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Author
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Comment
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Roland Delacroix
Pie
(11/18/02 3:04:59 pm)
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South gate help
I would like some advice for my players asault on the South gate. Previouslly, I had driven the party to the West gate by haing a pair of giants standing outside the south gate throwing bowls. The party noticed the pile of 'superbly balanced' boulders the giants played with. They still considered assaulting it, but right then a large gargoyle strolled out the gate for a smoke. They crapt away to the West gate.
They assaulted the West gate sucessfully, delved a little south to the Basilisk and retreated to kelvin after the cleric got turned to stone.
Fearing a complete re-stock at the West gate they assaulted the South gate this time. The problem is i was pretty un-prepared for this. The Ogres, humans and Gnolls got mopped up quick. Kellial did some major damage but got dropped, and Choranth fled to get Fachish. The party looted and moved on to rooms 78, then back to 81 to re-group. Right then (about 5 min after the main melee was over) Choranth came back with a full-buffed Fachish, a summoned Dire Badger, and the large Air Elemental from the censor. And thats where we left off.
What i'm worried about is that this battle will seem like just a smal speed bump for my 7th level party. The South Gate was supposed to be tough, but I think i screwed it up by being unprepared. Fachish seemed to far away to get involved, and when I scanned the text his response wasn't mentioned. In summary; i'm looking for a way to make this the bad-ass battle it was supposed to be, but without just throwing on levels or more monsters. The last thing my party needs is more XP since they haven't failed a single level-drain attack. Any advice is welcome, thanks.
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Roland Delacroix
Pie
(11/18/02 3:08:50 pm)
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Oh yeah...
One of the things i'm considering is altering Fachish's sub-optimal feats. Basically exchange them for Malign Spell Focus and Violate Spell. Also adding a few HP to them.
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ronin
Pie
(11/18/02 5:05:13 pm)
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air battle
Alright, lets put some hurting on these PCs!! Just kidding there you know. Lets see what sort of tactics we can come up with for the Air Temple.
1. First off Andorax's idea of using a silenced air elemental on a party is very good, talk about a mage killer.
2. You could pull some re-enforcements from 71 and 72 but these probably wont mean a whole lot since they are all low level.
3. I would try and draw the party into the temple area for the battle. You could use the option 2 forces for this, perhaps having them shoot arrows at the party from a distance and falling back as needed. Just watch out for the ascending stairs leading to area 73 to be sure the archers have a clear shot at the group.
4. The reason to get the group into the temple area is the freedom of movement effect from the unhallow spell. After reading the spell last game I thought about using a silence spell in the Tabernacle of Utter Darkness (inner fane) for the spell effect tied to the unhallow.
This would work well in the Air Temple so the clerics could cast spells and the PCs could not if you chose to silence casters of other faiths than those of the EEE. I dont know if this would silence a mage or not, that would be your call.
Another spell of choice could be dispel magic but that would require alot of extra die rolls for dispelling the magic of the PCs so you may not want to hassle with that option. I also am unsure if it would work like an area dispel or a targeted dispel on each PC. I havent had this happen yet in a game and I just thought of the idea so I'd have to think about that part some more.
5. You could have Facish cast a lesser planar ally spell. He could offer a choice magic item from a PC or something similar. Adding a 8 HD creature to the battle should help a bit.
6. The last option could be a message to the gargoyles in area 85 offering an alliance of sorts. They help the Air Temple squash this little threat and in return they can choose some of the PCs choice items. You could even try to sweeten the deal by offering them some prisoners for their arena. If this works then you have to decide how many gargoyles you want to use. Of course this depends on the power of your party.
I think thats about all I can think of at the moment. I am sure someone will come along with some more ideas though. Thats one of the best things about this board to be honest.
Hope this helps you some. Let us know how it turns out for your players.
ronin
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Andorax
Orc
(11/19/02 7:48:19 am)
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Re: air battle
If you're sending word to the Gargoyles, send word to the Cloakers as well, they're supposed to be Air Temple allies.
