Test Your Might Epic Soundstage Z

[Ixahinon]

Nono...not the X-ray spell of power...that's fine. I'm talking about Greater Seeking Ray. Infinent 9th level spells, ranged touch, can't hide from it (concealment doesn't help), and 11d6 damage.

Anyway...If you don't need SR to hit Sumulael, you get another 9th. Yay. Give me a moment to figure out what the hell to do now

[afroakuma]

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EDIT: I don't see how this is working...thse spell you created let's you see through 1 object, fog, person, whatever...there are two....so you either see through Solid fog, and thus reistablish your link with your 'Image that can never die,' or you do it on the Ice fog, and see Jakken and Sumulael.

The spell sheds what is essentially x-ray light, allowing the caster, for one round, to see through all matter and exclude a few things, such as living creatures. So she can use the spell to see through both fogs. However, if the solid fog broke her LoE, then project image should fail regardless.

If you are doing this...I had better see the ray...

As I said, the spell creates this effect for the caster only. There are drawbacks, including that it can't combine with true seeing.

and it is very, incredably broken.

Compared to seeking ray, it's a fairly marginal improvement. Would you prefer she went with streamers to slaughter your people for taking any action whatsoever? Because that's a legitimate spell.

[Keld Denar]

Fogs don't break Line of Effect. You can fire Area spells into them, or blindly fire Rays through them. The only thing they stop are Targeted spells, like Dominate Person, or Slow, or such.

SR check - (1d20+26)[37]

What's his SR?

[Ixahinon]

As I said, the spell creates this effect for the caster only. There are drawbacks, including that it can't combine with true seeing.

That just brings about even more questions...since my entire party is affected by Superior Invisibility..how does she see me without true seeing, regardless of if she can see through the fog? If she can see invisibility naturally...or through some way other than true seeing..I'd hardly call that a drawback.

But I digress, It is what it is. Yes, it bypasses SR.

Epia is going ot scour every five foot square of the room, moving down to B16, attempting to spot something the entire way.

Spoiler

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SpotCheck - (d20)[15] 66 Spot Check
(I think I can only move a half or quarter my movement speed when activly searching everything...so 60 divided by 4, or 2...which ever)

Christof remains where he is, feeling hopeless yet again.

Sumulael moves 5 feet up. (5 feet away from Cold Fog)

Jakken moves 5 feet Northeast, realizing that the solid fog did more damage than good...trying to navitage back to the image

[Keld Denar]

ok, so I just talked to Afroakuma, and it turns out I screwed something up. The spell I've been using to see through the fog doesn't work in conjunction with True Seeing, which means I've been unable to target your guys the last 2 rounds. How do you want to proceed? Its gonna take you a few rounds to find the reason she's got Line of Effect to the image, in which time I fully exect her to kill at least 2 of your characters. Then you actually have to fight HER, and not just the image, and that's a pretty scary through for your guys.

What do you want to do? Call it? Rewind the last 2 rounds? Your call. I messed up, sorry.

[Ixahinon]

I think we can just call it, if it's all the same. I wanted to do some fun things in the actual fight.

My most favorite being = Christof using Greater Divine Surge, along with 20 points of con to give him +20 more to hit, and an additoinal 40d8 points of damage, on top of a great deal more damage from other things.. 2d6 from Mace, 5d6 Holy, 2d6 Undead, +32 from strength etc. (if it was undead)

But honestly..I was completely out of ideas at the end..my next move was to throw an Anti-magic field while standing next to the image, but I'd have no clue where to go from there...I had like...four plans coming into it

Plan A - Send Pixie in to scout with her +50 to Search/Spot/Listen/Hide/Move Silently checks...once threat was found, teleport rest of team in and beat down...didn't work

Plan B - Find and cast Baleful Transposition on, to bring enemy to us and kill...didn't work.

Plan C - Exaust enemy spells from behind wall, try to lure enemy behind wall/near wall to fight. Possibly Baleful Transposition between Pixie (High Reflex against wall) and enemy, so Enemy get's walls beatdown...didn't work.

I figured if I get you to fight me on my terms...my chances significantly improve...the aspect of an illusion threw me off course...

..would like to know where the line of effect was coming from, etc...just to know, of course. I also wouldn't mind being a DM to this on my own, if there is someone else challenging the ECL 20..just to see both sides.

And my caster's spells were poorly designed..Some crucial spells weren't picked (I don't know why I didn't have Mordikenin's Disjunction...I love that spell)...some high level spells were picked that have 10 minute casting times (I misread the casting times, sometimes I get all excited when reading the spell description..I forget all else...expecially with high level spells.)

Though in hind sight..I should have used buff time at the start for 10 minutes...would have summoned two Maruts that would last for an hour, and (hopefully) drawn some of the attention away from me.

