An Underwhelming Terrasque Story

[molonel]

And that never made any sense to me.

I believe the assumption is that if you managed to jump clear of the exploding fireball, then probably your rings, armor, cloak, weapon and backpack did, too. Unless of course you're playing Looney Tunes rules where your items lag behind you for a second, unattended, while you move.

The thought of rolling individual saving throws for each and every item for each and every area effect spell makes me want to gouge out my eyes with a pencil, especially at epic levels.

 

[Spell]

Give me a break - it's Monday and I've got a lot going on at work.

i, for one, think that the session was a winner for everybody involved. you had fun creating the situation and the monsters and the plans. the players had fun twarting your plans and having luck on their side. everybody will have something to tell about this memorable session. what do you want more?

 

[Uzumaki]

Why did the lich have the phylactery on him? Aren't those things supposed to be hidden miles away under the second loose cobblestone of a hidden well in the middle of a supposedly haunted lake or some other suitably adventure hook location?

 

[Plane Sailing]

Serves the silly lich right for apparently not casting a single defensive spell on himself (globe of invulnerability?) or even something as basic as teleporting his blinded troll body out of combat to his safe haven, waiting until the blindness wears off and then teleporting back and unleashing his spells.

I wonder what his 9th level spell was? Apparently not shapechange (turn into something with tremorsense etc) or something equally useful. Seems that he didn't even have limited wish available.

He might have been better specc'ed out as an 11th level lich

Cheers

 

[Gold Roger]

Rread again, he's CR17 not level 17. He's level 14 and a sorcerer, he wouldn't have had level 9 spells at level 17 anyway.
That doesn't change that he should easily have been able to utterly destroy the PC's, even with a powerplay PC among them. A high level Fighter might have been a better enemy for such a party, maybe a Deathknight (MM2).

 

[Zappo]

Why did the lich have the phylactery on him? Aren't those things supposed to be hidden miles away under the second loose cobblestone of a hidden well in the middle of a supposedly haunted lake or some other suitably adventure hook location?

No, that's where you hide the fake and possibly explosive phylactery. The real phylactery you discreetly put in a safe-deposit box in a Swiss bank.

 

[Li Shenron]

It doesn't seem impossible for this to happen. The Troll Sorcerer 14 might have lost initiative for example, and the winning Glitterdust could just have been cast before he could do anything. Usually such a high-level caster has a few protections going on all the time, but not necessarily always (it could have been a very offense-oriented sorcerer).

These things happen, that a high-level foe is beaten on the first round by a lucky spell or strike. IMO it sounds irritating mostly because Glitterdust is a low-level spell, but it wouldn't have been much different to me if he was killed by a lucky scroll of Slay Living for instance.

The only way not to be frustrated by these bad (for the DM) battles, is to play a lot of adventures, and see the occasional one-round battles as special cases which help making other battles more memorable

 

[Mystery Man]

Also, I made a correction to the story above - it was glitter dust not color spray the wizard used on the lich. Give me a break - it's Monday and I've got a lot going on at work.

Crap. I was never going to let you live that one down.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Rread again, he's CR17 not level 17. He's level 14 and a sorcerer, he wouldn't have had level 9 spells at level 17 anyway.

Doh!

Still, as you say a 14th level sorcerer would normally have annihilated them. Even getting blinded in round 1 isn't a problem (teleport/dd away, fix blindness (limited wish if nothing else), teleport/dd back).

OTOH I really like the idea of phylacteries causing earthquakes and incendiary clouds when they are destroyed - I'll be pinching that idea!

Cheers

 

[Patman21967]

And a 6th level caster using a 15 die Fireball, he would have had to make a really good level check, assuming it was on a scroll. Boy, the planets, moons and stars aligned perfectly that night

nudge nudge wink wink