Please Help Design - Level 30 Epic End Campaign Encounter

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

I agree with everything you are saying [MENTION=94022]Riastlin[/MENTION] I have even forewarned my players this is going to be a very tough fight. I'm also going to implement a few other things that I saw on some high level bosses (30+) giving this boss 3 initiatives per round and allowing him to save before and after his turns since the PCs will be tossing so many conditions at him it'll be crazy. I will also add in the terrain stuff, aura, fog, controlling/dominating abilities, and tons of minions to really go all out cinematically. The PCs are very resourceful so I expect them to probably win in the end, but by the skin of their teeth.

I'd like myself and my players to think back on this final encounter for years to come and go "wow, that was one of the best fights/scenes I've ever done..."

Again, thanks to everyone who's contributed thus far and if anyone else has ideas, please share!

 

[Quickleaf]

Great call on the wall power, Riastlin! Would XP ya, but I need to spread the love.

If he gets it, along with their 4 pieces, the world will end due to the lich's ancient deity being released from his void prison and the whole world will become nothingness.

Heh, I missed this part. Is the lich in the process of performing this ritual already? And is the lich supposed to have been a cleric in life?

Did you ever play the 2008 Prince of Persia video game? There's several scenes where this dark god is erupting through the floor and corrupting everything it touches. A Collapsing Chamber of Corruption could make a neat hazard.

Stealing the idea for the 4 objects as well as the mist, those are just badass. I think I'll do it with a ton of minions that keep popping up and swarming the PC's especially the ranged and healer. Great ideas guys, you are getting my own creative juices flowing and I'll definitely be using quite a few of your suggestions.

Hey if its hordes of minions you want, check out the Crawling Blood Swarm (34 minion skirmisher) in the Underdark book. Naaasty.

What other types of creatures/minions would you put into the encounter to harass or shut down the strikers, nullify the healer, and keep the defender off balance?

Ghouls (the epic level ones in E2). Why? Because they immobilize. Combine that with my freezing fog suggestion and a...

Dread Boneyard (30 Elite Controller) from Elder Evils. It auto-hits and grabs/swallows immobilized creatures. Oh wait, what's that under the mist...bones you say?

A Shadow Demon Assassin (31 Elite Lurker) or Dread Wraith which emerges if the PCs look into a certain scrying mirror in the lich's lair, all the better if the PCs are dealing with a...

Howling Famine Spirit (28 Brute) from Elder Evils which nearly removes a PC from play and deals damage while they're grabbed. When they escape that's when your shadow demon or dread wraith uses its readied attack on the freed PC.

What kind of terrain would you have the encounter take place on?

Murder Holes. With arrows? No. Green slime? Nope. With an insubstantial monster with reach and the ability to pull/grab. Hey! Like the howling famine spirit. How bout that?

Teleporters (4). These would have special keys you'd need to use them, kinda like portals, but probably use line of sight to operate. Effectively it would allow the lich to teleport to a couple preset points on the battlefield that are like 20 squares apart. So the PCs might try to break the teleporters, immobilize the lich, each go to one of the four teleporters and ready attacks, or attempt to puzzle out each teleporter's key.

What kind of special abilities should an ancient god-like lich have so that he isn't focus fired on and destroyed in two rounds?

I like the Lich's Disdain power from the Lich Castellan, which basically damages and teleports an enemy within 5 up to 20 squares....and 2 squares above the ground for extra falling damage and prone. Ouch.

Would you have traps/hazards, if so, what kind?

Of course!

Sphere of Annihilation. (in the DMG) Because it is epic!

And a hallway where all the victims of the lich over the years are trapped in perpetual torment, denied the afterlife. The Hall of Souls' Lament is so powerful and laced with contingency spells that even if the lich is killed the souls' curse will endure for eternity. The only way to release these spirits is for a kindly living person to resolve the trap/puzzle. This would be something like piecing together a mystery from pieces of your campaign using dead NPCs - the answer releases the spirits from torment and grants the PCs some kind of blessing, maybe recharge a power or gain an action point. However, each wrong answer results in the spirits wailing, and the PCs getting hit by negative energy draining healing surges.

 

[Colmarr]

I can't believe no-one's mentioned the recent Monster Makeover: Demilich article from Dungeon zine.

The demilich is a level 22 solo controller, but it has some good ideas and explanation of the sort of thinking that should go into an epic solo.

 

[d2OKC]

This is a great thread so far. I'm planning on wrapping up paragon tier pretty soon, and I've already decided I want my party to take on Tharizdun in the final battle of epic - I'll probably be stealing some of the ideas here and reskinning them a bit to fit his flavor more!

