This is going to be a fairly lengthy post, detailing the final encounter of a level 30 epic campaign against Vecna. We've been playing for 3.5 years. The group consists of a Rogue, Fighter, Warlord, Wizard, and Cleric. They have played these characters since level 1. Epic play did not suit us well, so epic leveling occurred at an accelerated rate.
Brief story background. Acererak and Vecna had teamed up. The heroes had already defeated Acererak, however, the rogue felt the need to keep possesion of his ruby eyes. In addition, while destroying his phylactery(a giant statue), most of them failed a will save and unknowingly, took a piece of the statue. Per the suggestion in one of the hard cover books, the heroes had already recovered the hand, eye, and heart of Vecna. They had also found a custom magic item, the Bag of Annihilation, which would destroy the items. The items had to be destroyed in the presence of Vecna.
At the point I'm going to pick this up, they've spent a little time in Vecna's fortress and only used some healing surges. So they are pretty fresh. The previous session I put them in a room with 4 monster spawning nests(monster generators). These spawned 12 2-hit minions every round. The encounter wouldn't have been hard except I limited their movement to 2 squares a turn, thick necrotic goo on the floor, and no ability to maintain an effect, such as flying. I bumped the minions up to level 28-29 and pumped their damage up even more, something like 30-40 per hit. I did not expect this encounter to be as hard as it worked out to be. Their limited mobility was a real problem, they burned through a ton of healing, and barely escaped....right into the jaws of Vecna.
Entering Vecna's chamber, a 20x20 square room, there was a pedestal in the center of the room, surrounded by a pool of lava. A small skull was on the pedestal. There are 3 Vecna's Silences(bumped to level 31, but no longer solo or elite) flying about the room. In an effort to confound my players, and limit their focus fire, I split Vecna into three beings, each one seated on a throne, one on each wall, excluding the side they came in on. On paper, each of these was an Aspect of Vecna, bumped up to level 30.
During Vecna's obligatory monologue, I gave them all the ability to spend a surge, and gave the cleric back 2 healing words since she had none. However, the tradeoff was painful as Vecna called forth the eyes of Acererak, from the rogues pouch, and his remaining essence from the statue fragments, bringing one of the most dreaded enemies the party had faced back. I also leveled him up to 31, but reduced his HP. I expected him to be a distraction, but he was a substantial thread almost till the end.
Dropping each, the hand, eye, and heart, into the Bag of Annihilation, inflicted the loss of a healing surge on the character, and 15, non-resistable damage to everyone in 3 squares. I made this a minor action, but once you're dazed by Acererak, it's a tough choice to do this, or act another way. Especially for the Warlord.
At this point, combat began. To increase his threat level, I had decided Vecna would go twice every turn. First, and then in the regular init order. So with 3 Aspects floating around, Vecna got 6 attacks per round. With a large room to work in, and monsters not flocking around them, the players didn't have their usual synergy in the first round and were not able to control the battlefield. I hammered the Warlord. He eventually went way negative, something like 11 points away from negative bloodied. The cleric brought him back, but she was eventually killed as well. She came back via a Phoenix Ring. I continued to spread damage around a bit, there was lots of restraining and weakness against the heroes as well as the threat of Acererak stealing someone's soul. Healing surges were in very short supply for several players, exactly as I had hoped.
Sometime in the third round, after doing the bad thing of spreading damage around, the heroes managed to kill one of the Aspects. I had only given these 250 HP or so. Once one was destroyed the other 2 disappeared and the true Vecna formed on the pedestal. His aura 10, 50 necrotic damage was viscious even with the mass resistance to necrotic the Wizard had cast. On top of all that, I had planned for Vecna to "Shatter the Battlefield". This was a result of the players almost always controlling the battlefield by round 2 in a battle. Basically, the floor shattered and lava bubbled up from all over the place. Additionally, I "flung" the players to the far corners of the map. There was no damage, but being spread out and far apart was definitely not to their liking. My initial thought on this was to strand each player on their own island in a sea of lava. There wasn't a need for that when I used the power. I also considered having the lava spread as the encounter went on, but my hands were busy enough.
I gave Vecna the ability to teleport 8 and after chasing him around a bit, killing the last of the Silences, and witnessing Acererak flee at the end, the party came out victorious. Several had no healing surges left and were injured, but everyone survived and enjoyed the battle immensely.
So here are my tips for this kind of epic battle.
In another thread, someone said throw out the rules for an end encounter like this....I agree.
Know your players
Mine have trouble when things are spread out. They like to move in, grab control of the battlefield, and hammer the crap out of my poor monsters. They could not do that this time since the creatures were spread out and didn't close like I usually do.
Starting Vecna out as 3 creatures really hurt their ability to focus fire. They had no idea what to expect from him, nor if hitting one hurt the others. Confusion = good.
Vecna's Silences were great creatures. They can teleport next to a creature they mark, so they spent some time chasing the characters and their 4 long sword attacks can be painful as the warlord learned one round.
