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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6703550" data-attributes="member: 6787650">I think if you wanted to kill Orcus with a low-level level party, your best bet would be to focus relentlessly on a single tactic, whether that is "kite with magic weapons" via 5 Sharpshooter Eldritch Knights[1] covered by Bless + Death Ward from a Cleric or "Disable via spells and then Polymorph into earthworm" via 6 7th level Lucky Diviners. If you spread yourself out with a traditional fighter/magic user/cleric party you won't hammer through any of the defenses in time to end it.I'm not sure whether either of the approaches above would work but I think it is your best shot. I'd be comfortable taking on Orcus with an 11th level generalist party but not at 7th level--and by "comfortable" I mean, "if the end of the world is coming if we don't kill him, and I have access to reconaissance which says his abilities work precisely as described in OotA, I could formulate a plan which I think has better than a 50% chance of taking him out and us living to tell the tale."[1] Not doable at 7th level; requires 8th level for Magic Weapon. Alternately you could do a Battlemaster 5/Wizard 3, which would actually be more successful than the Eldritch Knight due to Precise Attack although it is also more gimmicky. Battlemasters will Disarm Orcus's wand with a trick shot (Disarm maneuver) while everyone's familiars wait to scoop it up and scram (vanish into other dimension), which drops Orcus's AC to 17 and prevents all kinds of nasty stuff. At that point, everyone starts sniping him with their +1 Longbows at 2x +5+d4 to-hit/1d8+15 damage, doing about 11.4 damage per attack not counting Precise Strike, for a total of 114 damage per round and twice that on the first round, so they can expect to kill him on the third round or so. Faster if all their familiars Help. It takes a total of about 21 successful attacks to drop Orcus, and if they manage to get the drop on Orcus somehow (are there any clerics who get Pass Without Trace as a domain spell? Orcus's Truesight only works out to 120' and they don't need to get that close to kill him) they could potentially each land 3 hits each for 58 points of damage total, leaving him with only about 100 HP at the end of the surprise round. (You need a way to sneak your familiars into closer range than that but maybe they're rats or something.) Then Orcus presumably hits the panic button and casts Time Stop, and I don't know what happens if he wins initiative and gets away with it. Cat and mouse, probably, so the PCs will try to have a way of preventing him from casting Time Stop successfully.Plans are useless but planning is indispensable.</blockquote>

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