StreamOfTheSky
Adventurer
In my gestalt game, the last boss fight before the game had to end was against a Sacred Watcher Paladin // Sorcerer with this ability and the Sorc variant from Dungeonscape to absorb damage as an immediate action. Fight took place in the tower the watcher was assigned to guard. Months earlier, he had encountered them near the top after a long series of Zelda-like puzzle solving and monster fights climbing up, only to "flush them" out (Dismissed Wall of Force disguised behind an illusion of a wall holding back a river 
) leading to a bunch of sidequests in the underdark and their eventual escape back to the surface.
Anyway, he first skirmished with them at the entrnce, nearly killing several PCs and retreating into the walls as he neared destruction himself. Flash forward a few more floor levels and fights and they encounter him at the top, by now fully healed and with a Quesar friend for backup. Between the sorc variant and the effectively 3x lay-on-hands pool he had with the spirit of healing, the fight lasted 12-15 rounds, with damage flying back and forth like crazy! I allowed checks to notice the spirit, but no one did for a while, and it wasn't until later that the Warlock started trying (and failing) to dispel it. Before tha,t she had found great success gradually removing the crazy amount of buffs the guy had cast on himself, knowing the fight was coming. Best of all, the spirit left him with the ability to kill off the party's skeleton purple worm with a touch of his own lay on hands, after a few rounds of hacking at it with some MIC weapon property to spend a turn undead to deal +(cha mod)d6 damage to undead the next attack.
In the skirmish, I had him use spirit of combat, and had him stick to mostly melee attacks. The real fight, he unloaded with full attacks mixed with blasty spells.
The two dungeonscape abilities both seem to be quite useful for an NPC who won't need the ability 4+ encounters per day, not sure if either is nearly as useful to a PC, but they are fun and different, at least.
) leading to a bunch of sidequests in the underdark and their eventual escape back to the surface.Anyway, he first skirmished with them at the entrnce, nearly killing several PCs and retreating into the walls as he neared destruction himself. Flash forward a few more floor levels and fights and they encounter him at the top, by now fully healed and with a Quesar friend for backup. Between the sorc variant and the effectively 3x lay-on-hands pool he had with the spirit of healing, the fight lasted 12-15 rounds, with damage flying back and forth like crazy! I allowed checks to notice the spirit, but no one did for a while, and it wasn't until later that the Warlock started trying (and failing) to dispel it. Before tha,t she had found great success gradually removing the crazy amount of buffs the guy had cast on himself, knowing the fight was coming. Best of all, the spirit left him with the ability to kill off the party's skeleton purple worm with a touch of his own lay on hands, after a few rounds of hacking at it with some MIC weapon property to spend a turn undead to deal +(cha mod)d6 damage to undead the next attack.
In the skirmish, I had him use spirit of combat, and had him stick to mostly melee attacks. The real fight, he unloaded with full attacks mixed with blasty spells.
The two dungeonscape abilities both seem to be quite useful for an NPC who won't need the ability 4+ encounters per day, not sure if either is nearly as useful to a PC, but they are fun and different, at least.
