Good action for my Evil High Priest? (a bit long)

[NewJeffCT]

Sorry this is a bit long, but I figured it would be best to get the important info into one post to start.

I thought maybe we could finish up my almost 2 ½ year old 3.5 campaign last session, which was the Friday before Christmas. But, that was a pipe dream. However, the final session should be this coming Friday, January 15.

The PCs elected not to surrender to the bad guys and the final combat has been pretty good and the PCs have wiped out most of the minor bad guys on the board and just killed the vicious paladin of tyranny and her nightmare/cauchmar mount.

Here is the situation – at the start of the combat, the Evil High Priest (EHP)of slavery and tyranny saw the PCs enter what seemed to be a huge auditorium. He calmly walked off the stage & disappeared while his minions engaged the PCs. The players are all level 18 and they have 7 PCs and 3 major NPC allies (including one mounted on a young adult copper dragon) Most of the royal bodyguard stayed on the stage, apparently to cover his apparent retreat. (The stage was protected by Forbiddance.)

The minions were a couple of ice devils, a pit fiend, the aforementioned paladin of tyranny and several dozen elite warriors (though, many were conveniently kill-able with Holy Word…they were just there to hopefully grapple a few casters, trip some chargers, etc), a couple of low teen level clerics of slavery & tyranny and a wizard.

The EHP was actually going to check on his “special” slave, who is pregnant with his dark child, while casting a few buffing spells on himself. (He already has the 3 Pact spells, which are permanent until needed, plus Shield Other cast on him by a subordinate, Superior Resistance and Contingency (cast through Miracle))

While the EHP was offstage, the party took some serious damage, but the party cleric managed to get off a Mass Heal with her last action and most of the party is near full hit points. However, they have used several level 9 slots between the cleric and the party sorcerer.

So, the cliffhanger ending to the last session was the EHP appearing in the middle of the battlefield, flanked by 2 royal bodyguards in front of him, a subordinate priest behind him and two slave girls right on either side of him. (I toyed with the idea of one of the slave girls being a girl the party rogue had met earlier in the campaign…but, figured that might be too big a coincidence)

My question is, what would the high priest do with his action to start?
1) Cast Implosion at the PC cleric and take her down for the evening, then use Extraordinary Concentration to try it again in round 2?
2) Cast the 5,000XP version of Miracle to get his paladin of tyranny back into action (the party had done that in a previous combat when the dwarf fighter got imploded, so we have precedent at the table)
3) Cast a Chain Dispel and get rid of as many buffs on the PCs as possible – however, with the large battle grid, I think he can only get 2-3 PCs at most?
4) Something else?

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Herobizkit]

First of all, if this is the big finale, I'd say use the previously-met rogue as a slave girl. Perhaps by capturing her, the EHP was able to learn enough about the PCs to scry/magic mirror them and watch them develop their skills, thus explaining his superior tactical knowledge of the PC's and prepare accordingly.

1) It's a guarantee that if you need a PC to fail a save (especially a death save), they'll roll a 20 and you'll have wasted your action AND your 9th level slot.

2) This is awesome. This tactic will give the PC's a little for tat and (temporarily) rob them of their hard-earned victory... and they'll hate you for it. If the PCs hate you, you're Doing It Right.

3) Same point as 1 - if you need to roll well to dispel buffs, you won't. Always bet on a sure thing with spells and finale battles.

For example, take Storm of Vengeance. If the PC's fail a Fort save they are deafened for 1d4*10 MINUTES. "A deafened character cannot hear. She takes a -4 penalty on initiative checks, automatically fails Listen checks, and has a 20% chance of spell failure when casting spells with verbal components." You still have the issue with saving throws, but now everyone needs to make one, not just the opposing cleric PC. The PC may even take time (and spells) to un-deafen herself and comrades.

And there's Anti-Magic Field to play with, too. Sure, it cancels the Cleric's own buffs, but no PC may approach and retain theirs, either. And the best part? It's centered on the EHP, so he can move and the spell moves WITH him.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Thanks - some good ideas there. Yes, it is the final battle of the campaign.

And, they've been very good with making saving throws since they hit level 10/11 or so. I mean, I had a surprise round on the party once and hit them with a Mind Flayer's mind blast and a cleric's Greater Command and they made every single Will save - even the dwarf fighter with an 8 Wisdom (but, Iron Will) made his two saves. I figured at least a couple of them would be out of combat for a round or two while the cleric, psion & sorcerer dispelled the effects on them... alas, it was not to be.

