Ogre Mage - CR 8?

[Runestar]

In a thread over at giantip, one poster described his battle with an ogre mage as the party winning initiative, taking it down in the 1st round before it had a chance to act, then spending about 10 minutes trying all kinds of stuff to overcome its regeneration.

 

[pawsplay]

Actually, a summoning focused wizard would be able to cast Summon Monster III and get a Fiendish Dire Bat with DR5/magic, Resist Cold and Fire 5, Flying, Blindsense 40 ft, and a +10 to grapple.

Or a Celestial Hippogriff with Resist Cold 5, Scent, Flying, and +11 to grapple.

Those are pretty good options, but mainly for distracting the ogre mage while you try to escape. A 50% miss chance just isn't a winning strategy, and either one dies if it fails its save against Cone of Cold. In a protracted battle, the ogre mage would try to get far away and stall the summoned monsters until the duration ran out, regenerate its wounds, and return.

 

[pawsplay]

Thoughts on how to continue? Perhaps we could drag out a few other CR 6-8 monsters and see how they compare?

We know the young blue is probably lowballed at CR 7, but that's probably an important comparison. Then we'd probably want to look at a level 8 human sorcerer who can cast cone of cold, invisibility, flight, and darkness.

Then, for something completely different, how about an Evolved Wraith (CR 6), a succubus (CR 7), and a Hill Giant (CR 7).

 

[Dandu]

Those are pretty good options, but mainly for distracting the ogre mage while you try to escape. A 50% miss chance just isn't a winning strategy

No, but it lets you know where the thing is for AoE spells and attacks.

either one dies if it fails its save against Cone of Cold.

Which means the Ogre Mage has used up his most potent attack against a summon.

In a protracted battle, the ogre mage would try to get far away and stall the summoned monsters until the duration ran out, regenerate its wounds, and return.

In which case, he'd return without a Cone of Cold and be easy pickings.

 

[LuckyBoneDice]

Ogre Mage is always my #1 pick for monster campaigns.

as for its CR, I say its definately overpowered. My 2nd level PCs beat an Ogre Mage and his Kobold Minions in 4 rounds.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

as for its CR, I say its definately overpowered. My 2nd level PCs beat an Ogre Mage and his Kobold Minions in 4 rounds.

Your entire party consisted of monks and rogues that rolled really well on their reflex saves, then?

 

[LuckyBoneDice]

Your entire party consisted of monks and rogues that rolled really well on their reflex saves, then?

nope. the Wizard knew was an Uldra Abjurer, who took advantage of his size and happened to not be in the range of the Cone, and cast every abjuration he could. It was the Ninja, who was a fricken Whisper Gnome, who dropped the final bomb on the OM (his Silence made the CoC useless)

 

[pawsplay]

Which means the Ogre Mage has used up his most potent attack against a summon.

In which case, he'd return without a Cone of Cold and be easy pickings.

Uh, no. The evading the summoned creatures for several rounds before coming back to finish the job is a different resolution than the situation where the summoned creatures simply die incidentally, without any extra effort, while the ogre mage is severely damaging the rest of the party. No cone of cold is required to simply survive eight rounds of being charged by a dire bat, particularly with a 50% miss chance should the ogre mage happen to continue to be invisible.

 

[Great Guru]

Some other CR 8 creatures - athach, behir, efreeti, erinyes, stone giant, mind flayer, tyrannosaurus rex. I think in terms of badassery they outclass the ogre mage on many levels. Cone of cold is great but he's not swallowing anyone whole or stunning you and ripping out your brains.

Some CR 6 beasties - annis hag, chain devil, babau demon, ettin, gauth beholder, will -o'-wisp. These seem more on par with the ogre mage. I'm comfortable with the ogre mage in this kind of company.

CR 7 - aboleth (the ogre mage is more powerful than an aboleth? really?), bulette, chaos beast, chimera, chuul, drider, hill giant, flesh golem, succubus. These all seem to be tougher than the ogre mage.

As always, circumstances of environment may add to or detract from overall badassery.

 

[Runestar]

It was the Ninja, who was a fricken Whisper Gnome, who dropped the final bomb on the OM (his Silence made the CoC useless)

How would silence render CoC useless? Being a SLA, it does not require verbal or somatic components, so an ogre mage can use it in an area of silence just fine.