A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover

[Artemis1992]

I thought she was just Commanding them long enough for the Geas to be placed and their memory modified. Makes sense how they're moving up the chain of command, though, if she's having to stay within her HD Command limit. Once you have the Efreeti admiral, you don't need to Command the individual captains.

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The plan, as I understand it, is to Geas the minor officers to be obedient to their captains and then directly Command said captains via Mel's ability.
To minimize the amount of HD she has to keep under control.

I doubt she'll go up to the admiral though, even Mel can't command and Efreeti or Malik with a serious amount of classlevels on top.

Once we have something to target, that would be a good spell to use.

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The roof broke down when hit by the Earth Elemental, so now we should have a decent view from above?

Though I'm not against also using the Tentacles of course.
Alternativly, Tsunami cast at Viserys' CL should be broad enough to flatten the whole temple.

 

[Goldfish]

The plan, as I understand it, is to Geas the minor officers to be obedient to their captains and then directly Command said captains via Mel's ability.
To minimize the amount of HD she has to keep under control.

I doubt she'll go up to the admiral though, even Mel can't command and Efreeti or Malik with a serious amount of classlevels on top.

The roof broke down when hit by the Earth Elemental, so now we should have a decent view from above?

Though I'm not against also using the Tentacles of course.
Alternativly, Tsunami cast at Viserys' CL should be broad enough to flatten the whole temple.

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Added this to the plan:

--[] With the roof collapsed, if Viserys can see anyone within the temple who appears to be using magic, he will use Wild Arcana to target them with a Maw of Chaos spell. If he cannot see anyone, he will instead target the entire temple with a Tsunami spell.

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There is no such thing as overkill, IMO. The Maw of Chaos and Greater Black Tentacles combo is pretty vicious. And if no one is visible, well, that's what the 220 foot wide, 44 foot high, 10 foot deep wall of water is for. That's 96,800 cubic feet of water, which weighs over six million pounds. If that doesn't sweep an already structurally compromised building away like a pile of loose legos, I'll be surprised, especially because it still has the 175+ mph winds from Lya's Control Winds spell hammering it.

 

[Artemis1992]

[X] Goldfish

There is no such thing as overkill, IMO. The Maw of Chaos and Greater Black Tentacles combo is pretty vicious. And if no one is visible, well, that's what the 220 foot wide, 44 foot high, 10 foot deep wall of water is for. That's 96,800 cubic feet of water, which weighs over six million pounds. If that doesn't sweep an already structurally compromised building away like a pile of loose legos, I'll be surprised, especially because it still has the 175+ mph winds from Lya's Control Winds spell hammering it.

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We will dissemble the temple anyway, after the fight.
Might as well get started a bit early.

 

[Jack vile Ripper]

[X] Goldfish


We will dissemble the temple anyway, after the fight.
Might as well get started a bit early.

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Temple? What temple? All I'm seeing is just a big pond in the middle of the desert.

 

[egoo]

Alternativly, Tsunami cast at Viserys' CL should be broad enough to flatten the whole temple.

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... @DragonParadox, can Vee apply the Hammer of Waters using the Tsunami (the spell)-made water?

[X] Goldfish

I just hope they have things of importance we'll destroy in that temple, and not just using it as a massive distraction for us.
Also, we probably should be a bit stingier with the spell slots. The bulk of the fighting us yet ahead.

 

[Goldfish]

... @DragonParadox, can Vee apply the Hammer of Waters using the Tsunami (the spell)-made water?

[X] Goldfish

I just hope they have things of importance we'll destroy in that temple, and not just using it as a massive distraction for us.
Also, we probably should be a bit stingier with the spell slots. The bulk of the fighting us yet ahead.

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We've actually been very frugal with our spell slots. Not counting mostly lower level spell slots used for buffing (Viserys has a metric fuckton of those), he's only down two 7th level slots, two 8th level slots, and one Mythic Power. He'll be using another Mythic Power according to the plan, which will still leave him with five uses remaining.

