D&D 5E I Am the Lizard King!

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by iserith:

Shasarak wrote:Just drop two fireballs on the middle Lizardmen and King, Bless and Polymorph into a T-Rex and Bobs your Grandad.  
 
Nice scenario Iserith.  

 
Thanks, amigo!
 

raleel wrote:Ah, level 8. Lots of options at level 8.
 
Wizard casts fly. Wizard moves. Next round, wizard moves, wizard casts Otiluke's resilient sphere around princess. Princess safe for a while.
 
Fighter pulls out longbow and hopefully takes out some dudes.
 
Cleric does freedom of movement, and if he's really smart, he did control water. Very large control of the battlefield at that point. Wizard can also do this. Wizard can conjure a water elemental as well... pretty handy for this sort of fight.

 
Otiluke's resilient sphere is a good idea. I can imagine that it snaps the vines and Prince Lilac - full of moxy as she is - would push the inside of the sphere and try to hamster ball it away from the skull altar. Do you expect many wizards would memorize that one given other choices? (Assume no foreknowledge of exact setup of the scene.) The range is a bit prohibitive though - 30 feet, so the wizard has to get close. It and fly are also Concentration spells, so that'll put the wizard right up in the thick of things. I'd target that wizard and try and break his concentration for sure.
 
Using control water to part the bog would be epic and create a clear path to the princess. Thanks for the feedback - seeing potential tactics is quite useful to me.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by raleel:

No, I can't say that I'd totally expect it out of every wizard, but some of the trickier ones use it. That whole weightless thing is pretty handy
 
Cant believe i missed this. Water walk, first round by the cleric. Affects all the party, no concentration, 1 hour duration. Mobility is no longer an issue. Also pretty well negates the whirlpool. I think it's even a reasonable take if the party knows they are heading into a swamp.
 
with water walk, your fighter and your rogue move quickly to dispatch lizards. They work as a pair. Fighter, assuming he's a battle commander, will use Commander's Attack to grant extra attacks by the rogue and drop folks very fast.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by iserith:

thehobb wrote:I don't know if this would work but here's a plan I'd suggest:
 
Mage casts fly on the fighter.
The fighter flies over to the lizard king and grabs/grapples him, perhaps aided by a bless spell and perhaps a lasso.
Fighter flies back to the mage with the lizard king in tow.
Mage casts rope trick and fighter drags lizard king into the extradimensional space, maybe aided by the rogue.
Since the lizard king will be in another dimension, and spells can not cross the entrance to the extradimensional space, in theory this will sever the connection between the lizard king and whatever powers are trying to transform him.
 
Cleric dispells magic on the alter to give them more time
The party tells the clan they will get their king back unharmed in the morning (after the celestial event has ended of course) if they release princess lilac. Otherwise their king dies as he is at the party's mercy.

 
That'd be an interesting way of dealing with the situation - turning a horrible sacrificial ritual into a highborn prisoner swap. It seems like it'd be tricky but the payoff would be memorable.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by iserith:

raleel wrote:No, I can't say that I'd totally expect it out of every wizard, but some of the trickier ones use it. That whole weightless thing is pretty handy
 
Cant believe i missed this. Water walk, first round by the cleric. Affects all the party, no concentration, 1 hour duration. Mobility is no longer an issue. Also pretty well negates the whirlpool. I think it's even a reasonable take if the party knows they are heading into a swamp.
 
with water walk, your fighter and your rogue move quickly to dispatch lizards. They work as a pair. Fighter, assuming he's a battle commander, will use commanders attack to grant extra attacks by the rogue and drop folks very fast.

 
Yeah, water walk is useful here and presumably a part of the cleric's toolbox when in a swamp. In a case like this, I'm probably going to hide the Lizard King and fight a delaying action as best I can. I guess with water walk, I can't grapple and shove anyone under the water (or into the whirlpool) either, which is a tactic I would likely use in this scene.
 
If you were running this scenario, would you use the "I Can Do Anything" option for your group?

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by iserith:

Wuzzard wrote:Who needs Dragon magazine or its ilk when you have Iserith posting on the forums.

