Highest level spell combos

[Luz]

While I agree with lowkey's pov, the unpopular opinion sometimes makes for an unfun encounter Still, Acererak is supremely smart so I'd definitely load up on some precautions. Maybe a symbol of hopelessness triggered when he arrrives? Or some dust of sneezing and choking traps (it won't matter if Acererak is in the area of effect since he doesn't breathe)...if he doesn't use mooks then he'll need stuff like this to slow the party down before dropping his most powerful spell combos on them. A few carefully placed glyphs of warding laced with chain lightning or forcecage are also options. Unfortunately I don't have ToA in front of me right now so I can't remember all of Acererak's stats or what the room is like.

Your spell combos are fine for dealing a lot of damage, have you considered stuff like mass suggestion? It will usually take care of one or two characters for a few rounds while Acererak focuses on the rest.

Good luck!

 

[Blue]

I am not denying this.

However, we're nudging awfully close to the point where we might just send in a couple of mooks, and then the awesomesauce of a BBEG fighting the entire party solo is gone.

So why not do both?

Acerarak plane shifts in. Fight starts but he's lacking his most powerful items which will help him survive. Party starts to deal with him. Next round, Acerarak shows up, an extra round of prep done, and starts blasting into the party. Betweent he two of them they can overcome the 50 tHP a round to make the party sweat, but with simulacrum Acerarak without items and with only half HPs he'll go down soon, so it's not game over vs. the party.

Rather it's a solo battle that suddenly turns into an OH SHOOT* battle, that rapidly turns back into a solo battle, but with a nastier solo then they first expected. (Make it obvious some party tactics are negated by defensive items the first didn't have.)

*SHOOT is spelled in a alternate, four letter way.

 

[CubicsRube]

We had this fight a few weeks ago.

Went like this:
Acererak quickly identified the spellcasters (wizard and druid) at the back. Teleports in and casts wall of force as a sphere locking them all in together.

Quickly identifies the wildshaping druid as the bigger threat and attempts to destroy it with finger of death.

Over and over.

Wildshaping gets used twice. Healing totem gets used, half orc ability gets used. After 6 rounds where the druid takss a prodigious amount of damage and finally drops, he fails his constitution save.

There are three barbarians and a paladin waiting to swarm him and he is quickly overwhelmed.

It was actually quite a fun fight.

 

[Gadget]

I am aware that with only one level 9 slot, Time Stop isn't that great. But when you have two slots, I definitely want to use it. What offensive damage spells other than Delayed Blast Fireball can be set up "in advance"? Surely there must be some variety, maybe added by XGE?

I'm not aware of any offensive combos that really go well with timestop outside DBF, unless you want to use walls and such to separate the party, but the concentration feature really limits what you can do. You can do something like cast grease and the like where the party is likely to go. You could use the extra time to buff up, but concentration could be an issue here as well. One thing that does come to mind is that you could cast a Prismatic Sphere around the party, or part of the party to separate them. The party has to make some hard choices: the ones inside the sphere could chose to stay there while the lich deals with their companions piecemeal or take the damage of going through the sphere. Maybe if there is a DBF inside the sphere with them, that might make for a more interesting choice.

 

[CrimsonCarcharodon]

Thank you for your concern!

Yes, a sphere is better than a wall - even though 30 ft diameter means that a smart party won't all be caught. So he will have to choose the spot where he can catch the most heroes.

"Luckily" the Reverse Gravity will catch everything - 50 ft radius is huge. Even those "lucky" enough to not fall through the prismatic sphere will still have something to worry about. Lava and a Delayed Blast Fireball, for instance!

Still, with 50 temp hp each round, it feels awfully close to "damage immunity" and that he's better off with save or suck spells.

(Psychic Scream is a party-killer, of course. I hesitate to use it, however, since it will come across as a completely new spell to the party since it isn't in the PHB

The real challenge is to give the characters a real run for their money while not appearing unfair, or at least not completely unfair. Reverse Gravity, Delayed Blast and Prismatic Wall, in contrast, are "right there" in the book, and the lava has already been mentioned...)

On the other hand, Acererak is a multi-dimension lich of impossible age who is siphoning souls in order to create a new divine being. If anyone is going to have a new spell the party hasn't heard of, it's him.

 

[Voort]

Step 1: Cast Invulnerability. Be immune to all damage for 10 minutes.
Step 2: Walk casually among the PCs, casting Contagion. Laugh.
Step 3: Go bowling with the Sphere of Annihilation.

 

[CapnZapp]

On the other hand, Acererak is a multi-dimension lich of impossible age who is siphoning souls in order to create a new divine being. If anyone is going to have a new spell the party hasn't heard of, it's him.

