Is this too much for 6 level 4's? (Estimated 8 CR)

[Duboris]

My group is going to be asked by a Adult Green Dragon to go into the nearby abandoned mine shaft and receive a gem for his hoard as a cost for him not eating them. At the end of all the perils that this place holds, there is a rather large, old, rusty clockwork machine at the bottom of the shaft which has lied dormant for centuries.

This machine is actually an age-old construct that's sole purpose was the harvesting of precious metals and gems, namely diamonds. While it was crude and inaffective at it's job, it did manage to find one beauty, a diamond easily worth 75,000 gold on any market. The group notices that this diamond was clutched in the clockwork's right hand, which a strength check is required to dislodge.

Upon dislodging the diamond, or dealing damage to the construct, it immediately whirs to life, ready to crush the potential thieves.

There are 6 level 4's in my PC group, containing 1 Wizard, 1 Cleric, 1 Tank fighter, 1 Two handed Fighter, 1 Ranger, and 1 druid.

Is a CR 8 too much to throw at these people?


XP 6,200
N Large construct (clockwork)
Init +6; Senses darkvision 120 ft., low-light vision; Perception -5

DEFENSE

AC 17, touch 10, flat-footed 15
hp 7d10+30 92
Fort +2, Ref +3, Will -2
DR 5/adamantine, Electricity; Immune construct traits
Weaknesses vulnerable to electricity

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft. Burrow 40 ft
Melee 2d6+10 plus grab (It only slams with 1 hand)
Special Attacks Grinding Rush

STATISTICS

Str 30, Dex 10, Con —, Int —, Wis 1, Cha 1
Base Atk +15; CMB +17 (+4 grapple); CMD 29 (33 vs grapple)
Feats Improved InitiativeB, Lightning ReflexesB

Grinding Rush

A charge attack performed by the earth mover with it's grinding arm at full speed. Allows a reflex save to negate all damage. (DC 16) Does not provoke an attack of opportunity.

Magic Affinity

Because of a Clockwork Earthbreaker's tendency to seek out magical gems in the earth, it has a special tendency to proceed directly toward a source of magic, making spellcasters a prime target. If a magic of any sort is cast in the 150 foot radius of a Clockwork Earthmover, it will likely grinding rush toward said caster.

Self Destruction
When a Clockwork Earth Mover is reduced to 10% or less of it's total hit points (In this case an hp of 9) it starts to jitter, and sort of seize as it moves, making spasms and screeching loudly. 2 turns after it begins, it will explode violently, doing 3d6 slashing damage to everything within 20 feet of it. If it destroyed in that time, it simply sits there, and explodes without the warning, provided you do more than 10% of it's health before it has time to seize.

The Effects of Using Knowledge's

When first meeting a Dormant Clockwork Earthmover, a Knowledge 17 History or Engineering check will tell you that these great machines were both lousy at their jobs, but not lacking in raw industrial power. They Seeked priceless gems out of everything for their magical uses, and simply honed in on their presence.

A knowledge 21 in Engineering (Not History) will tell you that Clockwork Earthmover's could sense magical gems within 150 feet of them with the most minute bits of magic. A mage casting a spell, due to it's lack of intelligence, would be considered a massive gem to it, in which case it would attempt to "mine" that mage in a rather bloody spectacle.

A knowledge 24 Engineering before the fight will tell you that this Clockwork earth mover in particular is very, very old, and very, very volatile. Not only does it believe that you are thieves, it also is prone to exploding when dealt enough damage.

While a clockwork Earthmover is Spasming, a Knowledge 16 Engineering will tell you that it's about to explode, otherwise, if you get it wrong, you'll be told that it is merely shrieking from it's extensive damage.

[Malroth]

DR does not normally have any meaning for non-physical magic damage, if it resists damage from any elemental type it should be noted to do so.

As for Dificulty, its just at the very edge of managable if the party is fresh, Its AC is horrbly bad for something of its CR but it has nice HP totals and good immunities, There's a few standard mage tricks however that would shut it down 100% with no save so don't be too upset if the players manage to just happen to have the perfect kryptonite for it.


