Highest level spell combos

[CapnZapp]

Maybe make generous application of Magic Jar: have a bunch of fake phylacteries around, feign death and then swap bodies with one of the player.

That is golden right there.

Agreed - this is exactly the kind of "bookish" smart aleck meta-spell a dick like Acecerak would use to torture the PCs with!

Only problem... apparently I'm not as smart as you, because what is the actual trick and how do you pull it off?

Best I can think of, is to have Contingency cast at Acecerak's death, that shunts his lifeforce into one of the phylacteries present at the scene.

If the party haven't already dumped them all into the lava, and/or are all protected against Evil and Good, then, just as the party breathes a sigh of relief, one PC after another is secretly forced into making the Magic Jar save. (It appears unlikely they can find, let alone destroy, that phylactery in just a few short rounds. The risk of everybody promptly running out of range is acceptable - though if he did spend a century here, the joke would be on him)

If and when it succeeds, one of the first actions Acecerak will do in his new body is - of course - to destroy the phylactery (with the trapped PC soul in it!). Perma-killing off player characters is, after all, on the table for end of campaign encounters!

Then, assuming he doesn't get to kill off one character at a time, he can go down in a blaze of glory, maybe taking another character with him... and reminding the remaining heroes that he will be back... not in 1d10 days, but to kill off the grandchildren of the heroes...

Is that even remotely how you intended Magic Jar to go down, or do I have an overactive imagination...?

 

[CapnZapp]

Regarding the Sphere of Annihilation Acecerak brings along.

I am considering enlargening it to Medium Size.

While the default Sphere is probably quite dangerous for heroes of single-digit levels, it's only a nuisance for high-level heroes. (In fact, it's described as outright weak on Reddit)

A Sphere large enough to actually swallow a hero is something else, and much more appropriate for the arch-lich. Especially if you consider the name of the module...

The book already provides the lore that locks it in. In other words, Acecerak isn't bringing along just any Sphere of Annihilation, but Sadamor's very own Sphere. Yes, the very Netherese archmage that created the Black Opal Crown. And yes, the very same Sphere that later ate Sadamor. (None of this is made up by me; it's all in the module).

All I'm suggesting is to make this legendary sphere 5 ft in diameter (the size of a hero), instead of 2 ft. Might sound like a small change, until you read what it actually does... Bwah-ha-ha!

 

[dave2008]

(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...)

I have a hard time seeing that as unfair. I would expect a uber-lich like Acecerack to have spells I have never heard of. You even get the benefit that it is an official WoTC spell. If it is the best option, this is not the time to go soft on the group.

 

[dave2008]

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.

But he won't die even if the PCs defeat him. If I recall correctly his phylactery is not in the tomb.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Agreed - this is exactly the kind of "bookish" smart aleck meta-spell a dick like Acecerak would use to torture the PCs with!

Only problem... apparently I'm not as smart as you, because what is the actual trick and how do you pull it off?

Best I can think of, is to have Contingency cast at Acecerak's death, that shunts his lifeforce into one of the phylacteries present at the scene.

If the party haven't already dumped them all into the lava, and/or are all protected against Evil and Good, then, just as the party breathes a sigh of relief, one PC after another is secretly forced into making the Magic Jar save. (It appears unlikely they can find, let alone destroy, that phylactery in just a few short rounds. The risk of everybody promptly running out of range is acceptable - though if he did spend a century here, the joke would be on him)

If and when it succeeds, one of the first actions Acecerak will do in his new body is - of course - to destroy the phylactery (with the trapped PC soul in it!). Perma-killing off player characters is, after all, on the table for end of campaign encounters!

Then, assuming he doesn't get to kill off one character at a time, he can go down in a blaze of glory, maybe taking another character with him... and reminding the remaining heroes that he will be back... not in 1d10 days, but to kill off the grandchildren of the heroes...

Is that even remotely how you intended Magic Jar to go down, or do I have an overactive imagination...?

This is mostly the idea, yeah
I would not destroy the fake phylactery with the player in it, that sounds cheap, but I wouldnt not mind having Acecerak steal the body of the player and use it to mislead the party into ''destroying'' an empty vase, telling them it MUST be the phylactery, then attack then on the next rest.

To pull if off, I had in mind:
Dramatically fake to be killed when at 50% HP, (like: ''noooooooooooooo, you destroyed my plan, how could you yadayadayada, you'll never find my philactery, mwuahahaha) then cast Greater Invisibility or Gaseous Form or whatever then Magic Jar. I think it could work.

