Help me plan THE END (My players can look now)

[Henry]

All right, I'm giving this a try, since it seems to work for other posters. Torm, KernelPanik, and ANYONE ELSE in my game please read no further than this point. Bless your poor screwed little souls...
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Now, In approximately 2 to 3 weeks I am planning the final confrontation in our Eberron campaign. For a one paragraph summary:

A Psionic Warforged, who is sick of his purposeless existance, has laid his hands on a world-shattering artifact, that can magnify the devastation of the Mournland by making the plane of Death (Dolurrh) coterminous with Eberron and then SHATTERING the walls between worlds. If the PC's can't stop it, it's The End. He has persuaded a bunch of Children of Winter, as well as some displaced Sharn Ravers and hired Droaamite Monster muscle to assist, and stole a Lyrandar Fast Airship to aid him in the task.

The final battle I envision as the PCs meeting him hovering just over the noxious cloud-cover of the Mournland, thunder and oddly-colored lighting punctuating the sky as he stands on a wind-tossed boat, powering up his artifact and getting ready for it to strike.

The PCs:
------------------
Changeling Artificer 10
Shifter Ranger 10
Monk 10
Cleric 8 / Wilder 2
Rogue 4 / Psion 6
Warforged Fighter 7 / Rogue 3
Halfling Rogue 6 / Fighter 1 / Shadowdancer 3

All these guys are 32 point buy, roughly. We are using 3.5 rules, they have gear equivalent to DMG values for their level, and they have for practical purposes no access to anything outside of the PHB/DMG/MM, the Eberron Book, and the Expanded Psionics Handbook.

They will be backed up by a dozen Lyrandar Elites (Ftr5's with full plate and shield and bastard sword) as well as a half-dozen Warforged Fighter 5's with Greatswords (sent by the Lord of Blades, because hell, it's his world, too).

As for the Opposition:

I currently have planned the Following:

1 Demented Warforged (Egoist 9 / Fighter 2) with 21,000 gp in magic gear
1 Druid of Winter (Drd 7) with 7200 gp in magic gear
4 Druids of Winter (Drd 4) with 3300 gp in magic gear
2 stock Ogre merc's with 2500 gp in magic gear
1 Troll with 4300 gp in magic gear
20 Ravers (warrior3/Barbarian 2) with 3300 gp in magic gear.

My main plan is to have the ravers face off against the Lyrandar Fighters and Warforged, and leave the main battlefield to the PC's vs. the Psionic Warforged, the Druid & his acolytes, and the ogres and troll. EVERYBODY will have around 5 rounds to cast enhancements, because there is no surprise where they are facing.


My main question is: Does this seem like a tough, but fair fight? Or will these forces uniformly mop the floor with the PCs? The hard problem I have is that there are seven PCs, and it's tough to gauge encounters to this. It's going to be a heck of a fight, no question (I want it to be!) but I also want it to be winnable.

Thoughts?

 

[diaglo]

i think you should realize the Demented warforge is going to be concentrating on activating his ultimate artifact. he isn't going to be in the battle mostly... he doesn't care if the others are killed as long as he completes his task. heck he doesn't care what happens to himself...


so figure the formula with the warforge almost out of the equation....

 

[Henry]

One note there: Both he and the Druid willbe participating. The Artifact has to "warm up" (accumulate planar energy), but it has to do it in the spot it's used (in this case, I put a manifest Zone from Dolurrh right over the Mournland, so that's what it's got to collect its energy from). He does not want the PCs in any circumstances to harm the artifact, so he wants to either protect it, or kill them to keep it from happening.

Now, you just brought an interesting thought - what if they turn this into a "tag, you're it!" game? Something to plan for...

 

[Rel]

Henry, at this point, everything I know about Eberron I learned from you (this is about to change abruptly at Christmas) so I can't comment on some of the Eberron specifics you mention. But I know a goodly bit about aerial combat thanks to my Sky Galleons experience.

It seems to me that a lot is going to hinge on how many of the Wacky Warforged guy's troops are aboard the airship with him and how the party approaches the battlefield. I'm guessing that they don't have a similar ship.

If the Warforged and his main cronies (the druids, ogres and troll) are aboard the airship then they have a distinct advantage in height and maneuverability. BUT, if the party gets a chance to lob big boom spells at the thing, one after another, they might all be blown out of the sky in one swell foop.

