Highest level spell combos

[Luz]

[MENTION=12731]CapnZapp[/MENTION]: that's a solid game plan you have Since much of Acererak's set up is dependent on the time stop, what spells have priority if, say, he only gets two rounds with it instead of the full five? Just curious.

With regards to the reverse gravity/prismatic wall (sphere)//lava combo (which I personally think is brilliant)..I'm going to put forward something that my players would likely point out: if the reverse gravity causes everything to "fall" straight up, and the party was on the platform and away from the lava at the start of the reverse gravity, wouldn't the lava also fall upward (like a waterfall) and harmlessly hit the ceiling and not the PCs? Sure, they would likely get some lava splashed on them, but would that still be full contact damage?

It's a nitpick, I know, but one I could see players mentioning.

 

[CapnZapp]

Very cool [MENTION=12731]CapnZapp[/MENTION]! Please let us know how it goes.

Does Acecerak know where the PCs are? If so he can teleport in more than 60 ft away and be out of range of Counterspell the first round.

I'm thinking he's set up some kind of Contingency plus type of deal, and specified the lower balcony as the most likely place the heroes won't be (when they start messing with the giant yucky baby and its Danger Robot).

Why? Otherwise the rulebook chain of events doesn't make any sense. Why wouldn't he want to bring in some muscle - the lich has only one weakness, and that is its need to keep away the pointy sticks from its relatively vulnerable body.

(I know the rulebook Acecerak appears when the diaper-God and Soul Vacuum are gone, but the same lgic applies)

So I'm doing it like he's emergency-beamed into the room in order to prevent the heroes from messing up his toys, with little advance warning. I'm thinking the Soul Sisters were way too proud to admit weakness and phone him in advance of getting deed. (Just like all truly Evil henchmen should act)

(I'm also going to have the atropal and soulmonger retreat and let the party duke it out with big A)

 

[CapnZapp]

[MENTION=12731]CapnZapp[/MENTION]: that's a solid game plan you have Since much of Acererak's set up is dependent on the time stop, what spells have priority if, say, he only gets two rounds with it instead of the full five? Just curious.

The spells marked "first" and "last": prismatic sphere and reverse gravity. (Honestly everything else is just gravy)

The spells in brackets marked "second", "third" and "fourth" are suggestions for what to do if you roll high on the d4. As you can see there aren't a lot of really <s>awesome</s> broken combos.

Ace obviously considered Delayed Blast Fireball, but ended up thinking it would only detract from his <s>lava</s> magma trap.

With regards to the reverse gravity/prismatic wall (sphere)//lava combo (which I personally think is brilliant)..I'm going to put forward something that my players would likely point out: if the reverse gravity causes everything to "fall" straight up, and the party was on the platform and away from the lava at the start of the reverse gravity, wouldn't the lava also fall upward (like a waterfall) and harmlessly hit the ceiling and not the PCs? Sure, they would likely get some lava splashed on them, but would that still be full contact damage?

It's a nitpick, I know, but one I could see players mentioning.

Sure. The combo isn't totally squeaky clean RAW, by the way (as discussed upthread). If you have a rules lawyer, the best spell is Power Word Kill

I'm going to describe the lava loosening in chunks, essentially creating a nightmarish rainfall of molten rock. Which is a nice visual. So you take the damage no matter where in the room you are.

And to be brutally honest, if it all came loose at once that would mean maximum splat damage, so I don't think my players are gonna complain.

If a character have taken precautions that could help them against the prismatic wall sphere, but getting out of the lava damage basically means not being in the area of effect. Which is going to be hard, since Reverse Gravity pretty much covers every part Ace wants to.

(I'm obviously going to cheat and say space baby and robot avoids the worst of the damage and just say Acecerak has it all planned out)

 

[Yunru]

Glyphs of Warding. Everywhere.

 

[Eltab]

Equip Acererak with a Scroll of Storm of Vengeance. This is to cover his retreat, if he needs to. Make the PCs wade through a hurricane to get him.

 

[Yunru]

Glyphs of Warding. Everywhere.