Of everyone else among our people, the only ones using high level spell slots heavily is Vee and Tyene. Vee is Summoning an army of Orglash Air Elementals, but I made sure she would have plenty of high level slots left over, and Tyene won't be running empty any time soon, either. She's used two 8th level and two 7th level spell slots, but is otherwise topped off (again not counting lower level buff spells).

I've also been very conservative with our prepared casters' spells. There's a reason Dany hasn't dropped a Radiant Assault spell on one of those Nightmare Dragons, despite probably really wanting to.

 

[T_of_A]

[X] Goldfish

 

[Azel]

We are pulling a Frieza, not even leaving our base form while our elite mooks trash the hapless natives.

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It would be a lot more fun if Viserys was actually enjoying the spectacle instead of trying his best to be vaguely worried while his minions effortlessly curb-stomp absolutely everything.

 

[Jack vile Ripper]

It would be a lot more fun if Viserys was actually enjoying the spectacle instead of trying his best to be vaguely worried while his minions effortlessly curb-stomp absolutely everything.

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Sadly we are neither a Blood Knight nor a battle-junkie.

It'd be fun to see a bloodthirsty Viserys trying to scour the world in order to fight strong opponents.

 

[Goldfish]

It would be a lot more fun if Viserys was actually enjoying the spectacle instead of trying his best to be vaguely worried while his minions effortlessly curb-stomp absolutely everything.

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Viserys is a serious kind of guy. Dany is probably enjoying the spectacle much more than him.

So far, though, we've just been mowing through the chaff until the real enemies show themselves. Then he might crack a smile.

EDIT: A Dany POV interlude might be neat at some point during this, @DragonParadox.

 

[Azel]

Sadly we are neither a Blood Knight nor a battle-junkie.

It'd be fun to see a bloodthirsty Viserys trying to scour the world in order to fight strong opponents.

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You need to be neither of those things to enjoy some wholesale slaughter of your enemies.
You just need to be the kind of person who visits wholesale slaughter upon his enemies.

Also, a battle-junkie would be annoyed by the lack of strong opponents here.

Viserys is a serious kind of guy. Dany is probably enjoying the spectacle much more than him.

So far, though, we've just been mowing through the chaff until the real enemies show themselves. Then he might crack a smile.

EDIT: A Dany POV interlude might be neat at some point during this, @DragonParadox.

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The thing is that the mood of the PoV character has and thus tries to instill in the audience is utterly at odds with the situation at hand. The thread is celebrating the effortless destruction of the GC, which is so effortless that the Orglashes butchering thousands of soldiers isn't even rating a mention, but Viserys is trying his best to be worried about every tiny blip of resistance Tiamat manages to offer.

 

[Takesis]

5/10, not enough chaos.

[X] Silverfish

 

[Goldfish]

The thing is that the mood of the PoV character has and thus tries to instill in the audience is utterly at odds with the situation at hand. The thread is celebrating the effortless destruction of the GC, which is so effortless that the Orglashes butchering thousands of soldiers isn't even rating a mention, but Viserys is trying his best to be worried about every tiny blip of resistance Tiamat manages to offer.

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Everyone else might be celebrating, but meanwhile I'm worried sick about the real fight that's coming. Everything so far has been about clearing chaff and pissing off Tiamat.

Viserys can only focus on so much at once, and the deaths of GC soldiers just isn't important when you have to be on the lookout for high level enemy casters and the sudden appearance of Tiamat-aligned Dragons.

 

[Deliste]

Saw we were posting challenges again so I thought of something a little different, that or my goldfish memory is recycling someone else's idea.

Challenge - 20 (Thousand) Good Men

YOU CAN:

--Start as Level 1 Commoner with indefinite youth at the start of canon ASoIaF.

And.

-Level to 20 in any Tier-3 or lower class with experience.
Fluff functions as mechanics so you will require exposure to thematically appropriate stimuli and dedicated training.
Levelling is capped at a rate of 1 level every 4 months, this is based on the notion of 10,000 hours of mastery and the 8 hour day, it may take longer if you laze around or do not have the required resources. It is possible not to level to 20.