[Ixahinon]

Oh...and each of my characters had access to Time Stop in some form or another..most of them via Time Buttress on their shields. With Haste on..they Time Stop/Standard Attack, then Next round they would full round attack/Standard Attack. Time Stop would end..next person would go...they'd Time Stop/Standard Attack, full round attack/Standard Attack..and continue.

If the Villian was a lich...killing you would have been easy, I believe. In fact, I feared the Dreath Wrathes more than the lich, at the start. (Con Damage is not something to triffle with) But...as with everything...you have to find something in order to kill it...

[Keld Denar]

There was a small mirror on the north wall. It was hidden most of the time by the big Sphere in front of it. Its a Mirror of Mental Prowass, which allows the caster to essentially open a portal to interact with whats on the other side. So, she's up a floor in a room that can only be entered via Teleport projecting an image via the Project Image spell through the mirror. Any spells she casts can either origionate from her, or from the image. Spotting the mirror as part of the effect was a DC 30 spot check, not unreasonable for a level 20 character. Until then, you just get to mess with the image till it kills you or gets bored and crashes the meteor into the Prime.

So yea...my bad on that spell. Was going pretty good. The Superior Invis was really messin with me. I should have had it up as well, and I even talked to AA about it. That + Flight rendered all of my traps and minions pretty well moot. There was a Shadesteel Golem hangin around way over on the right side behind some books with a MASSIVE hide score, so I figured that was a non-event. It was mostly there to heal the DWs in case they got hurt.

EDIT: And yea, she was a lich. Not a normal lich, but still a lich. If Samulael could have gotten close to the real her, he probably could have dusted her with a Greater Turning.

And you know you can't actually do much during a Time Stop? You can't attack or do anything offensive.

[Ixahinon]

I should have seen the mirror countless times, then. My Pixie has +51 to Search/Spot checks...and was constatntly looking about, especially at the end. Hell..since I can't fail the check...merely just looking north should have revealed the mirror.

That golem could have been a party breaker alone. Immune to magic, hard hitting, etc. Without Superior Invisibility, I think that shadesteel would have been a tad difficult.

I was wondering if I was strong enough to turn the lich. Max I could turn was26HD. I think I had this fight in the bag.

Lastly, how can I teleport to the second floor, if I've never seen it? Don't you need at least vague knowledge of what the place you want to teleport to, looks like?

EDIT: I do now...another case of my saying AWESOME, and just taking it..and not reading...still useful though. to get un heals and what not

[Keld Denar]

I dunno, as far as running it again, half of the gimmick of the encounter is the Mirror and the Image. Once you know that, and how to neutralize it, it does get a lot easier. Just drop a wall of force behind the image to cut of LoE between it and the caster, go up to the mirror, walk through the mirror, and you skip the whole preamble to the fight.

Plus, it'll just turn into another shoot out of Chained GDM and Superior Invis to see who runs out of spells first.

That said, I should have gone with Greater Shadows instead of Dread Wraiths. Relying on a save is just too chancy. You only failed the first one on a roll of 1. The only issue with Greater Shadows is that they don't have Life Sense that DWs do, but thats all blocked by Superior Invis anyway...

EDIT: And I don't see how the Shadesteel Golem was a party breaker. Its a CR11, like each of the DWs. Together, 6 DWs and a Shadesteel Golem are just shy of EL17, which is 3 below your party level, to the point where I wouldn't even award experience for beating them, if they were the whole encounter. Having Prystele there made things a bit more difficult, but you pretty much neutralized everything but her anyway.

[Ixahinon]

yea my request to try it again was a bad one...there's just no way to run one without trying to keep what happened in the last one out of your mind.

I'm not trying to be an egoist here, or brag, boast, or just be an ass..but for me, it really does suck that my first ECL 20 encounter ever, that I had a really good chance of winning, and we don't even get to finish. Through no one's fault on their own, of course...mistakes were made on both ends...I'll live.

Maybe Afro's challange will continue, and there will be a sudden surplus of ECL20 attempts, and I can try to DM one..or, down the line, he makes another Test Your Might...I'll be there. It was fun regardless.

EDIT: Really? CR 11? I thought Shadesteel was one of the 'big 'uns.' Like Adamantine, Mithril, and the like. Huh..

Bad choice of words, I suppose. Meant to say the Shadesteel golem would be more of a problem then the rest...unable to turn it, I didn't have Disintigrate (I think my Orb of force would work...I remember reading some where that Orb spells actually hurt Golems...which is why a lot of people see them as broken), all i really had was Christof's 24 Strength, and Epia's Drumstick she called a Light Mace...at the very least...if I had to fight the golem..it would have forced me a lot of heal spells to keep the two up.