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<blockquote data-quote="Stalker0" data-source="post: 8259556" data-attributes="member: 5889"><p>So I got to try out a version of this creature in a recent boss fight for my party. Here's how it went.</p><p></p><p><strong>The Setup</strong></p><p></p><p>1) My party is</p><p>9th level Battlemaster</p><p>9th level Swashbuckler</p><p>9th level Lore Bard</p><p>6th level A "Misty Step Living Spell" (6th level rogue stats, but who is incoporeal undead, immune to non-magical damage and whose attack is "teleport two creatures 30 ft at-will, no save). Was a custom creation for the finale of my campaign.</p><p>A 6th level Soulknife</p><p>A 12th level Telekinesis Specialist (12th level fighter stats, his only attack is telekinesis at-will and a 2d10 force damage "telekinesis cantrip", another custom creation).</p><p></p><p>2) Buff wise, the Fighter has a 35 HP boost from an 8th level Aid, everyone else has a 10 HP boost from a 3rd level Aid, and the entire party has bless (from a god, but just the bless spell). I gave the Worm Mage Armor to start the fight. The battlemaster has been given some really good armor and shield, so he has an AC 25.</p><p></p><p>3) Situation: The battlemaster is the key to the endgame, and the enemy abberations know it (I reskinned the monster as an abberation). The party has to protect the Battlemaster at all costs as the party tries to get him to the key area. The party is on a ship, when they are attacked by the Worm and 3 Aboleths. I decided to have the worm occupy the entire ship, basically coming up from the borders as an endless swarm of insects. So the entire party can attack the worm anywhere on the ship....but the worm can get to anyone as well.</p><p></p><p>4) I did not use the Meteor Swarm version (so CR 19). Overall, by the standard encounter math, this is a 4x deadly encounter.</p><p></p><p><strong>How it went</strong></p><p></p><p>1) I rolled terribly on Initiative so the party got to deliver a lot of pain at the beginning. The soulknife was doing psychic damage which was resisted by the worm.</p><p></p><p>2) I looked at Withering Touch several times through the fight and every time I did I just felt like it was an action and moved on, so I never used it, which of course would have made a big difference. Something about the language just did not jive in my head when I was running the encounter. Does that work on every melee attack....because it means the worm effectively had DR 13 against all non-reach melee attacks, which is incredibly good....and is probably why the monster ultimately didn't fare so well.</p><p></p><p>3) The worms big opener was the Horrid Wilting, which was solid. I did 51 damage to almost everyone (the living spell being immune as they are counted as undead). The high save DC was probably the best thing about the monster in this particular fight, as it meant a lot of the party actually failed a con save for once.</p><p></p><p>4) The worm used all of its legendaries to try and slam the battlemaster, but that 25 AC meant I never hit him.</p><p></p><p>5) The party got wise to the creature's intent, and so the living spell did a readied action to teleport the Battlemaster away from the next attack. The worm tried its engulf, but the teleport saved him.</p><p></p><p>6) The aboleths were pretty useless in this fight. The whole party passed against the first round of enslaves (because that DC is garbage), the living spell teleported 2 of them into the hull of the ship, and the telekinetic restrained and pushed the other one deep in the water where it couldn't attack. Ultimately they did practically nothing the entire fight. This is my second time using aboleths in this campaign, and I have been extremely disappointed with them in both cases.</p><p></p><p>7) Ultimately the Worm was killed before it got to go on the 3rd round (my plan was to use cloud kill to try and take down everyone). It went down with a whimper unfortunately, and though its just the first of a few bosses I have planned, I'll have to take it up a notch to really threaten the group. While the horrid wilting was a bit scary, I never saw real concern in my party.</p><p></p><p>8) Last note, I forgot shield the whole fight. This goes back to some conversations we have had about spell lists....a big spell list like that your DM eyes just glaze over as soon as the actual fight begins. Those key defensive spells need to be called out in the statblock, probably right on the AC note (20 with mage armor, 25 with shield, etc).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Stalker0, post: 8259556, member: 5889"] So I got to try out a version of this creature in a recent boss fight for my party. Here's how it went. [B]The Setup[/B] 1) My party is 9th level Battlemaster 9th level Swashbuckler 9th level Lore Bard 6th level A "Misty Step Living Spell" (6th level rogue stats, but who is incoporeal undead, immune to non-magical damage and whose attack is "teleport two creatures 30 ft at-will, no save). Was a custom creation for the finale of my campaign. A 6th level Soulknife A 12th level Telekinesis Specialist (12th level fighter stats, his only attack is telekinesis at-will and a 2d10 force damage "telekinesis cantrip", another custom creation). 2) Buff wise, the Fighter has a 35 HP boost from an 8th level Aid, everyone else has a 10 HP boost from a 3rd level Aid, and the entire party has bless (from a god, but just the bless spell). I gave the Worm Mage Armor to start the fight. The battlemaster has been given some really good armor and shield, so he has an AC 25. 3) Situation: The battlemaster is the key to the endgame, and the enemy abberations know it (I reskinned the monster as an abberation). The party has to protect the Battlemaster at all costs as the party tries to get him to the key area. The party is on a ship, when they are attacked by the Worm and 3 Aboleths. I decided to have the worm occupy the entire ship, basically coming up from the borders as an endless swarm of insects. So the entire party can attack the worm anywhere on the ship....but the worm can get to anyone as well. 4) I did not use the Meteor Swarm version (so CR 19). Overall, by the standard encounter math, this is a 4x deadly encounter. [B]How it went[/B] 1) I rolled terribly on Initiative so the party got to deliver a lot of pain at the beginning. The soulknife was doing psychic damage which was resisted by the worm. 2) I looked at Withering Touch several times through the fight and every time I did I just felt like it was an action and moved on, so I never used it, which of course would have made a big difference. Something about the language just did not jive in my head when I was running the encounter. Does that work on every melee attack....because it means the worm effectively had DR 13 against all non-reach melee attacks, which is incredibly good....and is probably why the monster ultimately didn't fare so well. 3) The worms big opener was the Horrid Wilting, which was solid. I did 51 damage to almost everyone (the living spell being immune as they are counted as undead). The high save DC was probably the best thing about the monster in this particular fight, as it meant a lot of the party actually failed a con save for once. 4) The worm used all of its legendaries to try and slam the battlemaster, but that 25 AC meant I never hit him. 5) The party got wise to the creature's intent, and so the living spell did a readied action to teleport the Battlemaster away from the next attack. The worm tried its engulf, but the teleport saved him. 6) The aboleths were pretty useless in this fight. The whole party passed against the first round of enslaves (because that DC is garbage), the living spell teleported 2 of them into the hull of the ship, and the telekinetic restrained and pushed the other one deep in the water where it couldn't attack. Ultimately they did practically nothing the entire fight. This is my second time using aboleths in this campaign, and I have been extremely disappointed with them in both cases. 7) Ultimately the Worm was killed before it got to go on the 3rd round (my plan was to use cloud kill to try and take down everyone). It went down with a whimper unfortunately, and though its just the first of a few bosses I have planned, I'll have to take it up a notch to really threaten the group. While the horrid wilting was a bit scary, I never saw real concern in my party. 8) Last note, I forgot shield the whole fight. This goes back to some conversations we have had about spell lists....a big spell list like that your DM eyes just glaze over as soon as the actual fight begins. Those key defensive spells need to be called out in the statblock, probably right on the AC note (20 with mage armor, 25 with shield, etc). [/QUOTE]
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