And.

-Command the extreme and unwavering loyalty of 20 Thousand Good Men. Peak human capabilities as per comic book guidelines but otherwise appropriate for the time period.

YOU ARRIVE:

--By colony ships from beyond the Western Seas ala Nymeria, a great and terrible storm has caused a crash landing on the Reachward shore of the Torrentine just shy Starfall in Southern Westeros.

Or.

--By portal into the bowels of The Rock, suddenly occupying several long unused shafts within the Lannister mining operations you have not been discovered yet but you can't go out the way you came.

Or.

--By physically displacing the position of Lord Tytos Blackwood and his closest 20,000 vassals, servants and followers in Riverlands. This is normal to everyone.

YOU MUST:

--Survive.

--Fulfill your Noblisse Oblige to your followers.

 

[BronzeTongue]

You need to be neither of those things to enjoy some wholesale slaughter of your enemies.
You just need to be the kind of person who visits wholesale slaughter upon his enemies.

Also, a battle-junkie would be annoyed by the lack of strong opponents here.

The thing is that the mood of the PoV character has and thus tries to instill in the audience is utterly at odds with the situation at hand. The thread is celebrating the effortless destruction of the GC, which is so effortless that the Orglashes butchering thousands of soldiers isn't even rating a mention, but Viserys is trying his best to be worried about every tiny blip of resistance Tiamat manages to offer.

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I think our attitude is going to drastically change once Tiamat actually makes her first move. We don't really know what they're trying to do right now, the only thing we do know is that it'll be whatever Tiamat thinks will kill us in the most humiliating way possible.

Even if it is just "summon an avatar so I can flex on him myself " she's going to be coming in prepared to deal with us. Mammon's fuckup has given us a skewed perspective on what the avatar of a god (or godlike being) is supposed to be like; this encounter is probably going to correct that.

I think we're going to need to resurrect a PC or two, and possibly go questing for a companion's soul, even if we get everything we want out of this. If we lose hard enough this could end with us play testing the legions against demon armies or constant dragon raids.

 

[egoo]

The thread is celebrating the effortless destruction of the GC

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We might be reading two different threads?

So far, it was chaff-on-chaff only.
There's been general consensus that we are about to face real resistance soon enough.

And if the camp isn't where it is, then the Fortress-group will be getting fucked.

I mean, timmie really didn't do anything so far.

 

[T_of_A]

Saw we were posting challenges again so I thought of something a little different, that or my goldfish memory is recycling someone else's idea.

Challenge - 20 (Thousand) Good Men

YOU CAN:

--Start as Level 1 Commoner with indefinite youth at the start of canon ASoIaF.

And.

-Level to 20 in any Tier-3 or lower class with experience.
Fluff functions as mechanics so you will require exposure to thematically appropriate stimuli and dedicated training.
Levelling is capped at a rate of 1 level every 4 months, this is based on the notion of 10,000 hours of mastery and the 8 hour day, it may take longer if you laze around or do not have the required resources. It is possible not to level to 20.

And.

-Command the extreme and unwavering loyalty of 20 Thousand Good Men. Peak human capabilities as per comic book guidelines but otherwise appropriate for the time period.

YOU ARRIVE:

--By colony ships from beyond the Western Seas ala Nymeria, a great and terrible storm has caused a crash landing on the Reachward shore of the Torrentine just shy Starfall in Southern Westeros.

Or.

--By portal into the bowels of The Rock, suddenly occupying several long unused shafts within the Lannister mining operations you have not been discovered yet but you can't go out the way you came.

Or.

--By physically displacing the position of Lord Tytos Blackwood and his closest 20,000 vassals, servants and followers in Riverlands. This is normal to everyone.

YOU MUST:

--Survive.

--Fulfill your Noblisse Oblige to your followers.

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Yikes. Having to fulfill Noblesse Oblige for tens of thousands of people sounds like a horrible, thankless job.
Reposting the Tier list for convenience, because the site it was hosted on is currently down - so Googling it only turns up the old, shitty versions from the terrible Wiki and 1d4chan.

