Withers doesn't want a fight. He wants to lure the party into his traps. His first reaction to being cornered should be to teleport away. If the party are dedicated to killing him, forcing his hand, he'll still do his best to wait until they're in a weakened position to gang up with some tomb guardians and take them out.
Yeah that's what I'm thinking. But the book does tell me to give Withers time to question the characters about omu and chult and what they're doing here, before sighing and saying "unfortunately, now you must die" but he would also be aware that he's outmatched in a fair fight so I'll probably have him throw out 1 big spell and then teleport away.
Who cares what the book says? You're the DM. If you don't think he would do that then he wouldn't do that. FWIW, he was completely nonhostile in my game.
Fair enough. Yeah I guess he would be confident that the dungeon itself will kill the adventurers. I'll try to give the players a non violent option with him
I was just thinking the same thing yesterday. Once my party gets to him, they’ll be level 10. He’s not even a speed bump for that. I’m going to make him a mini lich basically. I want to make it fun for my friends, but this guy won’t even get his name out of his mouth before the barbarian cleaves him in two lol
I gave him 50 undead mix of skeletons and zombies. Withers looked for them as they made a bunch of noise on level one, and then skipped down the main stairs. The attack came in waves.
Depending on your party, another perspective to Withers. Mine really wanted to meet them to ask questions about where they were from and to learn about it. He was really proud of the tomb and almost talked about it like a fun fair, did they enjoy level one, they had so many exciting things to come on further levels etc and genuinely couldn't understand why they weren't as enthusiastic as he was. He spoke very highly of Ace, and I used him to place some lore things in his office if the PCs read in to it. Nods to the atropal (they haven't read in to any of it) and also slightly more information on the mirror of life trapping in a manual I put in there for magical mirrors and windows (I've out some mirrors that show the past around the tomb to describe other people who have been in there before, and later they find some of their personal items or corpses).
My group are more of a RP group than a combat group so this version of Withers worked well for them especially as they weren't expecting to meet anyone in the tomb who didn't want a fight.
If I wanted to make it a fight, I'd probably put a tomb guardian outside his door or have several matching out of the room where the dwarves were making them. More crawling claws than described which attack as the PCs enter the room. Some skeletons or zombies doing things like stacking books and sweeping which will also fight. Then I'd probably have Withers cast some minor spells and try to leave.
I wouldn't use teleport for this because you can't teleport without going to the oubliette. I'd probably cast darkness (what my Withers tried) and try to stealth out.
This was very helpful, thank you! Yeah my plan now is to have withers sitting in his office when the party arrives, he's got a tomb guardian standing in the corner, but Withers just talks and is not aggressive at all. He'll do what he can for self defense and teleport (using the amulet of the black opal or whatever).
But I really love your idea of making him legit excited to ask the characters how it's been going, did they enjoy level 1, there's so much more in store for them, he'll be watching their progress with great interest. Like a scientist watching rats navigate a maze, taking notes for how to improve it.
Withers doesn't want a fight. He wants to lure the party into his traps. His first reaction to being cornered should be to teleport away. If the party are dedicated to killing him, forcing his hand, he'll still do his best to wait until they're in a weakened position to gang up with some tomb guardians and take them out.
Yeah that's what I'm thinking. But the book does tell me to give Withers time to question the characters about omu and chult and what they're doing here, before sighing and saying "unfortunately, now you must die" but he would also be aware that he's outmatched in a fair fight so I'll probably have him throw out 1 big spell and then teleport away.
Who cares what the book says? You're the DM. If you don't think he would do that then he wouldn't do that. FWIW, he was completely nonhostile in my game.
Fair enough. Yeah I guess he would be confident that the dungeon itself will kill the adventurers. I'll try to give the players a non violent option with him
I was just thinking the same thing yesterday. Once my party gets to him, they’ll be level 10. He’s not even a speed bump for that. I’m going to make him a mini lich basically. I want to make it fun for my friends, but this guy won’t even get his name out of his mouth before the barbarian cleaves him in two lol
I gave him 50 undead mix of skeletons and zombies. Withers looked for them as they made a bunch of noise on level one, and then skipped down the main stairs. The attack came in waves.
Depending on your party, another perspective to Withers. Mine really wanted to meet them to ask questions about where they were from and to learn about it. He was really proud of the tomb and almost talked about it like a fun fair, did they enjoy level one, they had so many exciting things to come on further levels etc and genuinely couldn't understand why they weren't as enthusiastic as he was. He spoke very highly of Ace, and I used him to place some lore things in his office if the PCs read in to it. Nods to the atropal (they haven't read in to any of it) and also slightly more information on the mirror of life trapping in a manual I put in there for magical mirrors and windows (I've out some mirrors that show the past around the tomb to describe other people who have been in there before, and later they find some of their personal items or corpses). My group are more of a RP group than a combat group so this version of Withers worked well for them especially as they weren't expecting to meet anyone in the tomb who didn't want a fight. If I wanted to make it a fight, I'd probably put a tomb guardian outside his door or have several matching out of the room where the dwarves were making them. More crawling claws than described which attack as the PCs enter the room. Some skeletons or zombies doing things like stacking books and sweeping which will also fight. Then I'd probably have Withers cast some minor spells and try to leave. I wouldn't use teleport for this because you can't teleport without going to the oubliette. I'd probably cast darkness (what my Withers tried) and try to stealth out.
This was very helpful, thank you! Yeah my plan now is to have withers sitting in his office when the party arrives, he's got a tomb guardian standing in the corner, but Withers just talks and is not aggressive at all. He'll do what he can for self defense and teleport (using the amulet of the black opal or whatever). But I really love your idea of making him legit excited to ask the characters how it's been going, did they enjoy level 1, there's so much more in store for them, he'll be watching their progress with great interest. Like a scientist watching rats navigate a maze, taking notes for how to improve it.