thus revealing a stairwell that runs down into a Crypt that holds a sarcophogus that has a likeness similar to the Giant Statue.) The Statue draws out a massive Greatsword and begins attacking the Characters going for mages and ranged attackers first. ( It is truely a Golden Golem)

The Characters will either try and run or they will face the Golem to its death.

That is one I have been working on for a long time

[The Forsaken One]

Tnx Kitty~~~~

Btw you add +3 hp or +3hd when you change it's type to d12?

And any ECL?

[Crowe9107]

Originally posted by Piratecat
Crowe, you're a bad, bad man. I may change it to undead mutated sea bass, because it's a deadly idea. This sort of thing would occur either (a) when the bad guys KNOW the PCs are coming, or (b) as you said, a final line of defense. I especially like the flies and unliving water.

Odd... I was thinking about undead ropers just the other day, as I decided that it was too early to use them.

Update when I can manage it; family stuff and other responsibilities are currently coming first!

I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way. Are they ill-tempered sea bass....hmmm? I agree, quite deadly, there is a fairly fine line between "challenging" and TPK. My own players seem to like ECLs that are +2-4 (depends, ECLs are not all they are cracked up to be), for climatic battles, wherein they expend at least 80% party resources, these "dicey" battles are the ones they seem to remember and enjoy the most. Because of this, I tend to gloss over minor encounters unless I feel that party endurance is going to be an issue. 3e has certainly sped up combat, but I generally take the cinegraphic approach to pushing through the stormtroopers, focussing on the "cool scenes" and major encounters. It is most difficult to get it just right, you slowly have to probe the party's capabilities and ramp up the encounters (factoring in rest and expenditures) until you find out what's right for the party. If you start out with too much, too soon, you end up with monsters that suddenly remember that it is time for their coffee break in the middle of a battle or a TPK, which is no fun. As for the ropers...I think I am going to start wrapping my head in tin-foil, I come up with alot of ideas that suddenly appear elsewhere, it's all a conspiracy I tell you.


Re,

Carl Rowe

[Xarlen]

The only way I could improve the Room O' Nastiness, is throwing down some Descerates and Unhallows.

Though, if *I* entered that room, I'd be sure to be throwing Fireball upon Lightningbolt upon Acid fog to clear all the ickiness outta there. *Shudder* Especially the flies.

[Bronz Dragon]

Originally posted by Xarlen
The only way I could improve the Room O' Nastiness, is throwing down some Descerates and Unhallows.

Though, if *I* entered that room, I'd be sure to be throwing Fireball upon Lightningbolt upon Acid fog to clear all the ickiness outta there. *Shudder* Especially the flies.

Eww.. Unhallow? Desecrate? In a room full of undead? That would be just nasty.

But why not just throw a sonic meteor swarm, or equivalent? Watch the little pests disintegrate in a wall of sound.. Uses up a high level spell slot, but what the hey, it'd be worth it

[Nail]

Originally posted by Bronz Dragon
But why not just throw a sonic meteor swarm, or equivalent? Watch the little pests disintegrate in a wall of sound.. Uses up a high level spell slot, but what the hey, it'd be worth it

PC, these last few posts got me thinking (bad form, I know).

One of the problems with the afore mentioned "Room of Suck" is that th' PCs can deal with it/avoid it without being in the middle of it. Like with th' sonic meteor swarm Bronz Dragon mentioned.

That's not necessarily bad. The PCs should, more than once during their miserable little lives, be able to destroy/circumvent some of their major obstacles. Maybe even in ways th' DM never anticipated.

PC, what would you say your ratio of "plunged into th' middle" vs. "PCs can see it coming" encounters is? Do you think about this at all? (Of course you do: Yer a super DM.....or is that supper DM.) Your eager fan-boys wanna know.

[Piratecat]

Forsaken One, +3 HD. It helps compensate for the low BAB and lack of constitution.

Bronz Dragon, sonic meteor storm? I am SO stealing that! And it will give Nolin something to countersong....

Sidran, thanks, but I'll probably pass on it. Golems aren't too tough for high lvl PCs, and I have a personal dislike for really complex death traps. Well, manufactured death traps, anyways.

Nail, I think about that all the time. I try to let them dig their own holes, to hang them on their own petards. That way, they'll know that they chose the path that led them there. It makes for a less deterministic, less linear game if they can occasionally see threats and judge what to do with them before they ever really become dangerous.

That's exactly what happened last night, btw! I threw a non-combat encounter at them, and they've decided to turn it into a combat encounter. God help 'em. It'll be fun, though!

I'll note that arcane sight and true seeing makes it VERY hard to disguise bad guys with spells like polymorph. A big change from lower levels, but not a bad one.

[Enkhidu]

Originally posted by Piratecat
...I'll note that arcane sight and true seeing makes it VERY hard to disguise bad guys with spells like polymorph. A big change from lower levels, but not a bad one.

Aww shucks, P-cat - that just means you have to use villians with huge amounts of ranks in Disguise to mess with your players heads.

Assuming the bad guys are humanoid, of course, and you spin it right...

[Piratecat]

Yeah. But they noticed that damn dragon right away.

Oops! Did I say that out loud? That was last night. Don't mention it elsewhere. Heh heh.

[Xarlen]

That's why you have the dragon put on a hat, and a mustache...

[Ashy]

Pkitty,

Back to your post about how you DM - Im the same way!!! I do a bit more prep ('cause I'm bad with stats and have it picky players) but other than that, I just keep 'em GUESSIN!