Tier 3:
Wilder, Shugenja, Bard, Trickster Spellthief, Jester, Swordsage, Totemist, Crusader, Psychic Warrior, Warmage, Binder, Warlock, Warblade, Dragonfire Adept, Healer, Wild Shape Ranger, Duskblade, Factotum, Lurk, Psychic Rogue

Tier 4:
Wild Monk, Incarnate, Shadowcaster, Rogue, Barbarian, Generic Expert, Generic Warrior, Scout, Spellthief, Paladin, Adept, Ranger, Ninja, Savant, Fighter, Marshal

Tier 5:
Truenamer, Sohei, Hexblade, Monk, Battle Dancer, Divine Mind, Mountebank, Samurai (OA), Dragon Shaman, Magewright, Swashbuckler, Knight, Noble, Soulborn, Soulknife, Samurai (CW), Expert,

Tier 6:
Aristocrat, Warrior, Commoner

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Questions :

1. PrCs are forbidden, right?
2. Can I teach my class to some of these peak human followers?
3. Are these followers all healthy adults, or am I also getting peak human children, old people, sick people, etc?
4. Does "Good Men" mean that they're all literally male humans of Good alignment?
5. Do these people actually recognize me as their leader, or do I have to take care of them (at ROB's orders) without actually having authority over them?

EDIT: @Azel is right about the thread's mood. Some people are worried, but others definitely don't seem to be and it's a little contagious.
To be honest I was extremely reassured when the Shadow Dragons displayed their Int 2 and went after the Erinyes instead of focusing on the high-level spellcasters.

 

[Goldfish]

Saw we were posting challenges again so I thought of something a little different, that or my goldfish memory is recycling someone else's idea.

Challenge - 20 (Thousand) Good Men

YOU CAN:

--Start as Level 1 Commoner with indefinite youth at the start of canon ASoIaF.

-Level to 20 in any Tier-3 or lower class with experience, it's capped at a rate of 1 level every 4 months, this is based on the notion of 10,000 hours of mastery and the 8 hour day, it may take longer if you laze around or do not have the required resources. Fluff functions as mechanics so you will require exposure to thematically appropriate stimuli and dedicated training.

-Command the extreme and unwavering loyalty of 20 Thousand Good Men. Peak human capabilities as per comic book guidelines but otherwise appropriate for the time period.

YOU ARRIVE:

--By colony ships from beyond the Western Seas ala Nymeria, a great and terrible storm has caused a crash landing on the Reachward shore of the Torrentine just shy Starfall in Southern Westeros.

--By portal into the bowels of The Rock, suddenly occupying several long unused shafts within the Lannister mining operations you have not been discovered yet but you can't go out the way you came.

--By displacing the position of Lord Tytos Blackwood and his closest 20,000 vassals, servants and followers in Riverlands.

YOU MUST:

--Survive.

--Fulfill your Noblisse Oblige to your followers.

Click to shrink...

20,000 competent minions sounds good, but that's an awful lot of responsibility.

Assuming they're all properly equipped and provisioned, that at least takes care of their gear and food for a couple days.

The wrecked colony ship option is a bit too chaotic and random for my tastes, and 20,000 dudes showing up in Dorne is just asking for trouble from both a logistics and an "angry natives try to kill you" standpoint. Invading the Rock from within would probably make taking it pretty straight forward, all things considered, but keeping it under anything but siege conditions isn't going to be simple or easy. The Westerlands certainly aren't going to suddenly come under my control because I own the Rock.

Replacing Tytos Blackwood and his people, while not politically ideal, does come with plenty of stability early on and gives me more time to work on getting established enough to make a difference (i.e. unfuck things enough that myself and my men can stand living on Planetos). This would be my preferred starting location.

Being able to choose from among Tier 3 classes is more generous than these things normally are, but I would probably stick with my trusty Unchained Monk using the Perfect Scholar and Invested Regent archetype options. It's not flashy, but it's killy enough for my purposes and has great overall survivability.