Absolutely true.

I still don't think that from the players' POV the satisfaction of witnessing a truly clever NPC will take away the sting of a single spell TPK:ing the entire party.

That's not Acecerak's concern. That's my concern. I can always kill off my party, regardless of how many boons and gadgets I give them.

But it's a matter of wobbly game design in my opinion. The actual suggestion to use the spell is great.

The way the game allows you to create a set of heroes that are completely defenseless to this new spell is not. My party does not feature a Wizard. It is possible to gain Paladin's aura, and several characters have save-boosting items, but I would still be surprised if anyone other than the rogue sports much more than a +3.

And it's not that the adventure has provided any clues that they need to boost their Int saves. And it's not that the rules allow it either: how do you actually increase your Int saves (as opposed to merely getting advantage)? How do you cure someone from the Stunned condition?

Without having done the numbers I would guess one character (the rogue, standing next to the MC pala/warlock) might reach close to an even shot at making that save, another perhaps 10%, and at least two characters will never make it even if they never roll anything but 20's.

The chance/risk of the encounter ending before it has even begun is overwhelming. The even worse risk - that it becomes a drawn-out game of cat and mouse between the lich and a skulking Rogue (also called "the game of nothing happens") while everybody else sits on their hands until either have won.

That is not a fun encounter. In fact, that is a decidedly unfun encounter. Especially if I'm pulling a rabbit out of my hat (as it were), brining out a spell they might not have heard of before. (Some of them have purchased XGE. But we started this campaign without it, so I doubt any one of them have read through it thoroughly).

See my point? Which, BTW, is related to the poor way 5th edition handles high-level saving throw DCs, i.e. there really isn't any way to prop up your weaknesses (without unreasonably abstaining from the minmaxing players love to do; being asked to take a feat to raise your shot at making a save from 0% to 10% when those saves happen one or three times in the whole campaign is pretty frakking unreasonable). The game desperately needs a non-Concentration buff spell that allows each party member to say "know what? I think I need a higher Wisdom save for this encounter, so let's choose that". They might guess wrong, but at least there was a path you could have chosen.

And so I feel I can't use Psychic Scream in my campaign, unless it's cast by a monster whose DC falls within "bounded accuracy" (that is 10 to 20). If a Sewn Sister had had this spell, it could be fun (their DC were 16 in my version). Even if your save bonus is -1, DC 16 is still "fair game". Once the DCs go above 20, the game's disinterest in making sure play remains fair becomes a very awkward design failure.

So thanks for the suggestion, but I'll save it for another day. I hope you now see why.

 

[CapnZapp]

Step 1: Cast Invulnerability. Be immune to all damage for 10 minutes.
Step 2: Walk casually among the PCs, casting Contagion. Laugh.
Step 3: Go bowling with the Sphere of Annihilation.

Yeah, well, the laugh might just be on him. There are other ways to skin a cat than inflicting damage, after all.

This approach is still more fair than DC 23 Int saves to avoid the Stunned condition, though.

But it completely neuters the fighters of the group, and depends on the casters having luck casting Dispel Magic (avoiding Counterspell; and he could cast the spell twice...) or if they had saved their custom "ice petrification" item... (after shaving off his legendary saves with Hold Monster perhaps?) so thanks for the suggestion, but maybe not...

 

[Zardnaar]

So .... here is the unpopular opinion.

But imagine you are a powerful wizard. But you have one weakness- you fear death. You fear death so much that you trade everything- your humanity, your soul, your very essence and become a lich.

That's right- you are so terrified of dying, you sacrifice yourself and become a lich. Also? Don't forget you're super smart! Super smart ... and super scared of dying.

Now, you have a bunch of adventurers come to kill you. Sure, maybe you have to postpone your plan of total world domination for a little while. But do you remember something? That's right! You don't want to die.

So you, as the smart, never wanna die Lich, skedaddles out of there before they can get to you.

And then use some scrying and what not and pick those people off when they are asleep and by themselves. In a week. Or a year. You've got time. You're a lich. You have all eternity, and you never sleep, and they just have to let their guard down once, at some point in the future.

Play the long game. You have your whole ... unlife ... after all!

Or wait for the PCs to die of old age.

A nice illusion of somehting like a black hole or a vortex swirling around that the PCs have to go through to get to him. Often PCs are so paranoid about going into something like that they don't bother making saves to see through it.

 

[CapnZapp]

Not that it matters for purposes of this discussion, but Acecerak is actually depicted as not being overly careful about getting himself killed. A lich isn't destroyed just because it is killed. The module specifically tells the DM that he feels secure in that the heroes will never find his phylactery.

So while there is logic in that a lich is likely to have feared death at one point, that does not apply any more.