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Help making my players sweat? (My players, don't look!)
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<blockquote data-quote="Plane Sailing" data-source="post: 3106860" data-attributes="member: 114"><p>OK, suggestions.</p><p></p><p>1. Give the party some moral dilemmas in the fight. </p><p>e.g. threatening innocents at the same time - what is their priority?</p><p><em>"You can either attempt to stop the ritual or save the lives of all these orphans/virgins/the city of Sharn... you choose"</em>.</p><p></p><p>A more twisted version of this is that the necromancer has Magic Jar, and he has magic jarred into the body of one of the PCs loved ones or most trusted mentors. <em>"The only way you can kill me is to kill the one you love! Mwahahahahah!"</em>. It also gives him a get out if his host is killed - he can just possess another body. Can the PCs find his gem in time?</p><p></p><p>2. Home field advantage.</p><p></p><p>Unhallow the entire area, and have dispel magic (or dimensional anchor) tied to it, keyed to affect everyone apart from the bad guys alignment.</p><p></p><p>3. Divide and conquer.</p><p></p><p>Bad guys pick on one foe and eliminate him as quickly as possible. If a full attack, all attacks are against the same target, and don't just stop when they are down, eviscerate the corpse just to be sure.</p><p></p><p>4. Incorporeal foes</p><p></p><p>Incorporeal foes are always nasty, because regardless of how good the other guys are to hit, there is ALWAYS that 50% miss chance. Hmmm, Necromancer, Incorporeal, Unhallowed area. I think a large group of Spectres could really say 'I love you' in that <em>special </em>way, and would certainly put the wind up the PCs too. They might have difficulty in hitting characters though, so what if our Necromancer has made a pact with, say, 8 Dread Wraiths? With their large size and life sense, they can actually take their combat reflexes attacks from completely within rock, and with their spring attack they can spring out, all of them attacking a single foe and then spring back within their rock. Imagine the effect of eight of them rising out of the ground around the same target, each making their +16 attack (surprise? flanking) for 2d6 +1d8 Con drain. You could take someone down in one go if they were very unlucky... Hey, the PCs are using wounding to do CON damage, how do they like it in return?</p><p></p><p>The 8 dread wraiths would contribute 8*121 = 968 towards your total. Ak'chazar Rekshasa contributes 225, your marilith contributes 289.</p><p></p><p>I suggest that for the marilith you ditch one of her useless feats (weapon focus) and replace it with Quicken Spell Like Ability. Boost her caster level to 18 and she could have quickened telekinises to cause havok with every round as well as doing something else. If you feel that is cheating a little, give her Empower spell like ability (blade barrier), then she is creating at-will blade barriers for 15d6+50% damage. The guys with evasion may be making their saves and getting through untouched, but if anyone is grappled and then forced into a blade barrier they probably wouldn't get a save, and 78 force damage is pretty nasty. Definitely worth dropping one on anyone who gets held/paralysed/knocked out or otherwise rendered immobile. Could synergise well with web (which actually cripples people even if they DO save) or even with tanglefoot bags if you get lucky. "Heh, they are using tanglefoot bags against us". "whrrrrrrrrrrr". "Arrrrgh!"</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Since she has blade barrier at will, have her concentrate on creating a whole lot of blade barriers to control the battlefield and divide up the party.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Plane Sailing, post: 3106860, member: 114"] OK, suggestions. 1. Give the party some moral dilemmas in the fight. e.g. threatening innocents at the same time - what is their priority? [I]"You can either attempt to stop the ritual or save the lives of all these orphans/virgins/the city of Sharn... you choose"[/I]. A more twisted version of this is that the necromancer has Magic Jar, and he has magic jarred into the body of one of the PCs loved ones or most trusted mentors. [I]"The only way you can kill me is to kill the one you love! Mwahahahahah!"[/I]. It also gives him a get out if his host is killed - he can just possess another body. Can the PCs find his gem in time? 2. Home field advantage. Unhallow the entire area, and have dispel magic (or dimensional anchor) tied to it, keyed to affect everyone apart from the bad guys alignment. 3. Divide and conquer. Bad guys pick on one foe and eliminate him as quickly as possible. If a full attack, all attacks are against the same target, and don't just stop when they are down, eviscerate the corpse just to be sure. 4. Incorporeal foes Incorporeal foes are always nasty, because regardless of how good the other guys are to hit, there is ALWAYS that 50% miss chance. Hmmm, Necromancer, Incorporeal, Unhallowed area. I think a large group of Spectres could really say 'I love you' in that [I]special [/I]way, and would certainly put the wind up the PCs too. They might have difficulty in hitting characters though, so what if our Necromancer has made a pact with, say, 8 Dread Wraiths? With their large size and life sense, they can actually take their combat reflexes attacks from completely within rock, and with their spring attack they can spring out, all of them attacking a single foe and then spring back within their rock. Imagine the effect of eight of them rising out of the ground around the same target, each making their +16 attack (surprise? flanking) for 2d6 +1d8 Con drain. You could take someone down in one go if they were very unlucky... Hey, the PCs are using wounding to do CON damage, how do they like it in return? The 8 dread wraiths would contribute 8*121 = 968 towards your total. Ak'chazar Rekshasa contributes 225, your marilith contributes 289. I suggest that for the marilith you ditch one of her useless feats (weapon focus) and replace it with Quicken Spell Like Ability. Boost her caster level to 18 and she could have quickened telekinises to cause havok with every round as well as doing something else. If you feel that is cheating a little, give her Empower spell like ability (blade barrier), then she is creating at-will blade barriers for 15d6+50% damage. The guys with evasion may be making their saves and getting through untouched, but if anyone is grappled and then forced into a blade barrier they probably wouldn't get a save, and 78 force damage is pretty nasty. Definitely worth dropping one on anyone who gets held/paralysed/knocked out or otherwise rendered immobile. Could synergise well with web (which actually cripples people even if they DO save) or even with tanglefoot bags if you get lucky. "Heh, they are using tanglefoot bags against us". "whrrrrrrrrrrr". "Arrrrgh!" Since she has blade barrier at will, have her concentrate on creating a whole lot of blade barriers to control the battlefield and divide up the party. [/QUOTE]
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