 

[Deliste]

Yikes. Having to fulfill Noblesse Oblige for tens of thousands of people sounds like a horrible, thankless job.
Reposting the Tier list for convenience, because the site it was hosted on is currently down - so Googling it only turns up the old, shitty versions from the terrible Wiki and 1d4chan.


Questions :

1. PrCs are forbidden, right?
2. Can I teach my class to some of these peak human followers?
3. Are these followers all healthy adults, or am I also getting peak human children, old people, sick people, etc?
4. Does "Good Men" mean that they're all literally male humans of Good alignment?
5. Do these people actually recognize me as their leader, or do I have to take care of them (at ROB's orders) without actually having authority over them?

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1. Yes
2. No
3. Healthy Mixed Gender Adults to begin with.
4. No.
5. Yes most definitely, "extreme and unwavering loyalty", they're basically fanatics.

 

[Deliste]

20,000 competent minions sounds good, but that's an awful lot of responsibility.

Assuming they're all properly equipped and provisioned, that at least takes care of their gear and food for a couple days.

The wrecked colony ship option is a bit too chaotic and random for my tastes, and 20,000 dudes showing up in Dorne is just asking for trouble from both a logistics and an "angry natives try to kill you" standpoint. Invading the Rock from within would probably make taking it pretty straight forward, all things considered, but keeping it under anything but siege conditions isn't going to be simple or easy. The Westerlands certainly aren't going to suddenly come under my control because I own the Rock.

Replacing Tytos Blackwood and his people, while not politically ideal, does come with plenty of stability early on and gives me more time to work on getting established enough to make a difference (i.e. unfuck things enough that myself and my men can stand living on Planetos). This would be my preferred starting location.

Being able to choose from among Tier 3 classes is more generous than these things normally are, but I would probably stick with my trusty Unchained Monk using the Perfect Scholar and Invested Regent archetype options. It's not flashy, but it's killy enough for my purposes and has great overall survivability.

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The War is very soon so I wanted to offer some opposites, The Rock being physically secure and the Riverlands (relatively ha!) Politically secure in that people aren't wondering who the hell you are.

The Dorne option was the "neither but not directly in the path of a war" option.

 

[T_of_A]

@Goldfish, you're a Tier 3 PC. You absolutely can, in fact, singlehandedly take the entire Westerlands. And why stop there? You can take over the world if you want - you're probably a skillmonkey and an army-shattering superweapon all at once, after all. Factotum gets access to level 7 Sorc/Wiz spells - that's enough to take over the world solo using Necromancy, for example. Or you could be a Binder, a Warmage, a Dragonfire Adept...
Of course doing this sounds like it involves you killing and/or enslaving a lot of people, which sucks. 0/10, I wouldn't want this job.

EDIT: Actually, this scenario will be necessity involve war. You'll need to feed twenty thousand people, they'll want land, etc.
The most ethically justifiable place to settle down is probably in Essos, though. And there may be some conquest and slavery-ending involved, of course. But how to get there?
That's easy! Pick a class that can talk the Westerosi into shipping you there to get you out of their hair (with skills and/or mind-control, whatever).

 

[Deliste]

@Goldfish, you're a Tier 3 PC. You absolutely can, in fact, singlehandedly take the entire Westerlands. And why stop there? You can take over the world if you want - you're probably a skillmonkey and an army-shattering superweapon all at once, after all.
Of course doing this sounds like it involves you killing and/or enslaving a lot of people, which sucks. 0/10, I wouldn't want this job.

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Provided you find a way to become inherently magical or find the resources to learn it in a structured manner, getting training in Swordcraft is straightforward because you have a Master at Arms, you don't have a court wizard.

The Warlocks of Qarth and Faceless Men show it is possible.

 

[T_of_A]

Provided you find a way to become inherently magical or find the resources to learn it in a structured manner, getting training in Swordcraft is straightforward because you have a Master at Arms, you don't have a court wizard.

The Warlocks of Qarth and Faceless Men show it is possible.