No need to offer the Gargoyles the world...just let them know that there's some annoying intruders, and that the three of them might be able to capture several new prisoners for the pits, but only if they hurry.
"Whadda ya mean, Orcs get levels too?!?" |
Roland Delacroix
Pie
(11/19/02 10:02:02 am)
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Re: the cavalry
The Mage player can't make it next game, so all the party has is a Paladin7 (mostly fallen), Fighter7, Cleric6, and a Bard5.
Ok, i'm gonna use the mooks from 71 and 72 to soak up hits.
Fachish has summoned this badger before. Players have the option of using the 'summon individual monsters' variant rule IMC. So, Fachish has done this in the past, providing his badger with masterwork plate (maybe made from some material too, Mithril or Adamantite?). He did this using Lesser Planar Ally in the past. This works well because I have the Chainmail mini of a Dire Badger in plate. 
Suckering the PC's into the temple might work, but Fachish doesn't wan't them to think they can just waltz in the gate. He thinks if he doesn't repell them there they might try sneaking in again when his back is turned. As such, he doesn't want to give them a chance to get away. He will probably flee there and re-group if the evil party falls below 1/2 strength.
I like the Lesser Planar Ally idea. Any suggestions as to what Fachish would summon? The nastier the better.
The PC's are in the main gate area and one is in room 78 so any messanger sent to the gargoyles will be seen, probably killed quick. It doesn't look like Fachish has any message magic either, oh well.
So, the 4 should be hit with a buffed Fachish, buffed Choranth, buffed Dire badger, 6 bowmen supporting frim the rear, 4 gnolls there to provide flank (and lull the fighter into a false sense of security), as well as an 8HD planar ally TBA. Ya think that will be enough to drive them away? My players are quite wily and lucky.
As a final note; i'm not worried in the least about a few PC deaths, or even a TPK. As I mentioned earlier they were warned quite obviouslly that the South gate was going to be horribly difficult. Several of the players mentioned this and didn't even want to come here. It was the Fighter (who, BTW, refuses to ressurect anyone. She didnt even want the Dwarf Stone-to-Fleshed. She says 'Why bother when its so much easier to just make a new character?') who convinced the group to try this gate.
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Roland Delacroix
Pie
(11/19/02 11:23:11 am)
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LPA idea
For Fachish's Lesser Planar Ally, im considering having him summon a Sharn (from monsters of faerun) with 4 more levels of Sorcerer (making him cast as a Sorc11/Cleric5) and adding the Pseudonatural template. The Pseu. template is merely to make him an Outsider, since the Sharns natural abilities are much better than the template.
Instead of the sorcerer levels, what do you think about Telepath levels instead? So the Sharn would have 4 levels of Telepath yet manifest as a telepath11/Cleric5?
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Andorax
Orc
(11/19/02 11:36:58 am)
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Re: LPA idea
Personally, I'd recommend an Invisible Stalker, a Belkier, or a Breathdrinker (MM2).
"Whadda ya mean, Orcs get levels too?!?" |
Roland Delacroix
Pie
(11/19/02 10:58:48 pm)
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Thanks Andorax
You are completely right. I forgot that this IS the Air temple after all. I'll save the essense-of-chaos Sharn and the Pseudonatural stuff for the Inner Fane.
I've decided to go with the Breathdrinker. Its strange and new, so the players will get a kick out of that. The Fear Gaze also gives my (partially fallen) paladin a chance to use his class ability Aura of Courage, newly granted again by Heronious since the paladin has been proving his worth of late. That should make for a very cool scene (with luck).
A summoned Air creature will add alot to the background. My players just put together that the West gate was Earth, and this is Air, Hey! There must be a Fire and Water temple somehwere! They were talking about how they must not be friendly when Fachish showed up.
Again, thanks everyone for the help, any more comments are welcome. This is a great module, but all the help here makes it one of the most awesome campaigns ever.
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