I Smell a Rat impossible to beat [spoilers]

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by zuljita

So we handled it with 3 at about 270 by doing the following:
Wizard cast blur on the barbarian who held the front row, then cast clumsiness on the peshkali. With -8 to hit the barbarian, (who had very rapid healing and 20 HP) the peshkali didn't hit that often after the first spell and almost never after the second. The cleric used every type of healing spell to keep the barb up (always starting with stop bleeding) and it just became a winnable slog.

That's one way... though if we're your GM and you weren't a gaggle of newbs, that Cleric would have been under immediate duress, followed by the Wizard... and then the Barbarian slowly dies or runs like his life depends on it.

Only reason for the Peshkali to fight dumb is if the PCs can't handle it, and you want to go easy on them.

[zuljita]

The door into the peshkali room is only one hex wide, hold out and you get to pick who gets hit with the blender.

[LokRobster]

My PC group totally got lucky on the Peshkali. I was eyeing the stats on that thing and was pretty worried how it would come out.

I was sure that they were doomed when the melee tank immediately rushed in to engage instead of allowing the scout score some eyeball shots...

The Cleric crit'd his Lore roll and the Knight that charged in like an insane person and crit'd a Shield Slam roll, and the monster crit failed a Defense.

Give a six-attack critter a turn on the ground and things get a lot easier for our heroes!

[Anthony]

The peshkali isn't terribly good at resisting spells (Will 14, HT 12, SM +0) so if you've got a severely hindering or incapacitating resisted spell it can be taken down fairly fast.

[tbone]

Originally Posted by LokRobster

The Cleric crit'd his Lore roll. . . .

Out of curiosity, did that yield any special problem (like false info from the GM), or just a lack of helpful info?

[Þorkell]

Originally Posted by tbone

Out of curiosity, did that yield any special problem (like false info from the GM), or just a lack of helpful info?

I think that was a critical success...

[tbone]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

I think that was a critical success...

Ah, yeah. Not sure why I read that as the opposite. Thanks.

(Hm, what would be some good false info to give a PC who fails a Hidden Lore (Demons) roll in a peshkali encounter? "The arms are invulnerable. You must cut off the tail.")

[Dalin]

Originally Posted by tbone

(Hm, what would be some good false info to give a PC who fails a Hidden Lore (Demons) roll in a peshkali encounter? "The arms are invulnerable. You must cut off the tail.")

• The Peshkali is vulnerable to crushing attacks.
• They must be grappled into submission.
• The swords are illusions; simply disbelieve and you will not be harmed.

[Anthony]

If you cut off a peshkali's arms, it grows two new arms in their place (and the hydrakali is a perfectly reasonable thing to throw at more advanced delvers).

[LordMunchkin]

A knight with broadsword-20, enhanced parry 3, weapon master, and a large shield standing in a doorway should be able to beat a peskkali. Add in DR 7 for the torso (heavy cloth + segmented plate + armor master) and the knight has even better odds. Some buffs from the casters in the party wouldn't hurt either.

Even with the above, it's still a challenging fight. It'd be much more certain if the whole party could melee the demon at once. This is risky because the demon could very easily disable each opponent the moment said opponent reaches the demon. It's skilled and hits hard enough that even dedicated fighters could be put into the negatives in a single strike.

Magic is another option. Something that it can only resist with HT may be the best tactic.