D&D 5E Defeat Orcus

[aco175]

Sounds like Disney!
"Oh, I never really meant to be a bad person. I just... had a bad home life."
Or "I'm bad, but that's good. I will never be good and that's not bad."

You know who's really not bad.

...And what's not bad

 

[Stalker0]

Are you referring to the "Mordenkainen´s Tome of Foes" CR 26 orcus?

That guy is a total pushover for a CR 26, the only thing interesting he has going for him is the area that makes you vulnerable to necrotic damage (which combined with his hoard of undead could be interesting).

But otherwise he doesn't do any major debilitations, his damage isn't all that great, he doesn't have any special mobility or escape cards, if the party gets to this guy...he is toast.

However, in theory with Orcus the party should never get to him. He can make limitless (and I do mean limitless) undead with create undead + indefinite control, and he could give them a general command (like guard my sanctum or kill anyone who attacks me)....so that any actual threat to him as attacked by a hoard of undead. And then if you clear those he can summon 500 HP more of undead (the actual hp itself isn't that scary, but you could summon undead with interesting auras and effects).

So I feel most adventures against Orcus would go something like this:

1) The party brings their own army to fight Orcus' undead, and then goes for the big man himself.
2) The party gets a mucguffin that turns or destroys all of the undead, so that its the party vs the big man. Other versions of this would be finding a way to get Orcus alone through plot shenanigan's, or using wish type powers to blow away all the undead in the room and then seal the room with barriers to prevent further undead from entering.
3) The party teleports directly into Orcus's lair, which is filled to the brim with mummies and wights. So they are fighting orcus, and then contend with as many big undead as the room can hold....and any killed undead is simply replaced with the next undead waiting at the door (effectively meaning that killing the undead does nothing, they are just there to add damage and effects).

 

[Chaosmancer]

Are you referring to the "Mordenkainen´s Tome of Foes" CR 26 orcus?

That guy is a total pushover for a CR 26, the only thing interesting he has going for him is the area that makes you vulnerable to necrotic damage (which combined with his hoard of undead could be interesting).

But otherwise he doesn't do any major debilitations, his damage isn't all that great, he doesn't have any special mobility or escape cards, if the party gets to this guy...he is toast.

However, in theory with Orcus the party should never get to him. He can make limitless (and I do mean limitless) undead with create undead + indefinite control, and he could give them a general command (like guard my sanctum or kill anyone who attacks me)....so that any actual threat to him as attacked by a hoard of undead. And then if you clear those he can summon 500 HP more of undead (the actual hp itself isn't that scary, but you could summon undead with interesting auras and effects).

So I feel most adventures against Orcus would go something like this:

1) The party brings their own army to fight Orcus' undead, and then goes for the big man himself.
2) The party gets a mucguffin that turns or destroys all of the undead, so that its the party vs the big man. Other versions of this would be finding a way to get Orcus alone through plot shenanigan's, or using wish type powers to blow away all the undead in the room and then seal the room with barriers to prevent further undead from entering.
3) The party teleports directly into Orcus's lair, which is filled to the brim with mummies and wights. So they are fighting orcus, and then contend with as many big undead as the room can hold....and any killed undead is simply replaced with the next undead waiting at the door (effectively meaning that killing the undead does nothing, they are just there to add damage and effects).

This basically touches upon how I think about Orcus. He is the best designed of the demon Lords in terms of being able to hold his own against a party, but if you fight him on your turf, right after he was summoned? Then he is not likely to win. He still has a few nasty combos, but nothing that is really turning the tide.

However, if you give him 24 hours to prepare, the party is pretty much guaranteed to lose. By that point he has summoned enough permanent undead that you are going to need to chew through, that you are really going to have a hard time of it.

And every day the horde grows.

 

[MNblockhead]

In the Rappan Athuk megadungeon it's supposedly impossible without cheating.

Nah, if anything, he needs to be buffed. But this may be due to the conversion from Pathfinder to 5e. Apparently, much of the dungeon was deadlier in PF 1e.

 

[Weiley31]

It also depends on which version of Orcus you use. Rappan Athuk has Orcus at his full Deity level power if you fight him WITHOUT handicapping him first. That stat block would probably be best to use, with maximized HP, to represent him at his strongest.

His CR 26 statblock version? Well you can say that's an Avatar of him. You can even take the idea of Aspects, from the DND Miniatures Handbook, and pretend that is the CR 26 version of Orcus to explain the power level difference.

 

[Protonicmass]

It also depends on which version of Orcus you use. Rappan Athuk has Orcus at his full Deity level power if you fight him WITHOUT handicapping him first. That stat block would probably be best to use, with maximized HP, to represent him at his strongest.

His CR 26 statblock version? Well you can say that's an Avatar of him. You can even take the idea of Aspects, from the DND Miniatures Handbook, and pretend that is the CR 26 version of Orcus to explain the power level difference.

If you want to explain Orcus being nearly as powerful as a god, give him the stats from Epic Monster Updates and give him the Mythic template (2/Short or long rest).

 

[MNblockhead]

It also depends on which version of Orcus you use. Rappan Athuk has Orcus at his full Deity level power if you fight him WITHOUT handicapping him first. That stat block would probably be best to use, with maximized HP, to represent him at his strongest.

His CR 26 statblock version? Well you can say that's an Avatar of him. You can even take the idea of Aspects, from the DND Miniatures Handbook, and pretend that is the CR 26 version of Orcus to explain the power level difference.

All of the versions of Orcus in Rappan Athuk are avatars. So you really on not killing him, just his manifestation in the Prime Material.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

The CR 26 version is the real Orcus, it's still going to be hard to beat him due to him being able to summon 500 hp of powerful undead.

A mythic Orcus would be cool however.

 

[Weiley31]

All of the versions of Orcus in Rappan Athuk are avatars. So you really on not killing him, just his manifestation in the Prime Material.

Whoops yeah your right.

 

[dave2008]

The CR 26 version is the real Orcus, it's still going to be hard to beat him due to him being able to summon 500 hp of powerful undead.

A mythic Orcus would be cool however.

Mythic Orcus is coming. I am finishing up the chromatic dragons and then I will be updating epic monsters here:

5e Updates: Mythic, Epic, and Hardcore Monsters, Equipment, & Magic​