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Old 06-27-2019, 11:39 AM   #21
Bruno
 
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Default Re: I Smell a Rat impossible to beat [spoilers]

Lord Munchkin points out the essential flaw of "Peshkali murders everyone while knight helplessly chases it around" - why has everyone rushed in to the room? Dear god, it's a six armed demon, it looks like a living blender!

Find a choke point where your strongest defensive characters can block it off. If that means only one PC, stand in the doorway as Lord Munchkin suggests. The shield-wall's main job is to hold the Peshkali at bay while squishy-yet-effective PCs try to improve the situation somehow (pepper it with arrows in the arms, cast spells, try to exorcise it, whatever). and of course you don't turn your back on the thing. You can back down the hallway, that's legit.
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Old 06-27-2019, 11:45 AM   #22
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Default Re: I Smell a Rat impossible to beat [spoilers]

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Lord Munchkin points out the essential flaw of "Peshkali murders everyone while knight helplessly chases it around" - why has everyone rushed in to the room?
Because the corridor is limned with evil runes with an unknown reset time (neither the dungeon nor exploits gives rules for what happens if you just hang out in the middle of evil runes, but it seems like a bad idea). You could of course attempt one of the other exits to the room, but that will take extra time which the demon can use to blenderize you, and you have no information about what's behind any of the doors so it might be a seriously bad idea.
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Old 06-27-2019, 11:50 AM   #23
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Default Re: I Smell a Rat impossible to beat [spoilers]

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Because the corridor is limned with evil runes with an unknown reset time (neither the dungeon nor exploits gives rules for what happens if you just hang out in the middle of evil runes, but it seems like a bad idea).
My group did disable the runes for 24 hours with an exorcism so I forgot about that, but point taken.
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Old 06-27-2019, 11:59 AM   #24
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Default Re: I Smell a Rat impossible to beat [spoilers]

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My group did disable the runes for 24 hours with an exorcism so I forgot about that, but point taken.
Which probably warns the Peshkali that Something's Up, at which point it might take up a position to ambush people entering the room (say, behind the door).
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Old 06-27-2019, 04:43 PM   #25
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Default Re: I Smell a Rat impossible to beat [spoilers]

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Which probably warns the Peshkali that Something's Up, at which point it might take up a position to ambush people entering the room (say, behind the door).
That is similar to what I did when I ran I Smell A Rat. I had armed her with a single improvised 2-handed flail* and she had climbed up into the rafters to ambush the PCs (they'd made a bunch of noise disarming the Evil Runes).

She dropped down and slammed the door shut, dropping the bar into place to "seal her prey in with her" (I'd decided the door had a bar). So the fight was pretty much in that room, though the Wizard did decided at one point to leg it past the curtain. He was so badly wounded it was a "stay here and definitely die, or take my chances past the curtain and maybe live".



* To make the fight a little less one-sided I decided that a) she was trapped in the room by a pentagram at the room's boundaries and b) she had no real weapons. So she'd armed herself long ago with one of the hanging lanterns on a chain, wrapped it in some cloth to block the light, and used that as her weapon. I think she might also have had a cheap club.
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Old 06-27-2019, 07:34 PM   #26
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Default Re: I Smell a Rat impossible to beat [spoilers]

As Anthony pointed out, if you make the demon a decent tactician, the fight is much more challenging. Which may be bad because it's already a tough fight. I'd suggest making the demon prefer a straight up fight, perhaps even challenging the strongest player character to single combat, and chalk it up to "fiendish arrogance." You could even have the demon aiming to disable the player characters instead of killing them. After all, it's probably been in the chamber for a while and longs for "playthings."
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Old 06-27-2019, 08:44 PM   #27
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Default Re: I Smell a Rat impossible to beat [spoilers]

For extra points have her grab and bounce PCs off the Cursed altar... repeatedly if they look particularly resistant or Goodly.
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Old 07-01-2019, 11:17 PM   #28
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Default Re: I Smell a Rat impossible to beat [spoilers]

I have run a Peshkali twice in You All Meet In An Inn and played as a player in I Smell A Rat. The irony is that the more experienced player groups were the ones who got shredded both times, one group I ran and the one I was in. Both times had at least one character go negative HP, in Inn the barbarian thought he could rush in by himself and he was unconscious at almost -4xHP. In both cases it they finally chipped the HP down and blinded the thing so they could get all the arms to finish it off.

