Hextor has fallen. Now I just have to make the stats. (Now Open to My Players)

[Lela]

I've found myself at the end of my first longterm campaign with a BBEG that needs fleshing out. Through a complicated web of plot lines and beginner DMing, my players are now ready to encounter Hextor himself. Fallen from deityhood and trapped on the Material Plane Hextor but Hextor nonetheless.

So, now I just need to finalize the stats and was hoping to get a little advice.

I decided to go with an evil version of the 3.0 Titan (pull out your MM guys, I'm not typing that whole beast up). At 25 ft tall, he's already too big for Forcecage but I might call him 28 to 35 ft for effect.

Looking for ideas on:

Equipment. I want it to be a good challange for the party (see composition below).



Spells to prepare. He'll, of course, be going with the Clerical spells (spells as 20th level Cleric) option in the Titan section. So far, I'm going with:

1st: Bane, Cure Light, Divine Favor, Endure Elements, Inflict Light Wounds, Protection from Good, Shield of Faith.

2nd: Aid, Bull's Strength, Cure Moderate, Inflict Moderate (2), Sound Burst, Spiritual Weapon.

3rd: Bestow Curse, Cure Serious, Inflict Serious, Prayer, Protectoin from Elements (2)

4th: Cure Critical Wounds, Death Ward, Divine Power, Inflict Critical Wounds, Poison, Spell Immunity.

5th: Dispel Good, Ethereal Jaunt*, Flame Stike, Rightious Might, Slay Living, True Seeing.

6th: Antilife Shell, Blade Barrier, Greater Dispelling (2), Heal.

7th: Control Weather**,Destruction (2), Greater Restoration, Summon Monster VII.

8th: Antimagic Field, Earthquake, Fire Storm (2), Unholy Aura.

9th: Energy Drain (2), Implosion (2), Soul Bind.

*He can pop out when he's low on HP and in need of healing.
**Not many good 7th level spells so this is great for effect. He is planning to open a portal to the Nine Hells, call it a spell componant. Or you could just call it seeking attention, either works. The point is that it looks cool.

Reasonable tactics. As the god of War (and Law) he's not gonna be a slouch. He'll also have friends. Plenty of Tanks, some flyers with a high AC, and a Devil or four for example.

I'm not looking for a TPK here. Four or Five deaths is enough . But a good, strong, fight is essential.

Party composition:





PCs:

• 17th level Druid (9th level spells suck for those guys).
• 15th Orog BBN/Exotic Weapon Master (+2 ECL, RoF). His former character was bludgened to death after betraying the party. I haven't yet seen this guy in action. Hextor won't plan for him but will for his old character, a 16th level Ftr.
• 25th level Custom Blackguard Centaur (10 Ftr, 15 Blk). Just traded his soul for 10 temporary levels. Reincarnate spell made him a Centaur a long time ago. Hextor will plan for him as a 15th Centaur Paladin.
• 16th level Pixie Bard. Reincarnate also put her together.

NPCs/Cohorts:

• 16th level Kobald Wizard named Yip. Cohort of above mentioned Blackguard (very much in love with him but he's not interested). Favorite spell: Forcecage.
• 15th level Fighter. Focus on claw bracers and threatens a crit from 5-20, though there isn't much more damage.
• Legendary Wolf (MoW). Animal companion to Druid. HP is through the roof.
• 4th (or so) Fighter Centaur. Was an Awakened animal companion wolf and then Reincarnated. He's going after Hextor out of revenge for his pack's slaughter (along with the Druid's family).
• 13th (or so) Rogue Vampire Halfling (that's Mr. Halfing to you). Cohort to the pixie.

[Party's favorite spell: Reincarnate. In case you were wondering. There have been 5 or 6 more uses of the spell than those listed here. Reincarnate time is everyone's favorite time.]



All together, counting the animal companion (hp shield if I ever saw one): 8 characters. I'm used to DMing around 14 but several players left. Easier but it kinda through off my understanding on a good CR for them.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Wow, that's a tricky one to judge. With all those odd races and mixed power levels...eeek. To be honest, that's way outside my level of expertise! Best of luck with it!

 

[arwink]

What kind of 3rd party sources are you looking at for spells/PrC etc?

And did the Blackguard know who he was trading his soul to? It'd kind of suck to get all that power, only to discover that you were selling to a proxy of the guy you're going to kill.

