Needed strategies for taking on Kerzit
Tevyn
First Post
He was after me!
... on with the story. Yesterdays session was just as crazy, but this time we were better prepared. The cleric brought in another angel to help us with the distruction of Kerzit, so we had two, and those Angels summoned a couple alternate planar creatures (I forgot the name of them). We buffed up in town and prepared to teleport all party members back into the exact location where we meet Kerzit last time. We used Holy Aura, Bull's strength on the fighters, improved invisiblity on the rougue, death wards, and I drank an eagles splendar. We attempted to scry for his exact location before teleporting and failed, so we just charged in.
Well, again he was ready for use with the same batch of creatures, except the hazrous. The wizard/sorcer took turns with counter spells. I let of a max fireball to torch the dredges.
We couldn't get a anchor locked on to Kerzit or his area. Next thing I knew he teleported right into my face. I tried to move, but I didn't get far enough away. Now you've gotta understand something about a Fire Memphit. I can't be healed by potions or spells, only by fire (a major risk of my species). Kerzit took me down to 7 hp and 2 open woulds that would take 8 points of damage the next round. I didn't have anything that would damage him, nothing to go out in a blaze of glory with. I gave up. No one could help me.. I was dead.
One of those beast that the angels summoned came over and touched me, BAM, a charge of life came back to me. How'd he do that? Some type of laying on hands ability. I lived and the party was trying hard to get through Kerzits SR and Saves, but were successfully destroying all the minons. Finally after all the minios where destroyed and we could all focus on Kerzit, One of our Angels used Power Word Stun and Kerzit did not make the cut, he was stunned. Our sorc pounded on him Acid Orb, our rougue (as a 11-20 crit) sliced and diced. We braught him down.
Everyone lived!
Thank you everyone for your help and support!! DND Rocks!
... on with the story. Yesterdays session was just as crazy, but this time we were better prepared. The cleric brought in another angel to help us with the distruction of Kerzit, so we had two, and those Angels summoned a couple alternate planar creatures (I forgot the name of them). We buffed up in town and prepared to teleport all party members back into the exact location where we meet Kerzit last time. We used Holy Aura, Bull's strength on the fighters, improved invisiblity on the rougue, death wards, and I drank an eagles splendar. We attempted to scry for his exact location before teleporting and failed, so we just charged in.
Well, again he was ready for use with the same batch of creatures, except the hazrous. The wizard/sorcer took turns with counter spells. I let of a max fireball to torch the dredges.
We couldn't get a anchor locked on to Kerzit or his area. Next thing I knew he teleported right into my face. I tried to move, but I didn't get far enough away. Now you've gotta understand something about a Fire Memphit. I can't be healed by potions or spells, only by fire (a major risk of my species). Kerzit took me down to 7 hp and 2 open woulds that would take 8 points of damage the next round. I didn't have anything that would damage him, nothing to go out in a blaze of glory with. I gave up. No one could help me.. I was dead. One of those beast that the angels summoned came over and touched me, BAM, a charge of life came back to me. How'd he do that? Some type of laying on hands ability. I lived and the party was trying hard to get through Kerzits SR and Saves, but were successfully destroying all the minons. Finally after all the minios where destroyed and we could all focus on Kerzit, One of our Angels used Power Word Stun and Kerzit did not make the cut, he was stunned. Our sorc pounded on him Acid Orb, our rougue (as a 11-20 crit) sliced and diced. We braught him down.
Everyone lived!
Thank you everyone for your help and support!! DND Rocks!
Ogrork the Mighty
Explorer
Milo Windby said:
How did all those summoned demons get past the planetar's protective aura???
Milo Windby
First Post
They did it. I did not think it was possible, but they did it. They killed Kerzit.
First, they learned from their mistakes in the first encounter. Second, they prepared tactics beforehand. Third, Kerzit’s cascade was not as effective this time.
The players had a major pow-wow before the battle. The cleric cast commune to figure out some of Kerzit’s weaknesses (or lack thereof.) Then they summoned another planetar angel and a trumpet archon. The two planetars used summon monster IX to bring in two leonal guardinals. This brought the team roster up to:
Fighter 6 / Dwarven Defender 9
Mephit 6 / Sorceror 9
Illusionist 15
Cleric 15
Rogue 15
Monk 15
2 Planetar Angels (cast as 17th level clerics + other abilities)
Trumpet Archon
2 Leonal Guardinals
I punched in the respective ECLs into d20srd.org encounter calculator and found that their group was the equivalent of a 17.7 party. That made the battle “Very Difficult” according to the calculator.
