D&D 5E Tomb Raiders : building an encounter

[n0nym]

Hi everybody,

I've been thinking of offering my players a (very) small sidequest in a bigger adventure, à la Baldur's Gate 2 where you could stumble upon an ancient lich in the cave of a tavern.

I wanted to use a mummy lord, a few mummies and maybe some shadows, representing the servants trapped within the tomb when it was sealed.

But after looking at the mummy lord, I have a hard time understanding how it can survive even a group of lvl 7 characters if they alpha strike it. My players are currently lvl 7 and it's fine if they think it's too strong for them, but it's not fine if they kill it in one turn. The vengeance paladin could probably do it in a single round with 2 smites and Advantage since it only has 97hp.

Another problem I have is Insect Plague. It seems like a very good spell to use in the tomb since it's an enclosed space, but how does it interract with the Mummy Lord, other Mummies or Shadows ? Is it considered a "magic weapon" for the purpose of overcoming the mummies /shadows piercing damage reduction / immunity ?

Lastly, we're playing Dark Sun and the Mummy Lord will be the founder of a noble house of Tyr. Do you have any suggestions of treasure (even mundane) that could be found in the tomb ? Magic items can be of any level.

 

[discosoc]

Make sure the encounter with the mummy lord doesn't happen with the party fully rested.

The mummy lord has resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons only. Insect Plague is not a weapon, so the resistance thing doesn't apply. It would get an advantage to save for half damage, though.

Remember that the mummy lord is a spellcaster with a DC 17 saves, *and* gets to take legendary actions after each other character's turn. Even with a paladin helping with saves, that's a tough one to make. It could cast Contagion (Filth Fever) on the paladin, who has to make a DC 17 Con save (probably not proficient in, so likely has a +4 to +6 on the check, depending on how high con and cha are). Good luck smiting with that up.

Don't forget the lair actions at initiative count 20, where he can shut down casters, bring more undead to the fight, or prevent those that are already there from being turned.

Insect Plague is nasty, and the mummy lord will get advantage on saves if it's in the AoE as well. That's assuming it doesn't do something nasty like cast it somewhere else, then use Legendary Whirlwind of Sand to move to the other side on the next character turn, forcing the players to cross through or dispel it or something to get to it.

And since it's a mummy lord, you're dealing with combat where healing is kind of useless half the time (loss of max hp on quite a few attacks or acctions).

Or there's Guardian of Faith, to cause further issues with mobility. Silence. Command. Or Harm for 14d6 on another con save.

Now you may be thinking "but what about the alpha strike killing it before it can do any of that?" Well, remember it's a mummy lord. You're on it's territory. Food and drink they brought instantly molds and evaporates, making it tough on players thinking they can slowly crawl through the place at a leisurely pace. The fact is, a mummy lord is probably going to get the surprise round unless the paladin happened to save a divine sense for exactly the right room where the mummy lord is located, and even then it wouldn't be identified as anything other than "undead" which is basically par for the course in such a tomb.

But yeah, if the paladin somehow manages to surprise the mummy lord in it's lair, wins initiative, and dual-smites with tons of damage (probably crits), then I guess a 1-shot is possible.

 

[Savage Wombat]

Which is why, worst comes to worst, you have to make that Lair action on Init 20 really count. Whatever the party's go-to for "alpha strike" is - do your best to hinder that for one round.

 

[discosoc]

Which is why, worst comes to worst, you have to make that Lair action on Init 20 really count. Whatever the party's go-to for "alpha strike" is - do your best to hinder that for one round.

I still can't imagine a party getting an "alpha strike" on something that actually has lair actions.

 

[Jaelommiss]

When the mummy lord has animate dead, why is it ever alone? Surely your party isn't the first group of explorers to try pilfering this tomb. A half dozen zombies blocking the paladin should buy at least a round, especially if they are armoured.

For consideration, look at the Diderius, the mummy lord from Rise of Tiamat (page 45). When my players tried to open the sarcophagus, Diderius cast cloudkill and fireshield. When they finally got it open, the green toxic cloud was released, blocking line of sight and dealing decent damage to the party. Fireshield granted him resistance to fire damage and would have harmed anyone foolish enough to try stabbing him. Even hitting him would be a problem with shield boosting his AC to 22. They decided to run. I probably won't ever be using the spells that the MM mummy lord has.

 

[n0nym]

I'll look into this Diderius. The idea of having him cast spells while the PC try to open the sarcophagus is nice, I'll probably do that. I can't wait to see their faces when bugs start crawling and flying out of the sarcophagus and filling the room while a humanoid form slowly appears behind them (Whirlwind of Sand).

It really bothers me that Insect Plague hurts the Lord since it makes the spell virtually unusable (Shadows would all die instantly to it and regular mummies in 2 or 3 turns), but I'll probably rule that the monsters (or Barbarian) damage immunity / resistance to piercing apply against it and up the CR / XP reward of the monster.

And about treasures, any ideas ? I was thinking of some kind of electrum plated mask or egyptian(ish) collar, maybe a steel khopesh or a magical staff. Dunno about the powers though...

 

[Zaruthustran]

If it bothers you, just have the Mummy's DR apply to any nonmagical Piercing damage, regardless if that comes from biting insects summoned with a spell, biting insects encountered in the wild, or some hapless tomb robber's bronze dagger.

That is an interesting rules tangent though: do the "weapons" (such as bite and claw) of summoned monsters count as magical for purposes of overcoming DR? Bite and claw attacks are "melee weapon attacks", and therefore are clearly weapons. But do the "fey spirits" that take the form of animals in the Conjure Animals spell count as magical? Using the reasoning in post 2, above, whatever damage they cause is, ultimately, from a spell... so from a certain point of view, their damage isn't even "weapon damage."

Personally: Insect Plague summons insects. The insects bite. That sounds like bite-damage, not spell-damage. So apply the DR.

 

[discosoc]

If it bothers you, just have the Mummy's DR apply to any nonmagical Piercing damage, regardless if that comes from biting insects summoned with a spell, biting insects encountered in the wild, or some hapless tomb robber's bronze dagger.

That is an interesting rules tangent though: do the "weapons" (such as bite and claw) of summoned monsters count as magical for purposes of overcoming DR? Bite and claw attacks are "melee weapon attacks", and therefore are clearly weapons. But do the "fey spirits" that take the form of animals in the Conjure Animals spell count as magical? Using the reasoning in post 2, above, whatever damage they cause is, ultimately, from a spell... so from a certain point of view, their damage isn't even "weapon damage."

Personally: Insect Plague summons insects. The insects bite. That sounds like bite-damage, not spell-damage. So apply the DR.

I think it would be up to the DM, like normal, but my view is a spell that's summoning specific creatures that are taking part in combat using stat blocks and initiative and whatnot, would have the ability to bypass resistances only if that particular statblock mentions it.

In the case of Insect Plague, you're really not summoning a monster with a stat block; you're creating a spell effect that's themed like a swarm of insects. That's just my personal interpretation, however.

 

[Zaruthustran]

Totally reasonable conclusion! Was just speculating on the rules esoterica, for fun.

One of the things I love about 5E is that the designers were specific enough, and no more than enough. There's no attempt to have everything super-consistent across every cross-checked circumstance. That whole "rulings not rules" vibe.

This Mummy Rot thread is a perfect example. So many interpretations, all reasonably valid. With the best interpretation being, "whichever results in the most fun for everyone at the table--including the DM."

 

[Kalshane]

I'd allow the Mummy Lord to be immune to Insect Plague simply because the spell seems appropriately thematic. If the party can focus-fire on the ML, especially with actual fire attacks, he's going to drop in short order anyway.