Need psi dudes help... NOT FOR MY PLAYERS!

[Darklone]

Howdy guys...

I got a nice kewl hobgoblin level 15 scout/ranger with druid spellcasting in my group atm. Now I have an interplanar BBEG who wants specialists to take care of the group. For this char, I need bodyguards that can actually hit his AC (~40) and who can counter his move/GrManyshot tactic.

I thought about some random bad guy with two Thri-kreen bodyguards with ranger and psywarrior levels (for psionic lions charge with Multi Weapon Fighting). They already have Deflect Arrows (which nicely takes care of Find the Gap) but they still need to fly somehow and I have no idea about which powers to take.

Any evil ideas as well as some proposals for the power level and equipment in your RBDMs chest for special days? I don't want to kill the char but it's supposed to be a real challenge.

 

[Tangent Loki]

Well as for killing...

the route you are heading will definitely encourage that. Crazy damage and ac hitting will of course quickly lead to death.

A few options.

Use nets. Area attack? Check.

Spells? The best. Charm person. heightened web. (ettercaps with class levels and the 'special ability dc+2 as well as school focus web's school for another +2 plus hiehger 'castig stat for ability could make a nice way to tie him up)

The trick is to only take away a little this fight, unless you want a humiliation.

The only way I can see it to take moving out of the equation, and then allow him to shoot off at his opponents.

A ginormous heightened web-ball item (the battlefield of the spider) would work.

Some kind of glorious grease. Massive effect (unless he has high balance)

a bunch of razon bugs that sting you when you attack and darken the area.

incorporel undead have a wonderful way of making all ac touch...

fireball could work too, something simple to threaten. or Attack the gears...

or take the fight into an antimagic field.

one thri-keen pasiwariior. One stone of anti-magic. One colossal jump check later.

And its time to get down and dirty with grappling.

or take something with obscene movment and improved grab (or snatch)

and let him be grappled. that should take the fight to a whole new level.

is his ac 40 touch?

I imagine not.

there are plenty of options.

or you could make it a double archery contest.

give you baddy the lesser cloak of displacement (then double enchant it) and fight from afar.

20% miss chance followed by 20% miss chance. two instances of a chance to miss on his many-shot. while your archer glugs his true strike potion. then makes one shot. Glugs another... makes the shot... etc.

he shouldn't be immune in that case.
Or you could use undead for no scout damage.

or you could run him against something with dr or combine the above.

Dr significantly hurts archers as a challenge.

If each arrow loses ten damage where will he be at.

Good dr choices include Nature's warrior, Green Star Adept and outsiders.

 

[Evilhalfling]

If they dont have freedom of movement
Psiwarrior - Claws of the beast, Expansion (to huge), Lions charge, Grip of iron-as tatto (+4 grapple)

Flying can be handled through Expanded Knowledge feat (psionic Fly) or with potions.
A few astral constructs can be used to clog up his escape routes. Undead or constructs should ignore his percision damage.

 

[Folly]

Well since he has to stay within 30 ft to get his skirmish, you can use a reach build to do your offense. Meanwhile, for a character to get that high, the character is likely using magical buffs and definitely magical items. To counter this have a caster that takes the necessary defensive step (greater invis or superior invis) come to mind. Then have the caster use chain dispel magic (spell compendium) to strip him of his buffs and suppress him magic items. Then the chain builds can have their fun, and your caster still has the majority of his spells while being superior invis.

Superior Invis is 8th and chain dispel is either 7th or 8th. It might be alot of his spell power right at first, but it will have the desired effect. Not to mention Superior Invis is just annoying anyways(only true seeing sees through it).

 

[Folly]

As always, you think of the really good parts after you press enter. To add a whole new level of evil to the situation give the caster a greater rod of silent metamagic. This way their spellcasters very well might not be able to identify what happened, since they have no visual, and no auditory components to use for spellcraft. They still get one if I am not mistaken since they see the effect, but it is at a significantly increased DC.

 

[Darklone]

Touch AC is pretty high due to skirmish (above 30)... he's a swift hunter with favored enemies undead and constructs... reach build is a good idea but he's got some ranger level 1 spells as swift actions for no range limit on skirmish or sneak attacks. Plus pearls of power to use it several times. He doesn't rely that much on buff spells.

Freedom of movement is his second name (as should be the case for any high level dude) And his movement speed is like Speedy Gonzales.

Last thing that really bothered him was some burrowing thing. So this time I thought I try another thing... and stumbled over these thri-kreen things with their funny jump checks. Expansion with full attack actions at reach plus secondary bite attack (boosted with some psipower) sounds like a good idea.

Guess I'll get them some movement boosts and do a locust build.

Aren't there some fly spells for psios except that nomad psionic fly power?

Edit: Hmm.... Are there some Heritage feat lines that grant wings?

 

[blargney the second]

Land-based pouncing barbarians with flying buddies that bull rush enemies to the ground.

 

[Arkhandus]

Why not just give the Thri-Kreen the Expanded Knowledge feat for Psionic Fly? There aren't really any other methods of flying psionically, AFAIK.

Hostile Empathic Transfer is a power that might be useful to them, since it uses a Will save, and all the damage the party might do to them can be slowly transferred to the ranger/scout PC if he keeps failing his Will saves. It's a 3rd-level psychic warrior power.

If you wanted to be somewhat less nasty, Mind Thrust could serve the same purpose but with lower damage and no transfer, just a Will save to avoid some number of d10s worth of damage. 1st-level psion power, so requires Expanded Knowledge for a psychic warrior.

Psionic Blast could help. Will save to avoid being stunned, which would drop the PC's armor class severely and allow the other Thri-Kreen or whatnot to get a chance at pummeling him a bit. It's a 3rd-level psion power, so it'd require the Expanded Knowledge feat.

I'm not sure how often your Thri-Kreen NPCs will be able to hit the ranger/scout PC with his AC being around 40.... They'll probably NEED to use the Deep Impact (in melee) or Fell Shot (at range) psionic feats just to hit the guy (hitting a touch AC of 30-something is still easier than hitting a normal AC of 40-something, after all). Offensive Precognition is a 1st-level psychic warrior power that can help with accuracy.

 

[Herobizkit]

Make the Bugs Thri-Kreen Monk3/PsyWar7 with Multiattack and be certain to take the abilities Dimension Swap and Dimension Slide.

* The Monk levels will boost the Bugs' saving throws and increase their hand-to-hand damage, as well as giving them the Improved Grapple and Combat Reflexes feats. 7 levels of PsyWar nets you three more combat or psionic feats.
* Multiattacks lets them use all their secondary attacks at -2, essentially giving the Bugs a second Flurry of Blows. That's four h2h attacks on a full attack.
* Dimension Slide allows them limited teleportation, while Dimension Shift allows them to trade places with each other, or any other allies, on the battlefield.
* Way I see it, once both of these Bugs get into grapplin' range... grapplin's a Touch attack, too.

By the by, how does a Ranger get a 40+ AC?

 

[Darklone]

By the by, how does a Ranger get a 40+ AC?

Rather simple, dex 26, improved skirmish +6 AC, a ring of deflection and a mithral breastplate +3. That's around 35 IIRC... then Barkskin.

Btw: He has Indomitable will and an armor with that +5 to Will against mind affecting things from MIC.