From a tactical standpoint, the best bet for the Warforged sounds like having his main henchmen attack the party directly while he cruises high above and carries out his nefarious plan. That means that it is going to be up to the party to either quickly defeat his minions so they can then turn their attention to the real problem OR send any party members who can fly zipping off to attack the airship while the rest hold the line.

If Eberron Druids are like regular ones then only one of them can Wildshape in order to go from ship to ground as he chooses. So if enough of the party can fly then they might have an easy time of it if they can lure the main body of baddies off the airship.

I hope some of that is valid and useful. You gotta let me know how it went down when you come to Game Day.

 

[Darkness]

So you have:

7 level 10
18 level 5

vs.

1 level 11
1 level 7
4 level 4
2 CR 3
1 CR 5
20 level 5

The PCs have quite an advantage. The soldiers (lvl 5 guys) roughly cancel each other out, leaving 7 level 10 vs. 9 other guys, which are mostly much lower in level. Plus, the PCs probably have better equipment relative to level. Hm. The enemy soldiers are slightly more numerous and minimally better equipped. Still, if one or two PCs help them, that still leaves more than enough PCs to mop up the rest. Or am I missing something?

 

[Ashy]

Yea, I think that Rel has it here - it really comes down to manaeuverabillity. If a large number of the PCs can fly, then the battle will quickly turn in their favor. Heck, if it was me playing, I would get someone to distract the warforged, fly up to the artifact and knock it off the ship.

Bye, bye doomsday machine...

Perhaps a few more details are needed?

 

[Henry]

Thanks, guys. One more quick update before I go home for the day.

The PC's in addition to having the Lyrandar elites with them, will also have one of their airships - so the maneuverability is about the same. The PC's could all fly (as the Lvl 3 spell) if they wanted to, and this is a good point.

Darkness has point that the PCs will probably have the advantage here given numbers. So my thought is, should I give the NPC's a couple more levels? Add a few more of levels 7 to 11? Originally, the BBEG was going to be Level 12 (all Psychic Warrior or a Psion 10 / Ftr 2), but I was worried that giving him powers too far above the PC's might be too deadly - no sense giving the guy disintegrate or breath of the Black Dragon and watching two or three PC's get blown to bits with no chance to stick around for a good fight.

I'm assuming an EL 12 or even EL 13 encounter is what's needed here, but I don't want to accidentally turn it into a duck hunt for either side. (If it ends the way all their other encounters seem to end, both ships are liable to dirt-dart into the Mournlands anyway, locked in a death-grip. )

 

[Enkhidu]

I know next to nothing about Eberron, so this is coming from a strictly mechanical POV:

If your players find a way to close (and from both your comments and the party make-up I'd guess that's what they'll try to do). they won't even work up a sweat. I think the ogres, troll, and 4th level druids are going to end up as pretty much nothing more than speed bumps, and the 7th level druid and warforged will be quickly pressed.

However: if for some reason your bad guys can keep the PCs at bay for a few round (through some long range spells - are these sky ships adversely affected by Warp Wood?), they really have the upper hand.

 

[blargney the second]

Undead, clerics of death and/or destruction, unusual effects generated by the artifact as it powers up, and some dominated combat-useful slaves can all add to the difficulty of the encounter.

What happens when the machine goes boom? How long do the PCs have to stop it? Be prepared to actually blow up the world if they don't succeed. (Or alternatively have the NPC be wrong about the effect of the artifact.)

-blarg

 

[Darkness]

Random thoughts...

Hm. Most characters on both sides are fighter types, with a few divine spellcasters and psions thrown in. What does an artificer do? Is it kinda like a Wiz/Sor?

Do any of the characters have area effect spells or other spells (or psi powers)that can do a lot of damage to several people at once? 'cause if so, they can help their soldiers finish off the opposing ones a bit faster, freeing up some soldiers to help combat the other characters. And considering that the PCs' soldiers aren't much weaker, level-wise, than most of the bad guys, that'd be quite handy. (If the enemies can do this, freeing up some 5th-level guys to fight the 10th-level PCs wouldn't be quite as big an advantage, though.)

The ogres aren't really useful against 10th-level PCs. I suppose they could fight the soldiers, though - even though they're not quite as good as 5th-level characters. Then again, since they're mercs with magic items, they might be experienced and merit being given a level or two in Bbn, Ftr or even Rgr... You could also give them elite stats (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8).

4th-level Druids aren't really helpful either... The troll is a match for one or possibly two soldiers but the PCs will eat him for breakfast.

If you want to make the enemy leader stronger without giving him more psi powers, you could up his Ftr level.