To follow up on this, the strongest I can think of, that you're not going to want to do, is Glyph of Warding (upcast to 9th) and Invulnerability.

 

[CapnZapp]

I think it's best to repost my earlier message, regarding glyphs of warding.

I'm getting a number of replies that interpret my question as "how do I best kill off my PCs?" or, alternatively but not more usefully, phrased as "How would Acecerak best put his abilities to use, given the D&D rules".

While the difference to my actual query - "how do I run Acecerak in a way that is both fun and impressively dangerous to the players?" - might be subtle, it is nevertheless fundamental.

Unless you understand the difference, I'm afraid you won't understand my reluctance to, say, casting a spell more than half the characters can never save against (Psychic Scream) or using broken combos like "Sphere of Annihilation in a Forcecube".

I am not quoting anyone directly here, because I don't intend this post as a personal attack. I intend this post to encourage replies that acknowledge that Acecerak COULD set up infinite Simulacrums, yet WON'T, since anything that doesn't come across as "harsh but fair" and ultimately "fun and exciting" to the players (not the DM or his NPCs) isn't going to happen.

Why? Because ultimately it's up to the DM, not Acecerak. And the job of DM is to give the players a good time - decidedly different from Acecerak's job (which might very well be to torture and humiliate the characters). By knowing the difference, your proposals will be appreciated and helpful!

Thank you

Acecerak's tactics only cover what he can do during the battle. Glyph of warding has a casting time of 1 hour.

In short: no

 

[CapnZapp]

What I can say is this:

Lest anyone think I have gone entirely off my rails, when I plan to inflict 225 damage on average to players who fail their DC 23 saves...

...I can inform the readership of the party composition:

• 2 characters have efreeti armor and thus have fire immunity. One of them is a Barbarian and should be firing up bear rage (and its "double hit points" feature since none of the damage here is psychic)
• 2 characters have improved evasion (and there's a LOT of dex saves). The trickster hit points are gonna get eaten by the lava though.
• 1 character has fire resistance (and is the sorcerer who should hang back, and in any event will be immune to the prismatic sphere if using her spider climb ability)
• The remaining character doesn't have any of this, but is the druid, and so he has a hundred or so hit points extra

In other words, yes, it can go south, but the only showstopping danger here is, as always really, the save or sucks: banishment in particular. (blinding should be recoverable) To that end, let me remind you that one of the characters carry the witch doll that gives etherealness, which should let him or her go and bring back banished characters.

(If they all enter the ethereal plane before starting the fight, I'm simply going to rule the lava and Acecerak is there too)

The bitter truth (that Acecerak doesn't realize) is that if his initial onslaught doesn't kill the party, nothing he does will. (And the secret is: damage is seldom unbalanced, saves are. This fight is meant as a horrendously intensive End of Campaign rocket tag style fight, but since its six against one, the party will likely kill him off in three rounds)

One thing is clear though - setting up this fight has been the most difficult task by far, system mastery wise. Getting any offensive juice out of 5E Time Stop is a real bitch.

The 24d10 <s>frck you</s> force damage at the end will top off the fight nicely thou

PS. I am well aware this discussion does not take several possible strategies into account. For example: a character heroically sacrificing himself by grabbing Acecerak and moving into the Sphere of Annihilation. That would probably be one of the safest and fastest way of winning the encounter, given how a lich is neither strong or large, and it would be okay. Logic dictates that such a course of action is inconceivable to Acecerak, so it's not something he's taken special precautions against (beyond invisibility and possible mirror images).

(My players are far too mercenary to do this. I think)

My own goal is: as long as Acecerak gets off the prismatic sphere + reverse gravity combo, everything else is just gravy. If he's shut down without doing anything I will be disappoint, as they say.

 

[CapnZapp]

Note: I made a couple of updates to my tactics post: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...spell-combos&p=7547999&viewfull=1#post7547999

Yes, I shall have this page open when the actual session takes place. No way I can remember all of this (I guess I don't have a +8 Intelligence modifier )

 

[Quartz]

You guys have no style! Nothing makes an entrance like casting Invulnerability then casting an elementally-substituted Meteor Swarm at point blank range.