Help- my players stay out- I need to PC-proof this complex...

[Malexin]

Dr. Midnight,

After consulting the Monster Manual I don't see that your players have much of a chance. They are putting the cart before the horse in this situation. It would be best if they teleported away and hid as opposed to committing mass suicide. Dragons are at the high end of the CR scale and possibly 1 or 2 CRs too low, especially at the Great Wyrm age category. So what we have here is a level 14 party taking on about a CR 22 creature, I really feel for your players. I wouldn't expect anyone to make it out alive, or undead. The only exception is Vek and that's only if he reforms before Accesiwail finds his phylactery.

But if you want some advice, here goes nothing (by the way the ice golems were a nice touch).

Concerning Accesiwail's spell selection. I would recommend haste, improved invisibility, protection from elements, dispell, greater dispelling, True strike, disentigrate, and lesser planer binding.

Prep with haste, Improved invisibility, protection from elements, bull's strength, and eagle's splendor (at least this much).

Use lesser planar binding to get some tundra shamblers (about 6-8 should work perfectly). Hide them in niches in the walls and floor of the main battle room (You can find them in Manual of the Planes in the template section). They can grapple the spell casters and then constrict them.

First action (because You'll see them long before they see you) hit the Melee fighters with Greater Dispelling.

I don't know what feats you chose for Accesiwail but spell focus Transmutaion is always good as is Spell Penetration and Power Attack and cleave are almost standard.

Then cast True Strike and disentigrate Vek. The Save should be difficult for him to make at best

Heighten Spell Hold person combo would be exceptionally deadly agianst anyone with a low will save.



Just some random thoughts, use them if you want, but really I don't think Accesiwail will have any problems wiping the floor with the party.

 

[drnuncheon]

Doc,

Assuming you're using the stats from Dungeon 87 for Acessiwal...I realize not all of these are ways to stop teleportation, but I don't think the big A needs to. I know you probably want to use the rest of the module, but...

1. He can teleport - 6 times a day, in fact, if he doesn't want to cast hold monster or prying eyes. So his first action upon the PCs teleporting in would be to teleport out. Buff and return - or go do something hideously nasty to the people the PCs are supposed to be protecting. (I seem to recall that he's done that sort of thing in the past - why change a good tactic?)
2. Don't forget the 'freezing fog' ability. If they can't see you, they can't hit you. If they can't move quickly, they can't chase you - or run away. And with blindsight you can target them just fine. Between A's freezing fog, obscuring mist, and fog cloud, it won't matter if the PCs have see invisibility or not.
3. One anti-teleport tactic is for Acessiwal to remember where they appeared last time - and put a solid object there. Also remember that scrying for a couple minutes with a spell only counts as 'viewed once', increasing the risk of a mishap. The note about scry under 'studied carefully' just means that it's possible to do with scrying, not that a round of scry gives you the same knowledge as studying a place carefully.
4. Acessiwal is intelligent, and has Scry +33. If they scry him he's going to notice - period (a roll of '1' is not an automatic failure on a skill). He can throw up an obscuring mist to reduce the effectiveness of the scry and then ready an action to hammer the PCs as they teleport in - possibly using a wall of ice to block them off for a time
5. If Acessiwal has reason to think that the PCs will come after him soon (and I believe he does), and he still has access to the ice golems, he ought to have a bunch of them in his lair ready to charge the PCs.
6. Acessiwal can't use his anti-magic shell to full effext since he's much larger than it...or can he? If he is able to decide where on him the magic emanates from, he could have his tail encased in an anti-magic shell, while still being able to cast spells since the relevant bits of his body (head and forelimbs) are outside of it. That's a big ol' DM's call, but there's definitely no reason to assume that the AMS is centered on his head...[/list=1]

 

[Lela]

You want something both nasty and fun Doc?

Mirror Image with the dragon pretending to sleep.

Sure, if they have True Seeing up it won't be a problem. But if not. . .

 

[Dursk Starkfire]

forbiddance

has a casting time of 6 rounds if I recall... no way a dragon is going to waste time on that when he could be MUCH more effective with breath and grappling.

One thing to note is that Accessiwall is going to emit an aura of fear. Since there are no paladins in the party, this means they are all going to be making will saves (as piddly as it is, its not bad if at least one fails, and he stands cowering like a little nancy-boy. I would expect Grumbar to have a 50-50 chance of being subdued for a few round by this). Also remember the dragon has reach and should NEVER be adjacent to its enemies.

I think to play Accessiwal properly, he's going to have certain agendas... one of which is to mess with the parties' heads, the other would be to get rid of Kizzlorn.