Also be prepared for the completely obvious stratagey of luring it to the dragon, its immune to the dragon's breath, many many common sorcorer spells and can possibly win the grapple off a burrowing ambush keeping the dragon pinned.

[AntiTrust]

Was your goal with magical affinity to have it target spellcasters? Because the way its worded it'll go after anything magical and I'll bet your melee fighters have magic on them as well. You may want to change your wording around to better reflect that.

[Kelb_Panthera]

With the stats you've posted I don't really see a problem as long as the tank ends up being the one grappled, presumably he has the highest hp total of the group and should be able to survive a couple of rounds in its grasp. If that's not true or it manages to grab somebody else, you'll probably have to res' somebody afterwards, but it'll still probably go down.

[hoverfrog]

It doesn't have any intelligence at all. Presumably then it is only following a set of commands: dig, build earth wall, find magic gems. A clever party would see that it rushes towards spell casters and set up an fun ping pong game where it charges stupidly between two of them while the meat shields attack it on the flanks with attacks of opportunity. That's what I'd do.

If they take it head on then they might be in trouble.

[nedz]

I don't understand how it is resistant to electricity and also vulnerable to it ?

Some level 4 parties could handle this, others would fail badly. It depends upon how competent your players are. The fact that you are asking this question indicates that you probably have doubts, but really you are the best only person who can answer this question.

[Duboris]

The terrain during this fight consists of a lengthy hallway, a cliff that goes down about 60 feet, and multiple emergency doors that close in a total of 3 rounds.

The cliff is meant for them to sort of stand near it, have it rush at them, and fly off the edge and take falling damage. After that, it'll shut off for a second, as if staggered. The team will think that it's been done in, at which point it'll burst out of the ground underneath their feet doing about 2d6+17 damage with the intended reflex save from grinding rush.

At that point, the terrain either demands them go to the thinner bits of upper land where they could shoot from above, or cast magic where it can't move properly.

The other option is to trigger the emergency doors to close, and catch it in one of them, crushing it's digging arm and removing it's ability to rush.

Crushing it in another one will actually immobilize it, but it still has a reach of 10 ft, and will smack anyone that gets close to it. If they leave it be at that point, It'll somehow burst out of the ground one last time, although slowly with an easy reflex save (12) and fight them on a small platform, but I don't see them leaving it be.

Upon it's destruction it drops the diamond, and it's eye falls out, which tells them a pretty decent video story about who was the last person in here, and why it went on standby, setting up another round of plot hooks.

It also explodes after 2 rounds, doing 3d6 damage to everyone around it with slashing damage.

[laeZ1]

"I'm predicting what my players will do down to specifics."

Alright, so I paraphrased, but I just wanted to put in my two cents.

Cent #1: I don't know about your experience, or anybody else's here, but in my experience, as both a DM and a player, players rarely do what their DM's expect them to (unless railroaded).

Cent #2: Good luck, and let us know how it turned out!

[Duboris]

Alright, so I paraphrased, but I just wanted to put in my two cents.

Cent #1: I don't know about your experience, or anybody else's here, but in my experience, as both a DM and a player, players rarely do what their DM's expect them to (unless railroaded).

Cent #2: Good luck, and let us know how it turned out!

That's not everything that's been thrown in. It's just potentially what they're capable of doing. There's Cliffs, the doors, tons of pit-falls, a potential thing where it just chases them, a furnace, and a long, narrow path that the earthmover can't even go in.

At the end of the day though, they *need* that diamond.

[nedz]

I had visions of this thing chasing them around a mine, which would make for a tense encounter lasting many rounds as the PC hide from it.

[Duboris]

I had visions of this thing chasing them around a mine, which would make for a tense encounter lasting many rounds as the PC hide from it.

That's a potential idea yes. The only magical thing they have is a handy haversack, and that wouldn't exactly ping on the earthmover's radar.

A mere Cantrip would, however.

[blazinghand]

It really depends what your PCs do and in particular how your spellcasters operate. Since it's got a low AC but lots of HP and DR, it could make for an entertaining slugfest with the melee types. With its high attack bonus and damage though, I suspect the easiest way to defeat it would be with Grease or some other trickery, so be prepared for that.