 

[Neverwinter Knight]

What about feats? The Deities & Demigods Hextor has combat feats that allow him to wield his six weapons accordingly (Improved and Greater Multiweapon Fighting). It's up to you if he can keep those feats, but a six-armed Hextor fighting only with two or so hands is pathetic...

This whole battle is probably going to end in hack n' slash anyway - there are only 2.5 spellcasters in the group (druid+wizard+bard=1+1+0.5 ), compared to the 6 fighting types. So his equipment should be combat related.

 

[Lela]

Tallarn: Note that they didn't get full MM stuff for the Reincarnated characters. Just physical ability modifications.


All splat books okay for feats and stuff. Plus FRC and SS. But let's keep it limited to those because I'm not completely familiar with every book I have.

Only two arms. He's lost a lot of power. As a 30 ft tall Titan he's still mighty fearsome.

I'm thinking of using the Forbbodence spell (PHB, SP?) to help push back people and let Hextor take them more slowly. Note that the LE Blackguard will still be able to close ranks without a problem. There will, of course, be plenty of followers. Some are bound to him and others hope to gain power by helping him. Several of those guys will intercept him and try to slow him down.

I may also want to add Spell Penitration stuff because, through odd mechanations, the Blackguard has SR 39 against divine spells.


Speaking of which, yes the player chose which deity he was going to go with. Tiamat to be exact. He liked the nobility she had and the fact that she wanted all other gods dead.

 

[Joachim]

Lela, I think that you have put yourself into a very bad situation here by allowing there to be one PC who vastly overpowers the others. You really cannot compare 17th level PC's and 25th level PC's (which, I assume does not include the ECL for being a centaur, effectively worsening the situation). Its not on the same level as, say 12th levels and 20th levels, but its not too far off, especially when dealing with components such as armor class and SR.

However, if you really want this guy to be scary, give him a garantuan +5 heavy flail of speed, Huge +5 full plate of heavy fortification, and a ring of freedom of movement. Take quicken spell and energy substitution (sonic or acid), power attack, and improved crit (heavy flail would crit on 17-20). I would memorize all quickened, energy substituted flame strikes for your 9th level slots. Then, cast quickened divine power/divine favor, and enter combat. You can beat the snot out of the blackguard in melee with power attack (statistically you should power attack up the point where you need a "12" on d20 to hit with your median attack bonus) while casting quickened flame strikes at his companions. Make sure you have a couple of clerics of Hextor nearby to keep casting 'heal' on him. Who needs instant death spells when you can do almost 300 points of damage per round in melee, plus an average of 60 or so with the acid strikes?

 

[Neverwinter Knight]

Can you please also describe the area where the fight is going to take place?

 

[Lela]

What the heck, I posted a big old post and it didn't come though. Dangit.

I'll just cover the finer points.

I'm thinking a very large platform with what would look like a Stargate on it. The fight would mostly take place on that or trying to get up onto it (say, 10 ft high? Could be annoying but won't kill anyone trying to get up). Hextor will be on it with the Forboddence spell up (I've decided to allow Greater Dispelling to get rid of it).

The other PCs aren't actually that unbalanced compared to him. I'll go into that again (lost it with vanishing post) tomarrow.

How much average damage would I loose if I dropped the Speed enhancement?

Will 5 Acid Strikes make that much of a difference, even quickened? I admit insta death is mostly unlikely to work but I could target Yip (Kobald Wizard) with one or two and be likely to get through. That would drop the gropu's effectivness a lot.

First draft writ-up will appear tomarrow. And someone poke gfunk.

 

[Joachim]

If you dropped the Speed part you would just lose one attack which would be upwards of 40 points of damage per round. You could pick up feats for the spiked chain and combat reflexes and have many attacks of opportunity with 30' reach . The quickened acid strikes are just there as supplemental, because for the most part you are going to want to stick to melee damage, and you can still get a full attack action.

 

[Lela]

If you dropped the Speed part you would just lose one attack which would be upwards of 40 points of damage per round. You could pick up feats for the spiked chain and combat reflexes and have many attacks of opportunity with 30' reach . The quickened acid strikes are just there as supplemental, because for the most part you are going to want to stick to melee damage, and you can still get a full attack action.

Makes sense. Maybe I'll keep one Implosion though and several Destructions (7th). Combat Reflexes, you're right, is a must.

I also think I'll give him free Weapon Focus and Specialization with the Heavy Flail along with Quick Draw (useable only with HF).