I think one thing to note is that Accessiwal WILL have at least 3 rounds notice before the party ever reaches his lair. After all, its his lair, and he's bound to have silent alarms running EVERYWHERE combined with his blindsight and ultra perceptions.
This gives him an advantage in that he's going to be completely buffed before the party even breathes in his chamber.

The first thing that I would do is ensure that Accessiwal is hasted, and use his hasted action in an attempt to charm Jamison. Big A KNOWS that J. has more mood swings (and alignment changes) than a woman in menopause. With the full-round action I'd probably lay a smack down on the party wizard (Kizzlorn in this case). Accessiwall is smart enough to know that his biggest concern are the casters of the party. He can sink a few rounds of hits from the tanks most likely. Don't go easy on anybody, as A. is going to attempt to take the party out one-by-one, and not balance his attacks out. He will ignore ALL summoned creatures as piddly, and in turn attack spell-casters first, and tanks last.
I'd probably run down a claw, claw, tail slap, bite, and use the bite attack as a grapple attempt.
if all goes well, you'd have Kizz by the teeth for the next round to get off a breath attack (Kizz would in turn have no save by virtue of being clenched between his teeth).

If the attack ever goes badly for the dragon, I like some of the other ideas posted above about Accessiwall dropping the ceiling on the party. I'm sure if A. knows he's going down, he's going to bring the entire party down with him.

Just a few ideas Doc.

Dursk.

 

[Broken Fang]

Nothing more to add, but this sounds like it would be fun as heck to be playing in Doc.

 

[Felix]

If you haven't read Hyperion or Fall of Hyperion, both of which I reccomend, ignore this.

Set up a farcaster system within the complex that your BBEG can control. Perhaps the first caster is programmed to drop the person to a random room, thus splitting the party up? You could say it's a permanent form of Dimension Door, but it doesn't lead to somewhere in sight, a usual restriction of the spell.

A whole slew of these 'casters would wreck any systematic dungeon clearing plan the PC's have, and if the doors only work one way, they have to find the exits by themselves; not too terrible for the spell casters, but hell on the melee types.

 

[Lela]

A couple ideas I got last night.

I remember reading somewhere (likely on the boards) about a dragon having a Teleportation Circle set up behind an illusionary wall (or a thin section of ice, here). When the fight started going badly for the dragon he ran through the wall and into the circle.

One member of the party, who hated dragons beyond reason (Ranger or something) immeditally fallowed. The DM then looked at the rest of the party and asked what they were going to do. Of course, they ran in as well.

The other side of the circle was either set in mid air or was painted sidways on the side of a cliff face (ice equivalent). The players, not being able to fly, immeditally fell. Half survived with various tricks (Feather Fall, [/i]Fly[/i], Slow Fall) but the rest didn't.

The other trick came to me while I was reading Waterdeep (FR novel).

I would think the dragon would have a lot of water (running and standing) in his lair. He's not bothered by the cold and can breathe it freely. If he can get the party standing waist deep (or something) in water and then use his breath weapon on them, it'll freeze with them still stuck halfway inside.

How you'd do handle it from a rules point of view is the question (hardness and HP are going to come up as well as Dex bonus and Reflex saves). There's also the matter of Wee Jas figuring it out the moment the water is mentioned.

 

[Neverwinter Knight]

Doc,

scrying is the key to teleporting in. Blocking teleportation is pretty difficult, blocking scrying fairly easy (several ideas in the posts above). So if you block scrying they only have one possibility to teleport in: the place they faced the wyrm before.

So big ol' A. needs only to fortify this place and the entrance to his lair. If they do teleport in (blindly), guess who's gonna be there and waiting for them...

 

[Conaill]

Re: teleporting

For those of you not actually reading the Story Hour ... it doesn't look like the party will be teleporting at all. They've traveled over land to the lair and are very close to it by now. Big A has also been scrying on them periodically, so he would know the layout of the party and most of their equipment...

How are you doing planning the big combat, Doc?

 

[Clear Dragon]

Hmm, what could a White Wyrm freeze besides water and adventurers... Oh yeah, air! Nothing like drowning in -320 F air! Liquefied air is transparent with a bluish cast and has a milky color when it contains carbon dioxide. As a liquid it can soak into clothing to do additional rounds of freezing damage. Upon being scryed the dragon could liquify the surrounding air, leaving pools the stuff on the floor and leaving the atmosphere quite thin and unbreathable.

Note: Not having any books with me means I can't really give supporting mechanics. But having done a lot of thermodynamics homework concerning refrigerators got me thinking.