RangerWickett
Legend
The plan is for Stanfield to be a 'final boss' in adventure 9, so he's one of the very few individuals in the setting who's reached 20th level. (Opening the Axis Seal will release a flood of energy that will let many more people achieve that power.) They'll confront him as he's overseeing the activation of a Wayfarer Lighthouse in the Ayres while simultaneously the Ob on Axis Island are opening the seal. Stars fall from the sky, literally impacting the surface of the world like burning white meteors.
I'm thinking of making Stanfield a 22nd level solo, with three stages of tactics.
First would be sending minions at the group as he conjures manifest zones of deadly planes. Then once he takes some damage, he starts calling forth manifestations of his former lifetimes to clog the battlefield and defend him, showing that he has been many things throughout his life. One of those manifestations, however, was a poet, and does not approve of what he has become; he will try to tell the party how to kill him.
After dealing enough damage to take out a normal elite, though, Stanfield goes down. The party has a few moments to try to deactivate the eldritch machine built into the lighthouse, and then Stanfield returns as a rakshasa. (This element will be quietly foreshadowed in adventure 8, and hints of it go back to the Cauldron Hill vision back in adventure 2.) At this point the battle turns ridiculously destructive as Stanfield's attacks crack the walls of the lighthouse and start to bring the whole place down. And Stanfield can only be killed by striking him with a falling star, our own personal version of the traditional Blessed Crossbow Bolt.
As for his Bluff skill? The centuries-old politician who is a key component of a massive international conspiracy? Yeah, let's say +31. (Math-wise, that's +11 level, +5 trained, +3 skill focus, +7 for a 24 Charisma, and a +5 magical perk for being an Obscurati cell leader.) And he can add +1d6 with Memory of a Thousand Lifetimes when he really needs to. For his carefully rehearsed lies, assume he can Take 10, which puts you at DC 41.
He certainly has soldiers he can call upon as governor. The writing will be on the wall by that point -- the King himself knows about the Cauldron Hill facility, so the only real question is can the colossus be ready in time. And the answer is no, because they haven't been able to restore its memories. That said, the Ob all assume they can rebuff an attack by the party and hold out for at least a week against a siege, which will give them time to come up with . . . well, it wouldn't be quite fair to call it a contingency plan. More like 'damage control option list. If they have enough time, they'll figure out a way to remove the colossus and just let it roam the Bleak Gate, figuring that's preferable to letting the King of Risur capture it. But PCs are resourceful, and even if they get stuck, Tinker Oddcog helps them out.
I'm thinking of making Stanfield a 22nd level solo, with three stages of tactics.
First would be sending minions at the group as he conjures manifest zones of deadly planes. Then once he takes some damage, he starts calling forth manifestations of his former lifetimes to clog the battlefield and defend him, showing that he has been many things throughout his life. One of those manifestations, however, was a poet, and does not approve of what he has become; he will try to tell the party how to kill him.
After dealing enough damage to take out a normal elite, though, Stanfield goes down. The party has a few moments to try to deactivate the eldritch machine built into the lighthouse, and then Stanfield returns as a rakshasa. (This element will be quietly foreshadowed in adventure 8, and hints of it go back to the Cauldron Hill vision back in adventure 2.) At this point the battle turns ridiculously destructive as Stanfield's attacks crack the walls of the lighthouse and start to bring the whole place down. And Stanfield can only be killed by striking him with a falling star, our own personal version of the traditional Blessed Crossbow Bolt.
As for his Bluff skill? The centuries-old politician who is a key component of a massive international conspiracy? Yeah, let's say +31. (Math-wise, that's +11 level, +5 trained, +3 skill focus, +7 for a 24 Charisma, and a +5 magical perk for being an Obscurati cell leader.) And he can add +1d6 with Memory of a Thousand Lifetimes when he really needs to. For his carefully rehearsed lies, assume he can Take 10, which puts you at DC 41.
He certainly has soldiers he can call upon as governor. The writing will be on the wall by that point -- the King himself knows about the Cauldron Hill facility, so the only real question is can the colossus be ready in time. And the answer is no, because they haven't been able to restore its memories. That said, the Ob all assume they can rebuff an attack by the party and hold out for at least a week against a siege, which will give them time to come up with . . . well, it wouldn't be quite fair to call it a contingency plan. More like 'damage control option list. If they have enough time, they'll figure out a way to remove the colossus and just let it roam the Bleak Gate, figuring that's preferable to letting the King of Risur capture it. But PCs are resourceful, and even if they get stuck, Tinker Oddcog helps them out.