My newbie group in the other hand were champion tacticians in Inn. They surrounded it with the barbarian, swashbuckler, and cleric while the scout took pot shots at it's eyes from a short distance. While that shows that people have a point about the advantage of multiple melee fighters, using smart tactics is important too. The first two groups that almost had characters die had similar makeups and the lack of planning or tactics really cost them.

I will definitely be reusing the Peshkali in the future and I like the Hydra-kali idea someone posted. Not sure what the weakness would be in the case of the growing new arms, presumably with more extra attacks, but it'd be a great twist on a higher CP group who thinks they know how the encounter is supposed to work.

Last edited by Stix4armz; 07-02-2019 at 07:06 AM. Reason: Typos
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Old 07-02-2019, 04:09 AM   #29
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Default Re: I Smell a Rat impossible to beat [spoilers]

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I will definitely be reusing the Peshkali in the future and I like the Hydra-kali idea someone posted. Not sure what the weakness would be in the case of the growing new arms, presumably with more extra attacks, but it'd be a great twist on a higher CP group who thinks they know how the encounter is supposed to work.
My thoughts on the Hydrakali...

It requires both arms on the same level to be crippled. Once this happens the arms on that level split into two and create a new segment (so she also get's taller by several inches, enough segments, say 2 or 3, and she gains an SM) and the arms regrow over the span of a few turns. While crippled and during the regrowth, the spawning of new arms can be inhibited by applying something, fire, acid, death magic, whatever you chose (fire is the easiest, acid second most, death magic probably the most restrictive). Or perhaps if the arm was crippled (or damaged further after crippling) by a particular substance, meteoric iron or silver weapons (or fire, acid, death magic, etc) then it won't spawn new Overlords arms.

With each new segment the Hydrakali gains another immediate Extra Attack (given time* it would be 2, but at first she is still unused to her new arms) and gains† another 10 HP.


* Say if the adventurers run away and give her a week to come to grips with her new set of arms.

† Or heals, whichever is easier for you at your table. Gains makes her harder to kill over the long haul, Heals just makes her a slightly tougher nut to crack.
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Old 07-02-2019, 06:59 AM   #30
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Default Re: I Smell a Rat impossible to beat [spoilers]

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[...] using smart tactics is important too.
Yes – and against almost all monsters! If the GM pays attention to the advice and rules in The Monsters' Point of View (Monsters, pp. 6-8), then between the suggested and often dirty tactics, the energy cost markups for high SM, the reduced shock for high HP, the free overruns for multi-hex figures, etc., monsters will be scary in ways their stats alone don't always suggest. The assumption is that the players will counter with smart tactics. If they choose the brute-force route and just "tank" monsters, the PCs will need to be more powerful to enjoy the same odds of victory. And if they break ranks and charge, they'll need to be much more powerful . . . I saw that end poorly in some of the demos I ran at Gen Con in 2017.

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Originally Posted by Stix4armz View Post

I will definitely be reusing the Peshkali in the future and I like the Hydra-kali idea someone posted. Not sure what the weakness would be in the case of the growing new arms, presumably with more extra attacks, but it'd be a great twist on a higher CP group who thinks they know how the encounter is supposed to work.
The classic weakness of the Lernaean Hydra was that neck stumps scorched with fire wouldn't regrow. So I'd advise against that . . . too many players will use player knowledge to work around something that ought to require in-world knowledge.

Instead, go with some obscure weakness like a "regeneration organ" that one needs Physiology (Demons) to know about and an impaling attack at -10 to target. For added fun, say the bony sternum encloses it for double DR (DR 8 instead of 4). Once the organ is sufficiently damaged – say, 1×HP injury, or 20 HP – the monster can no longer regrow limbs, and can be killed like a regular peshkali.

To reward the heroes, consider letting them make a Surgery roll to scoop out the organ and an Alchemy roll to preserve it. They can sell it for lots of money, or keep it. If they keep it, someone who loses a body part can eat it to regrow whatever it was they lost.
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