Help with dressing up a combat

[Ruined]

Hello All,

My group is ending a short adventure fighting a flying necromancer atop a twisted tower. I have some ideas on it, but the encounter is missing something to make it awesome, so I'm hoping the community could provide soem cool ideas.

Background: In this military campaign, in the first session, the characters arrived by boat in this new land. They were assaulted by giant skeletons and flying gargoyles, killing a number of their fellow soldiers. Fast forward, and the characters have been tasked by the unquiet spirits of those soldiers to kill the three necromancers responsible for their deaths.

The PCs traveled to a sinister tower, and have confronted and killed two of the three necromancers. The ones responsible for crafting the skeletons and gargoyles have been slain, leaving only the flying one that led the assault. She's at the top of the tower and aware of their presence.

I'm looking for ways to spice up the fight. I currently plan on having her flying, acting as artillery for the first half. When she's bloodied, I'll have some effect that grounds her to the tower roof (probably the angered spirits). It needs something for the non-ranged characters to do other than shout encouragement. It's known that she can fly by some method, but other than that, I'm open to suggestions.

Any thoughts/advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[theskyfullofdust]

Well, ideally give the necromancer some allies. Maybe parts of the tower's battlements animate as minions, stoney beasts that give the melee lot something to deal with while the flying necromancer fires and the ranged lot return fire.

Use terrain too, maybe windy gusts that threaten to blow PCs off, or crumbling walls that may collapse if climbed on or attacked...

 

[RangerWickett]

What game system are you using, and what's the level of party? Composition thereof? I'm assuming you're setting up this necromancer as a 'solo' if this is 4e, so that he can last a long time. The trick with solos is to have other hazards in the combat.

Now, at 'top of the tower' are we talking roof, or "top floor"? Because if you're on a roof, there's less you can do terrain-wise, short of having the roof collapse. But you said 'twisted tower,' so how about a three-level fight, with one level that's entirely indoors (with windows around the side that you can shoot through), one level above that that has some asymmetrical parapets or balconies or whatever, linked to the other levels by stairs. And then the top level is just a roof, perhaps with some decorative gargoyles.

Also, the necromancer isn't just flying on his own. He's being held aloft by commanded evil ghosts. When the PCs arrive, the ghosts of their slain allies arrive and try to drive off the necromancer's controlled ghosts, but they can't pull it off yet. The PCs have to bloody the necromancer, and once they do the necromancer can still fly, but he has to land at the end of each round; he still keeps higher mobility, but he is on the ropes.

So the way I see this combat going is, the PCs reach level 1 of the tower top, which has large windows you can shoot into and out of; the place is decorated with four black crystal columns, and the crystal is full of the faces of wailing spirits. The necromancer realizes he's outnumbered and needs to change venues.

The necromancer casts some Plot Magic that causes evil spirits to pour out of the walls, which acts as hazardous terrain, rapidly filling up level 1. They deal 5 necrotic damage to you if you start your turn in the area, plus the columns can spit out a minion every round or two. If you break a black crystal column (set it so it takes damage equal to two average rounds worth of melee attacks for each), though, it clears a quarter of the area, and any minions in that area. This gives the close combat folks something to do, to let them clear out the lower level. You'll see why in a second why having the lower level clear is important. (And maybe every time they destroy a column, the necromancer has to land on his next turn before he can start flying again. If they destroy all four columns and he's bloodied, he's completely landbound.)

Meanwhile, some spirits (let's say red spirits, so it's easier to tell them apart) lift the necromancer up the stairwell and to the next level. The spirits act sort of like a tether to the tower, so the necromancer can't fly more than, say, 20 feet out or 20 feet up from level 1. On level 2 there's cover, but you have to engage him at range. On level 3, you could potentially attack him in melee if they can trick him into flying over the top of the tower (which the PCs can accomplish by running from side to side of the tower), but you'll have no cover.

Finally, give the necromancer a mix of single-target artillery and rechargeable zone attacks that last 3 rounds and deal ongoing damage, so the PCs have a reason to want to move between different levels of the tower. Now you'll have a nice mobile fight, where the PCs try to get to cover. The ranged guys can trade fire with the necromancer, while the melee guys go after his columns while minion ghosts attack them. But every few rounds the ranged guys have to flee downstairs when a deadly zone pops up, or the melee guys have to flee upstairs when the necromancer starts conjuring the zone indoors through the windows. At the end the necromancer gets hurt, lands, and they can pound on him.

