So we battled Orcus....

[Jhaelen]

Thanks for reading; sorry for the long post. I wanted to share the experience.

Thanks for sharing! What I'd like to know:

Did you actually start at level 1 and played all the way to 30 to have this encounter at the conclusion of your campaign?

 

[Orion Ravenclaw]

Thanks for sharing! What I'd like to know:

Did you actually start at level 1 and played all the way to 30 to have this encounter at the conclusion of your campaign?

Yes, we started at level 1 ( I came in at level 3)

This isn't the conclusion, we have two more sessions I think... There are other evil gods that have been harassing the party.

 

[babinro]

You guys certainly got lucky in this fight. I read more critical hits in this one fight than we tend to see in any given 6 hour session.

In my one experience as DM using Orcus, I kept recharging his touch of death and hit the party with it 3 times. This made for a rather difficult fight as it was really the only means of damage (pre-modifications build from MM1). He was one of the more enjoyable super bosses though despite the party locking him down for so many rounds with things like stun.

Ultimately, the big baddie that bested my group was Tiamat.

 

[Aegeri]

That is because Tiamat is wonderfully designed and one of the best solos in all of 4E.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

He had to resort to his Burst. This meant that the Paladin got to use his thing where he damages the enemy for anything not attacking him solely, and it ignored all resistances and immunities.

This will probably make no difference on the party winning the fight and regardless it sounds like everyone at the table achieved the ultimate goal of having a fun time. But as long as the Paladin was attacked as part of Orcus' burst, she wouldn't get to do her Divine Challenge damage. Orcus wouldn't have to attack the Paladin "solely" to avoid activating the Divine Challenge. In case it comes up in future games.

(I'll take all "Damned buzzkilling rules lawyers" comments as PMs. )

 

[Prestidigitalis]

Interesting combat story, but I hope no one has the reaction that "If Orcus is so easy, I'll have to make him tougher." It's clear that you had a party nicely tailored for that kind of encounter. You rolled well and the DM rolled badly.

 

[badmojojojo]

Upgraded Orcus or the one in MM1?

Is the MM1 Orcus weaker?
appologies if this is common knowledge.

 

[Orion Ravenclaw]

Interesting combat story, but I hope no one has the reaction that "If Orcus is so easy, I'll have to make him tougher." It's clear that you had a party nicely tailored for that kind of encounter. You rolled well and the DM rolled badly.

Yeah, thats why I posted. I am confident if we didn't roll as well as we did, and the DM didn't have rotten rolls. (It was really bad. two 1s and 5 five at one point) It would have been a much much different encounter...

 

[Orion Ravenclaw]

Is the MM1 Orcus weaker?
appologies if this is common knowledge.

iirc, all the monsters from MM1 were changed to reflect the new shells in the last Monster Builder update. This is to say the damage, to hit, defenses etc..changed along with the card layouts....

 

[Aegeri]

iirc, all the monsters from MM1 were changed to reflect the new shells in the last Monster Builder update. This is to say the damage, to hit, defenses etc..changed along with the card layouts....

No, this sadly didn't happen although they did put most monsters into the new format. The improved Orcus is from the E3 module and is a bit better than the original.