And, several sessions back, they had their final encounter with a drow duskblade that had been a thorn in their sides since level 4 or 5 or so. They had encountered her 4 times previously and each time she had killed at least 1 PC... and, in that last battle, the drow was killed once, then Revivified, then she healed herself up with Vampiric Touch on her blade, then finally killed for good.

 

[NewJeffCT]

And there's Anti-Magic Field to play with, too. Sure, it cancels the Cleric's own buffs, but no PC may approach and retain theirs, either. And the best part? It's centered on the EHP, so he can move and the spell moves WITH him.

That's a good idea as well, but he does have the pact spells, contingency and shield other upon himself, so the Anti-Magic field would cancel them out temporarily.

But, he does have a spiked chain (deity's preferred weapon) that I already told them looks like it is dripping with a black ichor (poison). If he is striking with 3-4 poison attacks/round in an anti-magic field, it can be pretty powerful.

 

[Aran Thule]

Bringing back the paladin might be a fun action, but without his steed he will be less effective.

A bit of a play on words but could your EHP of Tyranny summon an eye tyrant?
Im sure a beholder could strip a few buffs off them as well as cause a decent distraction.
Not sure what it could do against the paladin of freedom, would the telekinesis eye work on them?

 

[NewJeffCT]

Bringing back the paladin might be a fun action, but without his steed he will be less effective.

A bit of a play on words but could your EHP of Tyranny summon an eye tyrant?
Im sure a beholder could strip a few buffs off them as well as cause a decent distraction.
Not sure what it could do against the paladin of freedom, would the telekinesis eye work on them?

I didn't even know eye tyrants could be summoned... but, that sounds interesting since I just got a new beholder mini not long ago. And, is Eye Tyrant a special variant of a beholder?

 

[NewJeffCT]

A bit of a play on words but could your EHP of Tyranny summon an eye tyrant?
Im sure a beholder could strip a few buffs off them as well as cause a decent distraction.
Not sure what it could do against the paladin of freedom, would the telekinesis eye work on them?

And, figured out how to do it - just make it a fiendish beholder and the type changes to Aberration-Extraplanar, so it can be summoned/gated in. And, since it is summoned, it can be placed where the EHP wants it to be and it will act immediately.

 

[coyote6]

I think "eye tyrant" is just a nickname for beholders (at least in 3e; 4e might have a bigger, meaner beholder called an "eye tyrant", I'm not sure).

Beholders aren't on any summon monster lists, so they can't typically be summoned. However, your EHP has miracle, so it wouldn't be too out of line for him to call up a fiendish beholder from somewhere in the planes.

OTOH, if any of your PCs have dominate monster, summoning a big bad 11 HD, Will +11 (IIRC) creature with an at-will antimagic ability might be a good way to get the EHP hoisted on his own petard (EHP summons beholder, PC dominates beholder, beholder shuts down EHP's spells with antimagic, PCs murder EHP with ranged weapons).

 

[NewJeffCT]

good point, but if the EHP summons a beholder instead of (say) a planar dragon, it would not be your run-of-the-mill 11HD beholder. Most likely one of the HUGE size (at least 17HD) and maybe an empowered or maximized spell-like ability or two.

 

[shadyizok]

assuming that the EHP did his prep work, and by the looks of your story he did, how about the two slave girls be your gated fiendish huge eye tyrants of doom under a little disguise spell. The beholders AMF is a cone if i recall correctly not a gaze attack, so the pc's shouldn't realize immediatly why their magic is off just because one of the slave girls happens to be looking their way.
Especially if you make the girls look real scared, chained to the EHP and pleeing for the PC's to free them, it should take em a couple of rounds to figure this out. Enough for your EHP to resurrect the paladin (just to spite them, I love the idea!!!) and follow up with a nice couple of spells.
Also let the subordinate or the EHP himself have cast spell resistance on at least the EHP. That should help rather tremendously against high level casters. (assuming EHP is lvl 20, spell resistance 32 is fairly significant!)

maybe the subordinate can dominate the dragon into fighting its rider or use mass charm monster through his tyranny domain.