Paladin Hospitaler vs Beholder Death Tyrant

[SlyFlourish]

So last night I had a real treat planned for our party: a 15th level beholder and two level 10 blaster traps for a party of six level 12 characters.

One of the characters, a Paladin Hospitaler, however, turned the battle from what could have been a real challenge into nothing short of a healing font.

The Beholder gets a free attack at the beginning of each character's turn. Every time he takes this attack, that character heals 9 hitpoints, hit or miss. On the beholder's turn, he can only take one attack against the marking paladin so the other attacked character gains 9 as well. Further, when someone fails a necrotic save, the beholder attacks with the slow / anti-necrotic resistance, and they gain 9 again.

Sure, one of the characters turned to stone, but throughout that whole battle, including many ongoing 10 necrotic effects, only one member of the party was ever bloodied. They must have healed for 200 hitpoints as free actions.

So short of continually blasting the paladin with the petrification ray, hoping he fails his saves, what could I have done to make this battle more challenging?

 

[RangerWickett]

Have the beholder levitate out of the paladin's reach. If he can't engage it, he can't keep it marked. Sure, he can throw javelins at it, but if the beholder can maneuver to a little bit of cover, that could make a big difference.

Also, I don't have the book in front of me, but if a paladin's mark can only hurt an enemy once per round, maybe a hospitaler's mark should only be able to heal once a round.

 

[Beckett]

Yeesh! Does every paladin paragon get a killer mark upgrade? I've got a Champion of Order in one game I run, and he gets to daze and weaken a creature as long as he keeps his mark active; it's come close to destroying some solo monsters, and defanged a few elites.

As RangerWickett said, best option seems to be retreat. Yeah, the party might get some free parting shots, but that's better than an entire combat of greatly reduced effectiveness.

 

[Victim]

The Hospitaler's Blessing destroys area attackers.

That's probably the best thing about the PP.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Moved to 4e rules

 

[SlyFlourish]

The Hospitaler's Blessing destroys area attackers.

That's probably the best thing about the PP.

If the Paladin is within the area attack, they don't receive hitpoints, right? I would assume (and rule) that if the enemy is targeting the paladin as part of the attack that the healing thing doesn't trigger. Only when they're attacking another.

The wording on the effect isn't great. For one, it should only trip once per round, not fifty times in one round. Second, they should clarify that it only triggers if the mark triggers.

 

[Victim]

If the Paladin is within the area attack, they don't receive hitpoints, right? I would assume (and rule) that if the enemy is targeting the paladin as part of the attack that the healing thing doesn't trigger. Only when they're attacking another.

The wording on the effect isn't great. For one, it should only trip once per round, not fifty times in one round. Second, they should clarify that it only triggers if the mark triggers.

It seems to me that the wording is sufficiently different different from the normal mark/divine challenge that it doesn't matter if the paladin is being attacked or not.

Marks trigger on not attacking the paladin.

The blessing triggers on attacking someone other than the paladin.

You might argue that the power SHOULD be erratad, but as written, it seems pretty clear that the blessing significantly dampens any area attack hitting people besides the pally.

 

[Trebor62]

If it comes up again I would just apply the healing just once per turn or not at all to the Beholders free attacks at the beginning of each characters turn. I would apply it normally to the attacks the Beholder makes on its own turn.

 

[DracoSuave]

The Hospitaler's technology revolves around the mark. So the eye-tyrant's counter strategy must be to defeat that mark.

The mark goes away if the paladin spends a single turn without attacking nor being adjacent to the beholder, and then the paladin has to wait until the turn -after that- in order to bring the challenge back up.

1) The beholder has a daze as a minor action.
2) The beholder has a daze as a minor action.

This is so utterly important it bears mentioning twice.

Daze the paladin. Sleep ray him. Do bad stuff to other people.

 

[SlyFlourish]

I plan to change it by adding "once per turn" to the beginning of the statement.