High level city encounter suggestions needed, thanks

[Gwarok]

Hi all. I am DM'ing a high level campaign thats nearing the end of its story arc. The next stage revolves around the main character, a 20th lvl Sorc and his arch rival, an evil 19th level Wiz, teaming up to break the Temporal Shroud surrounding the last city of a precursor civilization. Neither can enter the city by himself, and they have come to terms about splitting the knowledge gained within.

Problem is, how to make a high level zone type encounter that is challenging for arcane casters of this magnitude? The city itself is largely in ruins, but there will be a palace treasury and a great library that will contain some seeds for the next stage. I wanted some help coming up with some monsters to populate the place and my current feelings are as follows:

1) Iron Golems. Not much of a threat to guys as mobile as high level aranists are, nor do they have range attacks, but their general magic immunities and toughness will provide something of a hinderance. Plus they seem like logical guardians considering the makers of the city.
2) Paragon Griffins. Using the template from the ELH, they are tough enough but not too tough, and their saving throws will make a solid but not impentetrable defense against all or nothing attacks that are sure to come their way. I was going to use these guys as yard trash, albeit scary yard trash.
3) A named Titan. Regular Titan stats for 3.5 which should be tough enough and he was going to be the main guard for the treasusy. The city of this time was very Egyptian in style, and Pelor was alot tougher back then, more like RA than the soft healer type he is now. So the sun clerics are armor wearing high priests with signifigant authority, altho they are all long gone. The Titan I was thinking would have an animal head much like the great powers of the Egyptian mythos.

But thats about all I can come up with for now. If anyone else has some ideas, lets keep the munckinism to a minimum , I'm all ears. Thanks.

 

[Stormborn]

Well if you have established an egyptian theme and with the barrier have also established that these people were very powerful spell casters you might go with:

The last of the sun priests, now a lich sworn to prevent anyone from entering the last temple. This could be your Big Bad.

Living Spells, a la Eberron, perhaps the result of magics left behind that have gone weird. Not enough to really threaten such high level spell casters, but maybe enough to use up some spellslots, soften them up for the big bad, and maybe keep them from getting their bearings.A few Antimagic Field Living Spells can really do a number on them in a suprise round.

Traps that summon huge elder elementals or large numbers of smaller ones.

Personally I love constructs of all sorts. Little ones especialy. A large number of tiny constructs that all contain tangle foot bag like substances can throw of the somatic components of the spell casters. Sneezing powders and other irritants can temporarilly knock out the verbal components.
These things coupled with the Living Spells mentioned earlier can really throw them off balance, even just for a round or two, which is when some of the big things like Iron Golems or Titans can show up to damage them before they recover.

 

[Voadam]

Is it just these two spellcasters or do they have any henchmen or support parties?

Mummy Lord to guard great tombs. CR 17 straight out of SRD/MM 3.5.

Traps to guard things.

ghosts of former residents. Can be any level.

Perhaps for a "this place is different" type of feel introduce psionic creatures if you have not done so in the past for the campaign. Get a bunch from the 3.5 srd in the creatures entry in the psionics section.

Major elementals that were bound to stay within the city or even a specific building or room.

 

[krichaiushii]

A time-based trap that threatens to destroy the library and its contents via earthquake or fire or ...

It's not direct combat, but it could be quite a challenge getting the contents of the library out (after all those years, the scrolls might be a bit fragile - breaking apart if callously shoved in a bag of holding or portable hole) in the time allotted (an hour or so, at best).

Then again, finding the card catalog and translating its coding could provide a noncombat challenge. Especially if everything is in heiroglyphics or other dead language.

Ghost librarian(s) that take GREAT offense to having books removed from shelves or taken without being checked out properly. Loremaster clerics and/or wizards, probably. Lots of fun there.

 

[Gwarok]

I like the elemental idea. I was hoping to keep the monsters neutral here. The city was actually the capital of the humans before a cataclysm hit, and after the cataclysm was dealt with they had a secret so great to keep they literally destroyed all records of their own society and what little they had left in order to preserve that secret. Basically the people in this city would be on the side of the Sorceror and were pretty good in nature, so large groups of undead seem out of place. Besides we've done that alot. I was trying to go for high end things that don't have moral justifications one way or the other.

In fact, there is one high priest who is in a state of suspended animation and was left to "Heal the worlds wounds when the powers move again". He is one of the people to find, and while I did think of making him a Mummy Lord, I decided bending the alignment to make him good produced something goofy. But again, they are going to have to wake him up.

A pack or two of elder air elementals sounds with traps sounds good, as do Anti magic fields, but I used AM fields in the last adventure already and I hate to reuse ideas that quickly, especially ones that are so debiliating for him. Drider assasin sent by a Drow Lich Queen that the Sorc pissed off had an amulet that projected an AM field. 20th level sorc bound and captured in 2 rounds. Oh that was fun.

As for as the henchmen go, the evil wizard will likely bind a pit fiend or some Cornugons(he's a bit of a diabolist) and has other summoning spells at his disposal. The PC, not so much. He has shadow conjurations available, but those will by nature be short term. His leadership gave him a small gold dragon as a cohort, but thats more for getting around when he is too lazy to do it himself.

 

[Gwarok]

My apologies for the shameless bump, but I was hoping to give it one more shot for the good folks at ENWorld to help me out. Thanks again

 

[diaglo]

bodak and nymph in a cage.

save or die type monsters...

edit: actually the nishru from MoF works great too.

 

[Voadam]

bodak and nymph in a cage.

.

What kind of wierd go-go club atmosphere do you have in your games?

 

[Stormborn]

Seems like the sorcerer is bringing the biggest challange with him. I am guessing he is anticipating the double cross at the end? Seems that these two might wind up batteling it out for whatever is there. I would be temptedto put the PC in an interesting "do I split the ubermagic with the nutty diablosit here or do i destroy it all to keep it from falling into the wrong hands" kind of situation.

Oh and as for my earlier lich idea, I beleive that Monster's of Faerun introduced good liches that serve as guardians of their people/homes. That might be useful to you.

 

[Darren Ravenshaw]

Don't forget animated objects. From simple brooms trying to clean rooms with no bristles and carts performing rounds to long destroyed rooms. To deadly magical adamantine weapons guarding private chambers or buildings and siege engines manned by animated suits of armor.