Overall, this looks like a well-prepared experienced party would have a fair shot of defeating it. It's relatively slow so there's no danger of TPK and the party has a powerful dragon ally so they can always retreat and come back with help. If they beat it on the first try, it'll likely be due to some weird lateral thinking.

[tyckspoon]

At the end of the day though, they *need* that diamond.

Out of curiousity, have they been *told* there's a valuable gem there, or does one of the party members have appropriate skills to recognize it when they see it? I would assume this mining machine did not cut and polish the gem, and a raw gemstone doesn't look very much like a finished one.. especially if it hasn't been cleaned up and had the surrounding rock/dust/rust/etc taken off.

[Duboris]

It really depends what your PCs do and in particular how your spellcasters operate. Since it's got a low AC but lots of HP and DR, it could make for an entertaining slugfest with the melee types. With its high attack bonus and damage though, I suspect the easiest way to defeat it would be with Grease or some other trickery, so be prepared for that.

Overall, this looks like a well-prepared experienced party would have a fair shot of defeating it. It's relatively slow so there's no danger of TPK and the party has a powerful dragon ally so they can always retreat and come back with help. If they beat it on the first try, it'll likely be due to some weird lateral thinking.

The dragon is by no means an ally. It just wants a big-ass diamond, and is willing to not eat them if they can bring one back. If they come back without it, it's probably just going to kill them.

Besides, it can't exactly fit in this place.

Also, as a rule of thumb, I've pretty much told the group (Well, not told, exactly, but they learned the hard way) that casting grease on clockworks is the equivalent of casting haste on them. They still have to deal with the acrobatics checks, mind you, but this thing can just be like "**** it, I'm going to burrow" and then immediately pop back up and do 2 standard slams.

They've also been told of the "possibility" of gemstones in the abandoned mines. As for appraisel, yes, the rogue/fighter is good at that.

[blazinghand]

The dragon is by no means an ally. It just wants a big-ass diamond, and is willing to not eat them if they can bring one back. If they come back without it, it's probably just going to kill them.

Besides, it can't exactly fit in this place.

Also, as a rule of thumb, I've pretty much told the group (Well, not told, exactly, but they learned the hard way) that casting grease on clockworks is the equivalent of casting haste on them. They still have to deal with the acrobatics checks, mind you, but this thing can just be like "**** it, I'm going to burrow" and then immediately pop back up and do 2 standard slams.

They might still try to lead the machine back to the Dragon anyways, hoping the Dragon will effortlessly crush it and take the Diamond as tribute, sparing their puny lives. Of course, if they can perceive an easier way of killing it, I'm sure they will to avoid raising the Dragon's ire.

Grease is just one example of the trickery parties are capable of. Obscuring Mist, Levitate, trying to Shatter parts of the terrain, pulling the creature back into traps they avoided previously, bull-rushing it off cliffs or into lava pits, etc-- just be prepared for "weird" things to happen and have ways to counter them or for them to succeed in fun ways. If an encounter this hard is thrown at PCs, they think laterally.

I definitely can't know what they'll do (though you know their spells and resources) but I know they will want to avoid attacking it straight-on if they're not very strong and co-ordinated. Just be prepared.

[Duboris]

While I'm ready for a lot of things, the earthmover isn't capable of leaving the lowest floor of the abandoned facility, but the exit is quite a ways behind them through winding, potentially hazardous hallways.

[killem2]

I dunno, it looks like a melee magnet despite a lot of its non AC defenses, a normal cleric should be able to out heal its damage.

One get smack from a round of your melee and he could be in very big trouble, not to mention the wizard can kind of by pass some of its defenses.

have you tried to mock up battles with it yourself prior to your session? That's what I do. Every time. I only do it for big bosses or mini bosses because you don't want them walking over your creations TOO easy haha.

Plus if your party is lined up correctly, they could soak up some nice AOO as this thing charges for a caster.

[gr8artist]

They should be fine. You mentioned a rogue? Sneak attack affects constructs in PF. The group seems pretty good on DPS, and they should land hits 40% of the time or more. They should be ok.