I used a room recently based on Portal. There were two sets of portals that the monsters would jump through to get to other parts of the room with more advantageous positioning, and after a while, the PCs started doing the same thing. I worked the encounter up pretty fast, so I didn't have a way for them to move the portals, but that could make a cool mini skill challenge.

The thing I've found that really bothers my group is blocking line of effect. Not completely, obviously, but that is a pretty simple obstacle that can really change the face of an encounter. It requies movement by the PCs to get around it, and if the monsters are particularly comfortable around it, they'll use it to their advantage. Especially if it is some kind of moveable/animated object.

I'm sure you're already doing it, but the best thing I've learned how to do as a DM is to taunt the PCs during the encounter. If the BBEG is constantly insulting them or bragging to them, it really gets their blood boiling, and when/if they do defeat him, it makes it even sweeter. Again, something simple, but something I used to forget about all the time as a more inexperienced DM.

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

Guess I typed too much in the xp box, anyhow the Lich has taken the Paladin's wife and children hostage, razed their hometown, and sent "mementos" back to the party in the form of an ear from each child. This should spur the party on to find the lich, maybe even make rash decisions, and make for an interesting encounter on the lich's home turf.

I thank you for posting and keep up the great ideas guys! If I don't use them now, I'll definitely incorporate them into my next campaign!

 

[Nullzone]

Bah, stupid xp box...forgot the "not" before the "even"

 

[Riastlin]

Bah, stupid xp box...forgot the "not" before the "even"

Heh, yeah messing with kids is definitely evil. Gotta know your group and whether or not its going too far, but for more mature audiences its certainly guaranteed to work.

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

So quick update from last night's final session:

I allowed the characters to level up to 30 and start off in Waterdeep so that they could purchase some upgrades prior to the final fight. They did some role playing, met Kelban Blackstaff for the first time and he gave them the information they needed to find the Lich's citadel.

I built the encounter using a few of the suggestions here:
1) I went with the 4 different objects that distracted the players and each had a certain amount of hit points, they were vulnerable to certain attacks and resistant to others
2) In addition to the 4 objects there were 4 corners in the room and each corner was associated with one of the objects and allowed the lich to randomly teleport to another corner when I rolled a d4 - this was pretty rat bastard of me because the players had to chase the dang lich all over the place all night while he tried to destroy them
3) I actually used the character builder to build a level 30 character that was centered around domination and controlling, so the lich was all about trying to get them to kill themselves while throwing out movement impairing effects.
a) The lich could act 3x per round on 45, 35, and 25
b) The lich could save at the beginning of each of his turns and the end of each
of his turns.
c) I gave the lich the wizard's fury which allowed him a 21hp magic missile to be
tossed out every turn as a minor action. (This was pretty nice to keeping the
players bloodied throughout and forcing them to use second winds, healing surges,
and the cleric to use the bigger healing spells).
4) I gave the lich a powerful necrotic aura for the entire fight
5) I went with the suggestion of the mist as well which made the characters who generally like to sit back and toss things from afar have to move around and use their move actions to get away.
6) I also tossed in a few random trapped areas which would trigger if they went into the square.
7) The fight lasted from approximately 7pm to 12:15 am, so level 30 PC fights take a long time to go through.

Overall it was a pretty dang good fight I had them all bloodied by the end and throughout the fight at least two were bloodied.

Thoughts on the fight would be that level 30 characters are crazy powerful, the amount of damage they can take/shrug off, the amount of healing a cleric can do in his turn, the temporary hit points that they can get, the number of effects and forced movements they can do, I feel I may have underestimated the abilities the PCs at 30, but still did a fair job of making it a challenging fight.

This was a fun campaign for me to run and I'm just hoping I can get another cool group together like them for my next adventure after I move.

 

[Mentat55]

Sounds like a suitably epic finish to your campaign. Congrats!

 

[Riastlin]

Glad it went well. I'm also glad (in a way) that epic PCs CAN handle so much being thrown at them. It really seems as though DMs for epic campaigns should feel free to if anything, err on the side of too difficult when designing adventures and encounters.

As for the time of the fight, I think that actually sounds awesomely appropriate for the capstone fight of the campaign. The final battle really should be drawn out in my opinion -- so long as it remains fun and exciting. Forcing the PCs to use tactics (like second wind) is great. It took my players a long time to realize that second wind really wasn't a terrible option. Nor is using a heal check every now and then to grant somebody an extra save. Its got them considering Combat Medic as a feat choice, etc. Of course, some of that is related to the lack of a true leader in our party, but that's a different issue.

Anyway, glad to hear it went well. Good luck with the next campaign!