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[SPOILERS] Enhancing Tomb of Annihilation
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<blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 7383835" data-attributes="member: 20323"><p>Yeah, sounds like for your party of combat machines altering Acererak's spell list & generally souping up the final showdown is the way to go.</p><p></p><p>I think it was [MENTION=54629]pukunui[/MENTION] who caught a few errors in Acererak's stat block too... Paralyzing Touch should be +15 to hit... and Disrupt Life legendary action shouldn't affect all "creatures", it should only affect "living creatures" (as per MM lich)... which reinforces my thinking that Acererak is meant to be constantly conjuring skeletons from the ossuary-type walls. In your case, you could certainly upgrade these skeletons to minotaur skeletons or something homebrew/3rd party, and have them use dirty tactics like Helping one another's Grapple attempts against key PCs. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devil.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":devil:" title="Devil :devil:" data-shortname=":devil:" /></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Ouch! 90 minutes isn't long! You must have rat bastard DM cred for that one. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></p><p></p><p>I'm curious, how did you present/foreshadow/describe the King of Feathers. A teleporting wasp-breathing massive t-rex is just so bizarre...and ToA doesn't offer any backstory to help the DM make sense of it that I've found. I'm at a loss for giving it narrative "weight" (to avoid it being "aaaand here's a wacko teleporting wasp-breathing feathered t-rex...why? who cares!") Did you invent something yourself?</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Wow, that's a clever use of <em>banishment</em>! Sounds like a fun group to be DMing for. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>Actually, I think the intent of ToA giving Acererak <em>animate dead</em> at-will, and then being able to cast any spell he knows at-will as a legendary action (instead of its usual casting time), is exactly to do what you say: Animate lots of skeletons by upcasting <em>animate dead</em>! My perspective is reinforced by a couple other things:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Area 77, where the battle with Acererak begins, is built like an ossuary, with human and minotaur bones worked into the very walls. Hmm. PCs will have seen this in several other areas of the Tomb too. Foreshadowing?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Disrupt Life should only affect "living creatures" (ToA is in err, MM lich is correct)...which makes encountering a lich with other undead a nasty combo.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Acererak's lore has him being a wizard & his stats are built a lot like a 20th level wizard used as the base (with slightly improved versions of Spell Mastery & Signature Spell). So, the idea that he could upcast an at-will spell is definitely supported by the PHB wizard class. I realize monsters =/= player characters, but there is enough "inspired by wizard" to make it a reasonable assertion.</li> </ul></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Quickleaf, post: 7383835, member: 20323"] Yeah, sounds like for your party of combat machines altering Acererak's spell list & generally souping up the final showdown is the way to go. I think it was [MENTION=54629]pukunui[/MENTION] who caught a few errors in Acererak's stat block too... Paralyzing Touch should be +15 to hit... and Disrupt Life legendary action shouldn't affect all "creatures", it should only affect "living creatures" (as per MM lich)... which reinforces my thinking that Acererak is meant to be constantly conjuring skeletons from the ossuary-type walls. In your case, you could certainly upgrade these skeletons to minotaur skeletons or something homebrew/3rd party, and have them use dirty tactics like Helping one another's Grapple attempts against key PCs. :devil: Ouch! 90 minutes isn't long! You must have rat bastard DM cred for that one. ;) I'm curious, how did you present/foreshadow/describe the King of Feathers. A teleporting wasp-breathing massive t-rex is just so bizarre...and ToA doesn't offer any backstory to help the DM make sense of it that I've found. I'm at a loss for giving it narrative "weight" (to avoid it being "aaaand here's a wacko teleporting wasp-breathing feathered t-rex...why? who cares!") Did you invent something yourself? Wow, that's a clever use of [I]banishment[/I]! Sounds like a fun group to be DMing for. :) Actually, I think the intent of ToA giving Acererak [I]animate dead[/I] at-will, and then being able to cast any spell he knows at-will as a legendary action (instead of its usual casting time), is exactly to do what you say: Animate lots of skeletons by upcasting [I]animate dead[/I]! My perspective is reinforced by a couple other things: [list][*]Area 77, where the battle with Acererak begins, is built like an ossuary, with human and minotaur bones worked into the very walls. Hmm. PCs will have seen this in several other areas of the Tomb too. Foreshadowing? [*]Disrupt Life should only affect "living creatures" (ToA is in err, MM lich is correct)...which makes encountering a lich with other undead a nasty combo. [*]Acererak's lore has him being a wizard & his stats are built a lot like a 20th level wizard used as the base (with slightly improved versions of Spell Mastery & Signature Spell). So, the idea that he could upcast an at-will spell is definitely supported by the PHB wizard class. I realize monsters =/= player characters, but there is enough "inspired by wizard" to make it a reasonable assertion.[/list] [/QUOTE]
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