My PC's are overly good at infiltrating an enemy's base, ambushing, and eliminating the foes. They are in the middle of such a mission against some advanced fire giants, and they are wading through everything with little difficulty.
I modeled this series of encounters off the suggested Heroic encounter schedule from the front of Lords of Madness:
EL -1: EL 15: Two CR 13 Fire Giant fighter 3's
(Plus three CR 7 Huge Fire Elementals)
EL +0: EL 16: One CR 15 Fire Giant Cleric 10 and one CR 13 Fire Giant Fighter 3
(Plus one CR 10 standard fire giant)
EL +0: EL 16: One CR 15 Fire Giant Clr 6/Ftr 2 and one CR 13 Fire Giant Frt 3
(Plus two CR 7 Huge Magma Elementals)
EL +1: EL 17: One CR 15 Fire Giant Clr 10 and one CR 15 Fire Giant Clr 6/Ftr 2
(Plus two CR 10 standard fire giants)
EL +3: EL 19: One CR 17 Fire Giant Wizard 15, one CR 16 Legendary Fire Giant (Titan),
one CR 15 Fire Giant Clr 10, two CR 9 Greater Fire Elementals,
two CR 5 Large Fire Elementals, and one CR 3 Medium Fire Elemental
(or two CR 6's in place of the CR 5's and CR 3)
They have waded through the blue encounters, and as far as I can recall, one of the PC's got damaged once.
Two of them are under the effects of greater invisibility, and two of them (one visible, one only if he is made visible) can spam Greater Mirror Image whenever I get any chance of damaging them. It's getting to the point that I have little to no chance of putting them in danger.
Most of the Fire Giant Clerics' spells are based around buffing themselves, and some fantastic caster level checks on a greater dispel magic stripped the 10th level cleric (w/ practiced spellcaster) of his best buffs.
We ended the session with the EL 17 encounter wrapped up, except for one Fire Giant Clr 6/Ftr 2, who has about 150 hit points left.
The upcoming final encounter is composed of the following:
EL +3: EL 19: One CR 17 Fire Giant Wizard 15, one CR 16 Legendary Fire Giant (Titan),
one CR 15 Fire Giant Clr 10, two CR 9 Greater Fire Elementals,
(plus two CR 6 advanced Magma Hurlers)
The Legendary Fire Giant is basically a MM1 Titan with the Fire Subtype, and stripped of all its SLA's. See it
here.
The BBEG Fire Giant Wizard is actually a Wizard 10/Geometer 5, so one of his spellglyphed spells has a CL of 20th.
He has had 6 rounds to buff himself up since he was made aware of the PC intruders.
FYI - this was an NPC fire giant Wu Jen from Exemplars of Evil. I just altered her to a Wizard base and advanced her a level.
Valbryn Morlydd CR 17
hp: 255 (30 HD)
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Female fire giant wizard 10/geometer 5
NE Large giant (fire)
Init: +5; Senses: darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Listen +2, Spot +13
Languages: Common, Draconic, Giant
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AC: 30, touch 15, flat-footed 27
(–1 size, +3 Dex, +4 armor, +3 deflection, +1 insight, +10 natural)
Immune: fire, giant immunities
Fort +18, Ref +10, Will +19
Weakness: vulnerability to cold, giant vulnerabilities
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares)
Melee: +2 adamantine flaming longsword +28/+23/+18/+13 (2d6+15/19–20 plus 1d6 fire) and
slam +21 (1d4+4) or
Melee: 2 slams +26 each (1d4+9)
Ranged: +1 composite longbow +18 (2d6+10)
Space: 10 ft.; Reach: 10 ft.
Base Atk: +18; Grp: +30
Atk Options: Awesome Blow, Energy Substitution (cold), Improved Bull Rush,
Improved Sunder, Power Attack
Special Actions: rock catching, rock throwing
Combat Gear: 2 potions of cure serious wounds, scroll of telekinesis, scroll of tongues,
wand of rope trick (25 charges)
Wizard Spells Prepared (CL 19th); Save DC's 18 + spell level:
Spells per Day: (4/6/6/6/6/5/4/3/2)
*Spells marked with an asterisk have spellglyphs, and can be cast at CL 20 and as though affected by the Silent Spell feat.
