Apostle of Kyuss (Age of Worms)

[Menexenus]

I can't believe that Dungeon has the suped-up ulgurstasta "Apostle of Kyuss" listed as a CR13 creature (which is lower than the CR of the Alkilith demon as well as the CR of the Hezrou that the Alkilith demon can summon).

I mean, consider the following properties:
SR 21
DR 10/piercing (who uses piercing weapons?)
Tendrils that do 1d12 *automatically* to anyone within 40 feet
Necromantic Acid breath weapon (once per day, but 3d6 Con damage!)
Ability to Swallow Whole
Ability to create multiple CR 5 Spawn of Kyuss
Immune to cold, acid, crits, enchantments, etc.
2 attacks at +16 and 3d6+16 damage
Cleave and Great Cleave
and over 200 hit points!

To be honest, I have no idea how my party is going to be able to stop this thing, if I run it as written. To me, it seems like a TPK waiting to happen. (And even if it's not a TPK, multiple character deaths are virtually guaranteed.) And there's no way you can convince me that this thing is less of a challenge than a Hezrou or an Alkilith demon!

What say the rest of you who have already run "The Champion's Belt"? Did you tone this beastie down to make it more like the CR 13 that it is supposed to be? Did you run it as written? How did your party fare against it?

Thanks in advance for your tips and advice.

 

[Nightfall]

Men,

Honestly if you read the adventure, you can see it loses some of those properties IF you stop it before the advent of its arrival.

Besides, you could always have the other "losers" fight against it to aid the party in the arena.

 

[Rackhir]

I can't believe that Dungeon has the suped-up ulgurstasta "Apostle of Kyuss" listed as a CR13 creature (which is lower than the CR of the Alkilith demon as well as the CR of the Hezrou that the Alkilith demon can summon).

I mean, consider the following properties:
SR 21
DR 10/piercing (who uses piercing weapons?)
Tendrils that do 1d12 *automatically* to anyone within 40 feet
Necromantic Acid breath weapon (once per day, but 3d6 Con damage!)
Ability to Swallow Whole
Ability to create multiple CR 5 Spawn of Kyuss
Immune to cold, acid, crits, enchantments, etc.
2 attacks at +16 and 3d6+16 damage
Cleave and Great Cleave
and over 200 hit points!

Well what level is your party? The creature is certainly a strong cr13, but it's hardly way out of whack. Try looking at a Purple Worm, it's a cr12.

SR 21 will be penetrated by a 13th lv caster on an 8 or better, even assuming no Spell Penetration feats or the spell "Assay Resistance" from the Spell Compendium (IIRC lv 4 wiz/cleric/druid) which gives a +10 on SR checks (it's also a swift action so you don't need to burn a round casting it).

Archers or any sort of missile weapons pretty much are piercing. But DR 10 isn't a showstopper for a melee oriented 13th lv character. 5 Points of power attack alone will get you through it with a two handed weapon.

The Tendrils and the breathweapon sound nasty, but the breathweapon can probably be stopped by Deathward. The tenticles could pretty much be stopped cold by Stoneskin.

Swallow whole is nasty especially with the DR, but hardly out of line for a cr13 creature.

The rest of the stuff is certainly nice, but there aren't any deal breakers there. Nor much synergy

 

[demiurge1138]

Well, the alkilith isn't really a CR 14... it's a 3.0 CR 14. The Fiendish Codex 1 had its CR pegged at a CR 10. Maybe that's a little low, but the point stands - the alkilith is too weak for its CR as listed.

As for the Apostle... my party took it out without a single casualty. A cavaet, though; my game uses action points ala Eberron, because the Age of Worms is so damn tough. Part of the thing to remember is that the PCs will be fighting it along with the other team in the arena - if you time it right, the other team will be able to help out in the fight if you think your party will need the boost.

And a lot of people use piercing weapons. Like people who switch to bows and get more than 40 feet away from the big galoot once those d12s start rolling. Oh, and once it uses its 3d6 Con breath weapon, it can't generate spawn of Kyuss - that's really its last ditch attack.

If you want more advice, the Age of Worms boards on Paizo's website are probably a better place to get it than here, since everyone reading them has an opinion on the AoW one way or the other.

Demiurge out.

 

[Nightfall]

Demi,

Thanks for backing me up there.

Plus it's an undead creature, so it's not that hard to do something nasty to it.