My players are in a wee bit of trouble...

[Piratecat]

My players, please exit stage left.

Due to cleverness on their part, the level 13 PCs are about to confront their lvl 22 (character-statted as a fighter) BBEG. It's taking place on the top of a 150' tower, in the middle of a hurricane. They're probably screwed, although they have about 30 low lvl allies they can try to call on. And I have no idea how they plan to handle this.

Any suggestions for confrontations with epic tier NPCs vs paragon tier PCs?

 

[Shadus]

You should tone the bad guy down. Not to make it a fair fight, but so that the fight is more painful to go through. That should teach PCs to not be cleaver.

On a more serious note,

Divine intervention-
A God seeing their bravery decides to reward them with a boon, like maybe a temporary surge of power. Thus they would have the stats of a level 21 character, but none of the powers and such. But after the fight they lose these powers and they continue adventuring knowing their true potintial.

Unexpected Help-
Many Bad guys have angered more than just the PC in their career. As the PCs begin to engage Mr. BBEG they are soon aided by beings that didn't even know had a stake in the matter, such as a ... Gold Dragon? Not the best choice if anything because it makes the PCs feel useless compared to a NPC.

Skill challenge-
While the PCs may be unable to attack the boss head on, they do notice something that could weaken him and lower his level. Now on a fairer playing field, the PCs can strike- But they have a time limit before he regains his strength.

Talk to the PCs-
If the other options would just seem to forced for your game, then maybe you just need to talk to the PCs. Tell them while you do accept their cleverness it doesn't change the fact that they would be getting over their head. Still give them a bonus for being smart, but have something ruin the plan and make them have to do things the hard way. As long as they are cool with it, that is.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

I'm assuming the BBEG is already solo? If you're ready to step a little outside the bounds of 4e design, you could lower his level and upgrade him to solo++, which would make him a reasonable challenge for the PCs and their followers.

Otherwise, can you slip them in-game info that he's just too badass for them to handle yet? And then let them go off looking for trouble to earn levels? What's the first layer of Hell for, if not this?

 

[Saagael]

I have two suggestions:

If this BBEG would be an elite at level 22, lower him to 17 and make him a solo (brute perhaps, soldier would be REALLY grindy). It'll be tough, but perhaps doable on their own.

The second is my preference, as it worked well for me in a very similar situation. In my scenario, the players, level 13, were fighting a level 20 elder Blizzard dragon BBEG on top of a broken spire 200 feet high. To compensate, an Archfey of the summer stepped in to help counter the Blizzard Dragon. She used minor actions on her turn to give the players + 10 to attack and damage and skills, heal some people for a surge + 25, move people around, and the like. She didn't buff defenses at all.

The end result was a very swingy, very intense, fight. Players were taking 60-80 damage a round, but were being healed up to full the next with both the leader and the archfey healing the group. Their damage was pretty insane as well, as multiattacks and granted attacks added +10 multiple times. Basically, the group couldn't plan round to round with how swingy the battle was. I even ended up using a triple attack on an unconscious defender (not dying, just one that fell asleep due to an attack), doing 135 damage to him. He died the following round to ongoing damage. Then I pushed the defender off the spire. Luckily he had a flying power to slow his descent and not die on impact.

I think that battle ended with 2 of 6 players conscious. It was a doozy, and the players still talk about it a year and a half later. So my suggestion would be to have someone come in and help them. If they don't know anyone that powerful, here are some ideas (not that you'd need them I'm sure):

* Powerful being caught onto the PC's fame and wants to exploit it. Being helps them win this so they owe this character later.
* BBEG has a lackey who is actually a spy for some other entity and helps the players take out this bad guy.
* BBEG's boss helps players take out this guy, revealing a more twisted plot, and that the players have done exactly as big boss wanted in helping him take out current BBEG.

TL;DR: Look up Bahamut in his human form from the Draconomicon 2. He buffs a party so they could face a challenge roughly 5-10 levels higher than they are, and use a similar NPC to equalize the battle.

 

[the Jester]

If you're currently treating him as a 'standard' lvl 22, I'd rewrite him as a lvl 18 elite for the fight. If you're treating him as an elite lvl 22 already, I'd go solo lvl 18. If he's already a solo, whoops!

