tmbn wrote:The Beast wrote:Out of curiosity, how did this work out for you tmbn?
Well, I am trying to do all of these things and it helps and restricts a little bit when they fight groups I dont really care about. Actually last mission I had to apply nexus lines with "no magic" to make the game more fun. The big problem is One on One. The Wizard or the Warlock could instantly kill a Villain with this spell. That makes it little boring. Therefor most of my class villains have resist fire or impervious to fire. I guess all smart villains would have this implemented on their armor.
You're villians really have to be one dimensional if you can't think of a way for NPC/Villians to deal with river of lava.
How weak is your main villian if this spell instantly kills them? How poorly defended? I would assume that the heros would have to make it through lesser mobs of monsters and other castle/dungeon defenders to get to your primary villian. You could spread out the layout of the dungeon so this spell doesn't destroy everything in one casting. Make the heros burn through their PPE with a number of small encounters first before they face your main villian is another trick, so they don't have the PPE to cast the spell.
Where does this villian live out if a straw hut in the middle of a pasture? First the characters have to know where the villian is in order to effect him with a this spell. Which means locating him in a complex or building. Maybe the villian wasn't located in the section the river was cast upon or he just barely jumped out of range to safety. Is he in a city or town (negate conquences from using RoL in an place like this)
Perhaps this villian could have innocent hostages in the area near him locked up in cages? So if the party used such a destructive area affect spell they would also kill the hostages.
Does this villian have access to protective magics? Perhaps some energy drain wards on the wall. Or perhaps this villians lair has silence or sancturary in effect? Perhaps he has a talisman of negate magic, just encase someone uses such a spell agaisnt him.
Any flight spell or power will protect your from River of Lava. Does the villian have allies or underlings with flight ability? A harpy or Demon Owl?
Or think outside the box the normal PF book items and create a specific magic or thing that would effect the players negatively for casting this spell. Example: "Locked away hidden in the old dwarven tome you find the lair of the necromancer. Numerous bodies have been violated by the dark magic. Behind the death mage is a large statue of the dwarven lords that rest in this tome." - So you could have the Dwarven builders of the tome have locked away a powerful force inside the statue that will be unleashed if the tome itself is damaged by harmful magic (aka the River of Lava).
You just have to do some thinking and there are a lot of ways to stop players from spamming massive destructive area effect spells like RoL.
