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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(Psi)SeveredHead" data-source="post: 909179" data-attributes="member: 1165">Elder BasiliskThe pit fiend only has an attack bonus of +30. It will hit a 20th-level player character about half the time, and it only gets one attack if the player is smart enough not to trade full-round actions with the pit fiend.I should also point out that these "sky high" ACs weren't playtested. The multiple Empower stacking ability was added later, to cause headaches for DMs whose players read messageboards. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />I don't believe you. My 25 point buy players were 15th-level when I succumbed to the need to try this thing out (I didn't know it's CR had changed at the time). The barbarian could hit it with his first and second attack about half the time - when raging. He even confirmed a crit against the thing. The DR 15/whatever didn't mean a great deal either. (The party also didn't use haste).The thing got knocked to 40 hit points before it ran away.A typical 15th-level player character should have an attack bonus of about +27 (assuming starting Strength 15 and a +6 item). A 20th-level fighter should have an even higher attack bonus.Need I mention that fiends, even now, have low hit points but higher AC to compensate? With only 225 hp, I despair of the pit fiend's life. It's a good thing it gets teleport to keep away from the fighter with his 20th-level boots of flying.(PS not knowing the spell level of Mass Hold Monster makes things interesting, so I treated it as 9th. Considering all the complaints about Meteor Swarm, I assumed that changed as well. Nonetheless, I could make a realistic assessment of hitting something with an AC score of 44 (unholy aura) - after a quarter of the party was fleeing in terror, as well as it's chance of making saving throws, and so forth.)Again, I don't believe you. Show me some 20th-level PC with such terrible AC scores and I'll show you how to "optimize" them without using cheese such as Empowered Empowered Cat's Grace. At 20th-level you can find/procure/make/take from your enemy's corpse a +4 ring of protection, for instance - something my 15th-level PCs didn't have. Even a wizard can cast mirror image.A 20th-level character has access to incredible amounts of equipment, and even the 15th-level characters in Enemies and Allies could challenge it's attack roll sequence.The fact that a wizard can't kill the pit fiend in one round makes the encounter more interesting. The pit fiend has SR 32, so the wizard's spell has a 40% chance of getting through. To be honest, I've never seen a 20th-level wizard without Spell Penetration, although I've often seen them without Greater Spell Penetration. They also face lower elemental resistances.Even better, you can knock off a good chunk of the pit fiend's hit points with disintegrate before you start dishing out the chain lightning and other spells, and actually expend 20% or so of your resources.Easily.</blockquote>

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