EDIT: invisibility or such wouldnt work since you would drop concentration and just leave the body in plain sight to be wacked. Maybe the lich could ''drop'' on a small plateform on the lava to be out of reach on the party when he leaves its body to Magic Jar a player.

 

[Luz]

Regarding the Sphere of Annihilation Acecerak brings along.

I am considering enlargening it to Medium Size.

While the default Sphere is probably quite dangerous for heroes of single-digit levels, it's only a nuisance for high-level heroes. (In fact, it's described as outright weak on Reddit)

A Sphere large enough to actually swallow a hero is something else, and much more appropriate for the arch-lich. Especially if you consider the name of the module...

The book already provides the lore that locks it in. In other words, Acecerak isn't bringing along just any Sphere of Annihilation, but Sadamor's very own Sphere. Yes, the very Netherese archmage that created the Black Opal Crown. And yes, the very same Sphere that later ate Sadamor. (None of this is made up by me; it's all in the module).

All I'm suggesting is to make this legendary sphere 5 ft in diameter (the size of a hero), instead of 2 ft. Might sound like a small change, until you read what it actually does... Bwah-ha-ha!

Pair this with Quickleaf's suggestion of the time stop/wall of force combo and this is vicious. Or to make it even more insidious (if you don't mind changing one of Acererak's 7th level spells), use forcecage (cube version) instead of wall of force with time stop. Less room to run and little hope of escape, plus it eliminates the need to maintain concentration.

 

[CapnZapp]

I definitely don't mind changing Acecerak's spells.

 

[CapnZapp]

Could someone take us through the Contingency Magic Jar strategy, step by step, round by round?

(And yes, obviously I know that Contingency can't RAW be upcast into 7th level to accommodate Magic Jar. And I know its dubious the spell works on whatever liches have instead of souls)

The caster is supposed to enter the phylactery first, yes? So, a contingency of "when I'm dying, cast Magic Jar and transfer me into Old Gnarly's phylactery which I have secretly emptied out a century ago and conveniently hidden here in plain sight among all the others")

Then the Magic Jar spell remains active and the caster can switch places with any hero that fails his or her save?

But then? What if the body dies?

I would guess the point is that a lich will still be reformed per standard rules, no matter what happens with the Jar hijinx. Normally, you're worried you might die when you're mucking about with Jars. For a lich, less so. Essentially creating no downside, just the upside of potentially messing with the party (and killing some of them in the most petty ways imaginable).

Did I miss anything?

 

[Luz]

Optional: Lich Phylacteries
The lich phylacteries in the Death God's Nursery are left as background flavor in ToA, but the present a golden opportunity to introduce a narrative justification for Acererak to tweak his spells to make for a more engaging & challenging confrontation. Whenever Acererak casts a spell, as part of the spellcasting he may drain the power from one lich phylactery to twist his spell in a small way. Each lich phylactery he drains (thus destroying it) allows him to augment one spell. Some examples include:

• Cast animate dead at 100 ft range, instead of 10 ft, allowing him to cast it upon the bone-filled alcoves in the northern wall.
• Cast animate deadwith a 7th level spell slot to animate a minotaur skeleton (450 XP) instead of 9 skeletons (50 XP each). Though, for your purposes, you might let Acererak drain a phylactery to cause ALL skeletons he animates to be minotaur skeletons.
• Cast planeshift or teleport, circumventing the magical conditions teleporting the creature(s) to Area 57. Just a bit of narrative justification for how Acererak circumvents the Area 57 trap.
• Cause a spooky effect, such as a skull in the northern wall whispering tauntingly to a PC or cracking a morbid joke. Because Acererak is a dick.
• Extend the range of mage hand to reach the Skeleton Gate. I might narrate this as the goblin skeletons worked into the gate animated to close it behind the PCs.

I love this idea. I'd expand it to include necromancy touch spells like bestow curse and vampiric touch. I imagine with each use a spectral apparition emerges from the phylactery to deliver the touch spell, if nothing else it is thematic and might encourage PCs to attack the phylacteries instead.

Alternatively, all of the dark apparitions can emerge from their phylacteries at once and swirl around the party members (a la climactic ending from Raiders of the Lost Arc). I'd treat it as a cloudkill that deals necrotic damage instead (doubled to those who have the Invoke Curse on them), but the only way to disperse it is to destroy the phylacteries - in which case, I'd make them a lot easier to destroy. This would also help mitigate some of the 50 hp regenerated each round.

 

[Quickleaf]

Regarding the Sphere of Annihilation Acecerak brings along.

I am considering enlargening it to Medium Size.

