Looking for some insight here, have been playing a campaign with several different players for the past 3 - 4 years. This is my second time as a DM so this campaign was really my entry into the role. The party is getting very near to the end of the campaign and fighting the big bad. Issue is with recent change of players we currently have 3 PC's:
Transmutation Wizard Level 18
Mood Druid Level 17
Champion Fighter Level 16
The three of them work well together and like to prepare. Example will be todays combat. The three of them fought Ygorl, Lord of Entropy Without much difficulty at all. The Druid was playing the safe game, and used Foresight on the fighter then saved her big spells doing pot shots from a distance. The fighter now buffed went full out DPS. Then the wizard with Mindblank active from the previous day, Contingencywith a Resilient Spherein it as an oh shit button. Just went to town. When the wizard was about to hit zero HP for the second time (first was negated by Contingency) a Lifewell Tattoo activated saving him, he decided it was too risky as is at this point. So true polymorphed himself into an adult gold dragon for the HP and legendary resistance... The fighter had the Druid healing plus the Wizards Transmuter’s Stone.
The encounter took a long time and just felt like both sides were just chipping away at a wall, but the players were hacking away much faster.
TLDR: Looking for advise on how to make end of campaign combat difficult without just giving the Lich (BBEG) something basic like more hp.
Minions, spell selection (combinations), encounter geography and setup (including traps - both mechanical and arcane), legendary and lair actions.
A lich is very intelligent and has a phylactery as an emergency backup since they aren't dead until the phylactery is dealt with. Fighting a lich is a challenge since from their perspective, dying is only an inconvenience unless their phylactery is at risk. However, the phylactery is likely hidden somewhere extremely difficult to get to - a personal demiplane, an impossible to access tomb, on a different plane of existence.
So defeating a lich requires killing the lich, destroying their phylactery and taking care of any minions they may have.
A few caster minions can make it much easier to have combinations of spells. Have one cast sickening radiance on a character and the other cast forcecage to enclose the PC, then have the lich and minions counterspell when the PC tries to disintegrate the forcecage. Have the lich and minions use banish to get rid of one or two of the PCs if they don't counterspell it.
Fighting a lich should be a dangerous and edge of the seat encounter where the PCs could lose at least if the lich is played intelligently and not over confident.
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Hey everyone,
Looking for some insight here, have been playing a campaign with several different players for the past 3 - 4 years. This is my second time as a DM so this campaign was really my entry into the role. The party is getting very near to the end of the campaign and fighting the big bad. Issue is with recent change of players we currently have 3 PC's:
The three of them work well together and like to prepare. Example will be todays combat. The three of them fought Ygorl, Lord of Entropy Without much difficulty at all. The Druid was playing the safe game, and used Foresight on the fighter then saved her big spells doing pot shots from a distance. The fighter now buffed went full out DPS. Then the wizard with Mindblank active from the previous day, Contingency with a Resilient Sphere in it as an oh shit button. Just went to town. When the wizard was about to hit zero HP for the second time (first was negated by Contingency) a Lifewell Tattoo activated saving him, he decided it was too risky as is at this point. So true polymorphed himself into an adult gold dragon for the HP and legendary resistance... The fighter had the Druid healing plus the Wizards Transmuter’s Stone.
The encounter took a long time and just felt like both sides were just chipping away at a wall, but the players were hacking away much faster.
TLDR:
Looking for advise on how to make end of campaign combat difficult without just giving the Lich (BBEG) something basic like more hp.
Thanks for any suggestions!
-Jon
Minions, spell selection (combinations), encounter geography and setup (including traps - both mechanical and arcane), legendary and lair actions.
A lich is very intelligent and has a phylactery as an emergency backup since they aren't dead until the phylactery is dealt with. Fighting a lich is a challenge since from their perspective, dying is only an inconvenience unless their phylactery is at risk. However, the phylactery is likely hidden somewhere extremely difficult to get to - a personal demiplane, an impossible to access tomb, on a different plane of existence.
So defeating a lich requires killing the lich, destroying their phylactery and taking care of any minions they may have.
A few caster minions can make it much easier to have combinations of spells. Have one cast sickening radiance on a character and the other cast forcecage to enclose the PC, then have the lich and minions counterspell when the PC tries to disintegrate the forcecage. Have the lich and minions use banish to get rid of one or two of the PCs if they don't counterspell it.
Fighting a lich should be a dangerous and edge of the seat encounter where the PCs could lose at least if the lich is played intelligently and not over confident.