 
Me! But thanks for the kind words. I'd like to see others posting their scenarios. It's a good way to learn from each other.
 

Rhenny wrote:Is there anything preventing the cleric from dashing and swimming to the closest raft with 2 lizardmen on it?   Then he can fight the lizardmen and cast healing word on the princess.  That will buy the others some time.

 
Yeah, healing word would be nice to use once in range. It will buy some time. Of course, that means one less healing resource for the party should a black dragon appear...

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by thehobb:

iserith wrote:That'd be an interesting way of dealing with the situation - turning a horrible sacrificial ritual into a highborn prisoner swap. It seems like it'd be tricky but the payoff would be memorable.

 
The problem is that there doesn't seem to be any other way to stop the lizard king from transforming, besides killing him before it happens. As stated in the scenario, the ritual doesn't matter, he's going to transform with or without the shadow dragon template.
 
Casting water walk would make this plan much easier to pull off though, if the king can be grabbed before he dives under the surface at which point the scenario becomes very difficult to win. What gives the plan a chance is that there's nothing to telegraph to the bad guys what the plan is so it can be a big surprise, assuming the DM doesn't make on-the-fly contingencies to protect his intended difficulty of the encounter.
 
A lot of DMs aren't happy when they spend hours on formulating a difficult scenario only to have it completely bypassed or negated due to an obscure rule that wasn't accounted for.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by Regin_Vargtass:

Against waterwalk I suggest the aforementioned entangle, using the water lilies and other waterweeds for good measure. Actually, I would do it anyway ...

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by SterlingRat:

Not sure if this would work...
 
1) Kill the princess to neutralize the ritual. A couple arrows or a magic missile should do the trick. (Logically, if killing her would complete the ritual, the lizards wouldn't be wasting their time with the whole "slow drain" thing.)
2) Kill the lizards
3) Resurrect the princess (Since there's a reasonable chance that the party can defeat the king, shaman and lizards given enough time, I assume that cleric is high enough level to resurrect.)
 
 
Keanu Reeves approves. ("Shoot the hostage")

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by caridhor:

SterlingRat wrote:Not sure if this would work...
 
1) Kill the princess to neutralize the ritual. A couple arrows or a magic missile should do the trick. (Logically, if killing her would complete the ritual, the lizards wouldn't be wasting their time with the whole "slow drain" thing.)
2) Kill the lizards
3) Resurrect the princess (Since there's a reasonable chance that the party can defeat the king, shaman and lizards given enough time, I assume that cleric is high enough level to resurrect.)
 
 
Keanu Reeves approves. ("Shoot the hostage")

 
Almost with you there. I say...Kill the princess, BBQ her, or teryaki whichever the king prefers, it is his party after all............don't kill the lizards, send them on the beer run.  GOOD GUYS WIN!!!

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by iserith:

thehobb wrote: 

iserith wrote:That'd be an interesting way of dealing with the situation - turning a horrible sacrificial ritual into a highborn prisoner swap. It seems like it'd be tricky but the payoff would be memorable.
 

 
The problem is that there doesn't seem to be any other way to stop the lizard king from transforming, besides killing him before it happens. As stated in the scenario, the ritual doesn't matter, he's going to transform with or without the shadow dragon template.

 
That's a variant option though. (I might not have made that clear.) I think I would apply that option to any group that is itching for a dragon fight or a group that is really good on tactics.
 

thehobb wrote:Casting water walk would make this plan much easier to pull off though, if the king can be grabbed before he dives under the surface at which point the scenario becomes very difficult to win. What gives the plan a chance is that there's nothing to telegraph to the bad guys what the plan is so it can be a big surprise, assuming the DM doesn't make on-the-fly contingencies to protect his intended difficulty of the encounter. 
A lot of DMs aren't happy when they spend hours on formulating a difficult scenario only to have it completely bypassed or negated due to an obscure rule that wasn't accounted for.

 
That's a shame. It totally misses the point of playing to find out what happens in my view. Give the players their due, I say.