While the default Sphere is probably quite dangerous for heroes of single-digit levels, it's only a nuisance for high-level heroes. (In fact, it's described as outright weak on Reddit)

A Sphere large enough to actually swallow a hero is something else, and much more appropriate for the arch-lich. Especially if you consider the name of the module...

The book already provides the lore that locks it in. In other words, Acecerak isn't bringing along just any Sphere of Annihilation, but Sadamor's very own Sphere. Yes, the very Netherese archmage that created the Black Opal Crown. And yes, the very same Sphere that later ate Sadamor. (None of this is made up by me; it's all in the module).

All I'm suggesting is to make this legendary sphere 5 ft in diameter (the size of a hero), instead of 2 ft. Might sound like a small change, until you read what it actually does... Bwah-ha-ha!

Go for it! I think your intention in increasing its size is to circumvent the whole "Anything else that touches the sphere but isn't wholly engulfed and obliterated by it takes 4d10 force damage" bit, and go straight to "The sphere obliterates all matter it passes through and all matter that passes through it." In other words, an instant kill.

You'll want to consider how you'll handle a "No Save, Just Die" scenario. I'd start with foreshadowing and dropping clues about ways to deal with a sphere of annihilation besides trying to wrest control of it from a super-intelligent lich with a talisman of the sphere (i.e. use portal magic).

Pair this with Quickleaf's suggestion of the time stop/wall of force combo and this is vicious. Or to make it even more insidious (if you don't mind changing one of Acererak's 7th level spells), use forcecage (cube version) instead of wall of force with time stop. Less room to run and little hope of escape, plus it eliminates the need to maintain concentration.

Totally. Place the sphere among clustered PCs, erect some kind of force barrier (which the sphere of annihilation can't eat through) around them, and then play Bowling-For-Adventurers with the sphere.

Could someone take us through the Contingency Magic Jar strategy, step by step, round by round?

(And yes, obviously I know that Contingency can't RAW be upcast into 7th level to accommodate Magic Jar. And I know its dubious the spell works on whatever liches have instead of souls)

The caster is supposed to enter the phylactery first, yes? So, a contingency of "when I'm dying, cast Magic Jar and transfer me into Old Gnarly's phylactery which I have secretly emptied out a century ago and conveniently hidden here in plain sight among all the others")

Then the Magic Jar spell remains active and the caster can switch places with any hero that fails his or her save?

But then? What if the body dies?

I would guess the point is that a lich will still be reformed per standard rules, no matter what happens with the Jar hijinx. Normally, you're worried you might die when you're mucking about with Jars. For a lich, less so. Essentially creating no downside, just the upside of potentially messing with the party (and killing some of them in the most petty ways imaginable).

Did I miss anything?

Yeah, that's the idea. It is thematic magic inspired by contingency and magic jar, but it breaks how those spells traditionally work...magic jar is not only too high of a level for contingency, but it also takes a casting time of 1 minute. I think a less rules-defying approach – if you want one – would be to treat this trick as a homebrew 9th-level spell that is cast as a reaction and blends aspects of contingency, feign death, and magic jar.

Fyi, back when I was designing 4th edition boss monsters, I would treat something like this as an event kicking off the 2nd or 3rd Stage of a boss battle.

I love this idea. I'd expand it to include necromancy touch spells like bestow curse and vampiric touch. I imagine with each use a spectral apparition emerges from the phylactery to deliver the touch spell, if nothing else it is thematic and might encourage PCs to attack the phylacteries instead.

Alternatively, all of the dark apparitions can emerge from their phylacteries at once and swirl around the party members (a la climactic ending from Raiders of the Lost Arc). I'd treat it as a cloudkill that deals necrotic damage instead (doubled to those who have the Invoke Curse on them), but the only way to disperse it is to destroy the phylacteries - in which case, I'd make them a lot easier to destroy. This would also help mitigate some of the 50 hp regenerated each round.

You know, your Raider of the Lost Ark idea has merit.

I recall [MENTION=12731]CapnZapp[/MENTION] you mentioned wanting to preserve the +50 temporary HP to "show your players how a party of 10th level PCs could have a chance against Acererak in the RAW module." I guess that's important to you for some reason? But what you could do – to preserve that goal of yours, and also increase the threat posed to your six-person party of 14th level PCs – is use an Escalation Die.

I'd pick a black d6, and have it start at 5 (representing +50 temporary hp). At the start of the second round, I'd describe the dark apparitions and necrotic miasma seeping from the lich phylacteries and swirling about the room, then drop the d6 to 4 (now they only get +40 temporary hp). At the start of the third round, drop the d6 to 3 (+30 temporary hp). And so on, until there is no more die.