8th—blackfire (+19 ranged touch), irresistible dance
7th—spell turning, sword of darkness*, limited wish
6th—disintegrate*, globe of invulnerability*,
greater dispel magic*, stone body
5th—arc of lightning*, true haste, teleport*,
transmute mud to rock, telekinesis
4th—dimension door*, greater invisibility*, fire shield,
polymorph self*, greater mirror image*, wall of fire
3rd—displacement*, haste*, fly, protection from energy,
remove curse*, gaseous form*
2nd—cat’s grace, detect thoughts*, glitterdust,
wraithstrike*, see invisibility*, resist energy
1st—endure elements*, grease, hail of stone*,
silent image, magic missile*, shield*
0—detect magic*, prestidigitation*, ray of frost*
(+19 ranged touch), read magic*
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Abilities: Str 28, Dex 12, Con 20, Int 26 (22), Wis 16, Cha 12
SQ: book of geometry, giant traits, pass sigil, powerful spellglyph,
sigilsight
Feats: Awesome Blow, Combat Casting, Elder Giant Magic, Energy Substitution (cold),
Improved Bull Rush, Improved Initiative, Improved Sunder, Sudden Widen Spell*, Power Attack,
Practiced Spellcaster, Rapid Spell, Scribe Scroll*, Sudden Maximize Spell*, 30
Skills: Bluff +6, Climb +14, Concentration +26 (+30 when casting defensively), Decipher Script +21,
Diplomacy +12, Disable Device +13, Disguise +1 (+3 when acting), Intimidate +8, Jump +18,
Knowledge (arcana) +21, Knowledge (nobility and royalty) +13, Listen +2, Search +15,
Sense Motive +8, Spellcraft +23, Spot +13, Survival +3 (+5 when following tracks)
Possessions: combat gear plus +2 adamantine flaming longsword, +1 composite longbow
(+9 Str bonus) with 40 arrows, amulet of natural armor +2, bracers of armor +4,
ring of protection +3, headband of intellect +4, ioun stone (dusty rose), bag of holding (type I),
highly polished silver mirror for scrying spell, spellglyph inks, 160 pp, 10 gp
Spellbook: spells prepared plus 0—all;
1st—benign transpostion, charm person, comprehend languages, disguise self,
swift expeditious retreat, protection from good, true strike, unseen servant;
2nd—bull’s strength, mirror image, rope trick, whispering wind, hold person;
3rd—dispel magic, fireball, gaseous form, tongues, glyph of warding;
4th—locate creature, scrying;
5th—dominate person, passwall, telekinesis, vitriolic sphere;
6th—disintegrate, geas/quest, greater glyph of warding, true seeing, stone body;
7th—delayed blast fireball, limited wish, spell turning
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Book of Geometry (Ex): Every spell Valbryn learns requires only a single page in her
spellbook. It still takes 24 hours to write each spell into her book and requires
materials costing 100 gp per page. In addition, the DC of Spellcraft checks for
a nongeometer to decipher or prepare spells from Valbryn’s spellbook is
increased by 5.
Pass Sigil (Su): Valbryn can temporarily negate magical wards based on written symbols,
sigils, runes, or glyphs. As a standard action, she can make a caster level check
(DC 6 + the sigil creator’s caster level). If successful, she can suppress the
effects of the device for as long as she maintains concentration. Valbryn must
be able to see the device.
Sigilsight (Ex): Valbryn can use a Search check to find magic traps based on runes,
glyphs, sigils, symbols, and other writing, as a rogue can. She gains a +11
bonus on Search checks to find traps of this sort. If she comes within 10 feet
of a magic rune, glyph, sigil, or symbol, or within the threshold of danger for
such a device, she is entitled to make a Search check as if she were actively
searching for a magic trap.
Spellglyph (Su): Valbryn can cast spells using spellglyphs. Such spells have a special
material component (the spellglyph) that substitutes for the spell’s verbal component
and any other material components it might normally require. When Valbryn casts a
spell using a spellglyph, the spell is treated as if it were affected by the Silent Spell
feat.
The small cavern and tunnels where this encounter is happening has hundreds of human prisoners chained to the walls, so area affects will be very difficult for the PC's to use without killing those they are meant to save. My plan is for the wizard to use Limited Wish to cast Consumptive Field, then cast Blackfire on one of the chained humans (they are packed tightly enough that it will just spread down the line of prisoners), and thus bump his CL up. Against first and second level "commoners," the Con damage will knock them into negative hit points after three rounds or so, especially if he hits five of them with a magic missile. If it happens to catch a PC with the Blackfire, all the better.
The one big issue he and the Titan will run into are the Greater Mirror Image spells. I'm tempted to change the intended CR 15 Cleric 10 into three ~CR 12 Primordial Giant 4th level Sorcerers. They'll basically just spam magic missiles and emit Invisibility Purge fields to counter the invisibility and mirror images. If they concentrate their efforts, my PC's could get caught being attacked by the BBEG or the Titan with no immediate actions left to cast GMI again.
The treasure rewards of this adventure will be quite good (several Belts of Giant Strength +4, a headband of intellect +4, various rings and amulets, and no less than five Large +2 flaming adamantine longswords, plus some Large magical suits of full and half plate. So far it has felt way too easy for them.
Thoughts or advice?