After excessive buffing from the angels and the cleric, the illusionist tried to use greater scrying to locate Kerzit and teleport straight in. Naturally, Kerzit made his saving throw. Thus warned, Kerzit started summoning demons. The players knew that time was of the essence, so they used greater teleport to warp in to the location of the last battle. It took them three rounds to find Kerzit. By then, he had finished his cascade.
The cascade is where Kerzit’s problems began this time. By the time he and his were done, the opposing force was:
Kerzit
4 Glabrezus
8 Vrocks
45 Dretches
No Hezrous this time. The vrocks closed in first, just like last time. The players tried dimensional anchor on Kerzit and the glabrezus. Kerzit saved, the glabrezus did not. While the players took on the vrocks, the leonals used their “at will” fireballs to take out the dretches quickly. The angels cast implosion, first on two vrocks successfully. Kerzit then teleported right in front of the poor mephit. He almost got a one turn kill after all his attacks were counted. Poor Tevyn had 7 hp left with two abyssal wounds (-4 hp per round per wound) that would knock her unconscious by the next round.
The angels tried their implosion trick on Kerzit, who made his save naturally. They pointed their last two rounds at the glabrezus, which is where Kerzit’s problems got worse. As level 17 clerics, their saves and spell penetration was too much for Kerzit’s lieutenants. Kerzit just about took out an angel while one of the leonals used their supernatural “lay on hands” ability to heal up Tevyn.
The big turning point was the illusionist’s masterful casting of orb of sound. She empowered it with a metamagic rod and rolled a natural 20 on her touch attack. We play with the critical attack on ray and touch spells variant. She confirmed her critical and rolled up 15d4 for damage. With the empowerment and the critical, she did over 100 hp of damage with a spell that does not allow a saving throw or spell resistance (4th level in Complete Arcane for those of you searching for the spell.)
With the glabrezus out of the way, the players surrounded Kerzit and began their final assault. By the time Kerzit’s next turn came around, he still had over 100 hp. I figured he’d last another round at which time he’d TP away and heal up. I was wrong. The angels, no longer concentrating on implosion, used Power Word Stun on him. All they had to do was overcome his spell resistance, which they did. By that time, Kerzit had been hit by another orb of sound and other attacks and was below 50 hp. That’s 4d4 rounds of stun, it came out to 12 rounds.
The battle was over.
Kerzit could not stand up to the combined might of the 6 players and their 5 summoned companions. The fact that it took 11 of them to defeat Kerzit was a consolation. I truly did not expect them to take Kerzit down after two tries. I also expected more fatalities. I think they were truly impressed with the danger of the situation and planned accordingly. I have to hand it to them, they did well.
Now they have Eli Tomorast to look forward to. Mwah hah hah hah!
First, they learned from their mistakes in the first encounter. Second, they prepared tactics beforehand. Third, Kerzit’s cascade was not as effective this time.
The players had a major pow-wow before the battle. The cleric cast commune to figure out some of Kerzit’s weaknesses (or lack thereof.) Then they summoned another planetar angel and a trumpet archon. The two planetars used summon monster IX to bring in two leonal guardinals. This brought the team roster up to:
Fighter 6 / Dwarven Defender 9
Mephit 6 / Sorceror 9
Illusionist 15
Cleric 15
Rogue 15
Monk 15
2 Planetar Angels (cast as 17th level clerics + other abilities)
Trumpet Archon
2 Leonal Guardinals
I punched in the respective ECLs into d20srd.org encounter calculator and found that their group was the equivalent of a 17.7 party. That made the battle “Very Difficult” according to the calculator.
After excessive buffing from the angels and the cleric, the illusionist tried to use greater scrying to locate Kerzit and teleport straight in. Naturally, Kerzit made his saving throw. Thus warned, Kerzit started summoning demons. The players knew that time was of the essence, so they used greater teleport to warp in to the location of the last battle. It took them three rounds to find Kerzit. By then, he had finished his cascade.
The cascade is where Kerzit’s problems began this time. By the time he and his were done, the opposing force was:
Kerzit
4 Glabrezus
8 Vrocks
45 Dretches
No Hezrous this time. The vrocks closed in first, just like last time. The players tried dimensional anchor on Kerzit and the glabrezus. Kerzit saved, the glabrezus did not. While the players took on the vrocks, the leonals used their “at will” fireballs to take out the dretches quickly. The angels cast implosion, first on two vrocks successfully. Kerzit then teleported right in front of the poor mephit. He almost got a one turn kill after all his attacks were counted. Poor Tevyn had 7 hp left with two abyssal wounds (-4 hp per round per wound) that would knock her unconscious by the next round.