Remember, make the tower asymmetrical; that lends itself to more interesting developments. Like if the downstairs room only has windows on one side, the PCs have more options for taking cover, or luring the necromancer to one side or the other.

Other perhaps important stuff: give the necromancer a way to break conditions the PCs put on him. Maybe whenever he bloodies each PC for the first time in an encounter, one of the spirits around him turns black, which represents a charge of necromantic power. He can as a free action expend a charge and end any condition affecting him, which turns the spirit back to red. Use this for stuff like dazes, stuns, and major debuffs.

 

[Ruined]

Hey, thanks for the replies so far. Yes, it is 4e, and the characters are mid-Heroic tier. (6th level).

 

[Ruined]

Okay, I had more time to digest what was written. Thanks a lot for the intricate scene RangerWickett. I'll definitely snag large chunks of that and use it (hopefully) well.

And thanks as well, theskyfullofdust!

My players joked about the last boss having the exploding HQ power, but I'm thinking no, I'll leave it. Will they take this place as their really bizarre base of operations?

 

[theskyfullofdust]

Let us know how it turns out

 

[fba827]

I only skimmed the subsequent posts and only read the OP completely, so apologies if this type of styuff I'm about to say was already covered ....

Will they have time to get 'in' the tower, Or this an outside fight (where they will be harrassed as the approach the tower? Since she is aware that they are coming, I would think that she tries to fight/stop them before they get inside the tower (she has the advantage of flight outside, not so much indoors).

She flies by a ghostly entity that she has commanded to surround her and carry her. When she is bloodied, it represents the link she had to command the thing be broken which grounds her atop the tower.

Alternatively, maybe she flies on an undead griffon/hippogriff. And killing the mount is the way to ground her.

During the first couple round of combat, as a minor action, she empties a little bag with a dozen or so little black pellets that fall onto the ground (randomly place them).
Round 1: The PCs see these pellets absorb into the ground, but all seems quiet. Round 2: Boney arms from warriors that died long ago at these spots raise out from the ground, the skeletons are half underground half above ground (treat as immobilized but with cover or superior cover). This allows for melee combatants to start wacking if they want. Round 3 the skeletons are fully out (no longer immobilzed and can act as normal). make the skeletons level 6 minions and use a lot of them

Another option - zone effects. She had foreknowledge AND its her home turf. a burst area zone around the tower should ooze with life draining energy (necromantic damage if you start your turn in the zone) - this would also discourage PCs from trying to enter the tower if you wanted to keep this an outside fight.

Maybe (though use this idea with caution, too many things could go wrong) they can see she is on the roof, but just watching them, taunting them to come up and get her. Then let some PCs enter the tower before she starts her attack. The door magically slams shut and half the party is inside and must fight their way up 3 flights of stairs (or find a way to break open the door despite the magic) while the other half is outside and must fight whatever is attacking them out there (along with the necromancer who is now shooting down at them too). So you'll basically have two battle fields, inside the tower, and outside, going concurrently in the same initiative, just flipping back and fourth. Eventually the other PCs will emerge on the roof and will have half the party up there and half down/outside.

If no one in the party has a good athletics/climb ability, then include a subtle method of scaling the wall (gargoyles spaced every 10 ft or so to allow for some sort of handholds/easier DC) thus allowing the potential of some melee people to climb to the roof while the others are fighting from range (thus keeping everyone outside).

If you don't want all out skeleton minions (either as the idea above, or simply storming out from the tower to attacK) then maybe the area just has skeletal hands that burst from the ground to hold (i.e. immobilize save ends) the PCs

Are there any NPCs that the PCs know but were killed earlier in the campaign? Maybe one of them is there as an undead they have to fight (a zombie would still have flesh to make its former identy still identifiable, though a skeleton would not)

(anyway, just random thoughts from my sleep-deprived brain )

 

[falcarrion]

when the necromancer is flying don't forget to use clouds as cover and consealment. Nothing like taking pot shots at the group and then ducking into the clouds.