Prep for a battle against a Vampire and Hellknight

[nickl_2000]

So, I just found out that at some point my Oath of Glory Paladin (and party) will be facing off against a Hellknight and a Vampire. He needs something they have for character reasons. I assume that this is still far away since the character is only level 5 right now. Since this encounter is fated for plot reasons, what would you be watching out for and getting to prepare for the encounter in the future? (Open Hand Monk, Mastermind Rogue/Fighter, Cleric 1/Evocation Wizard X is the rest of the party).

I mean outside of a Holy Avenger weapon because all Paladins want one of those!

Charisma is already boosted for the saving throw bonuses.

[Unoriginal]

So, I just found out that at some point my Oath of Glory Paladin (and party) will be facing off against a Hellknight and a Vampire. He needs something they have for character reasons. I assume that this is still far away since the character is only level 5 right now. Since this encounter is fated for plot reasons, what would you be watching out for and getting to prepare for the encounter in the future? (Open Hand Monk, Mastermind Rogue/Fighter, Cleric 1/Evocation Wizard X is the rest of the party).

I mean outside of a Holy Avenger weapon because all Paladins want one of those!

Charisma is already boosted for the saving throw bonuses.

Six questions:

1) Do you have to fight both at once?

2) When you say "Hellknight", do you mean an evil Paladin of Conquest, a Narzugon Devil, or something else like an heavily armored Warlock?

3) Do you know if they're "standard" example of their statblocks, or if they're more powerful or simply different versions? A Barbarian Vampire would be a pretty different encounter than a MM Vampire.

4) Do they have minions and are they likely to use them against you?

5) Do you know if they have any magic item or the like?

6) What are the chances that you get to pick where the fight happens?

[Dungeon-noob]

This is a hard one to answer, mostly because we're short on info. Vampires can be a lot of things, spellcasters, martials, everything in between. And i can't quickly find what a hellknight is. So unless you can provide a bit more information, i'm going to have to go with: bring enough radiant damage, try to get sunlight into the mix, and protection from evil is a pretty good defensive spell for a level 1. Oh and be very carefull with trying to inflict conditions, they're likely to sport an immunity or two.

[nickl_2000]

Five questions:

1) Do you have to fight both at once?

2) When you say "Hellknight", do you mean an evil Paladin of Conquest, a Narzugon Devil, or something else like an heavily armored Warlock?

3) Do you know if they're "standard" example of their statblocks, or if they're more powerful or simply different versions? A Barbarian Vampire would be a pretty different encounter than a MM Vampire.

4) Do they have minions and are they likely to use them against you?

5) Do you know if they have any magic item or the like?

I don't know a whole lot yet, but will be trying to find out more IC. So, if you have thoughts on other things I should find out I'm open to that. I've been given names of the NPCs (which are omitted on purpose due to trying to avoid spoilers of the campaign). I would assume that they have magic items, but it would be good to find out what. As for minions, I'm going to answer yes on this one.

I know that they are powerful enough to have stolen an orb of dragonkind shard in the form of a necklace from the Hawkwinter family in Waterdeep, and believe that they can re-activate the shard again. This is all part of Mad Mage, so please avoid spoilers.

This has been set up as the end of a character arc for my Paladin in a campaign that will be going to level 20, so I have to assume that they will not be "normal" NPCs, but legendary ones.


I'm looking for thoughts on magic items and other things that may be effective that I can look to buy over the long term for this character. DM does allow purchasing of magic items.

[MrStabby]

Been a while since I fought a vampire, but I think I had a ring of free action that was incredibly useful for avoiding their bite.

But generally, I think that you might want to focus on the strategic level first. You will want access to some divination magic (or equivalent) to find the vampire and knight, to learn a bit more about their special abilities and equipment. History checks might be good here "do I know of any records where people fought these adversaries before? How did they survive?".

There are going to be some aspects of the vampire that are likely to remain. Regeneration, sunlight sensitivity... I think vampires are at their most powerful when they are doing hit and run attacks against the party and using mistform and spider climb to get away and heal. I would recommend your party focus on stopping this... thankfully a monk will tend to do this quite nicely.

What would terrify me is if the vampire had a bundle of warlock levels (in league with a hellknight sounds like an infernal connection). Short rest hit and run with some decent enough long range spellcasting can make them attrition a lot of resources. Either way, party making sure they have access to very efficient healing will help. Spells to shut down mobility will help. Sunlight is obviously a great tool and you want to pick up...