The angels tried their implosion trick on Kerzit, who made his save naturally. They pointed their last two rounds at the glabrezus, which is where Kerzit’s problems got worse. As level 17 clerics, their saves and spell penetration was too much for Kerzit’s lieutenants. Kerzit just about took out an angel while one of the leonals used their supernatural “lay on hands” ability to heal up Tevyn.
The big turning point was the illusionist’s masterful casting of orb of sound. She empowered it with a metamagic rod and rolled a natural 20 on her touch attack. We play with the critical attack on ray and touch spells variant. She confirmed her critical and rolled up 15d4 for damage. With the empowerment and the critical, she did over 100 hp of damage with a spell that does not allow a saving throw or spell resistance (4th level in Complete Arcane for those of you searching for the spell.)
With the glabrezus out of the way, the players surrounded Kerzit and began their final assault. By the time Kerzit’s next turn came around, he still had over 100 hp. I figured he’d last another round at which time he’d TP away and heal up. I was wrong. The angels, no longer concentrating on implosion, used Power Word Stun on him. All they had to do was overcome his spell resistance, which they did. By that time, Kerzit had been hit by another orb of sound and other attacks and was below 50 hp. That’s 4d4 rounds of stun, it came out to 12 rounds.
The battle was over.
Kerzit could not stand up to the combined might of the 6 players and their 5 summoned companions. The fact that it took 11 of them to defeat Kerzit was a consolation. I truly did not expect them to take Kerzit down after two tries. I also expected more fatalities. I think they were truly impressed with the danger of the situation and planned accordingly. I have to hand it to them, they did well.
Now they have Eli Tomorast to look forward to. Mwah hah hah hah!
Milo Windby
First Post
Ogrork the Mighty said:
Protective Aura (Su): Against attacks made or effects created by evil creatures, this ability provides a +4 deflection bonus to AC and a +4 resistance bonus on saving throws to anyone within 20 feet of the angel. Otherwise, it functions as a magic circle against evil effect and a lesser globe of invulnerability, both with a radius of 20 feet (caster level equals angel’s HD). This aura can be dispelled, but the angel can create it again as a free action on its next turn. (The defensive benefits from the circle are not included in an angel’s statistics block.)
While impressive, the aura does not repel demons. It does make it harder to hit the angels and their companions. The players already had Holy Aura cast on them, which is similar to the protective aura in some respects and does not stack. The fact of the matter is that the only demon that had a chance to really do some damage was Kerzit. His attacks are more than able to overcome the benefit of the holy or the protective auras. His vrocks and glabrezus didn't last long enough to make a difference either way.
demiurge1138
Inventor of Super-Toast
Magic circle vs. evil blocks attacks by summoned creatures if they fail a Will save, is what he's saying. Some of those reinforcements should have been unable to do any direct good (although spell-like abilities and what not would still have worked).
Demiurge out.
Demiurge out.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Wow, we were supposed to recognize the name of a NPC from Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure and one issue of Dungeon?
Milo Windby
First Post
demiurge1138 said:
The wording of protection from evil allows for this:
The protection against contact by summoned creatures ends if the warded creature makes an attack against or tries to force the barrier against the blocked creature. Spell resistance can allow a creature to overcome this protection and touch the warded creature.
Ogrork the Mighty
Explorer
Was SR checked for all those demons? They all passed? Why bother attacking a demon that's blocked? Move on to the next one.
SRs: Glabrezu SR 21, Hezrou SR 19, Vrocks SR 17.
15th-lvl casters need a 6, 4, and 2 respectively. Not including possible Spell Penetration feats. There's no way all those demons passed their SRs. Sounds like this got missed...
Magic circle/protection from evil are pretty much mandatory spells when you're potentially going up against summoned creatures.
SRs: Glabrezu SR 21, Hezrou SR 19, Vrocks SR 17.
15th-lvl casters need a 6, 4, and 2 respectively. Not including possible Spell Penetration feats. There's no way all those demons passed their SRs. Sounds like this got missed...
Magic circle/protection from evil are pretty much mandatory spells when you're potentially going up against summoned creatures.
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