Major encounter help

[meltinbradley]

Were gaming this Thursday and the PC's are going to destroy a death knight and his undead army who recently has taken over a human city. All parties involved are around 20th level.

My dilema is I think the party is going to murder the death knight and his minions.

The death knight has several skeletal warrior retainers and all types of incoporeal undead floating around the castle.

The party has a member who is all about buffing, healing, and killing undead. He can kill any undead under 35 hit dice no save. They will have no problem reaching the death knight.

Before they reach the death knight, he is going to cast star mantle and sublime revelry. Particularly on another PC who has spell turning and DR, combined with star mantle and sublime revelry is there any way of removing those buffs short of a anti magic shell? I cant see them doing much damage to someone who has DR, starmantle and subline revelry.

Not to mention he has area effect spells that continue to damage undead.

He also can heal up the ass, I have a necrotic curse casted in the area which will help some in the healing.

The undeads are primarily melee. The PC's will also use the standard buffs like death ward, those that increase ac, saves, etc...

Do the undead have any chance in this encounter? Do I have to totally change the encounter to make it a challenge?
The NPC's dont know all of the PC's abilities, so I dont want to make it so they have a counter for everything, but its safe to assume they have some things prepared. Since this campaign is coming to a end, Im trying to make major battles serious where there is a good chance of PCs getting killed if they are unlucky or stupid, but it doesnt seem this is going to be much of a encounter.
Tips, thought, ideas, help?
Thanks
MB

 

[Shin Okada]

The party has a member who is all about buffing, healing, and killing undead.

Then use debuff. In 3.5e, buffing is strong. So debuffing (dispelling) will often "soften" the PCs largely. There are undead creatures who can cast greater dispel magic at will (Nightwalker and such). If the villain is a Death Knight, you can put some nice fiends (Balor?), too.

He can kill any undead under 35 hit dice no save. They will have no problem reaching the death knight.

I guess he is a cleric or something and raising his turning undead ability a lot. If so, there are several ways to deal with him.

1. Let him deplete his turns per day.
Even weaker incorporeal undead creatures can be some threat to higher level PCs. Let PCs fight several encounters before reaching the main villain. Also, when running one encounter, you don't need to throw all the undead creatures at once. Throw several waves and the cleric must use turning undead once per a wave.

2. Choose undead creatures with many HDs.
Well, you don't need to use those undead who has relatively fewer HDs comparable to it's CR. If that is a level 20th campaign, you can find many undead creatures with much bigger HDs than their CR. Skeletal Dragon (Draconomicon) is a nice one. And you can advance some undead creatures to have 40+ HDs. They still work as minions of the death knight or encounter-boss.

3. Undead creatures immune to turning
Deathknight is immune. So as Tomb Guardian in Libris Mortis.

 

[Thanee]

Do they use True Seeing typically? If not, you could use illusions to make them waste some of their big guns before the actual encounter.

Bye
Thanee

 

[NewJeffCT]

I think undead are often a bit weak in 3E/3.5, but that's another story.

If they are level 20, how about a necromancer or two with the death knight? Have the necromancers focus on Chain Dispels and/or Mordenkainen's Disjunction. A level 17 caster is not unreasonable if you are facing a level 20 party... and Disjunction will auto-dispel any buffing spells.

You say the party won't have a problem reaching the death knight - do you mean they will teleport to right next to him with Greater Teleport or similar? If so, have the death knight or an allied caster put up Forbiddance. It has a huge area of effect (20 60-foot cubes at level 20) and would prevent anybody from entering the area via transportation magics. If you don't want to go that route, Greater Anticipate Teleport will give the undead 3 rounds of warning and allow them to ready Disjunction and Chain Dispel once the party teleports into town. 3 rounds of buffing and preparing and readying is a LOT of time at high levels. Heck, have a minor caster cast "Silence" onto a couple of grappling types (size Large or Huge undead) and have the grapplers grapple the party casters. That will likely limit their ability if they don't have Silent Spell or the ability to cast spells in total silence.

If the undead leaders know anything about the party, have them focus on the cleric that can destroy 35HD of undead with no save. Or, have some Nightwings in the air casting Greater Dispel Magics and whatnot.

 

[Runestar]

My dilema is I think the party is going to murder the death knight

I wouldn't be surprised, considering that 3e completely screws over undead thanks to the massive loss of hp due to lack of a con score, the fact that classed npcs tend to be very weak for their cr (especially at higher lvs) and the death knight template too seems quite anemic for its cr increment.

All these add up to an over-cr'ed, underpowered foe.

 

[NewJeffCT]

I wouldn't be surprised, considering that 3e completely screws over undead thanks to the massive loss of hp due to lack of a con score, the fact that classed npcs tend to be very weak for their cr (especially at higher lvs) and the death knight template too seems quite anemic for its cr increment.

All these add up to an over-cr'ed, underpowered foe.

I believe there is a feat called Unholy Toughness that allows undead to use their CHA bonus as a hit point modifier to their hit dice. I think death knights get a bonus to CHA, if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Shin Okada]

I believe there is a feat called Unholy Toughness that allows undead to use their CHA bonus as a hit point modifier to their hit dice. I think death knights get a bonus to CHA, if I'm not mistaken.

Unfortunately, Unholy Toughness is not a feat, but a special ability introduced in MM3 (IIRC). Some undead monsters in later supplements have it. But AFAIK there is no RAW way to add it to an existing undead monster.

 

[Nebten]

Unfortunately, Unholy Toughness is not a feat, but a special ability introduced in MM3 (IIRC). Some undead monsters in later supplements have it. But AFAIK there is no RAW way to add it to an existing undead monster.

Unless they are "special" undead that just so happen to have it . . .

 

[Herobizkit]

Talisman of Ultimate Evil

An evil (LE, NE, CE) divine spellcaster who possesses this item can cause a flaming crack to open at the feet of a good (LG, NG, CG) divine spellcaster who is up to 100 feet away. The intended victim is swallowed up forever and sent hurtling to the center of the earth. The wielder of the talisman must be evil, and if she is not exceptionally foul and perverse in the sights of her evil deity the good character gains a DC 19 Reflex save to leap away from the crack. Obviously, the target must be standing on solid ground for this item to function.

A talisman of ultimate evil has 6 charges. If a neutral (LN, N, CN) divine spellcaster touches one of these stones, she takes 6d6 points of damage. If a good divine spellcaster touches one, she takes 8d6 points of damage. All other characters are unaffected by the device.

Strong evocation [evil]; CL 18th.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Ideas:

Desecrate/Unhallow the HQ.

Give the Death Knight an artifact weapon.

Antimagic (doesn't affect artifacts).

Unless they are "special" undead that just so happen to have [Unholy Toughness] . . .

Give him this.

Give him items/feats that improve turn resistance (LM has a feat and a cloak for +4 each).

Use mobs (DMGII/Cityscape) or swarms of lesser undead to distract them and sap their resources.

Open up a portal to the negative energy plane.