Ray of Death from Vecna and the Aspects was awesome as it could sap more healing surges.
For the record, 10 rounds, 5 hours!
Ohh, roll well. I think I had close to 10 crits on the night.
Brief story background. Acererak and Vecna had teamed up. The heroes had already defeated Acererak, however, the rogue felt the need to keep possesion of his ruby eyes. In addition, while destroying his phylactery(a giant statue), most of them failed a will save and unknowingly, took a piece of the statue. Per the suggestion in one of the hard cover books, the heroes had already recovered the hand, eye, and heart of Vecna. They had also found a custom magic item, the Bag of Annihilation, which would destroy the items. The items had to be destroyed in the presence of Vecna.
At the point I'm going to pick this up, they've spent a little time in Vecna's fortress and only used some healing surges. So they are pretty fresh. The previous session I put them in a room with 4 monster spawning nests(monster generators). These spawned 12 2-hit minions every round. The encounter wouldn't have been hard except I limited their movement to 2 squares a turn, thick necrotic goo on the floor, and no ability to maintain an effect, such as flying. I bumped the minions up to level 28-29 and pumped their damage up even more, something like 30-40 per hit. I did not expect this encounter to be as hard as it worked out to be. Their limited mobility was a real problem, they burned through a ton of healing, and barely escaped....right into the jaws of Vecna.
Entering Vecna's chamber, a 20x20 square room, there was a pedestal in the center of the room, surrounded by a pool of lava. A small skull was on the pedestal. There are 3 Vecna's Silences(bumped to level 31, but no longer solo or elite) flying about the room. In an effort to confound my players, and limit their focus fire, I split Vecna into three beings, each one seated on a throne, one on each wall, excluding the side they came in on. On paper, each of these was an Aspect of Vecna, bumped up to level 30.
During Vecna's obligatory monologue, I gave them all the ability to spend a surge, and gave the cleric back 2 healing words since she had none. However, the tradeoff was painful as Vecna called forth the eyes of Acererak, from the rogues pouch, and his remaining essence from the statue fragments, bringing one of the most dreaded enemies the party had faced back. I also leveled him up to 31, but reduced his HP. I expected him to be a distraction, but he was a substantial thread almost till the end.
Dropping each, the hand, eye, and heart, into the Bag of Annihilation, inflicted the loss of a healing surge on the character, and 15, non-resistable damage to everyone in 3 squares. I made this a minor action, but once you're dazed by Acererak, it's a tough choice to do this, or act another way. Especially for the Warlord.
At this point, combat began. To increase his threat level, I had decided Vecna would go twice every turn. First, and then in the regular init order. So with 3 Aspects floating around, Vecna got 6 attacks per round. With a large room to work in, and monsters not flocking around them, the players didn't have their usual synergy in the first round and were not able to control the battlefield. I hammered the Warlord. He eventually went way negative, something like 11 points away from negative bloodied. The cleric brought him back, but she was eventually killed as well. She came back via a Phoenix Ring. I continued to spread damage around a bit, there was lots of restraining and weakness against the heroes as well as the threat of Acererak stealing someone's soul. Healing surges were in very short supply for several players, exactly as I had hoped.
Sometime in the third round, after doing the bad thing of spreading damage around, the heroes managed to kill one of the Aspects. I had only given these 250 HP or so. Once one was destroyed the other 2 disappeared and the true Vecna formed on the pedestal. His aura 10, 50 necrotic damage was viscious even with the mass resistance to necrotic the Wizard had cast. On top of all that, I had planned for Vecna to "Shatter the Battlefield". This was a result of the players almost always controlling the battlefield by round 2 in a battle. Basically, the floor shattered and lava bubbled up from all over the place. Additionally, I "flung" the players to the far corners of the map. There was no damage, but being spread out and far apart was definitely not to their liking. My initial thought on this was to strand each player on their own island in a sea of lava. There wasn't a need for that when I used the power. I also considered having the lava spread as the encounter went on, but my hands were busy enough.
I gave Vecna the ability to teleport 8 and after chasing him around a bit, killing the last of the Silences, and witnessing Acererak flee at the end, the party came out victorious. Several had no healing surges left and were injured, but everyone survived and enjoyed the battle immensely.
So here are my tips for this kind of epic battle.
In another thread, someone said throw out the rules for an end encounter like this....I agree.
Know your players
Mine have trouble when things are spread out. They like to move in, grab control of the battlefield, and hammer the crap out of my poor monsters. They could not do that this time since the creatures were spread out and didn't close like I usually do.
Starting Vecna out as 3 creatures really hurt their ability to focus fire. They had no idea what to expect from him, nor if hitting one hurt the others. Confusion = good.
Vecna's Silences were great creatures. They can teleport next to a creature they mark, so they spent some time chasing the characters and their 4 long sword attacks can be painful as the warlord learned one round.
Ray of Death from Vecna and the Aspects was awesome as it could sap more healing surges.
For the record, 10 rounds, 5 hours!
Ohh, roll well. I think I had close to 10 crits on the night.