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

You could just roll with it.

Players in intense situations sometimes do unexpected things that can lead to victory, as I'm sure you know. And if they don't... well, they suffer defeat.

But that doesn't have to mean death. Where does the story take them from there? Are they captured? Are their unconscious bodies whisked away from the jaws of negative bloodied or other certain doom, by a mysterious (or not-so-mysterious) benefactor? Do they get an opportunity to break and run? Does their own cavalry arrive in the nick of time and "force" the villain to retreat? The reinforcements may all be low-level wankers, but they don't have numbers over their heads and any sane villain should logically flee when outnumbered at 100-to-1, even if the game says he can crush them like gnats.

Whatever happens, the only thing that will make this fight terrible is if the outcome is out of the PCs hands. Their victory should not come because some super powerful being steps in to make it happen for them. That, to my way of thinking, only reinforces foolish decision making.

Though, you did say that they cornered this fellow because of their own ingenuity. That should be rewarded. I would not have him defeated, but I would be seriously tempted to have him retreat before serious battle is joined with egg on his face. They caught him with his pants down, so to speak. Feels like victory, but he lives to fight another day.

That said, it can be difficult to pull off with the variety and potency of control effects like prone, daze, and stun, that PCs bring to the table. In my most recent game, the group has just hit level 4. Not a single enemy has survived to fight another day. Their motto is "nobody gets away," and they've come good on it so far.

 

[catastrophic]

If things get bad, just let one of them sacrifice themselves by ramming the bbeg off the tower. They can death-plunge over the side in high style.

Both of them will of course, fall into a bottomles pit, or vanish together due to a teleportation charm the bbeg uses.

 

[jbear]

What if you roll with him at level 22 (which means pretty much impossible to beat) but design some alternative ways for the PCs to deal with the encounter which don't rely on hitting him with their powers.

Some kind of skill challenge they have to play out while surviving his attacks. At certain points of success the PCs manage to lower his defenses making him attackable for a certain amount of time. Perhaps something to do with harnessing the hurricane? Collapsing the floor beneath him? Pushing him off the tower? Make the top of the tower more "fantastical" tying the BBEG to its power in some way which the PCs can disrupt if they are clever and make him vulnerable their attacks by lowering his Defenses?

Or perhaps the BBEG has other more dangerous enemies arrive which distract his attention. Perhaps a massive dragon comes out of the sky and carries him off in its jaws after the PCs have had a few rounds trying to hammer him uselessly. Then perhaps when the PCs descend the tower they only find the broken frame of the dying dragon there and no sign of the BBEG who has escaped. Dying dragon sends them on a quest to retrieve a certain something that will weaken and make him vulnerable to attack.

 

[Quickleaf]

I agree with everyone above. Way I see it you've got 3 options depending on how much adaptation work youre up to:

1. If BBEG is elite turn him into level 17 solo using AngryDM's 3-phase boss monster guidines, with the second phase dealing with minions and the hazard of the whirlwind.

2. Set it up as a skill challenge / puzzle, since the BBEG is effectively invicible in straight up combat with a 13th level party. I dI'd this with a paragon dracolich that heroic PCs decided to tackle.

3. For less work and less high-level soldier grind (ugh), you could reduce his defenses and HP to something appropriate to level 13 but keep all other stats the same. This allows him to keep the intense threat he should represent while not leaving the players totally frustrated. This would be the least amount of work.

4. Ok, fourth option is no change. Personally I wouldn't do this, but you could just run the BBEG exactly as you've written up in the most rat bastard sandbox way possible.

 

[erleni]

If the BBEG is alone and the PC have still access to all their dailies then you can probably try it and see how it goes.
If the party is defeated, but is still interested in the campaign you have plenty of ways to go on. They can be captured and may try to escape, they all come back to life as revenants due to the immense energy of the hurricane coming down of tower in one powerful lighting stroke (Frankenstein anyone?), they may be resurrected by a long standing enemy of the BBEG who wants to recruit them,...)

As the Mummy says: death is only the beginning (and that's also the motto of my wife's Revenant Vryloka Vampire.....