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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(Psi)SeveredHead" data-source="post: 6300533" data-attributes="member: 1165">Where will they open the portal? Because unless they're epic level, they have to open the portal at a predetermined spot. There's no way the demon is going to have an unguarded portal. That's the first encounter. Because it's stationary, it should be filled with traps (I like to think of Symbol of X-style traps, just steal the better 3e spells; picture Symbol of Insanity as a one-shot trap that dominates PCs that see it) and because it's an introduction to the plane, it should have numerous hazards. (The Abyss is endless, so really, anything. Is the plane fiery? PCs gonna make themselves resist fire? Then how about a curse that removes fire resistance until a disease-like track is dealt with? I think there's a ritual in the dragon sourcebook that has something like this.) The place should also be guarded by nasty demons. The monsters and traps need to work together. The PCs should be scrambling to shut down traps while demons try to eat them, or kill demons while traps mess with them.Next is the environment that the army has to travel through in order to get to the demon's castle. There should be skill challenges that cost healing surges on failed checks, plus swarms (literally) of demons, with more hit-and-run attackers if the PCs fail certain skill checks. If the environment is hazardous somehow (maybe there are winds that drive PCs insane) and the demons resist this, all the better.Then the castle. Again with the traps and monsters. The castle should have lots of secret passages, so that if the PCs fight one group of demons another group can pincer them. Your control mage and maybe cleric are probably very vulnerable to this.Finally, the boss. This should be hard. No boss travels by themselves, even if the boss is a solo. You need a level +4 encounter for this one. Be sure to really work on that enemy synergy. An idea I stole from a site, using foulspawns: one of the foulspawns has an at-will AoE daze attack (nasty, maybe a little too much), and several other foulspawns deal extra damage when they have combat advantage against, say, a dazed PC. Maybe remove the daze, but don't be afraid to have monsters with complementary abilities, perhaps the type that ready actions to really put the hurt on the PCs.Read advice sites on how to prevent a boss from being really locked down. Angry DM's three-stage monster is a good piece of advice there. Sly Flourish also gives good setpieces you can steal.</blockquote>

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