Greenfield
Adventurer
I'm looking at a very unbalanced fight coming up at some point, and I'm considering ways to change that.
We have a party of PCs approaching 20th level, who are planning a face off with a particular Chain Devil (Kyton) who holds contracts on parts of two of the PC's souls.
Any member of the party could drop kick this guy through the goal posts from 50 yards. He's a CR 6, and in a fight he couldn't hit their AC without a natural 20. The fighters couldn't miss his AC except on a 1.
Obviously, my poor little Kyton needs some advancement.
One of his powers is that he can control up to four chains within 20 feet of him, letting them grow in length and sprout razor sharp blades. They attack the same as thr Kyton himself. That effectively gives him six attacks a round, under the right circumstance.
I think I need to increase his hit dice and BAB, or he'll drop halfway through the first round. And obviously I can bump his as I choose, and give him whatever allies I care to, but I'm looking for something more.
I think I need to come up with some truly scary tactics, something unexpected to set the PCs back on their heels and make it a real fight.
One thought that came to mind was his control over chains. Would that include chain armor? If he could make someone's own armor sprout blades in all the wrong places, and then try to strangle them, would that be scary enough?
I think I'd treat blades inside armor as Armor Spikes in reverse. That is, they do a D6 + Strength per round, and treat the armor itself like a Grapple.
Then, of course, there's the idea of him grabbing bystanders with chains and using them as bludgeoning weapons. Makeshift weapons, to be sure, but again the idea is to make the PC's think on their feet, to break them out of their normal battle plans.
Now grabbing someone in their own armor is sneaky and nasty, but by the book a Will Save DC 15 breaks his control, so it's not going to be very effective unless I can bump that somehow. The rules don't say what that Save is based on, so it's unclear what would have to be bumped or adjusted to justify the change.
An obvious buff I can give him is his own Treasure. Monsters have treasure, and it's fully appropriate for him to use any magic items from his own treasure list.
Advancement on this 8 HD creature is listed as from 9 to 16 hit dice. After that he's not really a Kyton any more. At 16 HD he'd be a CR 12, which is still a hockey puck against even one of the PCs.
Now, by the book I can't really add class levels to him. Of course, as the DM I can do what I want, but I really am a rules guy, and I like to stay within the rules.
So what's left? Templates? Feats and skill abuses that can be added with levels?
I'm hoping for some feedbqack, and help making this particular Kyto the a serious "street legal" bad boy, one with enough beef to back his bluster, and give the PCs a decent fight.
Oh, by the way, they know that killing him isn't enough. They need to destroy him in such a way that his soul/spirit won't return to Hell and re-spawn as a Llarva (the lowest form of Devil). They need to steal or obliterate his life force, completely.
We have a party of PCs approaching 20th level, who are planning a face off with a particular Chain Devil (Kyton) who holds contracts on parts of two of the PC's souls.
Any member of the party could drop kick this guy through the goal posts from 50 yards. He's a CR 6, and in a fight he couldn't hit their AC without a natural 20. The fighters couldn't miss his AC except on a 1.
Obviously, my poor little Kyton needs some advancement.
One of his powers is that he can control up to four chains within 20 feet of him, letting them grow in length and sprout razor sharp blades. They attack the same as thr Kyton himself. That effectively gives him six attacks a round, under the right circumstance.
I think I need to increase his hit dice and BAB, or he'll drop halfway through the first round. And obviously I can bump his as I choose, and give him whatever allies I care to, but I'm looking for something more.
I think I need to come up with some truly scary tactics, something unexpected to set the PCs back on their heels and make it a real fight.
One thought that came to mind was his control over chains. Would that include chain armor? If he could make someone's own armor sprout blades in all the wrong places, and then try to strangle them, would that be scary enough?
I think I'd treat blades inside armor as Armor Spikes in reverse. That is, they do a D6 + Strength per round, and treat the armor itself like a Grapple.
Then, of course, there's the idea of him grabbing bystanders with chains and using them as bludgeoning weapons. Makeshift weapons, to be sure, but again the idea is to make the PC's think on their feet, to break them out of their normal battle plans.
Now grabbing someone in their own armor is sneaky and nasty, but by the book a Will Save DC 15 breaks his control, so it's not going to be very effective unless I can bump that somehow. The rules don't say what that Save is based on, so it's unclear what would have to be bumped or adjusted to justify the change.
An obvious buff I can give him is his own Treasure. Monsters have treasure, and it's fully appropriate for him to use any magic items from his own treasure list.
Advancement on this 8 HD creature is listed as from 9 to 16 hit dice. After that he's not really a Kyton any more. At 16 HD he'd be a CR 12, which is still a hockey puck against even one of the PCs.
Now, by the book I can't really add class levels to him. Of course, as the DM I can do what I want, but I really am a rules guy, and I like to stay within the rules.
So what's left? Templates? Feats and skill abuses that can be added with levels?
I'm hoping for some feedbqack, and help making this particular Kyto the a serious "street legal" bad boy, one with enough beef to back his bluster, and give the PCs a decent fight.
Oh, by the way, they know that killing him isn't enough. They need to destroy him in such a way that his soul/spirit won't return to Hell and re-spawn as a Llarva (the lowest form of Devil). They need to steal or obliterate his life force, completely.