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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Geron Raveneye" data-source="post: 2967019" data-attributes="member: 2268">Well, just two points here. The entry for the Ogre Mage under Combat reads:Ogre mages rely on their spell-like abilities, resorting to physical combat only when necessary. When faced with obviously superior forces, they prefer to retreat in gaseous form rather than fight a losing battle. Ogre mages hold deep, abiding grudges, however, and the unwise person who crosses one would do well to keep looking over his shoulder.So basically, the Ogre mage is not that prone to face characters in direct battle anyway, if he's not definitely superior, but rather prone to vanish if the heroes prove too big for it to handle. Not that hard either, with Darkness and Invisibility on his side, as well as the shapeshifting abilities.And second, a CR8 only means that a standard group of 4 8th level characters should expend roughly 25% of their resources while bringing down the monster, not that it is a climatic battle for them. For a good, climatic end fight, make them a mix of 5th and 6th level characters. Should still give them the chance to bring the monster down, might cost one of them a life, and will definitely be the kind of encounter that's talked about for some time after.Also fits nicely with a storyline where the group comes into a village around 2nd level, starts having a few adventures around it, notice that something is not right with a few of the officials, strange things happening, people vanishing etc. They get sent on a red herring quest by the mayor to eradicate a tribe of humanoids who he claims are kidnapping citizens, that kind of stuff. After a few more adventures, the plot thickens, the first official is freed of his charm for example, the evidence points to a lowly clerk, the confrontatioin looms, the PCs have become 5th level by now, or 6th, and during the fight that might down one of their numbers from a Cone of Cold, the Ogre Mage reveals himself and causes plenty of havoc, being overcome only just so at the end.Maybe a bit cliché, but the monster in question is 25 years old by now, too. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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