Combat Balance question regarding Bastion of Broken Souls (Spoiler Alert)

[Bad Paper]

... a player to be a heir of Dydd, no? Using him/her as a focus to peer into the past to see what Dydd do to prepare against Ashadaron (or better yet, try to petition Dydd him/her?self)...

As noted in the description of the vial-of-Dydd's-blood magic item (forgot its name), Dydd's spirit is gone or unwilling. Sorry, can't chat her up. But you may be able to use that thing, or the descendant, as focus for Legend Lore.

One tactic I am considering is dominating a party member from the beginning. If Ash has a PC on his side, he wouldn't want to blaspheme his teammate into oblivion. Remember: Ashardalon is hiring new help!

 

[frankthedm]

The old one is completely useless beyond a certain level.

Why? Do creatures wth 12 or less HD dissapear from the world? Just because they stop giving xp to the characters does not mean they are not to be used. They are no longer worth xp because the players have so many ways to obliterate such weak foes.

3.0 Blasphemy
Evocation [Evil, Sonic]
Level: Clr 7, Evil 7
Components: V
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 ft.
Area: Creatures in a 30-ft.-radius spread centered on the character
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes

Casting blasphemy creates two effects.
If the character is on the character's home plane, nonevil extraplanar creatures within the area are instantly banished back to their home planes. Creatures so banished cannot return for at least 1 day. This effect takes place regardless of whether the creatures hear the blasphemy.
Creatures native to the character's plane who hear the blasphemy and are not evil suffer the following ill effects:
HD Effect
-- ------
12 or more Dazed
Less than 12 Weakened, dazed
Less than 8 Paralyzed, weakened, dazed
Less than 4 Killed
The effects are cumulative.
Dazed: The creature is dazed and can take no actions for 1 round (but defends itself normally).
Weakened: The creature's Strength score decreases by 2d6 points for 2d4 rounds.
Paralyzed: The creature is paralyzed and helpless for 1d10 minutes, unable to move or act in any way.
Killed: Living creatures die. Undead creatures are destroyed.

 

[frankthedm]

I thought that the feeling of the greater ENWorld community was that Silence is too powerful as written and it's really subject to Will saves and spell resistance and all that happy crap. Here, you guys are saying that it's a legitimate defense against Blasphemy. So which is it?

Not everyone agrees on the silence spell and most of those houserules still allow silence to stop sonic effects even if the caster himself can still speak. Also if the spell is NOT being houseruled then it should be used to utmost effect. Another example is power attack. I think the 3.5 version is way too good. But if i am playing in a game that is using it as written, I wil be using it since i am not going to gimp my character by lagging behind in damage output..

 

[Nail]

I thought that the feeling of the greater ENWorld community was that Silence is too powerful as written and it's really subject to Will saves and spell resistance and all that happy crap. Here, you guys are saying that it's a legitimate defense against Blasphemy. So which is it?

Both.

If you allow Blasphemy, then you should allow Silence.

(IMC, I've removed Blasphemy and added a Will save to Silence to allow magic-casting.)

In a previous game I played a Cleric. By about 17th level I had the feats, spells, and magic items to pull off a +10 CL boost....which I would then use to cast Holy Word. We wiped out *several* high EL/APL ratio encounters this way. High level magic-user with high level bodyguard plus horde of minions? All dead by the end of my PC's first turn.

 

[kenobi65]

I do not see any necessity in using or strictly adhering to the Half-Fiend template. Any Great Wyrm is awesome enough in its own right. Does it really need substantial enhancement?

There's a story reason why he has the template. Spoiler text below (highlight to read):

He was originally slaln by Dydd (the druidic ancestor of one of the party members) and was only saved at the last moment by being given a demon to serve as his heart. So, once Ashardalon's slain, the demon pops out (now free of the prison he's been in for centuries) and then the PCs likely have to fight him, too.

Easy answer to the Blasphemy question: make some of his minions neutral, so that they'd be hit by the spell as well and he's not terribly keen on shooting himself in the foot.

More spoiler text:

He's only got one "minion" with him, and said minion is mostly an annoyance, not a particular threat to the party (at least, it wasn't when I DMed it).

When I ran it, I just ignored the Blasphemy. It was a tough enough fight as it was.

 

[Bad Paper]

yeah, there's a very good reason to stick with the half-fiend template. But, again, I'm thinking of tweaking the SLAs of the big guy to be more in line with the, uh, little guy. Sort of "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts" kind of thing.

And I haven't converted the module yet, but I know that I'm going to find something delicious to do with the big guy's cohort in his stupid little fortress over there. Something much better than "I have this scroll in case anything goes wrong."

 

[moritheil]

Am I the only one who thinks that an EL 20 party that runs about fighting unique monsters without using any divinations is asking for a TPK?

If - no, when the party uses divinations - they should be warned about the high-level blasphemy.

 

[AuraSeer]

Am I the only one who thinks that an EL 20 party that runs about fighting unique monsters without using any divinations is asking for a TPK?

If - no, when the party uses divinations - they should be warned about the high-level blasphemy.

Unfortunately that's not an option. A special effect of the Bastion is that the gods refuse to talk about it, answer questions about it, or have dealings with it in any way. (This is because Bruce Cordell can't figure out how to make an adventure work without removing a bunch of the PCs' most useful tools.)

 

[Nail]

(This is because Bruce Cordell can't figure out how to make an adventure work without removing a bunch of the PCs' most useful tools.)

Amen, Bro.

 

[moritheil]

Unfortunately that's not an option. A special effect of the Bastion is that the gods refuse to talk about it, answer questions about it, or have dealings with it in any way. (This is because Bruce Cordell can't figure out how to make an adventure work without removing a bunch of the PCs' most useful tools.)

I was unaware that the writer had gone first-edition style. Personally, I would change that aspect of the module before messing with any other aspect of it.