How tough would it be this encounter?
- Thread starter avin
- Start date
Shin Okada
Explorer
Well, frankly speaking it depends largely on how good the players are to use their characters. And also depends largely on selection of spells and magic items.
By calculation that is about EL 12 encounter. And it does not seem to be particularly nasty combination. So, PCs are expected to spend about half of their resources but very likely to win without PC death.
By calculation that is about EL 12 encounter. And it does not seem to be particularly nasty combination. So, PCs are expected to spend about half of their resources but very likely to win without PC death.
The spined devil, being just cr4, appears too weak to sufficiently challenge the party (it will probably fall in 1 hit, and cannot hope to contribute meaningfully to combat).
I am not sure if the raksasha is meant to be played as an offensive sorcerer. Its stats seem to suggest more subtlety (eg: a more social-based encounter). I doubt it is worth its full cr10 in such a context. 3rd lv spells just don't seem too threatening at this juncture.
Nessian warhound - never actually run one before, so I only trust that its cr is correct, but as a straight bruiser, it would be suitable to pit against the PCs.
I would recommend replacing the warhound with 2-3 hellcats (to clog up the battlefield), and the spined devil with multiple fire memphits (4 seems about right). They can't do nuts, but they can at least contribute to combat using scorching ray (assuming party has poor touch ACs), heat metal and breath weapon (swap out dodge for flyby attack). And with flight, they should be annoying hard to kill.
The raksasha would assume a controller role, buffing up his allies with spells like haste, weakening the party with debuffs like ray of enfeeblement, glitterdust and stinking cloud, while protecting himself with defensive spells such as mage armour and mirror image.
I am not sure if the raksasha is meant to be played as an offensive sorcerer. Its stats seem to suggest more subtlety (eg: a more social-based encounter). I doubt it is worth its full cr10 in such a context. 3rd lv spells just don't seem too threatening at this juncture.
Nessian warhound - never actually run one before, so I only trust that its cr is correct, but as a straight bruiser, it would be suitable to pit against the PCs.
I would recommend replacing the warhound with 2-3 hellcats (to clog up the battlefield), and the spined devil with multiple fire memphits (4 seems about right). They can't do nuts, but they can at least contribute to combat using scorching ray (assuming party has poor touch ACs), heat metal and breath weapon (swap out dodge for flyby attack). And with flight, they should be annoying hard to kill.
The raksasha would assume a controller role, buffing up his allies with spells like haste, weakening the party with debuffs like ray of enfeeblement, glitterdust and stinking cloud, while protecting himself with defensive spells such as mage armour and mirror image.
You know this really depends on the setting...
Do they have the high ground or are they being ambushed...
In a particulalry nasty set up I had an umber located on top of a wall with a grease trapped ladder leading up to the top. Furthermore, the wall itself was made of softer burrowable earth. Thus the hulk was able to turn the party on one another whilst burrowing and knocking climbing characters off the wall.
It was insane.
party level was 7 or 8.
If the Rhaksasha has a balcony to cast spells from..
do the monsters have options for total cover or is the room trapped a bit?
I tend to think that many characters would whoop a$$ here but if you set it up right, this could be very challenging.
Do they have the high ground or are they being ambushed...
In a particulalry nasty set up I had an umber located on top of a wall with a grease trapped ladder leading up to the top. Furthermore, the wall itself was made of softer burrowable earth. Thus the hulk was able to turn the party on one another whilst burrowing and knocking climbing characters off the wall.
It was insane.
party level was 7 or 8.
If the Rhaksasha has a balcony to cast spells from..
do the monsters have options for total cover or is the room trapped a bit?
I tend to think that many characters would whoop a$$ here but if you set it up right, this could be very challenging.
avin
First Post
The players will be on a small open area, with a small house, in the middle of a ancient forest.
They will interact to a mute man (spined devil) and his small dog (nessian warhound). The man will call his "wife" (Rakshasa) and pcs will be forced to attack her (by a powerful magical mean), but she will attack them too, so it's not gonna be a surprise...
...except that the man an his dog changes back to their devil appearance, female rakshasa not. Dog will be tanking, spined devil will fly and ranged attack and the rakshasa will spend her first round climbing to small house's roof then start casting spells.
There's a reason these two devils are there with her, so I'd like to keep them, although hellcats and imps could do it better...
They will interact to a mute man (spined devil) and his small dog (nessian warhound). The man will call his "wife" (Rakshasa) and pcs will be forced to attack her (by a powerful magical mean), but she will attack them too, so it's not gonna be a surprise...
...except that the man an his dog changes back to their devil appearance, female rakshasa not. Dog will be tanking, spined devil will fly and ranged attack and the rakshasa will spend her first round climbing to small house's roof then start casting spells.
There's a reason these two devils are there with her, so I'd like to keep them, although hellcats and imps could do it better...
Dragonwriter
First Post
I think you are underestimating the spined devils... These little buggers have a VERY high AC for their CR coming in at 24 with a touch AC of 18. Their ranged attacks have a +11 bonues and deal 1d4+1d3 damage. Not terribly annoying, but the added effect of dropping AC can cause some major trouble. I threw about 6 of these at my 8th-level party, and they caused a lot of pain and frustration. If this little guy was able to get out and fly around, the PCs would probably have a tough time hitting him.
The encounter sounds pretty cool. I would agree with Shin Okada about the toughness of this. The PCs should survive it rather well, assuming there were no/up to two encounters beforehand. If the PCs are full powered and rested, this should be just fine. If they are already buffed-up, this is going to be considerably easier. If they've used up a bunch of resources, this is going to be a vicious fight.
avin
First Post
They will face a fairly easy battle before: two canoloths and one mezzoloth. Without boring you guys with details, players were captives on Carceri and some npc, a prisioner too, has a escape plan using some very intriguing "plane backdoor".
They manage to reach caverns around Styx River (where they face mezzoloths). After some walking they reach an exit to some ancestral woods on a material plane world, where the Rakshasa is. The npc will die (well, they not really) at caves.
Some clues will probably make them belive they're being manipulated by some yugoloth to kill business opponents (devil)... a lot of coincidences will push them against the baatezu.
Truth is, there is a plan, but yugoloths are just hired to plan and execute it work properly... and so a campaign starts...
They manage to reach caverns around Styx River (where they face mezzoloths). After some walking they reach an exit to some ancestral woods on a material plane world, where the Rakshasa is. The npc will die (well, they not really) at caves.
Some clues will probably make them belive they're being manipulated by some yugoloth to kill business opponents (devil)... a lot of coincidences will push them against the baatezu.
Truth is, there is a plan, but yugoloths are just hired to plan and execute it work properly... and so a campaign starts...
You ought to think about making the house a dread gazebo instead.
http://www.dreadgazebo.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=8
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The problem here is that there is only 1, so it is all too easy to knock it out of your equation just by focusing on it 1st thing in the fight. You had 6, so you were able to focus-fire and cause a lot of grief. I agree that its stats appear to make it uncommonly strong for a cr4 foe, but I believe it would be of limited use against a 10th lv party (AC should be high enough to resist an attack with +12 to-hit).
Which is why I suggested memphits instead. They are just as fragile, but they should be able to get in 1 good attack, and scorching ray targets your touch AC, which pretty much remains stagnant as the party levels (unlike their normal AC). So each should at least be able to get in 4d6 fire damage before croaking, and every little bit counts.
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