Deus ex Machina: 7th level 4E and a 22nd level Fighter/Kensei/Demigod

I was tired, and I wanted to finish things so I was cutting corners. I decided the BBEG and his minions were going to ambush the PCs shortly after they entered his tower, instead of drawing it out like I planned. I left in the orb trap though, a simple trap that asked "wow, what is that?" when people looked at it in the center of the arcane study, and did nothing but explode when tampered with in any fashion for 5d6+8 plus 10 ongoing fire. A bit nasty for 7th level, but I had originally planned for rest to be available afterwards. In this case, the enemies were coming. They, tired(players) and desperate(characters), tried messing with the orb a second time. After two blasts of the orb, 5-22hp remaining, taking 10 ongoing fire, and half their encounter healing already spent, they had basically zero chance to survive a 9th level encounter.

So, not wanting to kill them because I was tired and cutting corners, their boss/mentor showed up, who just happens to be a level 22 Fighter/Kensei/Demigod. The effect of an Epic character on a heroic game was breathtaking, far more so than I would have ever expected. She opened the fight with weaponsoul dance, which boosted by a +5 Reckless sword, dealt 3d10+29 against three targets plus prone/immobilized. After the third hit, she spent an action point for shift the battlefield against 3 adjacent targets for another 2d10+29. This killed 1 enemy and left another with 5 hp. She also had the good old Fighter marking and opportunity attacks for more 2d10+29 insanity, or at least preventing the enemies from touching the dying party. She killed a 200hp Elite in two rounds(with small help from the party), and even got to fire her Longbow for 2d10+18 with a basic attack to kill the last enemy. It did help that with a +28 attack bonus, she really couldn't miss aside from a 1.

I must say that an Epic character truly appeared Epic in this instance.

...how did the players feel about basically being bystanders in the big fight?

Is this something to be proud of? The title was pretty obviously bad there...

I found the battle account an interesting example of an epic character versus low level enemies; I was previously worried that the difference in power were not so evident.

Lol. I thought this thread was about the Amythest setting from Dias Ex Machina.

Not that you can go back and re-do, but why couldn't you have - before they entered the tower - said "Okay, you enter the tower, and we'll pick it up next time." There's no point in continuing if you're too tired to DM the way you want.

It really wasn't as good a stopping point as it sounded, just before the tower. We got sidetracked earlier in the evening and were way behind time wise, and the game was running later than it should have. The tower was a speed bump before the main destination, and wasn't terribly important to the story. As for the Angel(her nickname), they've been hearing other people in the game talk about her, and one or two players had looked through her character sheets, so there was some interest in seeing her in action. In fact, one of us had to leave early because of work the next day, and it was said that he'd be pissed that he missed it. I had planned a demonstration at some point in the future because of said interest, and becuase of things falling off the rails, it seemed as good a time as any.

As for the Deus Ex Machina, it was going to happen in any case. Whether a super NPC showed up, or "lets just pretend this didn't happen and do it over next week", there was going to be some sort of divine intervention, or an undeserved TPK. They didn't mind it(watching on the sidelines) because they knew they were dead without it. It was even a decent combat since they were so torn up at the start that they actually had to play the game strategically to live through it(as I said, we're talking about level 7 characters with 5-22hp and almost no available healing against a level 9 encounter. I even got a pair of thank yous when I placed her figure on the table. I don't feel bad about it because they were dead because I screwed up, not because they screwed up.

I posted this not to brag, but to give an example of what an Epic character in action looks like in a low level game. Against heroic level enemies, the Angel was truly Epic. A lot of it had to do with the +29 damage bonus(+7 Str, +5 Enhancement, +4 Kensei, +3 Weapon Focus, +10 Reckless Weapon), and being a Heavy Blade Fighter with piles of close attacks and multiple hit and shift powers. Combat Challenge and Combat Superiority on an invincible character who attacks multiple enemies and could bloody enemies with one hit was Epic. Opening the battle with an Action Point and a pair of Dailies(one of which was the Kensei's Weaponsoul Dance) was Epic.

At least when you play them side by side in a heroic level battle, Epic characters are truly Epic compared to Heroic Characters. One special comparison I can make with previous editions, is that going supernova like that is something you just don't see in 4E. While you could do far more with a 3E character, it was far more common sight to nova. A low level Sorcerer/Beguiler can spam Color Spray and Glitterdust and do what the Angel did at low levels. What happened with the Angel was something none of us had ever seen in months of playing 4E twice a week.

OK, it sounds as if the demonstration was not without its value.

Next session:

Big ugly extraplanar evil appears. "You knew the consequences if you chose to intervene."

They fight. Angel dies. You can narrate their attacks and tell the players you rolled it out earlier.

The bad guy isn't particularly interested in killing the PCs, though after she finishes her target, she'll beat on them for a round each time they attack her. But they do have to succeed in one opposed skill check against an untrained skill of hers for her to go away - maybe Arcana to use the whatsit in the study to banish her. Otherwise they can run.

Then they can either find 50,000gp to raise the Angel, or find a new mommy to save them the next time they fool around with a trap or refuse to retreat when badly injured.

Players can gather from this:

• Events in the campaign have consequences. There are fights they can't win.
• Their actions matter. There are reasons epic characters send PCs on adventures rather than going themselves. If not for their efforts, evil will triumph.
• When players read your notes, you make changes.

A reasonably intelligent level 23+ elite without too many area attacks: a marilith sounds about right.