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Playing a Tier 3 Court Wizard is totally possible though. Tier 3 doesn't mean "strong sword-user", it means "mighty warmage with access to a few Divine Domain spells", "Binder with infinite summons and therefore spells", "Factotum with access to spells like a level 13 Wizard", "Bardic mind-control and army buffs", etc.
Or of course "I'm one of the several low-Tier classes that can cast Gate. I call a Solar and win everything forever"

Although it's true that there's probably bullshit in-setting that can kill you. Others, Asshai or Qarthene maegi, Faceless Men bullshit, etc. You're not actually a god.

 

[Deliste]

Playing a Tier 3 Court Wizard is totally possible though. Tier 3 doesn't mean "strong sword-user", it means "mighty warmage with access to a few Divine Domain spells", "Binder with infinite summons and therefore spells", "Factotum with access to spells like a level 13 Wizard", "Bardic mind-control and army buffs", etc.
Or of course "I'm one of the several low-Tier classes that can cast Gate. I call a Solar and win everything forever"

Although it's true that there's probably bullshit in-setting that can kill you. Others, Asshai or Qarthene maegi, Faceless Men bullshit, etc. You're not actually a god.

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"Fluff functions as mechanics so you will require exposure to thematically appropriate stimuli and dedicated training."

Same way we don't immediately get access to all PrCs in quest you will have to "unlock" your levels through experience, dedication, lore, training and/or swallowing a dragon egg etc.

The war starts in less than a year.

 

[Azel]

Everyone else might be celebrating, but meanwhile I'm worried sick about the real fight that's coming. Everything so far has been about clearing chaff and pissing off Tiamat.

Viserys can only focus on so much at once, and the deaths of GC soldiers just isn't important when you have to be on the lookout for high level enemy casters and the sudden appearance of Tiamat-aligned Dragons.

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So you are mostly worried about something that has not been foreshadowed in the actual narrative on the assumption that it might happen and might be a threat.

There is simply no IC reason to assume an Avatar to show up. So far, all evidence points to the endboss being Faegon and his 8th level cleric spells, which is pretty much nothing compared to the attack force. So... why should I care about a giant space-flea from nowhere?

I think our attitude is going to drastically change once Tiamat actually makes her first move. We don't really know what they're trying to do right now, the only thing we do know is that it'll be whatever Tiamat thinks will kill us in the most humiliating way possible.

Even if it is just "summon an avatar so I can flex on him myself " she's going to be coming in prepared to deal with us. Mammon's fuckup has given us a skewed perspective on what the avatar of a god (or godlike being) is supposed to be like; this encounter is probably going to correct that.

I think we're going to need to resurrect a PC or two, and possibly go questing for a companion's soul, even if we get everything we want out of this. If we lose hard enough this could end with us play testing the legions against demon armies or constant dragon raids.

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And here I would like to doubt. Hard.

Really big and really dangerous enemies of the past:
- an Avatar of Mammon - died in 6 seconds to the action economy
- Mythic Winter Wight - decided to waste his special defense ability on an arrow so that Viserys could effortlessly catch him with the trick that failed just one round prior
- previous Avatar of Tiamat with GC backup - was level-drained into patheticness and bludgeoned to death with the action economy
- The Listener in Mantarys - Glyra was annoying him and he killed himself by moronically screwing his own ritual
- Rakshasa Maharaja - beaten to death with the action economy

See also:

To be honest I was extremely reassured when the Shadow Dragons displayed their Int 2 and went after the Erinyes instead of focusing on the high-level spellcasters.

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There's this constant pattern of big stompy monsters being thrown at a bloated party and dying like chumps for it, or them squandering their advantages and basically killing themselves by idiocy.

My prediction is that if a Tiamat Avatar shows up, it will mono-focus on something like an idiot and be shot to bits by a mixture of Companion spells and Moonchaser artillery.

It's hard to be worried (or hyped) for a battle when you are certain from the outset that it will either be won by numbers or, in a critical moment, the opponents being dipshits.